What Happens Afterwards
"Well, that was a nightmare." Commissioner Pervis McSlade shook his head as he placed the file he had been holding down.
"Of course, sir!" The man beside him nodded and pointed at the file. "That Frances Alberta has some screws loose! Replacing actual animals, endangered in some cases, with androids? That is unheard of!" The murmur from the other men in the room was filled with nods and agreement.
"Oh," McSlade pulled at his collar and sheepishly smiled, "uh, I was referring to the paper. It was too long."
"Well," the man continued after the silence that settled in, "it's official then. Miss Frances Alberta will be in jail for a long time." The murmurs came again, and McSlade joined in, using a pen to finalize the document.
Directly outside...
"Skipper," Kowalski turned to the penguin beside him with a grin, "did you hear that?"
"Yeah." The leader murmured back as he looked down the hallway. "The snow cone machine down the hall ran out of ice," he turned around just in time to see Kowalski face flipper himself, "and they had to go get some. So, what did the Commissioner say?" The scientist sighed and brought up his clipboard, tapping his pencil on the drawings there.
"The board was talking about how they were going to keep Frances in jail."
"Good, good." A gleam flashed through Skipper's eyes as he rubbed his flippers together. "Now that that crazy lady is out of the way-"
"Skippah," the youngest member of the penguin unit spoke up, looking toward his father figure, "you're not really thinking of taking over Hoboken, are you?"
"Private," the penguin placed a solemn flipper on the younger penguin, "when it comes to that, I would gladly have accepted the offer. But no." His voice turned into a low murmur. "Not now at least..."
"What will happen to the Hobokeners then?"
"Honestly, young Private, I don't have a care. Now, the real mission here is to get that snow cone machine and-"
"I thought we were going to check if they were sending Frances far away?"
"That, and the snow cone machine."
Kowalski crossed his flippers. "And why would we need a snow cone machine?"
The penguin frowned at something in the distance. "Because Tuesday is Fudge Day..."
"What?"
"That's what I said. Kowalski, make up your own come backs." Kowalski rolled his eyes, thinking that his leader had clearly lost his mind today. After what they had experienced hours before, he was beginning to think so.
Skipper suddenly winced and grabbed his head.
"Skippah?" Private's concerned face appeared before him, along with the other two's. "Are you alright, Skippah?"
"I'm fine." He grumbled under his breath and looked away from them.
Kowalski's forehead creased with worry. "Maybe we should pass. It has been a rough day today."
"That-"
"I think rest is a good idea, Skippah." Private was back to cheerful self, though the concern was clear on his face. "What do you think Rico?" The weapons expert was about to shrug, stopped and nodded. "See? Rico agrees, I agree, and so does Kowalski."
"Fine." Skipper rolled his eyes and waddled away. "Let's go, men."
At the zoo...
The rest of the team was oblivious to the subtle way Skipper was holding a strange pain pulling at his head in, but Kowalski noticed. He didn't say a word about it, or told Rico and Private, because he didn't want to assume things, or get reprimanded for his actions. Stress was a high factor for Skipper after missions, and he did not want to worsen it.
It wasn't until a black and white blur crashed into their leader did he realize that something was wrong.
"Skippah/Skip'er/Skipper!" The three ran after where the ball of feathers had rolled to and were shocked at what they saw.
Before them, stood Skipper...and ANOTHER Skipper, glaring at each other.
"Stay away from my team, doppelgänger." The one on the left barked at the other, fists collecting by his sides.
"No," the second shook his head and pointed at him, "don't turn this around. You're the doppelgänger here."
"Back off, copyguin."
"You back off, faker."
The first snorted and crossed his flippers. "Lame comeback. I would never make one like that."
"Well, I-" Both Skippers jumped as a huge glass cage dropped on them, courtesy of Rico.
"Let me out, Kowalski!" The two chorused to the scientist observing them with a frown.
"Incredible." He whipped out his clipboard and jotted down something.
"Kowalski." Private nudged the taller penguin and whispered to him. "What's going on?"
The penguin made a final note before turning his head to Private. "It appears that we now have two Skippers. But only one of them is our leader." The two turned back to the glass cage. "And we have to find out which is the real one before something bad really happens."
"Kowalski!" The two growled angrily before glaring at each other. "Let me out! I'm the real Skipper!"
"How can you not recognize your own superior?" One of them spoke, enticing the other to do the same.
"And how could they, when you're the real fake Skipper here!"
"Private!" They both called and Private cowered under the glares, hiding slightly behind Kowalski. "Tell this, pansy, who the real Skipper is!"
"They both sound like Skippah...and they sure look like Skippah..."
Rico curiously tapped the cage, jumping back when both Skippers turned to glare at him, barking at the same time.
"Rico, let me out right now!"
"Ain't that dandy?" Kowalski ran both flippers down his face. "Why do we always have to jump from one problem to the next? When is there going to be a break?"
"How about I 'break' your precious little lab so that you won't be able to use it if you don't let me out right now!" One of the Skippers told Kowalski without missing a beat, and the scientist let out a squeak, hiding behind Rico, who jumped and hid behind him. This process repeated again, until both penguins were found behind Private.
The youngest was surprised, but even more so when his superiors pushed him forward to the caged Skippers. "He-hello." He waved weakly, switching his gaze from one Skipper to the other. "Skippah." He was ignored bluntly as the two Skippers glared at each other instead.
"Uh," everyone turned to Marlene, who had walked up to them while they were pre-occupied and was looking at the two Skippers in confusion, "mind explaining the second Skipper?"
"Apparently," Kowalski, along with Private and Rico, looked up to their mammal friend, "another replication of our leader, this one acting more to its own impulses rather than the orders of ex-zookeeper Frances Alberta."
"What? Who? When?" The otter stared at the scientist, completely lost.
"Oh, right. You weren't there. Forget I said anything."
Marlene continued to stare at him before she shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Okay. I just came by to ask Skipper for a little help," she eyed the glass cube, "but seeing as there are two of them, I'll come back later."
"Uh, Marlene?" Kowalski moved his gaze from the glare down the doubles were having to the otter. "What is it did you want Skipper to do?"
She waved a paw in dismissal. "Just another lemur problem. I'll stall them, don't worry." She pointed to the glass cage. "You guys need to solve this problem first." She slid away and Kowalski rubbed a flipper on his chin thoughtfully.
"Lemur problem, huh?"
"Uh," Private backed away from the cage, wide-eyed, "Kowalski?"
"Yes, Private-GREAT GOLLY NEPTUNE'S TRITON! Where did they go?" He looked about wildly, as if expecting one of them to jump out saying 'Surprise!'. "And," his features marred with confusion, "why?" He turned to look at Private, who stared back at him blankly. "Uh, Private?" The penguin didn't answer and Kowalski turned to Rico, who was doing the same, but with his tongue hanging out. "Rico...? Guys? What happened? Where's Skipper? Skippers, rather." They didn't answer.
The scientist took a step back, feeling a little weird out. The feeling grew when both penguins took a step toward him simultaneously. He took another step back, and they followed. He did a half-step back and then placed his foot back quickly, with the other two doing the same thing. He snickered a little, and took another step back into something. All humor dropped and he turned around slowly, meeting with Skipper. He let out a squeak and backed away, into two bodies. He didn't have to turn to know that it was Private and Rico behind him.
"G-guys," Kowalski cleared his throat, trying to save whatever he had left of his dignity, "Guys, this isn't funny." Skipper's flipper reached out to him, and to Kowalski's horror, his eyes glowed red.
Kowalski was frozen to the spot, and he looked at the flipper reaching oh so very slowly to him before turning back to the glowing red eyes.
"Kowalski...the king wants food..."
Kowalski's rational part came back. "What?" That's when Skipper leaped.
"Ah!" The penguin jolted up and blinked rapidly in the darkness. "I can't see! Why can't I see?" His flippers formed around the object clamped around his head and pulled it off. He blinked again and looked at the goggles in his flipper before noticing the blanket that had fallen to the ground. His eyes turned to the notes and data of their latest mission and he sighed in relief. "I must've fallen asleep."
Kowalski covered a yawn and shook his head as he remembered the two Skippers. He groaned and rubbed his face. "That has got to be weirdest dream I've had..."
"That was a dream?" Kowalski froze and slowly turned, to see Mort's curious yellow eyes staring at him.
"ANDROID! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S THE END!" Mort stared at the screaming scientist until he hit a stack of boxes, the bowling ball falling square on his head. The lemur cautiously walked to him, poked the limp penguin with a paw, shrugged and hummed as he skipped to the fridge. He grabbed a few items and walked out of the lab. He passed the other penguins, who were in their bunks with headphones on, and Maurice, who was propped up nearby with his own pair of headphones. The little lemur dropped beside Julien, who dug a paw into the pile, pulled out a pretzel and took a bite out of it, eyes glued to the screen.
;) Can you guess the epi(sode)?
I'll give a cookie, ('.), it's chocolate chip. :D
