Cue hours later by mid-late evening, with Bridget in a giant bunny outfit in Kowalski's lab.
"Kowalski, I mean this in the nicest way possible. She looks like a deranged Easter bunny." Skipper crosses his flippers.
"But sir! She's not pink!" He pouts. "And she's adorable."
While the brothers argue, Bridget sits on the floor in silent thought. Her tired deadpan expression was all that needed to be said, along with some quiet long sighs of dreadful desperation.
'Is this what my life has come to?'
"I veto the rabbit, try again." He rolls his eyes.
Kowalski grumbles and looks through the costumes he has gathered. "What about a penguin?"
"…Can go with that." She rubs her face, accepting the irony of this.
He drags another huge animal costume over and hands it to her with a smile.
Sighing, she takes the penguin outfit and places it beside her, as she attempts to take off the bunny suit. This would be easier if her prosthetic leg cooperated more. The penguins turn away at least to give her a little privacy… despite her still wearing clothes underneath the suits.
Now in the penguin onesie, Bridget looks at herself. "Well my face is covered so this is less humiliatin." She muffled through the suit, as indeed, this one had the dignity to completely hide from head to toe.
"Just needs a few finishing touches," Kowalski says, getting a yellow and orange paint marker. He gestures to her to sit, and as such, he jumps on her knees to color the onesie.
"There. Now we maybe can pass you off as a very tall emperor penguin." He nods, finishing.
"Oh, splendid! You look cute!" Private grins. Rico on the other hand is failing at not snickering at her misfortune.
As hard as it is to see through the eyeholes, she glances down at herself, skeptical. "…Are ya sure this'll work? I don't think penguins have big fluffy eyebrows." She pats the mentioned big fluffy eyebrows that are sewn on the onesie's hoodie.
"It's not like the other animals have ever seen other penguins beside us before." He shrugs.
"Minus Rockgut, but he had bushy eyebrows too," Skipper adds.
"Yes, so it's not that abnormal." Kowalski nods.
Bridget sighs again, nodding as well.
'At least my tail fits this one'
"It's not supposed to be a full moon tonight… Right?" Skipper looks at the nerds.
"No full moon, but ya fellas got your silver from the museum, right?"
"Oh yeah, we do." He nods. "They've been kept in a safe this time."
Kowalski glances behind her. "Oh! That reminds me. How is your tail doing anyway?"
"… It's fine." Her body twists away from him.
Persistent, he still tries to check himself. "Bridget, if it is crooked, it will throw off your balance and potentially cause you other problems."
And persistent herself, she rolls backward lightly. "I don't have much good balance anyways, I'll live."
Kowalski gives her a stern look. "Bridget."
The penguin mascot avoids his gaze. "… It feels weird when it's touched." She mumbles shyly.
"That's because it's a highly sensitive appendage. You have nerves there like you have in your spine." He looks gently at her. "It'll feel a lot better when it's correct."
"…That makes it sound like it's… ya know…"
Kowalski blinks at her for a moment and then shakes his head. "I don't know enough about those yet to know about their sensitivity."
"They're sensitive. Trust me on this one." Skipper grumbles. Bridget snorts a little at that, which gets an eye roll out of him.
"Well, ignoring semantics, it should be pretty quick and simple. I had to relocate Rico's a few weeks back. It's awkward but completely outpatient."
Thinking it out, and rubbing her lower back to feel the weird mixture between soreness and numbness, Bridget sighs. Just in and out.
"… Fine k, but not tonight? We got a meetin ta get ta."
"... After the meeting?"
"That works." She nods in her defeat.
Kowalski nods at this. "Good. I like to keep you in decent health."
"I'm in decent health already," An annoyed huff came out from the suited emperor penguin.
"Except for a crooked tail." He mutters.
"Which'll be fixed later." She mutters back.
Kowalski nods a little and gets the door. "Suppose it's time to get to the meeting?"
Bridget nods back and glances at the flathead. "Whadda plan on tellin?"
"We're having to work on a side project for the North Wind at night. It's irritatingly taking up my patrol schedule." He shrugs. "And you're the rookie North Wind agent we're currently supervising."
'Oh woah I didn't expect him ta come up one so fast'
"… Not bad." She nods, trying not to sound impressed.
"And your name is Gidget." Kowalski nods. "I picked it because it sounds like Gadget but rhymes with Bridget." He nods ushering Private and Rico out the door.
"Heh. I like it." The disguised ginger shrugs. She nods at him and rolls out behind the actual penguins, who were disputing some silver jewelry with each other before exiting their HQ.
The group waddle and roll to the little shop and go inside. By request, Bridget left it unlocked for easier access. As usual, they were one of the first there.
'Well it's too late ta say 'I got a bad feelin about this', heh'
"H-How many are comin exact?" She glances down at them.
"No idea." Skipper shrugs. "Just depends on who shows up."
The costumed redhead nervously shifts, searching around for a corner so maybe she can hang out around. Oh, how she wished to be in the shadows to hide. The penguins take up their positions. Marlene is the next to scamper in.
"Hi guys and—" She pauses, looking at Bridget. "Friend?"
"Howdy." Bridget's voice came out of 'Friend'.
Marlene raises a brow.
"Uh yeah, that's uh..." Skipper looks at Kowalski.
"Gidget." He nods.
"Right, Gidget."
"Moonsquawkers, she knows it's me." 'Gidget' shakes her head.
"I just didn't know what your secret undercover name was." She chuckled, shaking her head. Soon the concealed redhead sits where the penguins are, nervously awaiting more to arrive.
The penguins take up their respective placements. Skipper takes a spot with the best overall vantage points, Private and Kowalski sit by Bridget, and Rico sits on the floor near Skipper.
Quickly more gathered to the room, not packed but there was a fair amount that attended.
Bridget is grateful her face isn't shown, biting her lips as her eyes flicker to each individual with caution. Out of fear that she'll make one wrong move and everything will fall into chaos.
A 'flipper' grips her knee tightly, in aid of calming down her breathing… as well as breathing normally. This suit is hard to breathe in.
"Where's the primates?" Skipper mutters to Marlene.
"They're a bit sick, but don't worry, I'll run them the details later—" She answers back before clearing her throat. "Okay, okay, everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight." Marlene says.
"We'll try to make this quick. Does anyone have any pressing questions before we get on with the main topic of tonight?"
"Is this something bad? Oh, I hope it's nothing bad." Roger asks, fidgeting his claws.
"Of course, it's bad, because it's not about me." Julien crosses his arms, standing on the opposite side of the penguins with Maurice and…that mouse lemur thing.
"Well, I wouldn't say it's bad," Marlene says. "It's about where the penguins have been disappearing at night for the past couple of months."
And now all eyes are on the penguins.
"What? They've been gone this whole time? Maurice, why didn't you tell your king this?"
"Like I would know when those guys are gone or not." Maurice gives the ringtail lemur a look.
"Well obviously if they were gone this whole time we could've been sneaking in— I mean, house-sitting for them." Julien crosses his arms.
Skipper rolls his eyes as he listens to them. "Look, we've been busy working on something for the North Wind. Also been dealing with Blowhole-related agents lately. But no reason to be worried, we've been keeping a glance at the zoo, too."
Bridget bit her lip as she struggled to keep a steady breathing in the suit. It was starting to get hard to get fresh air, and her anxiously observing the conversation didn't exactly help things.
The suit being too warm made her feel like she was sweating profusely. At this point, her grip scratched her pants to keep herself afloat and not drown in exhaustion.
"Mm okay, but uh, how much longer is this going to keep going?" Julien questions, totally not planning on somehow sneaking into their HQ with this information.
"Until I have repaired a specific machine for them again." Kowalski sighs. "Which has been slow progress with a number of setbacks."
The chameleons flash a few colors between each other.
Kowalski glares at them. "Yes, I suppose you could say my getting dumped by Doris was a setback too, no need to gossip." He grumbles and crosses his flippers.
Subtly a 'flipper' pats the genius's back.
"Again? That's rough, man." Maurice sympathizes.
"Yeah... But it's the last time. I'm... I'm moving on from her." He sighs and then shakes his head. "But this is offtopic."
Marlene nods a little as she listens. "Is there anything perhaps that the zoo can do to help things along for you boys or your friend?"
"…Friend?" A few voices echoed in the room.
And now Bridget felt all eyes fall onto her. This did not help her cope.
"Oh, that's Gidget. She's a North Wind rookie associate who is helping with their machine repairs." Kowalski nods.
"Why is this silly penguin bigger than you all?" Julien then jumps up onto her head to look down at her, and then the others, judging the difference. "She's freakishly huge!"
"G-Get off me!"
"She's an emperor penguin." Private nods.
"Oh!… OH, I see what's going on!" The lemur then stomps his foot on her head. "You're trying to replace the king with another royalty!"
Bridget grunts, having a difficult time keeping herself together. It was here that she knew this whole thing was going downhill. Either this suffering moron was going to tamper with her suit till she was revealed as not 'Gidget' or she was going to faint on the spot.
Her 'flippers' then tried to shoo him off, but this only made him stomp more. "My own neighbors and bestie, trying to take over my kingdom with a bigger royal penguin!"
"Biscuits and gravy, Ringtail, she's not a threat, leave her alone." Skipper groans.
Kowalski hops up to try to get between the two.
"Your majesty, I think you should step back from this," Maurice advises.
Julien huffs. "Well, how am I supposed to know that when she's an emperor penguin? Emperors are like kings but with more llamas and respect!"
"It's her species, not her social status!" Kowalski exclaims. "So please show some basic respect and decency and get off of her."
"Kowalski—"
But by the time Kowalski yelled out to defend his daughter, Bridget, lightheaded and dizzy, wobbled a bit before falling back. She fainted as her prediction went, knocking both the penguin and lemur down with her.
"BRIDGET?!" Kowalski gasps, quickly moving to unmask her.
And it's too late. Now Bridget (who is no longer Gidget) is revealed to all zoosters who'd attended.
"THAT'S A HUMAN!" Burt gasps.
The chameleons flash colors to each other in a panic.
Julien who gets up yelps and comes over to his aye-aye. "Maurice! The freakishly giant penguin is a human!"
"Don't worry King Julien, I'll protect yo—" But not giving him the chance, Julien simply yeets Mort away from feet via a kick.
"Oh dear," Private murmurs at the chaos, but quickly comes to Kowalski's side to help, the lieutenant being too occupied getting the redhead's feet elevated. He could care less about the reactions.
"Hey, woah, woah, no need to freak out." Skipper starts. "She's with us."
"Yes, Bridget is one of the zookeepers but she's nice and understands us—" Marlene nods.
"Hey, yeah! That's Bridget! Oh oh, she's really nice, we shouldn't be scared of her." Roger adds in, looking at the caretaker with a worried yet happy smile. Happy to see her, worried she's fainted.
"Then what's actually going on?" Burt poked Skipper with his trunk. "Since she's not a Gidget, she's a Bridget?"
Skipper bares his beak, gripping his flipper by his side. "It's complicated."
Maurice raises a brow. "Complicated enough that there's a human understanding us?"
Skipper rubs his face then. "Kowalski had an experiment go wrong. It made us and the human have some side effects we're dealing with. But yeah, once he's fixed the machine we won't have to worry about it anymore."
Rico waddles up to the other two as Private checks her pulse, spitting out, then unfolding an Ogi fan, to then start fanning the redhead. Bridget begins to moan quietly as the clearer air awakens her. Kowalski pulls on her legs more vertically.
With her consciousness coming back, her mind processes what's happening around her.
'…Oh no, I did it, didn't I? Fuck'
She cringes, biting her lips a bit as she wishes she wasn't here.
Julien then starts to look less scared and more interested. "…So, zookeeper lady can understand us?"
"Yeah."
"But she's easily startled too, so you need to be gentle." Private nods.
The lemur doesn't listen to the young soldier though, as he gets off Maurice, and leaps onto the redhead's chest. "Hello, zookeeper lady! This is your king speaking to you."
"Not right now, Julien, she's just gaining consciousness." Kowalski sternly tries to shoo the lemur away. Rico joins in the shooing with his fan, although in a more amusing manner… until Kowalski gives him an annoyed look, causing him to innocently whistle.
"I will get off in a moment. I just want to introduce my new subject to her king." Julien points to himself and then starts poking Bridget.
"Oi, quit it," Bridget growls, sitting up so he would get off, but now he just stands on her lap.
"Who is this 'Oi' you speak of? I am King Julien, a silly zookeeper. And the proper way to say that is 'quit it, your majesty'."
"She said 'quit it'." Kowalski then hisses.
"Kowalski, stand down." Skipper starts waddling over.
Julien was about to chat with the angry expressed Kowalski, but he suddenly gasps and yelps when he's picked up by the back of his neck by the caretaker, who steadily stood up and rubbed her aching head.
Holding him up, and facing him with a look. "I'm gonna putcha down nicely. And when I do, you're gonna leave me alone. Capiche?"
"…Uh—" But not even giving him the chance to respond, she drops him on the barrel of zoovenir plushies.
The chameleons flashed colors at each other in a humorous manner.
Kowalski still glares at him from his spot, but more or less he seems appeased by this.
Bridget then glances around the room, not enjoying the attention she's consuming. How everyone's eyes fell on her…even if it was less negative and more curious stares. Like she was a wolf who ended up in the jungle.
With all the mixed emotions and thoughts running through her mind, she shakes her head with a frustrated growl.
"I'll… excuse myself." Biting her lip, she gently rolls to the door and exits the zoovenir shop. The zoovenir shop was silent after the door closed behind her.
"… Is this meeting over?" Skipper looks over at Marlene with a huff. "Before a fight breaks out?"
The otter rubs the back of her neck and nods. "Yeah... Yeah, I guess this has been meeting enough."
Julien picks himself up from the plushie barrel, scoffing. "That is the most unflattering woman I've ever met. Maurice!" He starts. "…I think we should recruit the zookeeper lady."
"Oooo yay, I like new members." Mort joins in.
"You're not recruiting my daughter for anything." Kowalski crosses his flippers. "She has other plans."
"… Your daughter?" Maurice blinks.
"He means adopted. He's sort of adopted her." Private butts in with a sheepish smile.
"But uh… is she not a human?" Julien thinks. "Is she secretly a Gel-O?" He gasps.
"NO, SHE'S NOT GELATIN." Kowalski scowls. "She's human with currently a touch of penguin DNA. But that doesn't matter."
"Jeez alright, no need to get angry." Julien puts his hands up in defense.
"If that human is your daughter, then I bless the Sky Spirits for her. How she survives you four is beyond my belief." Maurice comments.
Kowalski opened his beak and then closed it and looked away. "... Yeah... She's a wonder."
With the meeting now ended, all the attendees leave with quiet murmuring and silence, except the lemurs who say their goodbye as they chat about other topics.
"Night guys. I really hope she's okay." Marlene says as she's the last to skitter out of the shop.
"... Any idea where she might have gone?" Skipper looks over at the others.
Kowalski rubs the back of his neck. "Maybe the park?" That's usually where she goes when she's upset.
"Alright, I'll round her up and meet you three at the HQ." He nods.
Kowalski goes to protest but then just nods with a sigh. "Yes sir." Skipper nods and slides off after.