Chapter Text
It was yet another early workday, and Flippers was starting to wonder if this would turn into a regular thing. She’d thought that the crazy hours would calm down once she had finished training. It seemed like every time she was called in for a mission, she had to get to HQ first thing in the morning. Maybe it was just because she was a lower rank at the moment.
Regardless of the reasoning, this time, Flippers wasn’t too upset about it.
Flippers had known that it was something urgent because most of their meetings were scheduled in advance. This one hadn’t been. Sleet had just called her up late the previous night and asked her to come in as soon as possible in the morning. The dark blue penguin had seemed pretty high-strung about it.
Of course, Flippers had jumped at the chance to get back into things. There was one big thing on her mind that this was probably going to be about. She’d set her alarm for earlier than usual and did her best to get to bed without tossing and turning the entire night. Even if she had to get up extra early, she still had to get enough sleep before she left. It wouldn’t be a good thing if she showed up to HQ and was completely nonfunctional. At least one of them had to be fully awake.
Even though it was early in the morning, Flippers had expected to see more people in HQ. Agents were able to get into The Sports Shop before it opened to access HQ. Usually, there were always a few agents getting a head start on reports or gearing up for a new mission. Before the sun started to peek above the horizon, and the rest of the island woke up, they would be out there getting to work. Examining a trail and searching for clues, taking their case wherever it led them.
But this time, nothing serious must have been going on because the main room was empty. Well, empty except for the one penguin Flippers had known was going to be there.
As eager as she was to start, Flippers paused briefly to fire up the little defunct coffee machine they’d gotten and examine Sleet.
The dark blue penguin was sitting in front of the monitors, staring ahead in a daze, when Flippers walked in. It looked like she’d been there for a while. A couple of hours at least. If Flippers had to take a guess, she’d assume that Sleet hadn’t slept since summoning her. Several files were scattered next to her, and she had a cup of coffee that was no longer steaming and was probably cold by now.
The pink penguin took her cup of hot water, which the machine could thankfully make without the coffee, and added the tea she’d brought to it before walking over to talk to her friend.
“Are you okay there, Sleet?” Flippers asked, pulling up a chair. “You look like you’re about to pass out on that screen.”
Sleet jolted in place at her words, looking like she had just been shoved out of bed. She turned her head and slowly blinked at Flippers a few times before nodding.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered, stifling a yawn with her arm. “Just trying to finish up some of these files for the communication squad. Figured I should be doing something while I’m here.”
“Well, you should get some rest after this.” Flippers looked at her sternly. “It won’t be good if you spill your coffee on the monitors while falling asleep.”
“I will, don’t worry.”
Sleet pushed the files into a haphazard pile before leaning over to start digging through the even greater number of files in the drawers. She idly flipped through them until she got to a specific brown folder. Pulling it out of the drawer, Sleet tossed it in front of Flippers. There was another dark green folder attached to it.
The green one was new, but Flippers recognized the other file. It was the report she had completed a week ago after her mission at The Pet Shop. She could tell that a few new items were sticking out of it, probably from a follow-up investigation to retrieve the message she had discovered.
“Are you ready to continue your mission, Flippers?”
“More than ready,” Flippers said with a grin, picking up the folders to straighten them out. “I just didn’t think that we’d be moving forward so soon.”
“Ever since you turned in your report, the Puffle Handlers have been combing the woods. They’ve discovered even more signs of penguins in the woods where they’re not supposed to be, and they’ve reported absences of puffles where there are supposed to be a lot of them.”
Flippers combed through the papers in the new file, idly flipping through them. “They found penguin feathers,” she commented idly.
“Yep.”
The pink penguin looked up over the edge of the folder, holding back a grim smirk. “Are the colors what I expect they are, or should I keep reading?”
“You already know.” Sleet couldn’t hold back a yawn that seemed to shake her entire body. “The puffle handlers want you to get over there and help them right away. Hence the early briefing.”
Flippers whistled as she looked back up. “These guys are fast.”
“They’re worried about the effects that this could have on the ecosystem if everything continues at this pace, so they want to put a stop to it as soon as possible.”
“Well, we would be doing that anyway.”
While Flippers continued reading, Sleet attempted to drink more of her coffee. She immediately grimaced and stood up to dump the entire cup into the trash.
“Is the PSA going to be apprehending those two, even if just to question them?” Flippers asked while Sleet was moving around. It took the dark blue penguin a few moments to register what she was asking before being able to respond.
“No. We don’t want to make a scene,” Sleet sighed, waving the empty cup around in annoyance. “If we take them into custody, it’s going to be a lot harder to get confirmation that it is really them behind things, especially if they don’t confess. And we might not be able to find where they’ve been keeping the puffles. It’s just better to let them be for now.”
Flippers frowned but nodded in acceptance. “So I just have to go out there and finish what I started.”
“Pretty much.” Sleet shrugged. “You just have to find their base, capture them, or whoever it is, and help get all the puffles to the outpost so that they can be checked out and placed into the healing ward or released.”
“When are you going to show me the way?” Flippers asked, hopping to her feet. “I’m ready.”
She was practically vibrating with the urge to get out and get to work. Her mind had been drifting back to her last mission ever since she’d finished helping Angbee settle Bongo into his new home. It had been obvious that things weren’t over yet. She’d struggled to keep herself from repeatedly asking Sleet about the status of the mission. Even if she’d known that Sleet would bring her back as soon as things were ready, it had been hard to settle down. Now that things were finally rolling again, she was ecstatic.
But Sleet looked a little hesitant.
“There’s just one more thing.”
Flippers looked at her friend and mentor sideways. Whenever Sleet had something like this to say during her training, it had never been good. It had always been some sort of twist that made things even harder. While they had been added to help improve her skills, it wasn’t fun to face the fact that you were going to go skiing in a whiteout blizzard thrown at you right upon reaching the top of the hill.
“What?” the pink penguin asked, holding back a groan.
“I didn’t want to just spring this on you, but you are going to be working with a partner for this. The puffle handlers aren’t going to just let you run around the wilderness by yourself and get lost.”
That was it? Flippers had almost expected to hear that she was going to be blindfolded and asked to track them down using only smell. Having a partner was fine.
Granted, she’d never really worked with a partner before. Rookie didn’t count. She usually ended up doing most of the investigative work while he tried to help. Having someone else as a partner, someone who was probably very good at what they did, was going to be interesting.
“That’s understandable,” Flippers said while nodding her head slowly. “Who will my partner be?”
Sleet waved her off while holding back a yawn. “You’ll find out soon enough. Don’t worry, she’s nice and just as serious as you are.”