Welcome to chapter 5. I hope you're enjoying this story. So let's jump forward another month, shall we?

CHAPTER 5 – Curiosity Has A Bad Side

(P to Marlene, as usual) "Good job honey," I said to Annabelle, after we were done performing for the crowd. "Thanks mom. I always love doing this, especially when we get popcorn thrown at us," she said, catching some. "Me, too. I'm glad you and I are mammals, or at least have the appearance of them. We have teeth, unlike your father and brother," I said, catching some as well. We both laughed in between bites.

"I'm glad I'm the one who wound up looking like an Otter. Otherwise, I'd have a hard time eating lots of food," she said. "I'm glad you did too. Ever since we faked that you were simply a transfer and introduced you and your brother to the visitors, we've all seemed to have gotten more food as a reward," I said happily.

"One day I'd love to know how Sam and I are possible though. You'll have to declassify those files eventually," Annabelle said to me. "Like your father and I keep telling you, we'll tell you when you're older," I said. "Boy, will I love when that happens," Annabelle said. "I bet you will," I said, being slightly coy.

(P to night and to Annabelle)

"Like mom and dad keep saying, Sam and I really are curious. We must've got that from mom," I thought to myself. I looked over at mom, who was sleeping. Once again, she looked like she was snoring. "Am I glad we found these earplugs. Otherwise I don't think I'd ever fall asleep," I thought to myself.

For some reason, I felt extremely curious about something, but couldn't figure out what I was curious about. I carefully got up and walked out of the cave into the moonlight outside, while also taking out my earplugs and setting them down next to my bed. I saw Sam over on the platform at Dad's home, so I headed there.

"Can't sleep either?" Sam asked me when I reached him. "Not really. I feel like there's something making me especially curious tonight," I said. "Same here. Maybe it's the full moon," Sam suggested. We both laughed quietly.

"Sam, we're Pengotters, not werewolves," I said. "Yeah, that's true. Maybe a combined instinct or something?" Sam asked me. "Maybe. I'll really love it when Mom and Dad actually tell us how we exist in the first place," I said. "Me too," Sam said.

Suddenly, we both itched in one spot like crazy and began scratching that spot. "I know they think these GPS chips are a good idea and all, but they really itch!" Sam said. "Tell me about it. Hopefully it stops soon," I said. "I hope so too," Sam said. After 10 minutes, it finally stopped. "I'm glad that's over with," I said. "Same here. Hey, I just got an idea on how we can learn that we're possible," Sam said. "What's your idea?" I asked.

"I overheard Mom and Dad talking about something that's at the bottom of the elevator. Maybe we can find our answer down there," he said. "Maybe. But how are we supposed to get into the elevator without Dad or anyone else noticing?" I asked. "I'm not sure. But we should try," Sam said. "I agree. I'm a bit tired of them always saying classified every time we ask them how. We're four months old, but I think they really should tell us," I said.

With that, we both went below very quietly and miraculously didn't wake Dad or the guys. We carefully crept over to the control panel and pressed the elevator button. The elevator popped out of the ground, but didn't ding for some reason. We both stepped in the elevator and pressed the buttons for the levels.

"There sure are a lot of levels in here," Sam said. "Yeah. I wonder why this is all still here," I said, pressing the button for level 3. Suddenly, the door opened and some giant one-eyed creature appeared! I freaked out and backed against the level buttons and out popped one for level 13. I pressed it quickly, in sheer panic.

"What the heck was that?" I asked. "I've got no clue. But whatever it is, I'm certainly not going to ask Mom or Dad," Sam said. "Me either. I'm also never pressing that button again," I said. We reached level 13 and the door opened up. "What are these things?" Sam asked me. "I think they're Kowalski's inventions. Hey, what's this one?" I questioned, picking one up that looked like a clock. *

Sam walked over and also placed a flipper on the device. "Hmm, I don't know," he said. I pressed the button with my paw and nothing happened. "Must be a dud. If we ever see this again, we'll have to let Kowalski know," I said. We pressed the button again and still nothing happened.

"Yeah, it's a dud alright. I wonder why Kowalski's kept it," Sam said after we set it down. "He does have an unhealthy attachment to science," I said. We both chuckled. "Got that saying from Dad, didn't you?" Sam asked me. "I guess I did. A lot of his sayings are good though," I said. "Yeah. Hey, what's this?" Sam asked as we walked up to something.

"This doesn't look like one of Kowalski's inventions. What do you think it is?" Sam asked me. I jumped on top of the device and my jaw dropped. "There's an ownership thing here. It says Property of Dr. Blowhole," I said. Sam's beak also dropped open. "Dr. Blowhole? Wow. I thought they were making him up," he said. "Me too. So this thing nearly ruined Mom and Dad's marriage day and would have gotten rid of us in the process," I said.

"Lucky for us that Mom teamed up with Matthew, whoever he is. One of these days, I'd like to meet him," Sam said. "Me too," I said, sitting down on the Segway. Suddenly a gun-looking thing rose up out of the Segway and blasted a red laser at us.

Suddenly, we were both trapped in our own cages on the floor. "Anna!" Sam shouted at me from his cage. "Sorry. I'll try to fix this," I said, inside of my own cage. It took the whole length of my arm and paw to hit a button on the Segway.

Unfortunately, a clown-looking thing popped up and blasted us. (P to 3rd person) "Uh, who am I?" Anna and Sam asked themselves, after getting blasted. "Who are you?" they asked each other. "I don't know," they both said. "Where are we?" Sam asked. "I can't remember. What were we doing?" Anna asked. "I can't remember either," Sam said.

(P to Marlene in the morning)

"Good morning sweetie," I said to Annabelle, while rubbing my eyes. I got no response from her. I gasped when I saw her earplugs on the floor. "Annabelle? Where are you?" I asked, frightened that someone might have kidnapped her. I immediately checked all around our habitat, even down where the first clue to the Golden Squirrel's treasure had been and she wasn't anywhere.

"Please, Annabelle, come out! Where are you?" I asked, panicking more. I immediately ran over to Skipper's, hoping to find both her and Samuel. Suddenly, in my panicked run, I crashed into Skipper and we both fell back. "Marlene, have you seen Samuel?" Skipper asked me.

"No! Have you seen Annabelle?" I asked him. "I haven't seen her either. Both of them are MIA," Skipper said. "Where could they possibly be?" I asked. "I don't know Marlene, but thankfully my gut is telling me they're somewhere safe here in the zoo," Skipper said.

"That's a small relief. But where could they have run off to?" I asked. "I don't know. But when we find them, we're going to give them a talking to about running off without us," Skipper said. "I agree," I said. We both checked around every single habitat and they weren't at any of them.

"Where are they Skipper? We've checked the whole zoo and they're not anywhere!" I said, extremely panicked and almost sobbing. "Please don't cry Marlene. We'll find them using their GPS chips we gave them a few days ago," Skipper said. "I forgot about that. Let's go down to level 13," I said, immediately not crying and now even more determined to find our children.

We both jumped down the hatch and went down to level 13, looking for the GPS Locator. Suddenly, we happened upon our kids in cages near Blowhole's Segway, sleeping. We both clapped loud enough to wake them up and they did.

"Now what were you two doing?" Skipper asked them. "I'm sorry, but who are you?" Annabelle asked. "You don't remember us?" I asked her. "I'm sorry, but we can't remember anything," Samuel said. "Can you help us?" Annabelle asked us.

"Do you think they Mind Jacked themselves?" I asked Skipper. "It looks like it. Let's de Mind Jack them, so that we can teach them better not to go poking around where they shouldn't be," Skipper said. "On it," I said. I jumped on the Segway and pressed the Mind Jacker's button and shot it at the kids.

"Uh… hi, Mom and Dad," Samuel and Annabelle said nervously after they were blasted again. "How'd you get down here?" I asked. "Well… it was Samuel's idea!" Annabelle said. "Yeah, but you got us into these cages and made us forget everything!" Samuel said.

"You two know better than to go poking around where you shouldn't. Why did you use this?" Skipper asked the kids. "It was an accident. I accidentally sat on the button and blasted us with cages and then the clown-looking thing," Annabelle answered. "The Mind Jacker," I said, clarifying. "So that's what it's called," Samuel said.

"What were you doing down here in the first place?" I asked the kids. "We thought we could find the answer down here as to why we exist. Not here specifically, but on one of the levels," Samuel answered. "How'd you even know this level existed?" I asked. "That giant eye freaked me out and I bumped into the buttons, revealing this one," Annabelle answered. "There's an interesting, classified story about that actually," Skipper said.

"Cool. Can we please get out of these cages now?" Samuel asked. "Yes, but first you should take an oath not to come down here," I said and whispered the oath to Skipper, which brought a smile to his face.

"Now repeat after us," Skipper and I said. "I do solemnly swear," Skipper and I said and the kids repeated. "That on my life as a Pengotter," we continued and they repeated. "That I will not go poking around where I shouldn't and will be doing maintenance duty for a full week," Skipper and I finished. After groaning at the maintenance duty, our kids repeated that as well. I pressed the button for the cage blaster and shot the kids again, freeing them.

"Sorry we're so curious," they said apologetically. "It's alright. But I do wonder from which one of us you got that from," I said. ** "Maintenance duty for a week. That won't be fun," Samuel said. "You have to learn the hard way of not poking around," Skipper said. "Well, alright then," Annabelle said. (P back to Annabelle a bit later)

"You know this is your fault right?" I said to Samuel, while mopping the floor. "You know you could have stopped me right?" Samuel asked me, while cleaning the windows. "I suppose. But maintenance duty for a week isn't fun," I said. "I agree. But I'm never going down there without Mom or Dad again," Samuel said. "Me either," I agreed.

That's a wrap on this chapter. Did you like it, even though I hinted at it back at the end of Book 3? Please rate and review. Time for two notes.

* Seems they found the Stopwatch and actually stopped time for a moment. Thank goodness they pressed it again or might have been stuck forever.

** As also revealed in Book 3, the kids got their curiosity from Marlene.