While Kowalski finished setting up the controls for the hot-tub, Jo was documenting the mistake caused by lack of a fail-safe in the design of the Stick-u-lator boots.
"There was a flaw in the curve of the claw hooks to either side of the sticky pads." The tallest bird looked over the artist's shoulder, as he had figured it out as soon as Skipper fell from the sewer roof.
"I had added the curve before…" She brought it up, remembering the alteration he had requested that changed the hook design.
The scientist and artist had started arguing again, before Kowalski asserted his rank to quiet any sort of questioning related to his edits. Skipper had taken note of how that madman was running the other ragged.
"Lay off a little Kowalski!" Skipper chided, using his authority as he shivered in the tub. Thinking back to day one, he was racking his mind for a solution to the sour air among the men.
"Thank you Sir, I-" Jo had started showing her appreciation to Skipper, when he snapped back.
"He is still second in command, so stop your back-talking when it comes to disagreements with his assignments."
She backed off, holding her art clipboard as a shield once again, and avoiding eye contact with the others. Skipper had no idea what a struggle it was to make edits constantly. Little changes that added up, that she had no choice but to make at the whim of the perfectionist.
Had this been a volunteer job, Kowalski would be on her artistic blacklist.
Everything came to a head the next morning, when a small squabble over a minor issue made everyone argue at breakfast. Skipper slammed his mug on the table to get everyone's attention.
"That does it." He commanded. "We all have plenty of rest days, and it's high time we took the load off."
"But Skipper, the agenda for today is-" Kowalski cycled through his clipboard but stopped when the leader put up a flipper to stop him.
"Forget the agenda." Skipper put a leg up on his seat authoritatively. Ignoring the squeal from the analyst he gave new orders. "Today I am enforcing fun. It is mandatory we all enjoy some well earned R&R."
He didn't have to tell Rico or Private twice, as the men rushed off. Kowalski shook his head with a small sigh, remarking as he waddled to his lab. "I'll do some light research and shift all of our plans forward one day—not like anything was time-sensitive…" He added, sarcastically.
Jo was on her way to the freshly slammed lab door, when Skipper spoke up.
"Joe."
"Sir!" The penguin squeaked out, standing at attention with a quick salute.
"At ease, man." Skipper smiled, putting his foot down gently to waddle around the table and continue speaking. "I'm giving you an order to call me Skipper for the rest of the day."
"The rest of the day, Skipper?" It felt weird to call the commander by name, even if his name was also another term for his rank.
"Sure!" The chunky bird plapped her back gently to motion towards the ladder. "Let's walk and talk. Assuming you're not too busy." He let the rookie know it wasn't an order, but a request.
In the lab, Kowalski finished placing all of his experiments back in their holding facilities, and although disgruntled he edited the agenda. Maybe he was overworked, and could use a break, but when on the verge of scientific greatness it made him upset to have to press the pause button.
When a giggle and a rattle of paper came from the art studio, he could have molted all of his feathers at once.
"Jo! I thought you were…" He started trying to put together how she had followed him to the lab so silently, when he noticed Private taking some papers off of her desk. "Private? What are you doing?"
"Oh, I was just picking up some… art requests." The little Brit replied, and as Kowalski came forth he smoothed himself out.
"What kind of art requests?" Kowalski knew she did art for everyone, but lately it seemed like she only ever really worked with his invention schematics.
Private was about to come up with an excuse, when the big bird snatched the paper to look it over.
"Of course. Jo can draw a Lunacorn to the nth degree of detail but not a subdivided molecule?" Kowalski sighed, and Private felt his heart sink. Jo was the only member of the team who actually enjoyed watching and discussing the show with him.
"That's it!" Private had been getting more upset with Kowalski, and this was his chance to put it all on the table. "I'm tired of you always going around with your beak in the air thinking you're better than everyone else!"
Kowalski was flabbergasted.
"Wha-I don't think I'm better than everyone else!" The scientist loomed over the other. "I can scientifically prove it!" He started scribbling before Private jumped up to lower the board.
"See? Right there." Private was losing a little steam. "Sure, we all know how smart you are, but it all means nothing if you use it to keep others down."
"Keep others down?" Kowalski put the clipboard on the table, literally opening up the discussion. "I always intend for my inventions to lift others up, metaphorically—unless it is an invention designed to lift in which case-"
"I'm not talking about your inventions!" Private put his arms up to stop the other from speaking. "You use your smarts as a way to boss us around!"
Private gained a second wind as he chewed out his superior, the second lowest rank not considering the repercussions. He continued yelling, loud enough that Rico was almost able to hear all the way in the garage.
"None of us can understand you most of the time, and you have started a rift with Jo over rank." Private teared up, before backing off. "It's not easy being the lowest rung on the ladder. I was for so long…"
The scientist didn't need a clipboard to realize the huge mistake he had made. Out of all of the miscalculations…
"I apologize." He said, simply, before continuing in layman's terms for the first time in what seemed like a month. "I'm sorry."
"I knew what that meant." Private wiped an eye with his free flipper, smiling up at Kowalski.
While they mended their own rift, the scientist whipped up some delicious experiments he had been working on. Even if he didn't like peanut butter, he started developing an elixir to increase the taste of Private's favorite treat by 110 percent.
Above, in the mellow early light of the closed zoo, Skipper leisurely waddled alongside Joe. There was still an element of nervous respect between them, apparent as the Captain spoke.
"Are you enjoying your recruitment?"
"Yes Sir—Skipper!" She reeled her head back as the blubber created a small nest for her face to hide in. "I'm grateful to have become a part of your team…"
"The team is grateful for your services." Skipper nudged the possessive term out, seeing Joe was still focused on holding him as a leader in the highest regard. "…but what about outside of work?"
"Outside of work…?" She thought, before thinking of how much she enjoyed helping the others. "I've been having fun teaching Rico how to paint, and making Lunacorn fan art for Private."
"What about outside of art-work?" Skipper had noticed Rico's improvements, but he wondered if there were any other pastimes.
"I…" She felt like this was becoming an interrogation. "There isn't much I'd rather do."
Skipper made a small hum, as the conversation came to an awkward standstill. While it may have felt like an interrogation to her, after some time most of the suspicions had been sunk to the bottom of the paranoid bird's mind. Now he wondered if his gut instinct—while still not wrong—was about another aspect of the newest team member…
Jo posed a question to him, wanting to bring a conversation back around, and accidentally breaking his train of thought.
"Marlene said you play the Spanish Guitar… How long have you been practicing?" She noticed his demeanor change as her words buffed his inapparently fragile ego to a shine.
"She did?" He smiled, putting his arms behind him and puffing up. "I learned from spending 8 years in the jungles of Mexico, dodging danger and strumming chords…" The Captain reminisced. "Course, I also play the accordion, the fiddle, and a few others I'll keep up my sleeve for now."
"I've heard a lot of stories from the others." Jo smiled, remembering the good, the weird, and the crazy… but overall his men really did care deeply for their Skipper.
The pair continued, out of the zoo, unaware of the striped king watching them waddle on.
"Look at them Maurice." Julien was standing on his throne, sipping an early day smoothie the aye-aye had whipped up.
"I see em." He replied, already exhausted.
"But are you seeing them the way I see them?" Maurice sighed as the penguins disappeared from view past the walls of the zoo.
"Let me guess, you still think that Joe is a woman?" The lackey was forced to entertain whatever insane notion his king thought on a whim.
"Yes, because I know." Julien jumped down from his high horse and tossed what was left of his drink, splashing Maurice in the process. "Come, let us follow their date."
"What?" The already upset aye-aye wiped his fur as he tried to wrap his mind around this new plan for the morning. "Your majesty, I'm pretty sure you're reading a little too much into this."
"How could that be? I cannot read." Julien rebuked his henchman, as another smaller lemur ran up to grasp at his leg.
"Yay! I'm illiterate also!" With a hearty kick, the lemur king launched him sky high over the wall, shattering a new Mort-kicking record. "Ahhhhhh!"
The penguins ignored the scream, as it became a perfect example of the doppler effect as the lemur sailed over them and landed among the squirrels. Skipper continued telling a story from his point of view.
"In fact, that huge, muhungalunga of a fish was plaguing this very lake." With a wave of his flipper, he gestured at the water. Recalling the explosion of sashimi that fed them for days, he nodded. "I wonder if there are any food carts out this morning."
"Wouldn't we need the rest of the team?"
"We can handle it." Skipper kept sweeping the park visually, until he spotted the glimmer of the metal reflecting the sun. "Snowcones at 2 o'clock!"
Unlike the first few times, thinking the leader was speaking of what time to move out, Jo now knew immediately where the cart was in relation to their position. Sliding on the grass she followed Skipper's signal to mirror him to the left as they surrounded the objective.
Skipper waited for a moment longer, before doing a fancy flip, corkscrew, and bound off of the cart, successfully snagging two snow cones. Jo held them as he daringly repeated the action to pay the stand with the change he had nonchalantly collected on the way here. It was incredible to witness, especially after being inspired by his own storytelling.
Once the duo found a recess in the grass, they were able to enjoy the icy snack while looking out over the water. As Jo started worrying about the time and when the zoo would open, Skipper showed her how to chart the hours using the position of the sun. This was considerably hard to do with only flippers.
They grabbed the empty cone wrappers as they prepared to make their way back, when a certain kingly voice boomed from a nearby shrub.
"No. Off the feet!" As a ringed tail peeped out from the foliage, the voice got angrier. "We did not come outing here to look for you!"
"Woooah!" Mort rolled out of the bush, landing upside down at Skipper's feet. Looking up at the ruffled penguin, he waved. "Hello! I'm a nuisance!"
"Ringtail!" Skipper barked, as Jo started backing away. Most of the stories told had emphasized the less-than-friendship relations between their Captain and the self-proclaimed King. "What is the meaning of your espionage?"
"Oh, no. What you are smelling is my natural musk." Julien wiggled his brows at the bird, clearly not understanding what espionage was. Maurice came out of the bush after him, leaves crudely taped to his head. Julien winked at Jo before moving closer to Skipper. "I notice you finally took that lady penguin out for once~"
"Smoked ham, man!" The flat penguin felt his blood pressure rise 60 points. "We are having a manly outing!"
"An outing for snow cones, which I'm recalling was my first date with Marlene," Julien made an aside towards Maurice. "Drives them wild, you know."
"That was not a date either!" Skipper felt a pang of jealousy at the mammal's mention of the non-date with the otter woman. He signaled for Jo to get a move on, attempting to ditch the peanut gallery as they made their way home.
"So quick to get back to bossing the other penguins around." Julien pushed Skipper's buttons on the way back, as they both ignored his antics. "If you were lemurs you would be loving a lady as a leader-or else!"
"Your Majesty, wouldn't that make you-" Maurice tried to stop his King but received a tail to the face instead.
"Not now Maurice." He paused, as the penguins walked on. "Actually can you make that not ever? My schedule is pretty full."
Performing slick evasive maneuvers the lemurs were unable to follow, the penguins slipped away to bask in the shade while floating in the moat of their habitat. The fishy smell was thankfully enough to keep Julien at bay.
"You really don't like him at all?" Jo commented, noticing Skipper's distain still present. It still made her wonder about the few times the men had told her about them working together.
"Julien?" Skipper shook his head, speaking from experience. "That lemur has no idea what he's talking about. He could talk about nonsense for hours and still never see any sense."
While the two pairs of penguins enjoyed most of their morning, barring a heated argument and the lemur escapade, one penguin of few words had enjoyed every moment. Rico placed the fresh painting of Ms. Perky on the garage wall next to several others, each better than the last as he improved.