Author's Note: A filler and teaser until I get the next full length chapter up very soon! Hehe I figured I'd left you guys in the dark too long and should give a preview or something as to the 'big event' that happened. XD Don't get angry now~

~Natty.

Habits Die.

~PoM~

"Do you think Skippah's alright?" Private asked for the umpteenth time as he once again walked over to check the periscope.

Kowalski slapped the private's flippers away from the spying device, annoyed with the constant usage of it every 2.5 minutes. "For the twenty-second time, yes. He is with Marlene, safe, over our heads and on our fake ice flow island." The analyst informed for the now thirteenth of those twenty two times. He added the next word for what he hoped was good enough measure. "Safe. I am putting emphasis on the word blatantly."

"I'm just worried that-" Private started.

The analyst sighed. "-that he will be physically harmed again by those villainous scum whom we intercepted the last time at just the right moment, saving Skipper from a fate most horrifying."

Private frowned. "That's not at all what I was going to say."

"Nah?" Rico questioned.

The private shook his head. "No. I was going to say that I'm just worried that Skippah will be hurt again by them if they do return. We made it just in time to save him last week."

"Oh Acetaminophen, Antipyretic! That's exactly what I just said!" Kowalski threw up his flippers.

"Nah-ah!" Rico argued.

With an eye roll Kowalski put his flippers on his hips. "What did I say then?"

"Uhm…way mit…" Rico scratched his head and thought before snapping his flipper, squeaking up his voice like a girl. "Embleblebleh bleh bleh….and…uh….heh meh meh meh meh…"

"I don't SOUND like that!" Kowalski glared.

"Yah-huh!" The weapon's expert nodded.

"Oh you always do this! You take my words and you just- TWIST them! Twist them right before my very eyes! You don't even make it sound like-"

"Vebveh veh veh veh veh!" Rico mocked in a high-pitched tone.

"Now you're just making FUN of me!" The analyst scowled. "You know Private doesn't- anditseemsthatwe'velosthim. Where did he go?" Looking around he found the young cadet looking through the periscope to spy on their leader and the female otter. With a scoff Kowalski stomped over and commandeered the handles, looking through it himself. "Would you leave them alone? They're perfectly-….."

"What's wrong!" Private was sent into immediate alarm at the pause. "Is Skippah alright?!"

Kowalski slowly backed away from the lenses, blinking with a furrowed brow. He had on quite the look of surprise. "Hm? Oh. Fine…fine…" The analyst mumbled. "Perhaps on top of the world even, if I may quote our dolphin foe. I imagine beak to maw locking is very enjoyable. At least through this periscope I am able to assume Skipper thinks so."

"Oooh hehehe." Rico chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Well I'd like it if you didn't repeat words from Dr. Blowhole." Private frowned. "He's the one that started the whole mess that put Skippah in danger in the first place."

The analyst looked through the periscope again curiously to see if the two above were finished with their little escapade. They weren't. "Apologies, Private. The terminology only seemed appropriate for this situation."

"Lemme seh!" Rico reached and scowled when his flippers were slapped away by the scientist. "Ey!"

"Was it appropriate when they all stood over Skippah the way they did too?" Private recalled, still with narrowed eyes and a plastered frown as he recalled what those horrible villains had done.

"Of course not." Kowalski stepped back from the scope, appalled. "They were rubbing his face in it. Literally. What they had done to Skipper was an injustice and we were lucky that we indeed got there when we did and did what we did. Or for a more blatant example, what Rico did to the Red Squirrel."

"Ehehehe…" Rico recalled his actions in his head, mimicking the abuse he'd done to the squirrel's tail. It was quite horrifying if one were to imagine it. He did in his head and laughed again.

"Don't forget what I did to Hans." Private mentioned, looking at his balled up flipper, visibly recalling in faded flashback at how he punched the Dane. "I didn't know I had that in me at all but he needed to pay for what he did. How dare he do such."

"Ah yes." Kowalski remembered. "What he did was quite underhanded if one were to look at it."

"You wouldn't even have to look!" The private exclaimed exasperated. "What he did was very wrong! Playing with Skippah's good nature and just right heroism the way he did! I don't think I've evah been so angry!" Private sighed as he tried to calm down his nerves. Last week had been the first time he's ever had to use his leader's stress ball or had to be calmed down by his teammates before.

"Clemmon!" Rico added with a glare.

"Oh that Clemson!" Private huffed. "If I evah see him again I'll- I'll! OOH!"

Kowalski waddled over to pat the kid on the back. "Calm down, Private. I doubt we'll be seeing any of them again for a very long time. Not with the way Savio retreated. The snake could barely even slither…"

Rico grinned proudly. "Heh… tha wa me…"

Private tried to sniff back the start of his tears but couldn't. He wiped his wet eyes with his flippers.

"Private…what's wrong?" Kowalski frowned, a flipper around the young penguin.

"W-We should have gotten there sooner, K'walski…b-before they…"

"Private, Skipper's alright..." The analyst reassured solemnly. "He said so himself."

"B-but we still could have…done….something! To prevent it from happening! I c-could've…" Private sniffed.

Kowalski shook his head. "There was nothing we…you…could have done. Blowhole had it set up from start to the very finish. The one thing he hadn't counted on was us coming in to stop him. Which…now that I think of it…he probably should have calculated…" He pondered aloud.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Private asked in panic. "Will he do it again?!"

"No, no!" the analyst replied quickly. They needn't make Private any more shaken than the boy already was. "Skipper is safe, everyone is safe! There is nothing wrong whatsoever!"

Private sighed and visibly relaxed. "Good. That's very, very good then…Hm…" The young penguin leaned into the analyst's false reassuring flippers.

As Kowalski's half-hearted pats helped to calm the boy down, he himself was wondering what was up Blowhole's sleeve. If there was even a possibility that dolphin's wore sleeves that is. There wasn't.