And Eggy Makes Five

Note: Blah blah blah, we do this every time. I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar, although it would be nice if I did.

Warnings: Nothing other than mild action violence later.

Dedicated to my late friend, GM: May 1993- August 2010.

Chapter One

A penguin is supposed to be prepared for anything, or so Skipper always said. Enemies could come from anywhere. Those you'd considered your friends could turn on you at any minute. And a mission gone tragically wrong could reduce the team by one or more members. A penguin was supposed to be ready for anything, and that fall morning, Kowalski left the base for morning patrol thinking he was. Ready for anything, that was. But that day he hadn't been expecting this- that morning, the scientifically-minded penguin set out for patrol, not expecting anything to be out of order. He'd gone about one-third of his route when a small lump of old newspaper crumpled under a park bench caught his eye. He was about to engage in Garbage Disposal Maneuver #13 when a very familiar fuzzy yellow thing poked its head out of the paper. Kowalski's beak dropped open.

"Eggy?" he called, running towards the bench. "Eggy? Is that you?" The duckling started, looking as though he was about ready to take off running as fast as he could in the other direction, until he realized who was calling after him. He sighed and shuffled down further into the newspaper.

"Hello sir," Eggy whispered.

"Are you alright? Where's your mother?" Kowalski asked. "You look like you've been here for days! What happened?" Eggy sighed again, this time more heavily.

"I... I don't know, sir," he replied politely. "I woke up a few days ago and she was gone. So were my siblings." Kowalski flipped through the calendar he always carried with him, and then the lightbulb went off. It was autumn. And ducks migrate in the autumn.

"Has your mother been talking about leaving any time soon?" Kowalski asked. Eggy looked up, a strange mixture of confusion and something else that the penguin couldn't identify.

"Leaving?" Eggy asked. "What do you mean?"

"You are a duck." Kowalski always was the master of stating the obvious. "And ducks migrate. Your mom and siblings probably went south for the winter." If Eggy could look more shocked than he did at that moment, Kowalski was certain that the duckling would explode from the intensity of the surprise.

"She was talking about going to Cancun, wherever that is," Eggy replied hesitantly. "Do you think that she'll come back for me?" Kowalski thought for a minute, then shrugged.

"Cancun is in Mexico," he replied. "If you fly it's a few days away from here, and your mother could be anywhere by now if she left several days ago. At the very least, it's going to be a while before she can make it back here. You obviously can't stay out here alone..." Kowalski mused. "You'll come back with me." Eggy seemed to be torn between excitement, apprehension, and depression.

"Is it really OK?" he hesitated.

"Of course it is!" Kowalski said reassuringly. "You're welcome any time, and I'm sure that the others will be happy to see you again! You never did finish your training last time..."

So Kowalski and Eggy made their way back to the base, where Private was busy entertaining zoo patrons by flipping around, diving, waving, and generally being cute and cuddly, while Rico and Skipper were probably busy coming up with something else that was likely crazy and dangerous to keep the zoo safe. The youngest penguin saw Kowalski approach with his young charge and immediately dived down into the lair.

"Kowalski's back!" he exclaimed. Skipper and Rico looked up from their blueprints, thoroughly confused.

"So?" Skipper asked. "Were you not expecting him to come back?" Private shook his head.

"No! That's not it! Kowalski's back, and he has Eggy with him!" THAT caught Skipper's attention.

"Shouldn't he have gone south for the winter by now?"

"I don't know-" Private replied. "Do ducks migrate?"

"Of course ducks migrate!" Skipper looked like he was about to continue on with his explanation when, speak of the devil, Kowalski and said duck walked into the room.

"Braaawk!" Rico coughed in greeting.

"Hello Kowalski. Nice to see you again, Eggy!" Private said. Skipper got up from the table and walked over to the both of them.

"Kowalski, why is this duckling not with his mother? By now all the ducks in New York should have migrated for the winter!" Eggy looked as though he really wanted to say something different, but seemed to catch himself before he said it.

"Excuse me, sir," he said, instead. "I was informed that my mom must have left for the migration and left me behind. Requesting permission to stay here until she comes back, sir!" Kowalski looked to Skipper, who looked, for once, to be at a loss for words.

"She left him?" he finally spluttered. "The same mother duck who searched all of Manhattan for him when he was just an egg?"

"I found him curled up in newspaper under a bench, Skipper," Kowalski explained. "I think he must have been there for several days, something he all but confirmed."

"What do you mean, all but confirmed?"

"Well, he won't tell me specifics," Kowalski replied. "I think he doesn't remember."

It took about a nanosecond for Skipper to make up his mind.

"Of course he can stay with us! Private! Go make our guest up a bunk. Rico! Acquire an extra chair for the table, and anything else Eggy might want. Kowalski! Go back out and search the perimeter for any of Eggy's siblings in case they were left behind too. And Eggy," he finally said, turning to the duckling. "Come with me. We need to assess your commando skills. You've still been practicing, right?"

"Yes sir!" the duckling said, with a salute, showing the first sign of anything resembling excitement all day. "And I'm sure that I'll only get better, since I'm learning from the best!" Skipper couldn't hold back a huge, pleased grin. After the whole King Julian/Eggy trying to take down the entire zoo debacle, he hadn't been sure whether or not the ducking would keep up with his training, especially since he faced such strong opposition from his mother. But it seemed as though the little guy hadn't let that get him down, and was still well on his way to becoming one of the greatest commandos the world had ever seen.

"Excellent!" the penguin commander finally said, clapping his flippers together. "Now, let's see what you've learned!"

To Be Continued

At the time of writing, this story has seven chapters, although that is subject to change while I type up the rest of this story.