The three others had ended up not only watching Shirtless Ninja Warriors Three, but also One, Two, Two-and-a-Half, and Three-Quarters the Final Act in a marathon of macho mayhem.
Meanwhile, though there were moments of solace with talking to Kowalski about sciences and discussing knowledge, Jo was at her wits' end when it came to the edits being requested from the slightly mad genius.
In the end, she boiled it down to getting this one invention perfected, and understood that it was imperative to ensuring the safety of the unit that this was all rendered to a high degree.
"Sir…" The exhausted artist was about to make a request for a break, when fate would have it that Skipper joined them in the lab to see what they had gotten up to during his night off with the others.
"New invention?" Skipper looked over the model sheet, trying not to come across as overly impressed. "…the Stick-u-lator?" He was about to suggest a simpler name, when Jo spoke up.
"Yes!" Even though she was tired, she wanted to support the clever name. It was when the two highest in command looked at her that she piped down and stayed out of their way. Skipper made a gesture of dismissal, and she went over to her art studio to wrap up for the evening.
Loosening up after the mental and artistic marathon, she grabbed a slip of paper and started loosely sketching Kowalski. His portrait gave her the most trouble the first time around, but now there was no pressure to make it perfect. Nobody had to look in her sketchbook.
After a while of debating over the invention, Skipper decided to let the name stick, and gave Kowalski the go-ahead to start making the actual device. The pair joined the others in the main room, and with a quick look towards the sealed lab door Skipper looked at his men.
"I've come to the decision that, well, when it comes to the rookie I may have been a little too paranoid about him."
"Her." Kowalski corrected, before the three stares brought to his attention the correction would need corrected quickly. "Hermeneutically speaking, I think this time around your paranoia was well placed."
"What do you mean Kowalski?" Private asked, finding their friendship on thinner ice than usual.
"While this may not be as high priority as The Red Squirrel, I am making note of a few more discrepancies."
"Why can't anyone give the benefit of the doubt?" Private put his flippers on the table as Rico backed him up this time.
"The benefit of the doubt is a weak scam to let suspicious folks walk under the radar." Skipper glanced at Rico and Private before turning to Kowalski and continuing. "How about the detriment of certainty? We can open this can of tuna right now if it's a threat."
"I'm not certain. Yet." Kowalski ignored Private and Rico's stares, as he tried to cool Skipper down from any late night rash decisions. "We need to build a case."
"Exactly." Skipper kicked the whiteboard, revealing the conspiracy cork board kept on the back of it.
"What?" Private pointed at the copy of his portrait. "Whatchu got me on there for?"
"Well gov'ner…" Skipper mocked the adorable fake accent Private used, rescinding some of the bond they had built earlier in the evening. "You were added since it seems Joe is closest to you. Close enough to share his deepest secrets with." Private looked to Kowalski and then to Rico, wondering what had happened with the men he trusted the most.
"You told him?"
"About Jo's non-contagious physical condition?" Kowalski sternly questioned, hoping Private would understand. Rico's snickering caused the birds to shift their attention to him before Skipper spoke again.
"Yes, I'm aware it's embarrassing but whatever disease plagues him now won't get in the way of a penguin fitting into our unit." He thought of his group and their quirks, from Rico's psychotic tendencies to Private's immaturity and Kowalski's misplaced ego. Besides, Skipper himself knew a thing or two about classifying information to conform to his role as their macho leader.
"I'm making a ruling that while Operation: Leery Theory is still a go, I want to see some genuine fellowship."
The ruling included the penguins not forgetting their fellowship with each other. After all, if it only took one more penguin added to the mix to ruin their dynamic, what kind of unit were they? Skipper had faith in his men, that their bond would not be broken so easily.
As Kowalski headed for the lab to shut away his materials for the night, he butted right into Private. The pair looked at each other, before starting to speak at the same time.
"What do you need from my lab?"
"I wanted to check on the assignment you ordered."
The two put their differences aside, and Kowalski nodded to let Private into the sanctity of his lab, following the Corporal over to the walled off art studio. There, Jo seemed to be resting on the table, her flippers hiding her eyes from the light as her forehead pressed on the edge.
Coming up to see what she had gotten up to, there were various little doodles of swirling designs, and a couple of sketches of Kowalski laying about. The studio was starting to get a little messy, but otherwise orderly.
"Is that what you wanted? Another portrait?"Private asked the intellectual.
Upon hearing Private's voice, Jo shot up to look back, noticing the two inspecting her unfinished work. It was always a fear for her as an artist for someone to look in her private sketchbooks.
After explaining it was just for practice, and showing Private the real assignment while Kowalski put away his various equipment, all three left the lab to find Rico and Skipper getting ready for bed.
"Night!" The bird of few words kissed Ms. Perky's cheek before growling and raising his feathered brows. At last, the five were safe in their bunks with a new semblance of routine since the inclusion of a new bird.
It wasn't always a walk in the park, even when the unit was literally walking in central park. There were times where Skipper would run the birds ragged with training, or get upset at lack of progress with the rookie.
Overall, though, she was getting used to the banter of the group. A month seemed to fly past the flightless birds, ever since Kowalski made his oath to stop mucking about with time after several close calls of destroying the space-time continuum.
Skipper was repulsed at the state of the art studio, noticing a thick layer of dust from the exposed concrete walls, and several dangerous set-ups that were not up to code.
It seemed they had forgotten to add that section of HQ to the cleaning routine, but it only took a few hours for the artist to clean it and the room was added to regular scheduled maintenance.
Finally, the training was starting to pay off, and after about 40 days Skipper let the newest private recruit on their first group mission instead of staying back from the front to focus on the prep-work and artistic aspects in missions.
As the group was on their way to add a Jacuzzi upgrade to a section of their habitat in preparation for the winter, the flamboyant voice of an alligator caught their attention.
"Oh it's just terrible, terrible!"
"Roger?" Skipper turned from his position at point of the team, jumping up to the ledge of the habitat of the gentle green giant. The others followed his lead and stood in order of rank.
"All my water is gone! It was here just this morning and—hey! Who's your friend?" He addressed the new inclusion.
"Kowalski, analysis." Skipper ordered, efficiently starting to solve the issue as he answered the question. "Roger, meet Joe. He's your average everyday artist, and the newest member of our unit."
"What a joy it must be to make art every day." Roger had been calmed a bit by imagining how much singing helped him calm his nerves, but Skipper brought him back to attention as Kowalski performed tests on the mud left in the habitat. "You know, that's why I took up singing. See, before I was flushed I would-"
"Skipper, I believe there has been a catastrophic water shortage caused by lack of pressure in the Zoo's main water lines." Kowalski cut off Roger's long winded life story.
"We haven't even started implementing your invention yet!" The leader poked fun at the analyst, who always seemed to cause more problems than solutions when it came to inventing. "What gives?"
"Unclear." Kowalski got out his sonar device to access their information on the water lines they had collected some 15 days prior. "We will need to do a recon sweep to determine the cause."
"Alright men, move out!" Skipper pointed to the slow drip pipe that would usually be submerged in the habitat's pool. While his team started following Kowalski down into the darkness, the leader quipped to Roger. "See you later, alligator!"
"Well that's not a very nice thing to say!" Roger watched the birds leave, shaking his head at the commando leader.
Skipper caught up, allowing Kowalski to continue leading with the sonar of the pipes as a map. It was spooky as they descended into the larger sewer to fallow the water main.
"Rats." Kowalski muttered, stopping in his tracks. He caused a minor pileup as the others bumped into each other behind him. Rico and Private awkwardly looked at Jo before returning to the mission at hand. She felt singled out for a moment until Skipper rushed to the head to see what the hold up was.
"Rats!" Skipper yelled, his voice echoing down as the flashlight flooded the space, revealing the flooding sewer as steam cleared to show the cause of the issue. A giant mutated rat had been piercing the water lines.
"Birds!" The buff big cheese turned his attention to the group, yanking out the tool he was using to destroy the pipes.
"Have you gone mad? Flooding the sewer will destroy your home as well as ours!" Kowalski protested the Rat leader, as his tinier lackeys started making a battle formation.
"We won't call this place home by this time tomorrow." The rat clued them into his plan. "Once the workers come down we get the keys, take control of the upper level, and blow this dump."
"Yeah! Instead of eating garbage we will dine in style from the water treatment facility vending machines, eh!" A small rat squeaked out, causing the other rodents to start yelling in unison.
"Rico, duct-tape! Kowalski, Joe, Private, get in formation and be my anchors. Operation: Web Weaver is a go!"
The scarred bird hocked up the end of a roll of duct tape, and Skipper snatched it before deploying a pair of new Stick-u-lator boots to climb up the wall of the sewer. While Kowalski took the far right of the tunnel, Jo took the left, leaving the shortest Private to hold the center of the tape low as the entire group ran towards the army of vermin.
The first line of rats were immediately trapped by the sticky tape, and the penguins stuck them to the wall as more tape rolled out from the bird at the end of the line.
By the time they were finished running on the rats, most of them had retreated including the big leader. Of course, Skipper knew that big rat was nothing but a coward when it came to fighting, but as he stood on the ceiling he addressed the penguins below.
"Fixed two issues with one roll of tape." The rats had been taped to the busted pipes, and tactically positioned to plug up the holes. It wasn't a permanent solution but would last until the workers came to do the real repairs. "I say it's time for snowc-ooooooONES!"
"Rats." Private sadly said as the four on the ground watched as their leader's boots failed due to the glue compound interacting with some unknown cleaning substance that had found its way into the sewer. They all sprung into action to rescue their Captain during a downstream sewer chase.
Later, in HQ, Skipper sat in a makeshift hot-tub, a towel on his head, and a scowl on his face.