God, coming up with ideas for Marlene stories is getting really difficult all of a sudden. I'm not even really all that thrilled with what I have on backlog, too. If anyone has any suggestions for Marlene stories, I'd be happy to consider them. Send me a PM if you've got any. Thanks.
Chapter 23 – Five (Marlene's Story)
It was another beautiful day inside the Central Park Zoo, just after morning broke. Every one of the animals were getting ready for yet another day of entertaining the zoogoers. However, surprisingly the only one who wasn't already up and getting ready was Marlene.
Marlene was up late during the previous night having had to deal with some pebbles being knocked loose from the top of her cave and landing inside her bed, making it difficult to sleep comfortably.
Thankfully, she was able to at least get some after cleaning the mess up, but when the morning came, she was more interested in sleeping than actually having to get up and get ready for the day.
So, she decided she would try and squeeze in some more sleep time before the zoo opened. However, with her being out like a light, she failed to notice that she was suddenly being carried away.
Despite the turbulence she was going through during her journey, Marlene remained completely asleep, which is a bit of a surprise considering she's usually a pretty light sleeper.
Anyway, Marlene soon came to a stop before suddenly flying through the air and landing right inside a pool, which woke her up in a hurry.
After barely managing to pull herself back up to the surface, she dragged herself on to the nearest solid land she could find, coughing as she flopped to the ground.
However, before she could really try to figure out where she was, a voice came from off to the side that answered Marlene's question for her.
"Oh good, you're awake. I told Rico to be careful, but I guess anybody can be clumsy this early in the morning."
"Sor'y." said another voice.
Picking herself up, Marlene turned around and found out that she was now inside the penguin habitat and the penguins themselves were standing right in front of her.
"Guys? What am I doing over here? I did kind of want to get some extra sleep in before the zoo opened."
"That's a good question, Marlene. Kowalski, give the lady here a rundown of our plan." said Skipper.
Almost like clockwork, Kowalski pulled out his notebook and scribbled a few drawings on to one of the pages, showing it to Marlene.
"According to our intelligence, which is quite high if you ask me…" he started, chuckling at his own joke. However, the flat stare that Marlene gave him made the analyst fall silent, coughing before continuing on.
"Anyway, we have received word from Fred that a little boy has managed to get his kite stuck inside a tree within the park's boundaries."
"Really? Fred's your reliable source?" asked Marlene, giving Kowalski an unimpressed look.
"Well, I guess even Fred can realize something's wrong when the kite ended up in his tree." said Kowalski in a slightly irritated tone.
"Okay, fair enough. One problem, though. What do I have to do with it?"
"Well, it turns out that we did some early morning recon and found out that the kite is stuck way too high in the tree for just us four to reach. Obviously, this meant that we needed our fifth man, or in this case, woman."
Marlene paused as she considered what Kowalski said. As much as she wanted to just say no and go back to bed, she decided that it was probably going to be quick, so there wasn't really anything wrong with helping out.
"Alright, I'll help you guys out. One question, though. Why couldn't you guys have just woke me up inside my habitat instead of dragging me all the way over here?" she asked, annoyed.
"No surveillance, Marlene. Kowalski's done multiple sweeps of this habitat for any hidden cameras or listening devices and found none. However, your habitat is a different story." said Skipper.
"Speaking of, Marlene, I would really appreciate it if you would submit your habitat to a similar search. We've already combed through most of the zoo, but all we have left is yours and the lemurs." said Kowalski.
"And Joey's as well!"
"Thank you, Private. And Joey's. Still, I doubt that it should take us too long."
"Ugh, fine. If it'll make you happy. Now, where's this kite? I want to get this thing down before the zoo opens."
"Not to worry, Marlene. We'll be back inside our habitats before you know it." said Skipper, giving Marlene a smug look that she knew meant something was going to go wrong.
"Skipper, your hubris is showing." said Marlene backhandedly.
Skipper quickly glanced down to check himself, having not quite understood what Marlene meant. However, once he saw there was nothing there, he sighed, remaining silent.
Soon after, with nobody else bringing in their input, Skipper took it as a sign that they were ready to go, and the four penguins immediately hopped over the barricade with Marlene following a few seconds behind due to being held up by a random yawn.
Contrary to what Marlene believed, the mission went pretty smoothly. The only real wrench in their plan happened to be Fred, who met the five of them once they finally reached his tree.
"Hey guys! What are you doing here so early?"
Skipper paused, a headache already coming up from realizing that Fred had already forgotten about their meeting earlier in the day. However, before he could berate the squirrel for forgetting, he noticed Kowalski signaling from off to the side.
Confused, Skipper stood there, wondering what Kowalski was trying to say, before the analyst soon got exasperated and walked over to him, leaning over to whisper into his commander's earhole.
"Let me handle this, Skipper. We aren't going to get anywhere if you keep trying to remind him about what happened this morning."
"And you think that you're going to do any better against him?" asked Skipper.
"Well, yeah. I am a genius. I'm sure I'll figure out a way to get through to him."
Skipper noticed the smug look that Kowalski had on his face, making him shake his head in bemusement.
Skipper then stepped aside, allowing Kowalski to take charge of dealing with Fred, but before he could get far, Skipper suddenly spoke up.
"Oh, and by the way, you owe me a quarter for the show-off jar. Somebody forgot to bring it with them when we left."
"Sorry, Skippah! I just didn't want to break the jar and lose all of that money."
"It's quite alright, Private. That's why we need to replace that jar with plastic. Glass breaks way too easily."
"CAN WE PLEASE GET ON WITH IT?" yelled Kowalski, causing the other three penguins to stare at him incredulously.
Kowalski immediately cleared his throat before continuing.
"Apologies for the outburst, Skipper, but we are a bit short on time. The zoo opens in an hour, and I'm sure that you guys know what would happen if Alice sees an empty otter and penguin habitat."
"You heard what the man said! Let's get up that tree and get that kite down!" said Skipper.
Caught off guard by the sudden nature of Skipper's command, Marlene only barely managed to keep up with the penguins as they made their way towards the tree. However, she soon stopped in her tracks as she watched the others bounce up the tree effortlessly before landing on the branch just below the kite.
Sighing, she looked upwards towards the penguins and cupped her hands over her mouth to project her voice.
"Hey guys? A little help here? I can't exactly do what you guys just did."
Skipper was currently in the middle of coordinating the kite rescue effort when he heard the call from down below. Turning around, he started when he realized that Marlene wasn't up there with them.
"Marlene? What are you doing down there? We're burning daylight!"
Marlene simply sighed in disgust before releasing her claws as she began climbing the tree herself. Unfortunately, otters weren't exactly built for climbing trees, especially with how wide Fred's tree was, so all she managed to do was to leave long scratch marks in the bottom of the tree.
Sighing, Skipper turned towards Rico.
"Rico! Give Marlene a hand down there."
Eager, Rico immediately hopped back down the tree before quickly grabbing Marlene by the hand and tossing her up the tree.
Marlene was completely caught off guard by Rico's method of helping her up the tree, so she barely had time to latch herself on to a higher portion of the tree.
Clinging on for dear life, it took Marlene a few seconds to notice the flipper being held out in her direction as she was too busy freaking out.
Thankfully, she did eventually notice when Private spoke up.
"Grab on, Marlene! We'll boost you up!"
Marlene wanted nothing more than to keep her claws latched on to the tree, but when she noticed her claws start to tear through the bark, she immediately went into action.
Using her feet as leverage, she pushed off of her perch, lifting herself up just enough so that she was able to grab Private's flipper.
Even though initially Marlene was unsure that Private would even be able to pull her up, she soon noticed that the other penguins were also clinging on to the tree, forming a stack so that they would be able to actually reach her.
It took a few seconds, but the penguins were eventually able to swing Marlene upwards and towards the branch they were currently on. Marlene did stumble for a moment after her landing, but she managed to hold her ground, and she turned towards the others.
"Good. Now that everyone's here, let's get this kite free. Attack stack, men! Marlene, you're on top."
The penguins immediately went into the formation. Marlene, however, didn't move.
"Whoa, hang on. You're asking me to be the one to get that kite? I've seen how far out that kite is."
Skipper sighed before hopping down from the stack.
"Marlene, we've been through this before. We're an elite penguin commando unit, and we've spent countless hours perfecting all of the techniques that we use on a regular basis."
"So you promise that you're not going to drop me?" asked Marlene.
"I'll be holding on to you the entire time. I promise I will not drop you."
Marlene was still reluctant to go through with it, but when she noticed the genuine smile that Skipper had on his face, she relented.
"Fine. Let's get this over with."
Skipper nodded, apparently satisfied, and the two of them returned to the others, who were all still in the stack formation. Skipper hopped up and took his position on top of the stack before looking down at Marlene.
"Be careful climbing up, Marlene. Private can be a little ticklish."
Despite the emphatic denial from Private, Marlene didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, so she retracted her claws before slowly climbing up the tower of penguins.
She managed to climb up both Rico and Kowalski without any issues, but when she reached Private, she could hear him trying to stifle his giggles. Nervous, she took it slow, not wanting to make the situation worse.
When she finally reached Skipper, she let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in, before climbing up the commander's body and balancing herself on top of Skipper's shoulders, refusing to move an inch until she felt his flippers wrap tightly around her legs.
"Alright Marlene, we're going to take this one step at a time. Let me know if something's going on, alright?"
Marlene was starting to become increasingly nervous as the realization that she was standing on what was essentially the smallest platform she's ever seen came to light, so she could only manage a nod, too frightened to speak.
Apparently satisfied despite Marlene not answering, Skipper looked down towards Rico.
"Alright Rico, it's time for us to start moving. Don't overdo it, though."
Rico was too busy focusing on the task ahead, so he didn't answer Skipper. Instead, he took a step forwards, taking it slow before slowly increasing the speed of his steps so that they would get there within a reasonable time frame.
Eventually, the stack reached the end of the branch, and Rico stopped in his tracks, being as careful as he could to avoid causing the branch to break on them.
"Can you see the kite up there, Marlene?" asked Skipper as he looked up towards the otter, who was doing her best not to look down.
"Yeah, I can see it. It's a bit out of my reach, though."
"Too high or too far?"
"Too far." said Marlene, despite really not wanting to thanks to how far the kite was compared to them.
"Looks like we're gonna need to bend the stack forward some. Rico, can you bend forwards?" said Kowalski as he looked down towards the weapons expert.
Rico complied with Kowalski's suggestion, bending forwards as far as he could manage. Unfortunately, this made holding up four different animals much more difficult, so it took all of his concentration just to prevent them from tumbling over and taking a fall off of the tree.
"Rico's not going to be able to hold this position for much longer, Skipper! We need to get that kite down stat!" said Kowalski.
Skipper nodded before looking up towards Marlene, who looked none too pleased about their current predicament.
"Alright Marlene, we're gonna swing you out as far as we can towards the kite. Don't worry about trying to grab it. Just release it from the tree and we'll pull you back, alright?"
"Alright." said Marlene, doing her best to remain calm despite her brain telling her to run towards the tree and never let go.
Rico immediately went into action right after Marlene spoke, wrapping his legs around the branch to steady himself as he begun swinging the stack back and forth.
At first, Marlene had a lot of trouble even getting to where the kite was, but Rico started swinging the stack further, her paws brushed the kite, and she knew she was getting close.
"Just a little further, you guys. I've almost got it!"
Unfortunately, right at the moment that last swing happened, Rico's grip on the branch slipped, and the stack tumbled over. Frightened, Marlene barely had time to react.
Despite still being too far away from the kite, Marlene somehow managed to grab on to the string attached to it and successfully pull it out of the tree.
Unexpectedly, though, instead of continuing to head towards the ground, Marlene's momentum suddenly stopped, and she found herself hanging in the air.
Confused, Marlene opened her eyes and looked upwards, only to find that the penguins still had her in their grip, with Rico barely managing to hook his feet on to the branch.
"See, Marlene? I told you that I wouldn't let you fall." said Skipper, smiling despite the strain he was under keeping her from falling.
Relieved, Marlene didn't even complain as the penguins swung her on to a lower branch before they all climbed down towards the bottom of the tree.
After leaving the kite in a place where the kid would be able to find it, the penguins and Marlene were finally able to head back to the zoo.
Despite how long it took for them to actually get the kite, they were somehow able to return to their habitats with a few minutes to spare before the zoo opened, and Alice was none the wiser.
After a long day of entertaining ended, and Alice shooed the guests out of the gates, Marlene finally deflated, deciding that she might just go to bed early to catch up on some sleep.
However, that unfortunately didn't happen thanks to the penguins showing up once again. This time, though, they thankfully didn't kidnap her, choosing this time to visit her themselves.
"What's going on? I was just going to catch up on a bit of sleep." she asked as she walked towards the penguins.
"Well, there's a funny story…" said Kowalski, scratching absentmindedly at the back of his neck.
"Another mission has come up, and we need a fifth team member again." said Skipper.
Marlene looked at the penguins, slightly annoyed.
"Really? And you're going right to me even though I just helped you guys out? Why can't you just go with Maurice or somebody?"
"Well, we would do that, but our protocol dictates that we only use Maurice if we need a sixth member for our team."
"Which we don't, and that leaves us with you." said Skipper.
Although Marlene really wanted to tell them to screw their penguin protocol and let her sleep, she decided that one more mission wouldn't hurt, so she sighed.
"Fine."
Unfortunately, Marlene would live to regret that decision. Even after the next mission was completed, the penguins continued to drag her off towards more five-person missions, each one becoming even more dangerous than the last. One of them even landed her on the roof of a skyscraper in the city, which she barely managed to complete.
They also only left her time to sleep and perform during zoo hours, and it was starting to put a strain on her state of mind.
Having had enough, Marlene knew that if she wanted to get back to having a normal life at the zoo, she needed to convince the penguins to find someone else to go on their five-person missions, so she decided to take the initiative and go find the penguins herself.
Thankfully, she didn't need to search for long, as she found them working inside their HQ.
Hopping down the ladder, she immediately went to work.
"Guys, can I talk to you for a second?"
It took a few seconds, but all four of the penguins eventually made their way over to Marlene, looking at her expectantly.
Marlene coughed awkwardly, having not really prepared a speech for them, but she decided it was probably best to wing it and see what happened.
"Look guys, I have no real problem helping you guys out if you really need me, but doing it this much is insane! I've been barely getting any free time to myself because you guys keep dragging me off on missions! I really wish that you guys would find someone else to help you once in a while."
Kowalski opened his beak to point out the rule about Maurice, but Marlene held up her paw to silence him.
"I know about the Maurice only being the sixth man thing, but that really needs to go. Besides, I've never seen you guys take any guff from Julien before. What makes you think you would have trouble getting Maurice away from him?"
None of the penguins answered, which Marlene took as a sign that they were listening.
"All I'm asking is just to give me a break once in a while. I'm not the trained commando you think I am. I'm just a normal otter. Can you do that for me?"
Marlene looked at Skipper expectantly, adopting the cutest face she could muster.
"Alright, fine. We'll find someone else." said Skipper.
"Wait, really?" asked Marlene, confused.
"Yeah. All you had to do was ask."
Marlene spluttered, unable to form coherent sentences as she processed what Skipper said. Finally, she threw up her paws, deciding it wasn't worth it to get mad.
"I'm going to bed."
And she did, refusing to get up for anyone who even tried to visit.