Author's note: Hello ^_^, here's the next chapter to the story. Thank you for all the reviews. I even got my first flame. lol. This chapter changes from three perspectives. First it's Julien's, then it's Kowalski's, and finally Skipper's. Julien has normal thoughts because to him he speaks normally. Now on to the story, but first, the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, Dreamworks and Nickelodeon do. Am I sad because of that? Not when they give me dialog like this:

Skipper- I have four words to say to you.

Julien- I love King Julien?

Skipper- Yes, I mean no!

XD


Chapter 3: Mission Status: Compromised

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and a very happy and satisfied lemur king was sitting on his throne overlooking his kingdom. His loyal Royal Adviser was to his right gently fanning him while annoying bothersome Mort was tied to a rock somewhere. It didn't matter where, so long as he didn't ruin King Julien's good mood.

"You sure do seem to be in a good mood today, Your Majesty," replied Maurice snatching King Julien's attention away from the penguin habitat.

"Hm?"

"Did anything special happen last night?" King Julien's ears perked up and his eyes went slightly wider for a moment before answering.

"What? No, I'm just really excited for tonight's big party." The aye-aye seemed satisfied with the answer and went back to gently fanning his king. King Julien shifted his gaze back onto the penguin exhibit. The penguins were doing what they usually did before the zoo opened for the day. Checking if any field trips were planned for the day, making sure they looked cute enough, hiding away anything classified, yadda yadda. King Julian didn't really care about that. He only paid attention because he wanted to watch him work. But he wasn't with them today.

This is so boring to watch. Come on Skipper, come on out already. It was five minutes to opening and there was still no sign of him. King Julien frowned. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to do it three times last night. King Julien pushed that thought out of his head. No, Skipper is tough, he just needs to build up more stamina for sex. He has enough of it for other stuff.

Just then he noticed Skipper coming up from their HQ to join the others. His waddle was slightly off. A smile worked its way onto his face as he turned to face Maurice.

"That's enough fanning for now, Maurice. I needs to get ready for all my adoring publics." With that he got up from his throne and started stretching. "Where is my boomy-box so I may be getting jiggy with it?"

"It's over here, King Julien!" came the high pitched voice of the annoying one.

"Mort, what did I tell you earlier!?" shouted King Julien down to the source of his aggravation, who had escaped from his bindings and was now near the bouncy house.

"Shut up a little?"

"So why are you still talking to me?"

Mort then smiled and went to fetch the boom-box to bring to King Julien. He saw Maurice roll his eyes but didn't pay much attention to it.

"Hurry up Mort, the zoo will be opening any minute now. I cannot be keeping the fans waiting."

"I'll go help him bring it up here," said Maurice as he jumped down to ground level and walked over to where Mort was slowly dragging the boom-box. From high up on his perch, King Julian watched them with mild interest until his attention once again shifted to the penguin habitat. The penguins seemed to be arguing about something. Or more accurately, the three penguins were arguing with Skipper. King Julien felt his brow furrow in curious anger. Why are they fighting with Skipper? He's their leader, they should be following his every command.

Just then the shortest penguin noticed King Julien watching them and alerted the others. Within a second they were all starting at him. King Julien's face had gone blank as his eyes instantly went to Skipper's face. He was clearly upset about something. Just then the zoo bell rang signaling the opening of the zoo. Skipper said something to the others and they took their spots lined up in a row. Mort and Maurice placed the boom-box next to King Julian.

"Is something wrong King Julian?" asked his adviser.

"No, I mean yes! You didn't bring me my boomy-box fast enough! Now you both will have to do extra dancy time as punishment!"

"Yay! I like dancing."

"Mort, shut up."


Earlier that day...

Skipper was sleeping soundly as his men watched on from around the table. They had woken up to find out their leader had cancelled their morning drills.

"You guys deserve a break," he had said. "Now go enjoy yourselves. I'll be up a bit later."

This kind of behavior was odd for Skipper. In fact he had been acting rather peculiar for some time now. Rescheduling on a whim, his sudden changes in mood, his increased paranoia and secrecy, and of course the waking up late at least once a week.

Kowalski couldn't put his finger on it but something was definitely wrong, and it needed investigating. After Skipper had gone back to sleep, he got Private and Rico to join him in a meeting to discuss possible reasons for their leader's behavior. And so there they sat, worried about what he could be keeping from them.

"Do you really think Skippah is keeping something from us, K'walski?" asked Private, clearly the most concerned over their sleeping leader.

"I wish that wasn't the case, but the facts clearly indicate that something is making Skipper act this way. Now, I've compiled a list of possible causes for his behavior that I will now read." Kowalski picked up his notebook and flipped to a specified page showing of a crudely done drawing. "Likely scenario number one: Skipper has been replaced by a clone sent here by the evil Dr. Blowhole to steal my genius inventions so he can conquer the world!"

The other two just stared at him.

"What, it's possible. 57.8% possible to be precise."

Rico gave a sarcastic, "Ahuh" and Kowalski moved on to his next theory.

"Okay, scenario number 2, Skipper has acquired super powers and has become a late night crime fighter, fighting villainy and evil as, Mr. Tuxedo."

The other two gave Kowalski another incredulous stare. "Oh come on, it explains everything! He's tired from fighting crime, his moods fluctuate because of all the horrors he's seen on the job, and he reschedules training so he can go fight crime or he's unsure if he can hide his powers from us."

Private spoke up. "Yes, well, that's a nice explanation, but don't you think we would have heard something on the news about a superhero penguin?"

"Alright, fine, what do you guys suggest is wrong?" asked Kowalski exasperated at having all his hard thought out scenarios rejected.

Private lowered his head. "I dunno..."

"Julien," muttered Rico.

"Julien?" said Kowalski and Private in unison. They were both confused as to what he had to do with Skipper acting weird, and why Rico would even suggest it. In the background Skipper gave what sounded like a contented sigh. All three penguins turned to look at him, making sure he hadn't woken up. After a few moments passed, they turned their attention back to Rico for an explanation. He then regurgitated a rolled up piece of paper onto the table. Rico unrolled it and handed it to Kowalski.

"This is...the treaty that Skipper and Julien signed half a year ago."

"Ahuh," said Rico in confirmation. The paper had no words as penguins couldn't read or write, so it used drawings instead. It was a contract stating that they would help out King Julien whenever he was in trouble in exchange for him not partying at all hours of the night without an advanced notice to zoo residents. It also had other provisions like no more using the skunks for evil schemes or declaring Jungle Law.

"So, you think Julien is forcing Skipper to do something because of this treaty?" asked Kowalski after looking down at the very bottom of the contract where there were a flipper and paw print. Rico nodded his head.

"So then Skippah doesn't really go play cards with Julien every week? He goes and has to do whatever Julien wants?" Private asked horrified.

"It would appear so. This fits into scenario 25 and makes perfect sense. In fact, he did act strange when he came back from having it signed..."

Private's eyes widened considerably. "Does this mean he's been hiding this from us for half a year?"

They all thought back on the last six months and realized that Skipper had been acting strange all that time, it had only been plainly visible for the last three weeks. A wave of guilt hit the three for failing to notice the suffering of their leader.

"But...why would Skippah do this? Why not tell us?" asked Private. He seemed hurt that Skipper didn't think he could be trusted with his secret.

"He most likely didn't want us worrying about him. He wanted to shoulder this burden on his own. He would deal with Julien's obnoxiousness so that the rest of the zoo didn't have to. Truly we are not worthy of his selfless leadership!" proclaimed Kowalski with fiery passion.

"We can't let him do it anymore. We have to tell him we'll find a way to handle Julien so he doesn't have to anymore."

The other two agreed. They would talk to Skipper as soon as he woke up. Rico swallowed the contract and they went up top to prepare for the day. Private stopped to look back at Skipper before following the other two. Kowalski noticed this and knew what Private was thinking.

How are we going to talk to Skipper about this?


Skipper woke up with a slight pain in his lower back region. Ugh, three times. THREE FREAKING TIMES! I'm going to kill that lemur first chance I get. He gently got out of his bed and took a look around HQ. No one's here. They must have gone top side already. A look at the clock on the wall showed three minutes until opening time. I better get my tail feathers in gear or I'm going to be late!

He saw the others getting things ready for opening. Private was checking his reflection and making cute faces, Kowalski was looking over his notes, and Rico had just finished swallowing what appeared to be a DVD case. He waddled over toward them, trying not to let the pain in his backside force him to waddle oddly.

"Good morning boys, I see you all managed to get ready without me," he smiled at them. The three turned to him with mixed expressions. Private looked nervous and upset. Kowalski was anxious and jittery. Rico, well, he was the calmest but there was still a sense of concern radiating off of him.

"What's the matter with you three? You look as if you've been sentenced to a trip to the vet." He still got no response. He shifted his gaze between the three of them. "Well, what's wrong? Come on, out with it."

"Well you see, Skipper... it's just that..." Kowalski tried to explian.

"We know about you and Julien," said Private in a timid voice.

The whole world seemed to stop the moment those words came out of Private's beak. Skipper's eyes bugged out and his entire body stiffened. How did they find out? Did they follow me? How much did they see? What do they think of me? Who else knows? What's going to happen now?

In the calmest voice he could muster, he asked "How did you find out?" The three look at each other and then Kowalski spoke.

"Well you've been acting weird all month so we figured something had to be wrong."

I knew I shouldn't have indulged in Ring-tails wishes and just done it whenever he got horny!

Kowalski continued. "The mood swings, the sleeping in, no longer being able to keep to a schedule, and the weekly meetings with Julien. It's obvious what you've been up too."

Skipper looked down at the ground. So they found out. Next will come the barrage of questions about the relationship.

"You don't have to do anything for him, Skippah," said Private stepping forward. Skipper raised his head angrily.

"What if I like doing it?" The other three looked at him with surprise.

"Then let us help you out. You shouldn't have be Julien's slave just so the rest of the zoo can be at peace." Private didn't like it when Skipper was upset.

"Huh?" said a confused Skipper.

"That's right, whatever Julien is forcing you to do because of the treaty, we'll gladly endure with you." Kowalski added. Rico nodded in agreement.

They don't know me and Julien are a couple. They think he's making me do something for him. Using some quick thinking, he seized on their misconception.

"No, I agreed to the treaty, so it's my cross to bear. I don't want you guys getting dragged into this too."

"But Skippah, we want to help you. Can't you see what Julien is doing to you? We don't even know what he's doing to you and we know it's bad!" Private pleaded.

"No you don't! This is none of your business so just drop it! I don't want to hear any more about this!"

"But Skippah..." Private was on the verge of tears.

"Private is right, we can't let you keep going on like this." Said Kowalski with a forceful tone. Skipper narrowed his eyes at him and the taller penguin backed off a bit.

"Listen up because I'm only telling you guys this once. Julien is not forcing me to do anything I don't want to do. What we do is classified and it's going to stay that way. I know you're worried about me but there's no reason to be. I can handle this myself." And with that Skipper hoped to end the conversation. All three had gone quiet.

"Are you sure Skipper?" asked Kowalski.

"Yes, contrary to what you believe, Julien does not have me on a leash."

"So how come he's looking at us angrily right now?" asked Private looking off into the distance. They all turned at looked at the lemur. His angry expression melted away and turned blank. His eyes were focused primarily on Skipper. Just then the zoo bell rang. He broke eye contact and turned back to face his comrades.

"We'll talk about his later. We have a job to do." The lined up and waited for the first zoo guests to reach their habitat. Off in the distance he could hear Julian yelling at his subjects over something. Well at least I'm not the only one having a bad day then. A second thought crossed his mind. What do I come up with to fix this mess?

He sighed. "Remember boys, cute and cuddly."


Well another chapter done, and with no real idea as to where it's headed. I just sat down and wrote what came to mind. What's next then? That I do have planned XD A flashback to what Skipper told the others on the night he and Julien first kissed, plus some Christmas time flirting (that means the story is currently set in late May). Also, Marlene finally shows up. I know, her first appearance in the story and it's in a flashback. Go figure. Remember to leave a review if you have the time.