Author's Note: I'll remove this note later, but want to thank those who are reading for waiting as I had to pause posting due to finals in college. Also, a huge thank you for all of the feedback! I never planned to post this story but am glad my sister told me to take the chance. ~Yeeteor
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Three months had passed since New Years Day, and the group had evolved into a super-organism that worked in sync with each other. Private was able to see Kowalski as a heroic role model once again, and the chasm between all of the ranks was slowly but surely being filled.
The change in the weather had made it better for not just the penguins, but the rest of the zoo civilians too. Marlene, Private, and Jo were able to swim in her habitat since the waters warmed. The otter lounged on the surface as she spilled some more zoo tea.
"Okay, but get this. Burt actually has a giant stash of peanuts hidden in the brick walls of his habitat!" Marlene whispered. "Some of them are imported, from France, Italy, Spain, and Brazil!"
"At least he isn't hoarding Brazil nuts…" Jo made a point, "They do crazy things to your psyche!"
"Oh goodness! Like the lycée nuts!?" Private floated in place as he brought up his flippers to either side of his beak.
"Exactly." Jo nodded, remembering what the boys had told her of the night Julien, Maurice, and Mort went insane over spoiled food.
The trio was about to continue their gossiping, when a familiar gruff penguin hopped up to alert Jo and Private to a sudden emergency mission.
"Ahhh-hbbrlfgershh!" Rico was exasperated from running over at Skipper's command, and immediately Private and Jo said farewell to Marlene to follow Rico to the source of the problem. Speaking of Burt and his secret peanut stash, the pachyderm reported to Skipper as Kowalski took his diligent notes.
"I've been collecting them in this wall, right here, and suddenly they are all missing! I kept a low profile, too, only telling my closest friends and a few random strangers."
"A few random strangers?" Kowalski pressed Burt for more info as Jo sidled up next to him, knowing the drill by now. "Could you describe what these strangers looked like?"
"Yeah, one had a great big nose and a really furry tail. The kind of eyes you never forget…" Burt recounted, as the scene faded to slightly later.
Jo had sketched out two profiles that matched Marlene and Fred. As the penguins looked at the composite images, Skipper divided the team into groups for recon.
"Private, Rico, Kowalski - you all interrogate Fred. Joe, you're coming with me to question Marlene." Jo saluted as the others did, until Private brought forward new information.
"Jo and I were with Marlene this morning!"
"That does give the otter an alibi. It would be highly unlikely for her to have managed a peanut based heist under these circumstances." Kowalski backed up the Corporal's intel.
"Tater tots and tartar!" Skipper put a flipper to his nonexistent chin. "In that case, everyone bring your A game to siphon what we can from that suspicious squirrel Fred."
"Did I hear A game?" Julien came forth from the small crowd of animals that had accumulated since Burt was distressed. "If there are any games to be played then I would like to join and win."
"Ringtail!" The penguin leader came to stand toe-to-toe with the lemur, pointing a flipper up at him. "This is no game."
"You are just saying this to avoid losing." King Julien teased Skipper, "Just like with capturing of the flag, you know we lemurs will win."
Skipper boiled over, again, at the mammal's antics. After his yell was out of his system, he took them up on that offer. "Alright Ringtail, we will get those peanuts back before you can say butter!"
"Butter." Julien smirked, waggling his eyebrows dramatically.
The rest of the penguins exchanged looks behind Skipper, before he corrected the lemur.
"That was a figure of speech, man!" Pinching the bridge of his beak for a second, he laid out the real terms of this impromptu competition. "Whoever gets those peanuts back to Burt's habitat first, wins."
"Whomever." Kowalski corrected, causing the others to look back at him. He was about to defend his correction, when he pointed ahead, "Egads! The lemurs are already over the wall!"
"Fruits and loops, men!" Skipper started directing them forward with his flipper. "Move out! Find that squirrel! Operation: Missing Nuts is a go!"
Private giggled, before whimpering at Skipper's glare and joining the others in a slide formation.
After many missions had taken a turn to the squirrels' neighborhood, they all knew the most precise route to Fred's tree home. It also helped that there was now a groove in the grass caused by their gliding.
"What would a penguin have to do with peanuts?" Fred questioned. "I guess both start with the letter P but that's not…"
"We don't need the peanuts." Kowalski grew tired of the nincompoop. "We are on a mission to get these nuts back to the elephant whom they belong to."
"Then I guess you do need the peanuts." Fred scratched the side of his face.
There was a lingering pause as the birds anticipated Fred to do or say something else. Fred noticed they were still there, and continued.
"It's too bad the lemurs needed them first."
The birds turned to see Julien riding on a pile of the bags and bags of peanuts, and as he waved to them from a distance Skipper got down on his knees dramatically.
"Julien!" He yelled loud enough to move the earth out of its axis by a negligible margin.
Kowalski quickly calculated a new plan to retrieve the nuts and finish the mission, alerting his Captain.
"Skipper, we may be able to use the wall as a way to apprehend the lemur peanut cart. If we time it right we-" The leader put a flipper up, lowering his head and shaking it slightly with a solemn reply.
"No, Kowalski." He got up, making a stand to be the better man. "The lemurs won this fair and square. We are not the thieves here."
The penguins waddled their way back, making it just in time to help Burt find a new stash for his rare legume collection. When it was all over, the team was halted by a certain King of the lemurs.
"Oh penguins~" He put his paws together as he stood in front of them. "Due to my glorious winning, I am throwing an all-night boogie fiesta!"
Jo's obscured ear holes pricked up, as an overwhelming lack of response from any of the others caused Julien to unnecessarily spell it out for everyone.
"Because you silly penguins are part of the reason I won, this means you are all invited." He smiled, bestowing his highest honor to the birds.
"Not interested." Skipper could be amicable when it was a mission accomplished fair and square, but he saw this party as nothing more than a way for that striped fiend to rub it in.
"Then roost on it, and become interested." Julien was in too good of a mood for that stern bird to cause him any grief. "Come Maurice, we have a lot of boogieing to attend to before the party!"
Their long-tailed neighbors left, heading back to the habitat with the giant bouncy castle… which certainly did look like fun. Skipper turned to address his men, snapping Jo out of it.
"If Julien thinks any of us are going he's even crazier than I thought." The bird wobbled his head from side to side to emphasize his point. "Come, men, we have to file this mission back at HQ."
The two highest ranks followed Skipper, before Private nudged Jo worriedly. With a little nod, she fell in line and joined the team on their short trip back to Headquarters.
It was rather dull to go over the notes from the failed mission. That is, until Kowalski had some sort of epiphany that caused a squeal of scientific delight before the scientist scuttled off into his lab.
Not wanting to disturb him on a research spree, Skipper allowed for down time to recoup before promising more intense training this evening to make up for the incompetence exhibited this morning.
With a shrug, Rico was satisfied to have some alone time with his girl, and Private scrapbooked a few doodles he had made, sealing them in a handmade journal.
Jo gazed out of the periscope, seeing some beautiful trees swaying in the wind, as well as enjoying the various designs of habitats. Upon seeing the lemurs bounding sky high, leaping to the distant beat, she wished to soar.
"See anything?" Skipper sipped his coffee, but as the rookie jumped he was startled enough to spill some on his slick feathers.
"Oh!" Jo immediately reached out to wipe the coffee off her leader. "Sorry Sir, it was an accident!"
"Hot tamales!" Skipper slapped the flipper off of him, not wanting any more attention brought to his spook. "No harm done, but what's gotten you so high-strung?"
"Just… antsy about the mission. Thought looking at some trees and such would calm me down." She bluffed, and Skipper raised a feathered brow before she timidly asked a question of her own. "Skipper, Sir… How do you make tough choices?"
"Depends on the weight of consequences for each of the options. Usually, its all about avoiding further regret." With a solid sip, he took note of the surprised look on the rookie's face.
Skipper frowned, looking down at his reflection in his mug. "I would do anything to get rid of the regrets that laden me now." He gave Joe a whap on the back as he continued giving advice for what he assumed was another artist block episode. "If the chance is easy to take, then take the chance."
Jo nodded, and very nearly hugged the Captain before he backed away and reminded her that only Private really enjoyed the action. Skipper wrote it off, anyway, as Joe being another naïve enlistee.
As Skipper took her place at the periscope, she carefully creeped inside the lab to get to her studio. On her way, Kowalski motioned with a flipper for her to come over.
"Look at this." The scientist had been connecting the peanuts to Fred, discerning the reasoning behind such a large scale peanut robbery. "I found this in the grass on our walk back to the zoo."
With a clink he placed the metal component down on the tabletop, and as Jo inspected it she recalled it's usage in several of his most notable recent inventions.
"A blade from a blender?" She asked, as the tall bird nodded.
"I have a hunch that these peanuts were stolen in order to be ground down, and compressed to make peanut oil!"
"Peanut oil!" Now it made sense why there were rockets and gas cans on the chart he was working on.
"Such high grade nuts must have caught the attention of a certain Red Squirrel." The moment was made less dramatic by the mention of high grade nuts, but Jo managed to stop her giggle while it was still a smile.
"…Meaning he could use that peanut oil as fuel for weaponry." She finished bouncing the theory around, and Kowalski compiled the evidence for their records.
Sure, the Red Squirrel wasn't that big of a threat since they last saw him in a hovel in the ground, but it never hurt to be careful. Now that the lab was stagnant, Jo cleared her throat to get Kowalski's attention.
"Yes?" He tapped the new file on the table before turning.
"Do you have anything to offer for ambiguous counsel?" She put her flippers behind her back, trying to remain as professional as possible about a personal matter.
"Always carry the two." Kowalski knew what the flub up for most of his calculations was. Offering a bit more advice from the top of his head, he added, "If you can't see something, try turning a light on."
With that sage advice that definitely had a story behind it, Jo pondered his words in relation to her situation. It didn't make any sense, and so she went to the bird who was knowledgeable in a different way.
"How do you handle impulsivity?" She asked, watching Rico make a rather lovely ice sculpture depicting dynamite.
"Uhh…" He looked at her. "Just do it."
"Don't you worry that something horrible could happen?" Rico shook his head from side to side, before continuing his work on the sculpture. It seemed counterintuitive to give in to every whim, but she supposed that was why Skipper was there to lead the group.
With conflicting advice from Skipper and Rico, and random wisdom from Kowalski, she finally sought out Private as a voice of reason.
"This is about Julien's party, isn't it?" The little brit shyly held his flippers together as he questioned her.
"What?" She felt her feathers ruffle a little in embarrassment. "How did you…?"
"I could see the bounce castle in your eyes as you watched him leave."
Private took a deep sigh, shifting his gaze from the dreary gray flooring, up to her eyes, before he nodded.
"I'll cover if it means that much to you." The Corporal had his share of indulgences, and what harm would one night do?
She excitedly bounced, before scooping him into a tight hug with a squeal of giddiness. It could have been mistaken for happiness about a promotion instead of glee from an act of true friendship.
"You're wonderful, I love you!" Jo exclaimed, before realizing how carried away she had gotten in the midst of their embrace. Backing off a little to witness Private's wide-eyed expression she quickly gave her proclamation an addendum.
"In the… platonic way." Patting her own arm she hugged herself for support as the Brit blinked a little.
"Oh, yes, obviously." He chuckled to ease the tension, and even though it didn't work, he tapped her arm. "Go on, and take care!"
With a salute to him, she dove up and over the fence, under the dark cover of night towards the disco lights and party music. Private stood on their habitat plateau for another minute, not ready to share the others' company back in HQ just yet.