Skipper groaned and opened his eyes. He felt... strange... unfamiliar. He didn't like that. Slowly he rolled over.

"Oh, my head." He moaned. It felt like he'd been struck in the head by... by... well by a large piece of concrete actually. He looked up and law the night sky, then looked to his side to find he was laying quite the ways from his habitat, on the sidewalk. That explained his aching head. Yes, he remembered now, something had went wrong with that generator.

"Kowalski." He said, his throat dry. He got no answer. "Kowalski?" Skipper tried to sit up, and noticed he felt much more different than he first thought. He was freezing for one. A penguin shouldn't be cold on a summer's night, it just wasn't natural. For another, he felt as though he was... well he couldn't quite place it, just that he wasn't... him.

Skipper shut eyes, tightened his jaw as he sat up. For a moment he just sat there until the pain in his head dulled. Finally he opened his eyes. He was... higher up? He rubbed his head and froze. This... wasn't right. he tightened his hold on a feather... but there was more than feathers there. He grabbed a thick strand of black hair and yanked, holding it in front of his face. Not only did he see the black hair, but he saw that what was holding the hair was most definitely not a flipper.

Skipper jumped up, his eyes darting all around. Through the darkness he spotted three other figures, and they were- He made a small embarrassed noise, nude. He darted behind a fake palm tree for fear of being seen, though there were no others around at the moment.

"Men!" He hissed quietly. "Wake up!" He called a little louder. One of them stirred. They whimpered.

"Skippah? Is that you?" The one closest to him moved. "Oh, my head hurts... Skippah, where are you?" Skipper winced. Private was clearly in as much, if not more pain than he.

"Private," he hissed, "Hide behind something, now." Skipper inspected his surroundings as Private struggled to move behind another nearby plant, to dazed to realized yet that something was wrong.

"Skippah-"

"Shush!" Skipper hissed.

"Skippah," Private whispered, "what happened? I don't feel right..." Private said.

"Private, look at your flip- ah, hands!" Skipper whispered.

"Don't you mean..." Skipper heard Private go silent.

"Don't yell, we need to keep our cover." Skipper whispered. Private only whimpered. "Now, listen to me, wake Kowalski and Rico, but do it quietly.

"Kowalski, Rico..." Private whispered after a moment, still with more than a hint of fear. This time another one stirred, mumbling.

"Carry the eight... molecular structure... reaction... " It was Kowalski of course.

"Kowalski!" Private whispered. "Kowalski- Oh!" Private darted behind the brush even further as he finally realized none of them had clothes.

"...Private? ...Skipper? Oh, my head... Rico?"

"Rico's not awake yet, get behind something before someone sees you." Skipper whispered. Skipper took this time to figure out just exactly what they were up against. Well, they were human, there was no doubt about that. He shuddered.

"Ah!" they heard Kowalski shout.

"Sh!" Skipper whispered harshly.

"I'm human!" Kowalski whispered, still rather loudly.

"I know," Skipper said, quietly, "We all are. Rico. Rico!" Skipper growled then snatched up a rock and tossed it at Rico, wincing when it connected sharply with his head, quite a bit harder than he meant for it to. The last figure, growled.

"Err..." Rico stirred. "Oh..." they saw Rico's silhouette, clutching his head. "Ow..." Rico moaned.

"Rico!" Skipper whispered. Rico looked around him. "Hu?" He mumbled. "Rico, get behind something now, before someone comes." Skippered whispered. Rico, casually got up. Though they could only see his shadow they could just plain feel him tense.

"Rico," Skipper said in what was clearly a warning tone. "Just keep quiet, and get behind something. Yes, yes we are human." They watched Rico stiffly walk over and hide behind a guide sign, staring down at his hands. They were all quiet for a moment.

"Okay..." Skipper said finally. "What exactly is our situation?" He heard Kowalski shift.

"Um, well Skipper... We're human, and an explosion like that will have surely destroyed the molecular organizer... which was obviously what caused this... I won't be able to make another one for months, and that's if I can even get my hands on all the supplies. I've been gathering those supplies for months... we have no place to stay, nothing to eat, nothing that is required to live as humans, and... we don't have clothes. All in all... Not good." Skipper sighed.

"Okay, men, let's just... try to make the best of this. We'll get back to normal, after all, a penguin never quits!" Skipper said.

"Uh, Skipper-" Kowalski started but was interrupted.

"We're penguins at heart!" He hissed. "Now, our first order of business... getting clothes. Kowalski options." Skipper said.

"I suggest we make our way to the gift shop. As you know they sell t shirts to promote the zoo, and zookeepers extra uniforms are also stored there. I suggest we take the pants of the work uniforms, and a gift-shop shirt in order to not be confused with a zookeeper, then quietly sneak out the back entrance. Luckily we regularly take out the zoo's security system..." Kowalski said as an afterthought.

"Alright... commence operation normality, go go go!" The four dropped to the ground in an attempt to slide, and went nowhere.

"This is going to take some getting use to..." Skipper said.

~

"Alright," Skipper said, adjusting his shirt, looking at the others' shadows. Turning the light on, of course, would be two risky. If someone had spotted them there was no way they could hide in their condition. "We need to get out of here now. We can come back after the zoo opens to salvage what we can, but if we stay, we will get caught, and we can't give them any answers as to why we're here. Now let's- Ow, Kowalski watch it!" Skipper said, shoving Kowalski away.

"Sorry Skipper, it appears the molecular organizer has given me some unwanted side effects. I can't see very well." Kowalski said.

"Come one, let's get somewhere where there's light." Skipper said. The four slipped out of the gift shop and scaled the wall. Skipper, Rico, Private, and Kowalski walked through New York city attempting to find shelter for the night.

"Simply a building that requires no payment for entry." Kowalski had said. So now, as they walked, their eyes skillfully swept over each and every building watching as people paid when they went into restaurants and night clubs, simply passing by hotels as they learned some time ago that those were human residents in which payment was needed to stay there.
"There." Skipper said, pointing to a large building. He glanced back at the others seeing them slightly better in the new york lighting, but still not enough to figure out what each of them looked like yet. He knew they'd all be shocked when they finally did. Kowalski squinted in the complete opposite direction.

He was right, he'd been running into poles and posts all night. They had to do something about that. Skipper quickly walked over to him and redirected his vision to the building. "Ah, I see... okay I see a lot of blurry shapes, but I also see flashing lights. I believe this is what the humans refer to ask a night club." Kowalski said.

"It'll have to do, but we will have to get pass that guy..." Skipper said noticing the man standing next to the door way, blocking some people from entering. An easy task.
"Kowalski, options." Skipper said.

"I suggest a distraction. Merely throwing something at the back entrance should work, but getting in the back itself is sure to get us caught. Get the man to leave and check the back, then simply waltz through the front door." he said.

"Right." Skipper said nodding. He glanced around, then spotted a can on the ground. He kept his eye on the man and when he wasn't looking, picked up the can. The four casually and slowly walked down the street, and when the man wasn't looking again, Skipper chucked the can at the back door with more strength than he knew he had. The man standing by the door, obviously delivered a warning to the people waiting to get in, and ran off to the back. People from further down the line bolted right with the four and went in. The four walked through the door and stared. Skipper mainly in disgust.

"Fish and chips man, it's just like the lemurs place in here." he said, though he couldn't be heard over the music. Skipper looked at the others then nodded towards the restrooms. Skipper, Rico and Private, began walking. Kowalski, who couldn't see, stayed put. Skipper sighed, then grabbed his shirt and led the way.

As they walked, Skipper felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He wasn't at all familiar with the way human hair reacted, but he was sure it had to do with the feeling he had that they were being watched... and they were. He noticed that as they went through everyone stopped and stared. Everyone.

He wasn't sure what to make of it as they didn't seem to stare at them in a negative way. Well actually they got a lot of glares from the male half of the room... Finally they burst through the bathroom doors, just as a man was walking out. The four stopped temporarily blinded by the light after having been in the dark for long. They all faced each other, rubbing their eyes. After a brief moment the four looked up.

"...Oh my..." Private said.

"Well this is... this is... " Skipper was at a loss of words.

Rico mutter something that was indistinguishable.

"I still can't see." Kowalski said bluntly.

Skipper caught sight of himself in the mirror. As penguins, they all had a natural layer of fat to insulate them from the cold. It didn't matter how much they had worked out, they would always keep the figure they had... but now as humans, all that training really showed. Skipper stared at himself. He was average sized, if not a tad short, all muscle, had bright blue eyes, black hair that was naturally parted at the side, coming down to the top of his ears, and stubble on his face. That was going to bother him. He wore what the others wore of course, zookeeper pants and a t shirt, each with their own silhouette on it.

He looked over at Rico who was also staring at a mirror wide eyes. Rico was... huge. He still had his scar across his mouth and down his neck, and his hair was wild, going in every direction, and his eyes, which looked stunned to say the least, were a brilliant shade of green.

Skipper snapped his attention over at Kowalski, who was staring into space with wide open eyes as though that would help him see better. Kowalski looked... his build was less than the others, but still impressive, more gymnast-like. He was thinly built and fairly tall, and his hair, was very... unKowalski-like, being long, coming down to the middle of his back and hanging in front of his face rather than short and swept back as they had expected, nearly completely covering his blue green eyes.

"Skippah... is this normal?" Skipper turned to Private.

"No Private, I don't believe that is." Skipper said, fairly surprised.

Private was not like the other three at all. Yes, he was just as well built as the others, he looked quite young, but could perhaps pass for twenty two, but as your attention was directed up to the face you would notice that just past pool blue eyes, hovered white hair and eyebrows. Anyone would be able to tell his hair was not died.

"Kowalski, what to you make of this?" Skipper said shoving Kowalski in front of Private. The three stared as Private stood nervously. Kowalski squinted.

"His hair is white, Skipper." Kowalski said.

"I know that. I want to know why." Skipper said. Kowalski thought a second.

"It must be a mutation. A side effect from the molecular organizer, like my inability to see." Kowalski said. "Though this side effect is a lot less disabling..." Skipper heard Kowalski grumble.

"'Tha's just freaky." The voice they heard was deep, clearly masculine, and had a slight tinge of German accent to it. Skipper, Private, and Kowalski looked up, and over at Rico. Rico stood stock still, eyes wide.

"I... I can... for the love of all things flammable I can talk!" Rico shouted, his hands flying up to his head. The other three stood there shocked while Rico laughed, repeating over and over again. "I can talk! I can talk! I can talk!" Rico suddenly kicked the sink, in his excitement, denting the pipe.

"I never knew the possibilities of that machine." Kowalski whispered. Skipper, of course, by then had found out his mutation.

He reached up to his hair and plucked a slick black feather, twirling it in his fingers.