Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters, but I do own the penguin Alex in this story.

Trying to calm his racing heart, Jack glanced around. They were hiding behind a bounce-house, and he could see a pedestal that seemed to have some kind of chair on it. He turned to Skipper when he heard the leader say they were in the lemur habitat. He expected to see one of the creatures come out and question what they were doing here; none of them came out though and he was starting to wonder where they were. Then he looked closer at the platform and could see three tails moving from side to side. He could also hear the faint sound of music.

Were they dancing?

He turned back to his friends when he realized that the lemurs hadn't noticed they were in their home. Jack noticed that Skipper was trying to listen to what was going on over the wall. He gently pushed past Alex and Mark, and he stopped beside the flat-headed penguin, trying to listen as well. Although he couldn't hear anything.

"What can you–"he tried to ask, but Skipper covered his beak, glaring at him. Just then the sound of footsteps came from the other side of the wall. Jack stared wide eyed at Skipper as the leader stepped back from him and looked up at the zookeeper who was just visible over the wall.

"Now where did they go?" she growled, glancing around.

Skipper gestured to everyone to get against the wall, and they did. Jack found it hard to breathe as he waited for the human to do something.

Then he heard Alice sigh and muttered," Whatever. I don't care." And with that, the footsteps started up again, slowly getting fainter and then vanishing.

Still it was a while until Jack let out a sigh of relief and turned to Skipper, who was looking up at the wall. "Let's be thankful that Alice isn't good at her job," he commented. Everyone murmured an agreement.

"What are you all doing in my kingdom?"

All the penguins spun around, and Jack found himself staring at the ring tail lemur who had come by the penguin habitat the day before. He had his arms crossed and he was looking at the penguins with his eyebrow raised as he leaned sideways a little.

Alex took a step forward as if she was about to say something, but before she could, Skipper pushed her back, knocking her into Mark, who saved her before she fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry for just barging in on you, Ringtail," the lead penguin said. "But we had an emergency. We had nowhere else to go."

The lemur suddenly looked interested as he uncrossed his arms and leaner closer to Skipper. "What kind of emergency?"

Skipper glared at the ring tail lemur. "That's classified information," he said, pushing the taller animal away. "Now we are leaving." He jumped on the wall, but within heartbeats he fell back onto the ground and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked, walking to him.

"We have to wait til the zoo closes before we leave," the leader explained, sounding really annoyed about that. "There are too many humans around."

Jack and Mark exchanged glances. Then Mark took a step forward and asked," When will you be able to get us back to normal?"

"As soon as possible," Skipper promised. "Kowalski is working on it as we speak. I'm hoping by the time we get back he will be done with it. I just want all of this to be over with." He sighed and sat down.

You and me both, Jack thought as he sat down as well. If MatPat is looking for us, I'm sure the others are too.

He watched the tall lemur study them, noticing he kept his eye on Alex the most. Then he remembered her telling them that he was a king and she was his subject, but Skipper doesn't like her being ordered around by the lemur. Jack watched the animals for a while, curious as the lemur walked over to Alex and started talking to her.

"I missed you at my party last night," the king remarked, staring down at her as if he blamed her for her absence.

Alex hung her head and stared down at her feet. "I'm sorry, King Julien," she murmured.

Skipper jumped to his feet and stormed over, pushing the lemur away from his daughter. "Stop treating her like one of your subjects!" he yelled.

Anger flashed in the lemur's eyes as he faced Skipper. "She made a promise to me to be loyal to me," he told him. "And why shouldn't she be? I'm the king and can have whoever I want as a subject!"

The penguin opened his mouth to reply, but Alex stepped in between them. "Please stop," she pleaded.

Skipper and the lemur glared at each other for a moment longer, before Skipper grabbed his daughter's flipper and started dragging her toward the wall. "We are leaving now!"

"But I thought you wanted to wait till all the humans left," Alex protested.

"I just want to get away from him." Skipper glared at the lemur before jumping over the wall, still dragging his daughter.

Jack and Mark exchanged a glance, not sure what to do. They turned to the king and saw that he was staring after the penguins with wide eyes. Then he growled under his breath and spun around, storming away without even saying anything to the Youtubers.

"I guess we should follow Skipper and Alex," murmured Mark, and Jack nodded.

They jumped over the wall, instantly hiding behind a garbage can. Jack looked out and saw the penguins' habitat in front of them. He watched as Skipper and Alex jumped through the hatch into the lair. After they made sure nobody was watching them, they dashed to the habitat and dived into the water.

Once on the island, Jack glanced around, and saw Private and Rico entertaining the humans. Not wanting to bother them, the Irish Youtuber waddled over to the fishbowl and pushed it aside. He started climbing down the ladder and hopped off the rest of the way, watching as Mark followed him and put the bowl back in place.

He looked around, but he didn't see anyone. He walked to the open door and looked inside. He saw Skipper talking to the tall penguin. He joined the two and noticed that Mark was right behind him.

"So, Kowalski," the leader was saying," is the machine working yet?" He sounded annoyed and tired.

Kowalski was messing with a bunch of objects on the table, and Jack could see a box looking thing beside him. "Almost," he muttered. "I just need to do a few things." He picked up a screw and put in the box, before looking over it again. "Just give me a little bit more time and it should be done."

Skipper nodded. "Just hurry up. I want all of this to be over with." He walked out of the lab, ordering the Youtubers to follow him. Jack didn't like taking orders from him, but he just shrugged and followed him with Mark right behind him.

Once they got to the main room, Jack looked around and saw Alex sitting in front of the TV. He walked over to her and asked," What are you watching?"

She glanced up at him and shrugged as she turned back to the TV. "Just some action movie about a car race," she replied.

Jack sat beside her, and he looked up when he heard footsteps. Mark was walking over to join them. He sat down on the other side of Alex, and they all watched the movie. Jack wasn't sure how much time went by nor how many cars exploded on the movie but after a while Kowalski's lab door opened and the tall penguin ran out.

Jack turned to watch as Kowalski ran to his leader. "I'm finally done with it!" he exclaimed.

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