Oops, We Got Penguin:
Christmas Edition
It was that wintery time of year again and the whole of NYC was bathed in its Christmas best. The Central Park Zoo was no exception, if a bit behind. Alice always had to do the decorating by herself, but she now had help from Athena. Though it was before the zoo had opened for the day Alice had welcomed her help. She was there so much people thought she worked there anyway so Alice didn't care. Also the two had become friends so Alice now really knew she wouldn't make trouble.
"This entrance looks as good as the south one!" said Athena stepping back to admire their handy-work.
"Yeah it dose look good! Thanks for helping me out. Course one year I was trying to do this, but kept being pulled away and got fed up. I came in the next day and I guess it-sy bit-sy elves came during the night and did it for me." Alice then said.
Athena grinned knowing that Skipper and the others had to have something to do with it. "Well lets get to work on the inside then!" She then proclaimed dramatically. Alice snorted as they headed inside zoo confines.
Alice got out a mess of decorating materials and the two split up. Athena went to see the penguins: "Hey guys!"
Kowalski's eyes lit up: "Hey we saw you helping Alice and I thought since your going to be working on the inside you can try my latest invention to help you move faster, The Hover-Rama Boots! They are kind like the footwear Shadow The Hedgehog wears." The tall penguin then yanked them out of the fish dish hatch.
"Why are they my size?" Athena asked quirking an eyebrow.
Kowalski chuckled nervously before answering: "Well, it was Rorys idea to make them bigger for the prototype. Then when we know they work then we make them smaller for the rest of us. Of course Tony and Rory will get pairs too."
"Provided the current design doesn't blow my feet off you mean?" Athena asked grinning.
Kowalski shrugged grinning.
"Alright I'll try them, but I'm not sighing a release though!" Athena then signaled him to toss the boots to her, which he did.
"Wow I think your even braver then I am Lady Soldier!" said Skipper smirking with his wings on his hips. Kowalski shot him a look.
Athena laughed as she strapped on the aforementioned invention. They fit well, as she walked in a small circle to get used to them: "OK, now how do I get the hover action?"
"The black button on the heel, be careful though and I hope you know at least the principals to ice skating." Kowalski answered
Athena nodded then hit the buttons on the boots and sure enough she was then hovering about two inches off the ground. Once she was sure that there wasn't going to be a detonation, to which Kowalski gave her the stink eye (Skipper and the others of course laughed) Athena retrieved the Christmas decorations from the bench she left them on and was off through the zoo at a good clip putting them up.
"This is awesome! Woo!" She high fived the apes as she passed them and only stopped in her journey when she saw that Tony and Rory were over by the kangaroo habitat. They were also putting up Christmas stuff.
"Your testing something of Kowalskis that you have to wear? Your a brave one!" said Tony right away.
"Hey, I helped him make those I'll have you know!" said Rory crossing her arms.
"Yeah, I stand by me statement." said Tony grinning. Rory smacked him on the shoulder. He just laughed. Rory stuck her tongue out at him. Athena laughed at them two.
"You two fight like siblings, I just love it!" she then said.
"I'm surprised that your not jealous. Hes your boyfriend after all." said Rory grinning.
They blushed grinning: "Touche my friend."
"Wait, how did you two get in here?!" Alice suddenly said from behind Athena who jumped and faked dropping something so she could turn off The Hover-Rama Boots.
"Uh, top secret entry tunnel?" Rory answered with a shrug. The other two snorted as One: she wasn't even lying and Two: because of the deadpan stare Alice gave the three.
"Whatever, I know you won't do anything to crazy and I was wondering where the rest of the decoration had gotten off to." Alice said with a shrug. Between the four of them, one with a set of wicked awesome hover boots, they got the zoo done in record time. A phrase here meaning with two minutes to spare before opening!
"Got the zoo ready for Christmas and tested out a prototype, I'd call that mission accomplished! Up high guys!" said Rory Athena, Rory and Tony then high fived each other like Team Penguin.
"Hey, that would be our thing humans!" Skipper barked from their habitat. The humans laughed.
"Come one, we had to try it out once." said Tony grinning.
Skipper quirked a non-eyebrow at him in reply, Tony grinned at him. The three humans then left for the day after telling Skipper they would be back in the evening to help decorate HQ. They had shopping and things to do. On the way out just to mess with Skipper they high fived Alice then giggled at the face he made at them.
Elsewhere: Santa was giving his work shop a look over. He grinned as the prep-work for his yearly run was going very well. In fact they were ahead of schedule. Santa couldn't even remember the last time that had happened. He thanked the elves for their hard work then left to head back to his house, there was a certain list he had to give a second check to.
He had just got himself comfortable with his list in one hand and a cup of hot cocoa in the other when there was a knock at the door. "Now who could that be?" Santa thought as he got up. He hoped it wasn't a stranded traveler in danger! On the other side of the door was a very tall, strong man with dark skin and sunglasses.
"Why sunglasses?" thought Santa "The frozen tundra was no place for sunglasses, but for tinted goggles when it was the day time." Even Santa himself donned them when he left the house most days.
"The names X and your coming with me tubby!" Santa was then sprayed in the face with something foul smelling. Then the world went black.
Elsewhere: Team Skipper HQ was officially decorated for Christmas!
"I love how you brought us a small tree in a pot to be our real Christmas Tree this year!" said Private as he put a small present under it.
"Yeah we pooled the last of our shopping money for it." said Rory still getting used to her penguin body. She had annoyed Kowalski into using The Penguin-izer on her. She then zapped Tony who had zapped Athena.
"When Christmas is over you can plant it in the park." said Tony
"Hey good idea, even momma nature gets a present this year!" said Skipper
"Why just this year? I say we make it a new Christmas Tradition! All in favor?" Athenas wing went up.
Everyone did the same saying 'Aye' at the same time.
"OK then new tradition it is!" Athena said grinning.
Suddenly the TV turned on and was all static.
"Oh if that's Hans or Blowhole I will kill them!" said Athena Everyone stared at her. "Well not really, but I will have to maim them though." The crew was alright with that.
"I don't want to know." said Rory
The others grinned.
When the static cleared on the TV they saw a male reindeer with really big eyes. "Son of the gun, I got it to work."
"Ah its the north polars!" said Skipper grinning. "We still on for that post delivery party after the big day?"
"Hey Comet!" Private waved. After The Teams last encounter with them they left them the means to communicate.
"Wait what?" said the three former humans.
"I hope we are Skipper." said Comet
Skipper sighed: "Alright, whats happened this time?"
Another reindeer popped into view, this one a female: "Santa is missing! I was on my way to tell him something when his wife met me half way and said that she saw a man take him away!"
The former humans beaks dropped open.
"Did she tell you what the man looked like Cupid?" asked Private
She nodded then proceeded to give them a description of Officer X.
"I'm most confused Skipper, what would a man like Officer X want with Santa?" said Kowalski with a thoughtful, though of course, confused look on his face.
"Nothing as far as I can tell and that's what vexes me." said Skipper narrowing his eyes.
Athena slapped herself back to awareness. The action snapped the other two back to attention: "So wait a second here those two really are two of Santa Clauses reindeer?! Like the chubby guy who says 'HOO! HOO! HOO!' and delivers presents?!"
"Yeah why?" Skipper asked casually.
"Gah!" was all Athena could say with her beak hanging open again.
Rory on the other hand was laughing her tails feathers off: "I just made me two-hundred bucks! Yeah baby!"
"Say what?" said Rico
"Just a bet I made with these two not to long ago about the real or not-ness of Big Red himself is all." said Rory with a cocky grin. "No rush with payment though guys as we are all short on money at the moment."
The two made a face at her for her gloating. The reindeer laughed along with Skipper and the others. Skipper then turned back to the TV.
"So do you have more Intel for us? Like who did it? Where they went?" Skipper asked
"Well we took a play right out of your playbook and had some of the other reindeer follow X, did you call him?" said Cupid "Santa was taken to some kind of sub. Then they followed that. Thanks to those super wide, wide range walkies you sent us last year as presents we were able to talk to Vixens Team until they got to Canada."
Rory marveled at Kowalskis skill.
"Nice Kowalski, didn't know you were still working on the those." said Athena
Kowalski grinned.
"They continued to follow until they were finely out of range for speaking to us then came back and told us to call you." said Comet "They did say that saw a weird looking bird with a German accent though."
Rory and Athena: "Hans!"
"Hey, that's my thing." said Skipper
"Sorry, go ahead then."
"Thanks." said Skipper before clearing his throat. "Hans!"
Cupid and Comet looked at each other with deadpan expressions as if to say 'Really?'.
"Alright so give us their location and we will be on the first flight out to Canada." said Kowalski
"Wait flight?" asked Athena sounding timid, for she knew that her and the other two were going to end up helping since they were there when the mission was brought to The Teams attention.
"Well I plan to make flight dust on the way to save time." said Kowalski
"Oh that sounds interesting!" said Tony while Rory nodded.
"Your not afraid of flying are you Lady Soldier?" asked Skipper tilting his head.
"Well uh let me put it this way, if people were meant to fly we'd have wings." she answered clearly embarrassed. Skipper came over grinning and held up one of her wings gently. "Heh heh, OK so I forgot what body I was in at the moment." Skipper then held up one of his own wings grinning. "Oh right, perhaps that wasn't the best way to put it. My bad."
Skipper gave a snort of amusement: "Don't sweat it." He walked a bit away from her before suddenly barking: "Rico! Nighty night special!" Everyone got clear of Athena quickly donning gas masks as Rico hacked up a sleeping gas bomb at her feet. She was out like a light in a few seconds. Skipper then turned back to the TV and speaking in a tone of not being interrupted said "The rendezvous point?"
Later And Elsewhere: Athena woke up in a dark place, but she could see that The Team was there as they had some glow sticks around them. She also noticed that she was in an up right position. Once her sense fully returned she knew she couldn't move.
"I'm duck taped to the wall aren't I?" she asked shooting everyone a look. They were playing cards by glow sticks, but the were getting weak.
"Rico thought it was funny and I agreed." said Rory grinning.
"Its not all bad you got to snuggle with my Luna-corn." said Private also grinning. Athena looked and sure enough there it was taped by her head.
She grinned: "So where are we?"
"Still on the plane. We touched down about twenty minutes ago." answered Skipper "We should get you down so we can duck into a bag when the hatch opens."
"Oh darn."
After a bit of tape ripping and a few lost feathers Athena was down with the others. She then got Privates Luna-corn down. He cuddled it then put it away after a look from Skipper. He looked about to say something snarky, but the hatch opened and they had to jump into a bag so they could be taken out of the cargo hold. This took only a few minutes. Once they were clear they went to meet up with Vixens Team of reindeer.
When they did there was a short greeting and the news that they had delayed the bird that was in fact Hans by trying to get Santa back themselves by setting traps to distract Hans then get him, but were not successful in the second part. As what they called 'weird red creatures' kept getting him out of the traps before they could get close enough to Santa to free him. Officer X seemed oblivious as he pushed the crate containing Santa on a cart. They didn't get caught though so Team Skipper still had the element of surprise on their side and were able to get to the hide out of his partner a bit before Hans, which was a old warehouse. The partner in question was none other then the infamous Dr. Blowhole.
"Man I didn't even get a chance to catch Christmas-itis this year!" whispered Skipper crossing his wings, almost pouting.
"Awe Skippers cute when he pouts!" said Tony grinning. The others tried not to laugh at that as Skipper shot him an annoyed look. Tony just grinned at him.
"I wasn't pouting, penguins on missions don't pout." Skipper then retorted matter of factly. This just made the others snort. "Moving on-" Skipper was about to say 'Kowalski options!' but was interrupted by Hans arriving.
"Doctor Mammal Fish! I'm back with an early Christmas gift for you!" Hans shouted
"Excellent!" said Blowhole wheeling over on his segway. "And my name is Dr. Blowhole not Mammal Fish!"
"Well if you prefer I could call you Frances." Hans grinned
Blowhole got a deadpan look: "Mammal Fish is fine."
From inside their vent the penguins were trying so hard not to give themselves away from laughing.
"Alright, so how is this device going to eliminate Christmas?" asked Hans
"Well, this beauty-" Blowhole then turned on a light in a shadowy corner and ripped a tarp away dramatically. "-is going to turn Santa Clause into Santa Grinch. I call it-"
He hit a button on his segway and the deep voice of Jim Cummings announced: "The Personalty Inverter!" It had something that looked like an electric chair connected to a huge generator and even bigger super computer.
"On some other pony show didn't someone do that to the main characters?" asked Tony "The show wasn't Luna-corns though."
"Yup!" said Rory "But how did you know?"
"You told me about it, I think." said Tony
Athena laughed quietly: "Wow guess Blowy was watching that episode too!"
Skipper gently held her beak shut so he could hear what their foes were saying:
"I'm glad that your brain control device worked Hans. Let me guess you put it in those sunglasses he always wears?" asked Blowhole
"Yes." answered Hans all proud of himself. "Once we get the reindeer with them and turn Santa into a Christmas hating Grinch we will deliver them hidden in presents all over the world where we will rule and their won't be a need for another Christmas ever again!" The two villains then burst into evil cackles.
Hans calmed first: "But what should we do about the people who don't do Christmas?"
"Have the already under our control humans hide the devices in the appropriate gifts or decorations at the proper time of the coming year of course!" answered Blowhole
"Genius!" shouted Hans After that they started to bicker about weather Blowholes machine worked, but they didn't talk about the components much to the annoyance of Kowalski.
Athena: "OK now that plan, with the exception of what blowy added, sounds familiar too. I think that came from a TV show from back in the 1990s about two mice that kept trying to takes over the world. They didn't succeed though."
"I remember that one! The tall one had a letter he wanted to give Santa and forgot when they were at the pole planting the design for the dolls that had the mind control device in it and he got hysterical at the end when he found it. The shorter one, who was the brains of the two got angry and snatched it away and told him to cue him in at the proper time." said Kowalski
"What messed it up for them?" asked Skipper
"The smart one got curious and read his sidekicks letter. It was about how he didn't want anything from Santa and that his best friend should get everything he wants to get and such." said Kowalski
"It made the smart one cry because he had been so mean to the other one about the letter all the way through the episode. When he was cued to speak he didn't have the heart to take over the world just then and just told everyone to have a Merry Christmas. Then he destroyed his own machine." finished Athena
"At the very end the taller one gave him a world key chain." said Rory
"I wish we could make that happen here." said Private
"Who says we can't?" said Tony grinning.
"Your thinking to get Blowhole and Hans to switch places with Santa?" asked Skipper grinning. "I like that cocky swagger, but for now lets just focus on saving Big Red first."
They looked back down when Blowhole suddenly said "Why are we even arguing about this? Lets test it and see. We can us Officer X since we don't have any other use for him now."
"Alright with me." Hans then turned to the human and barked "X sit in the machine for us." Without a word X did as he was told. Red One strapped him down then took off the tampered with sunglasses. Officer X shook his head a moment later.
"What the? Where am I? Whats going on?!" X shouted trying to break himself loose.
"Hey calm down I want to ask you a quick question." said Blowhole X only stared at him. Blowhole then shot him with some kind of ray that had a similar feeling to The Penguin-izer, well the energy coming off did anyway. Blowhole then repeated himself.
"Fine what is it?" X barked crossly.
"What do you feel like when you see this?" Blowhole then asked while hitting a button on his segway. It caused it to produce a very good holographic picture of Skippers Team. Officer X was immediately enraged again.
"I hate penguins! I hate them!" he screamed straining on his restraints.
"I thought so, had to check though." replied Blowhole calmly. He then nodded to Red One, the signal to activate the device X was strapped in. Blowhole turned the image of The Team off and watched as X stiffened up as the machine did its work on him. When its cycle was done Red One shut it down. X slumped in the chair for a moment then looked around.
"What was that?!" he panted sound scared for the first time to Team Skippers collective memory.
"Just a little tweak is all." said Hans with a devilish grin. X quirked an eyebrow at him as his breathing evened.
"Hey I got another question for you." Blowhole said this time sounding excited.
"Yeah?" asked X
"How do you feel about this image now?" Blowhole then produced the same image of Team Penguin as before.
X looked at giddy as a Kowalski in a brand new lab: "Oh! Look at the penguins! They are just the cutest cuddliest things ever! I just want to hug them!"
"Doubt me now Puffin?" asked Blowhole with a smirk. Hans grinned and shook his head.
"I was hoping that the machine wouldn't work as it sounded pretty far fetched, but no matter. Techs can you hack that eye sore?" Skipper asked both Kowalski and Rory.
"I have been trying to since it was activated. I'm making little progress. I'm going to need some manual support from Kowalski for speeds sake." she answered holding her custom made super PDA.
"So its action time!" said Skipper "Alright Lady Soldier your with me, Tony your with Private and Rico you watch Kowalskis back. My team will got for Hans because they won't see it coming Tonys team will go at Blowhole. We move now!" Just as Santa was being taken out of his crate and X was knocked out and being dragged away by respective groups of Blowholes super lobsters Skipper kicked the cover off the vent and he and Athena dove out of it yelling: "Hans!" The team of Private and Tony followed doing the same only with Blowhole.
"What?!" they both shouted. "How?!" They didn't get much more time to speak as their opponents were on them. Of course soon enough Athena and Tony went to help Santa as he was getting closer to being strapped into The Personalty Inverter. That's also when Kowalski got caught hacking it, also thanks to him Rory was able to begin doing her half of it. They were also down loading as much as they could into their chosen devices in case something went wrong. Some of the fighting lobsters went for Kowalski.
"Rico! Help Santa. Athena, Tony do what you can to keep the lobsters off him and myself."
"Understood Lt!" they both said Athena decided to cover Kowalski while Tony did the same for Rico. There were just so many lobsters this time!
Finley Blowhole caught Private and threw him into Skipper and Hans, they landed in a tangled mess: "Red One! Do it now! I'll cover you myself!" The evil dolphin then began to use the arsenal contained in his segway on his enemies. Rory just happened to look up just as Blowhole spotted Kowalski.
"Oh momma!" shouted the tall penguin as the bigger dolphin came at him. Since his device was cabled into the enemy hardware he couldn't just leave it like Rory with her wireless super PDA. She quickly set it to auto save and shut down if the connection was broken then attacked Blowhole as he was about to hit Kowalski. She landed right on top of his head. The surprise made him lean backwards and fall to the ground. Where the two tussled for a short time, but Rory was not a tech and fighter like Kowalski. She was tech alone and soon she was thrown away. Sadly for all involved Blowhole didn't pay attention to were he threw her and quickly turned to see that Santa was right where he wanted him.
"Activate it!" he shouted and Red One did as ordered. At the same time Rory slammed into the control panel hard breaking it and causing power to surge through out the machine. Santa let out a loud yelp then suddenly broke free of the restraints and ran off babbling in a very Rico like way. Kowalski quickly saved what he had down loaded and disconnected his device from The Personalty Inverter before his data was corrupted then saw to Rory. She was still awake with some nasty cuts on her back along with some minor burns.
"Kowalski, don't worry I'm alright." said Rory
"Good because that could have been much worse." he answered
"See what you have done now Skipper?!" Blowhole accused
"What I have done?!" Skipper shouted "Your the do-er mister! Santa was just fine until you had Hans pilfer him! Rico nighty night special!" He did as every penguin pulled on there gas masks again, but Athena who didn't have one. She fell asleep again along with Blowhole and the newly conscience again Hans. "Oops forgot to issue her one." Skipper chuckled Then he pulled out his walkie to give Vixens Team a report and to tell them to find Santa and contain him if they could. They weren't to happy with this report of course, but Skipper apologized and promised that Santa would be ready for the big day and if he wasn't they Team Skipper would do it all themselves then signed off as his team had another thing to do at the warehouse they were in. Well two things, Kowalski gave Athena the antidote to the sleeping gas so shed wake up in a few minutes then had all, but Tony, find the mind control devices of Hans and destroy them after Kowalski extracted the one from Officer Xs sunglasses so they knew what to look for. Skipper stayed behind with Tony to tend to Rorys injuries and make sure the soon to be awake Athena was alright. Rico gave them the first aide kit before he left.
"Uh-" Tony began
"Don't worry, everything in here is wrapped in plastic and sterile." answered Skipper Just as they finished with Rory Athena woke up.
"Really again?" she asked "At least I didn't wake up in the belly of a plan this time."
"You consider an enemy base better?" asked Skipper raising a non-eyebrow.
Athena looked around: "You have a point there Skipper."
Tony snorted at how casual they were being at the moment.
"So what of Santa?" Athena then asked
"Team Reindeer hasn't reported back yet." Skipper shrugged An explosion rocked the room right after Rory got her super PDA from the vent. The four, Athena helping Rory, went in that direction worried. When they got there Rico was laughing while the others were coughing on smoke.
"That was a little much Rico." said Private
"Well he destroyed all Hans toys. That's the main thing." said Kowalski with a cough.
"You sound like me!" grinned Skipper
Kowalski grinned at him.
"Well this place is kind of old, I'm just worried about a fire or it caving in." said Private
"Uh guys?" Kowalski pointed to show that both was happening. Private quickly shot Rico a look.
"Uh, oopsy!" he answered with a sheepish grin.
"Dash away team! Dash away!" Skipper then shouted. They went into a belly slide right behind him, back to the main room as that was the easiest way out. As they passed through they saw that somehow Hans and Blowhole were gone. Skipper made a face, but saved his "Curse you Blowhole!" for when they were outside.
"Yeah, I'm going to say it, that never gets old." Athena grinned, her fellow former humans laughed. Skipper rolled his eyes as the rest shot 'Really?' looks at them.
Before anyone could say anything else Skippers walkie went off: "Team Penguin, this is Team Reindeer. We captured Santa after he teared through a few blocks like a mad man. Your gonna want to see this." Vixen then gave them their location before signing off.
"Lets move Team!" Skipper then said and they tore off after him again. They found the reindeer outside another even more rundown warehouse then the last one. "Why aren't you inside with Santa?"
"Because he is crazy and get crazier when anything remotely Christmas goes near him, like us." Vixen pointed at the belled harness she and the others wore. "Hes reminding me of Rico, perhaps it would be a good idea if you sent him in first to calm him down?"
"Hmm, what do you think Kowalski?" asked Skipper
"Given what we saw before I think its a good idea, plus Rico would be able to anticipate better then any of us what Santa is going to do if he gets violent." Kowalski answered after taking a moment to think.
"OK then Rico head on in there to see what we can do for The Big Man." Skipper said gesturing to the warehouse.
"Right." said Rico and marched right in not at all scared, in fact he seemed a bit excited for some reason. He went in and for a moment all they could hear hear was Rico talking really fast so whatever he was saying came out all garbled. Then he made a weird sound and his friends thought he had been hurt so they rushed in. they found a sight reminiscent of when Santa had amnesia back on Madagascar, when Julian and Maurice were bouncing on his belly, only this time it was a solo Rico. The two were laughing. Everyone sighed with relief.
"Hey guys!" said Rico while in the air.
"Good job on calming him down buddy." Skipper said grinning.
"So what do we do now?" asked Tony
"We are going to have to bring him back to our base and try to return him to normal." said Kowalski
"OK how are we going to do that?" asked Tony
"Well, Rory and I are going to try to recreate Blowholes machine at the same time you guys can work on your own methods I suppose." he answered
"OK but how are going to get back to NYC. He cant sit in the cargo hold with us." said Rory
Kowalski grinned: "Remember what I was working on while we were on the plane?"
"The plane! The plane!" said Rory randomly to make everyone laugh.
"I'll take that as a yes! Everyone time to don some Flight Dust!" Kowalski announced The team grinned.
"Flight Dust?" asked Athena timidly.
Later And Elsewhere: "This is great!" shouted Athena going into a series of loops.
"I knew you'd like it!" said Kowalski grinning. The group was surrounded by the reindeer like they were a police escort while Santa was tethered to Rico so he wouldn't wonder off, he was suddenly very curious about things, like a little kid. It was kind of cute really if a bit inconvenient.
"Uh Kowalski? Um how is Santa going to fit in HQ? The reindeer won't let you penguin-ize him." asked Rory
"Ill just use my Shrink-y Shrink-er Ray on him. It will also prove useful in case he escapes so he won't get injured and be harder to catch as he will be able to hide easier by other humans, since we will be watching I know he won't get to far away from us so we will be able to catch him." answered Kowalski
"Say the name of the ray again!" said Rory all excited.
"Uh, Shrink-y Shrink-er Ray?"
"Ha, I love that!" said Rory
"Yeah shes definitely not allowed to play with Nigel." said Skipper laughing. The others snorted.
"Whose Nigel?" asked Rory
"Privates quirky uncle. Hes so British, I just love it!" said Athena
"Awe, but I like quirky!" Rory then made a pout face, to which the others grinned.
"How many of you little weirdos are there?" asked Tony
"Classified!" said Skipper to every-ones 'surprise'. "Anyway, I think we got us a little Christmas tech-mance going on here!" Skipper then grinned.
"A tech-mance Skipper?" asked Private
"Its like a bro-mance only with techs. Rorys got one for Kowalski." Skipper answered still grinning.
To her fellow former humans surprise they saw Rory blush. Kowalski grinned and gave her a pat. The others grinned while Santa blinked a few times.
"You guys are just so darn cute!" said Vixen They grinned.
It was late the next day when The Team got back and Santa shrunk to Ricos size. Of course they had forgotten that the HQ was all decorated as they took off the blind fold that got them through the zoo alright. Santa went nuts like Rico did that time when the lemurs stole his Miss Perky. Rico intervened to save their little Christmas Tree. He covered it with a tarp from Kowalskis lab and stood in front of it when Santa went for it last. Rico caught him and the spoke fast again, to fast for the others to catch it. Whatever Rico said worked though as Santa calmed down. Everyone sighed with relief.
"OK after we get some rest in the am we will clean this place up and come up with ways to fix him while our techs work on re-making Blowholes gizmo." said Skipper Everyone nodded then made some makeshift beds for all the guests. They then ate a bit then went to sleep.
The next day Rory and Kowalski went straight for the lab after breakfast with their devices from the rescue part of the mission before to begin their work.
"Alright dose anyone have any ideas on how to bring Santa back as that machine is going to take a while." said Skipper
"We could ask Jack Frost to see if he can help, who knows?" said Vixen
Skipper laughed: "You really expect me to believe there really is a Jack Frost?"
Vixen grinned and looked pointedly at Santa who was playing monster trucks with Rico. Skipper looked then laughed at himself.
"Good point. Get on that then." said Skipper still grinning.
"Hes more like the ice lady from that movie Frozen then what you see in those specials though." Vixen grinned then left with her team.
"OK, so dose anyone else have any suggestions?" Skipper asked He then quirked a non-eyebrow at Athena and Private who were having some kind of debate about an idea that Skipper may or may not go for. "Soldiers!"
They jumped: "Sorry Skipper, we were paying attention, really!"
"You seemed to be getting pretty heated there, care to share?" Skipper asked
"Well the idea is that since one of the famous Christmas traditions is the leaving of cookies for Big Red-" began Athena
"-We were thinking that we should try that, but then we started arguing a bit." said Private finishing her sentence.
"Hmm, well it can't hurt to try. Head back to Athenas with her and make a nice big batch." said Skipper
The two grinned.
"That's so much better then my idea where we would dress up like elves and make or at least pretend to make gifts." said Tony with a laugh.
Later And Elsewhere: Tony stood in the middle of the zoos store that was already made to look like Santa workshop dressed like an elf complete with its-y bits-y tools.
"I need to learn to keep my big beak shut!" He said then face winged. He was still penguin-ized as it would be easier to hide should Alice come in.
"I also blame you!" said Julian crossly pointing at him as he, the other two lemurs and Marlene were also there in the same get up.
"I like the pointy hats!" said Mort all happy that he got to be included
Tony grinned at him then said "OK places guys! Here they come." Skipper, Santa and Rico then came in to show off the little work force.
"Well would you look at them hard at work!" said Skipper clearly enjoying the sight way to much. "What do you think Santa? Ring any bells?"
Marlene leaned over to Tony: "What did you guys do?"
"I'll tell you later." said Tony as Santa came closer. Rico was nearby in case he had an outburst. Then he and Marlene got back to 'work'. Santa seemed to like what he was seeing, but was twitching at the same time. This made Rico deduce that he was fighting an outburst.
After a bit Santa asked "Can I make something?" in a bit of a grunt-y voice. The 'elves' nodded and got him all kinds of stuff for building materials as they didn't know what he was going to make. They were shocked, amazed and only slightly disappointed when after he set to work instead of making a toy of some kind, he made something of a very primitive bazooka. Which he fired out the door before anyone could stop him.
"My sleigh!" they heard someone shout after an explosion. They looked and saw that the shot had blown up half of a Christmas display where a Santa was asking kids what they wanted for Christmas. No one was hurt, but they were really freaked out by the sudden detonation. Some of the younger kids were crying.
"Uh, lets bug out." said Skipper wondering if that Santa was another of their Santas deputes. The group then took off, but Rico had to go back for Santa as he was still staring with a sad look on his face.
"Their OK, don't worry." said Rico giving him a pat. They then went to catch up with the team.
Athena and Private got back soon after. Athena thought the elf idea happenings were funny, Private did too, but got a bit worried when they got to explosion. They were assured that no one was hurt though.
"And don't worry I got many a picture of them in their elf outfits. Hey maybe they can be our Christmas cards this year!" said Rory
"But you were in Kowalskis lab! How did you set up a camera?!" asked Tony
"Oh this nice penguin with sideburns offered to do it for me then sent the pics to my PDA." said Rory "He said that he will be back later after he dose some last minute shopping for this 'grand holiday' as he put it." she answered
Everyone: "Nigel."
"How did we not spot him?!" said Marlene
"He be a super spy guy. He has to be good at the sneaking around." said Julian
"That was actually well said Julian." said Kowalski with a slight grin on his face.
"Wow!" said Tony
"Yay! Uncle Nigels going to be here for Christmas!" said Private all happy.
"Yay! I got to meet the quirky one!" said Rory They both then jumped in the air excitedly holding each others wings.
"Yeah we will save him some cookies and I brought milk too!" said Athena holding up a sack full of cookies. In sing song she then said "Still warm!"
Though it didn't help Santa regain himself they were still happy with the outcome, yummy cookies always made one feel better. Kowalski did notice that Santa seemed to like the fact that everyone was happy though. Kowalski grinned at that, but his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the hatch: "I wonder who that is." He went up to the hatch to answer it.
"Season Greetings all! Do I smell sweets?" said Nigel
Kowalski grinned: "Was wondering when you were going to show up." He called to the others.
"Heh, I need to fill you in on something before we can let you down there." said Skipper after jumping out of the hatch in front of the older penguin.
"What you mean about how Santa is down there insane because of Blowholes meddling and your trying to bring him back to normal?" Nigel asked casually.
"How do you bloody do that?!" Skipper asked
But all Nigel said was: "I love that line!" grinned and took some of the cookies that Private offered him. "Biscuits? Why thank you lad!" Skipper couldn't help but roll his eyes, but he did grin at the sight of the two. Athena grinned too and looked to be trying not to blurt out: 'Hes so British! I just love it!' much to said Brits amusement.
"OK, so I got to ask you for a report on your and Rorys progress on the rebuilding of Blowholes machine." said Skipper turning to Kowalski.
"Not bad really, but I'm not sure if we can finish it as we don't have all the details on it between us." Kowalski answered rubbing the back of his head.
"Well you two better try at least, that's an order." Skipper replied
The two nodded.
The next day around noon all team members, but Rico, were just getting back from a rough morning. Nigel looked up and tilted his head. "Skipper what do you suppose that could be?" he asked pointing at the sky. Skipper and the others blinked at him then turned to look. They saw an icy blue ball headed right for them.
"Deadly fire! Evasive!" Skipper shouted The group then jumped into the very cold water of the habitat. After a moment they looked to see what had landed on the island. They saw the reindeer all standing there shivering with snow all around them. What Nigel had pointed out had been a ball of ice that contained snow that contained all of the odd pigmy reindeer team.
"What happened?!" asked Private
"Yeah it turns out that Santa and Jack Frost had a falling out that we didn't know about." answered Comet still shivering. "How goes it here South Polars? You are looking pretty tired."
"Oh what a morning it has been!" said Skipper "First Kowalski came out of the lab saying that he had a spray that would cure him. They are taking turns working on the device so we can try more things on him besides the machine as time is tight. -(gets nodded at)- I made sure he had the cure figured out before I let him use it on Santa."
"Did it work?" asked Cupid
"It will work as a good weapon." said Kowalski "But what we needed it to do was a no go. He thought he was a chicken until I cured him."
"Lt." Rory said sternly.
Kowalski sighed: "Alright, before I cured him of the spray he turned into a chicken like creature and started to lay what looked like Easter Eggs! Still trying to figure that one out."
The reindeer stared at him until Skipper slapped down there line, gaining their attention again.
"To be fair that's not as bad as Skippers idea though." said Rory
Skipper gave a nervous laugh at that.
"What did he do?" Vixen asked with an annoyed look on her face.
"He strapped the poor old boy down making sure his eyes stayed open and made him watch Christmas specials." said Nigel with an almost angry look.
Skipper got a guilty look: "Yeah I think I made him worse. We then spent all morning until now trying to catch him as he escaped and tore violently through the rest of the zoo. He didn't hurt anyone, but even swung on Rico when we caught him near the vet station. Rico had to restrain him before calming him. They are in HQ now. We just got back from clean up. Do you have any ideas?" Skipper was worried now.
"There's one thing, but it would have to be kept a secrete, like the top most classified type." answered Comet "But can we see him first?"
Elsewhere: Rico sighed he liked having someone that was like him around, not that he didn't love his friends of course, but he was still different from them. Rico shook his head to get away from his brooding again. They had to get Santa back to normal and that was it. Fake a fail to calm him had crossed his mind as had interfering with various attempts that had seemed promising at the time. He just couldn't do it though, that wasn't him and it would disappoint his friends greatly just in him not returning to normal, but if Rico had helped that to happen then even more so and he couldn't bare that. He sighed then looked over as the rest of his extended team and that of the reindeer dropped down through the hatch from where they had been topside.
"Oh sweet mercy tell me that's not Rudolph!" said Kowalski his face going into his wing at seeing the deranged slightly twitching Santa and calm Rico turning something on a spit in the middle on the main room of HQ.
There was a new voice that replied to Kowalskis line: "No but he tried awful hard though!"
The Teams looked to see another reindeer standing just inside the hallway. When the others tilted their heads at him he showed him that his rear end was shaved and on the skin was a dotted line.
"Oh quit complaining, I save you didn't I?" asked Rico grinning.
The others then turned to Cupid who said "Yes. That's him. Hes part of the back up team, he also he helps in hard weather."
Skipper then turned to Nigel: "Ha! So that's how you knew!"
"You caught me chum, but do you know why I was in the frozen north to begin with?" he asked "Because that wasn't it originally."
Skipper looked to be about to say something about Santa then said "Touche!"
"I guess until you showed up here you were trying to find the two baddies then?" asked Rory
"Spot on, but the are tricky devils!" answered Nigel "Someone else got put on looking for them though, as I am here."
"Right." said Comet "Anyway I don't like the look of him so I say we call in a little favor."
"You mean we really are going to-" began Cupid
"That's right Cupid, Plan: Holiday Crossover is a go."
"You know that's my thing around here right?" said Skipper with crossed wings. Comet just chuckled.
"Well lets get a move on. We need to make some arrangements before we use this plan." said Vixen She then went topside.
"Where are we going?" asked Skipper
"You will see when we get there." answered Cupid
Later And Elsewhere: Team Reindeer led Team Penguin, though not Rico who would be filled in later, to the deepest darkest part of Central Park.
"Not even I knew this was here." said Skipper He, like the others, was feeling a bit creep-ed out for some reason, but they didn't know why.
"Yeah our guy here is a clever one with the spots he picks." said Comet
They turned a corner and saw a very knurled tree with a large carving on its trunk. Even Nigel had never see its likes before.
"Is that a pumpkin?" he asked tilting his head.
The reindeer nodded with satisfied grins on their faces.
"I'm not sure I like where this is going, or rather where we are going." said Private sounding a bit timid.
Athena, Tony and Rory grinned: "You may not, but we sure do!"
The reindeer laughed: "Do you three want to go first then?"
"Heck to the yeah!" they said loudly.
Cupid: "Then allow me." She then went over to the thought be by most to be a carving and opened as the door it was. The three former humans then cannon balled in.
"Wait! Who knows whats down there!" Skipper shouted his voice full of concern. "Boys lets back them up!" The four penguins dove after them without hesitation. The reindeer grinned at how selfless they were for their extended teammates, they then followed.
The group landed in a very dark place that was pretty creepy, but Skipper could somehow sense that it was harmless: "What are we?"
"A Goths paradise." said Tony matter of factly grinning at Athena.
She raised an non-eyebrow at him then said "Rory!" She slapped Tony in the back of the head making Athena grin.
"Uh, I think I may have taught them to well." said Skipper grinning.
"That's what scares me." said Nigel with a wink. They then heard a strange creaking. "What was that?" As was habit they got close to each other and looked around. They then heard a cackle which made them all jump, then a very tall figure surrounded by bats ran at the lot of them making an impossibly hideous face with a sound to match. All of them screamed.
The tall figure laughed: "Greetings welcome to Halloween Town! My name is Jack Skellington. I'm The Pumpkin King!"
Athena, Tony and Rory giggled jumping in their places then went fan girl/boy on him asking for autographs and such. Jack grinned and obliged, but then saw that Private had fainted from his scare.
"Oh I'm sorry. It was all in good fun." He surprised everyone by not only picking Private up, but how gentle he was. Private woke up quickly and jumped when he saw who had him. "Its OK I wont hurt you. You alright?"
Private nodded the jumped again as he saw a wispy dog like thing come towards him: "Hes k-kind of c-cute."
"Oh this is Zero, my dog. He seems to like you." said Jack
Private smiled.
After putting Private on his shoulder so he could interact with with Zero Jack asked "So what can I do for you all today? Do you need scare? Odd since Christmas in getting closer not Halloween."
The reindeer grinned, as did Team Skipper as then had figured out what they were up too. After they made the arrangements with Jack they left for HQ thinking of how they could make their part of the plan work. They then decided to wait until they were back with Rico. Since he knew how best to handle their guest.
When they did get back and filled Rico in he was amazed and a bit jealous of the others.
"Don't worry you'll get to see him in action then meet him Rico." said Skipper
Rico nodded grinning then thought about what Skipper needed of him. Nothing came to mind at first. Then he saw that Santa had gotten into one of the gifts and was ripping apart the fixings round the concealed object he looked mean. It was then he got his idea. Then grinned as Santa brought the gift to the person it was intended for. He had not harmed the gift at all. It was a box set of Dr. Who that was for Kowalski from Nigel.
"Special Edition dear boy." said Nigel a bit awkwardly.
"Very nice, thanks." said Kowalski grinning.
When Santa went over to the TV Rico called the others into a huddle to tell him his big idea. The guys liked the idea he told them and got to work.
Later And Elsewhere: Santa was walking through what looked like a forest, but was really the park. He saw a Christmas bow laying on the ground. He dove on it then tore it up. Hearing something move when he was done he looked up and saw another Christmas decoration. He dove on that and so on.
Skipper looked through his set of binoculars to see how close Santa was to them. "Get a move on guys! He getting close." said Skipper to the rest of The Team. They were decorating the area around the door to Halloween Town. They didn't want to get him suspicious on where he was headed.
"We are trying Skipper." said Private as he was putting a garland around a tree.
Skipper sighed and went to help the former humans with the hanging lights, a phrase here meaning, getting Tony untied and Rory down from hanging her foot from them. Athena was on the ground laughing at them to hard to do anything for them at the moment.
Santa arrived at the clearing outside the door. There was Christmas stuff everywhere even the carved door looked more like a Christmas ball then a pumpkin. Santa heard the sound of Skipper swinging on a string of lights. When he looked the lights were hung up perfectly and Skipper was hidden in the tree.
"Phew he almost spotted me." Skipper whispered to himself. He then checked on the others positions to make sure they were ready. He grinned then signaled to Private to launch their plan to get him into that door as he didn't try to attack it like they thought he might because what they made it look like. Luckily penguins always have a back up plan!
Private signaled to the others to be ready at his next signal before jumping out of his hiding place shouting: "I'm Santa now! Ho ho ho and ha!" Santa growled and began to chase him around. He was faster then they had though, actually nearly catching Private, so Skipper had to signal the others. He had to ring some bells to get their attention though. It blew Skippers cover but in doing that Santa slowed down a bit allowing Private to get into a safe spot behind where Rico and Kowalski jumped down with a longish piece of stretchy Christmas ribbon. It acted as a sling shot and threw him back at the door, just like Mr. Chew the toy poodle who had tried to eat Private a few years back. Nigel opened the door to allow Santa to fly in. He landed on a slide that was made by Athena, Tony and Rory so he wouldn't be hurt when he landed. Though they made it black so he didn't see it and wouldn't know how it would turn. That part had been Jacks idea. Santa landed in The Halloween Town Graveyard only it was somehow darker then one would think even though it was night bye now.
"Oh this place is starting to ring a bell!" said Santa He looked around as tendrils of smoke began to close in, in a circle around him. He started to get scared as it looked like it was coming to get him. He head a howl and saw a glowing wisp speed by. He jumped violently, nearly falling over. He then heard what he thought may have been a groan and spun again trying to find the source. Santa then noticed that the smoke had almost reached him. He jumped again and stood on one foot, hoping he wouldn't get grabbed and pulled away when the smoke reached him. Nothing happened when it did. He just got a touch cooler. Not being able to stand on one foot any longer he slowly lowered the other.
He turned again with a stifled yelp when he heard what sounded like a guillotine drop of something, then he spun again when he heard the sound of steel scrapping down stone. He only half expected to see something this time so he was shocked not only by the fact that he did, but by what it was: a very tall figure that was spider crawling towards him. It looked very much like a scarecrow but more grotesque and it had a very leering, evil jack-o-lantern for a head that contained not a single candle, but live fire that came out the mouth, eyes or nose at irregular intervals.
"So . . . " said the figure in a growling male voice. Santa shrank away from him. "You want to know what true insanity can be?!" The figure who had been moving with deliberate slowness then suddenly rushed into Santas face.
Back at the entrance Santas scream was heard loud and clear. They could also see what was happening quite clearly as well. Skippers beak fell open as he covered Privates eyes. Kowalski held himself shaking, Rico just stared in open awe, but they couldn't tell weather or not he like what he was seeing. The three former human were flinching and saying this that went with what they were seeing: "How is he doing that with his face?!" - "That sight is going to linger!" - "Jack! That's not supposed to bend that way!" - "I want to look away, but I can't!" - "Wow! That's a lot of fire!" and finely the line that was only reserved for Nigel: "How dose he bloody do that?!" Nigel himself fainted.
"I have never seen anything like it!" said Skipper with wide eyes.
Nigel slid up next to him on the ground laying on his side: "I have, you on that mission in Kyoto, Japan!"
"I don't even remember most of that mission." Skipper replied scratching his head with his free wing.
Nigel only grinned.
"I remember that mission too. Well sort of you know, the important bits anyway." said a new voice. The crew spun to see a human of about six feet standing there eating popcorn and watching Jack work. He was calm but his eyes twitched at what he was seeing once in a while. "Wow, Jack is sure going all out isn't he? Really kicking up the crazy." After getting a group nod he simply walked away.
"Who was that?!" said everyone but Nigel and Athena.
"That ladies and lads was Athenas cousin Marc." answered Nigel
"You never mentioned you had a cousin that knew about us Lady Soldier." said Skipper
"Oh your just one of the groups he knows about-" Nigel was cut off by Athena coughing and making a subtle motion that looked suspiciously like the 'kill' gesture.
"Whats this about?" said Kowalski with a stern look on his face to match Skippers. "Is there some kind of secrete army we don't know about?"
"Of lets just say awkward persons, some might say misfits really." said Nigel Athena cleared her throat loudly and looked to be about to leap on Nigel to shut him up.
Skipper grinned and said sarcastically as he obviously didn't believe him: "Let me guess, your the leader of it, right Spy Guy?" He then laughed.
"Former actually." said Nigel rubbing the back of his head.
Skippers beak fell open as did the others but Athena who said "That explains so much!" Though she still looked ready to attack him if he didn't shut his fish hole. He grinned at her though. Every-ones eyes went big.
Fortunately for her The Reindeer Team came out of the entrance to Halloween Town carrying Santa as a group. He was twitching a bit, but was unharmed.
"Alright Big Red, how do you feel now?" asked Skipper
"I- I think I'm OK now." Santa replied "His scare magic must have done something to me."
"Scare magic?" asked Kowalski
"Don't question it or your head would explode at this point Lt." said Athena grinning.
"Yeah, your probably right." he said with a slight grin.
"Well now that that is done, I need to get back to work!" said Santa
"We were hoping you wold say that!" said Comet
"Yeah, while you were here we stripped down your New York office so we can ease you back into things." said Vixen
"You have a New York office?!" asked Skipper surprised.
"Well sure." said Santa as the reindeer set him down. "Doesn't every high profile person?"
"Well that simplifies things." said Nigel grinning.
"Huh, who knew?" said Skipper likewise grinning. "Lets head out!"
After heading back to HQ to UN-shrink Santa and barrow some close from the zoos vet, who didn't want to know but helped out, Santa brought the penguins to the office. The deer were to come later through their own secrete way and entrance. The office was bare just like Vixen had said. They didn't mind, they agreed that easing Santa back into his job was a good idea. They were there for about two hours before the penguins began to relax. Rico was a bit sad, but happy for Santa at the same time.
"Well, it looks like we are in the clear!" said Skipper with his wings on his hips and a smile on his face.
"I say that calls for an up high ladies and gents!" said Nigel grinning.
Before they got a chance to do their thing one of Santas elves came in to give him a production report. He was in quite the snappy suit that was only slightly Christmas-y.
"Sir, I'm glad that you have returned safely. We all are." said the elf in a low rich voice. "I have to tell you that we had a bit of an issue. One of the machines needed a tiny bit of emergency though minor maintenance so with that we are just a bit behind schedule." The pencil that was in Santas hand snapped with zero warning.
"Or maybe we are not in the clear." said Skipper with a nervous twinge to his voice.
"Belay that up high." said Nigel clearly disappointed.
Rory and Tony volunteered to help with the issue, while Rico and Athena tried to calm Santa down as he was obviously in the midst of an outburst, though he really hadn't done anything yet. The elf was rushed out of the room by the two former humans that volunteered to help him so he wouldn't see Santa get violent if he was going to be.
Of course now that he was his normal height he was more of a worry, realizing this Skipper ordered a nighty night special when Santa slammed his fist on the desk, denting it slightly, right in between Athena and Rico. The latter of which got away fast enough to not me effected the former, not so much.
"Oh no! Not again!" she said before she was in sleepy land along with Santa. She actually fell off the desk and landed on Santas chest as if she had been put there.
"Aw!" said the others.
"Couldn't get a better Christmas card if we planned it!" said Skipper "Rico snap shot if you would."
"Uh huh!" he said before hacking up a camera to take a picture. The two twitched from the flash, but that was it.
Skipper sighed: "We are going to have to lure him back to HQ, re-shrink him and hook him into Blowhole remade device."
"But Skipper - I - We." began Kowalski as Rory and Tony walked back in. The issue they were helping was fixed.
Skipper tilted his head and looked to be about to say something, but then saw Private who was trying to get Kowalskis attention. He pointed the younger soldier out to the tall penguin who was standing beside his uncle. The oldest penguin looked oddly blank. Skipper figured that he was in mission mode again. Skipper shifted in the same way, though he wasn't quite so blank. Kowalski went to go talk to Private for a moment.
"Kowalski, Rory we are going to need the rebuilt Personality Inverter." said Skipper a few minutes later.
The two looked at each other and seemed to be about to say something, but they looked over at the others. Skipper didn't bother to look as he didn't want to see the disappointment on the others faces.
"We still got a bit of work on it, but-" began Rory
"No 'buts' little lady! We need to go for broke here. Christmas Eve is only a few days away." Skipper
"Aye Skipper." they both replied.
"Good, head back to the lair ahead of us. We will handle Santa," Skipper then said.
"And we still must wake the Lady Soldier." said Nigel grinning.
Skipper snorted along with the others: "Yeah we have to do that too. Man has she had a rough go of it when it comes to our sleeping gas bombs." The group laughed again then got to work on making a trail for Santa to follow back to base with the help of the reindeer. Kowalski and Rory spoke with Nigel before heading down into HQ. Skipper thought that was a bit weird, but paid it little attention. Before they headed back to Santas office Kowalski tossed Skipper The Shrink Ray.
It took a while, but they got Santa back to HQ without anyone or anything bring harmed with the exception of the trail, but that was supposed to happen so it didn't count. Sadly they had to tie him down because while they were gone Marlene had snuck in and made HQ all Christmas-tastic again and they didn't want him to wreck it.
The two techs worked on the device for a bit longer then let the others into the lab.
"The device!" said Kowalski taking a tarp off of it in a dramatic fashion. It looked just like Blowholes only smaller.
"So its done then, good job guys." said Skipper grinning.
"OK, um we do need to test this though. We haven't done that yet." said Rory She looked a bit nervous, as did Kowalski.
"I'll do it." said Private raising his wing. Everyone stared at him in surprise.
"Uh, Skipper?" asked Kowalski
"Are you sure Private?" Skipper asked him.
"Yeah, I know Kowalski and Rory will turn me back to normal." said Private
who then looked at his uncle.
"Uh as long as its safe and they can return you to normal it your choice Private." he replied
"Well they will figure it out even if the test fails." said Skipper though he looked a bit worried. The two techs grinned at Skippers confidence in them.
"Alright then Private, if your sure then step up." said Kowalski gesturing at the seat.
Private nodded, went right over and sat down. Rory buckled him in, but unlike with Blowholes it was for safety not for restraining. Rory stepped away, nodding at Kowalski to signal that he was secure.
"OK here we go." said Kowalski right before making the device active. As what happened with Santa Private went stiff. Then after the right amount of time went by, that Kowalski had written on his clipboard, the machine was shutdown. Private flopped in the seat and looked like he was sleeping. He stayed like that until a bit after Rory untied him from the chair. Everyone let out a sigh of relief when his eyes fluttered open, but in a way it didn't last to long as he went into angry and very mean tirade. It was very much like the ones he went on when Kowalskis Love-U-Laser malfunctioned and zapped him, but this this was directed at those right in front of him: Nigel, Athena, Tony, Rory and Rico. The others were off to the side of him around Santa so he didn't see them right away. When he did Kowalski held his beak shut. He didn't like that, but put up with it as he was outnumbered the others assumed.
Everyone stared at Private stunned that he would be so hurtful, especially to his uncle! This of course included Santa. "Private! How could you say such things?!" he said his normal voice returning. "That's not you at all!"
Private glared at him in reply, struggling slightly in Kowalskis grip.
Everyone turned and stared at him thinking: "Could he be coming out of it?!"
"Rory! My Brain Energy Goggles?" said Kowalski
Rory nodded, retrieved them and put them on Kowalski which was a bit tricky as Kowalski was taller then her.
"Crud! I still need to adjust them, Rico could you hold onto Private?" he asked
Rico nodded and came right over. During the change over Private had enough time to say 'Skipper is a-!' before his beak was clamped shut again. Rico chuckled nervously.
Kowalski meanwhile adjusted his goggles, then looked everyone over to check them. Every-ones energy was pretty calm but Ricos which was spastic, that was normal for him though. It was a bit higher then normal though as they were worried about the situation. They were quickly calibrated.
"I forgot you had those!" said Skipper "Man, we could have really used them before."
"Yeah I know, but during his first wreckage of the HQ he broke them along with all the decorations. I repaired them while we were in here as I'm not taking chances this time." replied the tall penguin matter of factly.
Skipper grinned at him for his way of thinking. He grinned back then looked over at Santa, his energy was a bit more higher then normal, but it was fine when he took in account of his obvious worry for Private.
Kowalski then let out a high pitched squeal: "It worked! It worked! Ha ha! Woo!" He pumped his wings: "Yeah baby!" Everyone smiled at the results and how Kowalski was acting.
"Wait what? Are you sure Kowalski?!" said Skipper cautiously grinning.
"That's right! Energy don't lie! We did it! Boom-Shock-Anna!" said Kowalski
"I just love it!" said Athena "And I so have to remember that one Lt."
Kowalski grinned at her.
Tony and Rory volunteered to take Santa back into the main room and untie him.
"Son of the gun! Its a Christmas Miracle!" said Comet
"I'll say, great last effort Team Brit!" said Kowalski in a hushed voice as Rico released Private, who was completely fine.
Skipper and Athena: "Wait what the what?!"
"It was a trick?" asked Cupid
"Sort of. See we figured since scaring him back to his senses almost worked we thought making him worry enough about someone would. Turning me nearly as bad as him, or at least making him think Kowalski did, seemed like a good idea to do just that."
"So your fine then, you were only acting?" asked Athena
Private nodded: "And I of course I didn't mean what I said. I forgot you weren't in on it Athena. All the others that I yelled at were as well as Kowalski of course."
"But why not let everyone in on it?" asked Vixen
"We needed genuine shock for it to work the best." said Kowalski
"But if the machine didn't do anything to Private then-?" said Skipper
"It never was finished. Don't you remember me telling you that we may not have enough data to finish it?" said Kowalski
"But what about before? You said-" began Skipper
"All I said was 'The device', I never said it was done. You assumed it was done." said Kowalski grinning. Skipper shut his beak. "Now if you were wondering what we were doing in here before, I was fixing my Brain Energy Goggles while Rory was making the device look good."
"Good job guys, but I'm going to have to test him to make sure he doesn't relapse later like before." said Skipper turning and leaving the lab. The others found that understandable and braced themselves for it. "Santa! I have to tell you something!"
Santa looked over at the approaching Skipper. He was untied now and had been talking to Rory and Tony. "What is it Skipper?"
"We can't turn Private back to normal and the whole of Europe is going without Christmas because of production problems got so bad!" said Skipper
The others in the hallway either face-winged or face-hoofed depending on species, all but Nigel who said "What are you trying to do Skipper? Give him a heart attack?" Then he face-winged, but more to be funny then anything else. A few snorted at that line.
"Well, that's disappointing, but I'll make it up to those children somehow. Right now though we need to make sure Private is OK!" Santa replied sounding scared for the youngest penguin. He moved for the hallway, but Kowalski thought fast. He ran back into the lab and flipped on the machine again so Santa would here it. When he turned it off again Private walked out of the hallway acting like himself.
"Sorry for yelling at you all, I'm fine now." said Private to keep the ruse going.
"That's a relief." agreed everyone Though they all knew that Private really would have volunteered to test that machine if it really worked if it meant helping Santa.
"Sorry to scare you like that Skipper, turned out it was only a loose connection and I panicked. Rory found it." said Kowalski
She shrugged as everyone grinned at her.
Santa hugged Private then looked at Kowalski and said "Kowalski options on how we can bring Christmas to Europe!"
Everyone laughed as they didn't see that coming!
"Simmer down Santa I was only testing you to see if you would flip out again. Production is fine I promise." Skipper said very quickly though he was still chuckling.
"Oh OK, that makes sense. Well for around here anyway." he replied with a wink. Everyone laughed again.
"Rico, did you teach him to be sassy?" asked Athena grinning.
"Yup and I'm proud!" said Rico
"That a penguin!" said Athena with a snort. She and Rico high fived.
"Well, we accomplished the mission in time for Christmas! Sweet!" said Skipper "Not going to lie, was getting nervous there for an while." The others agreed.
"Well I should head for home now I think, still got to check that list one more time before the big day, but don't worry I will relax until I have to ride." said Santa The Team Of Penguins were nervous to let him go though. "I will also stay in New York until then too. I have a copy of the list at the office." They were all OK with that.
"Call if you need anything." said Private
The others nodded as they left. Kowalski went with them so he could UN-shrink Santa when they got to a safe spot.
"Are you sure that your OK?" Kowalski asked before heading back to HQ after UN-shrinking Santa.
"Pretty sure, I'm in good hooves and you will be called if your needed." replied Santa The reindeer nodded.
"Well alright, as long as your all sure." said Kowalski He hesitated for a moment then headed for home.
"Well that was an interesting test, wasn't it?" asked Santa of his reindeer as they turned to head to the office.
"Yes, but you could have clued us in before we called in The Pumpkin King though." said Cupid
"In retrospect that would have been a good idea." agreed Santa with an embarrassed laugh.
Later And Elsewhere: It was Christmas Day and the party for the little ones was over. It had been lots of fun, but now it was time for The Team to open their presents and have their own little party, complete with an eggnog chugging contest. In which Rico was finely bested by none other then Tony. Ricos beak dropped open when he did it.
"Ha! I'm the zen master of chugging!" said Tony putting his wings together at his chest. The Team laughed and clapped for him. "Thanks guys, now I have to lay down for a bit." The other couldn't blame him for that. Athena went and sat with him and for a bit they were being all cute and such. Rico got easily distracted by a present from Kowalski. He had made Piss Perky into a very smart and capable robot who could talk.
"Whoa!" yelled Rico
"I knew you'd like her!" said Kowalski "I happened along some plans that were in your writing Rico while I was cleaning a while back. They were quite good just needed a few tweaks here and there."
Rico rubbed that back of his head slightly embarrassed by the praise.
Skipper didn't seem to like it, but it was Christmas and Rico was really happy so he held his beak. The former humans were all holding in Small Soldiers comments grinning. Especially after Kowalski showed Private that he had done the same to a Luna-corn toy that was big enough for him to ride on.
"OK the plans for that were Nigels, again had to tweak it a bit, but that's OK." said Kowalski The tech penguin was then tackled to the floor by his two teammates hugging him. Kowalski laughed and would have hugged them back if his wings weren't trapped. Private got up then hugged his uncle too. He grinned and hugged him back.
From the others Kowalski got stuff for that lab, either things he needed or he wanted. He was all happy too. He gave the other various science things, though not Skipper and Rico. They got special edition army toys.
Skipper gave everyone coupons that they could turn in to get out of things like hard training and such. They only got ten each though. Skipper got detective stuff. It was a theme plan from Nigel.
"Trying to turn me into you?" he asked Nigel grinning.
"Oh no! Hes on to me crew!" said Nigel
Everyone laughed.
Private gave everyone things that matched there personality, Nigel did the same. He even got Rory a eye scanner and they had only just met pretty much.
"I have always wanted one of these!" Rory yelled
"How did you bloody do that?" Athena asked him.
He only grinned.
Rico was nervous as it was his turn to give his theme present which in its self was an accident theme this Christmas from everyone, but Nigel who had done it on purpose with Skipper with the whole crew, but Rory whom he hadn't met yet. She had fit though by happenstance.
"Oh come on Rico its OK." said Private "I bet your present will me great!"
"Yeah, its not like its a contest." said Kowalski
"OK." said Rico with a timid grin on his face. He went over to the tree and pulled out his box for the crew. Then he opened it up and backed away so the others could gather around and look inside.
"Binders?" asked Skipper picking one up that had his picture on it. Everyone picked up theirs.
Rico rubbed the back of his head: "Open them."
The crew shrugged and did as told. What they found were scrapbooks, carefully made to suit who they went to. They didn't have anything dangerous to be written down for them, just good times and funny or cute pictures and some neat little drawings done by Rico on occasion.
"So this is what you kept hiding behind you back." said Skipper grinning. "These are really neat Rico." The others nodded in agreement. Rico clapped all excited at hearing that they liked their present.
Tony got everyone camouflage of their favorite color.
Rory sewed everyone capes just to annoy Skipper, but he laughed with the others. She liked the reaction.
"No, wonder you said we weren't allowed to play together Athena." said Nigel grinning.
Athena laughed then gave her present, which were new monster trucks for Skipper and Rico, a model on the newest sonic screwdriver for Kowalski, an official Luna-corn blanket for Private, an official Sherlock magnifying glass for Nigel and Tony and Rory got tickets to their favorite plays, front row and back stage passes.
Skipper grinned then announced: "Now its time to open the gifts from Santa!"
"Yay!" everyone shouted Kowalski got some kind of high tech scanner, Skipper got a new digital camera, Rico received a new set of nun-chucks, Private received an autographed Luna-corn poster, Nigel loved getting a special edition Sherlock book, Tony got a gourmet cook book, Rory got customizable set of high tech binoculars.
Athena got her present from Santa last as she was opening it on the table she spoke: "Here's a question, how did Big Red get back in here without us knowing?"
"That's why Santas, Santa!" said Skipper "The big mans got some talent!"
"Yeah, Nigel like talent." said Rory grinning. Nigel gave a showmen bow grinning.
Athena laughed: "Good thing hes a friendly." She then flipped open her box. 'Fu-!' was all she was able to get out as she was engulfed in a cloud of sleeping gas and fell down. She knocked the box in front of her onto her own face.
The others looked at each other. Skipper then removed the box from his Lady Soldiers face to see that she now had a latest edition gas mask on it. He blinked then snorted as did the others. A note then drifted out of the box to land near Tony, who laughed when he read it.
"Oh I got to hear that!" said Skipper grinning.
"A Christmas Running Gag, is the greatest running gag of all. I hope you enjoyed this one. - Best regards Santa." Tony said laughing again. The others joined in.
The End
~Authors Note: Hey there! I hoped you liked the Christmas Edition of Oops We Got Penguin! The request and idea of the story came from Skyress1. This story was fun to do if a bit hard. Had a bit of help from Briiney d.k and others who are not on the site. Yeah I outsourced this one a bit which was part of the fun. Hopefully you all liked the special guest appearance from The Pumpkin King. That one came from Marc who yes also made an appearance, but all in fun. Anyway I'm rambling have a merry time reviewing and a Merry Christmas!~
~Over & Out~