Chapter 13 – Bouncy (Maurice and Mort's Story)
It was another beautiful day at the Central Park Zoo, and it was just after closing. After spending the day entertaining all of the humans who chose to visit, all of the animals were ready to pack it in and use their free time wisely before the next day comes along.
However, the only ones who didn't choose to do so were the lemurs, or more specifically Julien. For today, he chose to jump around and do tricks on his royal bouncy as Maurice and Mort did their own thing.
Once the zoo closed, Maurice stopped what he was doing and walked over to tell Mort to stop. When the mouse lemur finally stopped dancing, the two of them turned around to find Julien still bouncing away.
"Uh, your majesty, the humans have left. You don't need to worry about trying to keep them entertained."
"Nonsense, Maurice! Even if dere are no humans around, I must be ready for when dey do come back!"
Maurice frowned, knowing quite well that the zoo wouldn't open again until the next day.
"You sure? Because the way things are going, you're just gonna tire yourself out, and the humans won't be as impressed with you when they do come."
Julien wasn't listening to him, though, so Maurice sighed, deciding to sit down at the smoothie bar and rest for a little while. As he watched Julien continue to bounce around, he suddenly noticed how much bigger the royal bouncy was.
Every time he passed by, he remembered it being much smaller than what it was now. Although Maurice was somewhat worried, he was thankful that it did at least have a roof so Julien wouldn't end up bouncing out of the habitat.
Meanwhile, Mort was standing in front of the bouncy, transfixed on Julien as the royal lemur bounced around. Not wasting any more time, Mort immediately shot off like a rocket towards the bouncy and started bouncing as well.
Julien immediately stopped bouncing as he noticed the tiny intruder. He quickly walked over and attempted to grab Mort and throw him out.
"Mort! What are you doing on de royal bouncy? Haven't I told you dat only de king may bounce on it?"
Mort was pretty slippery, though, with the amount of bouncing he was doing, so Julien missed the mouse lemur repeatedly.
Suddenly, there was a loud rushing of air coming from under them. Julien dropped down to his hands and knees and grabbed the fabric of the bouncy. Mort, meanwhile, took this as an opportunity to grab Julien's foot while the king did not notice.
"Oh no! De Sky Spirits-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the bouncy suddenly lifted off, carrying both Julien and Mort with it. Julien's yelling caught Maurice's attention, and he ran towards where the bouncy used to be, staring in shock as it flew away.
"What in the heck just happened?"
He stood there in confusion, wondering if this had something to do with the Sky Spirits, or if it was just a freak accident.
"Man, I'm not gonna get anywhere just standing here." he said to himself before heading off towards the penguin habitat.
After finally making his way on top of where the penguin's HQ was located, Maurice quickly threw open the hatch and slid down the ladder.
"Guys! Guys! I need some help!"
As Maurice looked around the room, he noticed the looks all of the penguins gave him. Skipper and Kowalski were working together on figuring out plans for future missions, while Private was busy watching TV and Rico was combing Miss Perky's hair while at the same time attempting to tune out what Private was watching. The look on his face told Maurice how well that was going.
Skipper hopped out of his chair, about to walk over to where Maurice was trying not to panic, but before he did, he turned towards Kowalski.
"Kowalski, remind me to make sure that the hatch is properly sealed. I don't like how easy unwanted intruders are getting in."
Kowalski saluted.
"Skipper, make sure that hatch is properly sealed. We've been getting too many unwanted guests in here lately."
"Not now, Kowalski! After I'm done kicking him out!" he said, pointing towards Maurice.
"Oh…sorry, sir."
Satisfied, Skipper began making his way over to Maurice, intending to do what he told Kowalski he would do, but before that could happen, Maurice suddenly held up his hands.
"Whoa, hang on, Skipper. I really need help from you guys this time!"
Skipper stopped moving towards Maurice as he thought about whether he should let the aye-aye speak.
"Fine. You have ten seconds before I kick you out."
Not expecting to be restricted like that, Maurice jumped before quickly speaking up.
"King Julien and Mort have disappeared! They were playing in the royal bouncy when it lifted off and took them with it!"
Skipper gave Maurice an unimpressed look.
"And why should I care?"
Before Maurice could give and answer, Private suddenly popped up between them without any warning, turning towards Skipper.
"Oh come on, Skippah. I know you and Julien don't really see eye to eye-"
"That's putting it lightly."
Private chose to ignore the interruption, and continued to speak.
"That doesn't mean that you should just ignore them. I mean, who knows where they are now? And who knows what'll happen if Alice finds two missing animals when she comes in tomorrow?"
Skipper groaned, annoyed that Private pulled the Alice card on him.
"Alright, we'll help you, but only because we don't want Alice to ask any questions. Take us to where you last saw them."
Maurice paused, not expecting for them to agree to do it so easily, but once Skipper gestured towards the ladder, he began heading towards it with the rest of the penguins in tow.
After a few minutes, Maurice and the penguins finally managed to return to the scene of Julien and Mort's disappearance. Without waiting for an order, Kowalski immediately went to work combing through the scene.
Meanwhile, Skipper decided to ask some questions to see how much Maurice remembered of the incident.
"So, tell me what happened when the other two lemurs disappeared."
Maurice paused for a second before beginning to speak.
"Well, it was just after all of the humans left. I was sitting down at the smoothie bar as Julien was bouncing. When Mort started jumping as well, Julien was attempting to throw him off, and that was when they started flying away. I don't know what happened!"
"Did you see anything unusual before their disappearance?"
Maurice paused, initially having no answer for it, but he suddenly remembered something important.
"Oh yeah! The bouncy was a lot bigger than I remember it usually being."
Skipper's eyes widened as he finally realized what happened.
"That's it! It must have been overinflated and sprung a leak!"
Before Skipper could ask any more questions, Private suddenly spoke up.
"But how did it manage to fly away? I remember a few times when it deflated, and it stayed on the ground."
"I think that I can answer that, Private."
The group turned around to reveal Kowalski as the source of the comment, as he held a long cable in one of his flippers.
"I believe that this must be what has tethered the bouncy castle to the ground. Is that correct, Maurice?"
"Yeah, I do remember seeing that once or twice while Julien was bouncing."
Kowalski nodded before turning back towards the group and showing the end of said cable, which was frayed and covered in spit.
"If my calculations are correct, someone or something must have chewed through this cable, which in turn would have allowed the bouncy castle to slip out of its riggings and fly off when the leak sprung."
"But who could have sabotaged the cable like that, though?" asked Skipper, giving the group around him distrusting looks.
"Uh, Skipper, penguins don't have teeth. I'm pretty sure we can't chew through this." said Kowalski.
"Oh…right. Well, um…this means that the only other suspect is you, Maurice!"
Maurice started, not expecting to be blamed for this predicament.
"What? Are you kidding? I work for Julien! What makes you think I'd want to get rid of him?"
"A likely story."
Skipper continued to give Maurice a distrusting look before Kowalski cleared his throat, catching their attention.
"Uh, shouldn't we focus on finding the two of them before we worry about who actually did it?"
Skipper sighed, clearing his throat before turning back towards Maurice.
"Alright, last question. Do you remember which direction the bouncy castle went in?"
Maurice paused as he tried to remember, eventually pointing towards the east.
"They went that way."
Kowalski immediately started making calculations in his head, walking around the scene and making notes on his notepad. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Kowalski turned towards the rest of the group.
"I think I have an idea of where they might have landed."
Instead of listening to what the analyst had to say, Skipper just gave him a confused look.
"Didn't he just say that they went that way? All we have to do is head that way and we'll find him!"
"Well, that's true, but that doesn't mean that they went in a straight line. There's always a distinct possibility that the bouncy castle may have changed direction once or twice during its flight. I do, however, have a general area of where it could have landed."
Although Skipper wasn't convinced, he decided to play along with Kowalski, and he began heading out of the lemur habitat towards the car.
"Come on, everyone. Let's go find Sad Eyes and Ringtail and get this over with."
After a few seconds pause, the rest of the penguins followed behind Skipper. As for Maurice, he was following them as well, but very reluctantly, as he clearly remembered the last time he went on a ride in that car.
Thankfully for Maurice's lunch, Skipper took driving duties with Kowalski taking shotgun so that he could lead them all towards the spot where the bouncy castle hopefully landed. The other three animals were unfortunately squashed into the backseat due to the fact that it was meant just for the four penguins, and Rico wasn't too happy about the lack of room.
After finally reaching the eastern side of the city, the penguins and Maurice kept an eye out for the bouncy castle.
At first, none of them could find it, which was strange considering how out of place it would look inside the city. But they eventually manage to spot the giant version of Julien's head that was on top of it, and they headed in that direction.
Unfortunately, when they finally reached it, there was no sign of either Julien or Mort, and Maurice began to worry. Thankfully, Kowalski noticed the look on the aye-aye's face, and he moved to diffuse the situation.
"Now, calm down, Maurice. There could be a small chance that they might have been thrown off of the bouncy castle during its flight, but it's very unlikely. Judging from who we're dealing with here, they might have walked off."
Unfortunately, this didn't make Maurice feel any better, so Kowalski tried a different approach.
"Hey! Maybe they might be trying to get back to the zoo! We should start looking for them."
Before things began to get awkward between the two of them, Skipper decided to step in and put a stop to it.
"Come on, men. We don't have any time to waste if we're gonna find them."
"But what are we gonna do, Skippah?" said Private.
Skipper didn't immediately answer, choosing to think carefully about what he wanted to do.
"Everyone back to the car. We should be able to cover a lot more ground if we do it that way."
Everyone else agreed with the leader's sentiments, and they all piled into the car.
Time passed as the penguins and Maurice continued to search for Julien and Mort. Unfortunately for them, there was still no sign of the two lemurs, and it was starting to get dark.
Skipper immediately noticed the sun setting, and he quickly thought of a plan, stopping the car before he turned towards everyone else.
"Alright, the first plan isn't working as well as I thought it would. We're gonna have to split up if we're gonna get a chance to find those two before nightfall."
"But Skipper! Are you sure that's a good idea? It's pretty easy for someone to get lost in a city like this!" said Kowalski.
"I know, Kowalski, but this is a risk that we have to take."
Reluctantly, the group split up and went their separate ways to cover more ground, but before they could get far enough from each other, Rico suddenly heard something coming from a trash can that he passed by.
Confused, he walked back over to the can and placed an earhole next to it to listen in, the noises coming from inside muffled due to the closed lid.
"I cannot believe dat you got us trapped in dis receptacle of stinkiness! I am going to smell for de next week!"
There was a pause in the noise before someone else spoke.
"I found a banana!"
Although Rico was unsure if he was just making up those voices that were coming from the trash can, he decided to check it out anyway. But before he did, he quickly ran out to the street and started yelling random gibberish, thankfully managing to catch everyone's attention before they got out of earshot.
As they rushed over to where Rico was, Skipper was the first to speak up.
"What's going on, Rico? Did you find something?"
Instead of speaking, Rico pointed towards the trash can, earning a look of confusion from the commander.
"Did you lose something in there, Rico?"
Rico sighed, deciding that trying to explain himself wasn't getting them anywhere. The crazed penguin quickly made his way over to the other side of the trash can, getting down on all fours before rushing over and slamming his shoulder into the can, knocking it over and revealing Julien and Mort covered in muck from the garbage, Mort clutching a half-eaten banana.
"Your majesty! You're okay!" said Maurice, almost giving him a hug before deciding against it due to the smell.
Both Julien and Mort just looked around in confusion, not saying anything.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Skipper stepped forward and reluctantly began ushering the two lemurs towards the car.
"Come on, you two. We need to get you back to the zoo."
Skipper had a disgusted look on his face due to having to endure the smell, but he didn't complain about it.
Before they could get into said car, though, Kowalski stepped in front of them.
"Hang on a moment, Skipper. Even if they weren't covered in trash, I don't think that they would be able to fit in the car. How are we gonna take the two of them home?"
Skipper thought for a moment, before an idea suddenly popped into his head. He turned towards the weapons expert.
"Rico, give me some rope, if you wouldn't mind."
Rico immediately horked up the end of a length of rope, grabbing it with his flippers as he began to pull it out of his gut. Unfortunately, the rope was triggering Rico's gag reflex, so he ended up having to focus on keeping his lunch down as he pulled the rope out.
Thankfully, though, Rico managed to get the rope out without anything following it, and he handed it over to Skipper, who took it and led Julien and Mort to the back of the car, tying the two of them to the bumper.
"Keep your feet up while we're driving, Ringtail."
"Do not be telling me what to do, bossy penguin! I can choose whether I lift my royal feet up or not!"
"Do you want your feet to be on fire, Ringtail? Then go ahead and keep them down!"
Skipper stared at Julien for a moment, annoyed that he was still being as bossy as ever. After a few seconds of silence, Julien finally lifted up his feet, and Skipper took it as a sign that they're safe to go.
The rest of the penguins and Maurice piled into the car itself, and as Skipper turned on the engine, he turned towards the back of the car.
"You'd better be holding on back there! I tied it as tight as I could, but there's no guarantee that it'll hold till we get back to the zoo!"
There was no answer from the two tied-up lemurs outside of Julien's head moving, so Skipper figured that they must be holding on for dear life.
Finally, Skipper pulled out of the parking spot, and the penguins and lemurs were finally on their way back to the zoo.
After what felt like forever to Julien and Mort, they finally managed to make it back to the zoo, and by some miracle, they were still attached to the car.
When the car finally came to a stop, Julien suddenly started yelling.
"Get me out of dese this instant! Dis is much worse dan de last time dat I had to ride in dis monstrosity!"
Kowalski took the initiative and untied the lemurs from the car, who hopped down and immediately started making their way back to their habitat.
"Ugh, I really need to take a shower. I smell awful!" said Julien.
Instead of following the other two, Maurice stayed behind for a moment and turned to face the penguins.
"Hey, thanks for helping me find those two, you guys. I don't know what I'd have done without you."
"Don't mention it. Hopefully this means that I won't have to deal with watching Ringtail bounce around anymore." said Skipper.
Before Maurice could catch up with the other lemurs, Skipper quickly went up to the aye-aye and grabbed his face with his flipper.
"Don't mention this to anybody."
Maurice nodded, and Skipper released him. As the penguins headed towards their habitat, Maurice smiled, happy that even if Julien and Mort weren't around to help, he still had some friends that can help, even if they weren't all that happy to do so.