Hello, everyone! It's me again with a new story! Enjoy! :)

P.S: The title's still a working progress so feel free to suggest anything. ;)

Chapter One

"Don't worry, Momma Duck. We'll take care of them for you," Skipper reassured the mother calmly.

"Oh, I trust you boys," Momma Duck replied, although she kept sneaking a glance at Rico. "But I'm more worried about my children. You see, they can be—"

"I assure you, we have everything under control," Skipper cut in smoothly. "And I'll personally make sure my boys don't do anything dangerous."

"Well," Momma Duck looked unsure. "I don't know about this. I'll be gone for a week, and this is the longest I've been away since. Perhaps I should bring them along—"

"There's no need," Skipper assured once more. "We have everything under control. We are an elite force of soldiers, you know."

Before the other could answer, Private stepped up next to his leader, ignoring Bradley who was attempting to climb his flipper. "We'll take great care of them," he said sincerely. "You don't need to worry at all!"

She chuckled, gently tugging away her son from his vigorous attack on the penguin's flipper. "If you insist, then." She called her children to her. "Now, you all be good to the penguins, here, all right? They're in charge while I'm gone, so I want you to do whatever they say. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Mom," they chorused. "We'll be good."

She laughed at their act. "Now where have I heard that before?" Her children grinned up innocently at her. Momma Duck turned to the penguins. "If they're naughty or anything, don't be afraid to punish them or give them timeouts." She thought for a while. "But no military stuff, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Momma Duck sighed, giving each of her children a kiss on their foreheads. She flapped her wings a few times before flying. "Be good!"

"Bye!"

"Have a safe trip!"

"See you soon, Mom!"

They waved until she was merely a spot against the horizon.

Skipper sharply spun on his heel, gazing at the small ducklings. "All right, soldiers. It's getting late, so we'd better get back soon. Private and Kowalski, lead the way. Rico and I will stay at the end to pick up any stragglers," he said this with a crafty grin.

The ducklings looked at him with wide eyes. Eggy raised a wing. "Mister Penguin, sir? What will we be doing while Mom is gone?"

"Arts and Craft!" answered Private excitedly. "And plays and stories!"

"And more," Skipper quickly hushed Private before the youngster could say more. They hadn't really stocked up for anything of those things, and Skipper didn't want to disappoint the ducklings….

Eggy grinned, nudging Samuel and whispering something in his ear, causing both of them to bend over with laughter. Skipper raised a brow at this but shook his head. Eh, it couldn't be anything harmful. Goodness knows he had whispered things to his friends as a cadet.

"All right," he clapped his flippers. "Let's get a move on if we want to get back before dark."

They waddled back to the zoo in a straight line. Skipper smiled to himself as he watched the ducklings walk obediently behind each other. Well, this was easier than he had thought! Besides, how hard could it be?

"Eggy, don't you dare drop that—"

Boom!

"Gah!"

Kowalski clenched his flippers as his precious mixture fell to the ground, creating a miniature explosion. His eyes tore away from the broken glass up to the grinning duckling on the stool. A touch on his shoulder turned his head back. Skipper shook his head warningly. "No, you can't strangle him."

"But—"

"I know."

Skipper mentioned for Private to come and scoop Eggy up. The penguin waddled out of the lab as Kowalski gaped at Skipper. "He's going to get off just like that? I thought we had better discipline!"

Skipper winced. "As much as I would like to pound some good old fashioned army sense into them, you know what Momma Duck said. No military stuff. We barely got Eggy to take up dancing, and that was only by luck – I don't like to base anything on luck."

"No! Samuel! Come back here!"

The two penguins glanced at each other before tearing out of the lab to find the main room in chaos. Skipper pressed a flipper to his forehead, shaking his head slightly. "Who knew babysitting was so hard?"

Kowalski looked at the room with wide eyes. "How in the world did this happen?"

At this moment, Private came running in, panting. "The ducklings have run away. They're being led by Eggy. Apparently, he used his military knowledge for pranks and stuff."

Skipper couldn't help but smile at that. "Ah, that would be from me. I still remember my tricks as a cadet."

"With all due respect, sir, this is not the time!"

"You're right. Move out, boys."

"Hold on." Kowalski stopped Skipper before he could move to the ladder. "Where's Rico?"

"Aerial surveillance," answered Private. "He'll be relaying their position to us."

"But how does he see the ducklings from the air?" wondered Kowalski.

Private shifted nervously. "They, uh, took the car."

"What?!"

"I believe what Private said was that they took the car, sir."

"I heard him the first time, Kowalski." Skipper took a deep breath. "All right. Here's what we're doing. Private, make sure Rico hears this through that radio I'm sure you gave him."

"Lady and gentlemen, commence Operation: Uh…. Samuel? Any suggestions?" Eggy frowned, pausing in his march in front of of his siblings.

His brother shrugged. "Not right now."

"Hmm… all right then. We'll just call it Operation: Runaway for now," the duckling concluded. "Sound good?"

There was a series of yes before Eggy raised his wing for silence. "Now, we need a place to lie low. Samuel?"

His brother sharply marched up to stand in front. "I suggest driving down to the harbor and lying low in one of the warehouses until we can figure out what our next plan of action is."

Ramona raised a wing. "Do we take the car again?"

Eggy shook his head. "By now, they should already know we took their vehicle and will be looking for it. We'll go on foot, riding on buses when we have the chance. Plus, it's less noticeable that way."

Bradley inclined his head. "Then why didn't we do it earlier?"

"We were aiming for speed. If we had gone on foot, the penguins would have a smaller area to cover once Kowalski does his equations. This makes for a larger search area, which is better for us because it buys us time."

"That make sense," Ramona thought out loud. "But which route do we take?"

At this, Eggy grinned, nodding to Samuel who tossed a folded sheet of paper to his sister. "Catch."

Ramona caught it, briefly scanning the map before raising a brow at her brothers. Samuel shrugged. "Hey, you're the only one here who actually took the time to learn to read."

Sighing, she unfolded the map, laying it on the ground and walking on it as she searched for their position. At last, she pointed to a spot. "We're approximately over here, so all we need to do is follow this road to the next junction, take a left, then a right, go straight, then we're done."

"Done?" repeated Bradley.

"We reached the harbor, genius."

"Oh. So do we move out?"

Eggy shrugged. "Sure, why not? The sooner the better."

Well, that's the first chapter. What did you all think?