Hans looked older than when Skipper had last saw him, but then again, he probable looked different too.
"What brings you here traitor" Skipper hissed, narrowing his sapphire blue eyes in fury.
"Same as you I presume" Hans replied coldly, "Deadshot".
"Thought you said you didn't care about Deadshot?" Skipper growled dangerously, Hans glowered at him in fury.
"That's my business Skipsy" he mocked.
"Don't call me that puffin" Skipper sneered.
"What do you mean!" someone shouted loudly, "We had a deal!" They both bolted towards the sound of the yell.
Both arrived in the tiny allyway within minutes. In front of them, his back to them was Deadshot. And in front of him was Phil, the chimp and a dolphin on a segway scooter. Blowhole. Only Phil seemed to notice them, mainly because Deadshot and Blowhole were arguing about something.
Skipper and Hans exchanged a glance. Then without a word they silently closed in on Deadshot, exactly as they had been trained to do so by Slade, back when they were allies.
"Hey!" Blowhole yelled suddenly. Then they attacked without hesitation. Deadshot turned around just in time for Hans to pin him to the ground, Skipper maneuvered around his temporary ally and punched Deadshot in the face, causing his nose to bleed. The Hans allowed Deadshot to get to his feet and the two began to march forward in unison, punching and kicking at Deadshot, driving him back into a corner. Finally Skipper and Hans both punched him in the face. The lemur's head slammed into the wall, and he fell backwards, unconscious.
Skipper turned back towards Phil, "You ok Primate?"
The chimp nodded,
"What's wrong with him, why doesn't he speak" Hans asked curiously. That was the Hans Skipper had befriended, not that that mattered much now; they were still enemies.
"He's mute you idiot!" Blowhole rolled his eyes.
"You" Skipper growled at him, "I thought you said you were leaving New York"
"Changed my mind" Blowhole shrugged.
"Friend of yours" Hans asked Skipper.
"Hardly" Skipper muttered, "But let's take care of Deadshot". He turned his back to the dolphin, but he could still feel the dolphin's burning glare.
"We should bring him to a zoo so he can't attack anyone anymore" Hans suggested, his voice emotionless. Whatever Deadshot had done to Hans, it had certainly caused the puffin to hate him as much as Skipper did.
"I have a better idea" Skipper replied coldly, "How about Hoboken's Animal Control?"
"I like that idea" Hans smiled wickedly. Neither knew much about animal control but one thing both knew was that no animal had ever escaped from the Hoboken Animal control.
"Ha! I'd like to see the humans cage up that genius" Blowhole sneered. Skipper turned back to the dolphin.
"I'll take Deadshot to the animal control place" Hans flung the lemur over his shoulder, his eyes daring to challenge his words. He didn't.
"Fine" Skipper replied without taking his eyes off the dolphin.
"You can deal with him Skipsy, he's your problem, not mine" Hans started to leave then stopped, and turned his head.
"And if you ever come into Denmark again Skipper, I'll kill you" Hans warned.
"And if you threaten my city, or anyone close to me, or even come into my city, I'll make sure you end up in Hoboken" Skipper vowed. Hans silently left. Skipper hoped it would be the last time they would meet, the same went for Blowhole.
"Last chance Flippy" Skipper snarled, "Leave my city alone, or I'll take you down". Despite what he had said earlier, he didn't want to fight Blowhole.
"Oh I have no intention of leaving New York Skipper" Blowhole said, "but don't worry. I'll make sure to stay clear of you". With a last angry snort he left the scene. Skipper's gut told him to go after the dolphin, to stop him before the dolphin tried anything, but he pushed the feeling away, he was just being paranoid.
"Then why was he with Deadshot?" a tiny voice in the back of his mind said softly. Skipper shook his head, and jerked his head at the chimp,
"Come on, let's get you home".
Back at the zoo.
It had taken Skipper and Phil about twenty minutes to get back to the zoo. Now they were walking back towards the chimp habitat.
"Hey Skipper, we did what you said and we chased off a little kid squirrel while you were gone" Manfreddi bounded over to Skipper, with Johnson at his side.
"Phil!" Mason raced over to his companion and hugged him, "Great Scott you're ok".
"Come on Boys" Skipper said and he and his companions headed back towards their habitat. Skipper had finally stopped Deadshot with the help of Hans; he expected to feel satisfied or even happy but instead he felt confused. He had been chasing Deadshot for most of his life, now that he had finally stopped him and had made an uneasy truce with Hans, what was he supposed to do?
"Hey Skipper, after we chased off the squirrel we did some cleaning and put all the extra stuff in boxes and put them into the extra room, what do you want us to do with them?" Johnson asked, tearing Skipper out of his thoughts.
"We'll go through them and see if we can find anything useful" Skipper replied absent mindedly. Suddenly he knew what he could do. He looked at the two penguins on either side of him, both satisfied by his answer. He was more than just their mentor now, that much he now realized, he was also their captain or leader, and also their friend. And despite what he felt about taking down Blowhole, he knew he had too, and he would have help this time too.
"You know what boys" Skipper said smiling, "I think we need turn that old storage unit into our HQ".
THE NEXT DAY.
Skipper stared at the shelves in the main room, there were four of them, all tucked neatly into the concrete like a bunk. He and his men still didn't have proper beds, they basicly slept wherever they wanted. If they were going to be a team and Skipper was going to be their leader, then they needed more organization. A box beside him held several small pillows and pillow cases.
"Hey Skipper," Manfredi called from the next room, "Do we need any of these old tapes?"
"No" Skipper called back, he placed the pillows in the pillow cases and set them on the shelves. Then he grabbed the two small newspaper wrapped packages and placed them on the table. He scooted the box underneath the table.
"Manfredi, Johnson, come here, I have something for you boys" Skipper called, sitting down on one of the concrete blocks that they were using as chairs. The two penguins came into the room a moment later, Johnson held his flippers behind his back. Skipper motioned for them to sit down, both did, but Johnson still held his flippers behind his back.
"These are to celebrate our being a team" Skipper pushed the two packages towards them, both opened theirs.
"Wow, thanks Skipper" Manfredi grinned, in front of him was a comic book, something Skipper had noticed he'd like when they had been at the zoo gift shop. Skipper's head snapped over to Johnson when he heard a small thud as if he'd set something down on his seat. Then Johnson reached forward and unwrapped his, it was a kazoo. Johnson grinned and instantly started playing. Obviously he liked his gift as much as Manfredi did.
"We have something for you too Skipper" Johnson said, he took something out from behind his back when he'd set down the kazoo.
"We found it in one of the old boxes and thought you'd like, since we noticed you liked drinking coffee" Manfredi added. It was a simple grey mug. Skipper took it in his flippers and smiled.
"Thanks" he said.