Roughing It

Chapter 1- Three Lazy Sacks

"Private, these are wonderful," Kowalski said with a sigh of contentment. "So good."

Kowalski, Rico, and Private were all enjoying some delicious smoothies outside the headquarters. It was a sunny morning and they were soaking up their daily supply of vitamin D. It felt nice just to relax and do nothing…

Meanwhile, Skipper was just coming back from patrolling the zoo for anything suspicious. He was thinking to himself how great and hard working his team was. They were the perfect penguins to be on a team with. Infact, when he came back they would probably be spying on Alice like he told them to do. She had been doing things a little suspicious and they had to make sure she wasn't plotting anything diabolical. He was passing by Marlene's habitat and saw her outside sunning herself on a rock, wasting the day away. How could she think of such time wasting when there was evil prowling the zoo? Skipper decided to help her out. He jumped into the water and swam straight to her rock.

"Marlene…Marlene…MARLENE!"

"Wah!" She jumped up suddenly, her greenish brown eyes wide with shock. She seemed annoyed to see Skipper swimming in her water.

"What are you doing wasting time?" he questioned assertively. "There is too much to do."

"Like?.." she pressed.

"Alice." He jumped out of the water and pointed to Alice who was talking on a cell phone and staring at the beautiful sky. "She is on to something, Marlene. Can't you tell?"

"No, I really can't," she replied, rather annoyed. "Well, you're the only one who is taking this seriously. Just enjoy the sun."

Marlene fell back on to her warm rock. Skipper couldn't believe what he was hearing. He grabbed Marlene before she slumped down and shook her by the shoulders.

"Don't give in to that," he ordered. "Without my team and I keeping the zoo safe it would be crawling with flying piranhas by now."

"You're team, huh?" she answered sarcastically and roughly pushed him away. "Well, there's your loyal team. They are relaxing in the sun too."

"They're WHAT?"

Sure enough, Skipper could see the three of them soaking up the sun with smoothies. They blew off their training so they could waste time!

"GrrrrrRR!"

Skipper dived back into the water and headed for the penguin habitat. Marlene sighed with relaxation and lied down on the rock for another nap.

The penguins were about asleep when they heard the splash of Skipper returning. They slowly blinked open their eyes and saw a very angry Skipper staring at them. They lowered their sunglasses and watched.

"What on earth are you guys doing?" he demanded. "Smoothies?"

Rico tried to drink it up while Skipper was raging, only for it to be taken away. The three of them looked up at Skipper like a puppy that displeased its owner.

"What about your mission?" Skipper pressed. "Perhaps you solved that and finished early?"

Rico and Private immediately turned to Kowalski to answer for them. Kowalski forced himself to meet Skipper's icy blue stare.

"We…didn't find anything," he admitted and then shied away.

"I am not surprised," Skipper continued. "Such laziness is unacceptable. All three of you, push-ups!"

"What?" Private whined.

"Make it 20, soldier."

"I really think that-"

"What's that? 25 it is." Skipper decided and cut Kowalski off.

"But I didn't-"

"30, alright."

"Buttons!" added Rico.

"Okay, 40."

Kowalski was about to say something, but he was tackled by Private and Rico before he could say anything. They didn't argue anymore and started to do perfect push-ups, growling to themselves about Skipper's strict attitude. Skipper watched them with satisfaction and then plopped down in a sun chair with a smoothie to enjoy the sunlight.