Rico and Kowalski looked back at each other questioningly. Skipper knew not telling the boys about the incident with King Julien and the kangaroo was a good idea. Not only did it put Skipper in the 'Got saved by Ringtail' category, he knew he could have left this one as a surprise for the future.

"Breaking and entering? Sounds simple enough, but I'm sure you've done something to make this feasibly impossible.", said Kowalski doubting the words of Skipper.

"Nope.", said the commando smirking, "I can honestly say that I have not and will not interfere with this. Aside from the fact that it's my punishment it's as simple as that. Now clearly the two of you can't do this with the tourists around so this will begin a midnight making the your exit time 0600 hours, Comprendé?"

The scarred penguin wildly nodded as Kowalski gave a less then convinced 'Yessir'. Rico took this at face value and saw this as a lucky break, while the analyst was still hesitant to accept Skipper's honesty about the situation, but he had no time to react as Skipper continued, "Now you know the mission briefing. It'd be wise for the two of you to rest up and get ready before this afternoon's meet and greet. No need to compromise the mission now.", Skipper said chuckling, as if forgetting the harshness of the situation. Kowalski was slightly taken back, but just went to the lab to find something that would facilitate the oncoming trial and to prepare for...unforseen variables of a certain penguin. Skipper sighed as he saw the genius go to his little cave. The commando just prefered it when he was improvise with whatever he could get his hands on, but now that Kowalski had a base of operations, his obesession with the sciences truly showed and Skipper wasn't about to get caught up with anything this early in the morning, "I'm going for a walk to stretch off this morning stiffness."

"Mind if I go with you Skippa'? It's been awhile since we skulked around.", The naive penguin didn't catch the mood of the situation, but to his defense, Private did see it as an opportunity to squeeze out as much information about this punishment from Skipper without getting it himself, though Skipper only saw this as his childish nature surfacing.

"Sure, Private. Just remember the rendezvous is at 1200 hours.", and with that the commando headed out the door with his apprentice close behind.

Kowalski had called Rico to be in his lab with him. Alone. Rico was immediately uncomfortable, but Kowalski broke the silence. "Alright, Rico, no need for us to worry. Between the two of us, hanging around another animal's pen will be a piece of cake. We'll just need to gather essentials: fish, your stomach filled with assorted items of your choice, and my notebook. You and I will go through this like this zoo lousy excuse for security.". Scarface's ear canals focused on the word 'notebook'. Rico's couldn't help, but blush. Though he had no real proof that Kowalski was drawing the portraits out of any affection for him. It's not like there were hearts on his pictures, and he didn't check to see if the others were subjects as well. Clearly another peek would solve everything, but the more he looked the more he could get caught, or become needlessly more enamored, though doing nothing would be maddening. "Rico, pay attention. I'd rather not want to repeat this new move I've come up with.", said Kowalski pointing to a diagram that was easily overcomplicated, "This is perfect for you. Especially since your odd set of fears make you immune to the terribly awkward aspects of this. Please, listen to me.", he would have appreciated the neediness in Kowalski's voice even more if his daydreaming hadn't left him completely lost...again.

"Now then, I have this new device which can reach temperatures that can auto-ignite most explosives.", Kowalski said as he held up a large dumbbell. The psycho looked on perplexed, but then the demonstration answered all of his questions. As the genius held up the dumbell he swung it to reveal a lance and thrusted it backward to expose an extended handle. "Behold! THE SOLARIS 2000! A lance capable of hitting two thousand degrees farenheit! Equipped with a built-in extendable shield and a space age heatsink cooling fan handle at maximum capacity without the user so much as getting sweaty palms! The power of the sun! RIGHT IN THE TIPS OF OUR WINGS!", Kowalski said with absolute vigor with a bit of insanity, as Rico looked at the madman, but he finally understood why he was feeling conflicted about the genius to begin with. He was so much like Kowalski, but in his own way. Admittingly Rico himself was loose in the head and to be on this team you had to be at least a little, but only he and Kowalski were dangerously insane. The tall penguin had delved into the human's sciences pretty well, but sometimes he would appear to be so far gone and come back so easily. Rico wanted to make sure that he'd never lose Kowalski, not until Rico was sure that he felt the same way. Rico knocked the heat lance out of the insane one's wing, put his wings on his shoulders and looked him dead in the eye.

Kowalski calmed down from his insanity rush eventually, but not until he realized his position, he stammered a bit before saying, "Uh, Rico? What are you-", and that was all he could get out before Rico hugged him tightly. Kowalski was less than feeling the love at this moment, seeing his new invention on the ground; he quickly broke the embrace and rushed to the microscopically damaged device Kowalski inspected with his pocket microscope. "Look, I know you're concerned, but if it entails damaging my projects then I'd rather you not.", he looked it over and calmed down. ,"but thanks I guess. Anyway if you run out any fire source this'll be a nice back up". Rico heard this and nodded to signal that he understood. He then opened his mouth and motioned for Kowalski to put it in his mouth. Kowalski had trained Rico to do this when they were alone, mostly so that he didn't hurt himself, but Kowalski had grown to...appreciate this little activity between them. He retracted the Solaris 2K and put the first end on Rico's tongue and slowly slid it forward. Rico groaned a bit, it was a bit bigger than he anticipated, but he could handle it. The analyst proceeded to move it forward. During this time Rico could barely breathe and his face was becoming red and he was suffocating slightly, needingly prompting Kowalski to put it in deeper.

The genius could end it here. All of his worries about him snapping and finishing off everybody he could just end his worrying and stop it here, but it's too soon. ,"Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you could breathe!", and then he proceeded to slide in the rest of the Solaris. Suddenly Rico caught the end of Kowalski's wing with his beak. The smart guy had dread running through his veins. Had he finally caught on and about to catch the sharp edge of a of what he thought was a dull knife?

Rico took Kowalski's wing out of his beak and began to lick it with care with his head down. "Sorry...", Kowalski was starting to doubt his fears. Only a bit. Ever so slightly.

Meanwhile, Skipper and Private were making rounds around the zoo, although Private was having a hard time keeping up. "Skippa'! Could we slow down a bit?", whined Private.

"Come on, Private, look alive! We've barely started."

Mr. Naive was gasping for breath, "I think 30 laps in a couple of minutes is still beyond me, sir."

Skipper sighed. For someone who was so skilled and determined, he sure is a baby. "Alright, alright. Go rest under that bench and I'll get you some water from a nearby exhibit.", though since Skipper was so determined to attempt to break the speed of sound, he had lost track of where he was, right infront of the lemur exhibit. "Rotten Barnacles. I'm in Julien's territory. I'd better split before-"

"Hello, neighbor!", exclaimed an all too familiar catchphrase of a certain kingly lemur. All Skipper could do is sigh. "What are you to be doing here at MY kingly habitat so early in the morning, my stinky fish friend?"

Skipper could have taken evasive action, but the lemur had proven that he was slightly better than him when it came to agility. Not too much. Just a little. Enough to rival the commando penguin and win more often than he liked. "Hello, Julie-"

"KING Julien", insisted the lead lemur.

"King Julien. I was wondering if I could borrow a glass of water for Private. He's completely exhausted and-"

King Julien manually closed Skipper's beak, and continued, "Say no more. Maurice! Fetch me a glass of water and get the bad cup. It's for one of the penguins." Maurice complied and quickly got it for him. "There you go, my chubby little friend. Maybe you should consider working out a bit more." Private gave Julien a mean look and returned to under the bench, where he poked his belly with a concerned look.

Skipper would scolded him, but his beak was still under the king's paw. "No need to thank me, simply forgiving me your broken radio will be enough."

The commando's swatted away the paw clamping his beak together,"You're forgiven"

The king was offset by this. The routine was off. "What is this with the 'so easily forgiving me'?"

"Believe it or not, I have bigger fish to fry"

"Oh, of course. Frying bigger fish than me would be of the more higher importance to you. Go on about your busy-ness."

"That's not what I meant—Nevermind. After Private recovers I'll be on my way."

"You know, you don't HAVE to be in a hurry.", as the lemur inched over, lowering his voice, whispering into his ear, "You could be accompanying me on my bouncy."

Skipper did have a secret appreciation for Julien's bouncy, but that wasn't why he was stammering now, "L-Look, as much as I'd love to stay, I'm quite busy."

"Oh, is that being the truth? Because I thought you and the chubby one down there were racing around...having fun."

"We were doing morning exercises. Nothing more."

"But don't all four of you tend to do that at the same time? What is happening?"

"Sorry, that's classified information."

"Oh, just like the time we were in Joey's pen?", Skipper scolded King Julien, but he didn't take any mind to it. "Right. Keep it on the hush-hush. Geez, I don't see why you're so secrety about this. It's not like anything you didn't like happened. Well aside from Joey's beatings."

Skipper turned away, looking sad. "Julien. It's just that...I'm not ready to be as open about this as you are, but...it doesn't mean I don't feel the same way."

The lemur king smiled and embraced Skipper from the back,"I am respecting that. Which is why I haven't even told Maurice or Mort. As long as I have you I'll be complete, be it messing with you or messing with you."

The commando blushed a bit before coughing. ,"Good to hear. So...do you wanna meet up at 2100 hours?"

"Errrrrrr..."

"When the big hand is at 12 and the small hand is at 9 when it's dark."

"Okie-dokie, I'll see you then neighbor. Bye-bye!", and Julien proceeded to hop away with that goofy grin of his.

Skipper was temporarily fixated on King Julien when he mumbled, "Until we meet again, my king..."

"What was that Skippa'?"

The commando was actually caught off guard and quickly came up with an answer,"Uh, Unki'il Vermit Acken, Viking"

"Huh?"

"Ya' know, Unki'il Vermit Acken, the Viking. He was a famous viking that terrorizes all of the netherlands. You should really bone up on your Nordic history, you'll learn a thing or two. Well, now that you've rested up let's start sparring."

Private would have seconded guess what he said about that Viking if he wasn't interrupted with a drop kick to the beak. Though it's not his fault for not being ready, sometime you honestly can't guess what he might do.