Chapter 12: Tick Tock

Kowalski strode into the laboratory and froze at the sight of the Asian's back. He looked back at Skipper and Rico before cautiously rounding the table she was at. He grinned widely when he found out that the lady had propped herself up on an arm with her limp hand holding onto a pencil, all while she was asleep. The books were open and she was clearly working on the problems, the remains of erasers evident by the sides.

"Isn't that adorable?" He peeked over her shoulder while the others moved into the room. "Hmm. She forgot to get the square root."

"Kowalski." The Polish turned to Skipper, who tapped his watch. "We're on a schedule here. Get a move on."

"This will take a while, Skipper. The process of centrifugation is quite long."

Skipper sighed and took a seat next to Rico, who was just as bored. "Don't take too long."

Kowalski nodded and turned to Rico. "Did you bring Eddie?" Rico nodded uncertainly and Kowalski's grin grew. "Perfect."

"Chocolate cheese…" Selena murmured, smiling slightly at the dream she was having. A sigh escaped her lips and she felt her head tilt. Heavenly chocolate with cheese fillings…oh how it only existed in books, specifically Geronimo Stilton books. And Thea Stilton. And, Selena frowned at a tickling on her nose. The tickling grew a bit and she shifted in her position, sitting up to her full height. She wiggled her nose before forcing her eyes open groggily. Through half-lidded eyelids and a lopsided smile, she stared at the brown thing held out before her face on a hand. Her eyes zeroed in on the creature and she froze. A second later, she grabbed her nose and her eyes widened to that of saucers. "AHHHHH!" She screamed before scrambling off the stool. Or falling off it ungracefully, getting a whole different scream from her. Selena dropped to the ceramic tiled floor face flat and she groaned. A new tickling sensation on her neck chased away the pain and she slowly turned around, meeting with a brown face and brown feelers. "AHHHH!" She screamed again and got to her feet, swatting at her back. "Get it off! Get it OFF! GET IT OFF!" She finally got the insect off and scrambled to her feet, running to the other side of the table.

"It's not going to eat you." Kowalski informed her, keeping in his laughter while the lady stood up and glowered at him. She pointed to the cockroach as Kowalski bent down to pick it up.

"It's a disgusting menace that needs to be exterminated at once! All of it!"

"It's a miracle of Science, remember?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh right. And Science is the same thing killing it since nature is doing a poor job of it."

"Ingredients are natural."

"But improved elements also known as chemicals are not. They have been modified to suit the world's needs. And I despise it."

"You practically live here!"

"I said I despise the modification of the natural elements, NOT the laboratory."

The man shook his head and prevented an eye roll but saw the roach and smirked at the lady. "I knew you were scared of roaches, Selena, but I didn't know it was that bad."

"Evil." The lady hissed and backed away from him.

"Who, me?" Selena glared at him before picking up a bunsen burner and walking over to him, pointing the burner at the insect on his hand. Kowalski stepped back and placed the roach on the counter.

"No unauthorized fires. That's a rule." Selena dropped the burner to her side and cocked her head at him.

"No unauthorized personnel."

"Touché." Selena slammed the device on the counter and glared at him. "What?"

"What's the big idea?"

"Of what?"

"Scaring the heck out of me?"

"I still think you're hellish. I mean, look at you right now. I'm shivering here."

Selena rolled her eyes and walked back to the counter with her books and things on it. "Very funny."

"You missed a square root by the way."

She looked up at him with a frown. "What?"

"A square root. Right there." He pointed somewhere on the paper. "It's the final step. 18, was it?"

Selena looked down at her notes and frowned at it. "There is no square root…oh. Damn." She slapped a hand to her forehead. "I forgot about the shortcuts. Now I get it. It is 3 square root of 2. Duh."

"You're welcome."

"Uh, yeah, thanks," she cautiously turned to Kowalski with a raised brow and set her pen down, "but what are you doing here? With them?" She looked over at Skipper and Rico, who looked back at her with bored expressions.

"Madam," Kowalski pulled out a slip of paper from inside his coat and held it out to her, "I need this." Selena stared at him before snatching the note and reading it. She scoffed and handed it back to him while looking away.

"You don't have clearance or permission for this."

"I don't have to."

She turned back to him with a sneer. "Don't get cocky with me. There is no way I'm just going to hand you-"

"Selena, do you want everyone to know what happened to you during third grade?"

"Third grade?"

"The fair. The house of horror. The clown."

"You can't be serious. That was years ago! I thought we were over that." The man grinned, leaned on the counter and waved the slip before her.

"What were you going to do again?"

Selena shook her head, grabbed the paper and hopped off the stool. She marched to the door in the back, pulling out a key from her pocket and inserting it into the lock. "I swear, I'm going to destroy you..."

"Darling, you're not going to find something worthy against me. And you're not threatening me with Jay, or he'll find out what happened too."

"I get it, Kowalski." The lady marched in, slamming the door against the wall while Kowalski chuckled and looked down at the obedient roach on the counter.

"She's too soft. She won't dare kill any of us. Or she'll regret it."

A crash sounded and Kowalski rolled his eyes.

"I was being nice, Selena." She appeared in the doorway and stared at him, looking a little nervous.

"What?" Her voice came out softly, but she cleared her throat right after and managed a small smile. Kowalski frowned at her sudden change in attitude, but dismissed it. She was probably scared of getting suspended or expelled for this, not that a certain Edward Jefferson would allow it.

"Why did you break it?" She shook her head and crossed her arms before entering the storage room again.

"I dropped a dish." Light tingles from glasses as she placed test tubes, test tube racks, a centrifuge and other materials into a basket. "I don't think of you all the time, okay? Don't be so self conceited."

"You think of me?" A grin found its way onto his mouth and he leaned on the table as he watched a stone faced Selena walk to him with the basket. "I didn't know I was so special."

"Shut up." He shrugged, moved to the side and cleared the table.

"I'm still working on being nice here. Would please help me out once in a while?"

"If that's your best," she placed the basket on the table and the two of them started taking out the materials and set them up, "you need to go back to school." She placed the centrifuge, a small round machine used to separate mixed chemicals into their individual components, on the table, placed a few test tubes with mixed chemicals in them and started it up.

"Give it a few minutes while I clean up the poor petri dish I accidentally dropped." She walked away and Kowalski crossed his arms with a shake of his head.

"Dropped. Yeah right." He walked over to the machine and tended to it while checking the other materials at the same time. His eyes dropped to her work and he went over to it, aching to pick up a pencil and write something down.

"See something else wrong?" He didn't look up as Selena marched back in, dumping broken glass into a bin and then walking over to the counter.

"With your handwriting? Hard to tell." He stared at the notes while she rolled her eyes and slipped back onto her stool. "But…nevermind." She leaned over the table and looked down at her papers.

"What?"

"I'm sure you can see it."

"I don't see anything wrong."

"You're missing it. It's right there."

"Seriously, what is it?"

"For the love of Newton's knickers. It's right there. I can't believe you don't see it."

"This is stupid. If you're not going to tell me, don't-"

"Fine. You forgot that you can't divide a square root with a square, because obviously they're two different things. And because of this, the entire equation's ruined. So the answer is not four the square root of five but undefined."

"So, you're telling me that my college professor's an idiot?"

"He made this?"

"Yup."

"Yes, he is an idiot. Where did he get his degree?"

"Online?" She suggested before shrugging, not noticing the grin on Kowalski's face. "I don't know and I don't care. Now what am I going to pass?"

"Undefined? It's undefined."

"No, he said he didn't want to see words. It has to be all numbers. He said he checked them all."

"So, your name wouldn't be on it? How is he supposed to check this?"

"Don't get all smartass with me now. That's my job. Go do yours."

"And that would be what?"

"I need a solution, Kowalski. Give me a fucking solution." He looked down at the paper and was about to go to the next when something caught his eye.

"Wait a minute. It says you can either choose the algebraic set or the trigonometric set. Why didn't you try the trigonometric set? You're just as good in trigonometry."

"I really, really hate circles. I just hate, and I really mean hate, finding the six circular functions."

"It's a long process, but it's easy."

"Yeah, for you. I keep forgetting that tangent means sine over cosine. Um, cosine over sine? No wait, it is sine over cosine. Y over x."

"You shouldn't doubt yourself."

"I don't get it. I mean, come on, it's not like someone's gonna ask me ten years from now, 'what's your age?' and then I'll have to say, cosine 30 degrees plus tangent over sine 5 degrees, of course you'll want to hide your age, but…Polish hottie say what now?" She blinked at him in surprise, clearly taken aback.

"You think I'm hot?"

She shook her head, her face a mix of emotions, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "I did not say that."

"You did." He looked back at Skipper and Rico, who were now looking a little interested in the two rather than the cards they have in their hands. "I've got witnesses." They quickly went back to the cards when Selena looked at them. She felt her face flame up even more and turned back to Kowalski, trying to keep a straight face.

"You said something very suspicious. I was caught off guard."

"I just said you shouldn't doubt yourself. You're pretty good in Math."

She visibly relaxed her stiff figure and narrowed her eyes at him. "Who are you and what have you done with Kowalski?"

"Relax, it's still me."

"You're complimenting me. You don't compliment me, or anyone for the matter. You have never-"

"There's always a first time. Besides, I said you're good in Math. I didn't say you were as good as I am." A ping sounded from the machine and Selena used the interruption to divert her attention to the device. She carefully took the test tubes out with gloved hands, corked them and placed each in a rack, soon filling up two racks.

"You are definitely high. Anyways," she tied the racks together, placed it in a plastic bag, squeezed the air out of them, tied them tightly, placed them in a Velcro bag and handed the bag to him. "Have fun. Don't blow up lower Manhattan."

He gave her a glare and she grinned back at him. "Very funny."

"I was aiming for it." She cooed back at him before turning to her work and ignoring him. Kowalski shook his head at her and gave the bag to Rico, who took it from him gently. He already knew long before to be careful with chemicals. There was no way he was going to be the object of Kowalski's hate again if he wasn't careful with this batch. Kowalski watched Rico carefully but turned to Skipper when the man spoke.

"All set?"

"Yes sir."

"Great." The trio headed out, with Kowalski doing his best not to snatch the bag from Rico. "It has to be the work of RK."

"With the mutilations on this body, sir? Possibly. I know the man is fond of using his beloved axe and the marks do indicate a deep incision made by an ax, which could be the murder weapon."

"Nobody else would leave the letters 'RK' on a body. It's pretty clear who we're dealing with here. In fact, why do we need to check on the body?"

"To find out who is the Rat King's next victim?" The leader gave him a look that said 'really, Kowalski?'. "The case has finally been handed over to us, maybe we should put out a warning for the whole of New York?"

"And send the citizens into a world of panic? Don't think so. This is RK we're talking about. He'll take the chance and grab a whole bunch of them as hostages."

"He's a serial killer, Skipper. With minions. We need to warn the people."

"I said no. He's attacking streets so far. We do not need him to steal people from their homes."

"Are you telling me that you would sacrifice people for the sake of saving others?"

"It's a good thing Private isn't here then." Kowalski and Rico paused and looked over at Skipper. "I'm kidding."

The other two looked at each other then back at their leader. "I don't think we find it humorous, Skipper."

"It's not a matter of humor, alright?" He told them over his shoulder as he walked away, making the other two do the same. "I was thinking of placing patrols in specific areas of the city, mainly lower Manhattan. Most sane citizens would know better than to walk about in the middle of the night."

"If they've been watching the news lately. What if they haven't?"

"Then they're ignorant dumbbells. I already had Barbie crack into the city's surveillance system for tonight's stakeout. You can stay back and work on the paperwork while we catch up on our dear friend RK."

"Ha ha, Skipper," Kowalski frowned at his friend, "very funny."

"What? You want to join in on the chase? I'm surprised you would pick a run over your precious lab."

"You just don't want to do the paperwork, Skipper."

Skipper grinned at him and patted his shoulder. "Because you're good at that. Besides," the grin was replaced by a serious expression, "I need you to supervise over Private tonight."

"Again? Why aren't you bringing him this time?"

"He's got school, remember? I don't want his friends asking what he has been doing up all night. As much as I pride my baby brother in not liking school like you do," Kowalski frowned deeply at this, "I don't want a lazy image for him. And, he has homework, hasn't he?"

"Right..."

Skipper nodded and patted him again. "Good. Rico and I can handle the run. Right, bud?" Rico looked up and nodded before turning his attention back to the tiled floor of the hallway. "I'm sure RK's careless nature would bring us more clues to his whereabouts. He's bound to slip up again."

"Well, make sure you put those iron chains on him properly. If you do get him."

"I will, Kowalski, I will. Nobody walks my streets without my permission. I still want to know how he got out of those chains last time."

"He broke them."

"I don't like your sarcasm, soldier." Kowalski resisted an eyeroll before stopping short. He slapped his forehead, and turned to Skipper, who raised a brow at him.

"I forgot to grab one more ingredient." He gestured for them to go ahead and then turned down the hallway. "I'll be right with you." Skipper shook his head at him and continued with Rico looking after Kowalski before following his leader.

Kowalski entered the room and was about to say something when he noticed that Selena wasn't there. Puzzled, he made his way over to the storage room and found it open. He was about to enter when he saw Selena staring at something in one corner.

"Selena," he walked up behind her, seeing her jump at the sound of his voice, "what are you..." His eyes trailed to the black object sitting casually on a shelf, red numbers counting down slowly. "Is that-"

"Kowalski?" Selena turned to him with a hand over her racing heart and started to push him out. "Get out! Get out now! Go!"

"That's a," he pointed to the device and looked down at her as she stopped her attempts at moving him, "are you crazy?"

"You need to go. Now."

He shook his head and moved past her to the shelf. "We can't just leave it here."

"What 'we'? No!" Selena covered her eyes, though she was peeking out through the spaces, when Kowalski gingerly picked up the object. "Kowalski," she went to his side, seeing his hands quake, "NO!" The black object slipped from his hands but her cry snapped him back to action and he caught it before it could hit the ground. "Oh gawd." Selena pressed her hand to her chest, trying to slow her heart. "Oh my gawd, Kowalski," she looked at him, breathing heavily, "have you," her voice barely came out, "gone mad?"

"Why are you whispering? It's just a time bomb." His head swung to the device and his eyes grew wide. "Galileo's Underpants!" He let go of it and stepped away.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!" Selena screamed out in horror before diving for it. She barely caught it and brought it to her chest, but the place seemed to have frosted over when they heard frantic ticking. She slowly looked down at it, turned it over to the timer and stared at the numbers going down at a fast rate. "Oh no."

Kowalski grabbed the object, placed it on the ground, took her arm and backed out of the storage. "Time to go."

"No," she tried to get him to let go but gave up and just pulled him over to the table, "wait!"

"Your life is in danger and you still want your homework?!" He watched as she started to shove everything into a bag.

"I-" He shoved the rest of the items in it, swung the bag over his shoulder, grabbed her hand and started dragging her out. "WAIT!" She ran over to the door and hastily took out a card tucked in a plastic slot, all the while looking over at the storage room, expecting it to blow up any second.

"You have got to be kidding me!" He marched over to her, hoisted her over his shoulder and ran, much to her shock and surprise.

"Hey, hey! I can walk! Put me down!"

"As if." They were barely near the exit when the smallest bang echoed from laboratory, followed by a rush of flames and a trail of breaking windows.