Cuter and more cuddly

by

Mastermindhunter

The penguin's HQ. was loud and active, today. Something about this noise was different though. Even when Skipper said their missions were personal, everybody figured it out eventually, but not this time. It was getting everybody's attention. Especially the lemurs. The noise was rivaling their own music. They didn't like it when they couldn't hear their boom box. Marlene was curious as to what was going on. She didn't want to go to the habitat, because quite honestly, they would bombard her whenever she went over. Instead, she went over to the lemurs place, to talk about it. The three were just as confused as she was.

"I honestly don't know what could possibly be going on over there, but I'm sure that whatever they're doing over there really doesn't concern us." Maurice snorted. Marlene just looked over at the island. Julian's gaze followed, along with Mort's, and Maurice's. She really respected the boys, and didn't want to intrude on them without reason, but seriously. She really felt like, whatever was happening, it wasn't going to turn out well. They had thought about it really long and hard. Julian finally looked up from his slump, and smiled.

"Ah! I have a brilliant kingly plan, to see what it is the penguins are doing."

"Oh, boy here we go." Marlene leaned on the side of the concrete, getting ready for whatever it is that Julian was about to recommend.

"Okay. Here is the plan. We send a spy into the neighbor penguins home, and then they will be having an inside scoopings on the penguins. Then they are coming back to us, to tell us what it is the penguins are doing, so the three of us are looking totally innocent, preferably me." He put his paw up to his chest in a prideful like gesture.

"You mean send in a mole?" Marlene looked at Julian with a raised eyebrow.

"No of course not, you silly otter! Moles are lacking of the eyes we need to be having into the penguins home. No! Moles will not do. Thus so it has to be one of us." He sounded so full of himself. Marlene rolled her eyes, then looked back at him. Who would be eager enough to go into the penguin habitat, with all that noise going on? Suddenly everybody turned to Mort, with a smile. Mort looked in the direction of the island. Even with his eager, and enthusiastic personality, he didn't think that the island sounded safe. Still, Kowalski had made him go to a hornet's nest before, in order to remove it, and it didn't seem that bad.

"I don't really think I want to go." Mort fidgeted with his feet. Julian wasn't going to be hearing this.

"Mort. You are a subject of the king, and I order you to go!" Marlene looked at Julian with a scowl. Julian had put his paw over his mouth, obviously understanding that Marlene didn't approve of Julian talking to Mort like that. She looked back at Mort with a warm smile. He mirrored the welcoming face.

"It's okay, Mort. I've spent plenty of time with the penguins, and they'll be really friendly. I know they sometimes seem a little scary, and serious, especially Skipper." Mort nodded twice. "Trust me, though, they'll be really nice." Mort smiled, giving Marlene a hug. She set him down, and he walked over to their place. He had to admit. Even though they had sometimes been a little peculiar, they had saved his life before. He knew they seemed real frightening, but if there was one penguin he knew he could trust, it would be Private. He was little, just like him, and really kind-hearted, and, to be honest, and little soft feathered. They didn't seem that bad.

He moved the fishbowl holding their smelly meals to the side. It made his nose crinkle at the aroma. The bowl was rather heavy. It made a loud teeth grinding screech, but it was blending well with the sound of saws on steel, and hammering. When he moved it, the sound inside the interior rose to an even more louder volume. He looked around to see two orange feet sticking out from under a rather large metal like invention. The sound was coming from underneath the big steel plated computer-like machine. Underneath the supposed penguin that the feet were attached to, was on a skateboard. He heard one of the penguin's assertive voices behind him.

"Sad eyes!" He snapped around shocked to see Skipper towering over him. An unexpected gasp came from his mouth. He didn't look angry, but not to ecstatic either. His wings were on his hips. "What are you doing here? We thought we made it clear that we're very busy today. No time for your fun and games." Skipper ruffled the top of Mort's fur, and it stood straight up, messy and shaggy. Mort smiled at his gesture, and tried to push his fur back down. He looked down, and laughed nervously, and smiled a cute smile, which never seemed to work on Skipper. He didn't think up an alibi or an excuse to come over. He tried to think up something quickly, so he tried to lie the best he could.

"Well I'm not trying to come in to see what you're doing." Skipper raised his eyebrow, noticing the strong lack of subtlety. Mort thought he would have to be stronger in his denials. "And I'm definitely not going to tell Marlene, and the others, okay?" Skipper rolled his eyes, and looked at the little mouse eared lemur.

"Mort?" A strong British accent came from the left of the habitat. it was Private smiling in his usual sweet way. Mort smiled in a feeling of relief. He liked being with Private, since he was such an understanding penguin. The others felt sort of intimidating, anyways. He ran up to private, hugging him. Private smiled at him. "Well hello Mort. What brings you the habitat today?" Skipper was looking at him with the same question obviously on his mind as well.

"Well, I was just . . . umm." Skipper stopped Mort, so he could speak.

"Regardless of your reason to come over, you have now seen our plans, and thus have to work on the project with us." Private looked at Mort with a look of confusion.

"But I haven't seen anythi-" Suddenly Rico smushed a big blue piece of paper up to Mort's face.

"Congratulations, welcome to the work force." Skipper mumbled. Kowalski rolled the skateboard out from under the big invention. He was wearing a baby blue helmet, and had some soot, and dust around his face. Mort smiled at him. Kowalski's voice was tough, and macho, but still very welcoming. He took off his helmet, and put it on Mort's head. Mort smiled, and hugged the tall penguin. Kowalski looked around nervously. He apparently didn't know much about children. He attempted a smile, and patted the lemurs helmet.

Mort had yet to know what he was working on with the penguins. He had totally forgot that Marlene, and the others wanted to know about the commotion. He had helped eagerly, and without any questions. He had turned levers, and screws when needed. When ever Rico hacked something into his hand, he hesitated a little, but took the tool nonetheless. Kowalski asked Mort if he could hand him some of the the jet black oil. Mort picked up the can, and walked over, but accidentally bumped into Private, and the oil spilled out everywhere. Unfortunately Kowalski was under the machine when he spilled it. There was a loud scream, and Kowalski came out. His face covered in black thick tar like goo. It was so dark the only thing Mort could see, was Kowalski eyes, which looked a little irritated. After he cleaned his face off, they were getting close to being done. A few sparks flew, and a glow of the blowtorch, and Kowalski said aloud, "We're Done!"

Everybody stepped back a bit, to see what they had made. The steel was sleek with polish. They each smiled with satisfaction. Kowalski leaned on the side, smiling.

"What is it?" Mort had to know.

"It's an age-manipulator, Mort. It can turn you younger, or older depending on your preferred level setting. Here I'll give you an example." Kowalski held out a mushy yellow and black striped caterpillar, which he put on the ground. He gave everybody a welding mask, and pointed a scanning like tool at it. With a few turns of the knobs, it blasted the ray slowly at the caterplillar. There were blue and purple rings coming from the ray. After a small white flash, and a little puff of smoke, everybody slowly pulled their welding mask up. The caterpillar was nowhere to be seen. When they looked up, a beautiful monarch butterfly was flapping slowly. It landed on Mort's nose. He giggled as it slowly flapped it wings up and down. "Unfortunately it can keep the change temporarily for a small amount of time." The butterfly quickly puffed back up to a plump caterpillar.

"Eww." Mort said as it slimed its way off of his face, and on to the floor.

"So, exactly how long do things stay in their age result, before turning back to their original self." Skipper held his wing up to his chin. Kowalski looked through his notebook at his notes.

"Well, it depends on the type of species. As for something as basic as a caterpillar, I'd estimate a few minutes, as you had just seen. It can only keep the change in accordance to the DNA's reaction to the change. For something like us on the other hand, I think we could hold onto our changes for maybe a few days. It seems the more complexity of the animal, the longer the change will last. Humans could probably go for a full two weeks." Mort thought of what it would be like, to be grown up.

"Could I try it out?" Mort asked.

"Uhh, not yet Mort. I need to make sure that the ray doesn't leave any side effects." Mort crossed his paws, and walked over to the machine. THe ray's pointer looked kind of like a wand, and that's when his judgement flew out the window. He picked it up, and smiled at it. He held the trigger underneath, making blue and purple rays radiate off of the center's tip. He panicked as the wand like ray shooter had a kick to it, and made arms go everywhere. It knocked his sense of aim out of his hand, as it swung everywhere.

"No Mort! Don't!" Kowalski yelled as all four of them got shot one by one. He hadn't meant to, but the recoil of the ray was too much for the little lemur. Each one held their flippers infront of their faces. Mort was shocked at his sudden mistake. He was so awe-struck, he didn't bother notice that he still had his finger on the trigger. As soon as he let go, there was a big white flash come from the ray, as it had done before. He clamped his eyes shut, his paws over his eyes, as the blinding light shot the fishbowl off the top. Marlene, Julian, and Maurice saw the flash, and were shocked, but were still scared to go see what had happened.

Mort had lowered his hands, to wave away the big bellows of smoke that were saturating the air. He caughed a little at the smoke, and tried to see if the penguins were mad at him. He couldn't see them, but knew that they were there.

"Umm hello? Private . . . Mr. Rico . . . anybody?" He tried to walk away from the smoke that was thickest near him. When he crossed the room, the smoke had settled. Mort had gasped at what he saw. They were four big blue eyes, but not the ones that were from the four penguins of the room. They were from penguins, but these penguins were different. They had tiny little feet, and were actually smaller than him. They were very fine feathered, and very adorable. He looked at them with a bit of confusion. Where did the four other penguins go? He took a closer look at them, and figured it out in no time. He had turned them all into babies. "Oooh, dear," he whispered, as they one by one started crying. He didn't know what to do, so the first name that came to mind blurted out from him as he ran out of the HQ. "JULIAN!"