The tiếp theo day, Ashley woke up bright and early, and practically jumped out of his bunk. He looked at the time which was 7am. Skipper and Rico were already awake, and playing cards. He hopped over to them, and sat down.
"Morning lads." He greeted excitedly. "So when do we start training? He asked, his light green eyes shining with anticipation.
"Well we used to start at 7am, and have another at 12:30, but a while after Emma arrived we changed it to just the one at 12:30." Skipper answered, taking a swig out of his cá coffee. Ashley started at the strange mixture curiously, then turned his attention back to Skipper.
"So we still have 5 and a half hours." Ashley realised feeling a little disappointed. He was ready to go now, and he just couldn't wait. He let out a small sigh and turned on the Tv, keeping the volume low. He flicked through the channels and found a Tv hiển thị called Kim Possible on. He watched with interest, and he got into it very quickly.
"Hey, kiddo are bạn gonna have any breakfast?" Skipper asked.
"Oh yeah." Ashley remembered, standing up. He headed towards the cupboard and found some Sô cô la bars. "Are these anyone's Sô cô la bars?" He asked, holding them up.
"Nope." Rico answered digging in to a big heap of cá in front of him. Ashley took he Sô cô la bars and melted them in a bowl. Skipper watched out of the corner of his eye curiously. Ashley then took some fish, and dipped them in the bowl of melted chocolate.
"What in the name of Lincoln's hàng đầu, đầu trang hat?" Skipper đã đưa ý kiến aloud, looking weirded out. Ashley gave him a strange look when he đã đưa ý kiến that.
"You've never had Sô cô la dipped cá before?" Ashley asked, looking genuinely astonished. Skipper and Rico both shook their heads. "Well it's one of the best things ever." Ashley told them, taking the bowl over to the cinder block table. The little chim cánh cụt held out to Sô cô la dipped cá to the others. The took it cautiously, and Rico took a nibble out of the corner. He then suddenly shoved it all in his mouth.
"Mmmm." He marvelled, turning to Skipper to see his reaction. Skipper looked satisfied.
"That was really delicious." He remarked.
"I know right?" Ashley replied, beaming at the two taller penguins. He started eating his own, and ended up with half of the Sô cô la on his face. Rico chuckled at this, and Skipper told him. (Since Ashley couldn't understand Rico very well.) A while later Kowalski, Private, and Tom all got up, and shuffled over to the cinder block table.
"Morning everyone." Private yawned, sitting down, and immediately eating some fish.
"Morning." Ashley replied, a cheerful smile on his face.
"So Kowalski why were bạn and Emma gone so long yesterday?" Tom asked cheekily, a smirk making it's way onto his face. Skipper slapped Tom on the back of his head in response. "Oww!" He protested. "What was that for?" He complained, rubbing his head.
"For asking about stuff that's none of your business." Skipper replied, looking at his younger brother sternly. Tom grumbled and turned away.
"I was just curious..." He muttered under his breath, giving Skipper a dark look. Rico rolled his eyes, and got another load of cá from the fridge.
Does he ever stop eating? Ashley wondered.
"Do bạn ever stop eating?" Kowalski asked Rico, looking at the plate with wonder. Rico shook his head, and Private giggled.
Woah, crazy coincidence much? Ashley thought, taking a sip of a drink. He then looked up at the time, which was now 9:30am. Aw c'mon, why can't it be 12:30 now? He turned to look at Emma, who was snoring slightly in her bunk, holding a toy husky dog protectively in her flippers. Ooh there was a dog like that that used to come to Edinburgh zoo. He remembered, picturing the large dog, with silver lông, lông thú and pale blue eyes. Ashley smiled, and he thought about his trang chủ town. It was really cold a lot of the time, but he didn't mind so much. It meant that they got lots of snow, which Ashley loved. He remembered the first time he went out in the snow, and he fell, face first, into it. He continued talking to the other penguins, although what they were saying wasn't really registering in his head for thêm than a minute. Part of him was too excited, and part of him was a bit nervous. And he was a little homesick. He sat in deep thought for a long period of time. He Mất tích track of time, and the tiếp theo time he looked up, it was 12pm and Emma was just getting out of her bed. He looked up at the clock in disbelief.
"Morning everyone." Emma managed in a barely audible yawn.
"Morning Em." Kowalski greeted, going up to her and hugging her. Emma's tim, trái tim sped up, and she hugged back lovingly. Skipper noticed Ashley staring at the fishbowl, and a small smile made it's way onto his face. It was nice to see a new cadet who was excited to go to training. Tom saw it as a complete bore, and even Emma was a bit too lazy to do it sometimes.
"Hey should we start the training early today team?" Skipper asked, noticing that Ashley had perked up at the word 'Training'
"Ooh, sure that sounds good." Ashley replied, getting out of his ghế, chỗ ngồi and heading towards the fishbowl.
"Omeonescited." (Someone's excited.) Rico remarked, watching the young chim cánh cụt climb the ladder.
"I know right?" Emma agreed, grabbing a Sô cô la bar, and following the others through the fishbowl.
The team hopped out of the fishbowl, and Skipper explained what they would be doing.
"So today, team, we will be working on basic defence moves, and some new flips." Skipper began, his eyes on the two young penguins. "Also we are going to learn some moves that are useful underwater." He explained. Emma grinned, and looked towards the shimmering water.
"What moves are we doing?" Ashley asked, looking ecstatic. He was practically buzzing.
"I'll hiển thị you." Skipper replied, and showed the penguins, some basic blocking moves, and ordering the team to do the same. Emma got a bit bored bởi this, since she learned this when she was about nine. She let her mind wander, and her attention was caught bởi poor Mort being kicked off Julien's feet, for about the tenth time today. Emma smiled at Mort who was climbing back int the vong linh, vượn cáo habitat. He smiled back, and waved.
"Hello penguin!" He called cheerfully, before running up to Julien again. Emma went back to focusing on Skipper. Skipper was very pleased bởi how well Ashley was doing. The little cadet was getting all of the moves right, and was looking very cheerful at the same time. Tom was rolling his eyes, and not paying much attention at all. A while later Skipper started hiển thị them some flips. Emma was the best at this, as she was very flexible, and nimble. She back flipped across the whole habitat, but ended up falling in the water. Kowalski rushed over to help her out. She was giggling as she climbed out, dripping wet. She shook herself dry, and carried on flipping. Rico chuckled at this and watched Tom, who was having trouble flipping over.
"How can bạn all do this?" He asked, disbelievingly.
"Well it's pretty easily actually." Emma replied, flipping past her little brother.
"I can't do it." Tom grumbled, crossing his flippers and looking at the floor.
"Tom, imagine that your about to do that bicycle kick where bạn hit the ball in the goal from a different direction." Emma told him, as she stopped flipping and stood tiếp theo to him for a minute.
"Hmmm." Tom said, looking thoughtful. He did that kick a lot whilst playing football and it was like a half flip. He took a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and flipped backwards, swinging his leg as if he was kicking a football. He opened his eyes a few giây later and realised he landed on his feet. "Yay, I did it!" He cheered, doing another back flip and landing on his feet.
"Well done lad." Ashley praised, as he did a flip, and landed on his feet. He wasn't used to flipping but he was doing quite well at it. Kowalski and Emma were having a back flipping race, but they both slipped on the last one, and fell down tiếp theo to eachother, bursting with giggles.
"Hey, lovebirds, stop giggling and get up!" Skipper ordered sternly. Emma went red, as Kowalski helped her up. They exchanged a smile and focused on Skipper, who was ready to di chuyển on to the underwater moves they were going to learn. He ordered the team to dive into the water, so they did. The water was quite warm today, which Ashley was pleased about. Skipper started hiển thị them moves, including a really cool one, where bạn do an underwater back flip, and kick the person behind you. Surprisingly, Tom, and Ashley mastered that one quicker than the others. Emma was tempted to slip away from the group with Kowalski but she stopped herself. A little tingle went through her body, and her attention focused on Kowalski who was watching her. She guessed that he was thinking the same thing. She smiled at him, and carried on with the underwater moves.
Private popped his head out of the water for a second, and saw humans approaching.
"Uh oh, Skipper, we've got humans!" He warned, climbing out of the water, and standing on the island. The others followed him, and they stood tiếp theo to eachother, waiting for the humans to reach the habitat, Meanwhile, Emma told Ashley what they had to do when the humans arrived.
"So this gets us food?" Ashley asked lowering his voice as the humans got closer.
"Yup, they throw in cá for the others, and something else for me." Emma explained.
"Well since I don't' really like cá what should I do?" He whispered.
"Well when the humans leave, just take the cá down into the HQ,and dip them in chocolate." Emma told him.
"Good idea." Ashley agreed. The humans came along and started gathering around the chim cánh cụt habitat. Skipper ordered everyone to get into the cute and cuddly positions. Emma and Kowalski did a cute little dance around the habitat, which earned a big 'Aaawwwwwwwww' from the humans. Private pretended to fall in the water, and Skipper caught him at the last minute, Meanwhile Tom, and Rico were belly sliding, around, putting on cute faces as they did so. Ashley was a bit nervous, but he joined Rico and Tom, and he put on a really cute face as he did so. The humans let out anther 'Awwwwwwwwwwwwww' as they watched in delight. Skipper gestured the all to come closer so he could talk to them.
"Ok, team, do the cutest bạn can do." He ordered. "Except for bạn Private." He added, remembering his hypercute.
"Ok Skippah." Private agreed, doing a little dance, and making himself look almost as cute as he could. Ashley watched the others, and he wondered what he should do.
Ok, I've gotta do the cutest I can do. He told himself. He made his eyes extra big and sparkly, and he got into the cutest position possible. Suddenly a little 'Bing' noise was heard, and the humans fainted to the floor.
"That was weird." Ashley remarked, turning to the penguins. He looked at them in surprise as he realised that they had fainted too. Ashley walked up to them, and watched them worriedly. "Are bạn guys ok?" He asked, panic filling his voice. A few giây later Private woke up, looking confused.
"What just happened?" He asked Ashley.
"I... I don't know." Ashley admitted. "One một phút I was trying to the do the cutest thing I could, and the next, everyone had fainted." Ashley explained. Private's eyes widened, and he shook the others awake.
"Woah, what just happened?" Emma asked, sitting up, and staring at the humans.
"I think Ashley can also do the hypercute." Private explained, telling them, what Ashley had told him.
"Huh, I thought Private would be the only one." Tom said, as he stood up again.
"Igessot." (I guess not) Rico said, looking at the little chim cánh cụt curiously.
"What's hypercute?" Ashley asked, looking confused.
"It's when someone does something so cute, that it makes everyone around them faint from a cuteness overload." Kowalski explained. Ashley looked interested, and he was about to ask another câu hỏi when Private piped up.
"Should we get the thực phẩm before the humans wake up?" He asked. Skipper nodded and the penguins grabbed all of the food, and hopped back into the fishbowl.
The ngày went quickly, and before Emma knew it they were all heading to giường again. She sat in her bunk, excited about the tiếp theo day. She couldn't wait to see Chris and Sam again, it had been too long since she had last seen them. She lied down, and stuck he headphones in her earholes. She had a new habit of listening to âm nhạc when she went bed. She put a song on and relaxed in her bunk. She thought about Kowalski and smiled, falling into a content, calm sleep.
The tiếp theo day, Emma woke up very early, which earned an astonished look from Skipper.
"Morning everyone." She greeted, looking bright. Everyone else was already up, but it was only 9am. Everyone except for Ashley was now giving her strange looks. Emma barely ever got up early, and even if she did, she walked, talked, and even looked like a zombie. She hated mornings, and she always would.
"Urm, your up early aren't you?" Skipper asked, his eyes flicking from Emma to the clock.
"Well, yes, but that's because Chris and Sam are coming." Emma reminded him.
"Oh yeah." Skipper remembered. "Still bạn don't have to be up so early."
"Well I wanted to get up early, so I could get ready for when they came." Emma explained, heading to the fridge to make breakfast.
"Urm.....ok." Rico finally said. Emma sat down, and tucked into her breakfast, looking up at clock anxiously. Her mum hadn't đã đưa ý kiến what time they'd be coming which was a bit irritating since it could be anytime from early morning to late at night. She wondered what they would think of the place, what they'd think about Kowalski. This made her a little nervous, and she began instinctively tapping her foot. Kowalski realised this, and squeezed her flipper comfortingly.
"Hey, don't be worried, they're going to be really happy to see you." Kowalski told her quietly. Emma smiled.
"I know, I'm just a bit nervous about what they'll think of everything here." Emma whispered back.
"I'm sure they won't mind at all, even if the place was a dump." Kowalski replied reassuringly. Emma's smile grew wider, and she hugged him.
"Thanks Kowalski." She whispered. He blushed and hugged her back. Emma wasn't as worried after that, but she was still a little nervous, and she couldn't help that. As the ngày rolled on, Emma got tired of waiting, and turned on the Tv. When the clock struck 6pm, a noise was heard from outside.
"What was that?" Ashley asked, looking towards the fishbowl. A ball of excitement grew in Emma's stomach, and she climbed the ladder, and peeped out of the fishbowl curiously. Her face brightened when she saw two penguins, a bit taller than Kowalski, looking around the habitat in confusion. The girl had long blonde hair, and pale blue eyes, and she wore a stripey blue and white scarf around her neck, and had a matching bracelet. The blue matched her eyes. The boy was a little taller and had a reasonably flat head, but jet black sticking out feathers. His eyes were less pale than the girl's, and his eyes were bigger. He had an England wristband on his left flipper. The girl looked down, and noticed Emma.
"Hey Emz, what are bạn doing down there?" The girl asked.
"Well this is where the main bit of our habitat is." Emma explained. She climbed back down the ladder, and the penguins followed her. The một phút they dropped into the habitat, Emma hugged them as tightly as she could. "I've missed bạn two so much!" Emma told them, pulling away and smiling at them. Skipper, Tom, and Rico came over for hugs too, and Ashley, Private and Kowalski followed nervously.
"Wow, you've all grown so much." The boy marvelled, looking at Skipper and Rico. "Heck, the last time I saw bạn two, bạn were about up to my ankles now." He said, pointing towards his feet. Ashley wasn't sure what to do, and Private and Kowalski looked at eachother nervously. Kowalski now understood why Emma was a little worried. Emma caught sight of the three penguins standing awkwardly at the back, and she introduced them.
"Guys, these are our half sister and brother, Chris and Sam." She said, pointing towards them.
"Half?" Private asked. He still didn't really understand what that meant.
"We have different mums,but the same dad." Skipper told them.
"Oh." Private replied.
"Chris, Sam, these are Ashley, Private, and Kowalski." Emma explained, gesturing to them.
"Kowalski is Emma's boyfriend." Tom blurted out, smirking as he did. Emma went red, and she stepped on Tom's foot as hard as she could, and he made a loud yelping sound. Kowalski also went red, and gave Tom a dark look. Emma was relieved when Chris and Sam made no bình luận on this.
"It's nice to meet bạn guys." Sam đã đưa ý kiến looking at the other penguins cheerfully.
"It's nice to meet bạn too lass." Ashley replied brightly.
"Ooh, are bạn from Scotland?" Sam asked, excitedly. Ashley nodded. "Me and Chris are half Scottish." She told him.
"Really? That's cool!" Ashley replied, smiling wider. The penguins started talking and catching up, and the others tried to tham gia in. (Though they didn't have much success)
"Hey Skips, can me and Sam sleep in the lab tonight?" Emma asked. When they were younger, Sam used to sleep around their house, and she sleep on the floor in Emma's room. Since Emma didn't have a room anymore, the lab was the closest thing she could use.
"Sure, knock yourselves out." Skipper replied, before turning back to Chris. Emma squealed with excitement, and got out two sleeping bags, and put them in the lab. When she came back,she noticed that Kowalski, was looking a little left out. So Emma brought him into the conversation she was having with Sam. Kowalski brightened, as Emma told Sam about the lab, and how she and Kowalski made lots of inventions.
"Really, what kind of inventions?" Sam asked, turning to Kowalski.
"Well, we've made a teleportation device, a freeze ray, a shrink ray, and many other things."Kowalski answered, smiling at Sam.
"Wow, that's awesome." Sam remarked, looking at the silver door that led to the lab.
"Yupperdoodle." Emma đã đưa ý kiến brightly.
A while after talking with them, Chris turned around and looked at Emma.
"Hey sis, something seems different about you." He remarked taking a step closer to her. Emma looked confused for a second, and she suddenly realised what was different since she last saw them.
"Well I don't have my powers anymore." She told them, not looking very bothered about it. It had been four years since she Mất tích them, and she had use to it bởi now. Sam, and Chris looked shocked.
"W..what happened?" Sam asked, her voice filling with astonishment, and worry.
"I'll tell bạn guys about it later." Emma replied, her expression neutral.
"Souldweatchaoovie?" (Should we watch a movie?) Rico asked. Skipper had explained what happened to Rico's voice to them so they weren't surprised about it.
"Sounds fun to me." Chris agreed. The nine penguins sat down, as Rico put Harry Potter 2 on. Emma calculated that they could probably watch 2 hoặc three films before Skipper sent everyone to bed. They all lied down on their stomachs, and Emma cuddled up with Kowalski, which made Sam grin at her. Emma blushed, and grinned back. As they settled into the film Emma relaxed completely, and she put a flipper around Kowalski, and Kowalski put a flipper on her shoulder, and stroked her hair. Emma's tim, trái tim leaped in her chest, and she Mất tích track of time. Without realising, she had seen the entire film, and the credits were coming on screen. She felt a bit surprised, but she was used to stuff like this happening. Rico put the tiếp theo one in, and Emma payed thêm attention to this one. A few hours later, when it finished, Emma stood up, and looked towards the lab eagerly.
"Well goodnight everyone." She said, waving at them. She hugged Kowalski, and headed for the lab with Sam. She lead her older sister in, and Sam looked at the inventions, and test tubes in winder.
"Wow, this is awesome Emz." She said, looking into one of the test tubes curiously.
"Thanks Sam." She replied, grinning at her. Emma got in her sleeping bag, and lied down on her stomach tiếp theo to her.
"So, we have tons to talk about." Sam told her, looking at the shorter penguin.
"I know, but I don't know where to start." Emma admitted, giggling a bit.
"Well bạn could tell me about how bạn Mất tích your powers." Sam suggested.
"Sure." Emma agreed. She took a deep breath, and spilled everything, the nightmares, the glowing red eyes, Marlene getting captured, the snake venom that nearly killed her, the con rái cá, rái cá guy who tried to take her blood, and that she had to kill him, and when Private and Kowalski died, and she had to bring them back to life, which made her unconscious for a few days, and made her lose her powers. After she explained this, Sam's jaw dropped.
"You... bạn killed someone?" She asked, her eyes filled with shock. Emma nodded gravely. "But bạn were only 10." Sam added.
"I know, but I had to do it." Emma replied shrugging her shoulders. "He was a completely evil guy who wasn't going to stop being evil."
"Is there anything else bạn need to tell me?" Sam asked. Emma was about to tell her that her blood had healing powers, but she kept her mouth shut. Because Sam was from her dad's side of the family, she didn't need to know, because it wasn't from her family. She usually shared everything with Sam, because she hardly ever told secrets, but Sam could accidentally spill sometimes. Emma couldn't risk that, she had only told Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, Private and Tom about it.
"Hmm, I'm not sure." Emma replied. Sam began to grin, and she looked towards the door.
"Well bạn could tell me about your boyfriend." She suggested. Emma blushed her head turned towards the door. "What's he like?" Sam asked.
"Really sweet." Emma answered. "He's kind, smart, funny, romantic, thoughtful, and playful." She added, going a bit redder. She felt a smile tugging at her face. The two penguins sat awake for ages, talking about ngẫu nhiên things, like boys, music, family, and Tv. At about 1am, they eventually đã đưa ý kiến goodnight, and Emma snuggled down in her sleeping bag. She had really missed doing this, it was so much fun, and it made her feel content and safe. She was close with Chris too, but Sam was the closest she had to a sister, and she counted her as a proper sister, not a half one. She took one last look at her before falling asleep.
In the early hours of the morning, the HQ was silent. A shadow scuttled through the main room, and looked around shiftily. It's eyes fell on the bunks, and it sneaked over. It then grabbed one of the penguins and dragged them off into the night.
Emma was enjoying a wonderful dream about her and Kowalski. They were walking through a clearing, in the middle of a small wood, with a sparkling blue waterfall in the corner of the clearing. The water cascaded down the waterfall, and flowed down through a stream at the foot of it. There was a little bridge so they could vượt qua, cross the water. The sky was filled with stars, the twinkling lights dotting the navy blue sky. A willow cây was in one corner of the clearing. It's long thin branches, swayed side to side in the light breeze. Emma recognised the place. It was an island in the Atlantic Ocean, and the only place on the planet that she could use her powers. She saw autumn leaves scatted across the landscape, the shade of red trái cam, màu da cam and vàng barely recognisable in the darkness. A full moon shone down, giving the clearing a soft glow. She loved the feel of the soft cỏ on her bare feet. She walked on through the clearing, Kowalski holding her flipper, and smiling at her. She watched the leaves and tried to bring them over to her with her mind. They started dancing over swirling around Emma's head, before landing on the floor. A deep red one landed in her flipper, and she took a closer look at it. This particular shade of red seemed familiar.... Suddenly the moon and stars disappeared, plunging the clearing into darkness. Everything around her began to turn dark, and unfriendly. She inched closer to Kowalski, and her tim, trái tim sped up. At the edge of the clearing, two glowing pairs of red eyes opened, and Emma stopped dead. Fear consumed her, and she froze on the spot. The last time she had seen glowing red eyes she nearly died. She tried to move, but her feet seemed anchored to the ground. The eyes got nearer, and Kowalski stepped in front of her, trying to protect her. The red eyes then pushed Kowalski into the water and went for Emma.
She woke up with a start, he breathing quick and shallow. She got back to reality and saw Sam, Kowalski and Skipper looking over at her.
"Oh thank goodness bạn weren't waking up." Kowalski told her, hugging her tightly. Emma hugged back, rather distantly. Her mind was still on that dream. She hadn't had a nightmare since she was 10, and that nightmare was trying to warn her about something bad. Would this one be the same? She had a strange feeling that her brain interrupted a good dream to warn her about something, so whatever was coming, if anything was, it might not be in the clearing where she was.
"Em, are bạn ok?" Kowalski asked, stroking her hair. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I just had a bad dream, I... I think something bad's going to happen." Emma admitted. Her stomach flipped over queasily, when no one replied. The bad feeling intensified, and she looked up at them worriedly. "Has.. has something happened?" She asked, a panicky feeling filling her body. Skipper nodded gravely, and he walked towards the lab door, gesturing for Emma to follow. She got up, and a nasty chill went down her spine. Kowalski and Sam followed, walking tiếp theo to her. Emma started feeling worse, as Skipper opened the lab door, and lead her out. She scanned around, and a ball of panic formed in her throat, stopping her from speaking. Rico was in the room looking worried, Tom, and Private were looking close to tears, and that's when Emma realised what was wrong. Chris came up to her and patted her on the shoulder comfortingly. Emma stared at the drag marks on the floor and realised that Ashley was nowhere to be seen. She crouched on the floor, and saw traces of blood stained around the marks. The drag marks started at Ashley's bunk, and led to just near the door. A horrible feeling overwhelmed Emma and she rushed to the toilet. She came back a few minutes, looking scared. Someone had broken into the HQ, and actually managed to kidnap one of the team. Yes Ashley was only here for a few days, but he was sweet, enthusiastic, and helpful. Emma already counted him as a friend. Who took him? Why did they take Ashley? What are they planing to do with him? These các câu hỏi made Emma's stomach churn even more, and she held her breath, trying to force back the sick feeling in her throat. What scared her even thêm was that whoever got in could have took anyone, hoặc everyone, they just got in easily, and didn't wake a single person up. What's to stop them from doing something like this again?
"We think he got kidnapped between 2am and 6am." Private told her, his voice as silent as a mouse. Emma just nodded, still unable to say a word. She glanced at the time, which was 7:30am. She took a closer look at the blood, and saw that it was still a little wet.
"I.. i'd say about 2 hours ago." She eventually managed, breathing slowly and deeply, trying to keep herself calm. She realised that she might have some information that the others didn't have. She took a deep breath, and sat down on the cinder block table. "I haven't had a bad dream in four years." She finally said, pouring herself a drink and gulping it down.
"So?" Chris replied, looking confused.
"Last time I had a bad dream, it was a warning, and my dream ended up being quite accurate to the real thing." Emma explained. "But this bad dream interrupted a good dream, so I'm not 100% sure that it will be accurate." She admitted.
"Well what happened in your dream? It still might give us some clues." Kowalski asked, sitting down beside her.
"Urm, well bạn and me were in a clearing.." Emma began blushing a bit. Kowalski smiled at this, and nodded for her to go on. "And I had my powers. The whole dream was awesome, until this red leaf landed in my flipper." Emma explained. I took a closer look at it, and the dream went really dark, and......." She trailed off, feeling afraid.
"And?" Kowalski asked, squeezing her flipper comfortingly.
"And, these pair of glowing red eyes came out from the edge of the clearing. I.. I couldn't move, I was too scared." Emma continued, fighting back the tears that were staring to fill the back of her eyes. "You tired to protect me, but it pushed bạn in the water, and then went for me, and that's when I woke up." Emma finished, a bit proud that she didn't end up crying. Kowalski hugged her gently, and looked around at the others.
"So if this dream means something, what do bạn think it means?" Kowalski asked.
"My theory is that someone with red eyes took Ashley, and whoever that person is, is coming for us next." Emma replied. Her gut told her that something was wrong with this theory but she ignored it.
"Well which of our enemies have red eyes?" Skipper wondered outloud. Emma wasn't very sure.
"Urm, Hans, the con chuột King, and possibly Savio, I can't remember if he has red hoặc yellow eyes?" Emma answered. "Though for some reason, I doubt it is Hans." She admitted.
"Why?" Rico asked.
"Well first of all in the dream, the person was bigger than us, and it felt like someone we hadn't defeated before." Emma explained.
"But we've defeated all of them before..." Skipper said, looking confused. Emma was about to agree, when she had a flashback to when the baby fossa visited. Her eyes widened,and she looked up at the others.
"We actually haven't." Emma corrected., a thought buzzing in her head. The team cast her confused looks. "Us lot in general haven't defeated Savio before. First Burt did, then Julien, then the Baby Fossa." She pointed out. Skipper looked shocked, then he patted Emma on the shoulder, looking impressed.
"Your right sis." He told her taking out his book he kept on villains. It had profile's of every villain that they had ever faced in there. He opened it up to Savio's page, and his face fell.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked.
"Savio has been missing for a while, we have no idea where he is." Skipper told the team gravely. Emma stomach lurched again, and a bad feeling was in her gut. He gut kept telling her that they were completely wrong about this, and they weren't going to find him, searching for Savio. Emma quietly told her gut that she believed her brain because it was smarter, but this didn't stop it from trying to convince her that something was up. She ignored it, and turned her attention back to Skipper. "Don't worry, we'll find him." Skipper reassured them.
"Savio, hoặc Ashley?" Emma asked.
"Both." Skipper replied, closing the book.
Ashley woke up groggily, his vision blurring. As he woke up fully, and his vision came back, he realised something was wrong. He was strapped to a table, in the middle of the surrounding darkness. His breathing sped up, and he closed his eyes again, hoping that he was in some sort of nightmare. He heard an evil laugh come from his left, and his eyes widened. The laugh echoed through the darkness, filling every corner, which made Ashley guess that he was in a big room hoặc a cave. He shivered in fear, and tried to turn his head.
"Who... who's there?" He called out, his voice filled with panic.
"Your worst nightmare." A voice answered. Someone moved into the small bit of light that was slightly above his head. Ashley let out a yelp of fear, and struggled with the straps.
"Skipper told me about you, you're....." Ashley began before the figure covered Ashley's beak.
"And I know about bạn too Ashley." He said, smiling deviously.
"How do bạn know my name?" Ashley wondered, his tim, trái tim beating uncomfortably fast.
"Well I'm not going to stop spying on my foes am I? I knew that bạn were going to the Central Park Zoo before they did." He explained looking proud of himself.
"Wh...... why did bạn take me?" Ashley asked, fear seeping into his voice.
"Because I want information on the penguins, their strengths, their weaknesses, their secrets, their hidden shames, their supply of weapons, and I want to know about the secret sub levels." He told the trembling penguin.
"I don't know about any of that stuff, I've only been there for two days!" Ashley tried to reason.
"Oh, don't lie to me, I know that Skipper and Emma told bạn a lot about them and the HQ, in these two days." The figure replied.
"How would bạn know that?" Ashley wondered, looking worried.
"Pfft, I installed cameras in the HQ when bạn were all sleeping." He answered.
"Wait, why are bạn telling me this?" Ashley asked, feeling curious.
"Because bạn are never getting out of here." The figure replied simply. Ashley felt the ball of fright in his stomach spread to the rest of his body, and he looked up at the tall figure in fear. He conjured up all the courage he could and answered back.
"Well I'm not telling bạn anything!" He told him bravely. The figure just smiled evilly.
"Oh bạn will talk." The figure replied, pulling out a knife. Ashley's jaw dropped and he looked at the shining metal fearfully.
"I'm no traitor, do what bạn want to me, but I'm not talking, lad." He stated, looking up at the figures soulless eyes.
"Well it looks like we'll be doing this the hard way." The figure thought aloud. "Ah well, I guess it's thêm amusing." He added. He took the knife, and sliced slowly down Ashley's left flipper. Ashley let out a scream, and wriggled, trying to get free. "Ready to talk now?" The figure asked. Ashley shook his head, trying not to cry from the pain. The evil figure smiled devilishly and continued slicing through the young penguins flipper. Ashley screamed again, and hot tears ran down his face.
His flipper was stained red, and he felt sick just looking at it. He closed his eyes and tried to take his mind off the pain. He quickly realised that it would be impossible.
Don't worry, the team will find me... Ashley reassured himself, biting his tongue to stop himself from screaming again. They will find me.
At the Central Park Zoo
Emma stared at the clock, wishing that time would turn back, and she could save Ashley in time.
He must be so frightened right now. Emma thought, tears filling her eyes again. All alone, with Savio, for all we know, Savio could have eaten him bởi now. She added. Her gut grumbled at this, and she told it to shut up. She sighed, and looked around Alice's office. They had gone there to see if they could find out what happened to Savio. She shivered as she thought about what he might be doing to the poor new cadet. Kowalski cast her a concerned look, and she managed a weak smile. He smiled back at her sadly. She began to tìm kiếm through drawers, and she found a book of past and trước đó animals. This is probably the boss's book, Alice is too lazy to do something like this. She thought smiling genuinely for the first time since Ashley had been kidnapped, though it disappeared quickly. She began to flick through it, and realised that all of the zoo động vật were in here including Ashley. Emma noticed that the zoo boss knew every động vật name, which weirded her out a bit. She stopped on Ashley's page, and read over it. She knew most of the stuff that was in here, but she came across one thing that was completely new to her. Apparently, he had an older sister who died before he was born. Ashley was now the only child. Emma felt even sadder, đọc those words and she turned the page, wiping her eyes. She eventually came to the page about Savio. She read through quickly, and her eyes got caught bởi one particular paragraph. Savio the snake, came to us from Hoboken, but he had to be sent back because of bad behaviour. He is now residing at the Queen's Zoo..... Emma read, looking thoughtful. Wait, that's in New York! She realised, her face brightening.
"Hey guys, I've found out where Savio is!" She called out to the others excitedly. They dropped whatever they were doing, and rushed over to her.
"Where is he?" Skipper asked, taking the book from Emma and looking at it.
"At Queens Zoo." Emma told him, feeling a bit proud of herself. Her stomach grumbled, but she ignored it.
"Well lets go then!" Private said, belly sliding towards the door.
"Morning lads." He greeted excitedly. "So when do we start training? He asked, his light green eyes shining with anticipation.
"Well we used to start at 7am, and have another at 12:30, but a while after Emma arrived we changed it to just the one at 12:30." Skipper answered, taking a swig out of his cá coffee. Ashley started at the strange mixture curiously, then turned his attention back to Skipper.
"So we still have 5 and a half hours." Ashley realised feeling a little disappointed. He was ready to go now, and he just couldn't wait. He let out a small sigh and turned on the Tv, keeping the volume low. He flicked through the channels and found a Tv hiển thị called Kim Possible on. He watched with interest, and he got into it very quickly.
"Hey, kiddo are bạn gonna have any breakfast?" Skipper asked.
"Oh yeah." Ashley remembered, standing up. He headed towards the cupboard and found some Sô cô la bars. "Are these anyone's Sô cô la bars?" He asked, holding them up.
"Nope." Rico answered digging in to a big heap of cá in front of him. Ashley took he Sô cô la bars and melted them in a bowl. Skipper watched out of the corner of his eye curiously. Ashley then took some fish, and dipped them in the bowl of melted chocolate.
"What in the name of Lincoln's hàng đầu, đầu trang hat?" Skipper đã đưa ý kiến aloud, looking weirded out. Ashley gave him a strange look when he đã đưa ý kiến that.
"You've never had Sô cô la dipped cá before?" Ashley asked, looking genuinely astonished. Skipper and Rico both shook their heads. "Well it's one of the best things ever." Ashley told them, taking the bowl over to the cinder block table. The little chim cánh cụt held out to Sô cô la dipped cá to the others. The took it cautiously, and Rico took a nibble out of the corner. He then suddenly shoved it all in his mouth.
"Mmmm." He marvelled, turning to Skipper to see his reaction. Skipper looked satisfied.
"That was really delicious." He remarked.
"I know right?" Ashley replied, beaming at the two taller penguins. He started eating his own, and ended up with half of the Sô cô la on his face. Rico chuckled at this, and Skipper told him. (Since Ashley couldn't understand Rico very well.) A while later Kowalski, Private, and Tom all got up, and shuffled over to the cinder block table.
"Morning everyone." Private yawned, sitting down, and immediately eating some fish.
"Morning." Ashley replied, a cheerful smile on his face.
"So Kowalski why were bạn and Emma gone so long yesterday?" Tom asked cheekily, a smirk making it's way onto his face. Skipper slapped Tom on the back of his head in response. "Oww!" He protested. "What was that for?" He complained, rubbing his head.
"For asking about stuff that's none of your business." Skipper replied, looking at his younger brother sternly. Tom grumbled and turned away.
"I was just curious..." He muttered under his breath, giving Skipper a dark look. Rico rolled his eyes, and got another load of cá from the fridge.
Does he ever stop eating? Ashley wondered.
"Do bạn ever stop eating?" Kowalski asked Rico, looking at the plate with wonder. Rico shook his head, and Private giggled.
Woah, crazy coincidence much? Ashley thought, taking a sip of a drink. He then looked up at the time, which was now 9:30am. Aw c'mon, why can't it be 12:30 now? He turned to look at Emma, who was snoring slightly in her bunk, holding a toy husky dog protectively in her flippers. Ooh there was a dog like that that used to come to Edinburgh zoo. He remembered, picturing the large dog, with silver lông, lông thú and pale blue eyes. Ashley smiled, and he thought about his trang chủ town. It was really cold a lot of the time, but he didn't mind so much. It meant that they got lots of snow, which Ashley loved. He remembered the first time he went out in the snow, and he fell, face first, into it. He continued talking to the other penguins, although what they were saying wasn't really registering in his head for thêm than a minute. Part of him was too excited, and part of him was a bit nervous. And he was a little homesick. He sat in deep thought for a long period of time. He Mất tích track of time, and the tiếp theo time he looked up, it was 12pm and Emma was just getting out of her bed. He looked up at the clock in disbelief.
"Morning everyone." Emma managed in a barely audible yawn.
"Morning Em." Kowalski greeted, going up to her and hugging her. Emma's tim, trái tim sped up, and she hugged back lovingly. Skipper noticed Ashley staring at the fishbowl, and a small smile made it's way onto his face. It was nice to see a new cadet who was excited to go to training. Tom saw it as a complete bore, and even Emma was a bit too lazy to do it sometimes.
"Hey should we start the training early today team?" Skipper asked, noticing that Ashley had perked up at the word 'Training'
"Ooh, sure that sounds good." Ashley replied, getting out of his ghế, chỗ ngồi and heading towards the fishbowl.
"Omeonescited." (Someone's excited.) Rico remarked, watching the young chim cánh cụt climb the ladder.
"I know right?" Emma agreed, grabbing a Sô cô la bar, and following the others through the fishbowl.
The team hopped out of the fishbowl, and Skipper explained what they would be doing.
"So today, team, we will be working on basic defence moves, and some new flips." Skipper began, his eyes on the two young penguins. "Also we are going to learn some moves that are useful underwater." He explained. Emma grinned, and looked towards the shimmering water.
"What moves are we doing?" Ashley asked, looking ecstatic. He was practically buzzing.
"I'll hiển thị you." Skipper replied, and showed the penguins, some basic blocking moves, and ordering the team to do the same. Emma got a bit bored bởi this, since she learned this when she was about nine. She let her mind wander, and her attention was caught bởi poor Mort being kicked off Julien's feet, for about the tenth time today. Emma smiled at Mort who was climbing back int the vong linh, vượn cáo habitat. He smiled back, and waved.
"Hello penguin!" He called cheerfully, before running up to Julien again. Emma went back to focusing on Skipper. Skipper was very pleased bởi how well Ashley was doing. The little cadet was getting all of the moves right, and was looking very cheerful at the same time. Tom was rolling his eyes, and not paying much attention at all. A while later Skipper started hiển thị them some flips. Emma was the best at this, as she was very flexible, and nimble. She back flipped across the whole habitat, but ended up falling in the water. Kowalski rushed over to help her out. She was giggling as she climbed out, dripping wet. She shook herself dry, and carried on flipping. Rico chuckled at this and watched Tom, who was having trouble flipping over.
"How can bạn all do this?" He asked, disbelievingly.
"Well it's pretty easily actually." Emma replied, flipping past her little brother.
"I can't do it." Tom grumbled, crossing his flippers and looking at the floor.
"Tom, imagine that your about to do that bicycle kick where bạn hit the ball in the goal from a different direction." Emma told him, as she stopped flipping and stood tiếp theo to him for a minute.
"Hmmm." Tom said, looking thoughtful. He did that kick a lot whilst playing football and it was like a half flip. He took a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut, and flipped backwards, swinging his leg as if he was kicking a football. He opened his eyes a few giây later and realised he landed on his feet. "Yay, I did it!" He cheered, doing another back flip and landing on his feet.
"Well done lad." Ashley praised, as he did a flip, and landed on his feet. He wasn't used to flipping but he was doing quite well at it. Kowalski and Emma were having a back flipping race, but they both slipped on the last one, and fell down tiếp theo to eachother, bursting with giggles.
"Hey, lovebirds, stop giggling and get up!" Skipper ordered sternly. Emma went red, as Kowalski helped her up. They exchanged a smile and focused on Skipper, who was ready to di chuyển on to the underwater moves they were going to learn. He ordered the team to dive into the water, so they did. The water was quite warm today, which Ashley was pleased about. Skipper started hiển thị them moves, including a really cool one, where bạn do an underwater back flip, and kick the person behind you. Surprisingly, Tom, and Ashley mastered that one quicker than the others. Emma was tempted to slip away from the group with Kowalski but she stopped herself. A little tingle went through her body, and her attention focused on Kowalski who was watching her. She guessed that he was thinking the same thing. She smiled at him, and carried on with the underwater moves.
Private popped his head out of the water for a second, and saw humans approaching.
"Uh oh, Skipper, we've got humans!" He warned, climbing out of the water, and standing on the island. The others followed him, and they stood tiếp theo to eachother, waiting for the humans to reach the habitat, Meanwhile, Emma told Ashley what they had to do when the humans arrived.
"So this gets us food?" Ashley asked lowering his voice as the humans got closer.
"Yup, they throw in cá for the others, and something else for me." Emma explained.
"Well since I don't' really like cá what should I do?" He whispered.
"Well when the humans leave, just take the cá down into the HQ,and dip them in chocolate." Emma told him.
"Good idea." Ashley agreed. The humans came along and started gathering around the chim cánh cụt habitat. Skipper ordered everyone to get into the cute and cuddly positions. Emma and Kowalski did a cute little dance around the habitat, which earned a big 'Aaawwwwwwwww' from the humans. Private pretended to fall in the water, and Skipper caught him at the last minute, Meanwhile Tom, and Rico were belly sliding, around, putting on cute faces as they did so. Ashley was a bit nervous, but he joined Rico and Tom, and he put on a really cute face as he did so. The humans let out anther 'Awwwwwwwwwwwwww' as they watched in delight. Skipper gestured the all to come closer so he could talk to them.
"Ok, team, do the cutest bạn can do." He ordered. "Except for bạn Private." He added, remembering his hypercute.
"Ok Skippah." Private agreed, doing a little dance, and making himself look almost as cute as he could. Ashley watched the others, and he wondered what he should do.
Ok, I've gotta do the cutest I can do. He told himself. He made his eyes extra big and sparkly, and he got into the cutest position possible. Suddenly a little 'Bing' noise was heard, and the humans fainted to the floor.
"That was weird." Ashley remarked, turning to the penguins. He looked at them in surprise as he realised that they had fainted too. Ashley walked up to them, and watched them worriedly. "Are bạn guys ok?" He asked, panic filling his voice. A few giây later Private woke up, looking confused.
"What just happened?" He asked Ashley.
"I... I don't know." Ashley admitted. "One một phút I was trying to the do the cutest thing I could, and the next, everyone had fainted." Ashley explained. Private's eyes widened, and he shook the others awake.
"Woah, what just happened?" Emma asked, sitting up, and staring at the humans.
"I think Ashley can also do the hypercute." Private explained, telling them, what Ashley had told him.
"Huh, I thought Private would be the only one." Tom said, as he stood up again.
"Igessot." (I guess not) Rico said, looking at the little chim cánh cụt curiously.
"What's hypercute?" Ashley asked, looking confused.
"It's when someone does something so cute, that it makes everyone around them faint from a cuteness overload." Kowalski explained. Ashley looked interested, and he was about to ask another câu hỏi when Private piped up.
"Should we get the thực phẩm before the humans wake up?" He asked. Skipper nodded and the penguins grabbed all of the food, and hopped back into the fishbowl.
The ngày went quickly, and before Emma knew it they were all heading to giường again. She sat in her bunk, excited about the tiếp theo day. She couldn't wait to see Chris and Sam again, it had been too long since she had last seen them. She lied down, and stuck he headphones in her earholes. She had a new habit of listening to âm nhạc when she went bed. She put a song on and relaxed in her bunk. She thought about Kowalski and smiled, falling into a content, calm sleep.
The tiếp theo day, Emma woke up very early, which earned an astonished look from Skipper.
"Morning everyone." She greeted, looking bright. Everyone else was already up, but it was only 9am. Everyone except for Ashley was now giving her strange looks. Emma barely ever got up early, and even if she did, she walked, talked, and even looked like a zombie. She hated mornings, and she always would.
"Urm, your up early aren't you?" Skipper asked, his eyes flicking from Emma to the clock.
"Well, yes, but that's because Chris and Sam are coming." Emma reminded him.
"Oh yeah." Skipper remembered. "Still bạn don't have to be up so early."
"Well I wanted to get up early, so I could get ready for when they came." Emma explained, heading to the fridge to make breakfast.
"Urm.....ok." Rico finally said. Emma sat down, and tucked into her breakfast, looking up at clock anxiously. Her mum hadn't đã đưa ý kiến what time they'd be coming which was a bit irritating since it could be anytime from early morning to late at night. She wondered what they would think of the place, what they'd think about Kowalski. This made her a little nervous, and she began instinctively tapping her foot. Kowalski realised this, and squeezed her flipper comfortingly.
"Hey, don't be worried, they're going to be really happy to see you." Kowalski told her quietly. Emma smiled.
"I know, I'm just a bit nervous about what they'll think of everything here." Emma whispered back.
"I'm sure they won't mind at all, even if the place was a dump." Kowalski replied reassuringly. Emma's smile grew wider, and she hugged him.
"Thanks Kowalski." She whispered. He blushed and hugged her back. Emma wasn't as worried after that, but she was still a little nervous, and she couldn't help that. As the ngày rolled on, Emma got tired of waiting, and turned on the Tv. When the clock struck 6pm, a noise was heard from outside.
"What was that?" Ashley asked, looking towards the fishbowl. A ball of excitement grew in Emma's stomach, and she climbed the ladder, and peeped out of the fishbowl curiously. Her face brightened when she saw two penguins, a bit taller than Kowalski, looking around the habitat in confusion. The girl had long blonde hair, and pale blue eyes, and she wore a stripey blue and white scarf around her neck, and had a matching bracelet. The blue matched her eyes. The boy was a little taller and had a reasonably flat head, but jet black sticking out feathers. His eyes were less pale than the girl's, and his eyes were bigger. He had an England wristband on his left flipper. The girl looked down, and noticed Emma.
"Hey Emz, what are bạn doing down there?" The girl asked.
"Well this is where the main bit of our habitat is." Emma explained. She climbed back down the ladder, and the penguins followed her. The một phút they dropped into the habitat, Emma hugged them as tightly as she could. "I've missed bạn two so much!" Emma told them, pulling away and smiling at them. Skipper, Tom, and Rico came over for hugs too, and Ashley, Private and Kowalski followed nervously.
"Wow, you've all grown so much." The boy marvelled, looking at Skipper and Rico. "Heck, the last time I saw bạn two, bạn were about up to my ankles now." He said, pointing towards his feet. Ashley wasn't sure what to do, and Private and Kowalski looked at eachother nervously. Kowalski now understood why Emma was a little worried. Emma caught sight of the three penguins standing awkwardly at the back, and she introduced them.
"Guys, these are our half sister and brother, Chris and Sam." She said, pointing towards them.
"Half?" Private asked. He still didn't really understand what that meant.
"We have different mums,but the same dad." Skipper told them.
"Oh." Private replied.
"Chris, Sam, these are Ashley, Private, and Kowalski." Emma explained, gesturing to them.
"Kowalski is Emma's boyfriend." Tom blurted out, smirking as he did. Emma went red, and she stepped on Tom's foot as hard as she could, and he made a loud yelping sound. Kowalski also went red, and gave Tom a dark look. Emma was relieved when Chris and Sam made no bình luận on this.
"It's nice to meet bạn guys." Sam đã đưa ý kiến looking at the other penguins cheerfully.
"It's nice to meet bạn too lass." Ashley replied brightly.
"Ooh, are bạn from Scotland?" Sam asked, excitedly. Ashley nodded. "Me and Chris are half Scottish." She told him.
"Really? That's cool!" Ashley replied, smiling wider. The penguins started talking and catching up, and the others tried to tham gia in. (Though they didn't have much success)
"Hey Skips, can me and Sam sleep in the lab tonight?" Emma asked. When they were younger, Sam used to sleep around their house, and she sleep on the floor in Emma's room. Since Emma didn't have a room anymore, the lab was the closest thing she could use.
"Sure, knock yourselves out." Skipper replied, before turning back to Chris. Emma squealed with excitement, and got out two sleeping bags, and put them in the lab. When she came back,she noticed that Kowalski, was looking a little left out. So Emma brought him into the conversation she was having with Sam. Kowalski brightened, as Emma told Sam about the lab, and how she and Kowalski made lots of inventions.
"Really, what kind of inventions?" Sam asked, turning to Kowalski.
"Well, we've made a teleportation device, a freeze ray, a shrink ray, and many other things."Kowalski answered, smiling at Sam.
"Wow, that's awesome." Sam remarked, looking at the silver door that led to the lab.
"Yupperdoodle." Emma đã đưa ý kiến brightly.
A while after talking with them, Chris turned around and looked at Emma.
"Hey sis, something seems different about you." He remarked taking a step closer to her. Emma looked confused for a second, and she suddenly realised what was different since she last saw them.
"Well I don't have my powers anymore." She told them, not looking very bothered about it. It had been four years since she Mất tích them, and she had use to it bởi now. Sam, and Chris looked shocked.
"W..what happened?" Sam asked, her voice filling with astonishment, and worry.
"I'll tell bạn guys about it later." Emma replied, her expression neutral.
"Souldweatchaoovie?" (Should we watch a movie?) Rico asked. Skipper had explained what happened to Rico's voice to them so they weren't surprised about it.
"Sounds fun to me." Chris agreed. The nine penguins sat down, as Rico put Harry Potter 2 on. Emma calculated that they could probably watch 2 hoặc three films before Skipper sent everyone to bed. They all lied down on their stomachs, and Emma cuddled up with Kowalski, which made Sam grin at her. Emma blushed, and grinned back. As they settled into the film Emma relaxed completely, and she put a flipper around Kowalski, and Kowalski put a flipper on her shoulder, and stroked her hair. Emma's tim, trái tim leaped in her chest, and she Mất tích track of time. Without realising, she had seen the entire film, and the credits were coming on screen. She felt a bit surprised, but she was used to stuff like this happening. Rico put the tiếp theo one in, and Emma payed thêm attention to this one. A few hours later, when it finished, Emma stood up, and looked towards the lab eagerly.
"Well goodnight everyone." She said, waving at them. She hugged Kowalski, and headed for the lab with Sam. She lead her older sister in, and Sam looked at the inventions, and test tubes in winder.
"Wow, this is awesome Emz." She said, looking into one of the test tubes curiously.
"Thanks Sam." She replied, grinning at her. Emma got in her sleeping bag, and lied down on her stomach tiếp theo to her.
"So, we have tons to talk about." Sam told her, looking at the shorter penguin.
"I know, but I don't know where to start." Emma admitted, giggling a bit.
"Well bạn could tell me about how bạn Mất tích your powers." Sam suggested.
"Sure." Emma agreed. She took a deep breath, and spilled everything, the nightmares, the glowing red eyes, Marlene getting captured, the snake venom that nearly killed her, the con rái cá, rái cá guy who tried to take her blood, and that she had to kill him, and when Private and Kowalski died, and she had to bring them back to life, which made her unconscious for a few days, and made her lose her powers. After she explained this, Sam's jaw dropped.
"You... bạn killed someone?" She asked, her eyes filled with shock. Emma nodded gravely. "But bạn were only 10." Sam added.
"I know, but I had to do it." Emma replied shrugging her shoulders. "He was a completely evil guy who wasn't going to stop being evil."
"Is there anything else bạn need to tell me?" Sam asked. Emma was about to tell her that her blood had healing powers, but she kept her mouth shut. Because Sam was from her dad's side of the family, she didn't need to know, because it wasn't from her family. She usually shared everything with Sam, because she hardly ever told secrets, but Sam could accidentally spill sometimes. Emma couldn't risk that, she had only told Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, Private and Tom about it.
"Hmm, I'm not sure." Emma replied. Sam began to grin, and she looked towards the door.
"Well bạn could tell me about your boyfriend." She suggested. Emma blushed her head turned towards the door. "What's he like?" Sam asked.
"Really sweet." Emma answered. "He's kind, smart, funny, romantic, thoughtful, and playful." She added, going a bit redder. She felt a smile tugging at her face. The two penguins sat awake for ages, talking about ngẫu nhiên things, like boys, music, family, and Tv. At about 1am, they eventually đã đưa ý kiến goodnight, and Emma snuggled down in her sleeping bag. She had really missed doing this, it was so much fun, and it made her feel content and safe. She was close with Chris too, but Sam was the closest she had to a sister, and she counted her as a proper sister, not a half one. She took one last look at her before falling asleep.
In the early hours of the morning, the HQ was silent. A shadow scuttled through the main room, and looked around shiftily. It's eyes fell on the bunks, and it sneaked over. It then grabbed one of the penguins and dragged them off into the night.
Emma was enjoying a wonderful dream about her and Kowalski. They were walking through a clearing, in the middle of a small wood, with a sparkling blue waterfall in the corner of the clearing. The water cascaded down the waterfall, and flowed down through a stream at the foot of it. There was a little bridge so they could vượt qua, cross the water. The sky was filled with stars, the twinkling lights dotting the navy blue sky. A willow cây was in one corner of the clearing. It's long thin branches, swayed side to side in the light breeze. Emma recognised the place. It was an island in the Atlantic Ocean, and the only place on the planet that she could use her powers. She saw autumn leaves scatted across the landscape, the shade of red trái cam, màu da cam and vàng barely recognisable in the darkness. A full moon shone down, giving the clearing a soft glow. She loved the feel of the soft cỏ on her bare feet. She walked on through the clearing, Kowalski holding her flipper, and smiling at her. She watched the leaves and tried to bring them over to her with her mind. They started dancing over swirling around Emma's head, before landing on the floor. A deep red one landed in her flipper, and she took a closer look at it. This particular shade of red seemed familiar.... Suddenly the moon and stars disappeared, plunging the clearing into darkness. Everything around her began to turn dark, and unfriendly. She inched closer to Kowalski, and her tim, trái tim sped up. At the edge of the clearing, two glowing pairs of red eyes opened, and Emma stopped dead. Fear consumed her, and she froze on the spot. The last time she had seen glowing red eyes she nearly died. She tried to move, but her feet seemed anchored to the ground. The eyes got nearer, and Kowalski stepped in front of her, trying to protect her. The red eyes then pushed Kowalski into the water and went for Emma.
She woke up with a start, he breathing quick and shallow. She got back to reality and saw Sam, Kowalski and Skipper looking over at her.
"Oh thank goodness bạn weren't waking up." Kowalski told her, hugging her tightly. Emma hugged back, rather distantly. Her mind was still on that dream. She hadn't had a nightmare since she was 10, and that nightmare was trying to warn her about something bad. Would this one be the same? She had a strange feeling that her brain interrupted a good dream to warn her about something, so whatever was coming, if anything was, it might not be in the clearing where she was.
"Em, are bạn ok?" Kowalski asked, stroking her hair. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I just had a bad dream, I... I think something bad's going to happen." Emma admitted. Her stomach flipped over queasily, when no one replied. The bad feeling intensified, and she looked up at them worriedly. "Has.. has something happened?" She asked, a panicky feeling filling her body. Skipper nodded gravely, and he walked towards the lab door, gesturing for Emma to follow. She got up, and a nasty chill went down her spine. Kowalski and Sam followed, walking tiếp theo to her. Emma started feeling worse, as Skipper opened the lab door, and lead her out. She scanned around, and a ball of panic formed in her throat, stopping her from speaking. Rico was in the room looking worried, Tom, and Private were looking close to tears, and that's when Emma realised what was wrong. Chris came up to her and patted her on the shoulder comfortingly. Emma stared at the drag marks on the floor and realised that Ashley was nowhere to be seen. She crouched on the floor, and saw traces of blood stained around the marks. The drag marks started at Ashley's bunk, and led to just near the door. A horrible feeling overwhelmed Emma and she rushed to the toilet. She came back a few minutes, looking scared. Someone had broken into the HQ, and actually managed to kidnap one of the team. Yes Ashley was only here for a few days, but he was sweet, enthusiastic, and helpful. Emma already counted him as a friend. Who took him? Why did they take Ashley? What are they planing to do with him? These các câu hỏi made Emma's stomach churn even more, and she held her breath, trying to force back the sick feeling in her throat. What scared her even thêm was that whoever got in could have took anyone, hoặc everyone, they just got in easily, and didn't wake a single person up. What's to stop them from doing something like this again?
"We think he got kidnapped between 2am and 6am." Private told her, his voice as silent as a mouse. Emma just nodded, still unable to say a word. She glanced at the time, which was 7:30am. She took a closer look at the blood, and saw that it was still a little wet.
"I.. i'd say about 2 hours ago." She eventually managed, breathing slowly and deeply, trying to keep herself calm. She realised that she might have some information that the others didn't have. She took a deep breath, and sat down on the cinder block table. "I haven't had a bad dream in four years." She finally said, pouring herself a drink and gulping it down.
"So?" Chris replied, looking confused.
"Last time I had a bad dream, it was a warning, and my dream ended up being quite accurate to the real thing." Emma explained. "But this bad dream interrupted a good dream, so I'm not 100% sure that it will be accurate." She admitted.
"Well what happened in your dream? It still might give us some clues." Kowalski asked, sitting down beside her.
"Urm, well bạn and me were in a clearing.." Emma began blushing a bit. Kowalski smiled at this, and nodded for her to go on. "And I had my powers. The whole dream was awesome, until this red leaf landed in my flipper." Emma explained. I took a closer look at it, and the dream went really dark, and......." She trailed off, feeling afraid.
"And?" Kowalski asked, squeezing her flipper comfortingly.
"And, these pair of glowing red eyes came out from the edge of the clearing. I.. I couldn't move, I was too scared." Emma continued, fighting back the tears that were staring to fill the back of her eyes. "You tired to protect me, but it pushed bạn in the water, and then went for me, and that's when I woke up." Emma finished, a bit proud that she didn't end up crying. Kowalski hugged her gently, and looked around at the others.
"So if this dream means something, what do bạn think it means?" Kowalski asked.
"My theory is that someone with red eyes took Ashley, and whoever that person is, is coming for us next." Emma replied. Her gut told her that something was wrong with this theory but she ignored it.
"Well which of our enemies have red eyes?" Skipper wondered outloud. Emma wasn't very sure.
"Urm, Hans, the con chuột King, and possibly Savio, I can't remember if he has red hoặc yellow eyes?" Emma answered. "Though for some reason, I doubt it is Hans." She admitted.
"Why?" Rico asked.
"Well first of all in the dream, the person was bigger than us, and it felt like someone we hadn't defeated before." Emma explained.
"But we've defeated all of them before..." Skipper said, looking confused. Emma was about to agree, when she had a flashback to when the baby fossa visited. Her eyes widened,and she looked up at the others.
"We actually haven't." Emma corrected., a thought buzzing in her head. The team cast her confused looks. "Us lot in general haven't defeated Savio before. First Burt did, then Julien, then the Baby Fossa." She pointed out. Skipper looked shocked, then he patted Emma on the shoulder, looking impressed.
"Your right sis." He told her taking out his book he kept on villains. It had profile's of every villain that they had ever faced in there. He opened it up to Savio's page, and his face fell.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked.
"Savio has been missing for a while, we have no idea where he is." Skipper told the team gravely. Emma stomach lurched again, and a bad feeling was in her gut. He gut kept telling her that they were completely wrong about this, and they weren't going to find him, searching for Savio. Emma quietly told her gut that she believed her brain because it was smarter, but this didn't stop it from trying to convince her that something was up. She ignored it, and turned her attention back to Skipper. "Don't worry, we'll find him." Skipper reassured them.
"Savio, hoặc Ashley?" Emma asked.
"Both." Skipper replied, closing the book.
Ashley woke up groggily, his vision blurring. As he woke up fully, and his vision came back, he realised something was wrong. He was strapped to a table, in the middle of the surrounding darkness. His breathing sped up, and he closed his eyes again, hoping that he was in some sort of nightmare. He heard an evil laugh come from his left, and his eyes widened. The laugh echoed through the darkness, filling every corner, which made Ashley guess that he was in a big room hoặc a cave. He shivered in fear, and tried to turn his head.
"Who... who's there?" He called out, his voice filled with panic.
"Your worst nightmare." A voice answered. Someone moved into the small bit of light that was slightly above his head. Ashley let out a yelp of fear, and struggled with the straps.
"Skipper told me about you, you're....." Ashley began before the figure covered Ashley's beak.
"And I know about bạn too Ashley." He said, smiling deviously.
"How do bạn know my name?" Ashley wondered, his tim, trái tim beating uncomfortably fast.
"Well I'm not going to stop spying on my foes am I? I knew that bạn were going to the Central Park Zoo before they did." He explained looking proud of himself.
"Wh...... why did bạn take me?" Ashley asked, fear seeping into his voice.
"Because I want information on the penguins, their strengths, their weaknesses, their secrets, their hidden shames, their supply of weapons, and I want to know about the secret sub levels." He told the trembling penguin.
"I don't know about any of that stuff, I've only been there for two days!" Ashley tried to reason.
"Oh, don't lie to me, I know that Skipper and Emma told bạn a lot about them and the HQ, in these two days." The figure replied.
"How would bạn know that?" Ashley wondered, looking worried.
"Pfft, I installed cameras in the HQ when bạn were all sleeping." He answered.
"Wait, why are bạn telling me this?" Ashley asked, feeling curious.
"Because bạn are never getting out of here." The figure replied simply. Ashley felt the ball of fright in his stomach spread to the rest of his body, and he looked up at the tall figure in fear. He conjured up all the courage he could and answered back.
"Well I'm not telling bạn anything!" He told him bravely. The figure just smiled evilly.
"Oh bạn will talk." The figure replied, pulling out a knife. Ashley's jaw dropped and he looked at the shining metal fearfully.
"I'm no traitor, do what bạn want to me, but I'm not talking, lad." He stated, looking up at the figures soulless eyes.
"Well it looks like we'll be doing this the hard way." The figure thought aloud. "Ah well, I guess it's thêm amusing." He added. He took the knife, and sliced slowly down Ashley's left flipper. Ashley let out a scream, and wriggled, trying to get free. "Ready to talk now?" The figure asked. Ashley shook his head, trying not to cry from the pain. The evil figure smiled devilishly and continued slicing through the young penguins flipper. Ashley screamed again, and hot tears ran down his face.
His flipper was stained red, and he felt sick just looking at it. He closed his eyes and tried to take his mind off the pain. He quickly realised that it would be impossible.
Don't worry, the team will find me... Ashley reassured himself, biting his tongue to stop himself from screaming again. They will find me.
At the Central Park Zoo
Emma stared at the clock, wishing that time would turn back, and she could save Ashley in time.
He must be so frightened right now. Emma thought, tears filling her eyes again. All alone, with Savio, for all we know, Savio could have eaten him bởi now. She added. Her gut grumbled at this, and she told it to shut up. She sighed, and looked around Alice's office. They had gone there to see if they could find out what happened to Savio. She shivered as she thought about what he might be doing to the poor new cadet. Kowalski cast her a concerned look, and she managed a weak smile. He smiled back at her sadly. She began to tìm kiếm through drawers, and she found a book of past and trước đó animals. This is probably the boss's book, Alice is too lazy to do something like this. She thought smiling genuinely for the first time since Ashley had been kidnapped, though it disappeared quickly. She began to flick through it, and realised that all of the zoo động vật were in here including Ashley. Emma noticed that the zoo boss knew every động vật name, which weirded her out a bit. She stopped on Ashley's page, and read over it. She knew most of the stuff that was in here, but she came across one thing that was completely new to her. Apparently, he had an older sister who died before he was born. Ashley was now the only child. Emma felt even sadder, đọc those words and she turned the page, wiping her eyes. She eventually came to the page about Savio. She read through quickly, and her eyes got caught bởi one particular paragraph. Savio the snake, came to us from Hoboken, but he had to be sent back because of bad behaviour. He is now residing at the Queen's Zoo..... Emma read, looking thoughtful. Wait, that's in New York! She realised, her face brightening.
"Hey guys, I've found out where Savio is!" She called out to the others excitedly. They dropped whatever they were doing, and rushed over to her.
"Where is he?" Skipper asked, taking the book from Emma and looking at it.
"At Queens Zoo." Emma told him, feeling a bit proud of herself. Her stomach grumbled, but she ignored it.
"Well lets go then!" Private said, belly sliding towards the door.