KarenKook, that was the song I was thinking of. Thanks! Alright this might be the last chapter. If I get at least three reviews I'll make the last chapter with REAL Amber and Skipper romance ok? Anyway, enjoy it!
Skipper and Amber shook the other aquatic birds awake, trying their best to hide the awkward air and tension around them. The others didn't need to know what had happened and what would they say or think if they caught wind that they had been dancing?
Amber shook Sara forcefully to get her up. She was the last one to be forced awake and was being more difficult then she should have been in the first place. Figures. Sara did like her sleep more then she should have. Sara huffed from the shaking and rolled over on the ground. She didn't want to wake up yet; they had barely even slept!
"We need to get to the zoo. Wake up now," Amber ordered.
Sara groaned but got up anyway. She wasn't going to disobey an order, no matter how much she didn't want go get up. It would end badly for her anyway. The young bird stood up and rubbed her eyes tiredly.
"Not bright and bushy tailed are we?" Amber joked, putting strain on her forced smirk.
Sara knew Amber well enough. She has spent some good time with her leader, along with Flora and Madison of course. She knew that if Amber acted something like this that she was obviously emotionally troubled or pressured. Usually over something really personal, and her more sensitive feelings. But Sara didn't know which ones. Although she had a guess.
"Are you alright Amber?" Sara asked, concerned for her leader. Amber barked out with laughter, which caused the penguins to share concerned glances, except Skipper, who knew the reason of her awkward atmosphere.
"Of course I am. I've never been better!" Amber answered her awkwardly after she finished her strained laughter. "Seriously though, let's go back to the zoo now. I want to go back into that bunk of mine. I miss it."
Flora looked at Madison and seemed to long for her own bunk as well. "Who knew concrete could be so comfortable?" she added. Madison grinned; she had missed her bunk also. Sleeping on walls and cold floors wasn't the best of places for rest.
"Oh, I can't wait to see my soaps on the telly!" Private clapped his flippers together.
Sara jumped over to him in an excited fashion. "Oh yes, I want to see if she finally says she loves him! She has to, they have been in love for months!" she exclaimed and waved her flippers around hysterically in her excitement.
Private seemed just as excited for the revelation they wanted to happen between the lovers on the soap opera. "They have to admit their feelings for each other, I just know they will!" he exclaimed happily.
Sara fell into a spell of fairytales and her eyes clouded over. "You can see them flirting with each other every time they see their faces. Ever since they danced together in that beautiful, romantic song they have been so nervous around each other. It's only a matter of time," Sara told the young private confidently.
This was making Amber and Skipper uncomfortable. It sounded a bit too much like their own situation.
"Let's head off to the zoo," Skipper ordered hastily, cutting off anymore of the young penguin's words.
The penguins didn't argue, since it would be useless anyway. Besides, every single one of them wanted to get some rest or at least see the HQ again. It has been nearly a week since they had been in their cozy habitat.
"I can't wait to see Marlene again!" Sara squealed, stepping over to her leader.
Amber winced and ordered sternly, "Stop squealing, you're already giving me a headache."
Sara clamped her beak shut and that was the end of that. Flora waddled past and gave her a sympathetic glance before rushing forward to catch up to Kowalski.
The young avian sighed and looked up at her leader. Her face was unreadable, but Sara could tell that her gaze was lingering on Skipper. "Amber?" she whispered. The silver penguin turned her gaze to her and raised a questioning brow. "Did something happen between you and Skipper?" Sara blurted out quietly.
Amber looked surprised and nervous at the question. "What makes you think that?" she asked suspiciously.
Why is Amber so paranoid and suspicious of everything? Sara thought to herself with a touch of annoyance. "Well…you seem tense. More then usual actually and you look a bit…nervous." Sara hesitated at the last part. In a much quieter voice she added, "And you keep looking at him."
Amber narrowed her eyes. "Nothing happened," she snapped and seemed to loom over her. Sara flinched at her tone and stared at the ground sadly. Amber sighed and muttered some words under her breath. "Look, nothing happened," she said in a less harsh tone. "Besides, even if something did happen, I don't want to talk about it."
Sara knew something happened, but she wasn't about to say that aloud or press her leader about it either.
It was only a minute or two when they finally reached the Central Park Zoo, much to their relief.
"Good to be home." Skipper smirked.
Flora looked at Kowalski with radiating excitement. "When we get back to our habitat, I'm determined to work on that invention of ours after some good sleep," she told Kowalski.
Kowalski seemed to catch her excitement like a contagious disease. "As am I, we are almost done too. It will be an amazing breakthrough in science!" he exclaimed excitedly. "To believe, a teleportation device that can take us to anywhere we desire!"
Skipper looked back at Kowalski as he started to go through the bars, too tired to go over the clock tower as he normally would have done. "Would it take us to the moon?" he questioned with a raised brow.
"Uh…I think so." Kowalski rubbed the back of his head and glanced at Flora, who shrugged. She didn't know how far it could teleport them yet.
"Then it sounds good to me." Skipper smirked and entered the zoo. "No more lemurs and only peace and quiet," he murmured to himself more then to any of the other penguins.
Amber yawned and stretched her flippers out when she had passed through the bars with everyone else. "At least we would get some sleep then," she added. The silver bird followed Skipper with the others at their tail feathers.
The male avian scientist put on a more serious look. "We need to get the right chemicals, elements and equations right or else it will spell certain disaster," Kowalski stated cautiously.
Skipper sighed and seemed to be exasperated, as this was a common occurrence and he had no doubt the machine would backfire on them. "Is there anything that you two can build that won't backfire or eventually threaten to destroy us all?" He scowled at both Flora and Kowalski.
"Uh…" Flora tapped her beak in thought.
"Not really, no," Kowalski finished for her.
Amber looked back at them too, still waddling to their habitat. "Maybe you two should make something less life threatening," she snorted. "What about a toaster? Can't you make a toaster that won't kill us?"
Private appeared confused at that suggestion "Why would we need a toaster?" he asked.
"For…toast?" Sara answered in an unsure tone.
Skipper shrugged and yawned, not seeming to care if they did it or not. "As long as it doesn't kill us all, it's fine." He fell in step next to Amber. This caused her to dart her gaze away from him immediately, which Skipper solemnly noticed.
Kowalski crossed his flippers over his chest and looked at the ground darkly. "Reduced to making toasters," the strategist grumbled.
Flora was just as discouraged as he was. "We could be doing so much better," she muttered.
Private fell back a little and told the two scientists, "Well I think your teleportation device is a smashing idea!" He grinned widely at the two intelligent penguins'. "Maybe it can bring us into a world of lunacorns, friendship, rainbows, dreams and love!"
Everybody could hear Rico and Madison gagging. Kowalski and Flora exchanged awkward glances. "Private, I hate to break it to you but there is no such thing as a lunacorn," Kowalski told Private bluntly.
"Or unicorns, gnomes, dragons, or anything related for that matter," Flora added.
"You just don't believe in it because of the amazing magic they have." Private pouted, which brought a faint smile on Sara's beak. It was cute when he pouted in her opinion.
"Magic doesn't exist," both scientists said together. "Magic is simply little tricks that people do with science," Kowalski explained in his all too confident tone. "Like using dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide I might add, they use it for rock concerts to make the smoke effect. It skips the liquid state too," Flora added. Soon the two intellects were talking about dry ice and other things that make magic fake and proving how it's all science instead.
"That's it!" Skipper shouted, having enough of them breaking down everything from elements, to molecules or whatever. It was making his head spin like crazy. "Kowalski, that earns five quarters in the show off jar!"
"That goes for you too Flora." Amber glared. "You just shattered their dreams."
Kowalski grumbled to himself when putting in some of his quarters in the show off jar that Sara and Private were holding. Flora had a sad frown on her face when putting hers in. Both young birds were shaking, wide eyed, at what they had just heard.
Madison and Rico laughed at them all and rushed ahead to the penguin habitat, so they could be alone for a couple of minutes. It was just then when the other birds got an unwanted surprise.
"Hey, you're all back!" Marlene exclaimed. She had seen them from her habitat and had jumped over there to greet them. She was curious on their whereabouts, but she was more excited over the news she had overheard the other day.
Amber jumped and practically slapped Marlene across the zoo, but Skipper had stopped her just in time by grabbing her flipper. You'd think that a penguin like her wouldn't act like that to simple surprise.
"Don't do that!" Amber growled, relaxing. "I hate surprises."
Marlene didn't seem fazed by this. "Sorry, but hey, guess what I found out?" she asked excitedly.
"What?" Amber and Skipper said in an annoyed tone. Both were unaware that they were still holding flippers.
Marlene was more then happy to answer. "The new animals are coming in a month! Is anyone excited about this? I'm going to get a roommate!" she squealed. She was positive this wouldn't be like Rhonda all over again. Though there was a part of her that was wary about getting new animals. She still wasn't over the walrus incident.
Amber suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "Not really." She glared. The silver bird just then noticed Skipper holding her flipper and swiftly pulled her flipper away, causing both penguins to feel that same awkward yet warm feelings in their hearts.
Skipper tried to act unfazed and looked at Marlene. "We already knew they were coming." He crossed his flippers over his chest.
Marlene didn't take his tone into account and exclaimed, "But I found out more from Alice!" The Asian otter gave an even larger grin that could have covered up her entire face.
That otter knows how to smile. It is a tad bit disturbing though… Amber thought, inching slightly away from the overly happy otter.
"We're getting two lemurs and a female otter!"
Skipper balked for a moment at the word 'lemurs'. "Whoa, whoa, whoa back up there sister! We're getting two new lemurs?"
"Yes, a female and a male," Marlene answered, finally loosing that cheery attitude when she saw the look Skipper held.
"Not more of them!" Skipper slapped his head with his flipper. "That's just great…Kowalski give me some options here!" He turned his head to his lieutenant when he didn't speak. It looked like he, Flora, Private and Sara were listening in on something. Skipper raised a brow at Amber.
Amber shrugged in response and said, "Beats me. Hey, Sara snap out of it!"
Sara jumped and looked at her leader. "You two don't hear it? Something is happening in our habitat."
Skipper listened in with Amber. Sure enough, there were some sounds coming from their habitat. Sounded like scuffling sounds and shouting. "An investigation is in order, let's move out!" he ordered. He went off with the other penguins, but it didn't take long for him to notice Amber wasn't following. He turned around and saw Amber still talking to Marlene, keeping a wary eye on him. "You coming?" Skipper shouted over to her.
The two animals stopped talking, and Amber shook her head. "I'm going to stay out here with Marlene for some chat and getting up to speed!" she shouted back. "You go one ahead, you're holding everyone up!"
Skipper nodded and slid off toward the awaiting penguins.
Sara noted Skipper coming back without Amber following. "Why isn't Amber coming?" she asked him.
"She wants to talk to Marlene," Skipper answered.
"Probably to explain about what had happened during our absence," Kowalski suggested. The penguins jumped over the habitat fence and those odd sounds were very clear now that they were right over the source.
"Sounds like Rico is yelling out gibberish," Flora stated, a bit worried.
Private pushed the fish bowl aside, and everyone jumped in. They were almost bowled over by the two psychopaths. Rico was chasing and yelling gibberish at Madison, who was holding a blonde doll with anger.
Uh oh, Private thought and cringed. She found Rico's doll.
"Halt!" Skipper's voice echoed throughout the HQ. Both penguins stopped but this caused Rico to slam onto Madison, who in result dropped the doll a few feet away. "Just what are you two doing?"
Rico jumped back up to his feet and pulled Madison up. Once he made sure she was ok, he started flapping his flippers everywhere with wild gestures, while yelling out a bunch of garbles and grunts, something none of them understood. The penguins watched him in a rather amused way, except Madison, who seemed to be angered at the psychotic penguin.
"Go a little slower there soldier." Skipper rolled his eyes.
Rico stopped what he was doing and pointed to Madison and then to his old doll that was on the ground. "Found doll and pictures," he explained with a frown.
Skipper and Kowalski eyes went wide. "Which ones?" they both asked.
"Doris, Kitka and ex-wife," Rico answered, forgetting or ignoring the fact that the girls were still there. Kowalski winced at the mention of Doris.
Sara seemed intrigued and turned to Kowalski and Skippers direction. "Ex-wife?" she inquired curiously.
"Skipper's." Rico pointed to said penguin.
Sara gasped disbelievingly. "Skipper had a wife?"
Skipper coughed into his flipper awkwardly. "I divorced with her a while ago. She was just a wife from Africa," he explained.
"A bobble head wife," Kowalski snorted quietly, but Flora had heard it.
She laughed at the simple thought of it. "A bobble head? You married a bobble head?" Flora laughed, barely managing to say the words. Skipper grumbled under his breath, but Flora took this as a yes and laughed even harder. She gasped for breath when she finished and asked, "So who is Doris anyway?"
Kowalski froze and Skipper smirked, seeing his second in charges response.
"Doris is a dolphin, she was Kowalski's old love interest," Skipper told her.
Flora eyed Kowalski suspiciously. "Is that so?"
"He has a picture of her too," Private informed. This earned a slap on the back of his head from Kowalski.
Flora felt her eye twitch. "You have a picture of her?" She put her flippers on her hips and looked at Kowalski with something close to a death glare. She wasn't one to get jealous but having a picture of your old crush got something to flare inside of her.
Kowalski turned to her and rubbed the back of his head nervously. Oh sweet Galileo I'm in trouble… he thought. "She was an old love interest, and I have no interest in her what so ever anymore. I love you and not that dolphin," Kowalski told her honestly.
Flora huffed. "As long as you burn that picture, I forgive you." She raised a brow at him, almost expecting him to want to keep the picture of Doris.
Kowalski let out a breath of relief and crossed his heart with his flipper. "I promise I will. Rico, if you please?" Kowalski held his flipper out as Rico hacked up a flamethrower for him. "Now if you don't mind." He put on his goggles from thin air and placed it over his eyes. He waddled to where he knew the picture was and was soon out of sight. Everyone could hear the sound of the weapon pouring its flames out and could also hear the burning sound of the picture being burned away. Moments later, Kowalski came back, completely covered in ash and soot. "Picture is burned," Kowalski coughed, a puff of smoke coming from his beak.
Flora smiled and went over to him. "I think you need some cleaning up." She brushed some ash from his shoulder, took his flipper and led him to his lab. He smiled widely, already knowing that she had more planned then cleaning him up. Just like their old excuses they would say were 'experimenting'. "We will be working on some inventions," Flora told them. That confirmed his suspicions and he knew he was going to enjoy his time with Flora.
The lab door closed behind them, leaving five penguins alone in there.
"So what's with that doll?" Sara asked.
Madison had her foot tapping in impatience to hear an answer when she turned toward Rico, who was looking at the ground, trailing a circle on the ground with his webbed foot nervously.
"It was Rico's old girlfriend," Private told her.
Madison crossed her flippers on her chest and glared at Rico. She had found it behind a locked door in the HQ, so of course she blows the door up. That was how she had found those pictures and Rico's doll. She never expected it to be his girlfriend but when he saw her with it and tried to hide it and take it from her; she knew it was something special to him.
"A doll was his girlfriend?" Sara asked. As polite as she was, she found it faintly amusing, but she wasn't about to show it.
Private quickly whispered to her, "The dolls name is Ms. Perky." Sara nodded, signaling she heard him.
Rico nodded slowly in answer and quickly looked at Madison to see her reaction. She didn't appear pleased, but she didn't look angry or too upset anymore either. Her flippers were across her chest with a faint scowl on her face. "Mad?" Rico asked cautiously, knowing how unpredictable she could be. Madison sighed faintly and shook her head. She wasn't really mad at him. It was a dumb reason to be mad at him for it anyway. Rico gave her a relieved smile and waddled to the TV with her flipper in his, leaving the doll forgotten in the corner of the room.
"Well hasn't this been interesting," Skipper said in an annoyed tone sarcastically. He had kept quiet throughout most of it.
"So who's Kitka then?" Sara asked.
Skipper glared at her. "That's classified information," he stated bluntly.
"Why is that?" Sara asked curiously.
"Cause I don't want to talk about it." Skipper waddled off and went to get his fish coffee. Almost a week without it and he needed it bad. Especially now.
"It was him temporary girlfriend, but he broke up with her when she had eaten Fred," Private told her.
Sara gasped in horror and asked, "What happened to him?"
Private grimaced and answered, "She threw him up…" he trailed off right there, shivering at the disgusting memory.
"Ew…" Sara shivered also. "That's just gross."
"Private, you better not be giving away classified information," Skipper called out in a warning tone. Both penguins jumped in fear and ran toward the TV.
"That's terrible," Marlene whispered. The two animals had walked to the otter habitat, where Amber relayed their adventure to Marlene. "I can't believe it. So this Satan guy just betrayed your family and almost broke you up from your team?"
"Yes and the whole colony," Amber growled. "Sara convinced me to stay. Anyway, I never trusted the guy. I always thought it would be wise to throw the guy out to the leopard seals but some of the penguins had talked me out of it. Bet they regret it now." Amber chuckled at the last part. "So what happened while we were gone anyway?"
Marlene wiped the frown off her face and offered a gentle smile. "Everyone in the zoo tried to cover up for you guys. The lemurs and some other small animals even wore penguin costumes." Marlene laughed.
Amber raised a brow in curiosity but was amused at the very thought. "And the people fell for that?" Amber asked in a disbelieving tone.
"Well some were suspicious," Marlene admitted. "But I don't think they were smart enough to figure it out. Alice didn't even care and didn't suspect anything."
Amber snorted, "Typical, idiotic humans."
"So, you and Skipper huh?" Marlene suddenly asked slyly.
If Amber was drinking something right then, she would have spit it all over the otter. "What?" she yelped. "What the heck are you talking about?"
Marlene laughed slightly and laid down on her bed with her arms cradling the back of her head. "I saw what happened earlier, and in the past months, you two have been flirting around with each other. I saw it coming, aren't you two together yet?"
"We are not together!" Amber felt her face go red from embarrassment. "We don't flirt," she denied. Marlene didn't believe her one bit, but she wasn't willing to push her anymore. If she was anything like Skipper, you could only go so far before she snapped on you like a snare. "That set aside-" Amber threw the otter a stern glare before continuing. "I just hope the penguins' are doing alright. It's going to be hard for them because of their fear, but I'm positive that Zero will keep them safe and fed. Maybe even teach them how to fish."
"Zero sounds like a great guy…" Marlene sighed.
Amber chuckled lightly. "Yeah…he really is."
Zero watched over the penguins hidden in the large cargo boat on his post on a large crate that was multiple feet in the air. Kowalski and Flora had told him the best way to get home and that way was a large cargo boat on Coney Island that would actually take them to Antarctica in the area of their colony home. What were the odds of that?
But that didn't really seem important and it really wasn't. What was important was Zero taking good care of all the colony penguins. He knew Amber was serious about if he allowed one to die that it was on his head. He also knew she was going to bring him into a world of pain if he did. He was confident that nothing would happen though. An air of confidence around him and his calm look only added to it.
"Hey Zero, when are we going to arrive at our colony?" a colony penguin asked.
Zero identified it as Martin, a penguin he saw every once in a while. "Flora said it might take a week, so we have to ration the food we got in here," he replied. Martin nodded silently and went off to tell his friends. Zero turned his gaze to the metal plated wall in front o him.
They'd be home before long and the girls would visit them eventually. And maybe… Amber might have found her perfect match. Someone who wouldn't break her heart like all the others. At least…not on purpose. If he did, well…he might not stay long enough to say 'Oops'.
Ah, sorry for the long wait. I've gotten really busy. So if I get at least three reviews and you say you want some romance between Amber and Skipper, then I'll make one. I'm not doing this for reviews, well maybe partly, but I'm busy with my other stories that I don't want to continue if nobody really wants it to happen. Till then, peace out.