Hello, my peoples! How did you miss me?
I know who I missed. MARLENE.
But what about your king?
I just realized that I hadn't done a Marlene chapter for a while. So I had to quickly write this into the story. And it ended up going right along with everything else.
So you didn't miss your king?
Not at all. We don't own any of the characters!
*sticks tongue out*
Okay, maybe I missed you a little...

"Soooo, now what?" Marlene asked. She swung her legs back and forth under the bench she sat on.

The orange octopus who was rushing around the room stopped in the middle if it to look at her funny. He said something unrecognizable in Octopesian and turned back to his work, running around pushing buttons and flipping switches.

Marlene continued to look around the room. It was ceiling high in all sorts of electronics, communications, wires, and other sort. It was the control room, according to the sign on the door when Bud had shoved her in it. She rubbed her arm a bit, that's all Bud did. He shoved her to and about. Well who could she blame, she was technically their prisoner. At least Dave was nice enough, without the fact that he was continuously trying to convince her that the penguins were evil and that he was the good one.

It was Day 2 in the octopus submarine for Marlene. The first day was Private's birthday, when she ventured with them to the Winkie Factory. Then there was the sleeping gas, and several hours and different time zones later, she had woken up here, with no evidence the penguins had been there despite an exploded cage. They later met through videochat, the penguins seemed quite delighted to see her. After the videochat, Dave and Bud had had a long argument, something about leadership and what to do with her. She didn't end up finding out who won, the tired otter had ended up falling asleep. But when she awoke several hours later, she found that caring Dave had placed her in one of the sleeping units. Which Bud had also unnecessarily placed guards around. The next day, Dave was gone and it seemed Bud had taken charge. He had some of the other octopuses take her on a short tour of the submarine, following them all the way. And just a few minutes ago had shoved her in the control room for the purposes of 'keeping her controlled'. Which now that she thought of it, was quite a funny pun.

She really hated Bud. He kept such a close eye on her, especially after the video chat when she had deemed herself 'friends of the penguins'. Who knows, maybe he was an old enemy of the penguins, same as Dave. She probably wouldn't find out for a while, until she got out of this place.

Now she wasn't exactly betting on the penguins to save her, as they always did. She was a capable girl. It wouldn't be hard to get out of this situation. The only problem is that the submarine was in the ocean, and it was all ocean everywhere. But during the short tour they had shown her the escape pods, the room which Bud had hastily shoved them out of. She rubbed her arm again. Ow.

Marlene was suddenly arisen from her thoughts by a beeping coming from one of the devices. The octopus in the room rushed over and clicked a few buttons on it, said something into Octopesian in it, then quickly rushed out of the room.

Marlene sat attentively, staring at the device. It seemed like some sort of recorder, like 'Skipper's Log', but much bigger, with wires and plugs all over it. Actually, it appeared to be attached to everything else in the room, now that she took a good look at it. The several cord-phones in the room were hooked up to it, along with some radios, televisions, and other things. Maybe it was the main power source.

Less than half a minute later, Bud and the original orange octopus came rushing into the room. Marlene bit her lip and clutched her arm, looking at Bud in anger as he picked up one of the landline phones that the device was connected to. Bud looked back at the octopus and Marlene.

"Richard, kindly escort her out," Bud scoffed in an obviously not nice way, then turned back to the phone that he picked up with one of his eight arms.

The octopus grabbed one of Marlene's arms and led her out. She almost had to run behind it as it walked. They octopi walked funny, they bunched up all their legs and spread them out at the bottom like feet or an umbrella. It seemed like they were constantly walking on tip-toe, Marlene noticed. But she still rolled her eyes at Bud.

Outside the room, the hallway, the orange octopus continued to lead her down. Bud had obviously not said where to bring her, so she had no idea where the octopus was going to bring her. They quickly walked through the corridor, passing some other octopi, before getting to one end. There was a large door that the octopus used a hand-scanner (well, a tentacle scanner) to get in. He walked in, dragging Marlene behind him.

Marlene's eyes widened and her jaw dropped the second she walked into the room. Surrounding her were the cages she had seen before when she had originally walked into the room. Except this time they were filled. With penguins.

The octopus continued to try to pull her along, but Marlene was stopped, staring around.

The hallway was filled, cages stacked on top and around each other. Almost half of them were filled, about two or three penguins in each cage. Marlene noticed that the cages were about the same size as the one she was in before. The penguins in the cages all seemed frightened or angry. Some of them were sleeping, others were shouted, some were rattling the cages and trying to get out. Many of them were seemingly trying to pass time, talking, arm wrestling, some had gotten card games, and a group in the back was even trying to sing acapella.

The octopus pulled at Marlene to move forward. But the otter was grounded, stunned by the sight. She continued looking around wide-eyed at the scene. The octopus rolled his eyes and tugged at Marlene. She stumbled forward, turned to the octopus, and pulled away from his grip.

"Gah!" she shouted, running away in the other direction. Several penguins in their cages shouted to her, but she ignored them, shouting in fear as she ran. This was worse than she thought. These octopi were capturing all the penguins, just to find her penguins!

Suddenly the otter slammed against something. She looked up, stumbling back and breathing heavily. There was Bud, staring down at her, his menacing blind and scarred eye burning in anger.

"YOU BROUGHT HER IN HERE?!" He slammed an arm onto the ground, fixing his gaze at the orange octopus who had brought her. The octopus shrugged.

Marlene backed away from the angered red octopus. "This... What you're doing here... It's not right! Stop it! Let them go!"

She began to run in the other direction, but Bud shot out his long elastic arm and grabbed her. She struggled with no result as Bud pulled her back.

"Believe me, it wasn't my idea," he murmured. "But it's the quickest way. And soon this will all be over."

He crept forward and around the corner, towing Marlene in his clutch. Around the corner was a large machine, with a hole in the middle that was a black, swirling abyss. Many octopuses were running around it, carrying cages of penguins, empty cages, and all other things. Suddenly, out of the machine came a cage full of penguins. It flew through the air where several octopuses caught it. Marlene gasped. It must have been a portal or something that they were sending the penguins through.

But Bud continued, stopping for several seconds to instruct the octopuses there. Then he went on, through the hallway, past the filled and stacked penguin cages, past the empty and stacked cages, past the empty cages, past working octopuses and windows and doors and all other sorts of things. Finally they seemed to slow down at a door, and Bud opened the door and crawled in.

There were several octopi, maybe three, one had on a welding mask and held an unlit welding torch. Another one held in his grasp what seemed to be a large, shaped piece of shiny metal. The last was going around the room, which had an assembly line in the back of it that was spitting out cardboard boxes.

"Seize her," Bud spat, releasing Marlene in front of the octopi. The one by the assembly line immediately rushed over and did as he had commanded, as Marlene struggled and growled. Then Bud took the piece of metal, looking it over in his arms. A smile formed on his face, the first one Marlene had seen him do. This piece of metal way obviously important to him.

The large red octopus held out the metal and turned it back and forth under the light. It shined brightly, and Marlene noticed a small red button on one end of. She squinted looking at it, not because of the light shining off of it, because it looked familiar. But she couldn't put a finger on it.

"Impressive, almost exactly like the first," Bud said as he put the item down. The octopus who had handed it to him spoke some Octopesian with what sounded like approval.

"But does it work," Bud considered. He took the item and lifted it above his head. Then he brought it down and carefully shoved it over his head. It was now easy to see that the piece of metal was meant to fit around his head. And it fit perfectly, the end with the button on it went over his blind eye, covering it completely, and wrapped around the rest of his head to keep it on.

Marlene gasped, looking at it. That was definitely something she recognized. With the stories that the penguins always told about. And that one single time he had come to the zoo. That was a crazy night, she didn't remember much, but she did remember one thing. That silver eyepatch, with that red bleaming button as an eye.

Bud raised his head backward and laughed evilly. She knew that laugh too. From the night, and what the penguins all described. Then he stopped and looked over at Marlene, his new eyepatch glimmering, along with his other eye. He gave a toothy smile as she huffed, trying to run towards him.

The octopus tried to restrain Marlene. "You..."

"Yes me, who else," Bud turned to the other octopuses. "She's seen too much. Take her away."

Bud crept out of the room, leaving the three octopuses to deal with the angry otter.

WHAT?!
I had one actor-name joke in there. Whoever find it and says who he plays in the show wins the game for this round!
WHAT?!
I really liked this chapter. It was fun to write.
WHAT?!
What are you whating about?
The... the... the ending! You can't just do that... man! *sits down angrily*
Do you know what happened?
Not really... BUT I KNOW IT WASN'T GOOD!
*laughs* I think everybody knew what was going on with Bud.
Yes! HE killed that Dr. Mammal Fish and took his eyepatch thingy!
Not what I was thinking, but okay... Thanks and please review!