"So how'd you two end up outside the zoo anyway?" Skipper asked them, as they walked through the Central Park, a shortcut to the zoo. Overhead, the full moon showed little sign of leaving the night sky, but Skipper knew it would be dawn in a few hours, and he still hadn't found a place to crash, mainly because of the two penguins, Manfreddi and Johnson whom he was taking home.
"We went exploring because we got bored" Manfreddi explained, "but we got lost"
"And then that dog started chasing us" Johnson added.
"Well, don't go exploring again, I don't have all the time in the world to keep saving you two" Skipper said sternly.
"Yes sir" Johnson said.
"One more thing" Skipper said, "don't call me sir, it's Skipper. Sir makes me feel old" he said, his eyes sparkling with humor. The two caught on instantly.
"Alright Sir-I mean Skipper" Manfreddi said as they stopped in front of the back entrance to the zoo.
"How do we get back inside?" Manfreddi asked. Skipper gave him a boost, and the young penguin landed clumsily on the wall, as did Johnson when Skipper helped him up. Skipper leapt into the air, and flung himself onto the wall.
"That answer your question?" Skipper asked.
"Yep" Johnson answered.
"That was so cool!" Manfreddi exclaimed, "How'd you do that?"
Skipper turned and looked at him, "practice". Both stared at him admiringly for several moments, as if he were their hero. Skipper understood that he'd saved their lives and had helped them get back home, but he was no hero; he was just doing his job.
"Come on" Skipper helped them get down.
He stood in front of them and smiled, "I'll see you around kids," he said. Then turned and leapt back up onto the wall and was about to jump down into the park when Johnson called out:
"Wait!" Skipper turned around and looked at him, curious.
"You don't have a place to crash for the night do you?" Manfreddi asked.
"No, haven't looked for a place yet," Skipper said, then added, "besides I'm not staying in Manhattan long".
"Well, since you don't have a place to stay tonight, we were thinking that maybe you could crash here, after all we owe you one, since you saved our lives" Johnson said.
Skipper looked down at the two hopeful faces below him. It would save him the trouble of finding a safe place to stay for the night, and he'd stayed in several zoos overnight before in Mexico, and it was just one night, so why not. It's not like he'd ever see these penguins again, or stay at their zoo.
"Ok" he said, "Lead the way". Skipper leapt down, and let the two excited penguins lead him through the zoo, to their habitat. Skipper paused when he saw it.
It was a square habitat, with a concrete island in the middle surrounded by water about five foot deep. He could now see how the two had gotten out of their habitat, the bars of the fence would easily allow a penguin out.
"Nice place" Skipper commented, impressed, he had never seen a penguin habitat like this before.
"Wait until you see the best part" Johnson said as they led him through the bars. As soon as they went through, the two penguins dived into the water and jumped onto the island.
He hadn't swam in years, in eight years to be correct.
Did he still know how to swim? Only one way to find out Skipper thought, he shook his head, and dived into the water. The water was freezing cold, but felt good against his water proof feathers, he easily swam through the water, enjoying himself before he flung himself onto the island where he shook himself free of water.
"Come on, it's over here" Manfreddi and Johnson raced over to a fish bowl, Skipper followed them.
"A fish bowl?" Skipper said, this was the best part? He'd had fish before, and sure it tasted great, but he wouldn't call that the best part.
"Uh uh" Johnson kicked the fish bowl away, revealing a gaping black hole in the concrete. Now Skipper was impressed.
"It leads down to an old storage room, and there are two rooms, which makes it even cooler" Manfreddi explained.
"Come on, we'll show you" Johnson hopped fearlessly down into the darkness of the hole. Manfreddi leapt down after him.
"These kids have guts" Skipper said softly, "they'd make good commandoes," once he realized what he'd said, he snorted and shook his head:
"Hoover dam" he mumbled, he wasn't looking for a team to replace his old one, nor did he need a new team, nor did he want one. He worked better alone. He fearlessly hopped down into the hole.
His feet hit concrete a moment later. It was surprisingly large and comfy looking down in the old storage room. On one wall, closest to the entrance were four shelves, dug into the concrete. Old boxes and even a tape recorder and a few unused tapes sat on them, along with flashlights, and glass tubes. Behind him was a small tunnel, dirt blocked it off. A cave in must've cause the tunnel to become blocked. Farther in the room, Manfreddi and Johnson were standing beside a steel human made door.
That must lead into the other room, he thought. On the other wall, were three glass windows that showed the pool surrounding them.
"Hoover dam" Skipper breathed in awe.
"Pretty cool huh?" Manfreddi grinned.
"We usually sleep in a corner, but you can sleep wherever" Johnson told him.
"Thanks" Skipper replied, still impressed by the storage unit. And despite himself, he couldn't help thinking that this place would make a great HQ, even better than the one Slade had back when Skipper was still training.
NEXT MORNING-
Skipper yawned and stretched before standing up. He'd slept better than he had in a long time, mainly because he had a place that few would look for him in, plus he trusted these kids. For some crazy, stupid reason, he actually trusted them.
Skipper turned to look at the two young penguins, curled up together in a corner, still fast asleep.
Is this what Slade woke up every morning to? Skipper found himself wondering, is that why he put up with our anger and our disrespect, not to mention all the times we didn't listen to him. And for a moment, he wondered what it would be like to train Manfreddi and Johnson as his new team, to be able to watch them become powerful and brave commandoes. He would experience the same pride Slade had felt when he'd trained Skipper and Hans. Then he remembered Hans's betrayal and the shock of discovering Blowhole becoming evil, and quickly shook the thought from his mind.
It was time to get going. He quickly flung himself through the hole and out onto the concrete island. He stood there for a moment, warming himself. It wasn't quite sunrise, but it would be in a few hours.
"Hey Marty! We should scare Alex before he wakes up!" Skipper's head turned to find the source of the voice. A female hippo, a few years younger than him was talking to a zebra about the same age. Nearby a lion slept peacefully sucking his thumb, and a giraffe peed in his little outhouse.
"Peanuts! Peanuts!" Skipper spun around, ready to fight, but it was only an African elephant sleeping happily nearby in his own habitat. He was obviously dreaming about peanuts.
"Quit being so paranoid" Skipper scolded himself. He had lived dangerously for so long, he wasn't use to the normal and comforting life of a zoo, even if he had only lived in one once. That had been before his parents were murdered. Though he had lived in an aquarium, Seaville, but that wasn't the same.
Suddenly Skipper wished he had a place like this to make his home, for nearly all of his life, he'd been bouncing from one place to the next. He shook his head, and slipped out of the penguin habitat.
He'd only gone a few yards when he heard someone call out to him.
"Hey! Are you new?" Skipper turned to see a female baboon with a cowboy hat on, leaning out of her habitat, two other baboons were with her, only one of them had a hat on, like the speaker.
"No, just passing through civillian" Skipper told her.
"Oh, wait! You can get outside the zoo?" The baboon seemed impressed.
"Yeah, so" Skipper had been a commando most of his life, so he had no idea just how special he was.
"C-can you do me a favor?" she asked slightly hesitant.
"Depends on what it is" Skipper said, besides tracking down Deadshot, he didn't really have anything else to do, so why not. Plus he didn't want to risk a run in with Blowhole, no matter what he'd told the dolphin.
"See, my friend's hat was destroyed, the crowds here are real wild, anyway, can you get her a new one?" The baboon was still very hesitant, "I know it's a lot to ask, but-"
"No problem Doll" Skipper told her, "I'll go fetch one and be back in a jiffy". He liked helping other animals, it made him feel good, made his past, the part where he had been unable to help his family, somehow easier, even if it was just a simple favor.
"It's Darla" she told him, "not doll".
"Ok," he shrugged, it didn't matter much to him, "anyway, I'll be back before the sun goes down" He belly slid off, towards the back entrance to the zoo.
"But the sun's not even up yet!" Darla called after him, confused.
Somewhere in the City-
Skipper paused in front of a hat store, he held seven dollars in his flipper. He'd found the seven dollars underneath a vending machine in another store.
"Hope this is enough to buy a hat" Skipper swiftly, silently darted in, and avoided detection by the humans and headed towards the western section, picked out the cheapest cowboy hat he could find and dropped the dollars on the counter, when no one was looking and darted back out, he stood behind a trashcan outside, panting with relief. This mission was kind of fun.
Skipper hurried back to the zoo, and stopped in front of the baboon's habitat. There were now zookeepers about, but no guests had arrived yet; good. He still had time to race out of here before anyone noticed he was here.
He hopped into the baboon habitat: "Darla!" he hissed urgently. Instantly the baboons were at his side.
"Wow!" the two other baboons stared at him in wonder.
"You actually did it hun" Darla stared at him with the same mixture of admiration and respect in her eyes as Manfreddi and Johnson had.
"I said I would" Skipper handed her the hat, and she handed it to the hatless baboon who happily put it on.
"You're one of a kind Penguin" Darla murmured as Skipper darted out of her habitat. He felt like someone was watching him, so he turned back towards the penguin habitat.
And sure enough, Manfreddi and Johnson were watching him, both were smiling. They waved at him. Skipper allowed himself a small smile in return.
Then suddenly Manfreddi shouted:
"Skipper! Look out! Tom's coming!" Skipper frowned, who was Tom?
"Hey!" Skipper yelled loudly as two large human hands picked him up.
"Hey little guy, how'd you get here" Tom had a long steel grey beard and mustache, with balding hair on top of his head, and cheerful, gentle blue eyes.
Skipper just sat there, in Tom hands, too stunned to really react.
"Oh, well, might as well add you to our little family of penguins" Tom set Skipper down in the penguin habitat beside the younger penguins, before calling in on his walkie-talkie.
"Hey Maurice, we have a new penguin, mark that in. We also need to mark a date to get him in for a check up". A moment later, he was gone.
"We're sorry you got caught" Manfreddi told him.
"It's fine, it was my fault, I was a little too careless" Skipper shrugged, he could get himself out as easily as he had gotten himself in. It would just take a little time.
"Can you still leave?" Johnson asked, then added quickly, "not that we don't want you here, cause if you wanted to stay, than we'd be more than happy to have you stay here-, but if you don't want to-" he rambled on, obviously not too good with words.
"What my brother means is" Manfreddi rescued his brother from having to ramble on any longer, "that if you need any help getting out, you can count on us".
"Thanks kid" Skipper said gratefully, "but it'll only take a few days for me to get myself out of their zoo system check".
Phew, that was a long one, anyway hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please comment on what you thought.