Disclaimer: I do not own Penguins of Madagascar. I only own the studio... *whacked by Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell* Correction: I only own this fic...

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Shivers were racing down to his spine. Skipper never felt nervous and afraid like this. Usually when it came to women, he could handle it just perfectly. But when Marlene was in his flippers, he just wanted to protect her. He knew from the outside Marlene was all strong and defendable, but from the inside, she was as fragile as a porcelain. If somebody dare to touch her—

"Skipper, sir?"

The leader jumped in shock as he turned to his back only to see his lieutenant standing straight behind him.

"O-oh! Kowalski!" Skipper said. "I thought you were going to take the candy sacks?"

"We were, but Rico was more interested to see a couple, dancing as if this whole world belongs to them," Kowalski explained, with a grin on his face.

Skipper startled. "Wait—you were spying on us?" he asked, panicking.

"No, we weren't spying on you. Rico was the one who saw you guys walking to the dance floor," Kowalski explained. "He then elbowed me and pointed to you, and so I spotted you two dancing romantically on the dance floor. Though I don't know why Rico wasn't vomiting because mushy romance is one of his dislikes."

"You didn't see anything...," Skipper said as he moved his flippers circular.

When Kowalski stared at him flatly, Skipper sighed. "Okay, forget what you've seen," he said. "Forget and pretend it never happens."

Right after he said that, the clock tower chimed its bell, hour hand pointing at twelve o'clock. The tolling bell sound was the time the Halloween party ended. Private who was bickering with Mort to get his candy sack back suddenly turned to Skipper when he heard the tolling bell. Rico who was handling the fire crackers, heard the bell, and he stopped his activity and ran to his leader. Kowalski who was beside his leader only turned to him, waiting for an order.

"Men, move out," Skipper whispered when his men were standing in front of him.

"Time for some hunting," Kowalski muttered before they flashed out, vanished in a blink of an eye.

"Alright-y, everyone!" Julien shouted, unaware to know that there were four penguins gone to who-knows-where. "The Halloween-y party is now ends and I thank you for enjoying your time here—but before we leave, I would like Maurice to do some candy and gifts disitribution-y to the visitors!"

"It's distribution, Julien," Maurice corrected. "Okay, everyone, before you go, we would like you to stay for minute for candy and gifts distribution from the king. So please make a line."

Marlene who heard it smiled. "Did you hear that, Skipper? We'll have candy and gifts!" Marlene turned to the place where she saw Skipper the last time. But he was nowhere to be seen.

"Skipper?"

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"I feel kind of guilty for leaving the party," Private muttered.

"Why should you?" Kowalski asked.

"I don't know," Private admitted. "I just feel guilty." He paused. "Oh, Kowalski, have they send us their offering?"

"They have," Kowalski answered. "I've read it, don't worry."

The penguins—minus Skipper—were now sliding and jumping from one building to another. They were following Skipper's soul pressure, which was in front of them and they were trying hard to catch up. Skipper was moving fast, for he was a vampire. He stepped on one building, vanished, then popped out and stepping to another building. All vampires from the VIA gave him the title, 'The God of Flash.' He was moving so fast, that no one could see him with naked eye.

But Kowalski could feel his pressure. His ability to feel and see someone's souls and soul pressure was enough for him to know where exactly Skipper was. Skipper's soul was a blue fire ball, flickering with huge blaze and spreading large pressure that would make someone with low soul pressure oppressed. But the team was kind of used to it, for their soul pressure weren't that low.

Finally Kowalski spotted Skipper standing on the edge of a building. He sped off, followed by the other two, and successfully landed beside Skipper.

"Kowalski, status," Skipper muttered.

Kowalski closed his eyes for moment before opened them again. His eyes were now flashing blue, his vision changed and now he could see people's soul above the building. Now he just had to look for the dinner which the VIA had offered them.

Apparently, there was a big guy in an alley, bullying a skinny bespectacled guy. Kowalski scanned their souls. The skinny guy had low soul pressure, and the blood wasn't too tasty, anyway. But the big guy was all the opposite. His soul pressure was a bit flaring and his blood—Rico would've jumped to him and drank all of his blood by now, if he could see and feel souls.

That big guy was the guy the VIA had offer them to drink.

"Skipper, I found one," Kowalski reported. "According to the VIA, the offering they had offered us is the big guy in an alley, a criminal with that skinny person. The skinny one is not too tasty, and his soul pressure is low, which means he has not enough energy for us to absorb. But the big guy is all the opposite. Medium soul, a bit flaring, and the most of all—"

"Blood!" Rico shrieked as he licking his beak all over.

"Can we, Skipper?" Private cheerfully asked.

"Wait for it now, boys," Skipper ordered, smirk was on his face.

That night was a peaceful night. Stars were scattering around the sea of black sky and the queen of night now brightened the sleepless New York City. But that peaceful night, was interrupted by a loud unfortunate howling. The sudden howling filled the whole night, was caused by a criminal that got bitten by four small figures, saving the skinny person he was bullying. The skinny person would now live to tell the tale.

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Penguin habitat, 0055 hours...

"Where were you guys?!" Marlene shouted on the concrete ice floe, in the penguin habitat, where she waited for almost an hour for the penguins. "I was waiting here all alone!"

"Marlene?" Skipper didn't expect to see the female otter was at their habitat. "What the deuce are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you guys," she simply answered. "Oh, for the three of you—minus Skipper—I've saved three candy sacks for you." She held out three candy sacks in her paw, showing them to the quartet. The three squealed and snatched their sacks each, smiling in glee.

As the other busied themselves with their candy, Marlene approached Skipper slowly.

"Skipper, what were you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing, really," Skipper answered. "Just some recon duty for the night."

"Recon duty? You went off for almost an hour just to do your recon duty?"

"There was a small trouble back from the recon. We took care of it."

"And what is that on your beak?" Marlene pointed her paw to his beak, where she could saw a faint red stain there. "Don't tell me you drank a can of red dye."

Skipper was taken aback when Marlene pointed his beak. He lifted his flipper and touched the tip of his beak. And he could see a faint red stain from his beak. It took him seconds later to realize that the stain he saw was from their activity earlier, the stain of blood that he drank. He quickly wiped it.

"No," he said. "No, no. It's nothing."

Marlene looked at him, eyebrow raised. A moment later she sighed. "You're hiding something from me," she said. "Again," she added.

"Well, it's either for our own good, or for the world's good," Skipper said.

"What do you mean by that?" Marlene asked.

"Classified," he declared. "Now, we need to get some rest for tomorrow. Light's out, boys," Skipper said, turning around to his men. The three awed for a moment before the four of them climbed down to their HQ. Private was the last one, and as he closed the fishbowl, the light from the HQ turned off.

Marlene stood there, lost in thought. Her frowned eyebrows were sign that she was thinking. Finally she sighed, and she walked back to her habitat.

I can't tell him yet, she thought. No, this is not the time. I can't tell him now. Not yet.

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To Be Continued...

A/N:

Slow progress, huh? Yeah, I know that. Lots of homeworks and stuffs. *sighs* Being a ninth grader is kinda tough, right? I was thinking to update this next week, but I can't do that because I'll go crazy. And I'm really sorry of Julien here is kinda OOC... :P I have a lot of thoughts in my mind here...

Anyway, review!