HIYAH! Sorry for taking a while to post this up. I changed the twist in this chapter a little, so I had to re-write it some. It's not LONG, but I hope you enjoy it!
"Elli…" Marshal sighed. He looked up at his girlfriend, who had a pleading on her face. When the girl whimpered, he finally gave in. "FINE! We'll dance. Ugh. But you owe me." The teen mumbled.
Elli giggled and hugged Marshal a thank you. "Great!"
Marshal got ready for a terrible time, but the dancing never happened since a blonde ball of fur made the penguin fall on the soft grass of the lemur habitat. He glared and got ready to hit whatever it was, but then he saw it was Roz.
Of course, Marshal thought to himself as he shoved the girl off of him. "Roz, what the heck was that?"
"You tell me, lair pants." Roz said with a glare on her face as well.
"What are you talking about, squid!" Marshal asked.
Roz had come up with a theory on the march over here. Marshal wanted to pull a prank on her, telling her that their parents were missing. Elli went with it since Marshal was her boyfriend. She didn't know why Peanut would prank his own sister, but then again, they are best friends. She didn't know why Maurisa, J.J., or Buttons went a long with it, but she did know that Marshal would pull a prank on her.
"Because you're pranking me," she said flatly. "And I'm beating you to the punch, so NYAH!"
"Well, NYAH, to you 'cuz I didn't do anything, you freak!" Marshal hollered back.
"Ha! I saw the tape, window licker!"
"What tape?" Athena scotched herself past the crowded circle of animals to see what was going on.
"I think she's just delusional." Marshal said as Roz perched on top of the white feathers on his belly.
"I don't think you're any better looking, so I don't think my mind is going crazy." Roz said back.
"Guys? The tape I was asking about?" Athena said to get their attention back.
"Oh yeah, Well, to get Marshal in trouble, I decided to solve the case without him." Roz started, ignoring Marshal's glares. "So then, I see this tape with Marshal, Elli, Buttons, Maurisa, Peanut, and J.J. taking our parents to prank me."
"WHAT!" a group of voices called out. Roz looked over to see it was Elli, Buttons, Maurisa, Peanut, and Prince J.J. with wide eyes.
Roz raised a brow and stared at them. "You… you didn't know?"
"No!" Elli said, starting to get upset.
"Wait a second." Athena muttered, tapping her beak. "Roz, let me see this tape."
"I want to see dis tape, too!" Prince J.J. declared. "For I believe dat alien species have taken over de planet, cloned dem selves into uses, and kidnapped everyone!"
"But we're still here." Maurisa pointed out.
"But, come on, aliens?" Peanut questioned. "I mean, I know I didn't kidnap my own mother, but I doubt that aliens would clone into a J.J. I mean, talk about the showers that they'd have to take after that!"
Prince J.J. glared at the otter. "Hey! Look who is talking, Peanut!"
Maurisa put her fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle to get her friends' attention. "Guys, how come we're arguing? I just realized that my dad was actually taken and wasn't part of one of Mr. Skipper's crazy schemes! Doesn't anyone wanna find out what happened to them?"
Roz groaned. "Maurisa, listen, I know that your boyfriend is Marshal's best friend, but I found out about the prank you're pulling on me. Cut it out!"
"It's not a prank!" Marshal said. "Oh and… you know… GET OFF OF ME!"
"Not until you quit the prank." Roz said, crossing her arms.
"Okay. Roz, I know that you wanna pummel Marshal like the rest of us," Athena started, gently pushing Roz off of Marshal. "But shouldn't we focus on the more important things? You know, like the kidnapping of our own parents!"
"Not you, too, Athena!" Roz said.
Athena sighed. "Roz, think about it. Would Marshal really be able to force my Uncle Skipper to go along with one of his crazy schemes?"
Roz looked up to think about it for a moment. After a few seconds, she said, "No… I guess not."
Marshal's beak fell open in disbelief. "Then why didn't you think of that before you knocked me down!"He hollered, rubbing dirt off of his chest.
Roz shrugged. "I wanted to beat you up. So the first thing in my mind gave me a reason to."
Marshal growled and started to say something else, but before he could, Elli steeped between the feuding pair to calm things down. "Marshal, Roz, I think something's happened. And if Uncle Skippah, my daddy, and everyone else's parents are missing, then we have to find them! What if they're hurt?"
"We're gonna find them, Elli. We just need to see that tape, Roz." Athena said, turning to her friend. "I think you've found the evidence of our first real investigation."
Roz smiled. And it only got wider when Marshal growled in jealously. "I'll lead the way!" She waved her paw over her shoulder before walking off to where the tapes were at. They were almost there when a figure jumped in front of the minis. Or more like fell in front of them. The new animal mumbled in a deep, low voice before a bulk penguin stood in front of the teens.
"Who are you?" Maurisa asked, raising an eye brow.
"Quiet, lemur," the penguin said in a deep voice. Well, he wasn't going to be friendly. "And if you ever want to see your parents alive again, you stick with me." The feathers on top of the penguin's flat head were cut down in a buzz cut like hair style and he looked pretty buff for a penguin.
"Yeah, but how do we know you're not the one who's kidnapped our parents in the first place?" Marshal asked, crossing his flippers.
"Don't back talk me, boy!" The penguin said, giving Marshal a good whack on the head. "Name's Buck Rockgut, and I know who took your parents." The penguin reached his flippers behind his back, and as if by magic, pulled out a few manila folders, one of the folders containing a pencil drawing of a squirrel with an eye patch.
"Never seen him," Marshal said.
"Marshal," Elli said in a stressed whisper, "be quiet and let the man do his job. I want my daddy back."
Marshal sighed. "Els, baby, can't you see? This guys a freak. I don't work well with freaks."
Roz snickered at this. "I'd call you a freak, but that would be an insult to freaks."
Marshal glared at her. "Well, you'd be insulting Rocky Gut here!"
Buck glared at the squabbling pair. "Quiet, you two, or I'll have to take out my iron flippers."
"Don't you mean 'iron fists'?" Prince J.J. asked.
Buck ran up to the lemur prince with a harsh scowl on his face. "Why don't you ask that to my friends Hurt and You?" As he said this, he held up his flippers.
Prince J.J. chuckled and leaned over to Maurisa. "What a sad guy. His only friends are his flippery parts, and dey have bad names." His servant could only roll her yellow eyes, wondering how he didn't pick up that his life was just threatened. She knew he wasn't the brightest, but even Buttons was a little hesitant on whether to attack the new penguin or not. Whether it was because Buttons trusted him or didn't want to risk being beaten up in front of his girlfriend, no one knew.
When Buck Rockgut was too busy looking through files, the mini's side stepped away from the insane penguin to form a group huddle.
"I don't like him." Marshal was the first to speak up.
"I dunno, dude, maybe we can trust him. I mean, what other choice do we have?" Peanut asked.
"Peanut's right, Marshal," Elli said. "We'll just have to trust him for now."
"Yeah, okay, but I'm keeping my eyes open around this guy. He makes my dad's paranoia look like Roz's heart, very small." Marshal said before receiving a punch from everyone in the huddle. "Elli!" the penguin shouted.
"You need to be nicer, Marshal." Elli said, giving him a quick kiss. "And, sure, we'll keep our eyes open around this guy."
"Yeah, I mean, what are the chances that a crazy penguin that had nothing to do with our parents' disappearance was just transferred here right after they vanished. Besides, he knows they're missing. He knows what's going on, I'm sure of it." Roz looked over at the penguin. "Besides, if he wants to get rid of the squirrels around here, fine by me. They're all annoying anyways."
Athena sighed. "Roz, what if he's the bad guy? This could be a set up."
Roz rolled her eyes. "Athena, you know us. If Bucky tries anything that seems funny, we'll be on him. You can sing a high note that'll make him deaf, Elli could run circles around him, I could deal with him after it's all said and done."
Marshal raised a brow. "And I?" he asked.
"Shall be the bait!" the blonde otter said with a giggle.
Athena sighed and held onto Buttons as she glanced at Buck Rockgut worriedly. "Fine, we'll trust him." She sighed again, then added, "for now, at least."