The realization of reality was like a manuntok to the face…For the segundo time today.

    Had I been injected with the same thing he'd injected into the other mga hayop or was it strictly to knock me out? What was being injecting into the other animals? What the hell was going on here?!

    "Skipper?!"

    I snapped back into attention and realized that I'd been staring at the needle with my beak hanging open.

    "Skipper, you really need to stop doing tha—!"

    "I was injected last night," I interrupted my lieutenant.

    My team was silent for a moment, processing what I'd just told them.

    "That's your proof," I continued, "I was in that office last night. That call really did happen."

    "And you're sure about this?" Kowalski asked.

    "I'm as sure as I am a penguin," I assured him. "Look at my side, right here," I turned and pointed to the area on my side, "and tell me you don't see a puncture wound."

    I was hoping Kowalski would just take my word for it, but of course he had to be sure I wasn't dreaming about this either. He grabbed a magnifying glass off of his mesa and held it up to my side. After pushing a few feathers out of the way so he could see the skin, he pulled away with a puzzled expression.

    "Skipper…You're right," he sinabi slowly.

    "I believe a big 'I told you so' is in order?" I sinabi folding my flippers over my chest.

    "I'm sorry we didn't believe you, Skipper," Private sinabi guiltily. "But what do we do? We don't know what's running through your system right now!"

    I looked down. He was right. We didn't know what was running through my veins. It could have been anything.

    "Kowalski, you can do a blood test to figure it out, right?" I asked with my eyes still fixed on the floor that lay before me.

    "Well, sir, I can, but blood work takes a matter of days to complete. sa pamamagitan ng then, it could be too late," Kowalski answered.

    "Then what can we do?" I asked finally able to meet his eye.

    Kowalski thought for a moment.

    "Um…Well, sir, to be honest, I really don't know. I'm sure we can come up with so—"

    "Hey, guys! What's goin' on?" Marlene interrupted entering the lab.

    That's when my puso sunk into my stomach. And not for the reason you might be thinking of.

    This hayop ng oter may have Marlene's face, but she was certainly not Marlene. The way her eyes had no emotion whatsoever and the way her voice seemed to be controlled sa pamamagitan ng some kind of outside force proved it.

    "Hello, Marlene. I'm afraid what we're doing at the moment is classified," Kowalski answered when I sinabi nothing.

    "Oh, sorry. I was just wondering if you could come to my habitat for a moment. I really could use your help with something," the hayop ng oter asked. My gut lurched and I could taste bile in the back of my throat. That was my sign, right there, that something was fishy here—no pun intended.

    My team looked to me and it took me a moment to realize they were awaiting my orders.

    "Oh, yeah, that's fine, Marlene. Roll out, team," I ordered, trying to force the lump in my throat to shrink.

    Once we were topside and crossing over to Marlene's habitat, I noticed the way she was walking. She had outstanding posture and her arms didn't ugoy sa pamamagitan ng her side with each stride, almost like a…Soldier…No, this was most certainly not my Marlene.

    I should've stopped us right there, but I didn't. Never have I felt like madami of an idiot. We arrived at Marlene's habitat, the hayop ng oter lead us into Marlene's cave. It was dark when we entered, but when we walked in we heard a tink and a hiss.

    We didn't even have time to ask what it was when we started feeling dizzy.

    Just as we breathed in the knock-out gas, the lights turned on and we saw the blurry figures of the chimps, the badgers, the lemurs, and Marlene surrounding us wearing gas masks to protect their own lungs. All of them watched us as we collapsed to the floor. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't fight the gas. My vision started to go black around the edges and I couldn't feel anything but the air moving through my trachea. I tried to make sense of what was happening before I blacked out, but I was already drifting in and out of consciousness. Finally, I was out.

    But the true horror was that before I did, the last thing I saw was the blank stares of all of my friends.

***

    Déjà vu. That's what it was like when I started to come to.

    Just like before, the first thing that told me I was waking up was the sounds that I could hear. I heard voices that sounded familiar but at the same time unfamiliar. As if the voice that I had at one point known had been changed.

    Next, I could feel. The atmosphere of wherever I was was cool against the skin beneath my feathers. A frigid surface pressed against my back and something restricted movement in my legs and flippers.

    Finally, I could open my eyes. Though, it was difficult. I needed a minuto to let my eyes adjust to the bright fluorescent light before my vision cleared and made sense of the blurred figures that stood before me.

    Or the blurred figure, rather.

    "Welcome back, pen-gu-in," sinabi my arch nemesis, Dr. Blowhole.

    I didn't need to ask what was going on here. I already knew for the most part. I took in my surroundings, which was completely empty besides Dr. Blowhole and I. It was a small, white room with a low ceiling and a small naked bulb hanging from that.

    "Where are my men?" I asked sternly.

    "Oh, don't worry about them. They're in separate rooms similar to this one. You'll see them soon enough. On the other side…" Blowhole sinabi leaning in closer to my face with a sadistic smile. I didn't so much as flinch. I instead stared hard back into his gaze through narrowed eyes. I didn't know what he was planning on doing, but I wasn't going to let him win, no matter what it took. Well, that's what I thought before I figured out exactly what it would take.

    "Blowhole, I don't know what you're planning, but just let them go. Take me instead. This all started between you and I, let it end between us, too," I said, pushing away the plead in my tone.

    Blowhole laughed.

    "It's so amusing that you think I'd actually agree to that. This whole antagonism may have started between you and I, but you're team decided to stick their beaks in the middle of it, so they'll be meeting the same end as you. Besides, I don't negotiate with my enemies," he explained, never wiping that sadistic grin off of his face for a single moment.

    "I won't let you hurt them! I'll do whatever it takes to save them!" I screamed, straining pasulong against the manacles holding me back. If it hadn't been for those, I would've already used my flippers to make Blowhole a killer necklace, if you catch my drift.

    "I'm glad you feel that way. That will make what happens susunod so much madami fun," Blowhole sinabi turning around and riding toward the door on his Segway.

    "Where are you going? Get back here, you coward!" I screamed.

    With a laugh, Blowhole turned at the door to face me.

    "Oh, don't worry. I won't be far off. I'm just going to get ready to watch the show," he told me. After examining my confused expression, he disappeared through the doorway and I was locked in there.

    I looked at my shackles and pulled at them with all of my might. I heard the metal creak slightly, but it fought against my straining muscles and my efforts failed. I remained dangling there on the pader a few feet of the ground. When I turned to examine the way the chain was fixed to the wall, I realized that it wasn't a pader at all, not exactly. It was a mirror. madami confusion washed over me.

    What was going to happen here?

    Without warning, I hit the floor with a thud. I laid there for a moment, still processing what had just happened. When I got my bearings, I found my feet and looked up at the cuffs hanging off of the mirrored wall. They must've been unlocked sa pamamagitan ng some kind of remote control or something. But why would Blowhole free me? As if pagbaba my mind, Blowhole's voice resounded through the room from a pinagmulan that I was unable to identify.

    "Well, Skipper, allow me to answer some of the tanong that I know are running through your mind right now.

    "I'm sure you remember when you were in the veterinarian's office? You know, Skipper, it's not polite to eavesdrop on one's conversations."

    I knew exactly what he was talking about. It was his voice that I'd heard on the other end of that phone call. He must've been watching me and saw the realization in my expression, because his voice came back through a chuckle.

    "I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at. Anyway, I am the one who sent that phony letter to the zoo with the so-called 'vaccinations'. Of course, I knew your paranoid nature would want to ensure that this was bona fide, so I sent the vaccinations, yes, but only to trick you into thinking that everything was okay. Even though, the truth was that I also sent another case filled with my own personal solution.

    "So, after getting this solution into the veterinarian—I call it Serum, sa pamamagitan ng the way—he was under my complete and total control. I'll spare you the boring details on what's inside the Serum. And I think you understand what I did with the rest of it," he sinabi leaving a moment of silence to see my reaction.

    I did know what he did with the rest of the serum. He'd injected it into the mga kaibigan that he had to ambush us.

    "That still doesn't explain what you're doing now," I replied, my puso racing.

    Blowhole allowed his evil cackle to fill the emptiness around me, sending a chill up my spine.

    "That brings me to the best part of my plan. I know you don't at all mind pounding my ulang minions into paste, but I wonder how you would handle a situation in which you had to pound one of your mga kaibigan into paste…" he answered.

    Now it made sense. Why didn't I figure that out already? I heard a sound behind me and I turned to see a panel in one of the unmirrored walls open. A figure stepped into the room, causing my puso to skip a beat. Probably a few beats.

    My opponent was Marlene.