The Battle For Circus Americano
A Slight Delay
A long, painted circus train puffed along, surrounded by thick green forest as far as Alex the lion could see. The sea of trees flowed seemingly beyond the sunset and into an eternity of orange; however this unending image did not dishearten Alex or his friend Marty. They both sat in an exposed car, feeling the fresh wind pass through their manes. Their legs swayed a few inches above the tracks and they chatted about the coming show.
"When d'ya think we'll get there?" Alex asked while stretching his muscly arms. "We've been on this train so long I haven't had a good wash of my mane for nearly three days."
Marty rolled his eyes and smirked. "I know, I can smell you!" he joked, receiving a light punch as Alex laughed with him. "That Skipper dude said we'd be stopping in the morning, apparently we coming up to a lake or something. Then you can stop smelling like fish gut stew!"
"Oh so that's how it is!" Alex jumped up and tackled Marty to the ground, attempting to hold the zebra's hooves behind his back and wait for submission. Marty struggled for a while as Alex laughed, but somehow Marty broke loose and stood opposite his friend, ready for a wrestle.
"You picked the wrong circus zebra!" And with that Marty charged forward and interlocked with his tough lion friend in a struggle to take one another down. In the end Marty used dirty tactics by acting like Gia was watching Alex's childlike behaviour, and when Alex turned to see Marty simply tripped him up sat on top of him, victorious.
"You better tap out!" Marty said with his arms crossed, ignoring Alex's failed attempts as reasoning. "I can't hear ya buddy, and I ain't hearing no taps!"
A large sigh emerged from the defeated lion, lifting Marty higher off the floor. Three hard taps was all it took for him to jump off and help his friend up.
"Ha ha." Alex said sarcastically, mimicking the laughs aimed at him. "Anyway, it's dark and I'd better hit the hay." He took Marty in a gentle headlock and scuffled up his black mane. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Sure thing bud!" Just before Alex left the car he heard an echo from the opposite end "Don't fight like such a lioness next time!" followed by chuckles of laughter.
Alex grinned and found his carriage, filled with a fresh bed of straw. He lied down and rested his slightly bruised body, falling into a calm, dreamless sleep as the moon elevated into its rightful place in the pitch sky.
An ear piercing screech of the train's breaks woke Alex from his sleep. At first he was disorientated, and found the immediate stop had forced his bed to slide towards the wall behind him. Although once Marty found him he managed to get up and investigate. The two met up with Gloria, Melman, Stefano and the four penguins at the head of the train. The squad of black and white seemed to be inspecting a nearby town, their destination; however they gave the impression like something was wrong.
A sudden burst of "What's going on?" from various animals overwhelmed the penguin's leader, Skipper, as he awaited the rest of the circus crew.
The sun had only just risen and the cold morning chill still swept over. There wasn't a cloud in the sky above the forests of the Netherlands, and birds flew gracefully singing their breakfast whistles.
"Calm down, calm down, the situation's under control." Skipper tried to voice, however he was drowned out by the others' panicky shouts. "Will you please SHUT UP?!"
Alex and his friends all quieted down and listened intently to Skipper, eager to learn the reason for their journey's stop.
Skipper stepped forward with his flippers behind his back. "Well there's good news and there's bad news. Which first?"
"Let's get rid of the bad news first." Alex proposed with a groan.
"The bad news is the place we're heading to is a trap, an ambush, a bye-bye-circus-party."
"The good news?"
"We're here."
Half the circus face palmed, and then worry overcame them. Melman asked what the ambush was.
Skipper took a look at the town, then answered "You remember when we bought the circus, and how it was a disaster waiting to happen?" Everybody nodded in unison. "Well the people we bought it off want it back, and they ain't asking nicely. Luckily Private here regarded the town as unusual, a sort of ghost town for somewhere celebrating a summer fair. After a closer look we saw a couple of animal control goons geared up with tranquilliser dart shooters."
"That crazy French lady!" Marty exclaimed in horror.
"Not quite my melodramatic, monochromatic friend. These guys are Danes, and they no-doubt came looking for me and my men. They're well connected and I have some history with the Danes, but they most likely learned of Dubois's failed efforts and came to finish the job." He finished with a hard stomp and narrowed eyes.
Gloria took three heavy steps forward and said "So what're we gonna do about this mess?"
"Simple. We send in a ground team to recon the area, then once we get an accurate number of the enemy we'll strike, quick and silent. Then the train can proceed without danger. Kowalski, status report."
Kowalski seemed to appear from thin air before he ran through his notes. "We've got two patrolling the northward train tracks, and two guarding the tracks leading to our position. A simple flanking manoeuvre should do the trick. On success we should have four men taken down and no alarms raised. 99.9% success rate."
"Those are some fine odds lieutenant. Operation Sock Four is a go! Move out."
And with that the four penguins slid away into the cover of the trees on their mission. However little was known to anyone about what lied ahead. The gang read each other's minds and they didn't like it one bit. Surely and ambush would be better thought out, better concealed? Perhaps the penguins had become too complacent or too confident? Alex felt like it was up to him to reassure the others and relieve the tension.
He took up Skippers position and hushed his friends. "Come on guys, the penguins will sort everything out. They're little black and white masterminds. We've never seen them fail a mission." He scratched his head and let out a nervous laugh. "Too badly" he added slyly. "Right Marty? Melman? Gloria?"
His response was a mixture of fake smiles and nervous agreements.
"What if they are-a wrong and we are-a doomed Alice!" Added the short sea lion, Stefano. "I don't want to be-a captured or-a sea lion-napped!"
"Alright, alright everybody" Marty said "no-one's getting sea lion-napped. We all just gotta sit down and wait this out. Right? Come on Stefano, I'm reckoning we can crack-a-lack on with practising some new moves?" Stefano's sad puppy like eyes regained their posture as he grew excited over the prospect of new moves to learn. He waddled away happily and much more relaxed.
Alex watched the group detach as he leant against the cold metal of the train and breathed out a heavy breathe. Gia took a seat beside him and nothing was said until Alex broke the awkward silence.
"How you feeling?" he asked, looking into her entrancing eyes.
Gia smiled. "Good, I just hope we get this train moving soon." She just about seemed done but she suddenly jumped out with a few more words. "-Alex I," she stared at her feet and then to the sky "well, nevermind."
"What? You can tell me anything."
"I don't think it's the right time anyway, with the-… What was that?" her ears pricked upwards and she shot up onto her feet. Alex on the other hand stumbled up, clambering for something to hold onto.
A loud shout was heard from the town, barely comprehensible but Alex could tell it was one of the penguins. The echo grew faint but he could just pick out two words. His face and stomach dropped as he turned to Gia and mouthed the unfortunate phrase: Man Down.
I felt like coming back to doing some stories and after just seeing the third Madagascar I thought why not? On a side note if enough people enjoy this story I wouldn't mind it if someone suggested a few proper English names, call them oc's if you will (I need to name three of the six dancing dogs ;)) Anyway, enjoy!