Chapter Seven
In the resulting scramble to evacuate Dr. Blowhole's lair before it collapsed, no one really bothered to make sure that the dog and dolphin were brought to safety, with the slight exception of Private, who looked back at them, just before the building collapsed. He saw Skipper drag the unconscious Becky out, leaving behind Spot, who was lying on its side, eyes closed, and Dr. Blowhole, who didn't look much better off. Blowhole groaned, dazed from the blast. Too late, he realized that his lair was about to collapse on top of him, and just as he released a surprised shout, several tons of debris descended on top of him and his pet.
"Is he... dead?" Private asked a few minutes later, after the collapse was finished.
"Probably," Kowalski replied. "Very few creatures could survive that amount of weight and pressure falling down onto them. I think it's safe to say that Blowhole and that demon dog of his are dead."
"Excuse me if I'm not sorry to hear that," Skipper replied dispassionately. "Not when this happened." He waved a flipper at the rest of the team. Private looked around and realized- their side had not escaped without damages either. Rico had been hit with a falling chunk of concrete and was wandering around, a dazed expression on his face. Becky seemed to have the worst of the damage- she was still unconscious, and several serious abrasions to her skin were bleeding profusely. Being slammed into a wall the way she had definitely hadn't done her any favors.
Mama Duck hadn't gotten away unscathed, either. Spot had managed to chomp her, but at least the damage was relatively superficial. As long as she didn't try to fly on her wounded wing until it was fully healed she would be alright in a few weeks. And Stacy seemed to be in a state of shell-shock.
"Nnn..." Becky began to stir.
"Don't move around!" Kowalski barked, hurrying to her side. "You have a concussion!"
"I don't care!" Becky practically yelled, sitting bolt upright and looking around wildly. "Where are the ducklings? Are they OK?"
"You're only going to hurt yourself more! Lie back already, before you permanently shake your brains loose!" Kowalski exclaimed. "The ducks are fine, and Blowhole and the dog are under three tons of debris. They won't be coming after anyone anytime soon."
"Yes, we are mostly fine," Mama Duck said, approaching the badger. "Thanks to your help we were able to escape that horrible dolphin and his pet."
"Yeah, you saved us!" one of Eggy's brothers chimed in. "That was awesome, how you attacked the monster! You rock, lady!" Becky had to smile at that, even though it made a cut on her face hurt. It seemed as though she made an impression on the little guy.
"You really should be thanking your brother," she replied. "It was thanks to Eggy that we found out where you were, and besides, he was the one that brought down the dolphin."
"Yeah, but you attacked the monster!" the duckling reiterated. Clearly he felt that Becky was the true savior.
Mama Duck, on the other hand, remained pensive, cradling her damaged wing. "I can't fly like this," she muttered, more to herself than to anyone else. "By the time it heals I won't be able to migrate. The weather will be too bad." Skipper shot her a look.
"Did you really think that we'd expect you to go on that long migration in the state you're in?"
"But we can't stay in Central Park..." Mama Duck began worriedly.
"Blargh awk brawk," Rico said. Mama Duck, being unable to speak Rico-ese, looked to Skipper for clarification.
"That's not a bad idea... not a bad idea at all," the penguin commander said, before turning back to the duck. "Rico has suggested that you and your family spend the winter with us, in our habitat. It will probably be colder than what you're used to, but there is plenty of food, and none of the men will have a problem with it- right?" he asked sharply, turning to the rest of his team.
"Yes, please," Private added. "Feel free to stay with us! I'll even get out my special stash of Peanut Butter Winkys to share!"
"Braaawk," Rico agreed.
"I could always use some extra help with inventing," Kowalski added, nodding his head. "And it would be educational for the children!"
The Next Spring
The winter had passed relateively uneventfully. The ducks and penguins settled into a comfortable routine, and after hearing accounts from the penguins, the badger sisters, and the ducks, Marlene was forced to admit the existance of Dr. Blowhole. No one was completely sure whether or not the psychopathic dolphin had survived the blast, but since no one had seen hide nor hair of him, no one worried about it too much.
Becky and Mama Duck healed well, until it wasn't apparent that either of them had been injured. Eggy had a great time following the penguins on their missions. Rico made a new friend in Eggy's sister Fluffy, who was quite the little pyromaniac, as everyone found out when she blew up dinner one night.
"Hoover Dam!" Skipper yelled, dodging flying fish guts. "What happened?" Private peeked out from under the table.
"Rico! You're not supposed to light dynamite inside!" The other penguin shrugged, as if to say, "Wasn't me, dude." Instead, he pointed to a small, fuzzy duckling who giggled.
"I asked Mr. Rico for a stick of dynamite! That was fun, can I do it again?" she asked.
"OK," Rico replied, coughing up another stick of dynamite, which Skipper promptly grabbed.
"Cut that out!" he ordered, then turned to Fluffy. "Honey, it's OK if you want to blow things up, but you shouldn't do it inside. Do you remember what happened with Dr. Blowhole's lair? This place is reinforced, but a big enough charge could send it falling down as well. If you want to blow things up, do it outside. I'll have Rico officially start your training tomorrow." Fluffy looked positively overjoyed, while Mama Duck looked terrified.
"What if she gets hurt?" she asked nervously. Kowalski shrugged.
"Compared to what you went through, having Fluffy trained in explosives by Rico looks like naptime," he said. "And Rico might be crazy, but he won't let her get hurt." And even Mama Duck was forced to admit that having her children trained in combat might not be such a bad idea after all. Even if no more dolphins came after them, it still would be good training against predators.
Eggy's brother Waddles, on the other hand, took to inventing like a fish takes to water. Together, he and Kowalski built a robot vacuum, which did admittedly kind of malfunction (causing Private much despair when he realized that the rampaging robot vacuum had sucked up his Peanut Butter Winkys), but it did make a good lemur guard, considering King Julian was terrified of It, after it tried to vacuum up his tail.
"Keep that thing away from the Royal Tail!" he yelled. "It's even worse than Mort and his feet obsession!" Waddles just looked at Kowalski.
"Is he always like that?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
Downy, another sister, spent a lot of time with the badgers. She started acting like them, talking like them, and even trying to plan spontaneous events like them, all of which Mama Duck found rather frustrating. "At least she's not blowing things up like Fluffy," Marlene tried to comfort her. Mama Duck just sighed.
"My sons and one daughter are becoming commandos, and my other daughter has become so... I don't even have a word for it!" she exclaimed.
"Intense?" Marlene suggested.
"Exactly,"
The other duck children followed their siblings' examples, but didn't get as involved in training. In fact, one of them expressed disdain for their siblings' new passions.
"Seriously, at least with Eggy it sort of made sense, but this is getting crazy!" another sister complained to a brother. "Fluffy won't stop blowing things up! It's dangerous to be around her! Mr. Rico made a mistake by giving her dynamite!"
"Tell me about it," the brother replied. "Waddles' vacuum tried to eat me yesterday!"
By the time the winter ended, the penguins were sorry to see the duck family go. "Make sure you come back soon, Webby! Mason and Phil want to continue your reading lessons!"
"Aye-eye, sir!" Webby replied, sticking close to her mother.
"Skwak ark braaaaawk KABOOM!" Rico exclaimed, causing Rose to giggle.
"I will, sir!" she saluted.
"Keep on trying, I'm sure you'll get your freeze-ray calibrated soon enough," Kowalski encouraged Waddles. "And bring itby when you're finished, I want to see how it works."
"Of course, Mr. Kowalski," Waddles replied, clutching said freeze-ray tightly.
"And Eggy-" Skipper began. "When you grow up and can fly, I think it's time you finally get your Penguin Commando License. Which doesn't actually exist. Sorry about that- we were trying to keep you safe on your mother's orders. But you've more than earned your place as the fifth member of our team."
END
Author's Comments:
Sheesh, for a seven-chapter story this took forever to get completed. I blame university and ending up rewriting chapter three several times before I finally decided to post it. Oh well.
I'm not going to lie, this was kind of a chore to write, mostly because it ended up deviating so far from my draft. Seriously, this final product really only has a passing resemblance to the original draft, which I think makes it better, since honestly, my draft was pretty lousy. It also made it quite a bit harder to write, especially the parts with Dr. Blowhole. I also wasn't able to go back and re-watch Dr. Blowhole's Revenge because it was taken off Megavideo, so if I messed anything up, sorry.
Anyway, I need to go take an exam now, so I'm going to end this by wishing everyone Happy Holidays!
-GoesKaboom 12.9.2010