The Little Lemur Who Thought He Was People
Note: Do I own the Penguins of Madagascar? No dice, since it belongs to Nickelodeon.
Part One
When Kowalski had a problem with some new gadget that he was working on, he usually would not give up until it was completed. But this time, whatever it was had him completely stumped. Grumbling to himself, he threw the gun-like object into a drawer and stomped off. "Are you alright?" Private asked. "Did you finish your new gun?"
"No," Kowalski said, somewhat dejected. "I just can't get the coil to go in the right place!"
"What is it supposed to do?"the younger penguin asked.
"In theory, it's supposed to turn animals into humans, so the next time we need to leave the zoo we can just walk out with all of the other visitors! But right now, all it does is make you think you are a human, and removes your memories of ever being a penguin!"
"Oh," Private said. "Do you think it will ever be finished?"
"Maybe someday," Kowalski replied. "But not now." Private looked like he was going to ask the older penguin some more questions when Skipper poked his head into the room.
"Kowalski! Private! You were supposed to report for water training ten minutes ago! What would you do if this was real, and we were really under attack? Would you just be lolly-gagging around like this? I don't think so!" The two of them hurried out of their base, quickly apologizing to Skipper and preparing for the training exercises.
"Maurice! Have the penguins left yet?" King Julian asked lazily, stretching out on his chaise. Maurice sighed, and glanced over at the penguin enclosure. "Uh, actually, they have, your majesty!"
"Then let us go and watch the penguins' TV!"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Maurice asked, hesitating a little bit. "The last time we broke into the penguin habitat they almost blew us up with dynamite. Maybe we should hold off..."
"No!" Julian exclaimed. "I am king, and what belongs to others belongs to the king! That TV is my TV!" Maurice sighed.
"Fine, fine..."
"Mort wants to go too!" the small lemur exclaimed, charging toward the lemur king's feet and attaching himself to them. King Julian looked disgusted, and tried to shake him off.
"How many times do I have to tell you? Do not touch the royal feet!"
All feet controversy aside, the lemurs arrived in the penguin habitat. Immediately, Julian plopped himself down in front of the television and switched it to the Dumb Animal Channel, laughing at the videos of the stupid dogs trying to skateboard, the stupid cats trying to play air hockey, and the stupid parrot that was trying to play a piano, and failing miserably, since his beak kept getting stuck in between the keys. "Hahahaha! Look, Maurice! The parrot cannot get his beak out of the piano!" Maurice just sighed, letting the king have his moment of amusement. Hey, if he wanted to see parrots getting their beaks stuck into pianos, then that was his deal. But to be honest, he was just thankful that the hyperactive lemur king was entertained for a while. That meant he wasn't having to do anything for him...
Meanwhile, the smallest member of the lemur team was bouncing around the penguin habitat looking for interesting things. When he reached Kowalski's work area, Mort noticed the penguin's drawer was cracked open. Curiously, he poked his head into the crack between drawer opening and the drawer itself... and immediately fell in. "AAAAAH!" he yelled. "KING JULIAN, HELP ME!"
But unfortunately for the small lemur, the king was watching the television, and couldn't hear anything. But even if he had been able to hear the smaller lemur's cries, he wouldn't care at all.
"It's dark in here..." Mort mumbled, clutching his tail in fear. Then, he looked up, and saw the slight light that was coming from the top of the drawer, and then he bumped into something hard. Mort looked at the thing he had hit, and it seemed as though it would create a nice little stepladder to use to get out of the drawer. So the lemur clambered up the object, not realizing that it was Kowalski's unfinished animal-to-people gun. Halfway up the gun, the small lemur slipped, and hit the trigger. There was a loud bang, a bright blue flash, and the drawer flew open.
"Augh! Maurice, we're under attack!" King Julian exclaimed, hitting the deck and covering his head with his hands. "Eat Mort first, whatever you are!"
"Your majesty, Mort isn't here, and there's nothing that's going to eat us," Maurice sighed, hopping up on Kowalski's work bench to investigate the source of the explosion.
"Aaaaangh..." a very familiar high-pitched voice whined. "Where am I? And why do I feel like something hit me on the head? Oh no, I'm going to be late for work!"
"Mort?" Maurice asked. "Mort, are you alright?" He peered down into the drawer to find a rather disoriented Mort blinking up at him. "And what do you mean, you're going to be late for work?"
"Who are you?" Mort asked curiously. "And have you seen my wallet anywhere? I need to get going or the boss is going to yell at me again, and maybe cut my paycheck!" Maurice just stared. No way. What happened to Mort, the goofy, feet-obsessed lemur that everyone knew, and very few loved? What happened to his eager-to-please personality? And what the heck was he talking about, he was going to be late for work?
"Um, King Julian? I think you'd better get up here," he called.
"Maurice! This had better be very important!" the lemur king complained, hoisting himself up to the table top. "Oh! Mort! There you are. I was wondering where you went. You shouldn't just wander off like that, I might need you to hold something."
"Who is this?" Mort asked, pointing in Julian's direction. "And why is he talking to me like I'm a hat-rack?" The lemur king's jaw practically hit the ground.
"Mort! Who said that you could be so rude to me? I am your king, you must show the proper respect!" Even Maurice was astounded.
"You don't recognize him? You don't recognize his feet?" he asked the smaller lemur, who shook his head.
"No, should I?" he responded, before pointing to a clock on the wall. "Now if you'll excuse me, I really must be getting to work, or I will be taking a pay cut, and my candy drawer in the cubicle might have been raided." Both Maurice and Julian watched in shock as Mort wandered away from the two of them, hopped off the table and started walking toward the hidden entrance, when suddenly, the fish on the plaque slammed open and the four penguins hopped inside.
"Lemurs? What the heck are you doing in here?" Skipper demanded to know. Maurice approached them.
"I'm sorry, but King Julian wanted to watch your TV, and when we came down here, Mort wandered away and must have activated some crazy trap of yours! Now he thinks he works in a cubicle!"
"I don't remember setting a trap like that..." Skipper mused. Suddenly, Kowalski's beak dropped open.
"Of course! The unfinished gun! He must have activated it somehow!"
"What are you talking about, flightless bird?" Julian asked. "What has made Mort forget who he is?" But Kowalski didn't bother to answer, as he was already thinking of ways to turn Mort back into the annoying, hyperactive, foot-loving lemur that they all knew.
"I suppose that if we switched out the copper coil with an aluminum coil, and then if I re-wired it so it would operate over the telephone lines, then maybe I would be able to reverse the effects of the gun..."
To Be Continued
Author's Comments:
Uh, to be perfectly honest, the idea for this story comes from a very stupid source. I have the flu (honestly, who gets the flu in the summer? Me, apparently), and to sleep in relative peace I've had to take NyQuil just so I can get my fever down and be able to breathe at all. Sleeping in the afternoon gives you weird dreams even if you're not taking medications, and one thing that NyQuil does is gives me even weirder dreams than usual. I had a dream about Mort thinking he worked in an office like the one I used to work in before I got laid off, and that's where the idea came from.
I should have the second half done by next week. At least, that's my goal. Right now, though, my head hurts so badly that I just want to go back to sleep.
-Kaboom