Buck Rockgut is back, with a few surprises in store for the Central Park team. What does he know, and will Private find a way to tell Skipper about Hans? Will I find a way to work this in with my homework time? Why am I rambling? Why are toi lire my rambling?! Read the STORY!!

The penguins gasped. How could he be back? They sent him away! He was a loony, mad, not swimming on all flippers. In short, they didn’t trust him.

“What do toi want, Buck? Last time toi were here, toi caused chaos and mass panic.” Skipper demanded

“Uh, Skipper, that was us too.” Reminded Private

“Hush, Private, details aren’t important.” Whispered to Private

“Well, Skipper, I think you’ll find Private is right. Details ARE important. And in my line of work, I never have misread the fine print on anything.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Private asked

“What does that – “ he chortled “It has everything! I still own this base, soldiers! That makes me your Colonel!”

Private raised his flipper. “But Skipper is our Colonel now.”

“Not anymore. He’s been demoted.” Buck grinned. “But don’t worry. I won’t do anything too painful – yet. First things first, I have to get my bunk ready. Where am I sleeping, soldiers?” Buck jumped down into the HQ to look around.

“Ah, my old room. This is quite nice.” He jumped into Skipper’s bunk. “This’ll do quite nicely.”

Skipper went forward. “Hey! Get out of my Bunk!” Buck slid out of the concrete indent.

“Well, excuuu-se me, but its my bunk now. The entire operation is mine for the taking. toi will do as I say. When I say swim, toi say how far. When I give an order, it happens. Are we clear?” He was practically foaming par the end of his speech. Private could feel the specks of spit coming off of him. He grimaced.

“What was that face, soldier?!” Buck demanded

“Nothing! Nothing, Col. Rockgut!” Private held in his gut.

“Good. toi have potential, boy. Now drop and give me 50.”

“But I didn’t –“

“Sixty.” Private dropped.

It was the hardest Private had ever worked. par the time he was done, he was gasping for air.Buck went back up haut, retour au début to teach Skipper and Kowalski how things were going to be run. He left Rico and Private in the HQ.

Private looked up to the ceiling. Rico looked over at him, worried. “Okay?” He asked in the rough voice of his.

“Yeah, Rico, I’m fine.” Private tried to stand up. His knees wobbled, and then fell to the cold concrete below. He decided to just lay there for a little. When he looked over, Rico was bringing him a cup of water.

“Thanks, Rico.” he graciously took the cup to his beak, and drank. He stayed on the ground for a while, letting the strength flow back into him. He finally stood up, and walked over to sit at the table. Rico sat on the other side. The door behind them opened, and Brook stepped through. “Hi, Private. Hello, Rico.”

Private wasn’t surprised par her sudden appearance, but Rico was. He had no idea who the female macareux, macareux moine was, but it was a macareux, macareux moine and deserved to be kicked out of the HQ. He moved to her, growling. Private stopped him, holding up a flipper.

“It’s okay, Rico. She’s a friend.” Rico calmed down, but he remained tense when Brook sat down beside Private.

“I don’t know how long I have. I don’t think I covered my tracks well enough. Sooner ou later, they’ll find me and what I did. And then they’ll be after you.”

“Could that be why they sent Buck Rockgut back as our colonel?” Private pondered

“Maybe.” she replied

Meanwhile, so many questions were going through Rico’s mind. How did they meet? Who was she? Were they going out? Fortunately for him, being the psychotic one, all he had to do was say “Eh?” and the full extent of his questioning was received.

Private looked at Brook questioningly, and Brook nodded in return. So, Private told him everything. How he had met her in the tunnels with Wheeler’s team, how she knew about her father and the scientists, and what they were working on.

“But the others must never find out about her! She’s - important.” Brook giggled. “And we don’t want anything bad happening to us because of her ou to her because of us.” Rico nodded. He understood everything. The young Private was in Love!

“D’awwwwwwww.” he moaned teasingly. Private blushed. Then the poisson bowl moved out of the way, letting the trapped sunlight through and the others to start coming down. Brook stood up, gave Private a quick peck on the cheek, and left the HQ, closing the door softly behind.

Skipper and Kowalski came slowly down the ladder, feet dragging against the cold floor. They flopped on the floor around the table, as Buck came in looking all too proud of himself.Buck wass walking high, his chest out and a constant smile on his face. It was a little creepy to Private. Buck jumped on the table.

“I’m going to tell toi too lollipops what I told them. We’re going to be training harder, faster, and later than what toi are used to. I am going to bring up my expectations of what this team can do. There will be no cacahuète, arachide beurre Winkies, no caramel dur au beurre, caramel, caramel au beurre Lollies, no afternoon naps and television. There will be longer courses, plus physical training, getting up at an earlier time and going to lit later.”

With every word that came out of Rockgut’s mouth, every disappointing sentence, groans and moans were the reply from the penguins around the table. Skipper slammed his head onto the table, tableau surface. Rico was doing his best to keep his insanity. Kowalski resorted to his clipboard to write the stuff down, which was promptly taken par Rockgut.

“More importantly, there will be no science experiments ou inventing whatsoever! There will be no cuddling with stuffed animaux -” he glared at Private, who was busy holding a lunacorn for comfort. Noticing the glare, Private quickly threw it behind his back.

“- No aléatoire explosions ou car rides, and the most important of all, I am the leader here. Skipper, if toi even try to help any of them through any of the training i give them ou argue with me on anything I say, I will personally see toi court marshaled. Are we clear, everyone?”

They nodded slowly, devoid of what little happiness they had left in themselves. Private had something to keep his strength up. And it looked like Skipper did, too, though both of them acted like they didn’t. Private noticed Skipper clenching his flipper under the table. Skipper only did that when he was really angry, Private noticed. If things got out of hand, it might not look good for Rockgut. But Skipper managed to keep his cool.

The jour continued as Rockgut had promised. They didn’t go to their bunks until ten o'clock, and par then they were asleep on their feet. Drained of emotional and physical alertness, they climbed in their bunks and were asleep before they hit the concrete pillow.

Skipper was the last one in the HQ. He saw Rockgut in his bunk. Grumbling to himself, he created a bedding out of newspaper and poisson par the TV. He would have to fix it up in the morning, but for now it would have to do.

The suivant jour didn’t go any better than the jour Rockgut first showed up. They woke up at 400 hours, trained hard with only Breakfast and souper (while Rockgut got all three meals!). par the time they were ready for lit again at 2200 hours, they were dead on their feet. Private laid in bed, waiting for Rockgut to fall asleep. Once he heard the sounds of slower breathing, he eased out of his bunk.

He crept to the sewer grate outside his habitat. He turned, opened it from the other side to watch for any of his teammates ou Buck. He slowly lowered the grate above him. He was still watching and lowering when a silhouette climbed out of the HQ. As Private watched, he saw - Skipper? What was Skipper doing out at a time like this? He watched him jump over to the pathway around the HQ, and disappear from his view. Private tried not to think about it too hard. He continued on to his girl - to Brook. Private still had a hard time admitting she was his girlfriend.

When he got down to the tunnel entrance, Brook was already there waiting for him.
“Hi!”he called out to her.
“SHHH!” she demanded “Sorry!” he blushed

After a few secondes of looking to see if anyone was watching, Brook began talking.
“I brought toi something.”
“Oh, well, toi really didn’t have to -”
“Nonsense! Since we are going steady -”
“We are?”
“Do toi w ant to?”
“Er, yeah.”
“Then we are. Besides, its not a couple gift ou anything like that. This’ll help us stay in contact with each other. Here, part your ear feathers.”

Private held the feathers that hid the opening to his ear out of the way so Brook could see. He couldn’t see what she was doing, but he could feel. Something cold and metallic brushed up against his feathers. He shivered. He heard a strange sound. It was like air being squeezed out of a balloon, but at a much smaller and softer volume. When it stopped, Brook let go of his feathers.

“Now toi will be able to hear me from anywhere in the world.” she said. Private turned to look at her.
“Well? What do toi think?” she asked

Private gasped “You’re not talking! I’m not talking! What is this?”

Brook laughed. “It reads your thoughts. Whatever toi want sent to the other receiver is sent. Nothing else, so I can’t read your mind and toi can’t read mine. toi can still talk out loud and hear the real world.”

Brook began talking out loud. “Does this still sound normal to you?” Private nodded.

“Good. I have to go back now, ou else the Rattlers’ll find out I’ve been gone.” They quick hugged, and she ran off into the shadows. Private hummed happily to himself, his previously waned strength returning. He ran back to the grate and jumped into the HQ. Skipper wasn’t back yet. A few secondes later, though, Skipper came into his spot on the floor. In minutes, both were asleep.


The third jour was just as invigorating as the first jour Buck had shown up. They woke up again at 400 hours, ate breakfast and went straight into a long physical exercise. They skipped Lunch (again) and didn’t rest until night fall. par bedtime, they were all but dead on their feet.

Private was contemplating whether ou not he should go to see Brook again. He was still thinking about it when he heard her cry out his name. “Private! Come quick!” he jumped out of lit and looked around frantically for her. Then he remembered the earpiece. He jumped out of the HQ and into the sewer, not even bothering to look behind him as the grate clanged against the cement.

He dove, sliding as fast as he could. Her pleas started getting stronger.
“Private, hurry! Faster!”
“Private, their on to me! I don’t know how much time I have!”
“Private, they know about us! Help!”
“Oh, God! PRIVATE, HELPPP!!”

He was in the tunnel. He heard a strange static noise, like a radio station being changed. “Brook?! BROOK!!” he thought into the ear piece. But it was too late. He noticed the spot where they had met so many times. Nothing was there. He kept sliding, hoping it was a trick of some sort. A fluke in the device.

But she wasn’t there. He almost slid into Wheeler’s base. He jumped up onto his feet, but as he did he stumbled into Wheeler’s base. He tripped a wire that caused a cloche, bell to go off. In a matter of a few milliseconds, Joey, Marcus, Luke and Matt were on him.

“Guys, cool it! It’s just Private. What are toi doing here, soldier?” Joey asked. Private explained everything. About his secret meetings with Brook, and how he thought she might be captured par Hans’s minions.

The shock on their faces was enough to impress a horror star. Joey ordered them all, “Pack it up! We’ve been found!” In minutes, everything in the cave was torn down. As they ran back up the tunnel, they exploded the sections behind them so it caved in. Once they got to the top, Wheeler stopped to give Private some advice.

“Run away. toi can try to get your Friends to come with you, but try to leave as soon as possible. Forget your girlfriend if toi want to live. Run away, so they can never find you.”

Private shook his head in defiance. “I’m sorry, but she means the world to me. I can’t just lose her so easily.”

“Well, then, I wish toi the best of luck.” They saluted each other, and Wheeler’s team ran off into the darkness, leaving Private alone in the dark.

Private left for his own HQ. What he would do when he got there was anybody’s guess.

I apologize for the length of this chapter. This is probably the longest I’ve ever written for a chapter, ever. I was planning on uploading this yesterday but I had an issue with my flash drive. It somehow erased half of the chapter, so I had to retype all of it. But its here now, toi read it, and toi can review! :D