He had to be brave.

Or at least that was what Skipper had told him. To take the fear that he felt and turn it into a tiny ball of hate.

But Private couldn't hate anyone he hadn't seen.

He knew they were penguins, someone Ex-Central, possibly. They kept on referring to a Colonel White and mentioned Skipper's name a few times as well. He knew they were quite similar to each other, at least in silhouette form- they were about Rico's height, give or take. But Private had no clue who they were. They never came in his cell at the same time, probably as some sort of precaution.

Private was cold, scared. Shivering meekly in the corner. Waiting for something horrible to happen. He knew it would. Something horrid was just bound to happen again.

They hadn't been finished when he faked falling unconcious.

He hoped Skipper and the others would save him.

He had to be brave.


"Kowalski! Are you done yet?"

The scientist let out a sigh. "Skipper, I'm afraid it takes more than sixteen minutes and fifty four seconds to hack into Central's database.."

"Come on! It's been at least an hour, soldier. How's the progress?"

"I think it's only been approximately fifteen..." Kowalski winced at the death glare he was recieving from his commanding officer. "Ah, Sir? What do you want me to search for? The way the database is arranged, I can only view one file at a time, rather than pulling up multiple documents at once."

"Find a list of convicted criminals thought to be dead."

Kowalski's eyes widened. "Skipper! You don't think that-"

"Yeah, I do. Why else would we be hacking into Central? My rank isn't high enough to access this information without a warrant."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Kowalski snorted. "Ha! They really should encrypt their software! This is as easy as the first 25 numbers of pi!"

Smack! "Kowalski! Focus on the task at hand! I want Manfredi and Johnson's files up ASAP!"

As Kowalski bent over the computer, typing away at the keyboard, Skipper walked towards the hatch. "I'll go outside for a while."

It was still in the early hours of morning, and the sun's orange glow had just barely began to portrude from behind New York's skyscrapers. Skipper heard the shrill cries of birds erpupting from trees, shaking loose a shower of fall leaves.

Is there any place I'd rather be?

He had no idea how long he'd been standing there, unfazed by the brilliant light of the sun rising that morning. Please let us all be safe by the time the sun sets.

"Expect the worst, hope for the best."

"Wha-?" Skipper was violently woken from his dream-like trance by Kowalski. Had he been thinking aloud?

"That's what you used to say, back when Manfredi and Johnson were with us. They were such pessimists after they saw the bombing at Central, weren't they."

Skipper allowed himself a small smile despite the bile rising in his throat. "Those men were real nancy-cats. Nobody even died in that bombing! It was just some rouge group trying to get attention."

A faint scream that was distinctly lemur-like shattered the peaceful air of the morning.

Skipper, followed by his second in command, slid to the lemur habitat.

"Ringtail! What's your problem?"

"How many times am I to be telling you? My name is King Julien, not that silly nickname you give to me!" The slim lemur retorted. "And my problem is that I am having to be listening to you silly penguins doing your stupid fighty thing every single day!"

The self-proclaimed king stopped in the middle of his rant; the plastic volcano oozing lava was the perfect backdrop for his tantrum. "Hey, where is the violent penguin and the nicey penguin? I am giving out a royal proclomation and they must be doing the listening!"

Kowalski could feel Skipper fuming, so he let out a nervous laugh. "They're playing cards back at the HQ. We'll bring them here in just a moment, Julien! You should maybe warm up for the.. heh... royal proclomation."

"Ah, yes. I need to be doing the practice. And it's KING JULIEN to you!"

Kowalski steered Skipper away from the lemur. In his hurry, he almost tripped over Mort, who looked as if he was attempting to reach Julien's feet.

"Sad-eyes! Watch where you're innocently standing, got it?" screamed Skipper, balling up both his flippers. He was down to the last straw with how careless the lemurs could be.

Mort looked up at Skipper with a blank stare. "I saw there was only one penguin in the penguin hole so maybe I thought the other one would be here but he's not."

Skipper visibly cringed, and Kowalski practically shoved Skipper out of the lemur habitat.

Once they were back in the safety of their own HQ, Skipper let out an anguished yell.

"This is just all so frustrating! Private could be suffering terribly in the hands of penguins who have somehow come back to life! And what are we doing? Arguing with Ringtail?"

Rico, who had been brishing Miss Perky's hair, grunted in agreement, pointedly looking at Kowalski. "His fault."

"You know, Private is like a brother to all of us. Whoever took him, or got him to leave us, or whatever: they want us to do this. They want us to argue amongst ourselves and blame each other for this."

Skipper narrowed his eyes in scepticism. "I have a fairly good reason for blaming you. You're the one who suggested that Private was out playing with Lunacorns in New York. He would never do that! What on Earth were we thinking?"

"The reason I came up to the habitat was to get you down here," said Kowalski, ever the mature older brother. "I fould Manfredi's file, and I was going to pull up Johnson's as well, but..." the analyst gestured weakly towards the large computer of the HQ. "The server timed me out."

"Speak American, Kowalski."

"It'll take us three full days before we can get any data on Johnson. And one more eensy little detail." Rico dropped Miss Perky and the hairbrush and stood next to his leader, seeming alert and as paranoid as Skipper himself.

"They seem to have installed some sort of virus on our computer. I can't view Johnson's file, either."


This chapter was mostly just zoo antics and such, but Private has been captured by the infamous duo of penguins thought to be dead, Manfredi and Johnson! Kowalski seems to have tech problems as well! What will they do? Well, only I know that! Please review!

I know nothing much happened in this chapter, but next chapter will have many surprises!

As an apology for the uneventful chapter, here is a trivia question! The people who get this right get an internet cookie!

"Name the two voice actors who played Private across the Madagascar franchise."

It is a bit of a simplistic question, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Have a nice day!