Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing in! This time, I'm writing a story about those awesome maniacs, the Penguins of Madagascar!
Description: The Central Park Zoo has a new otter arrival. At the same time, Kowalski tries to find out why and how science has failed him.
NOTE:
-I do not own anything presented in this story other than my own OC.
Operation: Unite and Conquer
Chapter 1: The new arrival.
The penguins were at their HQ, having a normal day after the Love-u-lator proved to be a failure.
Skipper was drinking his coffee cup of the day, Private was watching TV, and Rico was sitting next to his doll girlfriend, combing her hair. Kowalski, however...
Well, he had just recovered from his disappointment-fueled mental breakdown, but he was still puzzled by the failure of his invention.
"I don't get it. It just doesn't make any sense!"
-flashback-
"Yes! The Love-u-lator is finally complete!"
Kowalski had finished his latest invention, a machine that could locate the subject's ideal match 'according to science'.
Skipper approached him. "Good work, Kowalski."
"All in a day's work, Skipper."
Private raised his flipper. "Does it really work, Kowalski?"
"I have absolutely no idea." Kowalski replied, proudly. "The device works, but we'll need a guinea pig to test it."
"But there are no guinea pigs in the zoo."
Kowalski went to look for his Animal Kingdom picture set. "Then we'll have to search for a genetically similar specimen."
"Meet...the Love-u-lator 3000! Using scientifically proven methods, it will scientifically locate your ideal match according...to science."
After Private brought her in with her eyes covered and told her they would 'solve all her problems', Marlene was baffled when she saw the device.
"Yeah, good. Real quick, one thing: WHAT?!"
"I mentioned science, right?"
Skipper pointed at his weapons expert. "Rico, spit vision time!"
"W-wait, spit wha-" Marlene found her question cut off by Rico pulling out her tongue and swabbing it.
Kowalski introduced the sample into the machine. "Now that we have a saliva sample, DNA cross referencing will do its...thing."
"He's near, very near." The penguins followed the signal to its location. "In fact, he's here! Gentlemen, Marlene's perfect match!"
Upon lowering the device, Kowalski saw it was...a squirrel?
"Hello?" Not just any squirrel. It was Fred.
Skipper was annoyed. "Oh, no. Not that guy."
"What guy?" Fred replied, as clueless as ever.
"It's what the Love-u-lator says."
The penguins arrived at the otter habitat with Fred, and Marlene seemed irritated.
"You guys! Hello? I told you, I don't want-" She was cut off again, this time by Kowalski.
"Marlene, I am begging you in a hushed whisper! Please, do this for me! I'm losing faith in science. And if I don't have science, I don't have..." He found himself unable to complete his sentence due to his uncontrollable sobbing.
Being how she is, she couldn't refuse. "OK, Kowalski. I will do this for you. But you owe me!"
The penguins were back in their habitat, relaxing on top of their base.
Private wondered how Marlene's date with Fred was going, but Skipper and Kowalski assured him it would go over well. Kowalski's faith in science had been restored.
That is, of course, until Marlene popped up in front of them.
"Hey, guys. So, uh, Fred...yeah. Not happening."
"What?" Kowalski became unsure again.
"Yeah. Turns out, what I thought was him being funny was actually him just being, uh..."
Skipper completed the sentence for her. "Dumb as a sack of hammers?"
"Let's just say, I did not hear Spanish guitar when we were together."
Kowalski couldn't believe what he was hearing. His love machine...failed.
"But...science led us right to him. Science said...he was perfect." He stood up, clearly disturbed. "Science! Why have you forsaken me?!"
-end flashback-
"How could it fail? What went wrong?"
Kowalski had recovered the radar he had tossed in the trash and disassembled it, thinking that maybe something was wrong with the wiring.
"Wait, what's this?" After eyeing it closely, he found something was out of place.
As he prepared to analyze it, though, he was interrupted by Marlene showing up unannounced inside their base yet again.
"Hey, guys!"
And, as usual, she was received with the regular penguin greeting: a sudden attack.
After realizing it was the otter, they let her go.
"You guys, how many times do we have to go through this?"
Skipper stood in front of her. "What are you doing here, Marlene?" He responded in his usual tone.
Marlene then remembered what she had come for.
"Oh, right. Yeah, the thing is, well..." She took a deep breath. "I'm getting another roommate."
Skipper's eyes widened at the news. "Hoover Dam!" He then turned to his team. "Men, the walrus spy is back! Prepare for Operation: Preventive Force!"
As the penguins headed for the door, Marlene stood in front of them.
"Wait, wait! It's not her!"
"How can you be sure?"
"I heard Alice talk with another zookeeper. He said they were bringing another otter to my habitat."
"Oh, Marlene. Still as cute and naïve as ever." Skipper patted her cheek. "You just don't know when the enemy is tricking you."
The otter was annoyed due to Skipper's attitude, and she just made her way out of their base.
"You know what, Skipper? Maybe you're right. Maybe it's a mutant." Marlene replied with a mocking tone. "I better go back to my habitat and check it out myself."
Skipper just stood in place, surprised by the female's reaction, while the others went back to what they were doing.
Let's follow Marlene...
The otter habitat was looking better than ever.
Marlene had pretty much whipped out the welcome mat, with her home looking almost exactly like the time the walrus had been confirmed to arrive.
"OK, everything's ready." She was really looking forward to having a new roommate, following the former transfer fiasco. As she waited for the new otter to arrive, however, her attention shifted to the penguins' home.
Why? Well, to be honest, it was Skipper.
Marlene openly showed him she was offended when he thought she didn't know what she was talking about. However, the fact that he was ready to boycott the transfer for her really touched her. Sure, he said it was because of 'the walrus spy', but she knew how it worked.
She knew Skipper was just the way Private had described him during the missing crown incident: 'Crusty on the outside, soft and warm on the inside, and good in a jam'. The problem was that this was hard to see with his usual attitude.
But why did she care?
That's the question that was constantly popping up in her head. Why was she so concerned about Skipper's behavior?
As she began to reflect on this, a box landed in front of her.
The sudden appearance of the box caught Marlene's attention, distracting her from her earlier thoughts. As she began to approach it, the front of the box fell down. Out of the box came her new roommate: a male otter around her height.
"Whew, that was definitely an easier trip. I thought the box was gonna break like last time." He then looked at Marlene. "Oh, hey. How are you doing?"
"Oh, uh, I'm good."
"It's good to know they got the right directions this time."
Marlene was pleased so far. There was actually another otter in front of her, he hadn't squashed her on arrival, and he didn't seem to have hygiene problems.
"So, uh, what's your name?"
"Oh, right. I'm Marlene. What's yours?"
"I'm Jason. Nice to meet you, Marlene."
"Jason? That's an interesting name for an otter."
"Yeah, courtesy of my folks."
No sooner than that, Marlene heard a sound coming from her home.
"Hey, what was that?" Her new roommate was surprised.
But she wasn't. "It's the zoo penguins."
By the time she was going to tell Jason that going up to them wouldn't be a good idea, he had already made his way in.
As she made her way back inside, she heard the penguins talk to him.
"How did you get in here?"
"That's classified information. Who are you?"
"I'm Marlene's new roommate."
"And where is she?"
"Oh, judging by the lack of surprise regarding your entry, she's probably gonna come and just stare at you."
And, sure enough, she came in.
She was shocked to see that not all the penguins had entered her habitat. In fact, it was only one of them.
"Seriously, Skipper. I have a door, you know."
Skipper just turned around and came out to face her.
"What did you come for?"
"Is this the roommate you were talking about?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
Skipper didn't answer. He just turned to Jason and looked him in the eye.
"Uh, what's he doing?"
"Don't worry. That's just the way he 'examines' you, so to speak."
The penguin stopped staring and turned to face Marlene again. "You have nothing to worry about, Marlene. He's not a spy."
"No offense, but I think I could have figured that out on my own, Skipper."
Skipper just went back to where he came from. "You're welcome." Immediately, he left.
Marlene turned to her roommate. "Sorry about that."
"It's OK. Besides, the last place I got sent to was much more awkward." He looked at where Skipper had been. "Is this gonna happen a lot, Marlene?"
"Yeah, it happens a lot in this zoo. Is that OK?"
"Sure, don't worry."
As Marlene walked to her bed, Jason just thought about what he had just seen. "No offense, Marlene, but you and Skipper are just blatant."
Now, let's look at the penguins...
As the other penguins were still doing what they had been doing, Skipper came back into the HQ.
"Oh, hi, Skippah. Where did you go?"
"That information is need to know, Private." He then turned to Kowalski. "Anything happen, Kowalski?"
"Negative, Skipper. Everything's calm. No enemies sighted."
"Excelente."
As Skipper waddled away, Kowalski turned his attention back to the Love-u-lator.
"So that's the problem. Why didn't I see it earlier?"
After finally sighting the problem, he began to work on it immediately.
Alright, this is my first shot at writing a fic about the penguins, so don't hesitate to tell me if I got something wrong. In fact, do so as much as you need. It's the only way I can improve.
What exactly could be wrong with the Love-u-lator? You'll have to wait to find out.
This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.
