Chapter 4: Looking for Maguffium
"Liam! Keep your head down, eh!" Ethan exclaims as Liam just stands straight up upon leaving the habitat. Marshal keeps his own head down as he follows his cousin out. Ethan sighs some and waits for them to slide to his hiding spot. "Now come on. For all we know time could be short for Rico."
"Yes, sir." Liam nods as he leads Marshal over to him. Ethan nods and waits for them. After they are next to him, he slides in the direction that a Rico-like trail was spotted. His son and nephew follow him, each looking around their surroundings and having to dodge the occasional explosion or firing from both sides.
Ethan then pulls the two boys into the forest and opens a secret panel on a tree. "You weren't the only ones who noticed Rico seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere." He grins as he types in a code and a door opens on the tree. "Your mother and I had this worked out before she went loopy. This leads to a small plane, eh. From there we will fly to Rico. Understand?"
"Yes, sir." The two boys nod and then jump into the tree. They then frown as it isn't just a chute like they were expecting.
Ethan just shakes his head a little with a sigh and gets in with them. He presses a button and it slowly begins to descend. "No rough-housing while we are down here." He then says with a look. "This is a dangerous area, eh, and I would like to keep you both in one piece. Despite the fact that your mother is under mind control, Liam, I would not want either of them on my case for allowing either of you to get injured. That wouldn't be happy at all, eh."
Liam nods some, but isn't really listening. He and his cousin are gasping in awe at the plane. "We're going to fly that?!"
"We?" His father gives an amused snort. "I will fly it. You two will sit still and touch nothing."
"But why do you get to have all of the fun!?" Marshal exclaims.
Ethan sighs and looks towards the ceiling. "Because I'm an adult, and neither of you are anywhere close." The boys just looks disappointed, but do go to their seats and get buckled in with sighs. "Be glad Marlene is even letting you two go on this mission at all."
The two boys nod and sigh more. Ethan rubs his face before starting the plane carefully from its secret location. He then carefully watches the ground for trails. "Make yourselves useful. Keep a lookout, eh, for anything that might be an indicator of Rico or the others." He orders with a small gesture of his flipper. The two teenagers nod and glue their eyes to the window, hungrily watching the ground zoom away under them.
Ethan chuckles to himself as he knows there will not be any indicators so close to their camp, but he knew he had to come up with something to keep the boys busy. He then turns on some quiet music on the plane's radio as he flies the plane. 'Maybe you really didn't kill them, Skippsy...You haven't ever seemed like that type…' He thinks to himself with a silent sigh.
"Did you really have to chose Maguffium 239?" Marissa snorts to Kowalski as Rico barrels the little car down the road.
Kowalski shrugs. "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"
"Well so would Francium! That's a little easier to find! Change it up and use Hydrogen! That's a heck of a lot easier to locate!" She glances at him.
Nova sighs. "Please." She says. "Quiet."
Kowalski and Marissa looks at her.
"Thank you." She sighs. "I didn't realize past yous were so argumentative. Golly Gallium! It's worse than Gweny and Liam!"
"Who's Liam exactly?" Private asks and looks at the younger penguin.
Nova adjusts her glasses. "Liam is...Skippsy's son...and my boyfriend." She clears her throat. "We left him and Marshal in the future with Marlene to hold down the fort." She says. "They would have sabotaged this mission if they had come with us."
"I have a teenage daughter and she has a boyfriend." Kowalski states. "How gray have I gone in the future?" He rubs his flipper over his head feathers.
Nova giggles. "Not as much as you'd expect...That is if you are all still alive that is..." She turns solemn.
"Wha' mean?" Rico glances back at her.
"What I mean is...In the future, Skippsy lured you all away except for Ethan and Marlene who stayed to watch us...She got brainwashed and reprogrammed on the other side of the war." She sighs. "You are all missing and have been for months, presumed dead by all but Gweny." She moves a little away. "For some reason she won't just accept it."
"That's good...I rather not be accepted as dead I think." Private gasps.
Nova shrugs. "We still don't know for sure yet, don't freak out."
Kowalski sighs and looks out at the trees and city streets passing by. "How likely is it, though?"
"Eeeehhhhh….37.43% likely you are all still alive?" She shrugs. "Give or take a little."
Marissa looks at her. "Well, those are better stats than I was thinking you were going to say." She shrugs. "We've survived worse odds, right, Kowalski?"
"Mmmhmm…" Kowalski sighs and still watches the scenery.
"That's good." Nova nods some but doesn't look convinced. "And it is 81.29% possible that you all have been brainwashed like Skippsy if you are still living."
"Well, brainwashing can be reversed." Private chimes in. "Can't it?"
"Yes...Remember with Skipper that time?" Kowalski looks at Private who for once is in the shotgun seat.
Private nods. "He still seemed kind of crazy for a tad...But he did recover." He says. "You just have to find a way to...Override the program?" He says tentatively.
Kowalski nods. "Exactly."
"And I'd imagine a...Puffin, wasn't it?" Marissa looks at her.
"Eh...Puffins and rabbits." Nova shrugs.
"And I'd imagine that a puffin or rabbit's program wouldn't be too hard to reverse." Marissa says. "I mean, it'll be from Hans and Hannah for Einstein's sake!"
"The trouble is finding you all to be able to tell if that is even needed to be done." Nova nods. "If you are all just injured or something, then it is only Skippsy we need to capture and fix…"
"Of course." Marissa nods.
Rico swings the car into park. "Here-here." He says. The other nod and hop out. Rico spits out a blueprint and they roll it out on the coup's hood.