The Darkness Of Madagascar Invades

by auroraminamino

You can take Team Penguin out of Madagascar, but can you take Madagascar out of Team Penguin? Meaning: Something from Madagascar comes back to haunt Skipper and his team, quite literaly . . .

The Darkness Of Madagascar Invades

(Or: Glowing Red Eyes, Thats Almost Never Good!)

Another beautiful New York morning and another training session for Skipper and his team. This time they were taking turns sparing with one another. So that they wouldn't hurt each other they only went with half their strength when it came to things like kicks or punches. That being said, it was not so when it came to holds. It was full strength all the way, much to the annoyance of Kowalski, who was currently being held in place by Skipper. He was behind him and had entwined their wings in such a way that Kowalski was unable to free himself. He was also painfully forced to be bent backward a little by the fact that Skipper was much shorter then him. Skipper had to be exceedingly careful with his footing because of that. This he seemed do with ease, also much to the annoyance of Kowalski.

"Come on Lieutenant, having a bit of trouble are you?" said Skipper in a playful tone.

"More then a bit . . . Alright Skipper I give." said Kowalski more then a little on the embarrassed side. It had been the third time that morning that Skipper had gotten him in that particular hold. "No matter how many times you go to do that I never see it coming."

"Ah, Don't sweat it Kowalski." said Skipper putting a wing on his shoulder.

"Yeah, you'll figure it out." said Private Kowalski grinned at him for the encouragement.

"Huh?" said Rico quite suddenly. He seemed to be looking at something that he found confusing. His teammates turned to see what it was: they saw King Julian sitting on his throne watching them with an intensity they hardly ever saw from him. Private waved awkwardly at him.

"Is there something you need Ring tail?" asked Skipper

"No, I is being OK." he answered before jumping from his throne to his bouncy without missing a beat.

"How boring is his morning if he is sitting there watching us train?" said Private with a small laugh.

"Coo coo!" said Rico thinking that Julian was crazy.

"Ring tail will be Ring tail." said Skipper grinning at Ricos comment. Kowalski's shrugged. "Well, that was some good training boys. Now lets go and sort out the mission files." Skipper then led the way to the fish dish covered hatch.

"Awe, but Skipper its such a good day! Must we spend it indoors?" complained Private

"Good point Young Private. How about we only do half of them today and have a picnic lunch in the park. We haven't done that in a while." replied Skipper looking up at the clear blue sky.

"Snow cones too?" asked Rico nearly toppling over Kowalski in his excitement.

"You know it!" answered Skipper

"Alright!" shouted the others happy that Skipper didn't feel like acting super macho today. The team then went down into HQ and started to go through their many dusty mission files.

*An Hour "Or" Three Later*

"Well, it looks like we are nearly done with this half." said Kowalski who was sitting in the middle of the floor. He then sneezed at the dust that had collected on his beak so hard that he landed flat on his back. Skipper and Private started to laugh, so they covered their faces with the files they were holding. Then they spotted each other and laughed, Kowalski laughed at them too because it looked like they were playing peek-a-boo. Then Rico popped up out of nowhere screaming manically, so covered in dust that he resembled a pigeon.

"AAAA, evil dust monster!" yelled Private laughing.

"Evasive maneuvers!" said Skipper grabbing Private and diving away, sounding so serious that Rico burst out laughing so hard that he hit the floor. Not surprisingly the entire HQ was now filled with laughter, which was a rarity. Marlene liked to say that when it did happen it was more then likely that your mind was playing tricks on you or that you had ended up on the wrong end of one of Kowalski's inventions.

Once the laughter had subsided Skipper told his team to go for a swim to get the dust off while he gathered up all the goodies for their picnic in the park. Somehow he had not a speck of dust on him. (Thats Skipper) With a quick wave the three went out the way they all had entered. Skipper then went about his task, still grinning at what had happened moments ago. When he was done with that he decided to quickly sweep up the floor. It didn't have to be perfect, he just wanted to get rid of the worst of the dust. When he went to get the broom he tripped over a little package that one of them had taken out with some of the mission files. After getting to his feet he picked it up and gave it a once over. Then he saw the label, which had a quick and crude rendering of Madagascar on it.

"Oh, I remember this. We found it in the ocean during a fishing trip not long before the plane was fixed the first time. I'm still stunned that it survived the plane crash." said Skipper as he unwrapped it and placed it on the table. What was in the package was a small half rotten wood carving of some kind of lemur, possibly a ring tail. It also had very odd symbols carved into each side of the square base. When he had asked Kowalski to analyze it he couldn't, with the expectation of the obvious.

"Why don't we ask Julian if he could tell us about it." Private had suggested.

"Yeah, I suppose thats the best thing to do, but we'll have to talk to him later. We have a plane to repair." Skipper had said. He had forgotten about it until he saw it after the plane crash. He had put it away in some out of the way nook and again had forgotten about it. He figured that it was one of the others who had eventually put it in with the mission files when they got back from over seas. (He figured Rico and his amazing ability to carry things around had something to do with it)

"Not much of a looker are you?" he said to the carving as he was giving it a close look. "Well, since I don't want to leave the boys hanging, I'll take you to see Ring tail later." As he continued to look at the carving he noticed a crack on its shoulder. When Skipper touched the crack the arm fell off. "Whoops!" said Skipper in a rare moment of surprise. As he leaned down to pick up the fallen arm the carvings eyes suddenly flashed an icy blue. "What in the-?" The next thing he knew he was on his back with Private and Rico trying to pull him up.

"You OK?" asked Rico while Private gave him a worried look.

"Yeah, but I though that I saw-uh never mind. I guess that we have been working to hard lately." said Skipper He suddenly put a wing on his midsection as it hurt. He dismissed it as a hunger pang. "Come on boys, to the park!" Private laughed, he liked it when Skipper was dramatic like that.

Team Penguin then proceeded to the park, returning a wave from Julian who was still on his bouncy as they passed bye the lemur habitat. Just as Skipper walked by the wind changed direction, hitting The Lemur King right in the face. It wouldn't have bothered him if a strange (for New York) and awful smell hadn't hit him as well. He clamped his nose shut as his tail shot up, perfectly straight and almost flat against his back. Being in mid-bounce at the time he ended up landing on the bouncy on his stomach, then he bounced off and hit the ground.

"Ow!" he coughed

"King Julian!" shouted Maurice He then ran over to see if he was alright.

"I'm fine." he said before Maurice said anything.

"Whats up with your tail?" asked Maurice noticing that Julians tail was still sticking up. He had seen him do this before. Most of the time it meant that he was sensing something bad. Back in Madagascar it meant that the foosa or some other kind of threat might be nearby. As random and weird (and sometimes dense) as he could be, he was surprisingly intuitive, sometimes he said that it was bad energy that he was picking up on. Though if one really thought about it, it made sense because he meditated often. Now that they were at the zoo it rarely, if ever, happened. So rare in fact he felt no need to inform the penguins, not that they would have believed him anyway. Especially 'The smart one'. All that being said sometimes it didn't kick in as fast as would always be expected, his first panicked sighting of Kitka was a prime example, but that didn't dampen his confidence in his ability.

Julian blew air out of his nose trying to get rid of that gross smell before he answered the dark colored lemur: "There is somethings wrong with one of those penguins."

"Are you sure that Skippers paranoia isn't rubbing off on you again?" Maurice asked trying not to laugh. Julian gave him a look. Maurice sighed: "OK, what do you want to do?"

"Hmm, Oh Mort!"

*Meanwhile In The Park*

Operation: Afternoon In The Park With Lunch And Snow Cones was a success. Though there was a few moments where it looked like Skipper was off in his own little world. Which was odd for him, Rico though not so much. The team just thought that he was relaxing and left him alone when he did that. The only problem with him doing that was every time he would grab at his midsection like it hurt. He shook it off at one point and suggested that they go to the pond and see how their duck friends were doing. So they did. When they got there they saw that they were all fine and that little Eggy was still acting like Julian, breaking into a dance at even the slightest hint of music. Far from being annoying they found it cute and funny. As opposed to last time when they found it awkward. At one point he ran up to Skipper, who still seemed to be his favorite since that encounter, and tried to get him to dance too. "Aw!" said the others thinking that it was adorable. Unlucky for the duckling it was during one of Skippers spacing out moments. This time though it was a bit different, his eyes were oddly vacant. Also he was staring straight up, if he moved his head back any further he was going to topple over backwards. Eggy got a bit impatient and tapped his midsection, that being the highest point he could reach on Skipper.

For a split second Skipper looked very angry and yelled: "Don't do that!" so loud it made everyone jump, even Rico! Additionally his voice seemed somehow off. He fell backwards into a sitting position. Closed his eyes and put a wing to his head. He shook himself then looked around at everybody. They were all staring at him: "Uh, sorry. I hope that I didn't scare you Eggy. I have been having a bit of an off day, got a bit of a headache now too. I promise that we'll dance a little later, OK? I just want to go for a swim and clear my head."

"Alright Skipper." said Eggy giving him a salute.

"Uh oh, now don't start that again." said Skipper jokingly. Eggy smiled. Skipper patted the little guy on the head then dove into the duck pond and swam around for a while. He couldn't figure out what was going on with himself. Why would he snap at Eggy like that? True the little guy had tapped his midsection, which had been bothering him today, but its not like he did him any harm. Though he was still a bit confused by his own behavior (but he banished it from his face) he stayed true to his word and danced with Eggy once his swim was over, to a thumping beat of a boom box that someone had accidentally left in the park. Of course Skipper wasn't really known for his dancing skills, which were not that bad, but he figured that he owed it to Eggy.

The other penguins danced a little too after some coaxing from Mama Duck, but mostly stayed on the metaphoric sidelines chanting: "Go Skipper! Go Skipper!" just because they could and because Skipper didn't dance that often. After a while though they noticed that Skippers dancing style started to get less and less like his own and more like . . . Julians?

No one had an answer for that one. Rico and Private couldn't help but look at Kowalski. "Yeah, I got nothing." was his answer to their looks. It was reminiscent of the time when Skipper had "absorbed Julians groove" which is why it completely weirded them all out.

An unexpected dance party later and the penguins were headed home. It wasn't until they were about half way back when Skipper remembered to tell his team that he had found that strange lemur carving from Madagascar. They too had forgotten all about it.

*In The Lemur Habitat*

"OK, now I'm getting nervous!" said Maurice fighting the urge to pace. "I mean we sent him to the penguins place a while ago for a set of binoculars and its taking him forever to get back! What if they catch him?"

"Be calming down Maurice. They would not hurt him. Why do you think that Skipper always calls him 'Sad eyes'? It is because they like him." replied Julian in an almost board tone.

"Well sure, but you said that there was something wrong with them."

"No, no, no!" Julian shook a finger at Maurice. "I said that there was something in the wrong with one of them. If that one tries anything then the other three would halt him."

"Just as long as it wasn't Skipper." Maurice couldn't help but mutter. Julian didn't hear him though, he had jumped up onto the wall of the habitat to check if anyone was coming. No penguins, no Mort, but Marlene was walking bye.

"Hello friendly otter!" he said to get her attention.

"Oh, hey Julian. Whats up?" she asked walking closer to the wall.

"Oh, just one or two things. What is it that you are currently doing?" he answered

"Pop corn run. You want me to get you some too?" said Marlene

"Oh yes that would be very nice, thanks. I could not by any chance ask you for a favor could I?"

"You want some pretzels too?" asked Marlene

"Well yes, but besides that." said Julian grinning because she had guessed that he had a sudden hankering for a pretzel.

"Sure, I could do you a favor. Just as long as its within reason."

"Could you just keep an ear out for anything that is going to the weird?"

"You mean besides you?" Marlene asked raising an eyebrow. Maurice was laughing so hard at that he was having a tough time keeping himself quite. Julian made a bit of a face, but he knew that she was only kidding. "Sure, I could keep an eye out for anything weird, well weirder then normal for around here anyway." Julian actually did laugh this time, which sure was a relief for Maurice. "Any special reason? Like do the penguins need some extra help or something?"

"Well, it actually concerns our favorite flightless birds." said Julian

"Or at least one them. Julian thinks that there is something wrong with one of the penguins and though I'm not fully convinced he did do a special tail movement that he only does when he senses something bad, like predators or some kind of energy." Maurice explained

"Normally, I would just walk away from something like that, but I recently saw something on TV about stuff like that. So I guess I could help you guys. Just as long as I'm not technically spying on them of course." said Marlene

"Well, of course." replied Maurice

"And I guess that those silly penguins totally ignored it." said Julian in a somewhat grumpy tone.

Marlene tilted her head at him: "Kowalski watched it with me actually."

"Kowalski?" said Julian more then a bit surprised.

"Yup, 'The smart one' himself. Ever since he made that telekinetic helmet he has been learning all he can about that kind of stuff in his down time." answered Marlene

"Huh, I did not know that." said Julian with wide eyes. Marlene smiled and shrugged at him.

*A Few Minutes Later In The Penguins Headquarters*

The Penguins arrived at their base through one of their secret entrances and saw something that they didn't except: Mort, sitting in the middle of one of their bases cage traps with his back to them, holding a pair of their high tech binoculars. He appeared to have been there for a while as he was swaying back and forth happily singing to himself to keep occupied. If the cage hadn't been there it would have been a very cute sight: "Sad eyes?" asked Skipper confused as to why he would be in there.

"Hello!" said the little mouse lemur just as perky as ever as he turned around. He also waved. Kowalski grinned, as did Skipper. Rico and Private waved back.

"What are you doing down here instead of trying to get at the 'royal feet'?" said Skipper with air quotes.

"King Julian sent me to get these thingys." he answered holding up the binoculars.

"Why?" Skipper asked before grabbing his midsection for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. It hurt so much this time though that he grunted.

"Dose your tummy hurt?" asked Mort with a worried look on his face. He got up and walked to the side of the cage that Skipper was standing at. For reasons only known to himself he gave Skipper a curious little sniff. Then his eyes suddenly bulged and he moved in a freakishly similar manner to his king earlier that day. Though they were unaware of that fact. He then looked to be very scared and curled up in the corner of the cage that was the farthest from the penguin leader. Who rubbed his head as it ached again before he looked up.

"Mort, whats come over you?" asked Private Mort looked like he was to scared to talk. He looked away from Private and saw the lemur carving. He then screamed so loud that the penguins flinched.

"Wow, maybe I should start calling him 'Scared eyes.' He hasn't screamed that loud since you took the processor out of his video game that time Kowalski." said Skipper as he opened the cage to let Mort out. Kowalski gave him a look that said 'Yeah, thanks for reminding me', but said nothing. When Skipper went to pick him up, with the intention of taking him out of the cage, Mort flattened out against it as if Skipper was about to hit him. Confused, he backed off and said "Alright, I'll leave you alone then." and backed his way out of the cage. "Kowalski, did I do something recently to warrant such a fearful response from anyone?" Skipper then asked.

"Not to my knowledge." he answered just as confused as the rest of them.

"Thats what I thought." replied Skipper As a group the penguins stepped away from the cage to see what Mort would do. After a minute or two he ran out of the cage and left through the farthest possible exit, binoculars in hand.

"That was strange, even for that bunch." said Skipper

"Yup." said Rico

That night Skipper went to bed before any of his team. Though he hid it well, he was more tired then he thought he should be, not to mention the others. They hadn't done anything that was strenuous in the extreme, but it sure felt like they had. This was in addition and most likely because of the strange pain he kept getting in his midsection. Skipper hoped that he wasn't coming down with something. Though he had a strong feeling that he was and if it was true then he would have to spend a lot of time in the lair because if Alice saw him looking sick it might mean a trip to the doctors for a shot. Needless to say that Skipper wasn't looking forward to either one those options. Especially the second one. His bum (as Private would say) hurt at the mere thought of a shot, so much so that he had to fight the urge rub it. Mort of course did something very different. He ran back to the lemur habitat in hysterics.

"Well, it is about time Mort!" said Julian impatiently. He tilted his head when he saw that his little subject was breathing rapidly. "I think that 'The smart one' called that hyper ventilating, and it is a bad thing." he then thought.

"Whoa, Mort just calm down for a second. Then, after that tell us what has got you so upset." said Maurice in a comforting tone. Mort sat and waited for himself to calm down. Julian watched him closely, actually worried about him.

Then rather abruptly he looked him directly in the face and spoke in a hushed manner: "I saw it King Julian. I saw it." Mort then glanced around as if someone might be listening.

Julian and Maurice looked at each other. Then Julian asked "What was it you were seeing?"

"It was The Ghost Idol and it was missing an arm!" answered Mort with a visible shudder. "Its in the penguins house." Julian and Maurice gasped.

"How did that get here?" said Maurice as quietly as he could in his now scared state. Julians ears were down with fear as he shook his head to indicate that he didn't know. "Is that the only reason that your so freaked out or is there another reason?" Maurice then asked hoping that there was no other reason. Mort shook again and Maurice knew that, that hope was fleeting.

"SSS-" was the only sound he made.

"Oh, I am not liking the sound of that." Julian said in an undertone though his two subjects heard him quite clearly.

Maurice shot him a worried look then said "Would it be to much to ask if you would whisper what you mean?"

Mort got up and walked up to the two bigger lemurs, while glancing around nervously. Julian and Maurice leaned down so that they could hear him: "Skipper bad." Julians ears shot straight up on hearing that out of shock as his eyes grew in size. Him and Maurice then looked at each other again, neither one of them knew what to do. It just had to be the leader didn't it?

The leader in question had a very bad night of sleep. Physically, he was in his bunk in his HQ, but in his mind Skipper was in a very dark and forbidding place. Not only that, it also felt very heavy there too. No matter how much he walked he couldn't find a way out. He kept going of course, yet after a while he actually started to look nervous as opposed to just feeling it. He stopped to make an attempt to calm himself down and possibly get his bearings if there was any to get.

"Your time will soon be up!" said a voice that seemed to come from all around him.

Skipper shifted into his combat stance as fast as ever. "Show yourself!" he shouted

"Oh, not so quick on the up take are you?" The voice was now mocking. Skipper glared in all directions, his guard heightening. "You have already seen what I look like, more or less." A transparent image of the wooden lemur carving suddenly appeared before Skipper.

"Wait, you were that thing? No, you were inside of it." said Skipper

"Very good feathered one, but can you figure out where I am now?" Skippers eyes widened as his midsection hurt more then it had all day. He forced himself to stay silent to show his opponent how strong he was. Also he didn't want to give him the satisfaction. He then tried to wake himself from what he hoped was a nightmare, not only worried for himself, but for his friends.

*The Very Next Day*

Marlene woke up a lot earlier then she usually did, at about 0600 hours. (6:00 am) For a moment she was confused as to why. She figured it out quite quickly though, Skipper was barking orders at the team. This she didn't find odd, it was the volume with which he was doing it. Marlene jumped up onto her habitats wall to see what was going on. He was making them do laps around the edge of their island, alternating between running and belly slides at a pretty good clip. That fact made it a bit of a difficult task. Skipper himself stayed stationary, which was weird for him as he would always train along side the others. Marlene was no Kowalski, but she could tell bye the way that the team was breathing that they had been training this intensely for a very long time, possibly even before sunrise. She also knew that there was a high probability of someone tripping and soon. When someone finely did, Rico, the other two turned and went to help him up, for he had landed hard enough to force up his crowbar. Skipper yelled at them with hot anger to keep on going. Although they were shocked they did as they were told. Suddenly Skipper seemed to get a very intense headache. He shook and rubbed his head with his wing. Then he went over to Rico and helped him up. Rico had just enough time to smile at him before he grunted like he had a sudden cramp and shout at him to get moving. He then used his wing to clamp his own beak shut. Marlene had never seen him do that before. So she decided to move in to see if she could get some answers. As she approached Skipper decided that they were done with the laps and now it was time for some push ups, a hundred fast ones to be exact. Marlene was at their perimeter fence when Private said jokingly: "I miss the Skipper we had yesterday. Kowalski, do you have any options on how we can get him back?"

When the teams options guy started to laugh Skipper made a very angry noise and shouted "Shut up little one!" right in Privates face. He flinched back in surprise and made a small squeak like sound. This seemed to agitate his leader even more. His wing went up and for a moment it looked like he was going for one of his trademark head smacks, but then it went into the position it took whenever Skipper was doing one of his powerful karate chops. It was just starting to come down when Marlene grabbed it and used its momentum to spin Skipper around so that he was facing her.

"Whoa!" said Rico

"I didn't know that she could do that." said Kowalski

"Do you think she would teach me that move?" Private whispered carefully to Kowalski. Who grinned and patted his shoulder.

"Skipper whats-?" Marlene stopped, had she seen what she thought she had just seen? Were Skippers eyes glowing red for a split second? Because, like Skipper had said once before: that was almost never good.

"Marlene?" he said sounding oddly confused. "Why are so angry and holding me bye my wing so hard? That hurts!"

She looked up at it, then let him go: "I'm angry because you are working the team way to hard, even for you sometimes. Your also screaming to much, not to mention that I just saved Private from being knocked out bye one of your chop attacks."

"Huh?" he said rubbing his head slightly. An oddly worried expression swept across his face. He then turned to his youngest cadet and said "Sorry, Young Private."

"Thanks Skipper." he replied with his well known good natured smile.

The moment was over very quickly as Skipper clamped his own beak shut again, closed his eyes tightly and briefly grabbed his midsection, then put that same wing to his head. He then got a tingling sensation on his back, the feeling he always got when he felt like he was being watched. With great speed he turned around and looked over at the lemur habitat. He saw a quick rush of motion but nothing else. A second later he grunted something that sounded like: "Shore leave." to the others, sounding more like Rico then himself. He shuddered, then jumped onto the perimeter fence. "Going for a walk." he said in a voice that sounded strained. He then jumped off of the fence and took off at a rather fast pace, leaving his team and Marlene to look at each other in confusion.

"Maybe Julian got it right this time." Marlene thought

*Some Intel Divulged*

"Be reporting Maurice." said Julian after his adviser had recovered from nearly being caught spying on the penguins with a set of their own binoculars. Julian was, for some reason, trying to sound professional.

"Mort was right. Skipper is the one. He has gotten more aggressive." answered Maurice

"How?" asked Julian

"He is yelling and pushing the team more mostly. Though Marlene had to stop him from striking Private."

"Not that I am doubting your watching others skill, but he always dose that."

"This one would have caused him some damage, though."

"Oh." Julian blinked.

"Anyway, the other penguins and Marlene are obviously very confused bye his behavior, as it seems that the aggression comes and goes. I think that now would be the best time to tell them what you and Mort were picking up on." finished Maurice

"Soundings like a plan to me, lets go you two." said Julian after thinking about it for a moment. Then after checking to make sure that Alice still wasn't around the lemurs made their way over to the penguins habitat.

"I've never known Skipper to be that mean before. To be honest it kind of scared me." Private was saying as the mammal team walked over. Bye now they were all sitting down taking a rest. His two teammates and Marlene nodded. "Julian?" he asked when he noticed the lemurs.

"What are you doing here? Your never up at this time of the morning." said Kowalski

"I am being here to tell you what is wrong with Skipper, Smart one." Julian answered It was then that he decided not to tell him the whole story because he thought that he wouldn't be believed. Also he was hoping that it was still early enough to get rid of the problem relatively easily. He was going to tell Kowalski and the others the bare bones of the story and hopefully nothing more then that.

"Uh well, do tell Julian." replied Kowalski with a shrug.

"Hmm, now how should I be putting this . . . Marlene told me yesterday that you have been learning all about energy of all kinds recently." Julian began mostly talking to Kowalski.

"That is correct." said Kowalski unsure on how this pertained to the matter at hand.

"Well, it is apparent to me that 'The bossy one' has been exposed to some, shall we say, dark energy. You will have to be making some good energy in order to make him normal and not scary again." said Julian

"How was Skipper exposed to the dark energy?" asked Private Julian shook his head, indicating to him that he did not want to say. Private of course didn't press him.

"But how do you know that is what-?" Kowalski started

"I'm sensitive. At least thats what I think the right word is. I can sense things like that. Mort can also. Though not as well as me. Perhaps it is the size difference?" Julian interrupted grinning at the comment about Morts size.

"So thats why Mort was so terrified of Skipper last night. Poor little guy." said Private giving Mort a sympathetic look. The little lemur smiled at him.

"The fact that you meditate a lot makes sense to me now, because if one took your, for lack of a more fitting word, exuberant personality into account one would think that you wouldn't be able to sit still long enough to do such a calm activity at all, let alone on a regular basis." said Marlene grinning. The silver colored lemur grinned back at her.

"Alright I guess it makes sense, when I consider everything I have been learning in recent days. At least theoretically, but it is the best thing we have right now." said Kowalski thinking out loud. He turned back to Julian: "Though I do have a question. Why is it that you have never divulged your sensitivity before now?"

"Had no reason to really. Also I did not think you would be believing me." Julian replied looking directly at Kowalski, who shrugged. "Well, I have said all that I was needing to." Julian said turning to leave. The other two started to go with him.

Kowalski blinked then said "Wait, how am I to make what you referred to as good energy in order to cancel out the dark energy?"

The Lemur King turned back to him and shrugged: "I do not know, but I do have confidence that you shall figure it out. I do not call you 'The smart one' for nothing, you know." Kowalski smiled at him for the rare complement.

*Skipper: Never Surrender*

Kowalski felt a bit silly for asking the others for ideas on how to make what Julian had called good energy, because after all he was the one known as 'The options guy'. Everyone fell silent as they thought about it. It was Private who perked up with a suggestion: "You know how yesterday we were all laughing?" The team nodded. "Well, that was very positive and we have had countless other times like that. Ones that have included more of our friends as well. Why don't we have a party of sorts and talk about those times, maybe even recreate some of them. It might help Skipper shake off that dark energy and return to normal."

"Well well, talk about a simple solution to a complicated problem. Good thinking Private!" said Kowalski excitedly. Rico clapped for Private, who rubbed the back of his head in a bashful sort of way.

"And if its still not enough we can always help with morel support. It sure sounds like a plan to me!" said Marlene "How about you guys go and find Skipper, while I set up the HQ?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" said Rico Who looked a little giddy.

"Alright then." said Kowalski getting up and smiling at how quickly they had come up with a plan. "Men, lets move out!" he then said as he started to walk out of the habitat. His teammates got up and followed him just like they would Skipper, after all if their captain was for some reason indisposed he was in charge. After the three had jumped onto the fence Kowalski turned and said "In a compartment that is near the TV there are two boxes of slides. The ones in the blue box are the ones you want, they could help with this. Leave the ones in the red box though."

"Those ones are classified material are they?" asked Marlene with a quirked eyebrow.

Kowalski shrugged: "I trust you." Then he left with the other two. They returned at around 0800 hours (8:00 am) with no success, thinking that he may have gone back there himself. They found only Marlene sitting there watching TV in the now decorated HQ.

"Wow, this place looks great." said Private looking around.

"Thanks." said Marlene turning, then going over to them. "So, any luck?"

"Nope, unless he came back and is now out looking for us." replied Kowalski hopefully. Marlene shook her head. Kowalski sighed: "Skipper is a hard one to find when he doesn't want to be found." Rico and Private nodded. They were aware of that too because his version of hide-and-seek was one of his favorite training techniques. "Well, I think that we should all have some breakfast, then try again." Which is exactly what they did. What they did not know was that a few minutes after they left, Marlene going too this time, is that a struggling Skipper snuck his way in and in addition to having a meal of his own, he also had himself a good look around.

The team and Marlene had spent a good amount of time looking for Skipper when they were suddenly approached by Joey, the zoos foul tempered kangaroo. Far from being his normally aggressive self he was calm. Most likely it was due to the confusion he felt, which was written all over him. It was right when Kowalski was thinking about Skippers famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) 'The Big One Test', but then the image of Skipper yelling at himself and Private crossed his mind and then there was the near karate chop to Privates head. He knew that Skipper couldn't fake anger like that. Imitate a pompous anchor man sure, but even force himself to hurt a teammate, rendering him out cold? Never, assuming that he wasn't sleep deprived and thought that someone was a traitor. Even at the times when they had 'fought' each other he may have knocked them down, but he had never caused them any harm. Also his voice at the time seemed alien to him now that he thought about it, even more so then when he had snapped at Eggy.

"Oi penguins!" said Joey to get their attention.

"Hi Joey, something wrong?" said Marlene taking in the fact that he was confused.

"I think that there is something wrong with that Skipper of yours." he answered

"You saw him?" asked Private

Joey nodded: "Just now in my habitat."

"Uh, why do you think that there is something wrong with him?" asked Kowalski hoping that the marsupial would tell them what he had witnessed.

"Well, I was just playing with my new ball when I heard him enter. I turned around and was about to tell him to get out of my biz-o when I saw him begin to shadow box."

"Shadow box?" asked Rico now looking as confused as Joey.

"Right." replied Joey "Thats the closest thing I can compare it to anyway."

"What dose that mean?" Kowalski asked

"Well, he was kicking and swiping at thin air. It didn't really start to weird me out until it looked like he actually took a sizable knock from an invisible opponent." Kowalski and Private exchanged a look as the thought of his invisibility ray, 'The Trans-matterer', crossed both of their minds. "He actually fell down, holding his midsection. After, it seemed that he got a headache. He kicked up and shouted: 'Your not going to win!' He didn't seem to know that I was even there, as he took more swipes at the air then looked like he got hit from behind and again he hit the ground."

"Did he do anything else?" asked Marlene hoping that it would be a 'no' answer.

"Yes, he put his wings over his head and groaned, then I heard some very maniacal laughter. Though as creepy as this is going to sound, I couldn't actually tell if it was coming from him or somewhere else, as the laugh went on he finely looked my way, with what seemed to be glowing red eyes. My thought was that it was a trick of the light, now though I am not so sure. I just left him right where he was after that."

"Glowing red eyes are almost never good!" Marlene suddenly proclaimed making the penguins jump. "And Skipper had them when I stopped him from hitting Private!"

Kowalski gasped: "Move out team!" He quickly turned to Joey and said "We promise not to mess around in your habitat. We are just going to go and retrieve Skipper." He then grabbed Marlene and sped off to catch up with the others.

"Oi, and make it snappy, yeah?" Joey shouted after them.

What they didn't see as they sped off was King Julian sitting in a tree watching the proceedings with the binoculars and listening in with Kowalskis parabolic microphone that he just "borrowed" from the base. Upon hearing what Joey had to say he became a bit nervous, but still thought that Kowalski would be able to pull it out. He also thought that he had something else figured out: "So headaches are being good. Thats when Skipper fights his way to the surface. While hurts to the white feathery area are bad because thats when The Other fights his way out. Skipper maybe 'The bossy one', but he is also one of the strongest ones around. Props to you Skipper." He then went back to his own habitat, not wanting to leave his subjects alone for to long, the situation being what it was.

When the four of them arrived at Joeys habitat they were disappointed to find that Skipper was already gone: "Urh! This is more difficult then freeing Manfredi and Johnson when they got hog tied by those bears in Cambodia that time." said Kowalski in frustration.

"Say what?" asked Marlene

"Sh!" Rico said to Kowalski.

"Never mind." Kowalski said to Marlene who rolled her eyes at yet another reference to one of their classified missions. "Alright Rico, tracking mode!" he then said pointing at Rico with his wing. Marlene was impressed by how much he sounded like Skipper. They followed Rico for a while until it got dark and started to rain, causing him to loose the sent.

"Why did the weather man have to be wrong today?" Private asked no one in particular.

"Well, back to the lair then. He has to come back sooner or later." said Kowalski leading the way.

Meanwhile Skipper was on the other side of the zoo. He was still fighting with his 'invisible opponent' and attracting some strange looks from the other animals. With the exception of Lenard the kola, who was hiding in a shrub at the far end of his habitat.

"Why don't you just give it up already. Your never going to get the best of me!" said Skipper

"Oh really?" said that mocking voice. Not even a moment later one of Skippers legs suddenly locked up causing him to slip on the wet cement of the wall he was on. He fell off of the wall in question and into a bush below hard enough to be rendered unconscious. This was the opportunity that The Other was waiting for.

*The Full Intel On Skippers Condition*

Skippers search party indeed went back to HQ and stayed up for a very long time waiting for him to come back. They watched TV, ate dinner and even told Marlene about some of their old missions, the de-classified ones of course. A lot of which she didn't believe ever happened, but found them none the less entertaining. After an extremely long time they all sat in a tight circle, leaning on each others backs in the middle of the floor in silence. This is how they originally fell asleep, until someone shifted causing Marlene to not only to topple over, but to wake up as well. She decided to put her friends in a more comfortable spot. She carefully took Private over to the bottom most bunk and put him in it, covering him with his blanket. She dragged the other two over and leaned them on the wall close to the youngest penguin, also covering them with a blanket. She would have likewise put them into their bunks, but she didn't want to wake them up. Marlene then went home and went to bed herself.

Private was the first to wake up the next morning. He took a sweeping look of the room to see if Skipper was there. He wasn't, but Private did take notice of the wooden lemur carving that was still sitting on the table where Skipper had left it. He didn't know why, but he had the sudden impulse to get rid of the ugly little thing. Upon seeing that Skipper was not there he gently woke up Rico and Kowalski.

"Morning Private . . . " yawned Kowalski

"Hes still not here." said Private clearly worried. Rico perked up and looked from him to their current leader. Kowalski looked up at the clock, 0900 hours. (9:00 am)

"I don't think that you should worry Private. Hes probably topside right now working out and waiting for us to get our lazy butts up there." said Kowalski with a small laugh. This reassured Private and Rico a little. The two still sitting on the floor got up and stretched. Then they all went topside. The three found an empty island. "So much for that theory." Kowalski mumbled. He then got a small tingling sensation on his back. He quickly realized that was what Skipper meant when he had told him once that he would know when, as he put it as he was also teasing him slightly, 'there was a disturbance in the force'. He suddenly spun around to try and find the one who was watching them. He barely finished the about face when he was tackled by something that was freakishly fast. Whatever it was, it quickly went after the other two, who then landed on Kowalski.

"You three birds are to slow! You will just slow me down." said a low, gravely and oddly raspy voice. The team minus one flipped into a combat formation before they realized who their attacker was. They blinked a few times when they saw 'Skipper' standing there glaring at them looking very disheveled. The most striking thing about him was his eyes which were, oddly no surprise to them, red and glowing. Even though that fact didn't surprise them, it still caused a chill to run down their collective spine. Regardless of what they saw though even they could sense that he wasn't in his right mind.

"Skipper we are your friends, brothers even! Don't you recognize us?" said Kowalski as he took a step closer to 'Skipper'. His glare became more intense and Kowalski barely dodged an unexpected very fast jump kick. Rico tried to get him into a bear hug to try and subdue him, but he broke the hold, grabbed the demolitions expert, spun him around and threw him into Private who started to move in to help Rico. As 'Skipper' went for the two fallen penguins Kowalski ran up behind him and gave him one of his own trademark head smacks, in hopes of bringing him back to his senses without hurting him. He received a fast kick to his midsection when 'Skipper' quickly spun back around for his efforts. It gave Rico the opening he needed as he quickly hacked up his small bat and hit 'Skipper' hard enough to make him slide across the island and almost take a header into the water. Rico quickly signaled to his teammates to run for it and that he would cover them. Private shook his head, then grabbed Kowalski as he had to dodge bye going backwards as the red eyed 'Skipper' charged at them again. Rico tried to get him with the bat again, but he grabbed it.

"Go!" Rico shouted suddenly.

"You better report back as fast as possible soldier!" said Kowalski trying to sound as stern as Skipper would have in that situation and failing miserably he grabbed Private.

As the two temporarily ran for it Private said "Try not to hurt him." Rico quickly nodded. Kowalski and Private went to the lower grassy part of the lemur habitat.

"Don't worry Private, we will simply let Rico wear him down a bit before going back in." said Kowalski as they leaned on the cement monument that had the covered up lion image on it.

"Thats a relief." Private replied

"What are you two doing here?" Julian asked as he suddenly walked around the cement monument to find them standing there. The two of them jumped at his sudden appearance. Then felt silly because it was only Julian after all.

"Skipper found us." replied Kowalski with an embarrassed shrug.

"Uh, Rico gave us cover." Private said quietly.

"His eyes?" asked Julian sounding suddenly nervous.

"Red." answered the two penguins together. The Lemur King sighed and looked down. Kowalski and Private looked at each other.

"Julian?" asked Kowalski

"Uh, I was thinking that you would have fixed this yesterday so I wouldn't have to tell you any extra stuff." replied Julian

"We would have, but we couldn't find Skipper." said Private

"Wait, what do you mean bye 'extra stuff'?" asked Kowalski He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The stuff about 'The bossy one' being possessed by an evil lemur spirit bent on revenge?" said Julian with a shrug.

"Oh, is that all? Wait, what in the name of animated animals did you just say?" yelled Kowalski Julian suddenly clamped his beak shut.

"Be calming down so I can tell you the story!" Julian said sounding impatient before letting him go. "It all started with King Julian The First and his long standing feud with another lemur of my type (he pointed at his own tail) named Caesar. Who for some reason was born with red eyes."

"The First Julian? If the average lifespan of a ring tailed lemur is eighteen years then that would have been two hundred and sixteen years ago!" said Kowalski doing the math in his head.

Julian nodded then continued: "Both wanted to be the king, but there of course could only be one. So they had a showdown to see who would be that one."

"Combat?" asked Private

"Yes, Julian The First was the better lemur." he replied "He exiled Caesar soon after that. Caesar swore he wanted revenge. He later came back and tried to take Julian The First out. He obviously failed or you would not have my gloriousness standing before you. (Kowalski and Private fought hard not to roll their eyes when he quickly posed) As punishment he asked the sky spirits to seal him into a small lemur carving, called The Ghost Idol. Only the current King knows that his name is Caesar, everyone else just knows him as 'The Other'. It is also being up to the king to keep The Others carving safe from anyone who might want to let him out. Bye now he wants to get revenge on every lemur starting with the king. I know that because when I was little I mistakingly found the carving and some of his dark energy leaked out and told me this. I freaked and threw it into the ocean. Where Skipper or one of you must have found it. I knew Skipper wasn't fully possessed at first, thats why I only told you the tiniest bit of the story. When its arm fell off it must have been all he needed to get out." Julian finished his story looking kind of relieved and also kind of guilty, the guilt was for not telling them sooner.

"What dose that mean?" asked Kowalski in a somewhat flat tone.

"Well, my theory is being that over time the seal was getting weaker and weaker as the carving got older. What with the wood rotting, with the arm gone so was the last straw?" Julian shrugged

"So to be King Julian The Thirteenth you actually had to fight for it?" asked Private because he was having a very hard time picturing the Ring tail he knew in a serious fight.

"Yup, hows that for a twist, huh?" he answered "But of course I used my booty shaking ability to my advantage. Once my rivals was tired I simply held him down until he cried uncle." Private grinned at him, now that was the Ring tail he knew.

"Wait!" said Kowalski so suddenly that it made Private jump. "You actually expect us to believe that Skipper is possessed bye a-Oh boy!" Kowalski began, he was airing on the side of caution because of the time he had mistakingly thought that Skipper had become a zombie. Never mind the time when they thought their car was haunted. He stopped mid-sentence when he saw that Julian was now glaring at him and it wasn't one of the halfhearted 'I'm annoyed' glares that he was known for. This one was full on.

"You will send 'The cute one' after a 'demonic bus' as a promotion test all alone, but you will not believe that your leader is being possessed by an evil lemur spirit that wants to destroy its own species?" said Julian starting off calm, but then getting into Kowalskis face and shouting. Private grabbed him and gently moved him back a little bit, scared that he might actually hit Kowalski, he looked so angry. Julian calmed down when he looked at Private.

"You knew about that?" asked Private

"But of course." Julian shrugged as if it were obvious.

"But you were messing with me for the entire night!" said Private

"Well duh! I couldn't just blow the cover off of the fact that I was watching your back. Though I must say that was kind of fun." Julian replied

"Uh, well thanks." said Private a little surprised.

The two of them then looked over at Kowalski, who was now giving the silver colored lemur an approving look while thinking: "I guess we don't give him enough credit sometimes. Maybe the jerkiness he expresses towards us is just his strange way of showing friendly affection." Then he asked "Do you have a plan bye any chance?"

"Yes, you two take my subjects and head for Marlenes place. I shall go and get Rico back for you." He then took off before anyone could stop him.

*A Plan Devised*

Rico and 'Skipper' were grappling, neither one was giving an inch. 'Skipper' then pulled him down painfully and kicked him in the chest, with speed that was unheard of, even for him. When Rico went down he grabbed his left shoulder as he just had his wing dislocated. He rolled out of the way as 'Skipper' went to hit him with the bat from earlier. Then Rico flipped onto his feet and tried to get him with a right winged punch. Sadly he wasn't fast enough as 'Skipper' swung the bat, hitting Rico hard enough to send him skidding across the island and into the water. He gasped as he breached the surface and grabbed the fence with his right wing to keep himself up. He looked over at 'Skipper' not knowing what to do. 'Skipper' glared at him with his glowing red eyes. When Rico felt a sudden touch on his right wing he nearly jumped. He was very surprised to see that it was Julian.

He leaned down next to Rico and whispered: "Kowalski wants you to uh report to Marlenes." The stunned penguin nodded, then quickly climbed over the fence and landed on the other side next to Julian.

They both looked up when they heard: "You!" 'Skipper' was now pointing at Julian with his wing.

"Rico run!" shouted the Lemur as he shoved him in the direction of Marlenes. Julian himself ran in the opposite direction. Just as he hoped 'Skipper' was right behind him. He ran on all fours so he would go faster. Which was fine until The Other finely mastered the art of the penguin belly slid and caught up with him far sooner then he planned. Once within range and with a handy stick he saw on the ground he tripped Julian bye throwing the stick at his legs. Thanks to his own speed he rolled right into the wall of the veterinary station with a loud smack. "Thats hurting!" he said as he sat down and leaned his back on the wall in a slight daze which he was quickly cured of when The Other had him cornered by standing right in front of him and firmly planting Skippers wings on the wall on either side of his head.

"I have got you now Ring tail!" he said Skippers codename for him with such a dark tone it made Julian flinch. "You have got nowhere to go!" The Other then leaned in very close, with such a scary look on 'his' face that Rico might have had to look away. Julian came close, but then he remembered that Skipper was still in there or at least he hoped he was.

The sudden determined look on Julians face caused The Other to falter, giving Julian the opportunity he needed. "Skipper, wake up!" he shouted as loudly as he could right before he quickly retracted his legs as much as possible and kicked 'Skipper' full force in the chest. It threw him back a respectable distance, causing him to land on his back. He clutched his head as he got back up.

"Julian?" asked the one he knew was the real Skipper. Julian smiled as he approached cautiously. "Run!" Skipper suddenly shouted sounding for the first time to Julians memory terrified.

Julian stopped walking: "Skipper, I is knowing that you can fight him. You have to or-"

"I know!" he grunted as he wrapped his wings around himself. "But thats not whats happening right now! I can't hold him back for much longer!"

"Hold him back?" said Julian his eyes widening as he realized that Skipper was trying to protect him, Caesar was trying to escape Skipper and get to Julian, who hesitated.

"I can handle it! Just run!" Skipper picked up the stick and threw it towards him. It wouldn't have hit Julian weather he ran or not, but he took it as a signal that he should, though he looked back over his shoulder a few times. He arrived at Marlenes out of breath and out of luck, but he hoped that his last bit of Intel might get them the plan they needed. Julian walked into Marlenes cave. Everyone: Marlene, Maurice, Mort and the penguin team minus one, turned and slumped to see that he was alone. They had hoped that he would have his own plan to get Skipper back to normal. He shrugged at them.

"Uh, how is the wing?" he asked Rico.

"Good." he replied flexing it.

"It was an easy fix." said Kowalski "So, status report."

"Uh, well he is still there, but he is not doing so good." replied Julian

"That doesn't sound good." said a newly brought up to speed Marlene while the two likewise lemurs nodded.

"The meaning of that is that the longer Skipper is being possessed by The Other more likely that he will be fading away."

"What?" everyone shouted. Julian flinched back.

"Alright, alright, lets not all start shouting at Julian. We have got to think." said Kowalski as he began to pace. "But you should have told us that sooner." he said pointing at Julian who was holding his own tail self consciously. He paced for a short time then asked "Julian, is there anything about spirits in general that you could tell us that would be of some help?"

"All a spirit is, is energy. Is that counting?" Julian replied

"Oh yeah!" said Kowalski getting that same excited look he got whenever a game changing plan hit him.

"Also, if a spirit dose posses someone they have a tendency to leave that person when he gets extremely tired once the spirit is strong enough." Maurice said snapping his fingers characteristically.

"Thats it!" Kowalski suddenly shouted making everyone jump.

"Whats it?" asked Marlene

"Thanks to those two I was struck with the perfect plan. If I modify my shrink ray in just the right way I can make it into something that would be useful. I will simply have to zap the spirit just as he leaves Skipper to get someone else. That will be the best way to do it anyway. If I have to I'll zap Skipper directly though." said Kowalski

"I'm guessing that we will be the ones who will have to find him and wear him out, right?" asked Private

"Well, yes, but it will take some time to modify the shrink ray. So first you have to find him and radio back the location. Then just stay on him until the rest of us and myself can get there. Then you all move in and I will pick my moment." Kowalski replied

"I like the plan!" said Mort jumping up and down. "Can I help?"

"Sure why not?" said Kowalski grinning at the tiny lemur.

"Yay!" he shouted Everyone giggled at his utter cuteness.

Afterwards: "Alright, Maurice, Mort and Marlene you will look for him in the zoo. Private, Rico and Julian you will look for him in the park. Agreed?" Everyone nodded, then they made a cautious trip over to the base so that Kowalski could start on the modifications and get the two search parties their walkie talkies.

*Skipper: Fighting Or Fading*

As soon as Kowalski was in his lab, he grabbed up his shrink ray and started on the modifications. Usually one to keep his emotions to the back of his mind as he worked, he was now unable to. At first it made him have a bit of a slow start. Then he switched it around and decided to use them as fuel to get the job done. Him doing that caused his speed to pick up exponentially.

The team of Maurice, Mort and Marlene looked in every habitat and questioned all of their friends to see if they had seen Skipper that day, but none had. While the team of Private, Rico and Julian searched all over the park. They even stopped bye the duck pond to see if he might be hiding there. He wasn't, but they did get a good laugh when Eggy grabbed onto Julians tail and asked where he could get one like that. The duckling was trying to cheer them up as he could tell that they were pretty stressed out. After a long time the two teams went back to the base and waited outside Kowalskis laboratory. It wasn't long before Julian started to pace, he was unsure on how to tell Kowalski that they had failed in locating Skipper. Maurice could tell that he was very nervous about the situation as The Lemur King was pacing on all fours, something that he hadn't seen him do since they lived in Madagascar.

"Eureka!" Kowalski announced as he walked into the room holding the former shrink ray over his head. Private and Rico couldn't help but grin at him. Kowalski then looked around at everyone and asked "You couldn't find him?" Julian shook his head so fast his crown almost flew off. "Calm down." he said to him. Seeing how nervous he was he put a wing on his shoulder. "Perhaps that was the wrong approach."

Rico suddenly spoke up. Speaking so fast that, as usual, it came out all garbled. Private translated for the ones who didn't catch it: "Rico said that we had been looking in places that, for the most part, Skipper likes to be and perhaps we should look for him in a place that Skipper would hate to be."

"Good thinking Rico!" said Marlene The three penguins all did high fives as the lemurs clapped. Rico just shrugged with a modest kind of look on his face.

"Alright, where would he go in the zoo that he absolutely hates and that he believes that we would never think to look for him?" said Kowalski absently rubbing his chin area with his wing.

"The doctors?" suggested Private

"Nah, if he hangs around there to long he would probably end up getting a shot, but I think that we are on the right track." replied Kowalski thinking hard. "Thats it!"

Skipper laid in the dark of his chosen secret location. If someone were to come upon him they would have thought that he was asleep, but he wasn't: "So, you protected the lemur. Which was surprising, but now you seem subdued. Your not fighting or even moving. It sure seeming that you have given up to me."

"Caesar, give it a rest. I'm just taking a breather. You will have a fight on your hands soon enough." Skipper replied with his usual cocky swagger. Though he was mentally wiped out because he was trying to keep his true plan hidden from the lemur spirit and keep himself together at the same time. He hoped that this conversation would help by serving as a distraction. "I know that you know that I would do whatever I had to, to protect someone else. So why is the fact that I made Ring tail run such a big mystery to you?"

"Because I would be thinking that you would be getting rid of a burden like myself as fast as I would if the situation were switched." Caesar replied

"Well, I'm not like you." said Skipper while using his secret trick to keep himself together, which was to run good times he had with his friends through his mind. Like when he and Private were laughing at Kowalski, then at each other. Then after that when Rico popped up pretending that he was a dust monster. He found it a bit nerve racking that he could review only the most recent times, the farther back he tried to think the more difficult it became. That being said he did not let it break his concentration.

"Alright, I guessing that I can give you that one, but what about your-"

"I don't hate Julian if thats what your getting at! Yeah, we rub each other the wrong way and I'm not a big fan of his, but thats just the way it goes sometimes, you know stuff happens."

"Hmm, interesting. Now I is being curious, just how long can you be keeping this up?" asked Caesar

"Long enough I think." replied Skipper sounding determined, though he was starting to get a bit nervous. What if his plan to transfer himself out of the zoo (to one that was never actually in existence) backfired because it took to long? After Julian had woken him up and followed his order to run he went into the zoos office and forged, the best he could, transfer papers for himself. He wanted to get as far away from Central Park as he could. Once he was, he was going to put up one last hard fight against Caesar. If he won then he would make the journey back home. If he didn't then at least his friends would be safe from him. Right now he was just trying to conserve as much energy as he could. "This must be something like what Kowalski feels like right before I ask him for options on super stressful missions." he thought as he considered his mental exhaustion. Skipper then ended up on his front as Caesar made another bid for control. He put his wings over his eyes as he tried to hold out for a little while longer.

*Help Arrives*

The crew gathered in a bush outside of 'The Animal Transfer Area' or as the humans called it 'The Quarantine Area'. Which was where animals would be placed when they were waiting to leave or when they first arrived if their habitat wasn't ready. Julian gestured at Rico, who promptly hacked up a pair of binoculars. He swept the area with them then turned to the others: "Alice is not being around." he reported to Kowalski.

"Best news I've heard all day." he replied "Alright lets most of us move out, except Mort. I have a special job for you." he said as he picked up one of the walkie talkies. "Can you stay and watch the door to make sure that Alice doesn't walk in on us while we are trying to help Skipper?"

"Is it a important job?" asked Mort

"Of course, you wouldn't want Alice to be angry at us would you?" said Kowalski handing him the device.

"OK, I'll do it." he said taking it. The truth was that he didn't want Mort to get hurt should this get out of hand.

"Hey, I'll stay and be a look out too." Marlene said as she took the binoculars from Julian. "An extra set of eyes couldn't hurt."

"Thanks for volunteering Marlene." said Kowalski a little surprised.

"We own you for this one!" said Maurice

"What are friends for?" she replied with a smile.

"Alright boys, Operation: Save Skipper is a go!" proclaimed Kowalski It was then that they moved out and entered The Animal Transfer Area. As soon as the door was closed Kowalski heard Julian sniffing at the air.

"Didn't Mort sniff Skipper like that?" asked Private Rico nodded.

"Dark energy has a very gross smell to those who can detect it." said Maurice

Julians tail then shot up just like last time: "Stay close boys, we are going in!" He continued to sniff so he could figure out in which direction that they should go. "He is being this way." said Julian He then ran towards an area that had a lot of crates in it. Some were even stacked on top of each other.

"Wow, he almost sounded like Skipper for a moment there." said Private sounding impressed as they started to follow him.

"Well, like we said before, they do spend a good bit of quality time together." said Kowalski grinning.

"Uh huh!" Rico chimed in.

They had a pretty hard time keeping up as Julian quickly weaved his way through the crates, pausing every once in awhile to sniff at the air. He stopped so fast that the others all plowed into him, knocking him over. "Don't follow so close next time." he said as he got up and brushed himself off. Everyone rolled their eyes at him. They had stopped in an open area in the crates. The only thing that was in the open area was a small cage, that was locked with the brand new combination lock that they saw Alice with about a week prior to this whole thing. Laying in the cage on his front with his wings over his eyes was Skipper. "I'll go in first, if my tail makes the slightest jerky type move hide." he said over his shoulder. Kowalski then silently signaled to him that he was going to get into position, to which he nodded. Julian slowly approached taking notice of the wing configuration. "Skipper?" he asked when he was close to the side of the cage.

"Wrong!" 'he' said before 'he' quickly threw 'himself' into the side of the cage. Which toppled over so hard that one side of the top part of the cage broke so it opened like a hinge. 'He' then pinned Julian to the ground.

"Get him!" shouted Rico He then quickly hacked up a kendo stick, but Maurice got there before he did. He tackled 'Skipper' but was quickly thrown off and collided with Julian who had just gotten up.

"I have handled these birds once, I will be handling them again." said Caesar He then got into some very intense wing to wing combat with Private.

"Come on Caesar, show that scary looking ghost face of yours already." said Kowalski as he aimed what he had just now dubbed 'The Ghost Neutralizer'. He was standing on top of a nearby crate.

Rico snuck up behind the red eyed penguin and acted like he was going to hit him with the kendo stick. When The Other turned around and faced him he quickly gave the the other end to Private and they cloths lined him with it. After he got up The Other got into a fight with Julian. Everyone was impressed by the skill that he actually seemed to have. Some of it was from the training that he had received from Skipper not to long ago from when they had thought that Maurice had turned traitor, while some of it was instinct from his time in the wild. Though they all knew that his agility came from all the dancing he did. That being said he wasn't dancing at all, much to their surprise. Also, everyone (including the ringed tail) knew that under normal circumstances Skipper could easily take him down, but there was nothing normal about this.

"Wow, hes actually doing a good job at tiring him out!" Kowalski thought out loud as he saw that 'Skipper' had started to breath hard. Maurice then came out of nowhere in an attempt to double team him. Unexpectedly he grabbed Julian as if he was going to use him like a shield. When Maurice halted he shoved Julian, who landed on top of him.

The Other then used a round house on Rico when he went for him. Then Private tried to tackle him. He countered this by catching the smaller penguin and holding him over his head. He looked like he was about to slam him onto the concrete floor when Private spoke: "Wait Skipper its me! Young Private?" Skipper stiffened up, then dropped him as he shuddered, backpedaling slightly. Rico caught Private then backed away quickly. Kowalski had his shot! He hit the power boost switch before he fired since he had to zap Skipper directly.

"For Skipper!" he thought as he fired. The recoil on 'The Ghost Neutralizer' was a little more then he had guessed and he nearly toppled over backwards, taking his eyes involuntarily off of his target. Once he got his balance back he looked down, all he saw was his teammates and the lemurs. "Where did-?" Suddenly Kowalski was grabbed. He dropped 'The Ghost Neutralizer' over the front side of the crate as he felt himself get bent painfully back.

"Did you think that I did not see you hiding up here?" said Caesar as he intertwined his and Skippers wings.

"Crud! Not the wing hold!" thought Kowalski as he struggled to get free.

"What is the matter Lieutenant getting stressed?" asked Caesar mockingly.

Kowalski then got very angry and made a sound that conveyed that so well that it made Rico proud. "I'm not your Lieutenant Caesar!" he shouted before he twisted his wings mostly free then spun around and kicked The Other in the chest. Who then toppled over the back side of the crate in the opposite direction of his team. Obviously his footing was not as careful as it was required to be. Kowalski then jumped down in front of the team and picked up 'The Ghost Neutralizer'. "Well theres some good news, I figured out how to get out of that hold." he shrugged

"Skipper and I knew you would." said Private grinning.

"Come on we have to find-!" said Kowalski as he spun around, about to go and find 'Skipper' again. He was cut off bye the fact that he was in front of him. Leaning on the crate looking worn out, he still had the glowing red eyes though.

"That is it, you are next!" 'he' shouted pointing at Kowalski. Who took a panicked step back. Then what looked to be a dark cloud came out of Skipper and made a fast beeline for Kowalski.

"Evasive Smart one!" came Julians voice suddenly. He then shoved him out of the way, took the dark cloud in the face and went flying backwards. While Kowalski landed next to Skipper, who was now out cold. It was the sound of maniacal laughter that made him look away from Skipper, to where Julian had landed.

"Stupid lemur!" Caesar said of Julian as he sat up, then he saw Kowalski again. He glared looking insane: "Now I have you!" He then jumped at Kowalski with a good amount of speed, his glowing red eyes growing in size with excitement.

Then seemingly out of the blue he hit the ground so hard the wind was knocked out of him. It was so fast that it took a moment for everyone to realize that Marlene and Mort suddenly had Julian bye his ankles. Mort of course started to cuddle the foot that he finely had in his tiny clutches. When Julian looked at him with his normal yellow eyes everyone suddenly thought: "Not the feet!"

Julian surprised them all when he quickly turned to Kowalski and yelled "Fire!" Which he did after quickly kicking himself up, hitting Julian in the middle of his back. He stopped when Julians tail slumped, somehow sensing that he was completely evil spirit free.

"And its the look outs with the assist! Nice timing you two!" Kowalski said to Marlene and Mort.

"Yay! We helped!" said Mort He then hugged Marlene who patted him on the head grinning.

"So what are we going to do with that thing?" asked Julian After recovering from what just happened he got up.

"I suggest that we bury it, very deep, in a remote section of the park. With a good amount of cement just to make sure." said Kowalski As they waited for Skipper to wake up they hashed out a plan to get the cement that involved bribing Max, aka 'Moon Cat', with a large amount of tuna. They also decided to surprise Skipper with this burying the evidence plan. They were done with said plan right when Skipper was starting to shift.

Private was struck with an idea. He went right over to Skipper and said "Skipper, Dr. Blow hole has taken over the city and we are his prisoners!"

He sat up shouting: "That bottle nosed freak!" When he realized where he actually was though he calmed down. "Private!" he said giving him annoyed look and the traditional head smack.

Private actually laughed and said "Its good to have the old Skipper back." Then patted him on the shoulder, while everyone else grinned.

*Everything Is Alright*

It wasn't to long before they all left The Animal Transfer Area and got back into the main part of the zoo. Then Kowalski sent Rico and Private to go get Max and the cement.

"What are you up to Kowalski?" asked Skipper

"Don't worry, I'm sure that your going to like it." Kowalski replied "Bye the way you didn't bye any chance create transfer papers for yourself, did you?"

"You know me to well Lieutenant." Skipper answered grinning.

Kowalski grinned back at him and said "Marlene, could you take care of that?"

"I'm on it." She then went to the zoos office and put the papers that Skipper had made, which he left on Alices desk, through the shredder before Alice saw them. For she walked in right after Marlene left.

After Marlene went to go destroy the transfer papers Kowalski sent Mort to headquarters to get one of their drill helmets while he and Skipper went to go get some tuna from food storage. It was supposed to be for Max, but Skipper ate about half of it seeing as he hadn't eaten in a while. They still had plenty though.

Max was a little reluctant to help Private and Rico, but when they mentioned the tuna he was all in. He served as the detraction while the two penguins took two bags of cement and a basin to mix it in. They went back a little later so they could get the water they needed. (The particulars on just how they did it is classified) Julian and Maurice got the job of picking a suitable area. Once they did everyone, minus Marlene, met there with all the supplies they needed. They contacted them using the walkie talkies.

"I don't get it. What are we doing?" asked Skipper after Max took his fish, thanked them and left.

"We are getting rid of this." said Kowalski taking 'The Ghost Neutralizer' out of his feathers.

"Your shrink ray? Why?" asked Skipper now even more confused.

"Its not a shrink ray anymore. Kowalski modified it to get the evil lemur spirit out of you." said Private

"Hes trapped inside of it and trust me, he is not going to get out." said Kowalski "So, we are going to bury it. The cement is just for good measure."

"Sorry, you had to waste your shrink ray on me." said Skipper with an awkward kind of look on his face.

"Ah, Don't sweat it Skipper. I'm actually pretty proud of myself and technically I didn't use it on you. I used it on Julian. Besides, I can always make another one." replied Kowalski "So hows that cement coming Rico?"

"All set!" he answered

"Alright then, strap on that drill helmet and dive man!" Kowalski ordered grinning. After some giggling from Rico, he did as Kowalski said. He had Rico do it because he was the one who seemed to like the drill helmets the most.

"Your getting good at giving orders Kowalski." Skipper observed

"Thats only because I have had some unwanted practice recently, our once and future Skipper." replied Kowalski grinning again. Skipper grinned back.

A perfectly deep hole later and they all decided that Skipper was the one who had the honors of throwing 'The Ghost Neutralizer' into the hole after Private and Julian dumped some cement in first. They weren't taking any chances. "Good riddance!" Skipper said as he dropped the former shrink ray into the cement. It landed with a splat. Julian poured the rest of the cement in himself. Then they filled the rest of the hole with dirt. After a collective sigh of relief they all headed back to the zoo.

"Time for that party at the penguins place! I could tell by all the decorations." said Julian as he ran bye.

"We will get the pop corn, make the smoothies and meet you there!" said Maurice as he and Mort ran after him.

"I was wondering why HQ was all decked out. I snuck in when you guys were not around to get one last look at it." said Skipper

"It was a party we were going to have to help you shake off, uh, well you know. It was actually my idea." said Private with an awkward kind of look.

"Oh." replied Skipper

They didn't talk much more as they walked back to the zoo. They met up with the lemurs as they were making their way to the base. When they walked in Julian suddenly let out a short scream, making everyone jump. The Ghost Idol was still sitting on the table in the HQ. Julian suddenly elbowed Rico causing him to hack up his favorite flamethrower. He then turned it on the lemur carving: full blast! He stopped when it was about half way gone and turned to Skipper: "Uh, my badness. Did you want to be doing this Skipper?" Everyone blinked at him in surprise.

"No, I'm good. Torch that thing good Ring tail." Skipper answered Julian nodded and indeed torched it good. So good in fact that Rico gave him a very proud look. After the pyrotechnics were over they all gathered around the TV and were about to start an action movie marathon comprised of all of Skippers favorites. The TV wasn't even on yet when Marlene walked in dragging a bag of the zoos giant pretzels. Thats when she noticed that Skipper was not only sitting to the back of the group, but a bit separate from them too. Also he looked sad. Surprised she walked over and sat down next to him.

"Hey Skipper, are you OK?" she asked

"Not really." Everyone turned at the sound of his answer.

"Why?" asked Marlene

Skipper sighed: "Well, I spent good amount of time fighting recently. Most of it was a loosing battle unless I was fighting my friends. I don't even know how much damage I caused! I'm actually surprised that any of you will even come near me." He couldn't help but glance at Mort when he said the last part of his statement.

"What, do you think that we would be scared of you right now?" asked Maurice

"Or at the very least, so angry at me that you wouldn't even look my way." he answered

"No, we love The Skipper!" said Mort running up to Skipper and hugging him. He jumped in surprise then patted him while still looking unsure.

"In a BFF kind of way of course." said Marlene patting him on the shoulder. "Weather you like it or not with some of us." she then said glancing at Julian who looked amused bye the statement. Especially when the time when they had switched places crossed his mind.

"How about the damage I caused from not being as strong as I thought I was? I wouldn't be surprised if you all thought that I was going to snap at any moment." Skipper replied

"Nah, thats Ricos thing." said Private winking at Rico to indicate that he was kidding. Rico laughed.

"As to any damage there really wasn't any to speak of. I mean when you were going around the zoo and all our other friends thought you were shadow boxing, sure they were a little weirded out, but they thought that it was a new training type of thing that you were trying." said Marlene

"Really?" asked Skipper Marlene, Maurice and Mort all nodded.

"As far as injuries go, a couple scrapes and a couple bruises. Nothing that we can't come back from. The worst injury was when Rico got a dislocated wing, which was an easy fix." said Kowalski Skipper looked over at Rico.

"Yup, its alright." he said flexing the wing in question.

"Hmm." said Skipper

"And even if this whole thing was much worse, its not like we were going to give up on you. We knew that you were still there, fighting on the inside, your plenty strong." said Private Julian nodded.

Skipper then looked everyone else over, they nodded too. He took a deep breath then said "That makes me feel a lot better gang, thanks." He then moved in and became part of the group.

"Anytime." said Private smiling at him. "We do mean it though."

The smoothies were made, the snacks were passed out and they all sat and chatted for awhile. Then they remembered that they were going to do a movie marathon. Private turned on the TV to see that it was on the wrong channel.

"I am surprised that we are not watching The Cash Cab." said Julian Rico giggled like he always did when they mentioned their favorite game show.

"We would be if they weren't playing all those dumb prison shows today." said Kowalski

"You know, maybe you guys should get a TV show. I bet it would be a big hit!" said Marlene laughing.

"Ha, ha Marlene, very funny." said Skipper laughing along with everyone else.

They stopped and looked up at the TV when they heard an announcer say: "On an all new premiere this Saturday-"

"HOOVER DAM!" Everyone then exclaimed.

The End

Authors Note: I hope that you enjoyed the story and I hope that I didn't scare anyone to much. Review if you like just remember: no flames. I know that this doesn't exactly feel like an episode of the show, but to me it feels like a movie that would be shown around Halloween. Think of it as the show with a Dream Works twist. (Its not that big of a stretch if you saw the Shrek Halloween special) I hope thats what it feels like to you too. I also hope that I didn't annoy you to much with all my episode references, I think that I may have over done those a little. (Laughs nervously) I will admit I may have taken some liberty with this one, though it was kept to a minimum. As to Julians meditating, he is seen doing it briefly in the very beginning on the episode titled 'Truth Ache'. It just stands to reason that he dose it more often then they show to the audience. I would also like to say that this story was inspired by another story. So full props to that writer. By the way, if you are wondering about that Cash Cab reference look up my other Penguins story, Operation: Good Stuff. Also, I called the lemur carving The Ghost Idol because the word lemur comes from the Latin word Lemures which means Spirits Of The Night or Ghost. Most likely because a lot of lemur species come out at night and last but not least I would like to give the normal disclaimer which I put down here because I can: I do not own The Penguins Of Madagascar. Dream Works/Nickelodeon dose.~

~Over & Out~