The three penguins, Rico, Private, and Kowalski, stood there, panting and gasping for breath. Their training had just begun. Skipper, on the other hand, leapt nimbly behind a bush, which they failed to notice although it was merely five feet in front of them. True, it could be that it was only 0100 hours and was pitch-black outside, but then again, Skipper had long since proventhat, clearly, he was the master regardless of the time of day. He waited behind that very bush until he grew bored, and decided at last to make a very risky move.
"Catch me if you can!" exclaimed Skipper, jumping out and leaping through the air, landing inches in front of Kowalski. Kowalski (predictably) lunged forward and made an attempt to pin Skipper to the ground, despite how outmatched he was and how clouded his vision had become.
Skipper, of course, only had to jump up at the right moment to land on top of the intellectual penguin, whom he pinned down. Kowalski had just kicked him off when Private and Rico decided to come charging at Skipper from either side. Unfortunately for all three of them, neither saw in time that Skipper had been kicked away, and they collided with a loud CRASH, landing on poor Kowalski.
Skipper roared with laughter from his safe spot in a tree, where he could watch the whole scene unfold. Between his fits, he managed to get in, "This is better than a movie!"
Kowalski, meanwhile, was furious at Rico and Private for giving him an angry-looking lump the size of a golf ball on his head. Both simply backed away, hunched up their shoulders in a terrified way, and smiled nervously. Kowalski sighed. Despite the growing pain on the top of his head where the lump swelled, he knew he couldn't stay angry at these guys for long.
He WAS still angry at his leader, who nearly fell off of his tree in a laughing fit, however. It was questionable why he had brought them out at this time of night at all, much less why he would put all of the most difficult training missions into effect. Kind of cruel, really.
But that didn't matter now. It didn't matter because Kowalski crept up behind the tree, keeping extremely quiet, and was about to beat Skipper at his own game at long last. At long last, he would take the overly-paranoid penguin by surprise and recieve much-deserved glory...
He was once again wrong, sadly. DEAD wrong. Just when he navigated through the branches and came to where Skipper sat, he took a closer look. Turns out "Skipper" was a stuffed penguin from the Zoovenier Shop.
"How the heck does he do it?" Kowalski wondered aloud, throwing the toy.
Private, who had been watching, suddenly yelled, "LOOK OUT!" Kowalski whirled around just in time to see Skipper charging at him, jumping from branch to branch. All of a sudden he was shoved off of his limb and sent plummeting to the cold, hard ground.
When he hit the concrete, he was seeing stars.
"Kowalski? Are you okay?" asked Private, worry filling his voice.
"Yes, Skippy do may be fine but he's still got his looks!" he replied, obviously confused. Skipper rushed over, and Rico followed close behind. Upon seeing that he hadn't killed his friend and that he would be okay, thankfully, he yelled,
"Well men, cease with mission catch me if you can. Kowalski is not fit for duty, and you boys couldn't have caught me if I was tied to the tree." Private looked embarrased, Rico was speechless, (not unpredictable for him) and Kowalski was still losing the battle of standing up straight, so he paid no notice.
The three exhausted penguins followed the experienced master back to their base, and by the time they got there they were practically walking zombies, longing for sleep. They fell onto their beds.
"Good night, men." said Skipper, climbing into his bunk as well. "How are you doing, Kowalski?"
"Cheers." he replied, holding up an air cup and curving his flipper as if he was really holding one.
"Still confused, sir." said Private.
Skipper sighed. "Hopefully better by tomorrow."
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It was now 8:00 AM, and Marlene could feel the sun shining on her fur on this warm summer's day. She yawned loudly and stretched for a second, groaning all the while. After a moment's thought, she decided to head over to the penguin's base. Sure, it was early, but for one thing she knew that she would most likely be caught by Alice or one of her co-workers if she waited until later. Besides, the penguins were already up by that time, she was sure.
Nodding as if agreeing to herself, Marlene began the short walk to see her 4 (sort of phycotic) friends.
But something caught her attention along the way.
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Back at the base, Skipper and Rico sat at their concrete-brick table, shoving fish down their throats as if they hadn't eaten in days.
Kowalski waddled over and arched an eyebrow at them. "Uh...is it Juliens Madagascar banana-mango smoothie?" he wondered.
"Well, I see you're...better this morning..." Skipper replied, gasping for breath.
"Yeah, just a headache."
Skipper's gaze lingered on Kowalski for another moment, unsure. "Yes, it is." he answered the question. "Ugh!" he shuddered violently. "Who would eat that junk? I personally prefer Private's delicious love smoothies. Took me ten fish just to wash out the wretched taste of Julien's horror-in-a-bottle!"
Kowalski could just barely stop himself from correcting him and pointing out that the smoothie was in a glass, not a bottle.
Before anything else could be said, Marlene burst through the door.
"For the last time Marlene!" Skipper shouted. "Authorised-"
"-Personel only. Uh-huh." Marlene finished, arms crossed. "Honestly, if you want to keep me out that badly, you should get a security system that isn't defective."
At this, Skipper glared to the side at Kowalski, who looked away and failed to hold back a chuckle.
"Well, what is it, Marlene?" asked Skipper. She sighed. It was as if she couldn't just come in to visit! Marlene felt like pressing the matter further, but she knew what she had to tell them was much more important, so she let it drop.
"Listen up, guys." The penguins could tell from the way she said it that this news was far from good, but they wanted to hear nonetheless. Rico reluctantly cast aside another heaping bowl of cold, stinky fish, and gave Marlene his full attention. Private turned off the TV and turned around, as well.
"Alright. I don't think you're going to like this, though." She took a deep breath. "I overheard Alice talking to a few other zookeepers. Apparently, they got in early today, but-"
"Get to the point!" Skipper said.
"Right. Anyway, she says that the Central Park Zoo is going to rid of one of its animals next Friday. It is scheduled to go to Florida on a ship then."
Kowalski was already scribbling something in his notepad furiously. "It seems that the zoo has exceeded its maximum capacity." he informed them.
Marlene, with a confused look on her face, went on. "Um...yeah. Something like that...I think...but do you want to know what the worst part is?"
"Spit it out, otter!" yelled Skipper.
"Okay, okay! Sheesh Mr. Impatient. So, the worst part is...we don't know WHO it's going to be yet. I don't even think they've decided." Her tone was softer, quieter. "If you don't want to end up in a box to Tampa Bay, (or wherever it's going) I'd suggest you'd get on the human's goodsides between now and next Friday. Phil got sent there for awhile, once, while you guys were in Africa. Look what happened to him-"
"NOT TAMPA BAY! WE WNO'T LET THEM MAKE US MUTE LIKE PHIL! AHHH!" yelled Skipper.
Rico grunted at this comment angrily while the other three penguins bolted out the door, leaving him and Marlene alone.
"What? All I was going to say was that they gave Phil a strange haircut that lasted for awhile." Rico shrugged and grunted again.
"I know, Rico. I know..." Judging by the maniac shouts audible from outside, this was going to be a long week.
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Sorry this chapter was kind of boring. The next one is going to be very chaotic, and I might not post it for awhile since I'm still working on my other story, The Runaway. Please review this story!