Okay, first things first. I do NOT own Penguins of Madagascar, or the characters in the show. I do own Tika, the girl penguin.
So, I'm posting due to the hopes that it will go somewhere and thanks to the encouragement of Viviskilener4ever and FromDarkness and Light. Thank you guys!
Reviews will help push me to continue, everyone likes to know people are bothering to read their work. Flames will be used to cook marshmallows and hotdogs. Just remember that I am fairly new to this. I appreciate it.
Rated just to be safe, as I may include more mature themes and language in later chapters.
I will do my best to keep the characters and in-character as I can. If you have advice for me, please feel free to PM me. Thanks a bunch.
I hope you enjoy this.
Skipper woke up early with the use his internal clock. He hopped out of bed and picked up the air horn lying on the floor. HONK HONK HONK! His crew jumped up and out of bed, more startled then anything. Then they plodded over to the kitchen to get something to eat. They proceeded to do so in a groggy silence. Skipper sipped away at his coffee, Private at his tea, Kowalski taking notes while munching a fish tail and Rico…being Rico. So far it was a normal day.
The team cleaned up the table when a loud thumping noise interrupted them. Skipper reacted immediately. "Men, defensive positions. Move out topside. Let's see what's going on up there." The penguins hastened to the fishbowl entrance to the HQ. They climbed out onto the surface of the concrete island in their zoo habitat to see Alice and another worker had placed a crate on the fake floe.
The four flightless birds watched from afar as the crate was pried open and Alice tried to coax out the animal. She was having very poor luck. She glanced around and seeing that her assistant had left, she tipped the crates content into the water. Then she was gone, walking away to get ready for work. The unit slid over to the edge of the floe.
A penguin, seemingly in shock, had landed in the water. It was sinking slowly. Skipper signaled and they jumped in the water to help the newcomer. It took them longer than anticipated but they managed to drag the penguin onto the island. It was much heavier than its mass would have suggested, Kowalski's mind quickly deduced that the bird had significant muscle mass.
Fortunately the cold water appeared to have brought them to their senses. Its violet eyes darted about warily. Skipper turned to his strategist. "Kowalski, analysis"
Said penguin was already doodling away on his notepad. "Well Skipper, it appears to be female. Body language is tense, suggesting that we are observing a frightened animal. She has taken up a defensive stance, indicating that we are appearing as a threat." For a moment or two they all scrutinized the female penguin.
She had stunning purple eyes and silky feathers that possessed a hint of iridescence. The feathers on her head flopped over her forehead to form bangs and the ones around her neck looked like they lay in slightly different directions. She had a powerful but lean build; she stood a little higher than Skipper, but only came up to Rico's eye level, though it went without saying she had better posture. There was a stubborn set to her beak and a fear on her face.
"Options?"
"Well, option one is to just go about our business and let her take the first move towards interaction. Option two is to try and communicate now, to save time and possible blow ups." Kowalski looked up from his 'notes' and acknowledged his leader. "Mhh, I like option two. Execute."Skipper pushed Kowalski forward, who found he didn't know how to go about it. Private called out to him. "K'walski, say hello."
So Kowalski swallowed hard and waddled up to the newcomer. "Uh, greetings. My name is -" He caught the 'kill signal' from Skipper. "Uh, I mean. What's you name." Skipper face-palmed behind him, groaning quietly. The female penguin straightened up, looking puzzled. With what looked to be great effort she said, "Dei jzan te?" Her voice was gravelly and sounded out of place coming from the attractive bird.
"Sorry?" Kowalski blinked.
"Dei jzan te?" Again she said the words with effort and it sounded more demanding this time. The cogs in the tall penguins mind were turning at a rapid pace. He turned to Skipper. "Sir, I am 98.6% positive she does not speak English." He paused. "Permission to introduce myself?" Skipper thought for a moment. He couldn't see why not. If she was a spy it would be best to lull her into a false sense of security. He nodded his head sharply. Kowalski looked back at the stranger and stepped towards her a little more slowly.
He tapped his chest saying his name. "Kowalski" Then he gestured to her and said it again. She seemed to understand. She opened her beak and Kowalski was close enough to view the unusual serrated edges it had. A garbled noise emerged from her throat, like she was swallowing the sound. "Oohallski." He encouraged her to try again. "Kohwahlski." He nodded, seeing that she had given it her best try.
He beckoned Private forward, pointed at him, and said his name. She tried. "Pihffat" She tried again. "Prihvate"
Skipper approached and they repeated to process with him. He looked unimpressed despite her obvious strain. "Sihpeh, Skihpeh, Skippeh." That was the closest she got, though it was apparent Rico's name was the most difficult. "W-Weecuh, Wuhriicuh, Rwiicoh, Riicoh." She had an accent that warped the words trivially but she looked proud each time they nodded. She pointed to each of them. "Kohwahlski, Prihvate, Skippeh, Riicoh." The she pointed at herself and stopped, like she had forgotten her name for a second or two. But eventually she spat out something that sounded like "Ateekah!"
"Skipper tried to mimic her. "A tea can?" She shook her head and tried again, exertion inscribed on her face. "Teekah."
"Tika?" She nodded and smiled happily. "Tika" she said again in her rasping voice.
The penguins were down in the HQ, Kowalski having reminded Skipper that it was Sunday which meant the zoo opened late. They had done a few drills with Tika watching curiously from the sidelines and then had retreated away from the hot sun indoors. Tika was gazing in amazement at everything, listening to the strange words the other penguins were speaking. They rose and fell in an unfamiliar way but not unpleasantly. It was nice just to hear words again. Words…Tika thought about how the words back home sounded compared to these and wondered if she could figure out what they were saying. She tried to utter a phase in her native tongue but couldn't choke the words out. In fact it was taxing to make any noise but feral ones.
How long had it been since she had even had a reason to talk anyway? How long had it been since anyone had tried to communicate with her? A year since both of them. And she had stopped singing or really making any noises six months ago. No wonder talking was difficult. She tried again to force the words out.
"Tika rakat siia ze'sut." They were rough and the pronunciation was a bit off but they were words, words that she knew and could understand. She looked up from the floor she had begun staring at during her struggle to speak and noticed the others watching her. She muttered a curse with effort. "Maut dox Hof." The male penguins began to come towards her and she backed away fearfully.
It was then that Private noticed her limping heavily. "Skippa', look. I think she's hurt! She's limping." He pointed down at her right foot. When they tried to approach her she stumbled back. Despite the limp, now very pronounced seeming since it had been pointed out, she moved without difficulty. She was nimble and quick, and evaded them each time they moved in on her. "Men, we need to use our elite training, put it to use." Skipper faced his team. "There's no way we'll catch her unless we use force. Commence Operation: Ca- Rico, what are you doing man?"
Said penguin was edging slowly towards Tika, one flipper held in front of him in a loose but ready position. She watched him warily. He came closer and closer until the feathers on their chests were touching. She didn't move. Suddenly he picked her up in a firm but gentle hold and carried her to the medical bed Kowalski kept in his lab area. She struggled for a second or two, but there was something familiar, something safe feeling about having him carry her. Tika allowed him to sit her on the bed.
"Rico, I daresay you have the magic touch with the little lady. Kowalski, I want a full medical inspection on that leg."
"Yes sir." Kowalski saluted and pointed to her foot, her right one, and then to his eyes. "I need to look at that. Would you hold it out for me?" Tika looked up at Rico, who, for some reason even he was not aware of, was standing protectively nearby. He nodded rapidly and smiled a huge grin. She looked a bit unsettled but held her foot out to the team strategist. He inspected what was an odd deformity in the foot's structure.
She had all three toes, but the middle and innermost ones were further apart than normal, the middle toe more squashed with the toe on the out side edge of the foot. The entire foot was slightly tilted outward and the sole was curved in ward to create a depression. He also noticed that the bone in the lower part of her leg was crooked, as though it had been broken and hadn't healed properly. Kowalski put his X-ray vision glasses on to further inspect to bone structure.
After a few silent moments, he backed away to discuss what he had found with Skipper. "Sir, it appears she has a splayed toe structure and a previously broken leg. Apart from that and a few other minor deformities she seems to be fine. " Skipper looked back at the female who was now dangling her legs over the bedside, staring at the floor. "I see, will she be able to participate in team training?"
"Until I observe her further I can't be sure if her joining the team would be more of a hindrance than anything. She seems to be able to move fairly well, whether her leg would hold up under large amounts of physical stress, I'm not sure." Skipper cast the newcomer one last glance and walked away. "We'll see in the morning then, won't we?"
Tika watched him walk away and shot a miserable glare at her malformed appendage. Here were more penguins who though she was too hideous a deformity to even look at. And she thought they might be different. …But they were different. They had tried to talk to her; they had been kind to her. But none of that mattered now that they had seen her foot. She felt fat tears start to roll down her cheeks. She choked back a sob, but couldn't stop her shoulders from shaking.
Private looked at her in concern. "Tika, are you alright?" She looked up at him in amazement. He wasn't shunning her? "I'll go make you some tea. I'll be right back." The round-bellied youngster walked away and she hung her head again. A comforting flipper on her shoulder disturbed her avid floor-watching. She found herself lost in a pair of blue-green eyes that she knew she had seen before. But where…?
Rico's voice rumbled up from his chest, grating in his throat. "Kah'beh." Fresh tears sprang to her eyes; this wonderful, kind, tough-looking penguin was telling her not to cry.
Two penguins sat in the ice cavern that was their secret getaway. One of them sighed. The other, a female, looked at him. "Did he hit you again?"
"No," the male turned his head away and said. "Even if he did, Seion, it wouldn't matter. He could beat me to death and no one but you would care." Seion frowned. "Taruk, that's not true. My father was very fond of you, and so is baby Noriis. People would miss you." She looked at her flippers. "They'd miss you more than they'd miss me. I'm useless." Her head rested heavily on the icy walls around her. "I'm rubbish. At least you can do things that are worth a fish." Tears leaked from her closed eyes.
Taruk scooted closer to her and put a wing around her. "Don't talk like that, Seion. Lot's of penguins would miss you too." She shook her head and she started to sob. Her companion pulled her close. His upper body resonated gently. "Kah'beh." Seion sniffed and looked up into his eyes, she smiled a watery smile. "You're right. I'm being silly. I always make my problems yours too. I shouldn't be complaining."
"Shhh," he said, wiping her face. He lifted her chin so she could look at him straight. "Don't cry," he said again. "Seion, don't cry." She laughed softly and let him rock her back and forth. She didn't know why she cried when she had Taruk, the most wonderful friend she could wish for.
Rico's coughing brought her back from the unbidden memory and a moment later he was offering her a tissue from the box he had just coughed up. She took it and wiped her streaming eyes. "Ta'tse."
She began to force the memory back into the blackness of her past, when she saw Private coming up behind Rico. She shoved the scarred penguin back and took a defensive position, a rumbling noise deep in her throat as she faced the small trainee.
Private jumped back when Tika growled. Rico on the other hand, calmly bypassed the snarling penguin and stood next to Private, who put a flipper warmly around his taller companion. "Tika, Rico friend!"
"Frrrr-frenda?" Another word she didn't know. Skipper and Kowalski came to stand next to Rico and Private. The four males shook flippers and draped them over each others shoulders. That was when Tika understood that 'friend' meant 'someone you are fond of'. It meant you weren't enemies. She gestured to herself. "Tika…fr-friend?"
The team looked at her, and they broke into broad grins all at the same time. "Yes Tika. You are our friend." She smiled at Kowalski who was nodding, something she DID understand. She was a friend! She had friends!
After a day of interaction and fun with the new penguin, all five of them crammed together on the couch that before had seated all four of the boys just fine. Now the phrase 'elbow room' was all but lost. Feet and flippers everywhere as they all tried to fit, watching the opening credits for a documentary on…penguins, choice courtesy of Kowalski. Tika breathed in the scent of other living beings as she sat. She didn't care that she thought the picture box called a 'TV' seemed like magic or that she couldn't understand anything being said. She cared that for the first time in months, someone had reached out to her. Now she sat with that all around her, like it had been back home. She felt almost…safe.
She watched to snowy landscaped rush past on the screen, her heart aching for home. She stared at it wistfully. "Ze'sut." Home… Home… Home… she saw her home and was powerless to go back. It hurt.
The show ended and Tika made to curl up on the floor when someone picked her up and lay her down on the now vacant sofa. A pillow was slipped under her head and a blanket draped over her. She raised her head just as they started to walk away. She fought to grind out a phrase of gratitude. "Ta'tse." The penguin stopped but didn't turn. A gruff but unmistakable "Te'shou" came back at her. Tika's head dropped and she fell into a world of dreams. The last thing she heard was someone climbing into their bunk and pulling the cover up over themselves.
Soon all five penguins were snoring softly.
A/N: So that was my first chapter, I hope you liked it. Again please review, flames are allowed. Until next time.
