The Search for a Cure - A Penguins of Madagascar (loosely) One-shot
Marissa sits in her laboratory and looks over her equations. She is working on hopefully creating a cure for Rachel and Rico’s condition. Skippsy had asked for her to do this quite a while back, but she just never had had any time to work on it.
“Hmm… If only we knew what exactly Harriet and Juarez had in that machine…” She mutters. “What was in that laser that made her this way?”
The scientist then shakes her head and gets up. She waddles over to a large dry-erase board with a calculator and goes over her equations for the seventeenth time that day. “What am I missing? Something is incorrect…” she mutters and sighs. There is a knock at her door and she turns and looks towards it.
Rachel waddles into the room. “You wanted me?” she asks curiously.
“Yes, please sit there,” Marissa replies as she waddles over to a drawer and takes out a needle and syringe. “I need another blood sample,” she says as she walks back over to her teammate.
“Por qué?” she asks as she keeps her flipper away from Marissa and her needle.
Marissa sighs. “Science? I need a sample of your DNA to see if I can see where I’m going wrong... Technically, I probably could use one from Rico as well to compare, but I don’t have access to that…” she grumbles.
Rachel just looks at her before hesitantly giving her her flipper and looking away as Marissa draws a small blood sample.
“Thank you,” she says as she drips a little onto a glass slide and places it on her microscope. “That’s all, you can go now.” She says and waves for her to leave.
The sergeant leaves with a strange look at her and a shrug. Marissa momentarily takes off her glasses and looks into the microscope. She adjusts it and frowns some in thought. “And it looks different still from last time... How? Why? What the kipper am I skipping over?” She groans and puts her glasses back on. She opens a different drawer on her workbench and takes out a small journal.
"Still I have made very little progress on a cure for Rachel’s condition. I have not even found a way to slow down the mental effects… However, the voice effects, I have a theory... Though I do not have the medical license to test it. Also, we wouldn’t want to risk testing it on her for it to only end up being incorrect and making her a mute.’"She writes in her journal and then takes another look into the microscope. "Her DNA makes no sense at all. Each time I have tested it, there has been differences－Not large differences, but subtle ones...Everyone knows, though, that tiny differences can snowball into huge problems.
"I wish that I could ask Kowalski about any findings that he has made with his study of Rico. It could be such a help to be able to compare the two’s DNA. Rico’s no doubt was caused by other reasons, but he is the only other known case of this...This...Halibut, I am not sure what it really is. Skippsy and Rachel think it is useful with only long-term repercussions that possibly might not even be 'harmful.' I, on the other flipper, think otherwise. I mean, we know virtually nothing about this condition. It’s as if she has a black-hole in her abdomen! Like her having Mary Poppins’s bag as her stomach! I just don’t understand.’
Marissa then sighs and sits her journal to the side. She furtively takes a photo out from inside of jourmal and looks at it. In the photo are two close friends. Two colleagues. Two partners. These two friends had been close for years. They had made many discoveries together and always were able to find the other’s error in anything and everything…Well, almost always. Every time except once, and it was that one single time that drove them apart. One made a mistake, a tiny one that slipped past the scientist’s own checking. She had been so driven that she had not thought to have her friend look over it and make sure it was perfect. Then, when it failed. she had been scared to accept the blame. She and her friend blamed each other. The friendship was over just like that. They had had plenty of opportunities to redeem themselves, to mutually apologize... But each has been too proud to admit their faults and move on.
Marissa frowns as she looks at the picture. Jealousy had played its role in the problem as well. “I still do not see what he could possibly see in that stupid dolphin,” she mutters. “Sure, she can echolocate. Sure, she is nice. Sure, she she has sharp eyesight and can swim like a fish. But her brother is a villain! She has never really been in to him! Has she ever found a mistake of his that saved his stupid tailfeathers?! I think not!” she rants to herself as she looks a little angrily at the picture. “No, I bet all that she did when they did date was all ‘Oh, Kowalski, you’re soooo smart!’ Then she’d flutter her eyelashes and he would get tongue-tied and turn pink. I swear, Kowalski must need glasses even more than I.” She then puts the picture of her and Kowalski making silly faces at an invention convention back in that other book and puts it away.
“And now he’s with that Russian strategist...Eva or whatever.” She frowns. “How can I complete with that? She’s nearly perfect with her calculations! I’ve read some of her works, seen some of the inventions made from her plans. All had looked completely flawless and gorgeous! She’s also pretty...And can fly...” She sighs. “I can’t compete with that.” She shakes her head with a sigh and looks into the microscope again.
“Wait, WAIT! Is that－!” she exclaims excitedly. “Oh...No, it’s not.” She then sighs, disappointed. She had thought that she had found something useful, but it was only a white blood cell, nothing more. She then slumps back into her chair and just stares at her board of equations now. “I’m a scientist, not a doctor...This is not my sector of knowledge.” She mumbles. “I need help…” She then silently admits. “I...I can’t...I can’t solve this alone…I don't have the facility to even make the tiniest advancement."
Marisa turns back to her journal. "If I had a bigger lab with better equipment and some colleagues, maybe I could get this study somewhere useful. Like, if I had Blowhole's or Dave's lab....Maybe I could convince Skippsy to flirt her way back into Hans's good graces and he could get me into Blowhole's lab for a couple of days. Doubtful, but if only...Maybe it is time I capitulate and finally hand over my pride and ask Kowalski for help and reconcilement....We'll see."
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