Skipper, Rico, and Private stared at Kowalski curiously, and for Skipper a bit annoyed, as he worked non stop, not noticing they were even there. After a moment, Skipper stepped forward.
"Kowalski!" he shouted. Kowalski jumped nearly dropping one of his tools.
"Oh, yes?" Kowalski said, grabbing his goggles and a blowtorch, looking at Skipper.
"What on earth are you working on?" He asked. Kowalski beamed proudly.
"This," He said with much grandeur, "Is a molecular organizer." He said. The others stared.
"And a molecular organizer is...?" Skipper asked bluntly. Kowalski grinned slipping over to the other side of the good sized machine.
"Tell me Skipper, what is the main problem we face when trying to get information from others? And while we're on recon?" He asked, pulling his goggles down and sealing two metal pieces together.
"Uh..." Skipper trailed off.
"The problem is," Kowalski said, that people don't trust just anyone. "They won't tell us what they know." Kowalski said, sealing two other bits together.
"Well yeah, that's why we go on recon." Skipper said crossing his flippers.
"Ah, and that is another thing. Wouldn't it be so much easier to go on recon when in disguise?" Kowalski said, tightening a bolt. Skipper stared uninterested.
"Are you going somewhere with this, Kowalski?" Skipper asked. Kowalski tapped two wires together.
"Finished!" He exclaimed.
"But," Private said speaking up, "you still haven't told us what it does." Kowalski grinned and shoved Rico on a large red X in front of the machine, then proceeded to turn knobs and press seemingly random buttons.
"Okay, this should only hurt... well I won't lie." He then pressed a big green button and a bolt of light quickly shot out at Rico. There was a bright flash, and then it was over. Skipper and Private coughed and wafted the smoke away. Private looked up.
"Where's Rico?" he exclaimed, when he saw Rico was no longer there. Kowalski pointed to a mouse that was now scurrying around the floor.
"Rico!" Skipper looked at the black furred mouse with wide eyes.
"Kaboom!" It squeaked, clearly pleased with the light and sounds that had occurred.
"Kowalski what did you just do!" Private squealed.
"Don't worry," Kowalski said flipping a switch, "this is completely reversible." He pressed the button again, and in no time Rico was back to normal. "This," Kowalski continued, "Can change us into absolutely any species we choose, enabling us to gain access to any habitat without suspicion." he finished, with a smug, self satisfied, and well deserved grin on his face. the three stared for a moment taking in what he'd just said, then after a moment Skipper spoke.
"Kowalski," He said, "You have really outdone yourself."
Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico relaxed on their artificial ice floe, enjoying the fish they had just brought in with their usual routine of entertaining those who came to the zoo. The four looked up from their fish when a slight drizzle began to fall, slowly the people began leaving or pulling out umbrellas. The penguins of course ignored it, but then if rained harder... and harder. Soon enough the four were taking the rest of their fish below ground to get out of the thunder storm. They dried off once down in the HQ, and of course went about their normal business.
This was after all, no different than any other storm they've experienced...
"Private, why don't you whip us up a couple of smoothies, Rico-" Skipper stopped when thunder boomed and the power went out. "Ah, not again!" Skipper shouted, remembering the chaos that had ensued last time they went without power. "Kowalski, options! we don't want a repeat of jungle law." Kowalski attempted to sketch something on his note pad but realized no one would see it anyway.
"I thought this could happen again so I created a back up generator. It should be just enough to power the zoo." Kowalski said.
"Right, let's get it out here." Skipper said. After a few moments of stumbling and bumping into anything and everything, Kowalski found the generator.
"Alright, I've got it, I just need to test it to make sure it's stable..." Kowalski felt around for the nearest electronic device. Unfortunately that 'nearest electronic device' had been the molecular organizer. There was a bright flash of light, then a huge explosion...