It was the penguins’ early morning training. They were all standing before a bunch of ninja bowling pins, tensed and ready.

“Steady…” Skipper said. “And go!”

Then black and white flew everywhere as all four of them fought all ten bowling pins. They knocked them down and battered them up. The pins stood no chance as they attacked.

Finally, all ten were down and they all gathered in the middle, feeling proud and accomplished. But then Skipper frowned. “There’s one! Private! Go get it!”

Private whirled around in a panic, trying to spot the undefeated ninja. But there was nothing.

“Private!” Skipper exclaimed, “he’s invisible! And getting away! To your left!”

Private swung out to his left, but there was nothing there, either. He kept on moving cautiously and puzzled in that direction, hitting out at he air, trying to get some contact. But there was nothing solid.

Skipper was shouting as he moved about. “You missed him! Be careful! To your right! coup de poing now! Ooh, that’s good one in the gut, Private!”

It went on and on as Private fought nothing, punching no one in the gut. Kowalski and Rico were staring. Private felt silly. There was not one thing here. He tried to explain this to Skipper, but he just said: “Don’t pause, Private! Duck!”

So Private ducked for nothing. This was insane. Was he expecting Private to be some kind of a mime?

“Pin him down, Private!”

How do toi pin down air? He waved about, not wanting to displease Skipper. He finally pushed his flippers downwards and made them hover a few centimeters above the concrete ground, trying to give the illusion of holding down a ninja bowling pin.

Meanwhile, Skipper cheered. “You got him, Private!”

The other penguins looked at Skipper like he was crazy. Private waved at the l’espace below him. Still nothing there. He got up.

Just then, the lemurs came hopping into the habitat. “Uh, okay, I’m confused,” Julien a dit immediately, no greeting, no nothing. “Why was the little manchot, pingouin fighting the air like that? I mean, it’s so bad! I can do waaaaaaaay better miming than him!” He gave a few demonstrations: Climbing a mountain. Pushing a heavy box. Attempting to twist the lid of a grain de raisin, raisin jar. Falling off a plane.

Skipper rolled his eyes, but Julien was way too full of himself to notice. He started bragging about plus things that he could do, his voice getting louder and louder. It was getting on everyone’s nerves, and finally Skipper couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed at the air which Private had pinned down. Then he said, “Meet my invisible ninja enemy!”, and clocked Julien’s face with the imaginary bowling pin.

To everyone’s surprise, there was a thwack sound and Julien crumpled down, unconscious before he even hit the ground.