Private smirked as he packed up the last of his bags from the HQ that had become their home. Sure, mail was delivered to the clinic, and all important information led to there, but the Andrews family lived quite comfortably in the underground HQ that allowed them safety and access to almost the entire New York underground without touching the sewers somehow. Both Dr. Andrews were surprised to find that their neighbors were so happy to have them back that the lot of them worked together to get the clinic built within the single summer that they had been returned. By the time the boys were signing up for their classes, they were ready to start their practice again. Cadet was to be home schooled for the first year just so she could get used to how things in a normal home environment would work before placing her in school.

Private still had bandages over his chest, but his shoulder had healed up nicely. He had been doing physical therapy that had been normal by everyone's standards, much to Classified's surprise, and was able to keep up with the Amarillo Kid on a run around the city before needing to rest. He wasn't up to his usual standards, but according to Kowalski's analysis, he was at normal health standards for any other fifth grade boy. He wouldn't be able to take off the bandages, do combat practice, or any other things he'd do in gym other than basics for another month, but Rockgut knew this and was willing to help him out. The story that the group had for Private's injury was that he had gotten shot in the kidnapping, and his brothers had taken him to the hospital as soon as they had managed to save him. The story for the parents and other sibling was that Mariam had been pregnant when she and her husband had been kidnapped, and the lot had been held captive by drug cartels in southern Africa and used as personal doctors. It was a convincing enough story, much to Kowalski's disbelief, and they had been rescued by agents, just to appease Classified's ego.

The boys unpacked as they usually did in their room, all four smiling like they had won the lottery, not that the four of them would ever need to worry about money anymore. Skipper had the money he saved from his missions as a spy, Kowalski had his patents and inventions, Rico had the money he saved from being a matador, and Private had money from being both a world renowned professional golfer and a hitman. The four of them had laughed when they had realized that they would never need to worry about that ever again. They could go into retirement where no one could find them and they'd never need to worry, but they all agreed that the four of them would be bored to tears if they did that. A good portion of the money the four had earned was sent to charities across the world while the rest of it was sent to savings for college and equipment. Skipper had gotten it into his head that after college the four of them could go into business for themselves as an elite team. "We are the elitist of the elite after all." He pointed out with a grin, to which Kowalski just groaned and muttered something about the world being crazy and odds being against them, but he did so with a smile.

After unpacking in their dorm room, the boys were walking around school grounds, waiting for their parents to show up and take them home until school actually started next week, and talking to their friends and neighbors in the dorms.

"So what did you guys do this summer?" Maurice asked as he cleaned up some ice cream off of Mort's face. Mort giggled like a little boy in a candy shop. Julian was pretending to not care what had happened over the summer while drinking a mango smoothie, one of his favorite drinks.

The boys looked to each other and smirked. Skipper had revealed to them that while the "Lemurs" weren't the brightest in the bunch, they were able to tell them the truth and they would be the only ones in school to believe them… other than Hans and the members of the North Wind.

"Nothing much. Just saved the world from maniacs as well as our family." Skipper shrugged and then put a hand to his chin as though he had to think about it. "Let's see, what else did we do… OH, we found out who killed Kowalski's original parents and burnt down our home…" Julian was even listening now.

"It was a madman who went out to try and destroy our very lives because he was jealous of our parents and their accomplishments." Kowalski shrugged, hoping that he wasn't showing his bitterness for never getting to actually know his parents.

"Least you aren't a science experiment." Rico pointed out. His voice had been cleared up while Private was in the hospital, thanks to the combined efforts of Kowalski, Eva, and the two Dr. Andrews. He now sounded somewhat like Skipper and Kowalski combined but with a Hispanic accent due to living in Spain for so long. This made all three "Lemur" boys look at him with shock and surprise.

"Did he just…"

"Did he say he is a science-y experiment?" Julian looked at the muscular boy with confusion more plainly on his face than usual.

Private then piped up. "I got a bullet wound from when we were escaping the base!" He slid his shirt shoulder down a little to show off part of the bandage. The four penguin boys chuckled nervously. It was a good enough distraction from Rico being an experiment though.

Kowalski then noticed something worrisome. Hans was coming towards them with a determined look on his face. "Uh, Skipper, Hans alert."

Skipper turned towards the Dane and looked him square in the face as he stopped in front of him. "Hans."

"Skipper." Hans took a deep breath as he mentally prepared himself on what to say to the American "Penguin" boy. He held out a hand for the boy to shake. "You kept your promise."

Skipper smirked, knowing which promise the Dane meant. "Have you ever known me to go back on my word?" Skipper shook the boy's hand with a firm grip. He was happy for him. Hans was now allowed to go back home this meant.

Much to his surprise, Hans then pulled him into a hug. "Thank you." He had started to sob with joy. When the holidays came, he would be allowed to go home. Kowalski and Rico were slightly confused, but they let it be as Skipper rolled his eyes and patted the poor boy's back.

"Jeez, Hans, get a grip, man! You're sobbing all over me in front of not only my men, but Julian and his crazy crew as well!" With a slight sniffle, Hans pulled himself away from Skipper and grimaced.

"My apologies. I just… thank you…"

"Yeah, well you are welcome. Just don't expect me to visit. I'm still banned from there I bet, and I'm fine with that." Skipper grimaced as he wiped his shoulders as though to get rid of the tears. He was happy for the boy though.

A honk from a car horn caught the attention of the group. They turned to see a man with dark black hair that was peppered with bits of gray in it and fierce brown eyes staring at them with a cute factor that was strangely unnatural. "Hey boys, time to go. You all settled in?" He asked while leaning in his beat up looking old minivan.

"Coming, Dad!" Skipper called as the boys started towards the car. He called back to the stunned group of four over his shoulder. "Gotta go, dad's taking us to the aquarium so Kowalski can install the new guide over there." Kowalski and Skipper had both decided to let Dr. Philip Blowhole's main wish to be a marine biologist come true by allowing him to be in the Aquarium's system to watch over the animals in there. Skipper also had a connection to him on his new watch thanks to Kowalski so that he could also get advice and information from him whenever he needed. While Skipper wasn't ready to call Blowhole his father or anything like that, he did want to be able to talk to him and learn more about him, and this was as good as he was ever going to get.

"Eh, that's…" Julian was so confused. Skipper had never taken to calling anyone his parent in all five years that he had been in the academy, six now.

"That's our dad. We might have had to save him and our mother, as well as our sister from some mad men that had also decided to try and kidnap Private at the end of the school year last year." Kowalski grinned as Skipper explained everything. Julian and the other's jaws dropped. Hans just looked like someone had slapped him with a salmon.

"Hurry up, boys! Your mother made some of her Choco-blaster cookies, and Cadet might just eat them all if we don't hurry after the Aquarium!" He laughed as the three elder boys, remembering how good those cookies were, started climbing over each other to get into the van. Private just chuckled as he also climbed in.

Though their story might not have started out the best, Private couldn't help but think that through all the struggle and strife, all trouble and trials given in his young life, he was quite happy with his life as it currently was, and he was only eleven years old! Through everything that had gone against them, Skipper had been right about one thing for the boys; they were alright, and they were strongest together… no matter how weird things got for them. They were the penguins, and they were brothers. Nothing was going to change that, no matter how hard it tried… and no matter the odds, much to Kowalski's amusement and slight annoyance.