I was inspired to write this as I was working on my first humanized tPoM story, Operation: Poisoned Heart (which is going to be finished at some point I haven't abandoned it.) So I like to consider it to be part of that universe, but I did make a few little changes mostly for either the sake of pairing/humor though. If this story goes over well, I'll pick some episodes to rewrite in to Park Avenue universe. I am eyeing up Love Takes Flightless, although it would have heavy slash elements, sort of like Kaboom and Kabust.

On another note, I want to apologize now for butchering New York, I've lived in rural northeast Ohio my entire life, the closest big city to me is Cleveland. I'm just using artistic license when dealing with anything New York.

Also, I spoke of slash earlier, there are hints at it, but it's one-sided Rico/Kowalski, certainly not enough to cause any problems. The main focus is on Marlene and her learning about what the Penguins actually are.

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the Penguins of Madagascar, nor do I make any profit from writing this work of fiction, inspired by the Penguins of Madagacar.

Chapter 1:

Welcome to Park Avenue

"Well, I think I'm gonna go ahead and risk it, but I do appreciate your raging paranoia." - Marlene 'The Hidden'

Moving from northern California to New York had gone a lot smoother than Marlene Stevens could have ever suspected. After accepting her new job as a curator for a new gallery near Midtown, she immediately called a few realtors, hoping that one would understand her concerns about living in New York. Thankfully, she had gotten Roger Wright, who was originally from Tampa, Florida and while he sung show tunes a little too often and a little too loud, she was more than pleased when he showed her a top floor studio apartment on Park Avenue. Which he swore was the safest area in the entire state of New York thanks to the men who lived in the large apartment just across the street from her.

When asked about the neighborhood entirely, Roger simply told her that it quite welcoming. The only drawback that he could see was a nightclub called The Groove just a half block away from her. According to Roger a man who claimed to be a prince from Madagascar and threw wild parties almost every other night, owned the club and the three other lots surrounding it. Which Marlene was perfectly fine with, in California she had never gone out to enjoy the nightlife, and at 27 it was about time she let loose and added excitement to her life.

Only after living on Park Avenue for a week, she had yet to do just that. Work had gotten the best of her and it seemed any time she was home and just starting to unpack one of her new neighbors would drop by. Roger was certainly right about Park Avenue being welcoming, so far she had met Phil and his half-brother Mason who shared an interesting story of how after growing up in England he ended up in New York taking care of Phil whom he didn't learn was his brother until their shared mother passed on.

Others included two men built like gorillas who insisted on being called Bada and Bing (she suspected they were part of the mob or at least had mob connections), Joey an Aussie with major anger issues, and Burt who was a gentle giant with a passion for art. As well as her neighbors who lived on the floors below her, like Melody Jones and her five kids, Shelly whom she had only met once or twice in passing.

Then there was Julian who had made quite the impression.

Just as the front door of the building shut, a heavily accented voice reached her ears. "Well hello there, gorgeous. I haven't been seeing your face around here before."

"Ah!" Marlene jumped nearly dropping her keys as she came face to face with a tall, dark skinned man with obviously bleached blond hair that fell to his chin. He wasn't necessarily bad looking, but the small touches of gold eyeliner and jewelry added to his feminine appearance. The word drag queen came to her mind as he flipped his hair and placed a hand on his hip.

"Sorry about that Miss, he was never taught any manners." a much shorter and older man(judging by his salt and pepper hair) on the heavy side came running up the sidewalk followed by a young kid who looked to only be around 10 or 11 years old, if that. "I'm Maurice, co-owner of The Groove and this charming fellow is my nephew, Julian, owner of The Groove."

"And I'm Mort! King Julian's most loyal subject!" the kid now known as Mort piped up and while Marlene thought the statement went beyond creepy, Mort was possibly the cutest kid she had ever seen.

"Excuse Mort, he's actually Julian's nephew." Maurice was quick to explain glaring at Julian who merely rolled his eyes in return.

"It's fine, kids just seem to have the most active imaginations. I'm Marlene Stevens, just moved in to the area earlier this week." She put on her brightest smile and offered her hand; Maurice gave a firm shake while Julian simply scoffed turning away and leaving.

"I do not shake hands with commoners; come on Maurice, this conversation is boring me. I only wanted to borrow the Penguins' blender."

"The penguins?" Marlene couldn't help but ask, earning a surprised look from the two older men.

Maurice looked over at Julian. "They must have been gone all week then, I told you I saw them leave Sunday." He then turned his attention back to Marlene, "Most people meet the Penguins on the first day they move in and a good number of them move out the next day." Though Maurice had intended for it to be a joke, Marlene couldn't help but think there was a bit of truth behind it.

"I was told this was a trouble free neighborhood."

"Just who told you that if you don't mind me asking."

"Roger Wright, my realtor for the area."

"Of course Roger would tell you that, the Penguins have saved his tail enough times." Maurice stopped noticing that Marlene was starting to look a bit scared. "Look, I'm not going to say the Penguins are harmless-"

"They're complete wackos actually." Julian added his two cents looking somehow bored and smug at the same time.

"What?!" For a second Marlene couldn't believe that she had been the one to shout her voice several octaves higher than normal. She began to panic, heart pounding in her chest and nearly missed Maurice scolding Julian.

"Julian! You shouldn't say things like that, just because they keep to themselves doesn't mean they're crazy. Look Marlene, the Penguins are different, from what I figure they're in some nasty business. But they really seem to be good guys, they prevent more trouble than they actually cause."

"What kind of nasty business though? And why do you keep calling them penguins?"

"My best guess is mob, but no one could say for sure. As for calling them the Penguins-"

"Oh sweet Sky Spirits, the fishy smell! How it insults my royal nose."

"Ignore him, every few weeks in the summer the Penguins grill fish on the roof and if the wind is just right you can smell it throughout half the neighborhood. As for the name, all of them have black hair and blue eyes, and wear only black and white. It is very rare to see them in anything else, although once I saw two of them at a sushi bar, almost didn't realize it was them at first and if it wasn't for the one's scars I probably would have missed them completely." The thought that those had to be some serious scars if they were easy to spot and very distinct didn't escape her mind. She wanted to ask, but Julian ended the conversation in a way that made her want to punch him in the face.

"Maurice! We've been here long enough; it is time for my pedicure." The glitzed out man turned heel and left, Mort practically skipping behind him while Maurice let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Sorry Marlene, it was nice to meet you, please feel free to drop by the club. Your first drink will be on us."

Marlene laughed at the memory now, especially as she recalled Maurice's frantic apologies for Julian's behavior later that night. However, she was finding herself looking over at the apartment across from her more often than not. There still had not been any sign of the mysterious Penguins and asking around the neighborhood only brought mixed responses.

It wasn't until she was coming back from the park three days later and heard rather loud shouting from an unfamiliar voice that she met the group.

"Damn it Ringtail! You couldn't even wait an hour after we got back to start pissing me off?!" She jogged to the corner and saw four very tired and beaten down men glaring at Julian who was blocking the door to the apartment.

"But Skipper, I am in need of your blender! You cannot deny your King his demands!"

"I can and I will, my men have been on mission to hell itself and back to keep your ass safe." The shortest man now identified as Skipper snapped stepping forward and grabbing Julian by the collar of his shirt and pulling him down to eye level. "You should be grateful."

Although she would only see their backs she had to cover her mouth in horror, blood and ash was caked to their skin and clothes. It really looked like they had been to hell and back. Then she noticed the tallest of the four was leaning into the side of the second tallest who had to be the scarred man Maurice had mentioned when they first met. A splotchy uneven red scar covered his left shoulder and wrapped around to his back, it looked like it was from a third degree burn. She trailed her eyes over that same arm which wrapped about the taller man's waist as if to keep him steady and noticed two things. One the man was very well built and two there were even more scars, but from a knife it seemed.

"Oh, was it a secret mission? Tell me all the gritty details."

"That's classified, just like everything we do is classified." Skipper spoke again, letting go of Julian's collar.

"But I am King; nothing is classified to the King."

"If I may point out Skipper, if Julian hasn't gotten it through his thick skull what classified means after the 347th time you've told him, then he never will." The tallest man now spoke or at least, Marlene figured it was the tallest who spoke.

"You're right Kowalski. All right since Julian doesn't have the brains, maybe a little brawn will help make the connection. Rico remove his majesty from our door, lethal force highly recommended and encouraged." The scarred man who Marlene figured was Rico removed his arm from around the tallest or as Marlene figured Kowalski, who simply hobbled over to the side of the building to lean, watching with a smirk as Rico stepped towards Julian with a knife in hand.

"Skippa! Is this really necessary?" The fourth man ran forward in protest. Marlene had hardly noticed him and felt her stomach twist in fear and disgust. The 'man' looked like a kid, too young to be involved with whatever was going on. He was only a bit taller than Skipper was and had a wiry build. Even Kowalski seemed to have more muscle than the kid did and from what Marlene could see, he was tall and thin enough to be a living relative of Jack Skellington.

"Of course Private, Rico's hasn't killed anyone in a while; don't want him to get rusty."

"What the hell is going on?" Marlene hadn't even realized she had shouted until there were five pair of eyes staring at her, four blue and one amber.

"Oh hey Marlene!" Julian gave a wave as if this was all perfectly normal and she took that as her cue to run to her apartment. None of that was normal; there was no planet in the universe where that would be normal. She didn't stop running until she had to unlock her apartment door and once inside she ran to the window to see if any of them had followed her. Thankfully, the street was empty, but she couldn't help but still feel terrified. The sight of the four men covered in ash and blood, scarred and bruised, pulling knives out of nowhere, and making death threats as if they were just another way of saying hello would leave her mind.

That wasn't mob, she didn't know what it was, but it wasn't mob. Although it really did look like nasty business and that poor kid, he barely looked like he was 18 and was just as beaten as the others were.

Marlene curled up in her favorite chair, shaking. Maybe she had just heard wrong, maybe he had just gone crazy. Yeah that had to be it; there was just something in the water causing her to lose her mind. It wasn't until there was a knock at the door that she had realized she had fallen asleep.

"Just a minute!" She straightened herself quickly, but there really wasn't a point to do so, hopefully a bright smile would make up for her flustered appearance. Only after opening the door, her smile fell and her blood began to run cold.

"Ello, I would have brought the others but K'walski was put on bed rest and if Kowalski's on bed rest Rico stays with him, then of course Skippa had to deal with Julian. Oh just where are my manners, I'm James, but everyone calls me Private. I really must apologize for the fright we gave you earlier; it's been a long week." James or rather Private presented her with a large bouquet of wild flowers. It was hard to believe the kid in front of her was the same one who had been covered in ash and blood splatter earlier. In fact, Private seemed harmless, all bright blue eyes and messy black hair, the British accent was rather adorable and only made him seem younger. A small laugh escaped her when she noticed he was wearing black cargo pants and a white t-shirt that read 'NEVER SWIM ALONE' across the chest with a small carton penguin just underneath it.

"They're beautiful, thank you."

"Again, really sorry about earlier, Skippa can get a tad extreme at times, but he'd never actually hurt Julian. He's a nice man when you get to know him, Skippa I mean, not Julian, those he's not too terrible. We'd really like to make it up to you; in fact, we're going to have a cookout Sunday. It'd be lovely if you'd join us."

"Geez, I really don't know about that…you guys just got back and I never know if work is going to call me in…" Marlene froze, seeing how hurt Private looked, sky blue eyes impossibly large and his bottom lip stuck out ever so slightly. "But I should be able to stop by for a bit." It was as if someone hit a switch and Private as all smiles again, looking like he was about to burst with joy.

"That's great Marlene! Well I better get going, its lights out at 10, I'll see you Sunday!" Marlene returned Private's wave good-bye as he walked down the hall, the second he was around the corner she slammed her door shut and locked it.

"Okay, Marlene, there's no reason to panic. Sunday is still two days away, something will come up and you can cancel." She looked at the bouquet in her hands, she had nearly forgotten about it in her panic. The look on Private's face when she had said she wouldn't be able to make it had been heartbreaking, she couldn't imagine what would happen if she canceled now. "This is ridiculous; they can't be as bad as everyone says. I bet they are perfectly normal and have perfectly normal explanations for what everyone says about them. And now I'm talking to myself, which isn't so normal." She sighed pulling a vase out from under the sink; hopefully she could bury herself in work the next two days. After all work always seemed to make time crawl.