My motivation for writing this story: I felt bad for Marlene that she was never able to get a snow cone in the "Otter Gone Wild" episode, and that her ferocious condition when outside of the zoo seemed likely to prevent her from being able to ever try leaving it again. I hoped that someday the penguins could give Marlene another shot at exposure to the outside world, but then I figured "Why 'hope' when I can make it happen myself?" And thus I try to set things right.
Where the show left off: In the actual TV episode "Otter Gone Wild," Marlene had been left inside of a cage at the zoo entrance as Julien and the four penguins walked away, seemingly forgetting about Marlene still being caged. This story begins where the show left off.
Five minutes had passed already, and Marlene, still caged from when she had gone wild in Central Park, began to wonder if her friends even knew she was still there.
"This has gone on too long to be funny," she said to herself. "It's bad enough that I have no idea how I got here and that Julien claims that I love him, but now they all leave me?"
Little did Marlene know that she was not the victim of a cruel practical joke; she had been caged for cause. She had gone with the penguins and Julien to get a snow cone, but lost her mind along the way.
Meanwhile, as Marlene sat down inside of the cage to wait until someone came to release her, Skipper and his penguin force were leaving the zoo through a different entrance for an important mission.
"Boys, we have a critical mission ahead of us, perhaps one of life or death," Skipper told his team as they waddled out of the zoo. "Central Park has an extensive video surveillance system, so everything that happened out there today is on record. While we know the parts of the park that are not seen by the cameras, circumstances beyond our control today forced us off of those safe paths. Men, we need to destroy the evidence."
"I understand that this is an important mission, sir," Private spoke up, "but isn't 'life or death' a little strong?"
Skipper then stopped leading his men and turned around to address Private's question. He looked Private dead in the eye as he spoke.
"Private, you're right, it probably isn't a life or death matter for us," Skipper stated. "But Marlene was out in the park, too, and for her it's a different story. If any human ever was to recognize her as the zoo's otter, because she went so crazy, they might think that she was rabid or extremely aggressive. I fear that–"
Skipper could not complete his sentence, and instead he turned away from his team to hide his emotion from them. He closed his eyes and began rubbing his head with his flippers.
"Are you OK, sir?" Kowalski asked after a moment went by.
Skipper then turned around to face his team once again.
"I fear that they would put her to sleep," Skipper then said. "I will not allow that to happen, but the potential for tragedy is real."
The other three looked at Skipper in horror of the thought of Marlene being euthanized.
"I fully comprehend that success of this mission is vital," Kowalski declared.
"Don't worry, Skipper, we won't fail," Private affirmed.
"Let's move!" Rico exclaimed.
Skipper then led his men over to a building which housed the office where the surveillance footage was recorded on tape. They were thankful to find no humans around to interfere with their operation upon entering into said office.
"Those humans and their lunch breaks," Skipper commented, "at least we can count on them to do something right."
The team then looked at the many TV screens in the office. Each screen was divided into sixths, each section of which displayed a different angle live view of Central Park. It didn't take long before Kowalski spotted the TV that was showing the views of the area where the situation had unfolded earlier.
"I've got it," Kowalski said as he tapped that particular TV screen with a flipper. "It's TV number 16."
Upon hearing this, Rico waddled over to where the VCRs were and gave a swift roundhouse kick to the one corresponding with TV 16. The tape ejected, and he handed it to Skipper.
"Well done, boys," Skipper said. "Rico: Grenade me."
Rico then regurgitated a pineapple grenade and gave it to Skipper.
"Time to destroy the evidence," Skipper said as he began to head outside.
As the other penguins began to follow him, Skipper called them off.
"I've got this," he said. "You boys stay here and cover me. Make sure no humans are coming."
Skipper, however, had his own reason why he didn't want his team to join him: he wasn't really going to blow up the tape. Not yet, anyway. First, he had to do the hard thing; first, he had to show Marlene. It was just the right thing to do.
"I'll make things right, Marlene," Skipper said to himself as he threw the live grenade, but only for its sound to be used to cover his true intention.
Skipper then hid the tape under his left flipper and went back inside to rejoin his men. After the group spent a few minutes talking together about what kind of fish Alice might be bringing later, Private suddenly gasped at something important that they all had forgotten. Or rather, someone.
"Skipper, isn't Marlene still caged by Entrance 2?" Private asked, pulling on his leader's flipper to get his attention.
"Holy Hoover Dam with smoked salmon!" Skipper exclaimed, so caught off guard by the reality of Marlene still being caged that he couldn't even speak straight. "You're right! We just got so distracted talking briefly to Julien and then with our mission that I totally forgot!"
"Well, let's go, then," Kowalski stated.
"Uh-huh!" Rico agreed.
"Boys, it's all my fault for forgetting," Skipper said. "If it's the same with all of you, I'd like to just handle this one myself. Besides, there are two more things I need to do anyway."
"What?" Private asked.
"They're filed under 'classified' for now, but I'll let you boys know if they turn out the way I'm hoping," Skipper replied.
With that, Skipper left his team to head over to release Marlene, taking with him the surveillance tape that he still had hidden under his left flipper. Before he went over to her, however, he made a quick stop at the snow cone stand in Central Park, where he got two rainbow snow cones. It was step one in trying to make things right.
When he approached the cage, Skipper noticed that Marlene was laying down inside of it; she had been there so long that she had decided to take a nap.
"Knock, knock," Skipper said as he tapped the cage with his right flipper, the snow cones hidden behind his back in his left.
"Aaahh!" Marlene screamed as she was startled awake, noticing then that Skipper was there. "Oh, it's only you, Skipper. It's you! Hey, what took you so long?"
"The truth is that we all got distracted and honestly forgot," Skipper said as he opened the door on the cage. "But this was my responsibility, so the blame is all mine. I'm sorry."
"I can let go the fact that you made an honest mistake, but why was I caged to begin with?" Marlene asked as she climbed out of it. "It wasn't a very nice joke for all of you to play on me."
"Marlene, I know that we don't always agree on things, but you know that you can always trust me, right?" Skipper asked.
"I thought that I could trust you the most of anybody," Marlene replied.
"You still can trust me the most of anybody, and I need you to right now," Skipper told her seriously. "I assure you that there never was any joke against you."
Marlene knew that her strong-willed friend could never speak such words unless they were true, so her faith and trust in him quickly came back.
"What happened?" Marlene asked.
"There's something I need to show you, but not this minute," Skipper replied. "Right now, before they melt away, I have something to cheer you up."
Skipper then presented Marlene with one of the snow cones that he had hidden behind his back, taking the other for himself.
"Cheers," Skipper said as he and Marlene tapped their snow cones together, Skipper then beginning to eat his.
"So, this is a snow cone?" Marlene said as she took her first bite. "It is pretty good."
"I knew that you would like it," Skipper said with a smile.
The two then continued to eat their snow cones, then drank the sweet liquid of what had melted in the bottom. Skipper then threw away his and Marlene's empty paper cones and then he returned back to where they had been standing.
"The fun's over, isn't it, Skipper?" Marlene then asked. "How bad is what you have to show me?"
"We need to go over to your habitat so I can use your VCR," Skipper told her as he put a flipper on her back. "But don't worry, I'll be with you the whole time that you watch it."
"Watch it? What is it?" Marlene asked as she and Skipper began walking to her habitat.
"It's security camera footage from Central Park," Skipper replied.
"But I don't remember a thing about Central Park," Marlene said. "Was I there?"
"I'm not sure why you can't remember, but yes, you were there," Skipper replied.
The two soon arrived at Marlene's habitat, and Marlene took a seat on her couch as Skipper put the tape he had tucked under his left flipper into the VCR. Skipper then turned on the TV and waddled over to sit next to Marlene on the couch.
"You can forget about having popcorn watching this one," he slightly joked before getting serious. "I tried to keep upbeat and focused on my mission throughout what you are about to see, but the whole time it secretly hurt me inside to see you this way. Normally, I would just ignore things like this and try to move on, but I believe that you would want to know the truth."
Skipper then picked up the remote control.
"I'm sorry," he said as he pressed the play button.
With Skipper beside her for support, Marlene then watched the tape of herself going wild in Central Park. She couldn't help but hate herself for what she saw, not to mention how embarrassed she felt. She was thankful that it was at least only Skipper there watching with her.
When the video came to the point where she had been caged, Marlene reached out and tapped Skipper on the shoulder.
"Stop the tape, Skipper," she said. "I understand why I was caged now, and I don't blame you or the others for doing it."
As Skipper stopped the tape, Marlene began to lose it. Throughout all she had watched, she had been too shocked to cry, but she could no longer keep her emotions in control.
"I'm so ashamed," Marlene said as she buried her face in the arm of the couch and began to cry.
"Please don't cry, Marlene," Skipper said.
"And why not?" Marlene asked.
Skipper put a flipper on Marlene's back and patted her.
"Because I'm here for you," he said. "Tears don't solve anything, but friends can."
Skipper was one to usually keep unemotional about things, but he would do anything to comfort Marlene when she truly needed a friend. His words of reassurance were enough to convince Marlene to stop crying and bring her head back up.
"Thank you," she said as she briefly tapped on Skipper's nearest flipper. "Can I talk to you a little about what I just saw?"
Skipper nodded.
"That creature was so unlike me," Marlene said. "All you wanted to do was show me the outside. I'm so sorry that I ruined your day by making you and the others have to take me down. And I can understand now why Julien thought that I loved him: I went after him like he was my boyfriend. That's–"
"That's the stuff of nightmares, Marlene," Skipper jumped in with.
"Well, I was going to say, 'That's not what I wanted,'" Marlene said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Julien is a friend of mine, but I don't want to go out with the guy. He's just not my type on so many different levels. He means well, but he's the kind of guy you'd expect to marry a wooden doll or something."
"I hear you," Skipper said, though he was slightly embarrassed, for he had once been briefly married to a wooden doll himself, though he had never talked with Marlene about it.
"I can't believe that I kissed him," Marlene declared. "I'm not supposed to be doing things like that. And why him instead of you or one of the other penguins? Is it because we're both mammals?"
"No," Skipper said. "I think it's just because you were crazy then and went for the craziest animal you could find. And Julien takes the cake on that one."
Then, without warning, Marlene suddenly leaned over and gave Skipper a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, what was that for?" Skipper questioned.
"I feel the need to stay neutral between you and Julien," Marlene replied. "Everything's even now."
"But you were – and I say this with all due respect – mentally unbalanced when you kissed Julien," Skipper stated. "You're perfectly sane now."
"Just trying to square things up," Marlene replied.
"Square things up?" Skipper questioned, but in a friendly way because he knew that his friend was truly good-intentioned. "What if I wanted to 'square things up' back and suddenly gave you a kiss on the cheek?"
"I know you too well, Skipper," Marlene replied. "I know that you'd never do that. It's part of the trust I have in you; it's part of the respect we have for each other."
"Right you are," Skipper said. "But do you mind if we now move on to a different topic?"
"That would be fine," Marlene replied.
"Well, giving you a snow cone was one of the things I wanted to accomplish with you this afternoon, but I had one more thing, too," Skipper said.
"And you showed me the tape of my madness and talked to me about it, so that's it, right?" Marlene asked.
"No, Marlene, the tape was only to set-up the next thing I was hoping you'd be willing to do," Skipper said as he reached out a flipper to touch Marlene's arm. "Trust me on this one, I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think you could do it. It would make me feel so good if you could do this."
"What?" Marlene asked.
"Would you like to give leaving the zoo another shot?" Skipper asked.
"Another shot?" Marlene asked. "Are you crazy? You may not know what caused me to go wild, but I bet I can figure it out: I was overwhelmed with the sudden freedom of the outside world."
"Then we can do it slowly," Skipper suggested. "It really doesn't need to happen all today. I'll work with you to gradually introduce you to the outside world over time."
"Skipper, I don't know," Marlene said. "This all happened because I was born in captivity; it's who I am."
"Marlene, I don't believe that being born in captivity defines who you are," Skipper said. "I know some good men who were born in captivity."
"Who?" Marlene wondered.
"Well, there's Kowalski and Private to start with," Skipper said. "And then there's – well – there's me."
"You were born in captivity?" Marlene asked. "You couldn't have been. You're not afraid of anything, and you seem to be able to just leave the zoo like it was nothing. I don't believe it."
"Marlene, it's absolutely true," Skipper stated. "I was born – well, to be correct, I hatched – at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium on June 20, 1989. And I didn't even step foot into the world outside of a zoo until I was more than four years old and at a zoo I had been transferred to overseas."
"Well, how did you take your first step out?" Marlene asked.
"Very carefully," Skipper replied. "Just like you're going to do."
"Why, Skipper?" Marlene asked. "Why do you want me to be able to leave the zoo so bad?"
"Because you deserve to," Skipper replied. "You deserve to come out for snow cones with us. You deserve to experience what the world and life has to offer. And most of all, you deserve to rise above this obstacle that I know you can overcome."
"Skipper, this is a big decision," Marlene said. "Can I think it over and tell you what I decide tomorrow?"
"Of course," Skipper said.
"And you won't lose respect for me if I decide not to?" Marlene asked. "Or if I decide to try and fail?"
"Don't worry," Skipper said, "you'll always be my favorite mammal."
Skipper then got up from the couch and waddled over to the secret panel in the floor of Marlene's habitat where some dynamite was stored, just one of many such compartments of secret explosives that the penguins had hidden throughout the zoo. He opened it up and reached down to get a stick.
"You don't mind if I grab a stick of dynamite before I leave, do you, Marlene?" Skipper asked.
"Well, it is your dynamite," she replied.
Skipper then took the stick with him as he waddled over to take the surveillance tape out of the VCR. He then made his way to the door.
"I'll be back tomorrow morning," Skipper said. "I know you'll make the right decision."
With that, Skipper left Marlene's habitat. Five minutes later, the tape was blown to smithereens.
