Private stirred quietly on the meza, jedwali he was lying on, his eyes lids slowly lifting, allowing light to pour into his pupils. He searched around the HQ for a moment and saw Kowalski sitting down kusoma the newest edition of Science Magazine, uandishi furiously as he read.

Rico and Skipper were no where to be found.

Finally the pain from his wounds hit him like a ton of bricks.

His head began to throb. He placed his good flipper on his head and let out a soft moan, “Oww…my head.”

Kowalski quickly snapped his attention to the young penguin. “Private? You’re awake! Don’t try and songesha much, your injuries are pretty severe.”

Private gave a slight nod, acknowledging Kowalski’s concern.

“K…Kowalski…what happened to me?” Private asked curiously. He had yet to be told why he was so sore, why he couldn’t songesha his left flipper, au even remember what happened.

Kowalski sighed and pulled a chair up inayofuata to Private, ready to fill him on the past 24 hours.

*************

Skipper wandered through the zoo, not caring where he ended up. He had zaidi pressing matters to worry about.

He had run through the pros and cons of each choice many times in his head, and every time there an equal amount of pros to cons for each choice. Skipper began to get frustrated; he wasn’t any closer to making a decision since he started. The last time he had to make a decision this tough Manfreddi and Johnson Lost their lives.

He found himself at an impasse, there was no for him to choose one without sacrificing the other.

“It’s not like I can just ask the guys to fall in upendo with Marlene too,” he spoke in a monotone voice, “that would just make things too complicated.”

“and…,” he began to snicker as a thought formed in his head, “it’s not like I can just ask Marlene to jiunge the team.” He chuckled at the thought. “There’s no way that would work.”

At first he dismissed the idea completely thinking it was an act of desperation to solve this difficult problem. But as he thought about it, it didn’t seem as bad as he had previously thought.

He placed his flipper to his beak and began to really think of the possibility of something like this working, wishing he had Kowalski near him to do the math.

“The rest of the team does enjoy Marlene’s presence right? Of course they do. Not to mention she’s smart, creative, cute, and brings a different perspective to our team. It would be nice to see how she would handle violent situations with a non violent approach. And that cheerful attitude might do this team some good,” he thought out loud.

Suddenly his eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened as all these thoughts cumulated into one ingenious plan.

“It’s perfect!” He exclaimed proud fully.

Skipper looked around himself to find out where exactly he had wandered off too. After getting his bearings he instantly took off for Marlene’s habitat, hoping she would comply with his plan.

******************

“Then Rico brought wewe back here where we tended to your wounds,” Kowalski stated as he finished explaining to Private what had happened earlier. Rico had entered the HQ about halfway through Kowalski’s explanation and was helping out kwa recreating what happened.

He picked up his doll as though it was Private and brought it over to another meza, jedwali where he began to take care of imaginary injuries.

“Do wewe remember any of this?” Kowalski asked

“I do vaguely remember the kitten, then I heard a loud snap, but everything after that is a still a blur to me.” Private alisema in a hushed tone.

While he was lying there on the meza, jedwali he felt like something was wrong, almost as if something was missing. Everything seemed to be in order, but what was it that was bothering him? Finally it hit Private; it wasn’t a thing that was missing.

It was a penguin.

“Hey Kowalski,” Private started, “Where’s Skipper?”

Kowalski thought about it for a moment.

“To be honest Private I have no idea, Rico?” Kowalski asks the manic bird with a questioning look plastered upon his face.

“Uh nuh,” Rico mumbled as he shrugged, throwing both flippers upwards.

“Huh…well I bet whatever he’s doing it’s important,” Kowalski alisema reassuringly, “But don’t worry he should be back soon.”

What Kowalski didn’t know was what Skipper was doing would change the team forever.