Kowalski and Skipper sneak into the zoo without any trouble, and as luck would have it it appeared none of the humans had discovered their little indecent yet.

Kowalski accounted for the change in their size and marked a path accordingly, avoiding any of the zoo's security features. They'd likely been seen leaving, however, and Kowalski convinced Skipper to let him make a run to grab the tapes after they'd established that all other zoo animals were safe and accounted for. And they were, all tucked away in their beds, so to speak..

Skipper wasn't entirely sure how they had managed to sleep through such an ordeal. But they had been gone a time, and the other animals had likely grown accustom to explosions from the HQ. Even if this one was larger than normal.

He couldn't help but wonder about Marlene and the lemurs, though. Surely they would have seen.

Never the less, they were all okay and that was the important part. Skipper gave Kowalski the go ahead to secure the tapes, and while he did Skipper waited outside their old habitat. What was left of it anyhow.

He sighs, sitting on a nearby bench, just staring. He wanted to jump in to the habitat and start gathering everything they owned, erasing all the evidence. It was highly impractical though, it would take too much time recovering every hidden bolt that could possibly be there. Something, though...

Something told him to go and to investigate. Instinct, he'd say, but even then it felt different. Some flicker of memory, that manifested more as a feeling than an experience.

He pauses briefly to look around and see if Kowalski was coming. He wasn't. He'd assured Skipper that even with his bad eyesight he knew the zoo like the back of his flipper, and Skipper had countered that that wasn't a very good comparison considering their situation. But that was beside the point, the point was that it was probably going to take him a while.

Skipper pushes himself up from the bench with a little grunt and steps over to the bent up fence, pausing a moment before hefting himself up and jumping on to the rubble pile where their home once stood.

Everything... seemed so small.

He stoops down to pick up his mug, charred and dented, and holds it with his thumb and index finger. It felt so wrong.

He gingerly settles down among the debris and picks through things. Anything that had been paper based, or plastic based, well that was long gone. Wooden things? Mostly gone. Anything metal had been blown apart and/or charred and bent beyond recognition, and even the stone that had made up the entire place didn't fare well against the blast.

He rubs his eyes, frowning. Something was still so off.

He looks around at the rest of the ruined HQ. Even other rooms had been destroyed...

"Skipper!" Skipper looks up to see Kowalski running towards him. He stops abruptly at the fence, "What are you doing in there?!"

"I'm... going through our things?" Skipper says, confused.

"Skipper, I told you the Molecular Organizer runs on a biological independent power source!"

"...What?"

Kowalski huffs throwing his hands down and rolling his eyes. No one ever listened to him.

"This entire place could still be charged. The Molecular Organizer could still be active."

"Ah." And here he was touching everything. "Just as well. I don't think there's anything here that's salvageable anyway." Skipper says with a sigh.

He pushes himself up off the ground.

"It's strange, though... the HQ took so much damage and yet here we are walking around with bumps and scratches. Well except me. But I dare say I still fared better than these walls."

Kowalski nods a bit, still anxious for Skipper to remove himself from the area.

"Yes, I've been thinking on that and I will gladly give you my information if you will just please-"

"I know I know, I'm going." Skipper huffs, making his way to the edge of the rubble pile. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd begun to ache quite a bit and didn't quite think he'd make that jump, even as small as it was to them now.

With full intention to wade over to the wall, Skipper sticks one foot in the water.

"AH!" He rears back landing hard on the ground, and half into the water again, "GAH!"

"Skipper?!"

He sounds like he's yelling, but it's unintelligible, and Kowalski quickly jumps into the habitat careful to avoid the water which had obviously been the cause. He'd kick himself later for not taking proper precautions, but he quickly grabs Skipper and pulls him from the water.

"I told you Skipper, you should have been careful!"

"S-stow it." Skipper says, struggling to get a hold of himself.

"Look at this, you're even worse than when we got here!" Kowalski half scolds, checking where Skipper had touched the water. He didn't scold as much as he'd like, Skipper was still his superior after all, but he was strongly tempted.

"I'm fine."

"You have second degree burns."

"And I had third degree burns to begin with, I told you I'm fine." Skipper huffs, actually embarrassed that he'd made a simple mistake.

"You're not fine, you're stubborn. But I suppose to you that's the same thing, isn't it?" Kowalski says, helping Skipper up.

"And the sooner you three get that through your heads the easier this is going to- ow!"

It was officially a bad idea to put weight on his foot, or touch the burns, and Kowalski just looks at him with his 'I told you so' expression.

"Quiet soldier."

Before Skipper could protest, Kowalski actually throws him over his shoulder and clears the span of the water, before setting him back down.

"Sorry Skipper. Your orders, we can't spend all night out here."

"...The worst part is, I can't even reprimand you because technically you haven't done anything wrong." Skipper says with a sigh. "Don't ever do it again."

"Yes sir."

Skipper hobbles back over to the bench and sits down, putting his head in his hands.

"Uhg... well the bright side is, no important documents or machines are left. No real cleanup necessary."

"Aye, Skipper, I'd assumed as much. As for the oddity of our well being... uh, Skipper?"

Skipper suddenly points.

"Marlene!"

Marlene's eyes widen when she notices them point her way.

She'd been awake all night, ever since the explosion. When it'd happened she'd seen these humans in the area and had waited for them to leave before investigating, and much to her worry had found nothing but a wreck. A few of the other animals who'd known the penguins well had come to check as she did, but seemed to decide that there was nothing they could do and had gone back to bed. Which had made her rightfully angry of course.

She had slept, and spent the entire time pacing. When she heard some of the humans come back she'd pretended to be asleep, but then abandoned that facade when she heard the humans screaming suddenly. Something about their voices had seemed familiar enough to peek her interest, and she watched their antics for a while.

She didn't expect them to spot her, let alone have an interest in her presence, though. When the two rushed- well as fast as the one could- over she dove back in the water with every intention of hiding back in her habitat.

"Marlene, wait!" Skipper pauses a second to catch his breath as Marlene eyes the two suspiciously. "It's-" He huffs, "It's us!"

"Uh, it's," Kowalski points to Skipper and them himself, "Skipper and, um, Kowalski. Now I know this is highly unusual but I can explain everything!" He insists.

"Well you can't explain everything." Skipper insists, putting his hands on his hips. "How about that missing time? Can you explain that? Can you explain the platypus, or humans, or why penguin eggs just pop up in the flippers of responsible parents?"

"Oh, I didn't mean everyth- wait what?"

" Oh my gosh it is you guys! What happened to you?!" Marlene exclaims.

"Wait, we can understand her?" Skipper asks.

"Of course," Kowalski says with a gesture, "The Molecular Organizer was made to account for the species language assuming they differed, but this is our native tongue."

"Guys!"

"Ah, sorry Marlene. It's hard for us to tell, we don't have a lot of memory to go on up until that point, but it appears one of my inventions malfunctioned terribly." He expected Skipper to chime in at that, but Skipper said nothing. "We're stuck like this I'm afraid. At least for a while."

"But, what happened to you?" She says looking to Skipper, "Where's Private and Rico, are they okay?"

"Affirmative." Kowalski says with a nod. "They're in the park. We've been camping out after failing to find adequate shelter. Skipper is the worst off so far."

"And it's nothing I can't handle, Marlene." Skipper says with confidence. Marlene only sighs, somewhat relieved.

"Well I'm just... glad you guys are okay?" They were okay, right?

"Yes, we're going to attempt to raise money for medical supplies for Skipper. Speaking of, I managed to grab this while I was in the office." Kowalski says, pulling a first aid kit out. Rico had had one but it went rather fast considering their new found size. "I'd like to at least treat any remaining cuts or burns so they don't get infected."

"Not now, Kowalski, we have more important matters." Skipper says, waving his hand dismissively, and Kowalski huffs putting the first aid kit away.

"Marlene, we can't stay." Skipper says, "But we'll be back. I need you too keep anyone and everyone away from that water in our habitat, no matter what it takes."

"The water in our habitat is charged with leftover power from the Molecular Organizer," Kowalski adds, "It's still active and highly unstable. We'll be back to collect it when we can."

Kowalski had yet to explain as much, but it was crucial that they came back for the water. The power source for the Molecular Organizer was absolutely unique and if they wanted to get back to normal any time soon, they needed it.

"And in the mean time, we have to figure out just exactly what happened." Skipper says. Marlene nods a little in response.

"O-okay I think I can do that." She says. "But, where are you guys going, when are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow night." Skipper says, matter of factly. "We have work to do and it's too risky to come during the day. Hold anyone off until then."

"Okay..."

Skipper looks to Kowalski and nods.

It was time to go, they'd already been gone longer than planned.