Chapter 4 – Taken over

A/N: I'll be changing the point of view sometimes to see things that's happening far away from Private and Skipper. You'll find out what will happen to the zoo in this chapter.

Enjoy the read.

PoM

Skipper found himself inside Blowhole's base. Everything around him was dark. How did he get here and how? He looked over and saw Private walking away from him.

"Private?" he said, running to him. Private turned around, smiling at him and extend his flipper. Confused, Skipper reached for it and touched it. To his surprise, Private slowly began vanishing and disappeared in puff of smoke. "What just happened?" He said to himself. Then he heard chuckling coming from behind him, a familiar one. He spun around and saw something that made his eyes go wide. Rico and Kowalski were lying on the ground wounded and motionless and over them stood Blowhole laughing manically.

"You were too late Skipper." he said before laughing again.

Skipper woke up with a loud gasp. His heart racing and his mind was cloudy. It was just a dream. Skipper thought. He then noticed he was sitting in a place he wasn't familiar. It was raining outside and his body had bandages around it. His right eye was throbbing and he couldn't open it.

"Skippah, you're awake!" Skipper looked over and saw Private staring at him with concern. His head was bandaged too.

"Private? What happened to you and where are we?" he asked.

"We had a fight with the Rat King remember? You were hit pretty badly and it began to rain so I brought you here inside this box in the alley. I also searched in your back bag and took the first aid kit to treat you're wounds and mine. Sorry." he said quietly with frown on his face.

Skipper smiled. "It's okay, you did what you had to and you also saved me from that sewer rat." he replied. Private didn't feel so proud about that. If he didn't get captured by the Rat King Skipper wouldn't have held back and wouldn't have gotten those injuries in the first place. He couldn't help feeling guilty for it. He couldn't help but to feel as if he was a burden. Skipper would have beaten the Rat King if he didn't get in the way. Sighing Private looked away.

Skipper meanwhile was massaging his sore eye trying to ease the pain. He sighed in frustration and shuffled in his back bag and pulled an eye patch from it. "So? Whaddya think?" he asked after wearing the eye patch.

Private raised a brow. "Why would you bring an eyes patch with you?"

Skipper shrugged. "You can never be too paranoid right?" he joked halfheartedly. This made Private break into laughter but stopped when his Stomach growled loudly. Private blushed under his feathers.

"Hungry right?" Skipper grinned and pulled a tuna can from his bag. "Since I didn't account on you coming along we'll have to share one can each time until we found more food." Skipper noted. Private nodded in understanding. While they were eating Skipper thought about the dream he had earlier. It felt so real to him somehow. Now he wanted to save Kowalski and Rico even more than before, but what did the part about Private mean? He glanced at his teammate who was eating his fish slowly.

As Private ate a loud cough escaped him even louder than the one before. He felt a wave of chill go through his body and shivered from the cold. Skipper noticed that.

"Private, are you sure you're okay?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Of course I am Skippah!" Private chirped, smiling at him.

Skipper didn't buy it this time and extended his flipper to his forehead. "Hold still," he said as he touched his bandaged forehead and nick. "You're hot!" Skipper gasped. "Why didn't you tell me you have a fever?" he growled at him.

"I-I didn't know Skippah. I'm sorry." he stuttered nervously.

"We need to get you to the hospital ASAP." the leader stated.

"But what about the mission and the guys?" asked Private.

"You go can't face Blowhole like this. You're condition might get worse! We'll head to the closest animal hospital when the rain stops."

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Back at Central Park Zoo, Marlene left her habitat after the rain stopped and decided to have a quick walk through the habitats. The zoo has been quiet ever since Private left to go after Skipper. She glanced at the penguin habitat and hoped the penguins were alright right now. Nothing would feel the same without them. She thought. Just then she heard some weird noises coming from the HQ. Marlene gulped and went to investigate it. Slowly, she entered the hatch and saw the three lemurs carrying the team's stuff.

"Julian, what are you doing?" she questioned. Julian was startled by her presence.

"Oh hello Marlene, well since the silly penguins aren't here I thought of 'borrowing' some of their cool things." the lemur explained holding Skipper's coffee maker.

Marlene rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "Julian, put it back."

"Fine!" Julian groaned and put it away.

"Guys until Skipper comes back you can't take-"before she could finish her sentence the sound of explosion was heard and the ground shook violently.

"What WAS that!?" Maurice asked once he was on his feet again.

"It came from outside!" Marlene and the lemurs hurried to the surface to see what caused the tremor. They all gasped at what they saw. The zoo gate was blown apart and an entire army of lobsters was entering the zoo lead by Hans the puffin! He had his flippers behind his back as they circled the habitats shooting the animals with the same darts they used on Rico and Kowalski.

"We have to save them!" the otter exclaimed.

Maurice countered. "But there's too many of them. We can't fight all of those lobsters alone."

"I am thinking he has a point there." Julian added.

"Um…guys?" said Mort, getting their attention. It was then they realized that while they were arguing ten lobsters surrounded them. The four animals tried to fight back all the enemies but there were too many of them and lost the fight. After they were tied up together with a robe Hans came smiling smugly at them.

"Release the king! The others are optional." the ringtailed said.

"Julian!" Marlene shot back.

"Don't worry no one is leaving, you all will stay as our prisoners." Hans stated.

"You tricked us! You wanted Private to leave the zoo, didn't you?" Marlene said.

Hans shook his head. "Yes I did want Private to leave the zoo and no I didn't lie about the surprise that the doctor has in store for Skipper." he turned to the lobsters behind him. "Lock them away." he said. They did as they were told and pulled the four animals away from him. Hans pulled a walkie-talkie and spoke in it.

"Good news Dr. Blowhole, we have invaded the zoo."

"Excellent."

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A/N: Time for the messages!

Chilly47penguin: I love the Skipper/Private bonding too.

Mikadaphne28: Thanks for the compliment.

Review!