Disclaimer: I do not own Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters. I do own Dany and Chloe and Chloe's parents and the idea for this story, though I had a lot of help with it from my best friend.

The moon had already set and the sun was just rising, turning the sky to a yellow-orange color. The zoo was waking up to the early hours of the beautiful summer day.

The chimpanzees settled themselves on their branch with the morning paper and a cup of coffee. The kangaroo hopped around his habitat, punching his boxing bag every time he passed it. In the gorilla exhibit, the two large beasts were enjoying their tire swing.

Over at the otter habitat, Marlene emerged from the cave. She stretched and yawned. As she looked around, she spotted her roommate near the pool. Curious, she went to join her.

"No, that won't work," she heard her mutter as she approached. "How about… No, that's stupid." Dany let out a miserable sigh.

"Something wrong?" Marlene asked.

Startled, Dany jumped and spun around. "Um… no," she stammered. "I was… just… um…" With another sigh, she confessed," I'm trying to come up with a plan to help Chloe."

"Help her?" Marlene echoed. "Why? Is she in trouble?"

"Yeah!" Dany answered.

"What's wrong?" Marlene asked, alarmed.

Dany rolled her eyes. "That toilet brush—"

"Who?"

"The new lemur king," Dany explained grudgingly. "He forbade me and Chloe to see each other. I wanted to show him that nobody tells me what to do!"

For the first time, Marlene noticed how tired Dany looked. "Have you been up all night?" she asked.

"Who needs sleep?" Dany responded, turning back to the pool and Marlene looked down to see scratches in the mud. Were those plans to… do whatever Dany wanted to do with the lemur king? "There's work to be done," Dany muttered.

Marlene watched her uncertainty. She's been at the Central Park Zoo for almost a month now, and in that time, she's only talked to Dany a few times and in those short moments, she had seemed fine. But now, there was a light of crazy in her eyes as she talked about taking revenge on the king. It unsettled her.

"Um… yeah. Good luck with that," she said quickly. "If—If you'll excuse me… I promised to meet with the penguins this morning. I'll… see you later, okay?"

Dany hardly heard the last part because she was looking at Marlene with a big grin and a twinkle in her eye. Marlene blinked.

"What?" she asked.

"The penguins!" Dany replied. "They are amazing at coming up with ingenious plans! Do you think they can help me?"

Marlene took a step back. "Um…"

"Can you take me to them?" she begged.

"I… don't know…"

"Please," Dany pleaded. "At least let me ask them if they'll help me."

After hesitating for another moment, Marlene finally nodded. "Okay," she murmured. "I'll take you to them."

Dany just barely stopped herself from jumping up and down. She was about to properly meet the penguins for the first time ever! She could hardly believe it. Chloe's gonna be so happy after I get the penguins to take care of that self entitled toilet brush!

Trying to appear calm, Dany followed Marlene out of the habitat.

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"Weapons check," the flat-headed penguin ordered, and the bird with a crazy look in his eyes started dry heaving.

Nearby, the youngest member of the team looked away. No matter how many times he witnessed this process, it still made him queasy.

A flipper appeared on his shoulder and he jumped but relaxed when he saw the tall penguin standing beside him. "We have to keep our weapons somewhere," he pointed out.

"I know," Private murmured. "But I can't get used to seeing Rico vomiting them up." He shuddered and turned his back on the scene.

Just then there was a knock from above.

"Are we expecting anyone, Skippah?" the small penguin asked anxiously.

"I don't think so. Everyone on alert, just in case. Get in your battle stations, team. I'll find out what's going on outside."

As the others got into position, the leader cautiously walked over to the ladder. Then he paused. They would expect him to climb the ladder and come through the main entrance. He needed to surprise whoever it was, so he hurried over to Private's fish trophy and pushed it open, sliding into the dark tunnel.

On the island, Dany stood beside Marlene, who was looking increasingly impatient as the moments slipped by with no answer. Dany was just wondering what was taking so long when there was a splash behind them and a flash of black and white. Then something slammed into her and pinned her down. She tried to crane her neck to see who it was, but her attacker held her head so she couldn't move in that direction.

A voice growled in her ear," Who are you and what do you want?"

Dany was too smashed to reply, but she heard Marlene gasped beside her. "Skipper! Let go of her!"

Skipper sounded surprised to see his otter friend. "Marlene? What are you doing here?"

"You told me to meet you guys here this morning," she reminded him.

"I did?" Suddenly the weight was lifted off Dany, and she stumbled to her feet. "I guess I forgot," the lead penguin admitted, rubbing the back of his neck with his flipper. "You know how it is, busy with—"

Marlene interrupted him by yelling at him, "That's no excuse to attack people for knocking on your door! You need to calm down and stop taking yourself so seriously, you nitwit!"

For a moment Skipper looked guiltily at Marlene, then turned a glare on Dany. "But who is she?" he demanded, taking a threatening step toward Dany, who backed up, feeling a mixture of fear and admiration.

Marlene slipped between her and the lead penguin. "She's my roommate," she explained. "I'm sure you've seen her around the zoo. She's been here longer than me."

Skipper looked past Marlene and eyed Dany, then nodded once. "I've seen her around. You and that young red ruffed lemur spend a lot of time together," he said to Dany.

"Chloe," the little otter told him. "She's actually why I'm here. She needs your help!"

Alarmed, Skipper exchanged a look with Marlene, who looked uneasy. But before any more could be said, suddenly the bowl on the middle of the island was pushed aside and there was a flash of black and white. At the same moment, splashing behind her distracted Dany, who spun around just in time to see a penguin with a crazed look in his eyes slip out of the water. Then the penguin jumped on her and pinned her down, growling at her.

Marlene let out a gasp as two more penguins jumped her and held her down. "Hey! What's the big idea? Get off me!"

Dany struggled in her attacker's grip, but it was useless. He had a firm hold on her.

"At ease, boys," Skipper ordered gently but with authority. "These two have granted clearance."

Instantly, his team let go of the otters and appeared beside Skipper. "I asked Marlene to meet us here this morning," the lead penguin announced. "And she brought her roommate… um…" He hesitated, pointing to Dany, indicating that she should introduce herself.

Suddenly very shy, which was unusual for her, she stammered," I... um... my name is Dany... I'm... um... an otter..."

"No way, an otter?" Skipper turned to his teammates and rolled his eyes, adding to Dany," I had no idea!"

"Um... sorry..." Dany lowered her eyes and shifted her feet, a wave of embarrassment washing over her.

"Don't be sorry, he's a jerk," Marlene told her, glaring at the lead penguin.

"Gee, thanks for that, Marlene," the flat-headed bird muttered crossly.

"Anytime." Marlene grinned.

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