Sorry for the delay since last chapter. I've been sick, so I haven't really had any energy to write, especially with school starting up again.
Chapter 2 – Replacement (Marlene's Story)
It was another normal morning at the zoo. Everyone was just waking up, except for the penguins who were already up and doing their morning exercises. But our story is taking place a few feet away at the Asian Otter exhibit, where Marlene was taking a nice swim, trying to wake up so she can prepare for performing for the humans today.
Marlene poked her head out of the water, breathing a sigh of relief as she climbed back onto solid ground, when she suddenly noticed Alice walking towards her habitat, carrying a small cage similar to what pets would be put into when traveling.
"Hmm…wonder what this is about?" she thought to herself as she walked over to the fence.
As Alice came closer, Marlene noticed that she looked rather surly today, no doubt not liking the fact that she had another mouth to feed, especially with the zoo's budget being stretched thin as it was. She reached over the fence and placed the cage on the ground, opening the door to reveal another otter that looks a lot like her, except for the fact that it was white.
As Alice closed the cage and lifted it back out of the habitat, she decided to say a few words to lighten the mood before leaving.
"Have fun, you two."
Alice soon left, and Marlene walked up to the newcomer, curiously looking her over for a moment before holding out her paw.
"Hi! My name's Marlene. What's yours?"
The newcomer returned the handshake as she started speaking.
"Nice to meet you. The name's Arlene."
Marlene suddenly became a lot less cheerful and a lot more weirded out at the eerie resemblance to her during that time when her fur was bleached white. All she was really hoping for was that she wouldn't have to deal with any more lovey-dovey stuff.
"Hey, listen Arlene, I'll be right back. I need to go visit the penguins for a moment."
"Ooh, can I come with you? I'd love to get to know some of the other guys around the zoo."
Marlene wasn't really enthusiastic about the idea, considering she really wanted to spend some time away from the somewhat creepy newcomer, but she decided that some time together couldn't hurt. Maybe she might end up forming a different impression about her!
"Alright, I don't see why not."
The two of them hopped over the fence and made their way over to the penguin habitat.
The penguins were preparing for the zoo to open for the day, when the two otters came down the hatch into their HQ.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" asked Marlene.
Skipper was about to answer, when he noticed the fact that there were two of them there.
"Kowalski? Am I seeing double, or is there a second otter standing in front of us?"
Kowalski turned around, wondering what Skipper was talking about, when he also noticed Arlene. He walked over and took a look at the newcomer, making sure that she was in fact real.
"I do not believe you are seeing double, Skipper. There is in fact two of them."
Skipper decided to see for himself whether Arlene was real or not, but as he took a look at her, his expression softened as he suddenly remembered something important.
"Hey, I remember you! Where have you been all my life, Arlene?"
Arlene looked at Skipper, confused.
"Excuse me? I don't think that we've ever met before."
Skipper was crushed after hearing that.
"Why do you have to break my heart like that, Arlene? What did I do wrong?"
Marlene rolled her eyes and got in between them.
"Uh, Skipper? You do realize that that was me with my fur bleached white, remember?"
Skipper was suddenly embarrassed, having forgotten about that one incident.
"How do you know my name, anyway? I don't remember ever telling you guys." said Arlene.
"It's a long story." said Kowalski, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
"Anyway, what brings you down here, Marlene? You do know that the zoo opens pretty soon, right?"
"Oh, I just came down here to introduce you to Arlene. She just came in this morning."
Private's head popped up, no doubt interested to hear about the newcomer. He walked over to where Arlene was before speaking up.
"Where did you come from, Arlene?"
"Oh, uh…Chicago. Yeah, I came from Chicago."
Skipper instantly became suspicious after noticing how long it took for Arlene to answer that question, but Kowalski was the one who spoke up.
"Curious. I didn't know that the Chicago Zoo had arctic minks."
"Well, it was only for a short time, so I'm sure it probably wouldn't have been brought to your attention."
Arlene put on a fake-looking smile, hoping to deflect any suspicion. It ended up working for everyone except Skipper, whose paranoid tendencies prevented him from believing her. But he decided to wait before making any accusations so he could hopefully figure out what she was up to.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Arlene. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to get ready for when the humans show up."
Skipper shooed them towards the ladder before returning to the rest of his team.
As Marlene and Arlene made their way back to their habitat, Arlene decided to voice a concern she had.
"Are those guys okay?"
Marlene scoffed before replying.
"Don't worry. You'll get used to them."
After the zoo closed for the day, the penguins headed down to their HQ for some R&R time. Before Skipper could head down the hatch, he noticed Alice walking towards their habitat talking on the phone, so he immediately reacted, jumping down into the hatch, but remaining near the top of the ladder so that he could listen in.
"Look sir, the new otter we got today is really stretching our budget thin here. I mean, with the amount of animals we have already, it's getting more difficult feeding them all, especially with the attendance dropping. We might have to ship one of the otters out to cut costs!"
Skipper was shocked. He climbed down the rest of the ladder after replacing the hatch before addressing the rest of the team.
"Men, we have ourselves a problem. The zoo doesn't have enough money to handle the amount of animals we have now, so they're planning on shipping Marlene out of here!"
Both Private and Rico gasped, not expecting to hear something like that. Kowalski, meanwhile, kept a cool head.
"Now Skipper, Marlene is one of the more popular attractions at the zoo. What makes you think that she's going to be the one shipped out?"
"Because I specifically heard Alice mention the otters and shipping out in the same sentence!"
"Well that seems kind of silly to me, but if she said it, I suppose it might be true."
"What are we going to do, Skippah? Marlene's our best friend! We can't let her be shipped off halfway across the country!" said Private.
"That's easy. We're going to make sure that Arlene is the one that ends up in that box."
"Aww, I was actually beginning to like Arlene." said Private, disappointed.
Skipper gave Private a look before turning to address Kowalski.
"Kowalski, options!"
Kowalski immediately pulled out his notebook and started drawing pictures.
"Well, we could go to Alice's office and switch the records around so that Marlene isn't the one being shipped off."
"Good plan, Kowalski. Anything else?"
"If that plan fails, we can always help Marlene become more popular so that there's more of a reason to keep her."
"Alright, that will be our Plan B. You ready, men?"
Private, Rico and Kowalski all nodded.
"Commence Operation: Doppleganger!"
The penguins reached Alice's office a little while later. They stacked on top of each other so that they could check to see if Alice was inside. Thankfully she wasn't, so Skipper opened up the window, and the penguins slipped inside.
Once they were inside, Rico and Private started performing lookout duties, while Skipper and Kowalski dealt with the computer.
Minutes passed as Kowalski skimmed through the list of shipments, which was making Skipper nervous.
"Come on, Kowalski, we don't have all day!"
"I'm trying, Skipper! I can't exactly help the fact that I can't read!"
A few seconds later, though, Kowalski did manage to find what he was looking for.
"Ah ha! I found it!"
Suddenly, Rico started babbling randomly. Private immediately went over to where Rico was standing and saw what the weapons specialist was looking at.
"Skippah! Alice at 12:00!"
"How close is she?"
"She's walking pretty fast!"
"Abort mission!"
Kowalski stopped what he was doing and repositioned the computer to where it was before. After that was done, the penguins headed back through the window and closed it behind them, thankfully avoiding being spotted by Alice.
With the failure of Plan A, the penguins were forced to go to Plan B, so they went over to the otter habitat to find Marlene and Arlene hanging out.
"Hey guys, what's up?" asked Marlene.
"Can we talk to you for a moment, Marlene? Preferably alone?" asked Skipper.
Marlene gave them a weird look, but she followed them away from Arlene, but the arctic mink completely ignored Skipper's request, following as closely to the rest of the group as she could while not being spotted.
"Alright, so what do you guys need to talk to me about?"
"I'm afraid we have some bad news, Marlene. They're looking to ship you out of the zoo and Arlene's planning on replacing you!"
Marlene paused for a second, considering what Skipper just said.
"Mind giving me some proof? I mean, I'd like to believe you, but there have been a lot of times when I believe what you're saying and it ends up with something going horribly wrong."
Skipper really wanted to admit the truth about why this was happening, but his military-trained mind prevented him from doing it.
"I'm afraid the details are classified, but they shouldn't matter! None of us want you to leave, and the only way that'll happen is if Arlene goes in your place."
"Look, I appreciate your concern, but Arlene and I are really hitting it off. I'm sure we're going to be the best of friends, and no one's going to be shipped off anywhere."
"Wait, Marlene!"
Marlene didn't listen, though. Instead, she turned around and headed back towards her habitat.
Skipper sighed, letting his flipper drop to his side. Kowalski walked up to his side.
"So, are we aborting Plan B then, Skipper?"
"No Kowalski, it'll go on as planned. We're just going to have to do this more discreetly."
"But how are we going to help Marlene become more popular and not blow our cover?" asked Private.
"We're just going to have to do our sabotage in advance, then."
And so they did, sneaking over to the otter habitat while Marlene and Arlene were asleep and setting up many different things that would hopefully ruin Arlene's credibility and drop her increasing popularity that she earned over the past few days.
The next day soon came along like normal. The zoo opened for the day and Marlene and Arlene popped out into the main area of their habitat to entertain the guests. Unfortunately for Arlene, Skipper studied her performance closely, so he knew exactly where she would be going and when.
Things went wrong almost immediately, though, as the first thing Arlene tripped was a paint bucket, which dumped brown paint on Arlene, which Skipper noticed. After mentally face palming, he leaned over to speak to Rico while still keeping up the cute and cuddly act.
"Rico, why did you put brown paint into the bucket? Now we can't tell the two of them apart!"
"Uh…I 'unno." said Rico, shrugging.
Skipper sighed, thinking that this was going to get much tougher to deal with.
A few minutes later, Alice came up to the otter exhibit, leading a tour group. She started explaining about the arctic mink that just came in recently, with her back to the exhibit, when one of the guests spoke up.
"Uh, which one's the arctic mink?"
"Excuse me?" asked Alice, looking slightly perturbed at the interruption.
"Those two otters look pretty similar."
Confused, Alice turned around and finally saw the penguin's handiwork. Thankfully, though, the paint bucket was well hidden, and the paint splatter on the ground wasn't noticeable.
"What in the world?"
Alice immediately hopped over the barricade and lowered the plank, crossing over it to where the two otters were.
As she looked at the two of them, she finally noticed the paint on the ground and bent down to observe.
"Hmm…paint. Must be one of those vandals again. Don't worry, I'll get you cleaned up."
But she suddenly realized that she couldn't tell the two of them apart. Somehow Rico managed to find the exact shade of brown that Marlene was, and by sheer luck it covered only the parts where it was brown.
"Oh god… this isn't going to be as simple as I thought."
After the zoo closed for the day, Marlene and Arlene were both taken to the animal care clinic so that they can figure out who was who. Unfortunately, there ended up being a lot of people there, so the penguins were unable to visit them.
But once all of the humans cleared out having given up for the moment, the penguins took their chance, breaking into the room and flipping up to where the two otters were in cages.
"Skipper, what's going on? Why was there a bucket of paint set to drop on us?" asked one of the otters.
"Well, we were trying to engage in a little democratic sabotage, but Rico here messed things up royally."
Skipper punctuated that last sentence with a glare in Rico's direction, to which the psychotic penguin responded with a nervous chuckle.
"Anyway, it was supposed to only be between the four of us, but we were trying to get Marlene more popular with the humans so the zoo overlords don't ship her off to god knows where."
Both of the otters were furious after hearing Skipper's confession. Marlene wasn't happy that the penguins went behind her back even after she refused to go against Arlene, while Arlene's reason was pretty obvious.
As the two otters started chewing Skipper out (the commander firing back when he could), Kowalski suddenly cleared his throat, silencing the three arguing animals.
"Can I help you with something, Kowalski?" asked Skipper with a tone of annoyance in his voice.
"I think it would be better for us to quit arguing for the moment and try and figure out which of the otters is the real Marlene so we can get out of here before the humans come back."
"Good idea, Kowalski. Rico, give me a light."
Rico regurgitated a flashlight and handed it over to Skipper, who flipped it on and immediately pointed it at the two otters. The one on the left gave him a stern look, but the other one froze, looking nervously at Skipper.
"To make this quick, I'm going to give you one question and one question only. And this is something only someone who's been at the Central Park Zoo for a long time would know. Name me as many of the other animals in this zoo as you can. The one on the left can go first."
The one on the left began listing the names of the animals, almost making it look effortless. But when she got near the end, she stopped.
"Sorry, can't quite remember the last few."
"No problem, you did quite well."
Skipper turned to the otter on the right and asked her to do the same thing. She also began pretty well, but quickly began faltering.
"Um…Rhonda, Clemson, Savio…"
"Wait, why are you listing the animals from Hoboken?" asked Skipper, suddenly suspicious.
The otter froze, realizing that she's blown her cover.
"Hmm, it looks like we've found Arlene, and she's also a grade-A liar! She's not from Chicago. She's from Hoboken!" said Kowalski.
"Rico, on top of the cage!" said Skipper.
Rico hopped up on top of the cage, catching the flashlight as Skipper tossed it to him and shining it down on Arlene, making it look like an old-fashioned interrogation.
"Tell me what your plan was, Arlene. Does this have something to do with Dr. Blowhole?"
Finally realizing she wasn't going to be able to hide it anymore, Arlene dropped the act.
"Fine, you want to know the plan? Blowhole was planning on replacing the animals in your dumb zoo with animals from Hoboken. Then, once everyone's been replaced, they were going to converge on you four and finally eliminate you! But now that the cat's out of the bag, we're going to have to work overtime."
"Kind of a shame. I'd love to see the look on his face when he realizes his plan's been ruined." said Skipper nonchalantly.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Arlene.
Arlene's question was answered a while later as she was quickly stuffed into a crate and shipped back off to Hoboken with a note attached to the box letting Blowhole know that they were aware of his plans.
The evil dolphin did make a few more attempts to replace animals, but the penguins stopped them every time.
A few days after the last failed attempt, the penguins were lounging around after another day of performing when Marlene zipped over from her habitat, landing on the fake ice floe.
"Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize for not trusting you about that whole Arlene incident. I guess I was just happy to have a friend of my own species to have around."
"Don't worry about it, Marlene. We were happy to help you out." said Private.
"That is part of our job description. Always help anyone in need, even if it is Ringtail." said Skipper.
Rico nodded, agreeing with Skipper's assessment.
"Thanks you guys. Anyway, see you all later."
Marlene hopped back over the fence, happy that even if it wasn't another otter, she still had awesome friends.