Chapter One: The Cause

It was 9:00pm at the Central Park Zoo and all of the animals were settling in for the night. The chimps, Phil and Mason, settling into the branches of their tree, Marlene, the otter, resting her head on a popcorn bag she uses as a pillow, Joey, the kangaroo, lying on a bed of straw. Even the gorillas, Bada and Bing, were lying in their tire swing. But a few animals never slept. The lemurs were wide awake making preparations for one of their nightly dance parties. Maurice was at the smoothie bar making a drink for his "king". Mort was repeatedly trying to get to the "royal" feet and Julian was kicking him harshly to get him off.

"Mort! What did I tell you?" Julian cried as he kicked his poor subject.

"Wee! I like flying!" Mort said cheerfully as he flew through the air and the hard wind whipped at his face.

Meanwhile, the penguins were safe and sound in their habitat, readying themselves for a deep slumber. The flat-headed, short leader known as Skipper was pacing impatiently up and down the floor of the concrete HQ waiting for his lieutenant to burst out of the lab with good news. Skipper had his flippers folded behind his back his eyes scanning the cold, gray floor under his feet. It was so quiet, even the clock dared not to tick under the watchful and suspense-filled eye of Skipper. He decided he would have to distract his mind, perhaps a game of cards with the others. Skipper decided to check on what the status was on their mammal neighbors.

"Private, tell me the status on the lemurs! Give me every detail." Skipper said and pointed to a young penguin even shorter than him.

Private stared through the periscope and turned it quickly, each time looking at another one of the three lemurs.

"Looks like normal sir." Private said, his British accent making his words seem cute, even though they were important.

"Our normal or their normal?" Skipper asked, rushing over to the periscope pushing Private out of the way to look through, "Looks like their normal."

Private tilted his head in confusion at his leader's comment, shrugged his shoulders, and skipped over to the T.V. with one of his other older teammates.

Rico was watching the Shirtless Ninja Action Theater channel, to Private's dismay, but it was everyone else's favorite so he didn't argue. Rico watched attentively as the man in a white robe broke through a wall with his head. Private watched this too, but cringed at the sight.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Private wondered aloud. No one answered because they were too busy trying to keep occupied.

Skipper growled as he looked out the periscope at his mammal neighbors.

"Ringtail…" he trailed off angrily with words that weren't good for others to hear. Skipper didn't hate King Julian; he was just very irritated by his lemur acquaintance.

Rico's blue eyes were fixed on the screen of violence and cried with pleasure "Ka-boom!" and the whole room seemed to be filled with life once more. Suddenly, the smart lieutenant named Kowalski burst out of his lab.

"Eureka!" Kowalski yelled happily holding his new invention above his head.

"Finally," Skipper said, "now, is that invention of yours going to work this time?"

"Well, yeah," Kowalski replied, "and what do you mean 'this time'?"

"It's nothing, nothing at all. Now, wow me." Skipper covered his former statement.

"Right," Kowalski turned away from Skipper, "I have created… Atomic Earmuffs!"

"Excellent! What do they do?" Skipper said, trying not to sound impressed.

"They block all sound," Kowalski explained and his eyes narrowed, "even lemur sound…"

"Outstanding, Kowalski!" Skipper commented, very excited he could finally get some rest.

All four of the penguins were thinking the same thing: a good night's rest.

Suddenly a noise sounded behind the four black-and-white birds. It was their T.V. On the screen was a middle-aged man in a tuxedo trying to keep his gray comb-over and his smile for the camera in place. His right hand holding his head and holding a blue microphone in the other. You could clearly see the wrinkles on the man's face that "Camera Magic" had failed to cover up.

Behind him was a horrible scene. Gray clouds filled the sky, some even forming into funnel clouds. At least one or two tornadoes had reached the ground and were now terrorizing the houses and other structures below. People were screaming but none were seen, except for the man in which the news alert was focused on. To everyone screaming's horror; houses were ripped apart by the twisters like they were pieces of paper.

There were heavy raindrops covering the lens of the camera, blurring the picture slightly. Even though there was the slight blur, the penguins watching could see the hail falling on the newscaster's umbrella starting to rip through. The man looked like he really wanted to leave the area, but couldn't because he had to inform the people watching at home.

"This is Chuck Charles and we have a severe thunderstorm advisory in place for New York City, especially the Central Park area. We will keep you posted on how this horrible storm is and where it shall strike next." the man yelled over the loud howling of the wind behind him.

"Oh, dear…" Private said his face showing great sorrow.

"Well, time for some shut-eye boys. Kowalski! Pass out the earmuffs!" Skipper ordered.

"But, Skippah, aren't we going to prepare for the storm?" Private asked his leader.

"Private! Remember what I've taught you: never listen to what those liars! Once I listened to them, I thought it'd be sunny, but it rained all week!" Skipper raised his flippers and his voice to emphasize his point.

"Oh… Wait, you nevah mentioned that before!"

"Really, Private? Or were you just not paying attention?"

Private gave in, seeing there's no point in fighting with a good friend. He turned off the T.V. before taking a pair of earmuffs and heading to his bunk at the top. Pleased with his winning of an argument, Skipper smiled, grabbed a pair of earmuffs, and took his place on the bottom bunk. Kowalski and Rico looked at each other, shrugged sleepily, and did the same as the others.

Each of them drifted off into their pleasant dreams easily because of their new-found silence. All except for Skipper, who lain on his back, thinking. His flippers were neatly folded across his belly, his blue eyes staring thoughtfully at the concrete above. He had his final thoughts of the day before drifting off into a pleasant dream of him beating his mortal enemies.