Premise[]
Curious about the neighbors that her brother visits most often, Duchess Lucinda uses her Alchemy skills to see into each of the penguins' memories and noticed different (yet somehow similar enough) versions of the story they met, became a team, and went on their very first mission... but will the royal-meddler (and her new power to see into another creatures mind) get caught in the process of putting it all together? Would knowing about this be knowing too much? Was there really a Manfredi and Johnson in Skipper's training days?! Tune in to find out!
The Story[]
Duchess Lucinda held up a talisman she made out of two old bottle-caps (from "Beverage" brand soda), a herbal-compound of her own design, and sticky-tape, and hid it under her pillow (hoping nobody saw it) before she went to sleep. See, it was a dream-token she's been working on to visit the dream realms of everyone else in the zoo (especially her brother, King Julien, and all his "favorite neighbors", as she's curious yet secretly shy). Not only did seeing those dreams from the surface help defy the character of all the animals, the penguins, especially, but she also found the common theory of science and magic was true: the deeper one enters the subconscious mind, the further back one can go back in time! She entered each of the penguins' memories before her brother's dance-music pulled her back into her own head and woke her up:
SKIPPER - raised by both Manfredi and Johnson, as not even they know which one is the real (biological) father, but while training him, handling global missions, and trying to figure it out (unaware that the younger recruit is in on the "classified" mystery), they both end up teaching Skipper the original Penguin Credo: Never Swim Alone.
KOWALSKI - as part of a failed experiment to reproduce human-young in bird eggs (don't ask), Kowalski, though appears to be an ordinary penguin, unlike the other mutated creatures in that particular lab (yes... mutated!!!), was gifted with super-enhanced intelligence. Sick of being the topic of research, Kowalski broke out of the lab and into the outside world, just waiting to challenge his rare mind.
RICO - An Antarctic penguin whose mother drank oil-well oil while Martial with him, and whose father dropped him as an egg (worse-so then a certain famous tap-dancer), Rico had problems since day one: mostly his undeveloped brain and his bottomless stomach! Poachers had caught him, and sold him to a Freak show at Brazil's Carnivale (it's there that he picked up the name "Rico" as his crazy antics and abnormal digestive track made the Spanish-speaking Carnivale Freak show Master very "rich"), but in the middle of his second act, Rico noticed the fireworks and used them to aid his escape, which revealed he had a gift for this sort of thing and gave him his first (second, counting his own name) and most favorite word: "Kaboom!"
PRIVATE - Living with his Uncle Nigel (who called him "Ace") and his Grandmum (who called him "Ryan") in what he always thought was Antarctica (he learns later-on that it was really a Utopia of sorts in a European Aquarium), this little orphaned penguin was darted and shipped to Arizona, sold as a pet to the local Millionaire's daughter, Kiki, under the name "Mr. Tux". After his "stupid-y" move at the mini-golf tournament against Armadillo Kid, however, he decided to run away and keep things (no pun intended) "private" from his human friend.
The next night, after the chaos King Julien put her through, Lucinda was exhausted and didn't waste time using the dream token again. Managing comparisons, she found how and were their life-stories connected before someone woke the penguins up, and ruined the connection:
In Ecuador, Kowalski went from calculating bus-routes to studying local plant life when something completely new to him: the battle-cries of a kid practicing Martial Arts! He followed the sound, but observed from a safe distance... a penguin that was technically smaller then him (yet close to his own age, maybe slightly older) was taking out his frustration on a tree with his flippers, his feet, and the occasional thrown stone. He heard this stranger talk to himself (this youngster's voice was surprisingly firm). "That stupid puffin! Framed me for a crime I didn't commit, got me kicked out of Norway... stolen my last Peanut-butter winkie!!! I'll have my vengeance, they'll see! How did that escape-tunnel land me in Norway in the first place I... it don't matter. Those exists were a one way trip anyway, I was lucky to find a way back to South America in one piece. Just hope Manfredi and Johnson pulled through just as much." Just then, a South American Carrier-Pigeon flew in by the stranger's side. "Pardone, senor, pero ?est'a Skipper?" "Yes!... iSi! Skipper is my name... and one day, my nature." "Fermi aqui, por favor." The youth known as Skipper signed the paperwork for a manila-envelope (ironically, addressed from Manila), and told the pigeon "gracias", and the pigeon returned the compliment before flying off "No debr'ia Gracias. iQue tengas un buen dia!". Once the coast seemed clear, Skipper was about to open the envelope, when it burst open on it's own, unleashing two adult Adelie penguins (Kowalski was so startled and confused by this "impossibility of physics" that he lost his balance on the ledge he was observing from and tumbled into the river between him and Skipper... and being brought up in a lab, in more ways then one, Kowalski never learned how to swim!!!) Skipper was just being told by the Adelie's (Manfredi and Johnson) that how they got stuffed in the envelope is "classified", when he heard a splash behind him, and all three of them dived into the river to investigate... Imagine their surprise when the found it was another young penguin at proper swimming-age, yet going at it all wrong! Unable to explain himself after getting rescued, Kowalski was assumed a "newly-molted" (a penguin that just lost his baby-feathers for swimming-feathers), and Manfredi and Johnson agreed to train both of them if Skipper takes full responsibility for the new guy when neither of them are around to aide him... It was agreed.
Meanwhile, just east of where Skipper and Kowalski met, "Mr. Tux" was lost in the jungle and ran into the most unlikely Tarzan named Rico. Rico saved the youngster from a flying-piranha, and gave the sushi-cuts to the hungry young traveler before disappearing into the shadows. The boy then meets Manfredi, Johnson, Skipper, and Kowalski, and after explaining he has several names (though never had a chance to mention one of them is "Mr. Tux") and adding "Private" to is "collection of identities" (deciding to use this one from now on), Private shared the fish and his story of the wild-bird that gave it to him. Manfredi and Johnson didn't believe that story, as they were sure piranhas don't fly... of all near-death experiences, this one was the most final. The remains were so small, Private could wrap each Adelie in a vine leaf. While Kowalski buried them with a teaspoon he found, Skipper, who knew them the longest, done the eulogy "...I never figured out which of you, if either of you, was my real father, but I'm sure the flock agrees with me as I say that both of you were the greatest dads I could ever have. Good Bye, Manfredi and Johnson. Your training lives on in us and, in spite the noise of any hardship, may your souls rest in well earned peace." The funeral never had a moment of silence, as distant explosions ruined that. They found the source, who introduced himself as Rico, was the same bird from Private's story. At first, only Private could understand his gibberish (because he was the best social-penguin), but it didn't take long for the rest of the flock to understand him... and notice that he was a "fugitive" via "wanted posters" (the freak show master was desperate to have his Bottomless-Pit Penguin back). Teaming up. They faced the world together... starting by an official team connection at the Penguin Agency Central-Hub, to the point where they were mistaken for four non-agent penguins (that got loose then pelted by amateur poachers) that were reserved for an exhibit in Central Park Zoo, NYC! They had several misadventures trying to escape to Antarctica (which was nothing like Private recalled at all) and then head back... but that was another tale.
Using the token once more, Lucinda made a wrong turn somewhere in the subconscious realms and accidentally wound up visiting... "Chester the Chatterbox?!" Sure enough, she popped in the middle of the kit-fox's dream that was an impressive yet nauseating reinforced to a statue entitled "The Kiss".
That hardly looks anything like the real-deal!
"I guess nobody informed Mission Control that two of their top agents have died." Private said, as Skipper shook his head at the summons-scroll the local carrier-pigeon left. "Manfredi and Johnson left me in change in one of their final requests," Skipper sighed, "but the thing is that I don't really know what to do. We need some sort of a plan... since it's already too late to give our high-flying amigo any intel on our two commanders fate, I suppose that it only fits that we find the central-hub and bring in the report ourselves, but how to do that... I need ideas, suggestions, we need..." "Permission to share my options, Skipper?" Kowalski said (he got used to the commando lifestyle rather quickly), "Permission granted," Skipper said, looking relieved. "Unless you plan on waiting around for another piranha attack," Kowalski said, "it only makes logical sense that you wake Rico up to guard us while I rummage through Manfredi and Johnson's things for clues to the Central-Hub's exact location in this jungle." Skipper and Private look upon Rico, who practically destroyed an entire village while they were escaping "bounty-hunters", and was all tuckered out from the matter... now fast asleep! "Rico protecting us?" Private said,"I'm glad he's on our side but... you've gone mad!" "I'm siding with Private on this!" Skipper remarked, "that Jungle-Boy almost got us suspended from Ecuador, and he keeps blowing our cover!" "Skipper," Kowalski tried to be firm, "I might've been a quick learner, but you taught me things that allowed my character to keep up with my brain. Strategically speaking, Rico needs to merely be held back before he goes too far, and if anyone can train him to control himself, you can." "I can help you...!" Private volunteered, before he held back with uncertainty, "... I think." "While I'm at it, Private, I aught to bring you up to help yourself." Skipper said, "Alright, Kowalski, you win this round. Remind me to make you my lieutenant when all three of you are officially assigned into the agency. Private, you stick with Kowalski and lend him a helping wing... We know now how cranky Rico gets with rude awakenings and, if we are to train him right... well, let's just say things are going to get messy!" Things were indeed messy, both with Kowalski and Private as they searched the deceased agents' things until they found some missions records and a map that seems to connect with Mission Control, as well as with Skipper and Rico, as they tussled each other for superiority, but it didn't take long for everything to get "cleaned up". The journey was perilous, as both survival and the alliance was put to the test, but by the time they managed to get there... The Chief (an "imperial" penguin) revealed that it was only that, a test! (They knew already about Manfredi and Johnson's ironic death, but the Central-Hub didn't want the younger "agents" to know that they know) Those at Mission Control kept record of each younger penguins reaction to the part of the Jungle that was part of a coming-of-age ceremony to warriors in training for ages (once belonged to humans, but soon enough it was left to ruins, which Agent-Animals restored use to). All four of them were congratulated on success of there first "mission", and officially became agents as well as a team.
Duchess Lucinda was touched by this vision, and force herself to wake up (now holding respect for there confidentiality, not wanting to do any more damage to it), and right on time to hear the real, present-day Penguins awaken and catch on to the fact that she's been in their heads. Soon enough, she was surrounded and had sworn to secrecy. They all headed back to their bunks after Skipper said "Do us a favor, and stay out of our dreams... we gat enough of you and your brother during the day!" She gave her word.
After that, on nights when she isn't out vigilantying or putting up with Julien's dance parties, Lucinda tucks herself in, and visits the subconscious world (she found a loophole, after all), and saw the world through other animals her brother knew, especially the so-called "New York Giants".
THE END!!
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