“We’ve received word that Alice and her coworkers are planning some sort of diabolical meeting at the Zoovenir.” Kowalski answered, instead. Marlene was quick to intervene, though.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I did not say anything about it being diabolical!” the otter claimed with her hands of her hips. She had only been there for probably 8 minutes and the penguins’ paranoia was already getting to her. Someone really needed to teach them how to lighten up a bit. For a moment, Julian crossed her mind; but, she immediately disposed of the idea and chose to save it for another time.
“Nonsense, Marlene! Why else would those humans gather all at once?” Skipper cocked his head to the side in amusement. He often enjoyed getting on Marlene’s bad side.
In response, she crossed her arms and looked around the room “Hm…I dunno, maybe it’s just a party?” the otter exclaimed, now clenching her fists in anger. Of course, Skipper refused in listening to reason. Instead, the leader would turn away from Marlene and begin to focus on his team and the situation at hand.
“Okay, boys, we’re going to split up and head on down to the Zoovenir to investigate this so-called party…” Skipper began with a smile forming across his beak. This greatly infuriated Marlene. At least she couldn’t say she didn’t try. No, she had, indeed, made several attempts to try. She didn’t even know why she bothered. Well, that may not have been entirely true…
Marlene rolled her eyes, stomping through the penguins and towards the ladder, “Fine, don’t listen to me! Just do what you want, I don’t care!” the complaining otter added as she shut the hatch from behind. Skipper released a sigh of relief and shook his head. He would probably never understand Marlene…
“Right. Now, Kowalski and Rico will take the east-side, while me and Private will cover the west. Once we reach the Zoovenir, I want-”
“Um…Skippa?” Private timidly interrupted.
With eyes shut in annoyance, Skipper allowed it, “Speak, Private! What is it?”
“Well, it’s just that…I don’t think I’d…um…feel very comfortable going with you, is all…”
“Excuse me, Private?” Skipper asked harshly as his eyes expanded in shock.
Private looked away in fright, terrified of what was to come. The last thing he wanted was to upset his leader; especially considering the fact that he possessed the lowest rank of the team. If he were to be given some sort of punishment, it most certainly would not be a light one.
Thankfully, Kowalski noticed the intense trembling that filled Private’s body and decided to take action, “Eh, it’s all right, Skipper, I…really don’t mind to have Private accompany Rico and I…”
“Rico comes with me!” Skipper quickly shot back, narrowing his eyes. The penguin didn’t take kindly to being questioned of his authority. Of course, he didn’t quite desire the hassle. Therefore, that was how it went. Private and Kowalski took the east; Skipper and Rico took the west.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a cloudy afternoon, causing the Zoo to become shrouded in a grey haze. Kowalski and Private casually walked side-by-side, not saying much for a while. In the distance, the two penguins were given the side-view of the Zoovenir building. Skipper and Rico were most likely on the other side. The tall penguin could tell that this was going to become very awkward very quickly. So, he made an attempt to begin conversation.
“…Private…is there any reason, in particular, behind your issue with Skipper?” Kowalski asked quietly.
Private was immediately taken by complete surprise. It was such a strange way to start the mission! Not to mention that Private wasn’t given much time to think of what to say. Why should he be required to think about it? Why wasn’t it as simple as answering the question?
“What issue?” Private’s wide eyes looked down and away from Kowalski as they continued to walk. Kowalski arched a brow, being very well aware of Private’s reluctance to answer the question. This provoked Kowalski’s curiosity.
“Never mind…” unfortunately, he decided to look into it later.
Elsewhere, Rico and Skipper were nearing the Zoovenir from the opposing side. The leader had been dying to ask the adjacent penguin a certain question. Only, it seemed much too awkward to say anything. But that never stopped Skipper before.
“So, you and Kowalski are gettin’ real close?” he asked, almost making the question sound like a statement.
Rico did what he was best at doing and remained quiet. The only response that Skipper received was the shrug of the shoulders. Otherwise, Rico simply remained to look ahead, doing what he could to ignore the penetrating behavior that was emitting from Skipper.
“You don’t know?” Skipper smiled, keeping his eyes on the Zoovenir building. Now he was just trying to poke some fun at Rico. He couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Once again, Rico only responded by shaking his head from side to side and making some sort of grunting noise. Skipper chuckled and finally chose to lay off until they reached their destination.
Meanwhile, Kowalski and Private had already reached the building that was hosting the sinister meeting. Kowalski, however, noticed much laughter and loud music being heard from within the Zoovenir. It didn’t sound very diabolical. In fact, it really just sounded more like one of Julian’s dance parties. Private gazed at the window from down below and took note of the diverse variety of colors that were flashing from inside. The glass in the window muffled the heavy bass that accompanied the intense music.
“Kowalski, what are these?” the small penguin was pointing to a couple of bottles that appeared as though they were thrown near the trash bin.
The tall intellectual waddled closer to investigate the clear containers. He carefully picked one of them up from the ground and rotated the bottle in order to peer into the long, narrow opening. It seemed to still have some unknown liquid inside. Simply the smell, itself, turned Kowalski away from the substance. The penguin immediately dropped the bottle and winced, wildly swinging his head in order to rid himself of the horrid stench.
“Are you all right, Kowalski? I really don’t think you should have swallowed that…”
Kowalski heard Private’s voice from behind. He slowly opened his eyes and found that his vision was far from normal. The shapes and silhouettes that made up the surrounding objects appeared distorted and deformed. To top it all off, a nice blur accompanied his already impaired vision.
“Stop yelling at me, Kowalski! I’m…just trying to help…”
Kowalski shut his eyes once more and whirled around a couple of times, managing to lose his sense of awareness and location. He opened his eyes again to see Skipper and Rico standing before him. The leader of the group had his flippers held to his hips.
“Well, look what we have here. Seems like you’re experiencing some outstanding sexual temptations!” Skipper grinned as he looked to Rico, “This guy couldn’t stop thinkin’ about you, Kowalski, so what could I do?” he laughed, simply watching as Rico dove for the hopelessly confused penguin.
Kowalski quickly looked away from the scene that was unfolding and shut his eyes one last time.
“I’m sorry, Kowalski. Had to get you out of there…” Private was heard again, nearby.
Kowalski opened his eyes to notice that his vision had regained its original state. He appeared to have been sitting in the middle of the concrete path that circled the Zoo. The ground beneath he and Private was illuminated by the lamppost from above; a sign that the evening was now making its transition. It wouldn’t be long, now, until the moon would reveal itself in the sky.
“What…where are we?” Kowalski asked as he rubbed his head in pain.
Private smiled and sat next to the penguin, “You went a bit loopy after you had a sip of that drink. I carried you all the way here…”
“Skipper…?”
“Oh…I didn’t see him or Rico…”
“Rico?”
“That reminds me…I wanted to talk to you about Skippa…”
Kowalski didn’t say anything this time. He was much too concerned with his head pains at that moment.
“I know he apologized, but I still can’t…” Private stopped unexpectedly, looking down at the ground. He sounded as though he were about to cry, “…I don’t know…”
This finally grasped Kowalski’s attention. The intellectual removed his flipper from his head and then leaned closer to the distressed penguin, “Private?” he asked, laying his flipper on the small penguin’s shoulder. Private flinched from Kowalski’s touch and tried his best to hide his face in shame.
“There you two are!” the leader approached from behind with a slight smile, “We didn’t see you back there! What happened?”
Private didn’t move. Kowalski turned and looked to see Skipper and Rico waiting impatiently for a response.
“Well, c’mon! We gotta double-time it to HQ! I hate to say it, but Marlene was right…”
