"Wait, who is Yall?" Mort asked, looking around.
"Aww, you're just cute as sugar plums!" Josie said. "Where I come from, the words 'you all' are shortened to make y'all."
"Ohh…I don't get it." Mort said.
"To spare you a headache, he doesn't get most things." Kowalski said. "And their roommate Fred is, let's just say he's very literal and speaks monotonously. Barry here would be the most 'normal' of the current residents of 4Q. Or as I like to call it, the 'I have more than four questions about them' room."
"Gee thanks, pal." Barry said sarcastically.
"Y'all must know each other well." Josie said.
"Yep, we know most of the things that go on around here." Skipper said.
"Word to the wise, stay away from the Monday tuna in the school cafeteria." Private warned. Barry nodded seriously in agreement and Kenny shuddered.
"I'll try to remember that. Um…are you ok?" Josie asked, looking at Julien who had his mouth slightly open and hadn't said a single word since he laid eyes on her.
Skipper waved a hand in front of Julien's face. Julien blinked and cleared his throat. He looked like he was about to say something when the elevator opened and all four Belmonte siblings came out, chattering loudly.
"I'm telling you, Bradley stole my gameboy charger!" Samuel whined.
"I did not, you left it at home! Eggy saw you!" Bradley retorted.
"I did." Eggy confirmed.
"Then why didn't you tell me to pack it?!"
"We're not responsible for your stuff!"
"Oh brothers." Ramona rolled her eyes. "Samuel, none of us are responsible for your things unless we borrow them." Bradley stuck his tongue out at his twin. "That being said, Eggy, you could have said something." Eggy pouted.
"Mighty large group of tow-heads." Josie remarked.
"Hey! My head is not a toe!" Samuel complained.
"I dunno, kinda looks like one." Bradley said.
"If mine does, so does yours. We're almost identical, dummy."
"I somehow doubt a stranger would just up and say your head looks like a toe." Eggy said.
Mort wanted in on the chatter. "But Pluto can-"
"We are not repeating this. Pluto. Cannot. Be. Exploded. With. A. Glass. Of. Carbon Monoxide." Eggy growled.
"It's pretty big even if the pictures don't look like it." Josie said.
"See!"
"Mort, as one of the smartest kids in school, No. It's not possible." Kowalski said. "However, if you were to gather an extremely large sealed containment unit and it survived the pressure of our atmosphere-"
"Kowalski, can it." Skipper ordered. Kowalski sighed and stopped.
"I wasn't tryin' to insult you, by the way." Josie said. "Tow, like tow truck. Tow head is a term for someone with really blond hair."
"Am I one?" Mort asked.
"'Fraid not, hon, you have light brown hair."
"You can change the color."
"Eh. What? No." Julien finally found his voice. "Maurice would kill me if I let you do that at your age."
"Aww, but they got to do it!" Mort pointed at the Penguins.
"Mort, we're at least five years older than you." Kowalski said. He was hoping that the kid would forget Private was only two years older than him.
Mort's bottom lip quivered and his eyes grew big.
"Ah! Sad Eyes!" Rico grunted, looking away.
"Aww, I wanna scoop you up in a big ol' hug." Josie told Mort. Mort gasped happily and nodded. He hesitantly hugged her.
"He, uh, had a rather bad experience last time he tried that." Skipper said, then he explained what happened. He was sufficiently pink by the time he finished.
"Well, that just sounds like her loss. You seem nice and lil Mort here is just so adorable! Who could hurt a precious lil child like this?"
"We were going to show her around Central Park a bit." Marlene said, sparing Skipper further embarrassment.
"Alright, the boys and I are leaving too." Skipper said, giving Marlene a grateful smile.
Mort, Eggy, and the younger teens minus Private, decided to go play at the park and Izzy was joining the girls in showing Josie around. Julien had still been rooted to the spot. The Penguins had noticed, but didn't say anything.
…
Josie was in some of the same classes as Skipper, Kowalski, Marlene, and Julien. This meant Julien's attention was diverted even more than usual. Skipper was too busy trying to figure out who could be the spy, he almost didn't notice Hans chatting with Josie.
Julien caught Skipper before dinner a few days later. The other boys watched them curiously, but Skipper signaled he was fine.
"Listen, I know you don't like Hans." Julien began.
"No duh. Savio isn't exactly my cup of coffee either." Skipper said.
"Is the expression not 'cup of tea'?"
"Spit it out." Skipper said. "I'm hungry."
"He is making the moves on Josie. I don't want him to hang out with her. I…it makes me feel a feeling of…what is it now?" Julien tapped his chin.
"Jealousy?"
"Who?"
"Jealousy. You're jealous of a potential relationship between Josie and Hans." Skipper said. He saw Rico get up and start to make a plate for him. His stomach growled. "We saw, we know. You like her. I'm not a fan of Hans or Savio becoming friends with the new students, but I also can't say they've officially done anything wrong since coming to New York." Except the puffin spy device, but he wasn't about to tell Julien that part of the story.
"But you can tell Josie not to be friends-"
"Negative. Again, they haven't done anything wrong that can be proven. My beef with Hans is something from six years ago in a different country. Savio being his friend automatically annoys me. And I can't tell Josie what friends to make, I'm not the boss of her. Now can I go? You've already seen me angry, don't make me go hangry on you."
"Eesh, okay." Julien shoved his hands in his pockets and went to dinner.
…
Three things of note happened at the end of January. First, Skipper no longer required a cast or a boot, he was healed. He was still told to take it easy, but he was too busy celebrating to care. Second, Kowalski's birthday was happening on the twenty-ninth. Third, the Penguins finally got news on the brainwashing scheme.
It appeared to be an attack directed at the teen agents and there was probably a spy at the school or the apartments. Skipper told the agents about Hans, but they told him they couldn't do much without more proof. Kowalski wondered if it might be Rhonda, Agent Twelve, as she was called. The organization agents agreed that it could be linked to her since she had escaped custody a while ago.
Currently, there was nothing they could do about it except wait and try to see who was a likely spy among the students. Agent Simms asked if there were any suspects when they were at the HQ five days before Kowalski's birthday.
"Skipper thinks Hans Riber is part of it or Savio Gujic." Kowalski responded. "I only know Hans got in some sort of trouble in Denmark and that he gave us a puffin toy that was a spy device. He's our primary suspect right now. Julien Makyhira was the one we took the music from, but he helped us and he's too much of a…wild card to be suspected. One of Private's classmates has been acting oddly-"
"Kowalski!" Private complained.
"Sorry, Private. We have to list those we suspect." Skipper said.
"You can't let your personal feelings get in the way of your job. What if this friend is a spy and has been reporting things?" Simms asked. "Blowhole isn't above making twelve or thirteen year olds report to him."
"But-"
Simms interrupted the youngest. "It's best you just watch your friend carefully. What's this friend's name so we can see if they have a relative who may be linked to Blowhole?"
"Skipper, don't. My friends are innocent!" Private protested.
Skipper sighed heavily. "It's the way it has to be. We don't even know if this is free will or brainwashing."
"Would you tell Kowalski if you thought his brother was a spy?"
"Hey now, you have to bring Kenny into this?" Kowalski asked.
"He's my friend too."
"It's a fair point, Taro." Simms said. "I know it's hard to think about, but-"
"But nothing." Kowalski growled. "After all the bull life's thrown at us, he wouldn't throw it away like that. He found out about us early on. If he was a spy, then he would have let our father kill me." He stomped out of HQ angrily.
"Private-"
"No, Skipper." Private said defiantly. "Don't tell me I went too far. You guys are all allowed to say my friends are suspects except for the one who's related to one of you? What if I said Rocky or Rikki?"
"Private!" Skipper scolded.
"Not this time. Sorry, sir, but I'm standing my ground." Private fiercely looked Skipper in the eyes.
Rico was unsure what to do. He'd been taking a backseat in the conversation, being startled by Rikki's name mentioned.
"Boys!" Simms said loudly. The teens turned their attentions to the screen. "You can't let emotional reasons get in the way of this job. If you see someone acting oddly with no discernable explanation, you can't get emotional about it and let it cloud your judgement."
"I'm going for a walk." Private grumbled. He left before anyone could stop him.
"Sorenson, I trust you and your family. Your father is one of the best we have, but your sister is the only one who isn't working for us."
"She's focused on school." Skipper explained. "She wanted to at first, but she also wanted to go to college. Chris went to community college, Toby never liked school, and Brian's taking a few years to think about it."
"Rikki…" Rico said thoughtfully.
"Come on now, Rico." Skipper said. "I highly doubt Blowhole recruited a blind teen and staged a kidnapping to get us there. She didn't even know until that point."
"More people knowing is a problem." Simms said. "That's why we wanted you to be absolutely sure you could trust them. I do worry about Davis trusting four people immediately."
"That's the thing, sir." Skipper said. "Rico, Kowalski, and I have known our siblings our whole lives. Private knew his friends less than a year. The only ones I sort of knew before that were Kowalski's brother and Barry Wheeler. Agent Simms, are you telling me that you think Rikki Blue could have spilled secrets?"
"I also doubt Blowhole would recruit her, but he's unpredictable. You never know."
Skipper looked at Rico's troubled expression.
"I-"
"You can't say that Davis didn't have a point." Simms interrupted Skipper. "You started mentioning his friends, but the moment he said a sibling's name, you got defensive. I've heard and understand the Taro brothers' background, but you can't turn on each other like this."
"Yeah…okay." Skipper sighed. "We should find them before they get themselves in trouble."
"Hold on. What's the name of the friend you think is acting odd? Is it Wheeler?"
"No, Allison Carson."
"Alright, thank you."
They ended transmission. Skipper headed up with Rico behind him. The other two were nowhere in sight. They walked through the park for what seemed like hours, then Skipper got a text.
"Oh Private, what did you do?" Skipper groaned. Rico looked at him curiously. "Rocky said 'we need to talk, I'm in your room'. Why would he just tell?"
"Private's friend." Rico replied.
…
What Skipper didn't expect was that they had gathered Rikki, Barry, Kenny, and Ramona as well. All of them looked a bit upset. Kowalski sat in the corner with his arms crossed.
"Skipper, before you say anything, I already told Private that it was kinda dumb to tell suspects that you're suspecting them." Rocky said.
"Kowalski." Private said. The older teen refused to look at him. "I've brought this up before, remember? Back when we were first being threatened. I asked if it was possible if Kenny or Barry were up to something. You didn't want to think about it, but then you said when we're raising suspicion we have to think about everyone we've told this to, including friends."
"Hurtful, but it makes sense." Ramona said when it became obvious that Barry didn't trust himself to speak. "But you have asked us before about telling people things and we didn't. Honestly, out of all of us plus Allie, who would be the most likely suspect?"
"Well I think Kenny and I would be the least likely." Rikki said. "Why would we want to hurt some of the only family we have left? Especially Kenny. Did you guys even start thinking of ways to rule out your options?"
"I…well…no." Skipper stammered, a guilty look on his face.
"Okay, great, we can start now." Rocky said. "Kowalski, you're the options man."
"My team-"
"You're disorganized, so I'm figuratively smacking you into shape."
Kowalski sighed. "Fine."
"For the record, I agree with Rikki that she and Kenny are the least likely to be working against us." Private said. "I feel like since we're literally working with them on this, none of them are."
"Do we trust Jackie?" Kowalski asked.
"Dude!" Barry finally said.
"Valid question." Skipper said. "I've known her a while and considering her entire life thus far, yes. She keeps closer tabs on Barry than any of us, mostly because of me, so we can rule him out."
"Oh…that's not where I thought you were going." Barry mumbled, blushing.
"You're fine." Kowalski said. "So we've ruled out half of you. That leaves Ramona, Rocky, and Allie."
"I'd have to face my entire family." Rocky said. "And I would have said something about Den-"
"Rocky!" Skipper snapped.
"Chill, little bro. Any other reason to suspect me other than I'm trying to be the reasonable one here? You and I were home when you got some of those threats after Toby's accident. You said yourself you thought it might be connected."
"I guess we could rule you out."
"Because I make sense or because I'm your sister?"
"The thing is-"
"Skipper, use your brain."
Skipper rolled his eyes.
"She did go on the mission to rescue Rikki and Kenny." Kowalski said. "And accompanied my brother and I to Mr. Campbell's house."
"If I was working against you, would I have helped you out?" Rocky asked.
"I guess not." Skipper said.
"Is that an official ruling?"
"Yes."
"Great! Now Ramona."
"I didn't even know about your spy team until way later." Ramona said. "I just thought you guys became friends and dyed your hair. Honestly, I'm pretty sure after we made that promise we ended up telling each other or finding out at the beginning of summer."
"And Allie told everyone just before the break." Kowalski said. "Any other secrets?"
"Maybe." Ramona shrugged. "I know I've known her the longest, but I can't think of much else she'd keep."
"Why would she not say she's related to Doris?" Barry asked. "I kinda assumed but never really asked, but they do look similar."
"I didn't know before." Kenny piped up. "It doesn't seem like a big deal to me…then again our secrets weren't exactly average."
"It's possible she felt it wouldn't be appropriate given everyone's circumstances and only told you recently so she'd honor the promise." Kowalski said. "I understand. She probably thought it would be something mundane like being afraid of horses or tripping in public and being embarrassed. She probably didn't expect secret agents, sibling death, child abuse, and abandonment as an orphan."
"State that more bluntly, would you?" Ramona said. Kowalski turned dark pink and mumbled apologies. "Don't worry, we know what you're like when you get in the zone."
"I mean it wasn't a lie." Barry said.
"So…we really did narrow it down to Allie?" Private asked in a hushed voice. Everyone except Rikki looked at him. The room was silent. Rico put a hand on Rikki's to let her know that no one left. She would have heard it.
Not even Ramona had any protests. Being close to Private, she could have been a spy. But then again, they all knew how Allie defended Raj and everyone else from Rhonda. She helped them study. Could she really be a spy?
They were brought out of their thoughts by Ramona's text tone going off.
"Allie's asking if she left her beanie in my room." Ramona said. She stood up and walked to the door.
"Don't say anything about this meeting to her." Skipper said.
Ramona had her back turned to them, her hand on the door handle. She took a shaky breath and spoke, keeping her voice flat. "She's my best friend, my rock. Even though I didn't tell her about Mira for years, she unknowingly helped me through it. She was and still is…the little sister I lost."
"I know, which could make the situation even more devastating."
"Ramona-"
"Leave me alone, Barry. In fact, why don't you all leave me alone?" She left the room. She hadn't said the last words in anger, she just sounded defeated.
"What do I say to Eggy and the twins?" Kenny asked hoarsely.
"Nothing and you don't know." Skipper said. "Barry, are you okay?"
Barry shook his head. "I think…we're done." He said.
He got up and left. No one stopped him. Kenny sighed and left a few minutes later. Skipper stopped Kowalski from going after his brother, saying he just needed time. Private went straight to his room after Kenny left. They could hear him trying to keep his sobs down.
"Rikki and I have a group project to work on." Rocky said softly. The two of them left.
"Skipper, could I have the room to myself for a bit?" Kowalski asked, the emotion rising in his voice.
"Yeah." Skipper sunk into the couch.
"Walk." Rico said, putting on his jacket. Skipper nodded.
…
Rico went to 4Q first. Julien was stunned to see him, then said Barry was upset and didn't want visitors. Rico nodded and went down to Ramona's room. No one answered. He checked on Kenny. Eggy told him he had no idea what was happening and Kenny didn't want to talk. Ramona had texted her brothers that she was upset but not to question her friends.
Rico sighed and left the building. He walked aimlessly through the park, ignoring looks he got from strangers. He didn't know if it was from what happened last year, his scars, or the fact he decided to wear shorts while it was still technically winter.
Was this it? Was the team breaking up over this? It seemed like Private's friends, PARK B as they called themselves, was broken up. He felt bad that Allie didn't know.
Marlene was hanging out at the park with her roommates and asked if Rico wanted to join. He politely declined. He didn't feel social right now.
He was walking back to the apartments when he saw a car pull up next to him. He braced himself and turned, scowling. Then recognized the person in the passenger seat. His stomach dropped.
The young blonde girl got out of the car with a neatly wrapped package. She told her dad she'd text him to pick her up and he drove off.
"Hey, Rico!" Allie greeted. "None of PARK B would answer my texts, so my dad drove me."
"Oh. 'Sup?" Rico kept his face natural so she wouldn't get suspicious.
"I wanted to drop this off for Kowalski." She said brightly. "I know it's early, but I got it for him last week and kept forgetting. I was looking for my beanie when I found the present. So I wrapped it and decided to come before I forget again."
"That's nice." Rico said.
"So…can I come up and give it to him? And maybe see my friends and ask why they're not texting me?"
"Uhh…" Rico didn't know what to say.
"Is there any reason I can't?"
"Feel bad."
"Everyone feels bad? What happened? They were all smiles and hype this morning." Allie looked concerned. "Skipper said he didn't blame me for the brainwash thing."
"Oh, no. Not that." Rico immediately said.
Allie's eyebrow rose. "Then…what is it?"
Rico sighed and shook his head. "Sorry."
"Does that mean you can't tell me?"
"Yeah."
Allie looked like she'd been slapped in the face. Rico felt terrible at the mix of emotions going through the younger teen.
"Did I do something?" Allie asked weakly.
"No." Rico said. It was true, she hadn't done anything they knew of.
"If it was just Private, I'd believe it's a Penguins thing. Barry can be wild and Kenny can get emotional easily…but, Ramona? I know she's prone to anger, but she's my best friend. She's always been there for me and I was there for her even if I didn't know about her sister."
Ramona's words echoed in Rico's brain. She'd said almost the exact same thing.
"We've had our fair share of tiffs over the years, but this…how is it a fight if I didn't even say or do anything?" Allie asked. Rico didn't know how to respond. Allie handed the package over. "If he even accepts it, tell Kowalski I said happy birthday." She muttered.
She sniffed and headed to the park, pulling out her phone. Rico saw Marlene approach the younger girl. Knowing Allie was safe with the older teens, Rico headed inside.
Skipper bolted up when he heard the door. He'd been nodding off on the couch.
"Oh, Rico. What's that?"
"'Walski."
"You got him a present?"
Rico hesitated. Skipper's defenses went up.
"Tell me you didn't just find that laying around. Or Hans-"
"No. Allie."
Skipper scratched his head. "Well that's…awkward. Did she say anything?"
"Friends not text."
"You didn't tell her anything, did you?"
Rico sighed. "She's sad."
"Rico-"
"I din say nuthin'" Rico said.
"Double negative, but okay."
"She ask. I said no."
"She asked about what?"
"Fault. For friend fight."
"She didn't believe you." Skipper stated.
"No. Can I?" Rico gestured to the room.
"Go ahead." Skipper sat back down on the couch.
Rico opened Skipper and Kowalski's room. Kowalski was laying on his bed, reading. He looked around when the door opened. Rico closed it behind him.
"Just a little early for gift giving." Kowalski said. His eyes were slightly pink.
"Um…Allie."
Kowalski sat up and bookmarked his page. Rico sat on the bed next to him and handed the present over.
"What exactly was the interaction?"
Not wanting to strain his voice, Rico grabbed a pen and notepad, flipping to a blank page. He wrote the interaction down.
"Oh dear." Kowalski squeaked. "We definitely broke Private's friend group."
"We?"
"We're in this together, so…yeah."
Rico laughed. "Open." He said.
"Right now?"
"Open 'n feel better."
"If you say so." Kowalski ripped the wrapping. He gasped as he read what it was. "I-wha-no way…how did she-?"
"Ooo…kaboom?"
"I mean, do it wrong and it could explode." Kowalski said. "But this is an advanced chemistry set. Like for actual classes or scientists. It's pretty expensive." He looked at it excitedly. Then his face fell. "She got this for me…and we basically shunned her…"
Rico put an arm around Kowalski. The latter carefully set aside the chemistry set.
"Man…we really dropped the ball. I mean…did we though? What if-? No no…it could be-agh, why's life like this?" Kowalski sighed and put his head on Rico's shoulder.
"Dunno." Rico responded.
"Rico…I have something to-"
"HELL NO! GET OUT!"
They jumped, the sound coming from outside the room. They hurried to see an extremely angry Skipper glaring at Savio. Private came stumbling out of his room, his eyes red and puffy.
"Please, Skipper. You and your friends are the only ones I could come to because you know him and he told me you're good at helping people." Worry was all over Savio's face.
"Knew. I knew him." Skipper snarled.
"What's going on?" Kowalski asked.
"Nothing. Get out of my face, Gujic. Last warning."
"So you'd let a kid get hurt?" Savio asked. "Please, I know we've basically ignored each other and you don't like him for whatever reason, but he's still a kid. He's a teenager like us."
"Hans is in trouble?" Kowalski asked. "Skipper, let's at least hear him out."
"I don't know if he's in trouble." Savio said. "He said he was picking up some stuff on his grocery list, but that was two hours ago. I tried texting and calling, but he doesn't answer."
"Is his phone off?"
"No, it rings. I've literally never bothered you before and I swear I'll try not to bother you again, but-just…please."
"How much did he have on him?" Skipper asked.
"I don't know, enough I guess. Do you think he got mugged?"
"It's possible. It's also getting darker and colder, so we have to work fast." Skipper took a deep breath. "Alright boys, let's go rescue Hans."
A/N: Josie is here! She won't be a complete cut and paste of Camaraderie, but very similar.
I'm contemplating Kico. I'm trying to be respectful to the pairing which I've warmed up to in the past few years while my story has lain dormant and rewatching some scenes. Please let me know how I can write this well. I also am attached to Mikayla, but I don't really have a backstory for her yet and I don't want to make a love triangle. I also don't know how to write romance well so I'll try not to make it too much of a focus point.
Thank you for the reviews, I appreciate them so much!
