Camaraderie ch.53- Getting back up again

Alice never questioned what caused the lemur to have a change of attitude, she was just satisfied that they would be able to stay open.

Julien was more determined than ever to bring people back. He still had a look of sadness at times, but no longer wallowed in it. He held his head high and taught Maya how to dance. The energy that the zoo used to have was lower, but it was making a comeback.

The penguins decided to challenge Julien to see which species could bring the most visitors. Both of them tied, but brought more visitors to the zoo.

Visitors were happy that all the animals were as eager to entertain as before.

Skipper remained suspicious of the level of normal behavior. So far, Blowhole had remained silent; there was no sign of the opposing side or any word about them from the Antarctic Base. Blowhole was out there somewhere, biding his time. Had he been the one to send that robot? They were uncertain. Koru was just as big of a threat, but it was startling to hear no news of him.

Even as a couple more weeks passed, there had been no unusual or suspicious activity reported.

Skipper tried to think back to a little more than a year ago, before it all went down. The only differences from then and now were the little things. Back then, Nat was undercover for Blowhole's side and Josie was alive, but nearly lost Maya. Now, Nat was on the side of good and Izzy was here. Mikayla had on and off moments, but in the end wished to stay. Josie was no longer here, but Maya and Tyson were here.

There had also been an increase in visitors since Maya was born, and especially when Tyson came to the zoo. Also, Rocky and Rikki had volunteered to stay with their brothers. They did grow a little annoyed when kids kept asking if the girl penguins and the boys would have more babies.

Rico almost knocked out a seven year old who knew WAY more than he should; said seven year old also insinuated that the blind penguin was going to drown because she couldn't see. Rikki took immediate offense and kicked the air in front of her, resulting in Kowalski plummeting into the water.

Private found himself having more conversations with Rocky about what they had both been through in Antarctica. The four boys and Rocky all still suffered from post-battle nightmares some nights, but talked about it with each other and managed to keep smiling.

Mikayla had grown used to the kids; although she admitted she could do better if Tyson wasn't practicing his kicking every five minutes.

Skipper had taken it upon himself to teach Tyson the basic fighting techniques. This often resulted in Maya fighting back and Tyson ending up with a bruised flipper.

"That is one tough lemur." Kowalski commented.

Maya had grinned back after apologizing to the small penguin.

If the two of them weren't terrorizing each other, they were causing chaos in the zoo. Tyson had managed to slip away a few times and Maya found him. Had she been an older, responsible lemur, she would have returned him to his habitat.

However, she was one, and had much more exciting things planned. For one, she found Private's stash of Peanut butter Winkies. It was an insane day, trying to chase down two sugar-high kids who somehow managed to break into Kowalski's lab and smash nearly every beaker and test tube in there. They also managed to cause Julien's stereo to explode, which was strongly contributed to the fact that Rico often forgot to hide his explosives well. Let's just say that he was lucky the hyperactive kids had quickly moved on after placing the dynamite in the stereo.

Even if Tyson was sound asleep, safely inside the crib, Maya was on a roll. She seemed to run on pure energy from the moment she got up, sometimes at the crack of dawn, until the seconds before she fell asleep at night. If no one kept her busy with dancing or coloring, she was exploring the world around her even if it got her in sticky situations. She would take fruit and smear the juice on the walls of the habitats. She managed to get into Alice's office and type up a storm of madness before the penguins found her. Later, she would try to get Tyson to do it. Alice had a hard time keeping tabs on them at times and nearly collapsed after one of their sugar rushes.

Julien felt conflicted. He knew he should probably try to get some control over Maya, but he didn't want to ruin her fun. It was only when Alice grumbled loudly about locking Maya up in a cage that he decided to try to be serious.

He sighed and sat down on the bouncy with Maya.

"Hi!" Maya squealed.

Julien tried not to smile. "Er…Hey, you know what; I am really bad at this." He said.

Maya tilted her head.

"Maya, you cannot be running around like a crazy lemur."

"Huh?"

"What I am meaning to say is…Maurice, help me out!"

Maurice sighed heavily. "Maya needs to be told what she did wrong and that she shouldn't do it again."

"How?"

Maurice sat down on the other side of Maya.

"Like this. Maya, sweetie."

She directed her attention to the other lemur.

"Daddy's music box is special and you need to be careful."

"Go boom!" Maya laughed, clapping her hands.

Julien snickered, but quickly stifled it at Maurice's expression.

"No, Maya. That was a bad thing."

"Bad?" Maya asked, lowering her eyebrows.

"Making Daddy's music box go boom is a no-no."

"No-no?"

"That's right."

Maya raised a brow.

Maurice scratched his head. "Okay, how about this…" He stood up and drew a circle at the corner of the habitat. "If you do something bad, you have to be in the time out circle for five minutes or until we say you can come out."

Maya looked confused.

"King Julien, I think we just have to wait. We'll take this one step at a time." Maurice said.

"What is that meaning?" Julien asked.

"We can't explain this to her very well, but we can show her the next time she's in trouble."

"Fine, but I am not wanting to lay down the harsh punishments on my baby."

"Of course not, this is only practice so she can learn to listen."

Maya approached the circle, looking at it with confusion. She shrugged and walked away.

A few days passed with Maya just ignoring the circle and playing around as usual. It was a very warm day when she decided to mess around with the stereo again.

She opened the compartment and pulled out the batteries. Looking around at it, she found a few wires and tugged on them, causing sparks to fly out and onto the battery. She then proceeded to hit the stereo with the batteries until one of them exploded. It leaked out acid onto the music machine and more sparks flew until it ignited. She stared at it in wonder, her arm reaching out when a flipper stopped her.

"Maya!" Julien yelled. He raced over just as Rico was putting out the fire.

Skipper released the small lemur. "Julien, she could have gotten hurt or worse. You need to keep an eye on her."

"Maya, that was a big no-no." Maurice said.

"Should she go in the time-out circle?" Julien asked.

"Yes." Skipper and Maurice said.

Julien carried Maya to the circle. "Stay there until Daddy says you can come out."

Julien started to walk away when Maya ran out of the circle.

"No, stay." Julien said, picking her up and putting her back.

Maya's brows lowered.

"Draw?"

"No, you cannot be drawing in time out." Julien said.

Maya attempted to leave, but Julien stopped her.

"Time out." Julien said.

"No." Maya said firmly, glaring at Julien.

Maurice pulled Julien away and told him to just ignore her.

Both of them ignored Maya unless she set foot outside the circle. They would put her back in and leave her there.

Maya was shocked the sixth time this happened. She sat there, watching everyone else go about their business, ignoring her.

"Tys'n?" She called, hoping her playmate would come. She tried to bring toys and crayons in, but they were taken away.

"Daddy?" Maya called. "DADDY?!"

She crossed her arms and glared at the back of Julien's head. A little while later, she began to cry. Julien wanted to comfort her, but Maurice said that Maya still had to learn that the circle was there when she was bad.

Maya kept throwing her tantrum until she got tired.

"I think she's been in there long enough." Maurice said. "It was only five minutes."

"Feels like forever." Julien said. He got up and walked over to Maya.

She sat with her back turned to him.

"Maya?"

She looked at him with red rimmed eyes.

"You can come out now." Julien said.

Maya stood up slowly. She looked at Julien critically and carefully made her way to the edge of the circle.

"Time out is all done now."

Maya stepped out and glared at Julien.

"I put you in time out because you did a no-no." Julien said.

"I sowwy." Maya said.

"I forgive you." Julien said.

"Dada sowwy." Maya huffed.

"Me? For what?"

Maya pointed to the circle.

"No, I cannot be apologizing for that." Julien said. "I have to put you in time out so you can learn that you can't do dangerous things."

"Huh?"

"If you do a no-no thing again, I will have to put you back in."

"NO!" Maya screamed.

"Please do not yell at me." Julien said.

"NO!"

"Maya, it is only if you are bad. If you be a good lemur, I will not put you in there!"

"Dada bad!"

Julien looked hurt. "Maya…I-I am not bad…I am just…I do not want to lose you."

Maya didn't respond. She stomped angrily to her toys.

"What am I to do now?" Julien groaned.

"There's nothing you can do except wait for her to get it." Skipper's voice came from behind.

"What do you mean?"

"She won't understand quite yet, and yeah she'll be mad at you, but over time she'll start to link bad behavior with that circle and hopefully stop driving everyone crazy."

"I am not ready to be a role model!" Julien yelled. "I cannot do this!"

"Yes you can." Skipper said. "There are a lot of things I believe you can't do, but there are things that you CAN do, and dealing with this sort of behavior is one of these things."

"That I can do?"

The penguin nodded. "Hey, one day I'll have to discipline Tyson." He said. "It's not easy to do, but no one ever said kids were easy. Also, I know how you feel. Neither of us is the biological parent of our little ones, but we both have a sense of wanting to love and protect."

"But how do I do the mother stuff? At least you are having your sister and Rikki and Marlene to help out…I have no one…"

"That's not true." Skipper said. "You know that Marlene would be more than happy to help out. And Mikayla's here to babysit anytime you need her to, even against her will."

"You actually admit that?" Kowalski asked, jumping into the habitat.

"I admit nothing." Skipper said. "Aren't you supposed to be training with the others?"

"Rico and Private are fighting over the television, and I think your sister is only making it worse."

"Oh brother…"

"Tell me about it."

The penguins hurried to their habitat to find burn marks all over the inside of the HQ.

Rikki sat on her bed with her flippers held protectively over her head. Mikayla had retreated under her covers and peeked out at them.

CRASH!

"DANG IT, RICO!"

"HAHAHA!"

"ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS WATCH LUNACORNS!"

Kowalski and Skipper exchanged exasperated looks.

"Penguins, fall in NOW!" Skipper shouted.

Private scratched at his skin as he emerged from Kowalski's lab.

"Good golly…" Kowalski said weakly as the other two emerged.

All three of them were covered in dirt and unidentified substances from the lab.

Rikki made her way towards Skipper's angry growl. Rico caught her flipper and pulled her into the line.

"You too." Skipper said to Mikayla.

She nervously hurried to Rikki's side, not wanting to invoke Skipper's wrath further.

"Where's the baby?" Kowalski asked as he stood in line.

"At Marlene's, remember?" Skipper said.

"Oh yeah."

"Alright, I want to know what happened here." Skipper said. "Kowalski, where were you?"

"I was in the lab, sir."

"What happened before you came to get me?"

"I don't know the details, but I heard yelling and came out to investigate." Kowalski said. "When I came out, Rico and Private were arguing about which show to watch. At that point, Rocky hit them both with a fish. They then began to argue even further, resulting in more fish smacking. My decision to come get you resulted when all three of them shouted at me to stay out of it and then proceeded to whack me with fish."

"Is Kowalski's story true?" Skipper asked the rest of them.

"From what I heard, yep." Rikki said. "I tuned them out until Rocky swore at the top of her lungs, then I'm assuming at that point, Kowalski had come out."

"Mikayla!"

Mikayla jumped. "Y-yes, Skipper?"

"Do Kowalski and Rikki's points check out?"

"W-what?"

"Are they telling the truth?"

"Yes. I-I tried to stop them, but Rico growled and scared me…and Kowalski's lab was locked until he came out."

"You three." Skipper said.

"Yes, little brother?" Rocky said sweetly.

"Why were weapons pulled out?"

Rico laughed sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Who got to the television first?"

"Me"

"I did"

Private and Rico glared at each other.

"Rico, I got there first and you know it!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"STOP!" Skipper said. "First off, this fight should not have happened and YOU shouldn't have gotten involved." He turned to Rocky. "I do not tolerate this sort of behavior in my base, even from my sister."

"Gee." Rocky said.

"Can't there be one day of peace and quiet without any of you driving me insane?" Skipper asked, glaring at each of them.

"I think you need to calm down." Rocky said. "We're trying our best here, but there's only so much we can handle. In case you haven't noticed, there's eight of us trying to live in this place."

"Yeah, I noticed." Skipper muttered irritably.

"Then what's wrong? I thought you were alright with me staying here for a while."

"It's not just you I have a problem with."

"Is it me?" Mikayla asked.

"I didn't ask you, but yeah kind of!" Skipper snapped. "You can't seem to watch the kids for an hour without there being a problem or something."

"And you can't seem to ask me if I WANT to watch the kids." Mikayla said. "You treat me as if I'm just someone who's there to take care of the kids so you don't have to."

"So you want Rikki to take care of them?"

"Hey, leave me out of it." Rikki said. "I have no problem being here if you can handle it."

"If I can handle it?"

"You do seem to be on the short tempered side." Kowalski said. "I've noticed that recently…in the past few days."

"Are you feeling well, Skipper?" Private asked.

"I'm fine." Skipper growled. "I just don't like when I'm annoyed by the antics of a bunch of adult penguins who act like CHILDREN! AND I HAVE THIS STINKIN' ITCH!"

He twisted his flipper back and scratched furiously.

"Now who's acting like a child?" Rocky said.

"I can't take all this noise." Skipper grumbled. He stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Kowalski sighed and walked into his lab. "I don't know, but- AAH! WHAT HAPPENED?!" He whimpered at the scene of destruction before him. It looked like a tornado had hit his lab with a deep rage.

"Ehehe…oops." Rico said.

"Sorry." Rocky said.

"You thought my lab would be the perfect place to carry out your brawl?" Kowalski said, trying not to yell.

"It was open." Private offered weakly.

"Go…just leave me….please…"

The three of them zipped out. Kowalski groaned loudly as he pulled his clipboard towards him.

"I am yet another day behind…"

Mikayla entered the lab nervously.

"H-hey there." She said.

Kowalski looked at her. "I am not going to separate them again."

"No, it's alright now. Rico challenged the others to a race and Rikki went up top for some sun." Mikayla said. "You should be out there too…it's a pretty nice day out."

"I would if they hadn't caused me to fall behind in my work." Kowalski said, turning back to his damaged machines. "These were supposed to help us…Maybe I could have created a jetpack…but we'll never know now…between the kids and the adults, how am I going to advance? How on earth am I going to concentrate long enough to make even the slightest bit of difference?"

"I-uh…I don't know."

"I WILL DESTROY YOU!"

Both of them jumped at the voice. A loud clattering noise was heard followed by a series of grunts.

"What's going on?" Mikayla asked.

"STOP!"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"DIE, SCUM!"

"What are you talking abou-AAH! HEY! THAT ALMOST HIT ME!"

"THAT WAS THE IDEA!"

Kowalski narrowed his eyes and hurried out.

"Skipper, NO!"