Okay, after weeks and weeks of trying to update this blasted story, I've finally caught up with my fanfiction notebook. And that means I don't need it anymore! I'm just writing straight from my head now—and that, in my opinion, is the best way to write a story. Once again (you guys are probably getting tired of this), I'm really sorry it took me so long to update. I should really apologize to whoever reads my Danny Phantom story. I totally lost the next chapter (my dad's computer crashed), and although I have some of it in one of my many notebooks, I still can't quite remember where I was going to go with that story. But I'm workin' on it!

All right, let's see if I got any dedications for you nice people. Um…to everyone who reviewed the 6th chapter, thanks! To everyone who plans on reviewing, I can wait for you. To all you crazy kids holding up the PoM fan club, I don't know what I'd do on the weekends without you! To everyone who was cheering for the Packers during the Super Bowl—I knew they'd win. It was pretty close, though.

Okay, that's it! No more meaningless distractions for me—besides school. Time to get started with chapter 7!

*****Chapter 7: Jack of All Trades*****

Silence. Then…Drip.

Drop of water number 16. And as expected, 12 seconds after drop of water number 15.

Kowalski stared straight ahead as Dr. Blowhole drove slowly back and forth on his segway. Neither of them had said a word since Kowalski had woken up.

Drip. Number 17. 12 more seconds.

The whirring of the segway stopped, and Kowalski blinked. Dr. Blowhole was looking right at him. "…I suppose you know why you're here," he finally said.

Drip. "I have a theory," Kowalski answered after a while, still staring straight ahead.

"I'd like to hear it."

Kowalski paused at this, wondering how to respond. After a while, he decided not to aggravate his current situation, and continue this conversation with tightrope-like civility.

"I suppose I'm here as bait to lure the others out here without myself to form a plan of action, so that you can take them out?"

"Once again, Kowalski, top marks," Blowhole conceded. "While that is my primary objective, I'm afraid I've got an …ulterior motive for bringing you here."

Drip. Fifteen seconds. The leak must have slowed down.

"I had a feeling you did," Kowalski admitted. "And the fact that you're even having this conversation with me would mean that you've already got her, am I right?"

"Yes, yes you are." The dolphin smirked.

Kowalski sighed.

Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Tap-

"Will you stop that? Jeez, are you trying to drive me insane?" Ravena shouted, glaring across the room at Jack. He looked over at her, surprised.

"No," he admitted. "I was trying to be quiet."

"Well, seeing as that's the only noise in this stupid cell, you didn't do a very good job," Ravena snapped.

"It isn't the only noise now," Jack pointed out, indicated that he had stopped tapping his foot.

Ravena just groaned, slumping against the wall. "How much longer do I have to stay in here? It's seriously depressing."

"As long as it takes. Or at least 'till the boss gets here," was all Jack said.

"Your boss," Ravena corrected. "If he gets his way, he'll be your boss too," Jack retorted.

Staring at the ceiling, Ravena let out a breath. She'd given up trying to figure a way out of the cell, and was attempting to make the most of her protracted stay here. Pretty much the only thing keeping her from taking up her old habit of banging her head against the nearest object when things got too boring was the fact that Kowalski was in this place with her...somewhere, and Skipper and the others were going to be on their way to get them...somehow.

"Jacky-boy, where's Kowalski?" Ravena suddenly asked. Jack's brows raised.

"Do you really think I would tell you?" he replied incredulously. "And don't call me Jacky-boy, I hate that."

"I know." Ravena gave him a half-smile. There was an odd silence for a few minutes. "O-kaaay..." Jack said, turning his back on her.

By now, Ravena was sincerely beginning to enjoy herself. So, all the old buttons are still there, huh?

She sighed again. "Do you even know where he is?"

"Of course I know where he is," Jack said without turning back around.

"Suuure you do," she said, crossing her flippers. "I bet you're just sayin' that to try and make me think you've got an advantage over me. You're just as clueless right now as I am, aren't you?"

"You're not gonna get me to tell you where he is, Ravena," he answered. "Well, duh, because you don't know. I thought we went over this," Ravena told him flatly.

What Jack didn't know was that ever since Ravena had resumed talking to him, she had been slowly moving towards the far right wall of her cell. Leaning her head against the wall, she listened hard. All she could hear was the faint sound of...dripping water?

Jeez, that sound would be enough to drive me crazy, too. Don't they ever do maintenance checks in this place?

"We didn't go over anything! Stop playing this stupid game with me, Ravena! I do know where he is, and I will never tell you!"

"No, I don't think you do," Ravena replied quite cheerfully, "because you wouldn't be so worked up about it. If you knew, you wouldn't care no matter what I said. Did you know," she added on sudden inspiration, "that the quicker you are to get angry, the less intelligent you are?"

"Shut up!" Jack shouted. "You don't seem to realize that you are in the worst position possible to be trying to get under my skin right now! I'd watch what I said from now on if I were you, because as long as you're in that cell, life can be a living hell for you!"

There was dead silence. Even that dripping water seemed to slow down. Then, finally, finally, finally, she could hear other voices.

"It sounds like my other captive's already rubbed my agent the wrong way," Dr. Blowhole remarked conversationally. "She tends to do that a lot, doesn't she?" a voice that sounded unmistakably like Kowalski's agreed.

Bingo, Ravena thought, leaning away from the wall. All this time, Kowalski had been right next to her. Add that to my list of reasons I haven't gone psycho yet...

Frowning, she turned back to Jack. "It's not like I don't already know what a living hell feels like. That was a pretty empty threat."

That seemed to have thrown Jack off. "W-whatever," he said, shaking his head. "I think it might be time for me and the boss to switch sides, if you catch my drift." He tapped the earphone he was wearing with a smirk.

He smiled, but took a step back as it dawned on Ravena exactly what he meant, and she launched herself towards him, gripping the steel bars so hard Jack was glad they'd reinforced them before they brought Ravena here. "I swear, if you even breathe near him, I'll-"

"Honestly, in a few minutes, I don't think you'll be in any condition to make good on that threat, whatever it might have been." He dismissed her with a wave, clearly recovered. "Have fun," he added cryptically, turning around and walking away.

Ravena leaned against the wall and let out an annoyed breath, blowing the feathers from her face again.

Kowalski frowned, slightly disconcerted. Blowhole's face had just gone from perfectly placid to almost savagely satisifed. "It would appear that you have a visitor, Kowalski," he told the penguin. "Be sure to show him your best side."

Without another word, he drove on his segway out a side door. A few seconds after his departure, a penguin walked in, shut the door, and leaned against it, eyeing Kowalski with a strange expression on his face.

"...I take it your name is Jack," Kowalski said, finally breaking the silence. Jack blinked. "Yes, it is," he conceded. "Ravena told you about me?"

"Briefly..I remember her saying that you were her best friend at her old zoo until she found out you were working for Blowhole."

Jack passed a flipper over his eyes before responding. "Yeah, that's about right," he sighed. "Did she tell you about what happened with her parents?"

"Blowhole had them killed because they wouldn't hand her over to him." As he spoke, Kowalski wondered where Jack was going with this conversation.

"Right again...and did she tell you who killed them?"

Kowalski thought. "...No," he answered. Jack nodded. "Uh-huh..."

Jack's response immediately sounded suspicious to Kowalski. Abandoning all pretense, he asked, "It was you, wasn't it?"

Jack's eyes shot towards him, and for a very long time, he didn't answer. "...In retrospect, it was one of the worst things I've ever done, and I've done some pretty bad things. At the time, though, I was so sure it'd would make her realize that she really didn't have any other options."

"There's always other options," Kowalski recited, smiling in spite of himself and the situation.

"So, it was you who taught her that," Jack noted. "So, seeing as you both think there isn't a single problem that can't be solved, how do you think you're getting out of here?"

Kowalski gave him a flat look. "Well, I doubt it'd be through the front door," he said. "I think you know I'm not going to tell you, so what was the point of even asking?"

"I was just interested in your response." What's with this guy? Kowalski couldn't help but wonder.

More silence, and then the broken water pipe began dripping with renewed enthusiasm.

"So," Jack said, "You know why you're here, and you know why Ravena's here. I think it'd be in both of your best interests to just give the boss what he wants."

"And why is that?"

"Because things are about to get a lot less bearable for you two, that's why."

"Before you even open that mouth of yours, the answer's no," Ravena said flatly, cutting Dr. Blowhole off. "It's always been no, and it will always be no."

Her captor remained silent, so Ravena kept going. "And, I'm kinda curious about this..why did you really capture Kowalski before you did me? I mean, the chances of getting him to stay are probably even less than the chances of getting me to stay-and we're dipping into the negative half of the number line with that one. Plus Skipper and the others are probably wise to what's going on and are figuring out the best way to get here and kick your dolphin butt."

"They probably are," Dr. Blowhole said. "But they won't succeed, no matter what they do."

Ravena glared at him. "And why is that?"

"Because, Ravena, I know you three too well-you, Kowalski, and Skipper," Dr. Blowhole elaborated, in response to Ravena's raised brow. "Believe it or not, I know you all too well."

"Oh, really?" There was an unmistakable note of derision in her voice." "Try us."

"First off, you, Ravena, have a very strong will. That, combined with your stubbornness and fairly high threshold for pain, makes you very hard to break. That being said, when something does get through to you, it tears down all those walls you work so hard to build up. That's why you're afraid to let anybody get close to you."

He paused, but Ravena stayed quiet, watching him, so he continued. "When someone manages the difficult task of getting past your defenses, you tend to become extremely protective of them, not only for their safety, but yours as well, because at that point you're not the only one who knows your secrets."

"...I don't see what this has to do with Skipper and Kowalski," Ravena said finally, still eyeing him.

"Don't you? I think you know exactly what this has to do with the two of them. As far as opening up to others, there are only two other animals in the world you've really ever bonded to, besides your family-Jack, and Kowalski. Am I right?"

Ravena blinked at him. "Are we getting to the point yet?"

Blowhole smiled. "Almost there. Now, I'd also be right in saying that if you feel Kowalski, or anyone he knows, is threatened in any way, you'd go flat-out postal on the threat. But if your retaliation would end up hurting any of them, you'd surrender. Right?"

"Right-wait a minute. Wait a minute..." Ravena's eyes widened.

"I have a feeling that Kowalski might do the same. And if Skipper feels that any of his teammates are in danger, he's not just going to barge in and start-how did you put it?-kicking everyone's butt."

"You wouldn't." It was a statement, but from Ravena's expression, Blowhole knew she was really asking him.

"Yes, I really would." He steered himself over to a switchboard. "Tell me, have you ever heard of neuroshock torture?"

...Yeah, I hate to leave it like this-personally I hate when a chapter ends like that-but I just realized that the next chapter would be a whole lot better if I started it before the neuroshock stuff. As for if that's actually real...I don't know. Probably. It's a sick, sick world we live in. I read about water torture, though, and that is some sick stuff. The whole broken pipe thing came from that-it's, to me, torture enough just to have to listen to dripping water. Anyway, the next chapter might be a long while coming caise I'm multitasking again-workin' on this, a FictionPress story, and a cartoon idea. I'm giving most of my attention to the cartoon thing, though-seeing as it's my ultimate dream to be watching my own work on TV, that's understandable, right?

Okay, a few parting words. You guys all know that "When life gives you lemons..." thing, right? Well, I have one of my own: "When life gives you lemons, plant a lemon tree. Why would you make lemonade with them? That'll only make one pitcher, and when you're done you're probably gonna be wishing you had some more of it. But you won't, because you used them all. So plant a lemon tree, make more lemonade, and maybe even sell a few. That way you'll have lemonade and money." Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Yup, I actually spend my time thinking about this stuff.

And for all who watched the new Penguins episodes on the 19th, they were so frickin' awesome! They go right up there with my all-time favorites, and not many actually make it to that list. My personal favorite of those four though, was definitely Danger Wears A Cape. Even though I'd already watched the Comic Con thing, seeing it animated was sooooo much funnier. If Penguins doesn't win Favorite Cartoon this year, ther's definitely a conspiracy going on. Don't forget to vote, people!

-Saying all she had to say, RavenFeathersOfDarkness