Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! This chapter came out pretty fast, didn't it? Anyway, thanks to the people who read and reviewed this story. Here's the next chapter!
NOTE:
-I do not own anything presented in this story other than my own OC.
Operation: Unite and Conquer
Chapter 2: Chinese night.
"OK, almost there..."
All the animals who lived in the Central Park Zoo were waiting anxiously. Waiting for the zoo to close for the day, so they could do what they did when people weren't looking.
Especially Jason the otter.
After his unexpected encounter with Skipper, he was really looking forward to a tour of the zoo. That is, of course, assuming Marlene didn't have anything else planned.
As the last visitor exited the zoo, the doors closed. The clock's bells rang, and suddenly music was heard from not too far away.
Of course, being the newcomer, Jason was confused. "Hey, Marlene. Where's that music coming from?"
"Oh, that's the lemurs." Marlene pointed at the lemurs' habitat. "They do that all the time."
After staring at where she pointed, he saw the three mammals dancing to the music.
"I gotta say, they're pretty good dancers." Jason then decided to ask his question. "Uh, Marlene?"
"Yeah?"
"I was wondering if you could give me a tour of this place."
Marlene was surprised. "Wait, you're asking me to show you around?"
"Is that OK?"
"No, no, it's OK. It's just that, well...it's the first time someone asks me that."
"Well, you're the only one I know in this zoo so far. Aside from Skipper, I mean."
"Yeah, I guess." Marlene gave out a chuckle.
"So, uh, can you?"
"Sure. It'd be my pleasure."
After that, the two otters got outside the habitat, with Marlene being more than happy to show Jason around.
Now, we look at the penguins...
The penguin HQ was at peace after the usual training, and the four penguins were back to their usual activities.
Only Skipper wasn't drinking coffee this time around. Rather, he was at the periscope, watching the zoo...
...particularly the otter habitat.
One could argue that, despite the comments he made during his trip there, he still didn't fully trust Jason, and was making sure he didn't try anything funny. Or maybe he was just watching over the zoo, like he usually did, and he just took a glance at her home like with all the other habitats.
But the truth was that he wanted to see Marlene.
"Where could she be?"
Meanwhile, Kowalski was still working on the Love-u-lator.
After reflecting on the recent events, he finally noticed why his machine failed: the wiring was indeed mixed up. As a result, the machine had only based the results on appearances rather than personality.
Since Kowalski had disassembled the device in the process, he still had Marlene's saliva sample. As such, after repairing his invention, he went outside and introduced the sample into the Love-u-lator.
After adjusting it exactly like last time, he waited for Marlene's perfect match to appear on the radar. As expected, the device worked very quickly, and Kowalski saw that the target was...inside their base?
He went back inside and decided to see who the radar was showing. Since Rico already had a girlfriend, he quickly decided he couldn't be the one.
Next was Private. He stood behind him and placed the radar right next to him, which didn't make a difference.
Which meant there was only one choice.
"Marlene's perfect match is...Skipper?"
At first, Kowalski was surprised. He thought her match would be located outside the zoo. Plus, Skipper had already had a marriage that ended in a divorce.
However, after reflecting on their previous adventures with the otter, he was surprised at the fact that he didn't notice how his captain acted around Marlene.
"How could I have been so blind? He's so obviously in love with her! And she returns the feeling!"
Right after this revelation, the door opened.
The penguins entered their fighting positions, prepared for whatever enemy had infiltrated their base, only to find it was just Marlene with her new roommate.
"And this is the penguin habitat." Marlene then noticed that the penguins were inside. "Oh, hey, guys!"
The penguins went out of their fighting stances, and Private was the first to greet them. "Hi, Marlene. Who's your friend?"
"Room...mate!" Before any of the otters could speak, Rico answered the question.
"Uh, yeah. That's me."
And so, the introductions began. Since Skipper had already met Jason, all he did was tell him his name. As expected with the others, Private was nice and polite, Kowalski was analytical, and Rico said "kaboom".
Soon enough, an alarm began to make noises, and everyone except Jason was really excited.
"Hey, what's going on?"
Private turned to the otter. "It's Chinese night!" Jason didn't understand. "Here at the Central Park Zoo, we all work together and order Chinese food every now and then."
Now he understood. "Cool! So, what do I do?"
"You can stay here. We'll come back with the food."
"Private!" Skipper slapped the young penguin. "He can't stay here. Not by himself, at least."
Kowalski stood forward. "Don't worry, Skipper. I'll stay here and watch him."
"That's a negative. The human costume requires four penguins, Kowalski. We can't do it without you."
"It's OK, Skipper." Kowalski wrote down on his notepad and handed the results to Skipper. "Marlene has an appropiate size, and she can take my place inside the costume."
"Kowalski, I don't think she wants to-" Skipper was cut off by Marlene.
"No, no, it's OK. I'd like to help with that, Skipper."
Skipper turned to face her, about to stop her from doing so. However, once he looked into her eyes, he found himself unable to refuse her offer.
"Alright then." He then turned to his lieutenant. "Keep an eye on him, Kowalski."
Kowalski saluted his leader. "Aye-aye, Skipper."
The penguins and otter exited through the main door, leaving Jason and Kowalski alone inside the penguin HQ.
As the tall penguin turned back to his radar, he saw the male otter was looking at it.
"Hey, Kowalski. What's this thing?"
"It's a machine especially designed to locate the subject's ideal match according to science."
"Interesting little gadget." Jason then noticed there was already something on the radar. "Say, whose DNA is it working with?"
"We had no guinea pigs available, so we used Marlene as a test subject."
"So...this thing is tracking Skipper down?"
"Yes, it is...wait, what?" Kowalski couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How did you know it was Skipper?"
"Hey, no offense, Kowalski, but these two are just blatant. I mean, did you see how he looked at her? Did you notice how eager she was about working with him?"
The intellectual penguin stood there, completely amazed.
An untrained otter, not to mention a newcomer to the zoo, could already tell Skipper and Marlene were a perfect match, as well as attracted to each other, and he couldn't figure it out until now?
"So, uh...you think we can get them to say it?"
Kowalski looked at Jason with a look of interest. "What do you have in mind, Jason?"
"Actually, I was about to ask you for a plan."
"OK, let me think..." Kowalski began to think of a plan, writing down on his notepad along the way.
About 15 minutes later...
Kowalski finished writing and showed his notepad to Jason. "This is what I've got."
The otter looked at the notes carefully, and, once he was done looking, a smile appeared on his face. "Kowalski, this is a brilliant plan! Not even my girlfriend would come up with something so well-thought!"
A smile appeared on the penguin's face as well. "It had to be; it was scientifically planned. Now, let's begin Operation...uh..." He stopped, however, when he realized he couldn't think of a name. "Uh, what are we calling this operation?"
Jason sat down and thought. "Hmm...how about 'Operation: Unite and Conquer'?"
"A very fitting name, Jason." Kowalski put away his notepad.
Soon enough, all the others came back inside with the Chinese food.
"We're back!" Marlene seemed really happy. "Anything interesting happen?"
Her roommate responded very calmly. "Not really. Everything's fine."
OK, this chapter was shorter than the last one, but it was good, right? Anyway, even though I already stressed this, I want to thank everyone who actually took the time to read this stuff (particularly my friend Simoneer and my brother Jordan Geo Hunter for the support, and inugomegirl, as some of her fics are among my personal favorites).
What could Jason and Kowalski be planning? Stay tuned to find out.
This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.