I know this chapter has almost nothing to do with the story, but I just wanted to fit Julian in somewhere. Don't worry, the next chapter's going to have a lot more to do with the mystery.
"Hello, glad you guys could make it." Marlene opened the door. It was Saturday already and the two had accepted Marlene's invitation to dinner.
"Its nice to see you again under less... unusual circumstances." Kitka replied as she entered.
"Ma'am." Was the only greeting Skipper would extend. Marlene shut the door.
"I'm sorry the place is a mess, but we were supposed to be redecorating. Its a shame the decorators didn't turn out to be who we thought..." She was interrupted by the sound of someone coming down the stairs.
"Hello, you must be Skipper and Kitka. Marlene's told me a lot about you," Antonio shook hands with Skipper.
"Just how much did she tell you..." Skipper asked warily.
"Skipper, can you forget you're a government agent just for a few hours?" Marlene pleaded.
Marlene had made a paella, which they all found quite delicious.
"So Marlene tells me you saved her life?" Antonio asked. He seemed like a nice guy, but then enemy agents always do.
"Thats classi..." Skipper began to reply but was interrupted by Marlene.
"He knows everything, Skipper. Its fine to tell him."
"Well, yes. She was held hostage by a man by the name of Clemson, in order to disrupt the efforts of my team to bring him to justice."
"Didn't you swap places with her to save her life?"
"Standard policy. It was my duty to prevent any harm from coming to a civilian. I was rescued though..." Skipper lent over to kiss Kitka, making sure Marlene had a good view.
"Private," Kowalski walked into the room, "Will you be able to keep a secret... from Skipper?"
"Well... doesn't that violate..?" Private replied warily.
"You see, me and Rico are going to have an all night movie night, and probably make a huge mess of the place... we were wondering if you'd be happy to turn a blind eye?" Kowalski interrupted.
"Do I have any choice?"
"Not really. If you say no I'll just amnesia spray you so it doesn't really make a difference."
"Maurice, why are we still lost?" Julian King asked.
"I don't know sir, but I'm just following MORT's directions." Maurice replied.
"I'm giving directions to de feet!" MORT replied.
"Well that explains things." Maurice rolled his eyes.
"MORT, I am blaming you for getting me stuck in these boringy suburbs," Julian turned to face the window, pouting, then froze as if he had heard something, "De royal booty senses a party coming from that house, right there. Julian pointed at the house the car had just driven past.
"I'm not seeing much of a party..." Maurice replied.
"Exactly. It is my duty, as king, to turn any party from totally boring party, to an absolutely awesome party. Now Maurice, take me to the party!" Maurice walked up to the house and rang the bell. Kowalski opened the door cautiously, hoping it wasn't Skipper.
"Maurice! Is Blowhole after you again? I'll contact headquarters..."
"Don't worry, Wally," Julian pushed in front of Maurice and into the house.
"Its Kowalski."
"Alright wall skis, we are here for de party. Now Maurice, this wont do..." The two other teammates walked into the room, just as Julian began to set up the living room for what he claimed was going to be an extremely wild party. Kowalski buried his face in his hands
"I'm so on maintenance duty."
Antonio finished the song. Marlene had insisted that he play a bit for the guests, and Kitka had also wanted to hear some Spanish guitar.
"Absolutely beautifully," Kitka applauded. Skipper smiled and clapped, but underneath he was jealous. He could see why Marlene had picked Antonio over him, even if he hadn't told her they couldn't be together.
"Thank you senorita Kitka." He smiled warmly and Marlene wrapped an arm around him. Skipper looked out the window. He couldn't take much more of this.
"What the hundred year old herring!" He exclaimed. Bright lights and a lot of noise were coming from the house across the street. What was the team doing? He stood up.
"Marlene, I'm sorry to cut my visit short, but something strange is going on in the HQ." Skipper explained.
"It's pretty obvious Skipper, the team's having a party. Its not really anything to worry about." Marlene replied.
"Yes it is. Have you ever seen Rico at a party? He completely loses it. One time, when we were in Madagascar, he managed to blow up half the temporary HQ!"
"Alright Skipper, but I want you to explain whats going on to Antonio first."
"Marlene, thats highly classified information..."
"Don't get paranoid now, Skipper. It might be highly classified, but its our lives." Skipper sat down.
Kowalski picked this part of the conversation up from the bug he had placed in Kitka's handbag. Kowalski turned to face the rest of the room. The entire house had become packed, since Julian had invited all his friends.
"Everyone out! We only have about ten minutes before Skipper comes back!" Kowalski screamed at the room. Everyone continued to dance, Rico setting off small controlled explosions.
"But Wally, we only just started?!" Julian shouted back.
"ITS KOWALSKI."
"Whatever, wally. De booty will not stop shaking until the sun rises. That is my royal decree!"
"Rico, please escort the guests out the back entrance." Rico pulled a flamethrower out of his backpack, which really shouldn't be able to fit in a bag so small, but nobody asked. Immediately everyone but Julian, Maurice and MORT were out the kitchen entrance. Rico turned to the remaining guests, growling menacingly.
"I refuse to stop de shaking of de booty!" Julian replied defiantly.
"Kaboom?" Rico asked. Kowalski looked at his watch.
"Fine. Just try not to do too much structural damage."
"Nothing short of lederhosen will move de royal me." Julian stood, or more accurately, danced his ground.
"Um... your majesty, I really don't think you should have said that." Maurice added. Kowalski smiled deviously.
"Rico, lederhosen us!"
"No! No! Dey are horrible."' Julian screamed as the Rico and Kowalski chased Julian and his friends about the house, wearing florescent orange lederhosen. Still Julian refused to leave. Private had been assigned to clean up the house as best as possible.
"Kowalski!" Private shouted as the team ran past, "Kowalski, how do I explain all the mess to Skippah? There's no possible way to clean it up in time." Julian ran screaming past Private.
"Well...um." Kowalski thought.
"Kaboom invention." Rico called over his shoulder.
"Thats a brilliant idea, Rico. I'll blow up one of Kowalski's inventions and make it look like an accident!" Private ran towards the lab.
"Not the inventions! Fabric of space time! Not the inventions!" Kowalski shouted, still chasing Julian with the lederhosen, but it was too late. Private dragged some gigantic, and probably very big invention into the living room, grabbed a stick of dynamite, which Rico readily provided and blew up the machine.
"NO! The x-ray coffee warmer took months to build!"
Private heard a knock at the door.
"He's coming, Kowalski. Get Julian upstairs!" Private shouted. Immediately Rico hit Julian over the head with a baseball bat, knocking him out. Why hadn't he though of that earlier? Maurice walked willingly out of the room, now that his king was unconscious. Kowalski grabbed MORT, who had immediately charged for the feet and switched him off. Private opened the door.
"Hello, Skippah." Private smiled.
"Private. Why are you wearing bright orange lederhosen?" Skipper asked. Private turned bright red.
"Um... We're testing weaponized florescent orange lederhosen." This wasn't entirely a lie, Private rationalized.
"Interesting, weaponized lederhosen," Skipper mused. He walked through the door, then just about collapsed from shock, "What the hot oil and bisquick happened here?!"
"Um... One of Kowalski's inventions exploded." Skipper looked at the semi destroyed machine.
"KOWALSKI!" Skipper screamed up the stairs.
"Yes, sir," Kowalski replied tentatively.
"Get down here!"
"Um... I'm kind of busy, sir."
"Feeeeeeeeeet!"
"What was that?" Skipper started to climb the stairs.
"Oh... I just said Seeeeeee. Because I told Kowalski this would happen." Private lied.
"Are you okay up there?" Skipper called up the stairs.
"Yes. Everything's fine. Don't bother coming up." Kowalski and Rico were now panicking. They couldn't exactly toss Julian's unconscious body out the window, as much as they wanted to.
"Kowalski. I don't know what you're doing, but I'm coming up. Now."