A Tick Too Far

Tick tock, tick tock. Skipper's tail twitches at the repeating sound of ticking. He suddenly spins over when he hears a door open. "Intruder alert men." He hops out of his bed, along with the other penguins. They land in fighting mode, ready to attack the intruder.

But it is only Julien, once again raiding their fridge. "Oh, hello neighbors! Do not be minding me, I am just once again borrowing some food."

"How many times have I told you, Julien, that this fridge is off limits to you lemurs?!" Skipper looks up and sees that Julien is now wearing a clock on his crown. "What sort of lemur craziness is this?"

Julien spins around and swallows some food. "What?"

"That!" Skipper points to the clock on Julien's head.

He blinks, still not getting what the penguin is talking about. "What?"

"That! The clock on your head."

Julien laughs and pops a grape into his mouth. "What clock?"

Skipper slaps his flipper onto his face and slowly slides it down, defeated. "The big, ticking thing on your head, man!"

"Oh, you mean my royal head ornament." Julien rubs the clock a bit and smiles. "Yes, I found this one day as I was getting rid of Mort."

"I like it when you get rid of me!" Mort scoots closer to hug Julien's foot.

"In that case," Julien kicks Mort out of the way. "The sky spirits gave it to me and I, as King, must honor their whim and cherish it. Don't you just love the music it is making?!"

"Once again, your stupidity amazes me, lemur. Drop our food and get out so we can sleep!" Skipper is getting dangerously close to attacking Julien at this point, as Julien doesn't know when to stop.

"I will to be dropping it, alright." Julien opens his mouth and lowers the bunch of grapes into his mouth and pulls the stem sections of it back out and swallows the grapes. "Ah. Much better. Thank you for the donation to your King...which is me. Do be having a good night, neighbors." Julien walks past Skipper and the rest, heading for the door. Maurice and Mort follow. "Come Maurice, read me a story as I go to sleep. I want to hear about the King who was loved by all again."

Maurice sighs and responds to his 'King's' request. "Yes, Julien."

"I like that story!" Mort says as the door slams behind him.

~The Next Day~

"This is the life, eh boys?" Skipper and the rest lay on chairs by their pool, relaxing. Skipper adjusts his sunglasses and smiles.

"I concur, Skipper. Nothing better than a day of relaxation. Wait..." Kowalski pulls out a board and performs a series of equations. "No, I am mistaken. Only one thing is better."

Private sits up, wondering what that is. "What is that?"

"Smoothies."

Rico licks his beak and grunts in agreement.

Suddenly their relaxation is interrupted by a ticking noise. Meaning one thing: Julien. He leans over Skipper and gets right in his face. "Hello, neighbor."

Skipper doesn't move one bit and just stares back. "What do you want, lemur?"

"Can't a king just come by to say hello?" Julien waves a little and smiles.

Skipper looks over and sees Mort also waving very happily."I suppose so, but whenever you come over to say hello, it always ends in you borrowing--"

"I found their radio!" Maurice runs out of the Penguin's home and presents the radio to Julien.

"Ah, yes, very good Maurice. Now we can boogie once more!" Julien grabs it and starts to walk away.

"Hold it mister, that's penguin property." Skipper jumps out of his chair and confronts Julien. "Nobody uses that but us. And are you still wearing that clock?"

"And now it shall be used by us, meaning you, and me meaning...me!" Julien turns around and walks off with the radio. "And yes, I love my royal king head ornament thingy."

"I love it too!" Mort says to the penguins before he chases after Julien.

Skipper balls up his flippers and takes a step forward. "I'm really getting tired of that lemur taking all of our things."

"Perhaps if we take something of his, he'll see that it's not a very nice thing to do!" Private suggests.

Skipper spins around and smiles. "I like it, Private. But what to take..."

Rico belches and a stick of dynamite comes out of his mouth, suggesting taking Julien's life.

"Too extreme, soldier! Wouldn't want to waste a perfectly good stick of dynamite on such a minor mission."

Kowalski sits up, having received an idea. "What about his royal king head ornament thingy?"

Skipper thinks for a second, then looks back at Kowalski. "You mean the clock?"

"Yes, the...clock."

"Capital idea! When they fall tired from their dancing, we'll strike and take the clock!" Skipper walks over and sits on the lawn chair.

"But what do we do until then, Skipper?" Private asks.

"Simple." Skipper puts his sunglasses back on and smiles. "We kick back. And that's an order."

They all fall back into their chairs and sigh.

~That same night...~

"Ha ha! Yes, isn't this fun, Maurice?" Julien dances his way towards Maurice who is asleep now. "Maurice? What are you doing, Maurice? I have not finished dancing the night away?" Julien lifts up Maurice's head. "See? The night is not away!" He lets go and Maurice's head hits the ground. "Fine. Rest your portly body. At least Mort will......Mort?" Julien looks around to see that Mort has also fallen asleep. "The one time I want you here you fall asleep?!" Julien walks over and turns off the radio. "Fine, do be that way." He stomps over to his chair and plops down in it. "What am I to do if I have no royal subjects to rule?" Julien looks up at his forehead.

"My ornament! Surely it can provide me some kingly amusement!" He pulls it off of his head and holds it in front of him. "What do you do besides make that ticking sound which I love?" He moves his hand around the back of it and locates the knobs to change the hands and the alarm hand. "Oh, you have some knobby things on your back, do you? Let's just see what you can do." He spins one of them and the yellow alarm hand spins around slowly. "Ah ha! I have made the yellow thingy go thataway! Yes, yes, more!" He spins it faster and laughs some more at this simple thing. "Oh, that was good fun! But I think now it is time to lay my kingly head to rest." Julien sets the clock back on top of his head and accidentally switches the alarm to go on as he does. "Good night orny. I'll be seeing you in the morning." Julien immediately falls asleep, snoring loudly for all to hear.

The penguins pop up one by one over the wall behind Julien. "It's go time boys, Operation: Tick Tock!" Skipper signals the Kowalski and Rico to go ahead. Rico runs to a spot a little bit behind Julien's chair. He spits up a grappling hook and fires it into a tree. Luckily King Julien is a heavy sleeper, so this wasn't a problem. Kowalski runs the data on his board and grabs on to the hook. He flies up into the air and stops when he is above King Julien's head. He lowers himself and prepares to grab the clock. He wipes the sweat off of his brow quickly and a drop falls and lands on Julien's nose.

Julien doesn't wake up, but mutters something in his sleep. "Mort, how many times have I told you...not while I'm sleeping...."

Kowalski sighs in relief and grabs the clock and replaces it with a rock. He flies back up and tosses the clock to Private, who was sitting on the wall, ready to catch the clock. Private does just that, but manages to fall backwards and off the wall and onto the ground. "I got it!" He shouts back up.

"Mission complete." Skipper says quietly to his men. "Let's go boys!"

Skipper cups his flippers and helps Rico and Kowalski jump over the wall. Skipper climbs up and turns to face Julien's chair. "See you in the morning, lemur." He jumps off the wall and lands next to his fellow penguins. "Nice work, now let's--"

The alarm suddenly goes off, which wakes up Julien and Maurice, but not Mort. "Huh, what's going on?" Julien starts to reach for his clock. "Orny, are you--ahh!" He shouts when he touches the rock, realizing his clock is gone. Or, as he thinks, "Orny...you have been transformed into a rock thingy! I have disgraced the sky spirits..."

"No, look!" Maurice points to the penguins who are running away with Julien's clock. "Those crazy penguins took it!"

"So it is a chase they are wanting, eh? Well I am not one to disappoint!" King Julien runs for the wall and attempts to jump over it, but smacks right into it instead.

"Um...the gate is open, sir." Maurice swings open the doors to the pen they are in and gestures to it.

"Yes, I knew that Maurice. I just....wanted to show off my kingly athletic...ness." Julien nods, knowing that Maurice would have to agree to this insane lie, being his subject. He gets up and runs out the gate and heads towards the penguins.

"Whatever you say, sir." Maurice walks out the gate and slowly follows them.

Skipper, leading the pack of penguins, looks back at Private. "Turn that thing off, man. We're waking everyone up!"

"I'm trying Skipper." Private hits it a few times, trying to get it to stop. "But it's not stopping."

"And much like Orny," Julien runs next to Private and grabs onto the clock. "neither am I! Ha ha!"

"You again..." Skipper jumps back and lands on Julien's back.

"What are you doing, penguin? You are slowing me down with your plump body!" Julien does what he said was happening, he falls back because of Skipper.

"I'd answer, but you just answered your own question, Julien!" Skipper jumps off, causing Julien to slam into the ground.

Julien stands up and brushes the dirt off of himself. "You won't be getting away with that so easily, penguin!"

Mort runs next to him. "I like chasing!"

Julien looks at Mort, then at Private, then back at Mort, then back at Private. He keeps doing this until he finally gets an idea. "Ah! Mort...you like flying, yes?"

"I do, I do like flying!" Mort claps a bit as Julien picks him up.

"Then fly like the wind!" Julien chucks Mort towards Private, but his aim his a little high.

"Hello!" Mort says as he flies past them, grabbing onto the clock as he does, and smacks right into a sign. "I don't like pain..." He drops the clock right back into the penguins' hands as they turn around the corner, past the sign. This time Skipper's got it.

"I have a solution." Skipper takes the battery out of the back of it and tosses it to Julien. "Take the stupid thing. At least it's quiet now."

Julien jumps and catches the clock. "Oh, orny, you are back into my kingly hands!" He hugs it wildly and kisses it a few times. "But you have stopped ticking! Why have you stopped ticking? You--you don't like me anymore? Is that it? Well fine! Be that way. I am no longer in want of you!" He tosses it back to the penguins, who have stopped running. "You can have it. The sky gods clearly made a mis-match with me. Let us go home, Maurice."

Maurice, now very out of breath, finally catches up only to find out that he has to go all the way back now. He sighs and turns around, dragging an unconcious Mort behind him.

"Operation: Tick Tock was a success, boys. High five!" Skipper holds him flipper up, waiting for a high five from all of them. "Come on, no need to leave me hanging."

Private looks at the others and then back at Skipper, hoping for clarification. "But, Skipper, we didn't succeed. He gave us the clock."

"And besides, we didn't teach him the lesson we wanted to." Kowalski says.

"Oh, I think we did, boys. I think we did." Skipper says as he puts his flippers on Kowalski and Private's backs as they walk back home.

Julien, back at his home, enters and yawns. "It is good to be home, eh, Maurice? Now we can get to resting." Julien walks over to where his chair was and sits, only to find that it isn't there anymore. "Where is my throne? I specifically remember having my throne be right here in this general area-ness." He stands up and walks over to the little bar that Maurice usually makes his sundaes at. "No matter, maybe after a bit of food I can..." Julien opens the fridge that is there to find there is no food. "And now there is no food. Why is there no food? Maurice, did you and your plump self eat all the food again?!"

Back at the Penguin's home, Rico sits in Julien's throne watching tv. Private, Skipper and Kowalski are enjoying all of the food they've now got.

"How did you do this, Skipper?" Private asks as he peels a banana.

"While we were running, I had a little help from our fellow animals get the food and the chair out of there. Easy as one, two, three." Skipper pops three candies into his mouth. "Told you the mission was a success. And you doubted me, soldier." Skipper shakes his head and frowns.

"Sorry, Skipper." Private lowers his head in shame now.

Skipper takes a second to think and smiles. "You are forgiven. Now, let's enjoy some music...in a quiet fashion." Skipper pulls out their radio, which they also got back from Julien. He turns it on and quickly changes the station when techno starts to play.

Rico belches up a license plate and tosses it behind him. When it stops spinning, it reads the words...

The End.