Kidnapping Skipper ch. 3
by
Mastermindhunter
"Hmm" Kowalski was scribbling something down on his notepad. "Alright, here is our source of clues. Blowhole says that the villain who stole our Skipper lies off to the West, and he also said that he's not involved. I compared a vast group of footprints to the one we found on the tower, and it appears to belong to an arctic crane. So we're looking for an animal who is extremely rutheless, and has access to the arctic crane species." Kowalski occasionally glanced at the stamp on the paper. He looked at it again, and let out a heavy sigh. "It's extremely difficult, considering that arctic cranes never stay in the poles for a long amount of time." He looked over to the other two penguins, who were listening to the clues carefully. Private was especially worried for his strong leader. There was a strong chance that if this was not Blowhole, there would be no point in saving Skipper, for the chance that he might already be dead. Kowalski just stopped reading his notes, and plopped down to the floor. "Hmm I think that this isn't supposed to be our fight, and this stamp wasn't meant for us, but rather someone else. We were just supposed to be the messenger for the note, and I think I know who it's for."
The two boys looked at each other. Rico and Private didn't understand this at all. Kowalski looked at Rico, then pointed to Skipper's pillow. Rico glanced at the pillow, then his face lit up. "Ohh" was the only thing that he grumbled. It seemed Rico knew what Kowalski was talking about, now. Rico rolled up the note, and retied it. He then swallowed it, and nodded to Kowalski. Private was still plenty confused. Kowalski noticed this, and jerked his head to the left.
"Come on boys. Let's go." Kowalski pointed up to the opening, and they all ran out. They swam over to the railing, and started walking towards the wall that seperated the zoo from the Central Park. They ran all the way to a bus that had stopped infront of a red light. On the front it read Bronx zoo. Perfect. They jumped on the top, and rode all the way there. The quick start of the bus caused the three boys to fall back a little. They kept an open eye for the northbound zoo. Private still had no idea where they were headed.
As soon as they hit Webster avenue, Private started to wonder why exactly they were going to the Bronx zoo. Who would be there that could possibly provide any answers? "Umm Kowalski, why exactly are we headed to the Bronx zoo, and what does it have to do with Skipper?" Kowalski looked to his side, and sighed.
"Well, Skipper didn't want me to tell you, considering how it would hurt your feelings, but Skipper has a sister." This surprised Private, drastically. "Yes it's true. Skipper has an older sister. Her name is Destiny. She was his big sister back in antarctica. They were taken by poachers, but they got seperated as soon as they were poached. They got taken to different zoos. Skipper was sent at ours, and Destiny was sent to the Bronx. She's got a group of soldiers too, and yes they are all girls." Private smiled at the thought of meeting the girls. "Alright now here is the part you won't like. Destiny loves Skipper with all her heart, which is probably why she hates us. You see, as soon as she got into all the commando stuff, that's the same time Skipper wanted to follow in her footsteps. Skipper was a baby at the time, so as soon as they got poached, Skipper needed a role model. She and Skipper became military penguins. Destiny thought that was too dangerous. Still, Destiny was Skipper's hero, thus he wouldn't change his mind. Destiny will not fall in love with us, because she hates us for being with Skipper." Private felt sad, but understood. In a way it seemed that she blamed them for Skippers interest in combat and missions. Private would probably hate someone who worked with somebody he loved that involved something dangerous.
The part where they got poached sounded sort of sad. Why was Destiny captured with Skipper. That probably had to do with her training. By the time Private heard the story, they had arrived at the Bronx zoo. They jumped over the wall, and landed on the other side. The zoo was very large. They started their long walk. "So do you know where the penguins habitat is?" Private scratched his head.
Kowalski put his flipper up to his head, and ran it through his head feathers. "I'm not sure. It's been an awful long time since I've been here." He then walked over to the closest habitat, which so happened to be the iguanas. She was dancing in a rather loose fashion to some mexican music, with little clicking sounds, bongo drums, and trumpets, among other things. "Olah Salsa dancers out there. This is a special request by our fans today, and it is a song called Amor para mi! Enjoy Amigos!"
"Oh yeah! This is my jam man!" Just then a rather large iguana ran out, and started to dance to the salsa music. He had a heavy mexican accent.
Right next to that habitat, there was a pond with a rather elegant swan sitting on the outer rim. He flew up to the fence, and sneered. When he spoke, he had an english accent. "Would you little mongrels keep it down? I am trying to listen to my opera!" The phantom of the opera was playing through the little radio on the post next to the swan's pond. He listened intently as he sang along with it. "Chachi! Did you hear me? This piece happens to be a rather sophisticated song." He ruffled his feathers, and resumed listening. "One that's not for the taste of the common folk." He whispered.
That's when the iguana jumped through the bars, and ran over to the pond. "He-hey Theodore man! I think I heard this one man. This is that guy with the messed up face right? Did he ever get the girl, or did she just get too grossed out? Man he was messed up man!" The swan who's name was aparently Theodore, pecked the iguana away, and resumed listening to the song, until Private cleared his throat. The swan looked down at the different looking birds, and smiled to the three boys.
"Well hello little gentleman. Whay may I do for you?"
Kowalski walked up the statuesque bird. "Hello. I'm looking for the penguin habitat. We're looking for the black and white birds that look smething like us."
"Only a tad bit smaller, and they're female." Private added. The swan tilted his head, and looked to the side, as if trying to remember.
"Ahh I see, well you'll want to head to the left as soon as you hit the walrus habitat. If you hit the bat exhibit you've gone too far. The three thanked him for the directions, and resumed. In no time, they came up to the penguins exhibit. It was empty. This was confusing. They looked around, but to no avail. Rico had walked over near the upper right hand corner, but suddenly tripped. It seemed that there was a wire sticking out of the pebble covered floor. Private moved a few pebbles, and to their surprise they found a hatch that sort of resembled their hole in their habitat. The boys quickly cleared each pebble out of the way. With a grunt Rico pulled a hatch open.
They jumped in to see about twenty five penguins. All of them were female. The HQ was ginormous. Much bigger than their lair for sure. It had the same concrete pattern, along with the same type of bunks, except there were at least two dozen of them. As they walked through, there seemed to be groups of about six in each area. In the group closest to the opening, there were some penguins punching a crimson punching bag, while others held the bag up to the other. Others were punching some that hung on strings. The girls glanced over, and smiled to Private, but didn't make any noise. On the other side of the entrance were some penguins wearing lab coats, holding beakers and test tubes. A head penguin was holding a clipboard walking up to each penguin. She occasionally asked each penguin a question on chemicals. They all had goggles on, and looked rather stuck up. They all glanced at Kowalski and whispered into each others ears smiling. He felt a warm blush wash over his cheeks. In the far right corner was a bunch of rather scruffy feathered penguins that held tiny samuri like swords. They were combating each other with jagged movements, while they threw Ninja stars at each other. This was no doubt Destiny's tough battle team. They stopped, and winked at Rico giggling at his enthusiasm. He looked over at them, and flexed his wings to look strong, raising his eyebrows in a flirtacious manner. Private rolled his eyes, and pulled him foreward. They saw one fairly quiet stern looking group in the far corner working on maps. They were holding measuring compases, and drew lines on the maps when necesarry.
On the farthest area of them room, opposite the entrance was a fairly short penguin who was writing on a chalkboard. She seemed rather quiet. All of the other penguin girls turned when they saw the boys come near, but not her. She seemed unphased. The constant tapping of chalk echoed through the HQ. Private looked at the other two, then back at the girl writing on the board. Her movements seemed liquid, and she never stopped to take a break between chalk taps. This was apparently Destiny. She pointed at a picture of an animal, then pointed at another. She crossed her wings, then stomped her foot repeatedly. She then continued writing. Private carefully took a step forward, but Rico, and Kowalski pulled him back. Rico looked at Kowalski, and nudged his head in her direction. Kowalski took a deep breath, and slowly walked foreward. Her writing seemed to slow down, and become less clicky with the chalk.
"Umm . . ." Kowalski was going to say something, but lost the nerve. Private watched, and looked to Kowalski's feet. He noticed that Destiny's foot was slowly creeping around. It looked like she was hooking it around Kowalski's foot, but it didn't touch yet. With a jerk, she pulled her foot foreward, sweeping Kowalski's feet out from under him. He landed on his back with a thud. Kowalski turned toward the others to crawl back, but was jerked back by the neck. Without getting a chance to blink, the boys saw Kowalski in head lock. Destiny held the taller penguins head with her right wing around Kowalski's throat, and her left one over his scalp.
When she turned around, her face was marvelous yet dangerous. She was fairly beautiful. You could see a few features on her face, which she shared with Skipper. There was no doubt that this was Skipper's sister. "You all think you can sneak up on me? Huh?! Well think again! Who are you all? You two don't move, or the tall one gets it." She held Kowalski head in a way that Private knew could snap a neck easily with the right angle.
Kowalski tried to struggle for breath. He finally managed enough air for a few words. "It's me. Don't you remember, Destiny?" He choked out in a high pitched voice. "It's me, Kowalski!" She looked down at Kowalski. Kowalski mustered up all the strength he could to try to smile at the girl that held him in a strangle hold. She seemed confused and looked to the side.
"Kowalski?" She muttered to herself. Her confused gaze turned back to stone, and she tightened her grip, causing Kowalski's eyes to seem frantic. "Nice try pretty boy, I know Kowalski, and you sir are no Kowalski. If you're him, then prove it!
"You're allergic to pink lemonade, but you don't tell anyone, because you think they'll use it against you." He choked out. Destiny looked down, and slowly let go of his throat. He got down on all four caughing, between gasps of breath.