2 – Revenge is a Dish…
Before I get back to Skipper, let's have a look at someone else… and no, it's not one of the other penguins.
In a different part of the complex, another figure was slowly waking up, there was some groaning, and then the lights turned on by themselves. It revealed the figure to be Roy the rhinoceros. He was blinded at first, but eventually managed to look around and ask the usual question, ˝Where am I?˝
He stood up and made a few steps, his legs had fallen asleep from being unconscious. The room, he was in, was fairly small, it looked like it was used for storage rather than anything else. The only thing, standing out, was the flat screen TV on one of the walls, it slightly bothered the rhino. You didn't have to be a genius to conclude that it was new there. But Roy decided to ignore it and instead focus on the door. He walked to it and lightly pushed his horn against it; it didn't budge.
Meanwhile, on the other side of that very door, was a different, more humanoid looking, figure. ˝Ow, my head,˝ said a feminine voice. She reached to her head with one hand and felt something hard instead of her warm soft skin. ˝What the… what is this?˝ the lights suddenly came on and revealed the female to be Alice the zookeeper.
˝Ouch, that hurts. Could someone get the lights,˝ she used her arm to shield her unadjusted eyes. She groaned as she was showered with the stream of photons. But she soon remembered the thing in her hand. Her eyes slid over to her hand, where there was a huge wad of something gray, ˝What's this?˝ she brought it closer to her face. It was duck tape, but upon taking a closer look, she saw something else; a tape recorder being held in place.
She tried moving the fingers of that hand until… she heard a *click*.
˝*Static*… Hello Alice Smith. I want to play a game. Every day you work with animals, something you don't bother hiding. Instead, you publicly express your feelings towards these wonders of nature. You say it's just a job, I say you're not worthy of the life you lead. There was one individual amongst them all that was hurt the most. He will be the one passing judgment today. And just to be fair, I haven't left you without arms either… Good luck!˝
˝Wait, what do you mean?˝ she heard the tape come to an end. Alice decided to stand up; she braced her hands against the ground and felt something in her other palm. She brought up and saw a revolver, the normal response of anyone unfamiliar with ballistic weapons would be fear or simply dropping the gun. Alice attempted just that, but soon figured out that she couldn't, the revolver was super glued to her hand, with her index finger on the trigger.
Back with Roy, after failing to open the door, he began looking for other ways out, but the room was so small, that he couldn't even turn around. Suddenly, the TV turned on, catching the rhino's attention. A "Muppets" style puppet of a penguin appeared on the screen. It wasn't supposed to be any of the birds of Central Park, it was just a penguin, as you would see in the wild.
The puppet slowly turned towards the camera, ˝*Hello Roy. I want to play a game. You've lived at the Central Park zoo most of your life. And in this time you've done nothing but dub people your enemies and planning vengeance towards them. Revenge will be your demise if you chose to follow that path, but today I give you the chance to act instead of just plan. Behind that door is the person who always mocked you, who never gave you the amount of food you deserve. Do what you must… good luck.˝
The rhino heard a click in the door and watched as it began moving. He felt a fresh breeze of air pass him and made a deep breath before rushing out of his room, ˝Man that feels good,˝ he began looking around and saw Alice up and leaning against the wall. The rhino's blood began boiling, all the bad memories playing in his head.
˝The rhino! Phew, I thought this was something serious,˝ the zookeeper looked at the ceiling for any signs of a camera. ˝Really funny, but I know it's you, you crazy penguins.˝ A huff from the rhino brought her attention back to him.
Roy was shooting a penetrating glare at her, he was about to charge, when he realized what he was actually thinking about. ˝Wait, what am I doing. I don't want to hurt her… even though she is evil,˝ Alice watched the horned mammal letting out some animal noises, ˝What's that thing doing?˝ her eyes moved to the pachyderm's back; a belt fastened around hiss waist. He didn't seem to have noticed it.
But she quickly shook it off and focused back on the situation at hand, 'The gun! That's it!'. She raised the hand holding the weapon and aimed it at the rhinoceros. Roy's eyes widened, that was it, that woman had been killing him all her life, it was only verbally, true, but enough is enough, ˝If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me.˝
He charged towards his, soon to be late, zookeeper. Alice averted her eyes, with all the cruelty in her heart, this was still too much. She began rapidly pulling the trigger, but something was missing, there were no sounds of gunshot, 'Oh no!', were her last thoughts, before she was impaled through the stomach by the horn of the rhino.
She was left gasping for air, her mouth agape and her eyes wide opened. Blood was pouring down the horn struck through her stomach. She coughed a few times, sending drops of blood at Roy's head. He felt discuss and began shaking his head, sending the zookeeper flying against the wall. He watched her lifeless body on the ground, realizing what he had done.
˝No, no, it's not what I wanted. It was in self-defense, I mean it was an affect, I mean,˝ the rhino felt a buzzing on his back, ˝What the?˝
He had failed the test, revenge clouded his judgment. What neither of them knew, was that Alice was a carrying a heart monitor beneath her blouse, which was directly linked to Roy's belt. The moment she flat lined, the signal was sent. The rhinoceros collapsed, drool coming from his mouth as Botox was being pumped directly into his bloodstream.
˝Game over!˝
Did you know that Botox, a.k.a. the Botulinum toxin, is the deadliest neurotoxin known to man. With an LD50 of just 50 nanograms per kilogram, it really wouldn't take much to bring down a three ton rhino. By comparison, the venom of a black widow spider has an LD50 of 0,90 milligrams pre kilogram
I wasn't planning to make this a chapter on its own, but it just took wings and wrote itself. Hope you liked it.