A Skilene-Filled September
Scenario 30: "Operation: GFF"
Thursday, September 30, 2010

As the clock tower by the zoo entrance struck noon, Private turned to Skipper.

"It's odd, don't you think?" he asked, standing out on the penguin habitat's platform with his leader. "We haven't seen Marlene in her habitat all morning, and now it's the beginning of the afternoon."

"Indeed it is strange," Skipper agreed. "Marlene's not one to sleep this late – she's not a hippie. I wonder what's keeping her."

"I hope she's feeling all right," Private continued. "Do you think we ought to go check on her?"

"I think that's our duty, Private," Skipper replied. "Come on, let's go."

With that, Skipper and Private left the penguin habitat and strolled over to Marlene's place to find out what was up.

"Wake up and smell the coffee, Marlene," Skipper called out as he and Private entered her cave. "Marlene? Hello? Anybody home?"

But her home was dark and empty, with no otter in sight.

"Do you suppose she went to visit Julien?" Private then asked. "Or someone else in the zoo?"

"Negative," Skipper replied. "The two of us have been outside since 0530 – we would have seen her leave. And Marlene wouldn't have had a reason to get up and leave any earlier."

"But shouldn't we check around the zoo just to make sure?" Private asked.

"Yes," Skipper replied as he and Private began to head out. "There's got to be an explanation for Marlene's sudden disappearance."

As they were waddling out of Marlene's cave, Private suddenly noticed a piece of paper taped onto a nearby rock, so he pulled it off and read it. He gasped momentarily thereafter.

"Skipper, I think Marlene's been otternapped!" he said in shock as he passed Skipper the note. "Here, read this."

Hello, pang-gu-wins:

How long did it take you flightless fools to find my letter? My guess is that it's just past noon.

Misplaced something, fellas? An otter, perhaps? Well, she's safe with me. For now.

But, Skipper, if you ever want to see your GFF again, you'd better get to your television and quick. Tune to Channel 30 – I'll be waiting for you.

-Doc

"Blowhole!" Skipper exclaimed with contempt as he then made a fist with a flipper. "The fiend!"

"Skipper, what do we do?" Private asked.

"We find out what that blasted bottlenose wants," Skipper replied as he resumed waddling out. "Come on, soldier."

Within a few short moments, Skipper and Private returned to the penguin habitat and entered the HQ through its fishbowl entrance.

"Skipper, Dr. Blowhole is on our TV!" Kowalski then waddled over to him and said. "I was just about to change the channel away from Private's 'Lunacorns' program and watch something more in line with my intellect when Blowhole came on instead!"

"We know, Kowalski," Skipper replied as he handed Kowalski Dr. Blowhole's note. "That mad marine mammal has got Marlene."

"Sure do," Dr. Blowhole said through the TV upon hearing a reference being made to him through it. "So, Skipper, would you like me to show you your GFF now?"

"Pardon?" Skipper replied as he turned to face the TV screen.

"Marlene, your GFF," Blowhole responded. "Your girlfriend forever."

He then switched from showing himself to a camera showing Marlene confined in a small cage.

"You'll deny it on the surface, of course, but every part of you is in love with that otter," Blowhole continued. "I'm quite the spy; I know just how smitten you are with her. It's pretty cute, really. But I know far more than you think I know; I know that you'd do anything to keep your precious safe. I've got you right where I want you, Skipper, and that's something you can't deny."

"The only thing I'm going to deny is you a victory," Skipper replied. "You dare to hurt just one hair on Marlene's head and I'll pack your blowhole so full of dynamite that it would make Hiroshima look like a tea party."

"Ooh, tough words from someone with very little control in this situation," Blowhole continued. "I'm going to call your bluff. Minions!"

A small group of Dr. Blowhole's lobster minions then came out from the background and surrounded Marlene in her cage. One then took out a pair of tweezers and plucked just one single piece of fur off of her.

"Don't worry, Skipper, I'm sure she'll live," Blowhole then mocked as the image on the TV screen came back to him. "But I'd now like to make my demands. First, I demand that you take me seriously. I've worked far too hard and far too long to become an evil genius to be made a fool of by the likes of you. Second, I demand you bring back to me my plans for solar eradication, which you stole from me. Those consist of my exclusive intellectual property – ever hear of copyright? And third, but definitely not least, I demand that you resign as commander of your pointless brigade."

The image on TV then faded back to Marlene.

"If my demands are met, you can live happily ever after with your love," Blowhole said. "If not, then, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it, won't we? You have 24 hours."

And with that, the screen went black and there was nothing left to see.

"I'm going to assume you'll be needing some options," Kowalski then waddled over to Skipper and said.

"Not this time, Kowalski," Skipper replied. "The only option here is to comply with Blowhole's demands."

"Skipper, are you sure?" Private then asked. "It's Dr. Blowhole we're talking about here. You can't just do what he tells you – he'll see it as a weakness."

"He's already hit my weakness, Private," Skipper replied as he sniffled. "I can't take a chance when Marlene's safety is at stake. I have to protect her."

The other penguins hated to think about actually allowing Dr. Blowhole's demands to be met, but they respected Skipper far too much to try to get him to reconsider his decision. It was clear to them that Skipper had placed his whole heart behind his decision, and that was more than they needed to give him their full support.

"We're with you, Skipper," Kowalski then said as he patted Skipper on the back with a flipper. "Commander or not, I refuse to take orders from anyone else."

"Me, too, Skipper," Private agreed. "I'm behind you every step of the way."

"Yup," Rico affirmed.

"Thanks, boys," Skipper replied.

Skipper then waddled over to the wall of the HQ opposite the bunks and gave a swift roundhouse kick to one of the bricks which formed it. A keypad shot out from above it, on which Skipper entered an 18-digit code. Once he submitted it, the brick directly above the keypad turned around, revealing a red file folder sealed with tamper-resistant evidence tape with a picture of the sun drawn on it.

"This is it," Skipper said as he removed the folder. "This is the solar-related folder I'll be giving to Blowhole."

"Where is he?" Private then asked. "He only told you that you had 24 hours. He never even bothered to tell you where to meet him."

"He's back at Coney Island again," Kowalski responded. "I could hear the rollercoasters in the background while Blowhole was on TV. Plus, I also heard some kid say 'Mommy, I love Coney Island so much. Thank you for bringing me here.'"

"Ah, good observations, Kowalski," Skipper commented.

Before closing up the location in the wall where the folder was, Skipper pulled four folded sheets of paper out from the area as well and handed them to Rico.

"Rico, please place these papers in safe keeping," he said.

"OK," Rico replied as he then swallowed the papers. "Yum."

Skipper then addressed his men.

"Gentlemen, we now embark on one of our most critical missions," he said. "Dr. Blowhole has Marlene captive, and we're going to go get her back. I'm going to need you three to be my backup when I go to meet with Blowhole, especially you, Rico. Anyway, we don't have time to spare, so let's move out."

With that, the penguins waddled out of the HQ and left the zoo for Blowhole's amusement park hideout. Opting to take the subway this time, they reached it in no time.

"All right, boys, let's move in," Skipper said quietly as the unit was about to enter the deranged dolphin's lair. "Let's try to preserve the element of surprise."

"Breach of the perimeter! Breach of the perimeter! Breach of the perimeter!" Blowhole's security system blared out as the penguins took their first steps inside.

"So much for the element of surprise," Private commented.

Then suddenly, the alarm fell silent. The sound of a Segway-type motorized vehicle could be heard in the distance in its place, slowly getting closer and closer. Soon a dark shadow appeared. Then the laugh. And finally …

"Blowhole!" Skipper stated as the dolphin emerged from the darkness, carrying the caged Marlene with him.

"Pang-gu-wins!" Blowhole replied. "We meet again."

"And it won't be the last time, either," Kowalski declared.

"Quiet, Kowalski," Blowhole stated harshly. "Unless you want me to show you all of my newest gadgets and electronics and make you feel oh so inferior yet again. Don't make me get out my iPad."

The doctor then looked to Skipper.

"Have you brought my evil plans back to me?" he asked. "I've only got so many billion years to blow up the sun before the universe itself beats me to it."

"I've got your folder right here," Skipper replied as he held it up.

"Skipper, don't do it!" Marlene yelled from her cage. "This dolphin is a madman; don't give him anything!"

"And to think that yesterday she didn't even believe I was real," Dr. Blowhole said as he shook Marlene's cage a little. "Isn't it nice that I arranged this little meet and greet?"

"Let her go," Skipper declared.

"First, the folder," Blowhole replied.

Skipper then handed Dr. Blowhole the folder.

"No!" Marlene disagreed.

"There you are, bottlenose," Skipper said. "Now let Marlene go."

"Not so fast, Skipper," Blowhole replied. "Say it."

Skipper looked at Kowalski, Rico, and Private and sighed. He then turned back to Blowhole.

"I hereby resign my position as captain of the Central Park Zoo Penguin Unit," he said. "Are you happy now? Will you let Marlene go, please?"

Dr. Blowhole then looked at Marlene inside of the cage.

"What a shame, we were becoming such great friends, too," he said to her sarcastically, then threw the cage down to the penguins. "Catch."

Skipper and Private caught the cage and placed it on the ground next to them.

"And now I make my triumphant escape," Dr. Blowhole said, clutching his folder, as a bubble came over his motorized transporter and lifted him into the sky. "You pang-gu-wins never had a chance! Ha-ha-hahaa! Ha-ha-hahaa! Ha-ha-hahaa!"

And then he was gone.

The team then immediately turned their attention to Marlene. Rico regurgitated a bolt cutter and cut off the lock on the cage and let Marlene out.

"Oh, I believe! I believe he's real now!" Marlene said, still shaking from what had all happened, as she ran to Skipper and hugged him. "I'm so glad to see you, Skipper. I'm so glad to see all of you."

"I'm glad to see you, too, Marlene," Skipper responded as he reached out to hold onto her. "Everything's going to be OK now."

With Skipper there beside her, Marlene soon calmed down from the nightmare she had just been put through. And after a few minutes of just being there for each other, Marlene thought to ask Skipper a question.

"Is what Blowhole said true?" she asked.

"Blowhole says a lot of things," Skipper replied. "What specifically were you wondering about?"

"Do you really love me?" she asked. "Am I your GFF?"

Skipper smiled.

"If Blowhole wanted to kidnap someone to really pull at my heartstrings, he certainly picked the right one," he replied. "Yes, Marlene. I would do anything for you or anything to protect you because I love you. You are my GFF."

"He even gave back Blowhole's plans to blow up the sun and resigned his position as our unit's leader to protect you, Marlene," Kowalski added. "I've never seen a love so strong."

"You did what?" Marlene asked in shock.

"Actually, Kowalski, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve on that one," Skipper replied. "There are papers inside the folder I gave Blowhole, but they just are plans on how to build an elementary school model of the solar system. And as for me resigning my leadership, well, I had my flippers crossed."

Skipper then motioned for Rico to come over.

"But I sure would have given up both of those things for real to keep you safe, Marlene," he continued, looking next to Rico. "Rico, please give me those folded papers I had you swallow earlier."

Rico promptly hacked them up and gave them to Skipper, who then took them over to show Marlene.

"Now these, Marlene, are the real plans for Dr. Blowhole's sun-destroying abomination," he said as he held them in front of her. "And if I hadn't been successful with my little folder trick, they would be in Blowhole's grasp right now. Even though they are so extremely classified that only those with the highest degree of trust and security clearance can have possession of them."

Skipper then handed the papers to Marlene.

"And I want you to have them," he said. "And this doesn't even begin to represent how deep I feel about you."

Marlene then began to cry and held onto Skipper tightly.

"I love you, Skipper," she said. "I'll always be your GFF."

And she always was.

Scenario note: Wow! This last one was long enough to be its own independent fanfic! But I had long intended to end my project with an epic Blowhole scenario – I hope you liked it.

Final Thoughts:

For the past 30 days, I have written 30 different scenarios for "the moment" that first sparked a relationship between Skipper and Marlene. How the two would get together for "real," and even if they ever do, will be up to the series' creators, of course. However, this has been a fun project for me to work on, and while it took an average of several hours each day to develop unique plotlines and write each scenario, it was still hard for me to move that tiny dot into the little circle by the word "complete" as I published my final installment.

I believe I have accomplished my goal in this project, to come up with 30 different ways that Skipper and Marlene could spark up a relationship. This was mostly accomplished with a decent amount of set-up in each scenario followed by the last 50 to 100 words being the "revelation" portion. Much emphasis had to be on these set-ups, as I couldn't just have one of the characters just all of a sudden blurt out their feelings without reason (though I sort of did just that twice). In general, however, it takes some sort of trigger before the feelings can come out.

It has been a tradition of mine to thank the reviewers of my long-term writing projects (before this, my two drabble projects) at the project's end for their reviews posted during the project's active duration. And so, I would like to take a moment to recognize the 24 individuals who have so far submitted a total of 192 reviews on "A Skilene-Filled September." They are (in order of their first review): InternetGirl123, random reader, SkullShovel, aSkileneFan, jackandjill2, Just61331, , Sandrei20, Music4eva1414, Icicle1penguin, pooky1402, halfhuman123, Metallica1147, darksidesparkles, SkullGrave, Kristen, Dark Fox's Shadow, LoveSkipper, skippermarleneCLASSIFIED, Beastial Moon, LittleBlue33, KingJulien4Ever, horsexloverx, and perrylover14. While I always appreciate every reader, I especially appreciate these 24 who have taken the time to comment on my work, many on multiple occasions.

And on that note, I officially draw "A Skilene-Filled September" to a close. I hope you've enjoyed spending this past month reading my Skilene scenarios as much as I did writing them. Have a happy October!

-GrandOldPenguin
September 30, 2010