Skipper's Past: Wrath
By: Phoenix Ride
Ch.1: New Transfer
It was just another ordinary day at the Central Park Zoo. King Julien was ordering Mort and Maurice around, Phil and Mason were matching wits with chess, and the penguins were doing their usual Saturday morning recon.
According the zoo transfer papers the penguins had swiped from Alice's office a few days earlier, a new animal was being brought to the zoo today. While the penguins were busy watching the crate come down from the truck however, niether of them noticed Marlene coming in from the side.
"What are doing?" asked Marlene, making the whole penguin tower topple.
"I could ask you the same thing," said Skipper, glaring at the female otter.
"Hey" said Marlene " I just came to see who our new nieghbor was. Given the size of the crate I guess he must be big,"
"Big and deadly being my guess" said Skipper, crossing his flippers " whoever he or she is, if they so much as look the wrong way, we'll be there to stop them,"
"Uh huh" said Marlene " well are you going to come with me to say hi or are you to 'afriad' to meet this 'threat' head on,"
"No one ever accuses a penguin of being afriad" said Skipper with a growl " come on boys, let's greet our new nieghbor,"
Most of the animals of the zoo had already gathered at the new transfer's habitat. Marlene, Skipper, Private, Kolwaski, and Rico's mouths opened in awe and wonder when they saw the form of a beautiful male tiger resting on the rocks.
The sun reflected of his orange and black fur, making it show with fiery brillance. His sharp amber eyes scanned the crowd watching him, judging whether the animals were friend or foe.
Marlene jumped into the habitat in order to greet the tiger first. Skipper and his team followed for security reasons. Kolwaski knew that tigers were carnivores, and it wouldn't look good on thier resume if they let Marlene get killed just in case this tiger decided to attack.
Skipper studied the tiger curiously, something about this cat had pricked Skipper's memory and he was trying to place where he had seen the tiger before. Was he a friend? Was he a foe? Why did his face look so familar?
Skipper noticed that he fell behind his team and ran to catch up. Marlene was halfway through her introduction of the zoo animals when she asked the tiger what his name was.
"It's Wrath," said the tiger, and Marlne contiued.
When she got to the penguins however, Wrath's eyes narrowed in anger, his fangs showed, and a deep growl thundered from his throat. Skipper noticed the boring amber gaze directed at him. With a shink, Wrath's claws popped out and he lunged towards Skipper.
Sliding fast, Skipper made a b-line for tree standing near the center of the habitat. Making a quick climb, Skipper easily managed to get out of Wrath's reach. Wrath was madly clawing at the tree, trying to climb up. But at seeing tigers were built for running not climbing, eventually gave up and glared at his escaped prey.
All the other zoo animals were stunned by just what occured. Private, Rico, and Kolwaski were stratching their heads in confusion, why had Wrath attacked Skipper?
"What was that all about?" asked Marlene.
" I'll tell you what this is all about" said Wrath, as Skipper climbed down " that penguin killed my father!"
"What!" all the zoo animals gasped in shock.
"What?" said Skipper, now he was the one confused.
" Oh don't pretend that you can't remember" said Wrath, turning towards Skipper " I recgonized you the moment Marlene said your name. You're the same penguin from five years ago that my father was friends with. You murdered him so Scar could take over the zoo,"
Finally, Skipper realized where he saw Wrath before.
"You're Lord Red Claw's son," said Skipper " I remember now. Look, I'm not the one who killed your father and I'm sorry that I failed to stop Scar from taking over the zoo. But there was something special that I needed to take care of at the time,"
"Like what?" asked Kolwaski.
"I'm not allowed to say," said Skipper.
"Why not?" asked Private.
"It's a point of my life I'd rather forget" said Skipper " the guys at the Penguin Acadmey had to erase all records of that failed misson, and made me swear not to tell another living soul about it,"
Private, Kolwaski, and Rico all stood shocked. Their great leader, the invicinible Skipper, had failed? Not only failed, but failed so big on his misson that the members of the Penguin Academy had tried to erase it from history. What had Skipper done?
"I still don't believe you" said Wrath, glaring at Skipper " if you didn't kill my father, who did?"
Skipper stayed silent. He wanted so much to tell Wrath the truth about what happened to his father, but he was sworn by oath never to do so. Not only that, but it was his first misson ever granted by the Penguin Academy and failed. If he ever failed again, the sentence had been clear... Death.