"Skipper! Come on get up! Breakfest time!" Hans gently, playfully punched Skipper's stomach; jolting the penguin awake.
"What!" Skipper sat up; alarmed.
"Come on; time to eat" Hans said; Skipper sleepily rubbed his eyes with a flipper. His dreams had been haunted by his family's murder for most of the night leaving him exhausted and unwilling to fully wake up. Hans sighed and half dragged, half pushed Skipper out into the hallway where Slade was waiting.
"Get up boy, we don't have all day" Slade growled at him before turning around and heading into the main area of the casino. Hans glanced at him and quickly hurried after the eagle. Skipper sighed and silently followed them; his heart heavy with grief; for once in his life, he didn't feel like eating. Slade had set up three piles of some kind of fish on an old gambling table and easily leapt up onto the table and began eating a pile; Hans happily joined him. Skipper didn't. He didn't want to be here; he wanted to be with his siblings and parents; he wanted to hear his mother's praise and see his father's ninja tricks; listen to Kyle and Rye argue about random things that didn't matter. Instead he was stuck here with a cranky old eagle and yap happy puffin.
"Well get up here Boy" Slade finally noticed Skipper hadn't joined them at the table, and was still standing on the floor.
"It's Skipper; not boy!" Skipper snarled; "and I'm not hungry". He crossed his flippers across his chest and stood defiantly looking at Slade; who merely glared at him.
"Fine; Hans can have it then; see if I care" Slade pushed the third fish pile towards Hans; who'd already polished off his.
"Really; are you sure you're not hungry Skipper" Hans said; slightly hesitate to eat Skipper's food.
"He said he wasn't hungry; so he lost his right to have it so go ahead and eat it!" Slade snapped at the young puffin. Hans instantly started wolfing down the rest of the fish; though even Skipper could tell it was because the puffin feared ticking the eagle off again; obviously Slade wasn't someone you wanted to test; even though Skipper couldn't care less about that; he and Slade were going to clash that was unavoidable; it was only a matter of time.
"Since you're not eating; we can start your first day of training early" Slade hopped down from the table to stand in front of Skipper; towering over him.
"What about me?" Hans mumbled through a mouthful of fish.
"You can join us when you're finished eating" Slade responded. "You"-he nodded at Skipper-"come with me, you need to know how you'll be earning your keep". Slade spun around and ducked underneath the gambling table and headed farther into the casino's main area, leaving Skipper scrambling to catch up. Soon Slade stopped by a gambling machine and turned around to face Skipper.
"This is where you'll be spending most of your time" Slade said. Skipper noticed that five other gambling machines had been pushed towards the one behind Slade; creating a small enclosed circle. Slade turned so that he was once again facing the machine and pushed it, creating a small opening; Slade motioned for him to go through it. Skipper did.
"Wow" he breathed in wonder; in front of him was a grate held open by rope tied to another gambling machine that held the circle. Slade joined him in the circle and pushed him towards the opening in the floor.
"Well go on" he said impatiently. Skipper took a nervous deep breath and hopped into the opening; almost instantly he lost his balance and fell onto his back and slid down a very slippery, long slide into a metal room filled with all kinds of things that he would expect to see in a ninja movie. There were several punching bags hanging from the ceiling in one area while in another a small TV sat on an old box, marked live animal handle with care. A heartbeat later he felt Slade slam into him; sending him flying farther into the room.
"Darn-it boy; don't stand in the middle of the slide-way" Slade spat; swiftly finding his feet. Skipper also stood up; he turned to face the eagle a moment later.
"How?" Skipper asked; curiosity filling him from the tips of his webbed feet to the end of his beak.
"I used to be a spy; now I just take in kids like yourself and Hans and train them to be able to defend themselves" Slade explained with apparent boredom.
Skipper smiled; his eyes gleaming and said: "When do we start?"
So what do you guys think? Sorry I haven't updated in a while.