It was a crisp summer’s day in the Central Park Zoo. The light breeze kept the heat from becoming unbearable, as did the occasional cloud cover. It was currently about a quarter after one - or thirteen and a quarter hours. Today, the penguins’ most important mission to date would occur - not that they knew it.
Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private were doing what they usually do at that time: acting cute and cuddly for the masses. Skipper was doing little flips in and out of the water; Kowalski was administering adorable ‘body shakes’; Rico was waddling in a small circle; and Private was pretending to accidentally fall into the water, splashing opposite of Skipper.
“Bravissimo, Private!” Skipper commended the young soldier. “We’ve got them eating right out of our flipper - soon, we’ll be eating out of theirs.”
Kowalski noticed something - more accurately, someone strange sitting on a bench near Marlene’s habitat. This man had just been sitting there, looking around- not even at the animals, but at the people - for hours now. Kowalski was starting to get suspicious.
“Skipper - could you take a look at this?” Kowalski said. Skipper flipped out of the water and joined Kowalski on the concrete floe, asking what was wrong. Kowalski pointed at the man.
“I don’t like the looks of that man by Marlene’s place. The way he’s just watching everyone… particularly the children…”
Skipper took a good look at the man. He seemed ordinary enough - thinning brown hair, thick moustache, navy blue polo shirt with a mustard stain on the collar, black pants and worn, faded grey tennis shoes. Less ordinary was what Kowalski had noticed - his eyes kept darting back and forth, from person to person, but especially at the children.
“You’re right.” Skipper said seriously. “Keep an eye on him and inform me if he does anything suspicious.”
“Roger.” Kowalski agreed. Skipper dived back into the water.
Unknown to them, a mother and her daughter were visiting the zoo. It was the mother’s first day off in months, and at the insistence of her daughter, decided to visit the zoo. It was one of the girl’s favorite places to go - she loved animals. They watching the chimps when the mother got a call on her cell phone.
“Honestly, can’t the office handle one day without me?” she muttered, then opened the phone. “Hey Jeff - no, we were going to ship those on Monday…”
The girl sighed. This happened a lot. She glanced around, and caught sight of the penguins in the middle of their adorable antics.
“Mommy, can I go look at the penguins?” she said, tugging a little on her mother’s jacket. Her mother made a soft ‘shh’ sound.
“Cecilia, wait a minute, Mommy’s on the phone.” She rushed out, then returned to her conversation. “No, Jeff, we ordered the mauve, not the lilac…” The little girl, Cecilia, shrugged and ran over to the penguins. She’d always loved the Central Park penguins - her favorite was the one with the scar: she loved imagining that he’d gotten it during a battle with a killer whale while rescuing the love of his life from the jaws of death.
Kowalski saw the girl come to their habitat and thought nothing of it, until he saw the odd man get up and walk up beside her.
“Hello, there.” he said, in a dangerously sweet voice. “What’s your name?”
“Cecilia.” The girl said, not looking away from the penguins.
Kowalski had a terrible feeling about this, and called for Skipper to come back up.
“I think he’d trying to do something to that girl.” Kowalski reported.
Skipper silently agreed with him, and called for Private to come out of the water, so that all four penguins were on the concrete and ready to intervene if necessary.
“You look like a smart little girl.” the man continued. “Could you help me with something?”
“Uh… my mommy said not to talk to strangers.” Cecilia said, shaking her head.
Skipper grinned. “Good girl, now get out of here!” he muttered.
“Oh, but you see…” the man said, pretending to tear up, “my son lost his puppy a few minutes ago. Could you help me find him?”
“No, but I’d keep looking, I’m sure he’ll turn up.” Cecilia said kindly.
“I’ll give you some candy.” The man said, pulling some old peppermints out of his pocket.
The girl shook her head again. “No, thanks. I’m not supposed to have candy, I have diabetes.”
Kowalski snorted. Whether the girl’s statement was true or not, that was a good comeback.
A woman’s voice called out from about twenty feet away: “Cecilia? CeeCee, where are you?”
“Coming, Mom-!” the girl said, but then her mouth was covered up roughly by the man’s hand. She tried to push him away, but he was far too strong - he picked up the little girl right off the ground and tossed her over his shoulder!
“CECILIA!” the mother screamed, sprinting towards the man, now in a full-on run for the exit.
“Mommy!!!” the girl yelled, hitting the man in the back as hard as she could and kicking. A few people tried to stop him, but he knocked them over as easily as a bowling ball knocks down pins.
“To your stations, men!” Skipper called out. In a close single file line, they jumped out of the habitat (the people were too preoccupied with the event to notice) and slid down the sidewalk under a line of benches, towards the man.
He was out of the zoo. Right outside the entrance was a SUV with its doors open. He tossed the screaming girl inside and slammed the door. In one swift motion, he opened the shotgun-side door and slid inside. The vehicle sped off.
“Blast!” Skipper cursed. He slide nearer to the clock tower, where a picture of the four penguins hung. He opened it - for it was a secret door. Inside was an emergency rescue kit, including a soda-rocket and two-way radio. He tossed the rocket and one of the radios to Kowalski.
“Follow that car!” he ordered. Kowalski nodded and commenced to shaking it up.
Skipper, Private, and Rico slid a little further and dropped down a manhole, onto the concrete floor of a sewer under the street. There was one of the zoo’s golf carts (with some of Kowalski’s own additions) waiting for them.
As Rico revved up the engine, Skipper said into his radio, “Eye-in-the-sky, report!”
“I’ve just taken off - the SUV is turning onto 22nd Avenue and is heading due east. NYPD has yet to arrive, but I heard about a dozen people calling 911 as I took off. Over.”
“Keep onto that vehicle’s trail, no matter what! Over!” Skipper ordered, then said to Rico and Private, “You heard the man! 22nd going east! Go, go, go!”
The cart sped off. The sewers were exactly the same labyrinth the streets of New York were, but the penguins knew them well and were sure they were going in the right direction. Within a minute or so, they were on 22nd Avenue.
“Where’s he at, Kowalski?” Skipper said into the radio.
Kowalski reported, “The SUV just passed Broadway, and still going east.”
That was three city blocks away. “Speed it up, Rico!” Skipper said, then felt the cart surge forward as Rico activated the turbo speed boosters Kowalski had installed.
Kowalski continued, “The NYPD has just arrived on the scene- *BANG! BANG!* - driver of the SUV is armed. Repeat - driver is armed. *BANG! BANG* Actually, make that - driver and accomplice are both armed.”
“Ooh, this might get interesting!” Skipper said with a smirk. “Rico - we gotta go faster if we’re going to beat them!”
Rico quietly and maniacally laughed to himself. The only speed boosters left were the ones Kowalski had said were still unstable… hey, anything to save the girl, right? He pressed the button, and the cart shot forward as a blast of fire erupted from the back end of the cart.
They drove on for another ten seconds, then hastily stopped the cart. They climbed up to the top of the cart - Rico was holding up Private, who held up Skipper. Skipper opened up another manhole, and looked up at the street sign. “We’re at 22nd and Rockefeller - when do we jump?” he said into the radio.
“In T-minus five, four, three, two - JUMP!” Kowalski’s voice said. Rico jumped, and Skipper clamped onto the bumper of the car that flew over them, pulling the three penguins right out of the sewer. Rico caught the manhole cover and used it as a sort of skateboard, sliding across the pavement.
Skipper recognized the SUV as the one the girl had been thrown into. He looked up at the back window, and saw that it was already ready to shatter, thanks to about six bullet holes. It didn’t take much force to bust it open completely.
“Rico and I will take care of the drivers. Private, you make sure the girl’s OK. Got it? Good - now, move in!”
Rico jumped, leaving the cover behind and sending the three penguins inside the SUV. Rico and Skipper continued onto the front seats and first wrestled the guns out of the men’s hands - they were too stunned at the fact that a trio of penguins had busted into their car to put up much of a fight, but a little more force was required as they punched the necks and knocked them out.
Private was dismayed to see that there was a third man in the back seat, who had evidently just finished tying up the poor girl’s hands and feet together, and put a gag on her. He had a black eye and bloody nose, probably caused by the same thing that made an imprint on his face the size and shape of the girl’s shoe. Even for Private, it was almost child’s play to knock him out as well. The three men were out before they could say, “What the hel-OOF!”
Private looked at the girl. She was quite obviously scared out of her wits - her eyes were red and the gag on her face was already very wet with tears. She had blood on her shirt - Private hoped it was from the man’s bloody nose. (It was.) He immediately set to untying her as Skipper and Rico brought the car to a stop - slowly and gently, so as not to scare or hurt the girl.
Skipper saw the NYPD stop as well, surrounding the car. “Rico!”
Rico coughed up a welding machine and made a quick, haphazard hole in the floor of the car.
“Private - they’ll take care of her, now we gotta go!” Skipper said. Private hugged the girl and jumped out the hole.
The girl was just as stunned as her captors had been. She didn't move a muscle as the NYPD broke open the car. A few men carried the kidnappers out saw that they weren’t dead, only knocked out, and transported them via police car to the station. Another officer, a kind-looking woman, climbed inside and untied the girl.
“Are you hurt?” she said, looking at the blood on her shirt.
Cecilia shook her head. “I gave him a bloody nose.” she said, pointing at the red dots.
“The officer smiled. “Atta girl.”
“CECILIA - let me though, LET ME THROUGH, I’m her mother!”
“Mommy!” Cecilia shouted, climbed past the officer, and ran into her panicked mother’s open arms.
“Oh, thank God!” her mother sobbed, burying her face in Cecilia’s curly hair. “Thank… God…” She pulled away and held her daughter’s face in her hands. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“No, Mommy. The penguins saved me!” Cecilia said happily.
Her mother stared, puzzled. “Penguins? What penguins?”
“The ones from the zoo! The little chubby one hugged me and took the cloth-y thing off my face!”
Her mother looked up at the policewoman.
“She probably hit her head.” the officer said. “It might be best to just get her home and let her rest.”
…
Later that night…
The four penguins had sat down together to watch the news. It was almost over now.
Skipper was very proud of his men, and knew they were proud of themselves too. For all they knew, they might have saved that girl’s life.
“-and for our final story of the evening,” Chuck Charles reported, glancing down at his notes, “a young girl by name of Cecilia Newell was kidnapped today at the Central Park Zoo, by none other than the men responsible for six other kidnappings, the notorious Kid-Katchers of Kalamazoo-” three all-too familiar faces appeared on the screen, “Bobby Hunt, Austin Flinn, and Michael Bozeman. The trio was chased down by the NYPD and apprehended. The men were arrested, though found to be unconscious upon breaking open the vehicle.”
Bonnie the anchorwoman continued. “When the men awakened, they were brought into custody and revealed the whereabouts of the other kidnapping victims, who are being reunited with their families as we speak. Miss Newell was reunited with her mother as well, and suffered no injuries, though it is reported she was a little… confused.”
Cecilia’s face faded onto the screen. She said defensively, “It wasn’t just the policemen! It was the penguins, too - they knocked out the bad guys and untied me! *the sounds of laughter* It’s true!”
The penguins chuckled. Confused, indeed.