Kowalski stabbed his screwdriver into a screw and turned it to make sure it stayed nice and tight on his machine. Private had gone to the fridge and scanned inside to find a bottle of soda. He reached and touched the soy sauce bottle, then shoved it to the side to reach for the soda, and then closed the fridge. He popped it open nervously; he was still concerned if anything could go wrong with how things are turning out right now. He waddled over to Kowalski and looked at what looked like a shell of a very big machine.

"Kowalski, what is that?" asked Private.

"Well, since I can't get Skipper to the vet," answered Kowalski without turning away from his work. "I'll have to bring the vet to him by building our own CAT scan machine."

"Do you really think Skipper's gone bad in his head?"

"Technically speaking, this was a random option. I have no clue what else could be wrong with him."

Rico squawked as he held up a metal pole upwards, straining to hold it in place.

"Just a little while longer, Rico," called Kowalski.

"Speaking of Skipper, where is he?" asked Private.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him this morning. Perhaps he left to… see Marlene?"

"I hope nothing will go wrong."

"I'll have to work a little faster. Rico, make sure that stays in place!"

Rico nodded as he tightened his grip and groaned from the weight of the pole. Suddenly a little fly buzzed in before Rico. Rico tried to ignore it at first, but the fly continued to buzz and dash around him. The penguin growled as he snapped his beak to swatter the fly away, but it dodged it. He growled and continued to chomp at the air. He was so busy trying to kill the fly, that he didn't realize he was moving the pole from its place. He moved himself farther and farther from the fly, until eventually the pole gave in and all the metal it held up came crashing down! CLAMP! CRASH! BANG! The metal shell suddenly turned into a pile of metal and rubble. All three penguins looked down at the broken pile.

"This may take a while," said Kowalski.

* * *

Marlene stared up at the open skies. It was just another brilliant morning as she sat atop her habitat. She breathed in the warm air and sighed, pleased with the good weather. Suddenly she could hear Skipper's voice from below. She turned to him and smiled brightly. He waved at her- with that cool smile. As she hopped to her feet, she didn't pay much attention to her footing until the next thing she knew, she was falling! She yelped by the sudden gravity shift, but luckily Skipper caught her fall. She fell right into his open flippers- how sweet!

"Nice to see you, too," chuckled Skipper.

Marlene couldn't help but laugh along with him, and her eyes widened when she realized- he was hugging her! This felt kind of nice. Eventually she began returning the hug by tightening her grip around his neck. This was really nice. She was smiling brightly, and she wanted to enjoy every second of that hug. Until suddenly her eyes popped open. Skipper's flipper caressed down to her waist, to her hip… then to her butt!

"SKIPPER!!!" she screamed as she shoved him away. "Watch where you put your flippers!!!"

Skipper frowned for a moment, but then he regained his warm smile, "Sorry about that, I couldn't help myself. You just look incredible on this fine morning."

"That's still no excuse!"

"Alright, I apologize. That was rather ungentlemanly of me."

Marlene cocked a brow, "Shouldn't you be working today anyway?"

"What for? So I can go back to my boring self and never see you smile like that at me again? Double negative! I've done a lot of thinking Marlene. And I've decided that you've got my undivided attention, as well as you've got my heart."

"Uh… oh…"

Did he just tell her-?

Suddenly he wrapped his flipper around her shoulder.

"So why don't we head over to the cafeteria and grab a bit of breakfast, doll face? Then we can probably catch a movie in Alice's office. I made sure she couldn't go back to interrupt our movie date…"

"Really? What did you do?"

Suddenly Marlene noticed a wild pack of spider monkeys tearing up the zoo with their madness! Then she spotted Alice frantically waving a large net, trying to capture the loose apes. "I got ya! Get back here!" She kept screaming and slapping the net against the concrete, missing her target. Marlene's eye twitched at the sight.

"C'mon, while we're still young!" Skipper exclaimed as he lifted Marlene into bridal style.

Marlene smiled nervously, but this certainly didn't feel right all of a sudden.

* * *

"Alright, Rico, just relax," assured Kowalski as he pulled his safety goggles over his eyes.

Private watched nervously as Kowalski pushed a button that sent Rico on a conveyer belt into the round machine. The machine looked like an oven with the smart talking toy for a computer. Young Private chattered as he put his flippers over his beak.

"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked timidly.

"We're about to find out," Kowalski replied as he pushed several buttons starting up the machine with Rico inside.

Rico darted his eyes all around at the ominous, blue glow of the inside of the machine with a childish grin. The chances that this experiment can go haywire didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Just hold still," called Kowalski.

"Uh huh," nodded Rico, still smiling.

"Now, let's take a look inside Rico's mind," said Kowalski, pushing a couple more buttons.

Private chattered as he covered his eyes, "Tell me what happens…"

Suddenly Marlene climbed down the ladder from the hatch at that moment and stood there with a peculiar look at the sight. The machine suddenly shook and the whole HQ eventually began to tremble as well.

"That's not good," muttered Kowalski. "Shutting down the main-"

KABOOM! The machine coughed out thick, black smoke. Even Marlene had to cover her eyes and nose from the harsh blast of smog. Everyone began to cough and fan out the smoke. Kowalski pushed a button that removed Rico from the machine. He lied there motionless on the conveyer belt covered with black smog, and still wearing a childish grin on his face. Kowalski rushed over to him.

"Speak to me, man!" he exclaimed as he loomed over.

Rico coughed up smoke.

"Buttons!" he squealed and lied back with his tongue hanging from his beak.

"Whew," Kowalski sighed of relief. "He's alright."

"So was it a success?" asked Private.

Rico and the conveyer belt suddenly crashed down, and a piece of the machine from the back fell apart.

"That's a negative," Kowalski shook his head.

"Hey guys," piped Marlene still fanning away a bit of the smoke. "What exactly are you doing?"

"That's confidential information," replied Kowalski as he removed his goggles.

"Yup," nodded Private. "That way Skipper won't know that we're building him a CAT scan machine to see if he's sick so we cure whatever's wrong with him."

"Private!"

"Yeah, there definitely is something wrong with him," agreed Marlene. "He's been acting… well, unusual… in a bad way."

"Like how so?" asked Private.

"Well, all I can say is that he's been… um, uh…" she couldn't understand why it was somewhat uncomfortable to tell him, probably because she knew he was young… and probably because she couldn't believe it herself either. "Call me crazy, but I think he's acting really… flirty…"

"I think that theory has already been established," nodded Kowalski.

"Yeah, but now it's getting a little outta hand. I mean, I don't mind him being fun and nice. But… let's just say I'd wish he can mind his own flippers!"

Kowalski tapped his bottom beak, trying to compute what she was trying to convey. Finally it hit him.

"Oh…" his eyes widened. "He's beginning to consort to-"

Marlene shrugged, "Well, not really, just once… I mean, it's not a big deal… well it is, but, you know… ugh!" Marlene could feel herself blushing, the thought of Skipper doing what he did made her feel tingly… but she couldn't tell if it was in a good way or not! Kowalski caught this and his face looked even more dumbstruck.

"Do you really mind it?" he dared.

Marlene blushed even more, "I don't know!"

Kowalski eyes popped into shock as he stepped back a little from her. Private had never felt any more confused about anything!

"It doesn't matter what I want about that!" she shouted. "I just want to know what made him turn this way!"

"We don't know either, Marlene," Private shook his head.

"We're doing everything we can to uncover the cause of this misfortunate turn of events," nodded Kowalski.

"Well you better," nodded Marlene and turned away, feeling slightly guilty for snapping at them the way she did.

"By the way, where's Skipper?" asked Private.

Marlene turned around, "Waiting for me at the bathroom. I guess he still thinks I'm in there, so I gotta get back. In the meantime, you know what to do."

"Will do, Marlene," Kowalski nodded.

"You don't have to ask us twice," added Private.

Suddenly Rico sat up and smiled widely, waving his flipper and grunting that he can be counted on as well.

Marlene blinked and then smiled. She turned around and scurried back to get to Skipper. But with every pace she took, she couldn't help but wonder what Skipper could possibly do next.

"Kowalski," began Private, when they Marlene had gone. "What did Skipper consort to towards Marlene?"

Kowalski's eyes widened, "Um, er… well, why don't we focus on helping Rico first? And let's just hope that Skipper doesn't consort to anything harmful."

Private nodded and together they waddled back to the smoky Rico.