Thanks for being so patient! This is a long-awaited chapter. It was fun and easy to write. It may answer a question or two you may have.

Always so careful, the team kept on the lookout while dropping off Maurice at the lemur's habitat. "You don't know anything." Skipper warned.

******

Morning had come with no suspicious activity. The animals had gone back to their own habitats and slept for a while. The zoo would open soon and they were expecting 3 field trips to come in at the same time. Surely Blowhole wouldn't do anything today. Marlene stayed with the penguins until Alice came around and fed them. Afterwards she came back to spend a little more time with them until the zoo opens.

"Hey guys. How are you holding up?" She asked, even though she already knew. They ignored her, concentrating hard on… something. Marlene couldn't figure it out.

"Guys? Hey, are you okay? Hello? Anyone home?" Then she put 2 and 2 together. They were sleeping with their eyes open. It was impressive—and weird. She decided to wake them up, only because it was an emergency. "HEY!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!"

"…And that's why penguins never sleep!" Skipper finished his speech he was making. "Great galloping geysers! Marlene? When did you get here?"

"I've been here all night, but I went home to eat, and you guys were asleep! So don't blame me if you're not alert." She snapped.

"Well, sister, in case you didn't notice, we're in the middle of a war! So either contribute or get out!" He said with the same attitude.

"Well then I'll have to just go!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

"Good." Skipper said sadly after she was gone.

"Are you—" Private started but Rico covered his beak. Skipper paced the room, trying to think of anything but that day, but it was no use. The break-up and the bitterness that followed were too much for him.

"Skipper! Where are you?" *giggles* "I can't find you! Come on out so we can play!" Marlene said playfully.

"I'm right here, my angel! You must find me!" Normally Skipper wasn't this mushy, but Marlene brought it out from deep inside him.

"There you are! I found you! Now let's play! How about a nice game of…" Marlene tried to think, but Skipper was all that entered her mind.

"Of… of Marlene. A game of Marlene." Skipper said smoothly.

"How do you play that?" Marlene asked, totally confused.

"It's simple. Just watch and do as I do." Skipper leaned in and kissed Marlene. All she could do was kiss him back. All of the sudden, she pulled away.

"Skipper, I—I can't." She said.

"Why not, honey?" Skipper asked innocently.

"B-because… I—I have to tell you something. Y—you see, um…" Marlene stuttered.

"Well, spit out, sister!" Skipper said impatiently.

"I know about you and Mikey!" She yelled.

After a moment, Skipper calmly replied, "What about her?"

"I know what you two had in Denmark! Don't play dumb with me!" She grew angry for no reason.

"You picked now to talk about this?"

"Yes, it's been on my mind for a few days. Don't change the subject! What happened there?" Mood-swing Marlene said, first shyly, then with more anger, and finally with sadness.

"What part do you want to know? The beginning? The middle? The end? The date—I mean… The fight—I mean… Our first mission?"

"I'll let that one slide. How about just start through the beginning and go to the end?" She really wanted to know.

"All right. There's not much, I suppose. It all started on a cold winter day when my parents forced me to talk to someone. She was the only one we lived by, so we went over there—my parents knew her parents—and we were introduced. It was pretty awkward at first, but I think the next day was better. She shared what toys she had, and a few days after, we got bored. So we went to her parent's room and found their agent gear. Our dads were secret agents for the PSAAW. (Penguin Secret Agent Association of the World) She entered the code and we took things off the wall and started to play with them. Until we got to the gases. Throwing that on the ground was dangerous, and we could have died. Luckily, our parents came running in before it was too late. We were already passed out and we weren't breathing.

"We were taken to the doctor and revived. When we woke up, we were drilled like crazy. I remember questions like, 'Are you crazy?', 'How did you get in?', 'What were you thinking?', 'Did you even know what that was?', and someone said, 'You'll never be unsupervised again!'. I was still woozy, but I heard the doctor say that we were very lucky."

"You're children were gone for a moment. I'd suggest rest for a day or two. Remember, this is traumatic for them, so keep the angry questions to a minimum. Anything else you'd like to know?" The doctor asked.

"From you, no. From them, yes. Thanks for your help, doctor." Skipper's mom said.

"All righty, then! How would you two like a… piece of candy?" The doctor suggested.

"Yeah!!!" They said simultaneously. As they each got one, they left the doctor's home.

"So, let's get you home. We would all like to know what happened, but we'll wait until you're feeling better." Mikey's dad explained.

******

"Now that you're feeling better, let's go over to Michelle's house and hear what happened." Skipper's mom said.

Skipper obeyed immediately, not knowing what was about to happen.

Once there, Mikey ran to see Skipper since they didn't see each other for a whole day! When they got settled, the parents got started.

"So let's start with why you were in our room in the first place." Mikey's dad said.

"That's easy. We got bored with my toys, and I knew you had cool stuff!" Mikey said without a second's thought.

"Okay… How did you know the code?"

"'Michelle' isn't that hard of a code." Came the bland reply.

"Really? Okay. So… why didn't you ask to play with our stuff?"

"Because I knew you'd say no."

"So, how did you reach it? The gas was very high."

Skipper answered that one. "We used the other stuff that was there! It was really cool. We had the rope and I was on her shoulders, and once we got it, we couldn't get it open, so we threw it to each other. Then when we got bored, we threw it on the floor to get something else to play with. We didn't know there was any gas in it, honest."

"Sounds pretty sincere to me, what about you?" Skipper's mom said.

"Yeah. They're just kids, anyway. I'm sure they didn't mean it." Mikey's dad replied.

Skipper's dad decided to interject here. "So what now? Do we punish them, or do we let it slide?"

"I think it's only fair they get punished. They didn't have permission to do any of this." Skipper's mom said.

"But they're just kids. They didn't know better." Mikey's dad repeated.

Not wanting to watch and listen to this, Mikey and Skipper left the room without a word. It's all they could think about, though.

"What do you think will happen? Do you think they'll send us away?" Skipper asked.

"What if they forbid us to see each other again? I don't think I could take that." Mikey wondered.

"That's awful!" Marlene said, cutting off Skipper. "What did happen?"

"That's the bad part. We never got to know what would be decided of us." Skipper said sadly.

There was an earthquake, or so they thought. What happened was the roof was being torn off. And there, attached to a helicopter, was Dr. Blowhole. Mikey and Skipper ran for cover under her bed.

They heard, "Ha ha! I've finally found you! Come with me!" He grabbed all four penguins and started to leave. Mikey and Skipper came out from under the bed, but Blowhole didn't see them.

"We have to do something!" Mikey yelled over the helicopter.

"Kids!!! Go to the doctor! Tell him what happened!" They barely heard from Skipper's dad. So that's just what they did.

"Really? Wow. I didn't think it'd be that fast." The doctor was foggy-headed for a second, then quickly gathered his thoughts. "Okay, so we have to train you two to fight Blowhole." He got the reaction he expected.

"Fight? Blowhole? When? Where?" They said with a panicked expression.

"Relax. Your parents told me about this day. You'll go to the same school your fathers went to: The School For Training Young Penguins. You'll train there until you're ready, which I'm assuming won't take long, if you've inherited your fathers' skills. Then we'll send you off to fight him. Got it?" He explained.

"Got it!" They didn't know that wouldn't be coming back very soon.

"Good. There's no time to waste; we'll have to get going right now." They gathered their parent's gear since they haven't changed the password. They then made their way over to the school, which took a good day or two. Along the way, the doctor explained that he was Lieutenant Commander for the school, Lt. Commander La Forge. He was also the doctor for the school and would help them if they got hurt.

Once they got passed the tight security, La Forge showed the main office, as to make it look like an office building and not a training school. They took the stairs down to the first level below the surface (it'd be easier to see if they built up). That was the level of the offices of all of the staff. He took them to see the Commander.

"Commander, I've got the two we've been waiting for." He said in a totally freaky and serious voice.

"Excellent. Let them in," said a very polite but disturbing voice. "Ahh. Yes. The children of Charlie and Gregory. What are your names, chicks?" (Gregory is Skipper's dad.)

"Michelle!" "Skipper!" They said happily.

"Right. So, Michelle, Skipper, have you ever had any practice with these weapons you brought with you?" Commander asked with curiosity.

"Yes, sir! We played with them not too long ago!" They responded.

"Really? Okay then. Lt. La Forge, take them to the training area and show them what to do!"

"Okay! I've heard enough! I don't care about all of that! Just answer me truthfully. Did you ever..." Marlene started.

"Kiss? Date?" Skipper suggested.

"Yeah. Those." Marlene said.

"No and yes. One date. It didn't work out so well, though. It was too awkward." Skipper replied casually.

"Care to tell me what happened?"

"Umm... no. It was painful enough just living through it. Can't you just move on? It's not like anything happened." Skipper insisted.

This made Marlene mad. "Are you telling me to move on? I'm your girlfriend, don't I deserve to know?"

"Your friends with her, just ask her!" Skipper snapped.

"Fine then! But if you can't trust me, this relationship's over!"

"If you don't care about our past, then that's fine with me!"

"There you go again. Our past. Not my past."

"What am I supposed to do? She was there, too!"

"Wow. Just wow."

"What?"

"I can't believe you just turned the conversation back on her!"

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did. It sounds like you care more about her than me!"

"But I don't!"

"Yes, you do. Go home, Skipper."

"Marlene, wait."

She had already made up her mind. "No, Skipper. I think it's time you left."

Skipper didn't know he was saying this out loud. He didn't notice the shocked looks on his team's faces, or the look of pain on Mikey's. He didn't notice them running up to him. He didn't notice that the whole world was spinning right in front of him. He didn't notice the giant BOOM that shook the whole zoo. He didn't notice the wave of light that came into the HQ. He didn't notice the maniac dolphin laughing. He didn't notice all the screams and shrieks from above. He especially didn't notice Marlene come in to tell them what she had saw. He didn't notice her run up to him. He didn't notice any of this because he was on the ground, shaking like his body couldn't take it anymore.

An emotional chapter, I know. Tell me what you think!

The 'Lieutenant Commander La Forge' is a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show - Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge. He's the one with the visor over his eyes. He also is the guy from Reading Rainbow.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!