Well I'm back. I'm a little disappointed by the number of reviews I got last chapter. I've also noticed a lot of Dr. Blowhole ideas after I posted this so I don't know if they are getting ideas from this or not, but if you are, gladly do anything I'm doing with this story. Please mention this story then though. Let's get started.

Chapter 9: Operation: Salvage

Skipper and Private were waddling back to the zoo with Max not too far behind them. Walking across the street to get back to Central Park they narrowly avoided getting Max across safely.

"Skipper. How long do you suppose it will take to fix the plane?" Private said.

"It shouldn't take much more than a few days." Skipper said confidently. The three of them continued to walk through the park having trouble seeing as it was already 11:30.

"How are we going to hide it after we get it from the river?" Skipper was starting to get annoyed. All Private has done almost the entire last few days was ask questions.

"We'll find a way. Just stop asking questions and get everyone." Skipper said. The three of them arrived at the zoo entrance with the picture of Skipper, Private, Kowalski, and Rico welcoming guest and telling them to go see the penguins. Opening up the hatch door that hid the secret passageway to the zoo, Skipper got down and held his flippers to the ground signaling to Max that he would give him a boost. Next Private was lifted up to the entrance. Private leaned over the edge to give Skipper the boost he needed. Usually Rico and Kowalski would be there to make a chain to pull Skipper up. This time with only Private doing much of any work it was getting pretty difficult.

"Come on Private." Skipper said as Private was giving everything he could to pull Skipper up. Max was just standing behind him giving him moral support. Before long, Private got Skipper into the passageway and fell onto his back.

"I can't feel my flippers." Private said panting. Skipper gave him a flipper and pulled him to his feet.

"Good work Private. Now let's get everyone." Skipper led the way as Private and himself belly slid on their way forgetting Max.

"Hey wait for me!" Max shouted running after them. Going around they started with Phil and Mason and this is where the problems started. Almost the entire zoo was gone. All that was left was Phil, Mason, Bada, Bing, the elephant, and the rhino.

Meanwhile, Private made it to Roger's home but there was no sign of him anywhere.

"Roger. Are you in here!?" Private shouted. All he heard was an echo. He looked around any corners he could until he heard Skipper from his walkie-talkie. "Private. Everyone's gone from up here. Do you have Roger?" Skipper made sure to draw out each word. "No Skipper. He's gone." Skipper heard from his end.

"Ugh! How could I forget. Blowhole is able to see what we're doing through these collars. He must of saw us go around and recruit everyone. We have to move Private. Double time it up here and meet us outside the zoo." Skipper sounded very rushed. Private walked through several tunnels and popped up just outside the zoo and not too long later Skipper arrived with their smaller army than they had anticipated.

"I can't believe I made such a careless mistake. We need to get going before he does anything worse." Skipper and Private led the group at an almost careless pace and was able to go unnoticed by the few vehicles still driving around at this time of night. They arrived at the spot they had crash landed nearly a year ago and were getting ready to gather everything.

Skipper and Private being the only ones who could swim jumped in first. The water was extremely cold, but they both sucked it up and dove looking through the mucky water to see if anything was salvageable. To both of their surprises, the entire plane remained almost completely in tact. They both surfaced and told everyone.

"Private. We need to keep information at a low so Blowhole doesn't know where we are." Skipper whispered as quietly as he could. Private nodded signaling he heard him. Skipper covered up his collar to block the view from Dr. Blowhole and lied to group. "It's a total mess down there and may take weeks to get this done." Skipper while still covering the collar and mouthed that he was lying. While still covering his collar he went up to each and everyone of them and whispered the new plan. Skipper and Private were going to go back to the zoo while the rest of them pull out the plane.

"We're going to need a new plan so we need to go back to the zoo." Skipper said. While Skipper left the area with Private following as they left for the zoo. The rest stayed where they were and started to pull out the plane. Skipper and Private would try to bluff Blowhole on the way be shouting back to pretend the rest were still following them. It was still a breezy night and Skipper felt it would be the perfect time for him to talk to Private about Dr. Blowhole but knowing that he was listening onto everything they were saying he felt it was best to say as little as possible.

Finally arriving back at the zoo again still holding onto their collars which was starting to hurt their flippers hurried up to the HQ and both climbed in.

"Let's find some paint to cover up these collars." Skipper whispered again to Private. Both searched for a while since Rico would usually be there to carry everything they needed. Private finally found the paint can and paint brush laying behind the refrigerator.

"I found it Skipper!" Private yelled.

"Shhh!" Skipper waddled over and grabbed the brush and just painted all over his neck making sure to get every bit of of the collar colored. When he was satisfied he turned to Private and covered his. Then there was the problem of Dr. Blowhole being able to hear them and anyone talking to them. The best they could think of was to wrap their pillows around their necks, not to completely block the sound, but to muff it. Both crawling back out into the freezing night, they looked at each other and couldn't help but to laugh at how stupid they looked with huge pillows wrapped around their necks.

"Come on Private. No time to laugh. Let's go see how the other are doing. Hopefully they've nearly got it out." Skipper said as he jumped over the railing to the outside of their habitat. They again went through the secret passageway. This time they rushed as fast as penguinly possible avoiding to be seen by anyone. Not only because they didn't want to be seen in the first place, but they didn't want to be seen with huge pillows wrapped around their necks.

"Skipper. When can we take these things off." Private said adjusting it. The paint was also bothering them.

"I don't like it either but we need to leave them on for as long as possible. Hopefully they have that thing out of the Hudson. If it is out, I think we may be able to get up in the air enough to get it into the zoo and we can work on it there"

"Okay Skipper. I think I can wait for a few days with this thing on."

"We're almost there." Skipper said a few minutes later and what they saw there was actually really surprising to them.

There it is. Again please review and read. For every review I get on this story, I will read your story and review it so just please review.