First off, I do not like this chapter. Not one bit. But I had to write it for continuity's sake. This chapter is necessary for me to carry out the rest of the story.

Still, I didn't like how it turned out. So be warned. It could be boring.

Once again, I want to thank Illyria Lives, Eppo-pink-skuller-fly-fangirl-XDXDX, Anonymous Reviewer, Ultimate-Kowalski-Lover, and Obsessed Chocoholic for their encouraging reviews. Every single one helps motivate me to hurry up and write the story. I love you guys!

Now on to the not-so-good Chapter 2, based on the episode Gone in a Flash.

Disclaimer: Why would I even write a disclaimer if I owned the show?

Chapter 2: Gone

"Ringtail." Skipper hissed in annoyance. The upside-down face smiled even wider. "Why, thank you for remembering me, Penguin."

"You're welcome." Skipper spat sarcastically. "Now get down from there before I do it myself."

The tanned man pouted, his genetically altered orange eyes widening in an attempt to appear innocent. Skipper could feel his patience hanging on a thin thread that's threatening to break. "Three…"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, you're no fun." The man unwound his black and white tail from the hook in the ceiling and did a quick back-flip, landing gracefully on his feet. He looked up at Skipper and smirked. "This is why I, Julien XIII, have chosen you to be the rival of the awesomeness that is me."

"I'd rather you didn't." Skipper muttered under his breath. Julien's beast-like ears twitched, and Skipper cursed himself for not recalling the narcissist's enhanced hearing until too late. "Of course I would, silly Penguin! You're the exact opposite of me! So by being rivals, we can find out whether fun is better or work."

"Look, Ringtail, I need to get going." Skipper sighed. "So, would you please move?"

"What is the hurry?" Julien laughed. "You, my bossy friend, need to take things slower. Enjoy life while you can, no?"

I'll enjoy it when you're not in it. Skipper thought as he tried to push pass Julien. Julien sidestepped at first, but then used his tail to enwrap the Penguin, stopping him from going any further. "Ringtail," Skipper said as calmly as he could with the other man's accursed tail in his face. "If you've just returned from a mission, don't you have to report to Tom first?"

"Maurice and Mort are already doing that!" Julien laughed. Again. "Besides, tormenting you with my superior acrobatic skills amuses me."

Before Skipper could reply to that, the man withdrew his tail. The speed caused Skipper to spin with it and fall to the floor.

Skipper cursed yet again as the obnoxious half-lemur ran down the hall, laughing. "Ringtail!"

"There, that should do it."

Private took a look at his newly bandaged arm and smiled. "Thanks, Doris. We wouldn't all be here without you."

"Aw, Private. You're too kind." Doris returned the smile. She then turned to the other Penguin present. "Right then, do you still want me to take a look at that broken nose, Kowalski?" She said jokingly. She waited for the response that didn't come.

"Kowalski?" She snapped her fingers in front of his face, and the strategist jumped like he was jolted with electricity. "Who what?"

"Are you okay?" Doris asked, a little concerned. Kowalski blinked a few times, then smiled sheepishly, "I'm fine. I was just…you know…thinking about an experiment." Private rolled his eyes. He wanted so badly to point out that Kowalski had been staring at Doris for the past twenty minutes, but Kowalski would probably kill him. Then revive him and kill him again.

"You've been experimenting?" Doris said with mock surprise. "Why, I haven't heard an explosion all week!"

"Hey, not all of my experiments go up in smoke." Kowalski defended, sounding a little hurt. Doris laughed. "I'm just joking."

Suddenly, the door to the med bay opened. The three occupants of the room turned to look, and were surprised to see a young boy standing there by himself.

"Hello." The boy said politely.

"Hello, Mort." Private, being the first one to recover, replied. "Where are Maurice and Julien? I've never seen you without at least one of them."

Th boy, now known as Mort, shifted nervously and scratched at his messy brown hair. "Master Julien ran off the moment we came in. Maurice is…gone."

"Gone?" Kowalski asked, alarmed. "What do you mean, gone?"

"Ju-just…gone. Not here." Mort stammered, frightened by the sudden urgency in Kowalski's voice. "H-he was gone while we were returning."

"Does Julien know about this?" Doris asked in a more soothing tone. Mort visible relaxed. But he still stammered. "N-no. Master Julien was talking all the way. He didn't notice when Maurice went away."

"Wait. You saw him disappear and you didn't say anything?" Kowalski asked in disbelief. Mort hesitated. "I…I cannot say."

"What do you mean, you cannot say?" Kowalski demanded, a little harsher than he intended to. Mort's already huge eyes widened even more as tears threatened to spill. "I…I just can't! Maurice is gone! That's all!" He squeaked before turning and running out the door. But he didn't make it out before running into the wall first, leaving three stunned operatives behind.

"You didn't have to be so hard on him." Doris sent a mild glare at Kowalski, who flinched. "Didn't you see that cut on his face? Now it's going to take forever for me to find him."

"Sorry."

"Oh, dear." Private said. "Do you reckon something bad happened to Maurice?"

"I don't know. That twelve-year-old wasn't exactly specific." Kowalski said. "I guess we can ask Julien about it."

"Well, we'll have to find him first." Private pointed out. Kowalski was about to agree when an earth-shaking yell resounded through the entire base.

"Ringtail!"

The three looked at each other for a moment. Then Kowalski said, "Well, at least that'll save us the trouble of finding him."

"It wasn't fair." Julien complained twenty minutes later. His lemur ears were flattened against his head. "He didn't have to actually break my arm."

"I didn't break it. I cracked it." Skipper declared. "There's a difference."

"Now I have to wear this cast." Julien said, completely ignoring the Penguin. "Honestly, why is he so violent?"

"You had it coming, Ringtail."

"Now that I'm having to wear this cast, my awesome image is ruined." The half-lemur sighed dramatically, again ignoring Skipper. Skipper's eye twitched in annoyance.

"Hold still, Julien," Doris scolded, "Unless you want it to be broken instead of just cracked."

Ten minutes earlier, Skipper had dragged a wailing Julien into the med bay. Now, Doris is treating Julien, and Skipper just crossed his arms, sat in one of the chairs, and watched the entire process.

Kowalski and Private glanced at each other, sharing a look that said "here we go again". This wasn't the first time that Julien had ticked Skipper off enough for the Penguin leader to actually hurt him. In fact, it happened about twice a month.

They waited until Julien's arm was properly bandaged, which took another twenty minutes due to the half-lemur's inability to stay still for more than two minutes. Doris sank into her swiveling chair, feeling more than a bit exhausted. "Next time you move so much while I'm treating you, Julien, I swear I'll break your other arm, too."

"Crack." Skipper corrected insistently. Doris just shrugged.

Kowalski cleared his throat before Skipper could explode again. "Julien, we want to ask you about Maurice."

"Yes, yes, what about him?" Julien asked, now examining his cast.

"Well, Mort came in about an hour ago, saying that Maurice was…gone." Private explained.

"Gone?" Skipper repeated. Julien just laughed it off, "Gone? How can he be gone? He was listening to my glorious story all the way home! There's no way he could've been gone!"

"Are you absolutely sure?" Kowalski pressed.

"Of course I'm sure!" Julien scoffed. Then he frowned. "Well, now that I thought about it, Maurice was unusually quiet."

"Define quiet." Skipper demanded.

"Well, he didn't say anything at all. No 'Yes, Julien', 'That's very good, Julien', or 'Julien, you're the awesome-est operative that's ever lived!'...Okay, I made that last one up." Julien laughed at his own joke. "Oh yes, that reminds me, smart-y Penguin, your elevator thingy is broke! It didn't say Maurice's name after it showered us with lights!"

The whole room stared. Skipper groaned, "Ringtail…"

"What?" Julien asked, genuinely confused.

"You just…you…never mind." Skipper gave up trying to make the narcissist understand. Instead, he turned to his team, "Private, get Rico. Kowalski, get the gadgets required. Since this is a daytime mission, I want you all to change into casual clothes. We'll meet at the elevator in ten minutes. I'll go tell Tom we're on Operation: Lemur Rescue."

The other two nodded, and the Penguins were off.

"Uh…rescue what lemur, exactly?" Julien asked the remaining person. Doris gave him a look.

"What?" Julien demanded.

Doris shook her head, let out a small sigh, and walked away. Needless to say, Julien was utterly confused by this action. "What?"

Team Penguin was now on the roof of their building, looking over the city.

"Alright, team. We need to find a missing operative. We have no idea where he is, when he went MIA, or where he was last seen." Skipper announced. Then he sighed. "This is going to take a while."

"Actually, Skipper," Private spoke up, "Rico and I ran into Mort on our way to the elevator. After we got him to stop crying-"

"Crying?" Skipper raised an eyebrow.

Private winced at the memory. "Well…when I said that we 'ran into' Mort, I meant it quite literally."

"Oh." Skipper nodded. Mort was infamous for being accident-prone, even when he's in a room with absolutely nothing in it. He'd just trip over his own feet. "Continue."

"Well, as I was saying, after we got him to stop crying, we asked him about Maurice. It was kind of hard, since he wouldn't say anything, for some reason. But then Rico pulled out a lolly-"

Rico quickly slapped Private on the back before he could finish the word. Private jumped, then continued, "…I mean, a bargaining item, and Mort accepted it. He told us that he last saw Maurice at Roger's."

"Roger's…" Skipper pondered over this new piece of information, completely missing the "you almost did it" glare Rico gave Private. Private returned the glare with an "I'm sorry!" shrug. Kowalski took all this in, highly amused. Then Skipper finally broken the tension. "Did you get anything else?"

"No. He ran away before Rico could get the second lo-bargaining item out." Private replied, making sure to correct himself before Rico could slap him again.

"Well, at least it's a start." Skipper sighed. "C'mon, boys. We're going to Roger's."

As they took off into the city, Kowalski came up beside Rico and raised an eyebrow. "Lollypop?"

Rico winced and nodded carefully. "Secret." He said.

"Can I have one?"

Rico stared until he remembered the scientist's abnormal…interest in sweets. He glanced ahead to see if Skipper was looking, and was relieved to see their leader talking to Private. In one swift move of his hand, he slipped one piece of the candy over to Kowalski, who hid it just as quickly.

"Never happened." Rico said simply. Kowalski nodded in agreement. "Right."

Roger's Café is a small shop downtown that you would've missed if you weren't looking for it. And most people didn't bother looking for it. That's why it became one of the Secret Ops operatives' favorite places to hang out at.

The man running the shop was, obviously, Roger. Roger was one of the few individuals that knew of the entire Secret Ops. He's a kind-hearted man that looked like someone that should've been with the mafia. If he's not smiling, you'd think he's going to kill you right there and then. But luckily for those within a five-meter radius around him, he smiled quite frequently.

"Guys!" He said cheerfully when the Penguins walked in through the door. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you guys! I just baked some fresh cookies, but there was no one to share them with! I'll go get them now!"

Skipper stopped him before he could turn. "As much as we want to taste your delicious pastries, Roger, we're here strictly on business."

"Oh, goodness." Roger dropped his smile for just a split second. But it was enough to make Private flinch. "It's not about The Aces again, is it?"

"We don't know yet." Skipper said. "But you can help us find out."

"Well then," Roger resumed smiling, and Private let out a breath in relief, "How can I help?"

"We're looking for Maurice." Skipper explained.

"Maurice?" The huge man snapped his fingers in realization. "He was just here about two hours ago."

"Can you tell us the details?" Kowalski asked, his homemade computer, which he had simply named the Notepad, already in hand.

Roger moved around, getting the cookies out of the oven while he talked. It's a habit he had built up over the years. "I saw him with Julien and Mort, passing right by my café. But after a few seconds, Maurice returned alone. At first I thought Julien wanted him to get something for him, but then Maurice sat down and ordered his usual. He looked really tired, you know? I was about to ask him what was wrong when he placed the money on the counter and walked out." Roger shook his head. "He must've been really out of it. He didn't even finish his espresso!"

"You're kidding." Skipper said in disbelief. Being Julien's closet thing to a friend, Maurice had to put up with the narcissistic half-lemur's attitude around the clock. His normal diet consisted of two cups of espresso coffee and anything else with sugar. No one had ever seen the man leave the table until both cups of coffee were empty.

"I'm worried, Skipper." Roger said quietly. "He mumbled something about the docks when he left. Maybe you can find him there?"

"The docks." Skipper repeated, and Kowalski just finished jotting down the details. "Alright then, let's go."

The team turned to leave, but they were stopped by Roger.

"Wait!" He held up the brown paper bag that now had all the cookies in it. "Take this with you. Good luck on finding Maurice."

"Private." Skipper said in a tone that suggested he was on the verge of yelling. "If I hear you say anything about those cookies again, I'll personally make sure you don't get to eat the rest of them."

Private let out a squeal. "Sorry, Skipper."

The Penguins are now at the docks, which was buzzing with activity. Ships were loaded and unloaded. Some sailed off into the ocean while others docked in. Exactly what a normal day was like.

"I wonder what Maurice is doing here?" Private said from where they were hiding behind some barrels.

"That's assuming he's still here." Kowalski muttered. He was tapping furiously at his Notepad screen, and Private watched in amusement. He remembered seeing something like the Notepad on the Internet. What did people call it…iNote or something?

"Aha, got it." Private shook himself out of his musings. Skipper was alert in a flash. "Report."

"I ran a few different scans on the area and cross-referenced the results." Kowalski turned the Notepad around so that they could all see the screen. There were twelve red dots blinking steadily on various places on map. Kowalski pointed at one. "This indicates that there might be something there that resembles Maurice. And according to this, there are twelve different locations that we would need to check."

There was a pause as everyone soaked this in.

"We'll split up." Skipper announced, again taking charge. "Private, you're with Kowalski. Rico, you're with me. We'll tackle these six. You take others." Kowalski, Private, and Rico nodded. Skipper nodded back. "We'll keep in contact with these." He held up the four earpieces with mikes that Kowalski had taken out earlier. The team wasted no time grabbing one each and putting them on. With a curt nod from Skipper, the team split up and went opposite directions.

One hour later, the Penguins met back at the barrels.

"I don't believe it." Skipper said for the umpteenth time since they've contacted each other. "Nothing. At all. Now we're back on square one. We don't even know where to look next!" He emphasized his words by hitting his fist against a nearby unfortunate barrel.

"I'm sure Kowalski'll think of something." Private said, trying to cheer up the leader. Skipper gave him a look, and Private realized what he just said. "I mean…we. I'm sure we'll think of something." He quickly corrected.

Kowalski decided to ignore the exchange and frowned at his Notepad screen. He was sure he got the results right. His Notepad has never let him down before, unless…

He slapped himself on the forehead when he realized what was wrong. The rest of the team looked at him questioningly as he again began tapping at the screen. "Kowalski?" Skipper asked warily. Kowalski didn't even look up as he replied. "Sorry, Skipper. I accidentally added something I shouldn't have, so that's why there were so many results. After I fix that…"

The computer beeped.

"…There! That should do it." Kowalski showed the map to the others again. This time, there were only two dots.

"It's correct this time." Kowalski reassured when Skipper eyed the screen suspiciously. "I'm 99.9% sure of that."

"Why do I get the feeling that 0.1% is going to came back and bite us?" Skipper muttered. "Alright then, we'll stay in the same formation. Rico and I will take the one in the building. You guys take the one on the coast."

Private's eyes lit up. He loved the coast! He always had so much fun there! He eagerly waited for Skipper's signal before dashing off as fast as he could.

Kowalski blinked. He quickly put away his Notepad and chased after the younger operative.

"Hey, Private! Wait!"

Skipper and Rico wasted no time getting to the place where their dot was. The dot was actually inside an abandoned warehouse. Skipper suppressed a shudder. An abandoned warehouse. That's almost never good.

They inched silently towards one of the many entrances. Pressing themselves against the wall on each side of the entrance, Skipper signaled for Rico to go ahead and look inside. Rico nodded and did as gestured.

The taller Penguin carefully stuck his head into the doorway, a hand already fingering his favorite combat knife that he had on him. He was relieved and a little disappointed when he didn't see anything.

He gave the all clear to Skipper, and the two went ahead into the metallic building.

There were rows of metal shelves that had obviously been out of use for many years. Rico, out of curiosity, wiped the surface of a shelf with a finger and was fascinated by the result. A stern look from his leader reminded him what they were here for. They split up to look through the place faster.

Skipper turned his senses up to their highest as he walked down an aisle. Sure, it's highly possible that there'd be nothing here, but he's not taking any chances.

Suddenly, he caught a sound coming from the more inner part of the warehouse. He stopped for a short second to decide whether or not he should go investigate it.

Of course, he chose to investigate.

Skipper crept slowly towards the sound. It sounded like something was being hit against at a rapid pace. There was no specific pattern to the sounds, but it was incredibly familiar. He's heard that sound before, but he just couldn't place where or when.

As he got closer to the sound, he realized that it was getting lighter. He guessed that there must be a dim light bulb on. Enough to let the user see things clearly, but not enough for anyone else outside to notice. After a few quick paces, he found where the light source was. Skipper pressed himself against a shelf and slowly peeked around the corner.

He almost jumped when his earpiece crackled to life.

"Skipper?"

Skipper quickly bit his lip to stop himself from cursing out loud. He put a finger to the earpiece and replied in a whisper. "I'm a little busy right now, Kowalski." He said as he finished the action of looking around the corner.

"We've found Maurice. I think it's safe to say that your dot is just a false alarm."

Skipper didn't reply. He was preoccupied by the realization of what the sound was.

The sound of punching a punching bag.

Wait. He thought. If that person is working out with a punching bag and turned up on the scanner along with Maurice, wouldn't that mean…

"Kowalski?"

"Yes?"

"What exactly did you scan for to look for Maurice?"

"Uh…that'd be race and body-build, along side a couple of others. Why?"

Something flew in Skipper's direction, and only years of experience allowed him to act on reflex and dodge it. He stared wide-eyed at the blade embedded where his face was a second ago. He cursed, no longer caring if he was heard or not.

"Skipper?"

The Penguin leader ignored the call and sprinted away from the place, cursing repeatedly in his mind. Of all the people to run into…!

"Rico! Get out of here, now!"

(About ten minutes ago…)

Kowalski stopped to catch his breath. He didn't know Private could run that fast! Still, the sea had always been Private's favorite body of water. He still remembered the day they first took Private to the sea. They had to drag him back after six hours of swimming.

"Kowalski!" Private called from around a corner.

"What?"

"I found Maurice!"

Well, that was fast. Kowalski thought with surprise as he picked up his pace and rounded the corner that was blocking his sight of Private. Sure enough, Maurice was there with the young Penguin.

"It turned out he wasn't in trouble." Private said happily. The large-boned African American man looked up at Kowalski almost sheepishly. "Geez, I didn't mean to frighten the lot of you. I mean, I did tell Mort not to say anything to Julien, but I didn't know he'd cause such a big panic."

"Right." Kowalski said after a moment. He guessed that Private probably filled the older operative in. "So why did you disappear in the first place?"

"Look, I didn't disappear." Maurice replied with a frown. "I just needed some free time from Julien. Sometimes when I just can't stand him anymore, I come here. It helps clear my mind."

Kowalski nodded in understanding. He knew from some personal experiences how quickly one can tire when exposed to too much "Julien-ness". Sometimes he wondered how Maurice managed to pull it off.

"I'd better contact Skipper." Kowalski stated. Private looked up at him with and eager expression. Kowalski resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Fine, go ahead. I'm sure Skipper won't mind."

Private let out a small excited squeal and ran towards the ocean. For a moment, Kowalski thought he was going to jump in, fully clothed. But, as he watched in slight horror, Private stopped about a foot away from the shore and bent down to splash at the surface with his hand.

Kowalski let out a small sigh in relief before remembering the task at hand. He reached up to his earpiece and pressed the button.

"Skipper?"

There was a pause before Skipper's voice responded.

"I'm a little busy right now, Kowalski."

Kowalski frowned. Skipper was whispering. That could either mean there's trouble, or his leader has once again fell victim to his raving paranoia. "We've found Maurice. I think it's safe to say your dot is just a false alarm." He reported. Hopefully, that'll be enough to ease Skipper's mind.

There was a long pause, and Kowalski was just starting to think that Skipper had "hung up" on him when the leader spoke again. "Kowalski?"

"Yes?"

"What exactly did you scan for to look for Maurice?"

The question caught the strategist completely off guard. What does that have to do with anything?He thought in confusion while replying, "Uh…that'd be race and body-build, along side a couple of others. Why?"

Again, Skipper didn't reply. But this time, Kowalski heard a twang sound and also heard Skipper's frantic curse.

"Skipper?" He asked worriedly. Frantic was not an adjective commonly used to describe Skipper or anything about him. When it was used, it could only mean that something bad, something very bad, had happened.

Kowalski could only hope that whatever it was, Skipper and Rico could hold off on their own before he found a way to drag Private away from the sea.

To be continued…

And that's the end of that. We have the introduction of the lemurs, Roger, and the mysterious person that scares even Skipper. He's not an OC, by the way.

About Kowalski's computer. I imagined it to be something like a hybrid of iPad and an actual laptop, though I have no idea how that would work. Just use your imagination and make the Notepad as high-tech as you want it to be.

I kind of lost inspiration when I got to the part after they left Roger's, so the rest of the chapter from that point on didn't seem as well written as the previous part. And I have officially surpassed the 4000 word mark, making this the longest chapter I have ever written. And it sucks. I fail so bad.

Also, I have uploaded a picture of my humanized version of Skipper on dA. You can find the link in my profile if you're interested. Any comments on the picture goes on dA.

Again, my authoress' note is unexplainably long. My apologies. The next chapter should be out with two weeks. Again.

~ruth~