Even Otter Things Have Happened
Plot Summary: Takes place after 'Otter Things have Happened'. Julien tries to make up with Marlene, but she doesn't want to. He enlists the help of the penguins to create a love potion for him, but things don't turn out quite right….
Disclaimer: The Penguins of Madagascar is the property of Dreamworks Animation Studios in association with Nickelodeon. I do not claim ownership of The Penguins of Madagascar.
Rated Teen (T) for Mild/Fantasy Violence, and Minor Suggestive Themes
Finally got Chapter 9 out. Writer's block really is havoc on me. Our Rookie is all better and he'll back to writing in no time! Thanks to reviewers xxAznPenguin, noname, Poette O'Deal, Hanzo of the Salamander, Anonymous (so sweet XD!), Kowalski4Evah! (Of course I did! You too!) and to HarleyQuinn (i try my best!).
~Triksterr206
Chapter IX: Subsistence
"Maurice! Maurice, be waking up now! Your King, which is I, me, and myself, am commanding you to be waking up."
Maurice jerked himself awake, through sleepy eyes; he realized night had already fallen, and that King Julien had already returned. The tired aye-aye slowly got to his feet and rubbed his eyelids with his hands, trying to shrug sleepiness off and attend to his King.
"Your Majesty, I -" Maurice started, but was cut off by a huge yawn that erupted from his mouth. "I didn't know you were home already. So how was your flower spree?"
"Good news Maurice! I am now having da appropriate number of flowers to be proposing to my Marlene!"
"Wait? What? You're proposing!"
Startled, the right-hand man turned to gaze at the lemur in awe, but Julien was nowhere to be seen. Instead, an array of flowers roughly twice as large as him greeted the startled advisor's eyes. Julien's voice came from behind the bunch as rich laughter bubbled forth.
"What are you to be expecting Maurice? Da Queen has to be married to da King, of course!"
Surprise overcame drowsiness as Maurice studied the amount of flowers Julien had collected. There were various flowers all mixed in, beautifully arranged to create a dazzling display as colors melded into an artful masterpiece. Clearly this was the reason as to why Julien had returned home so late. Sudden curiosity sprung up in his mind, and he made towards the concrete wall that separated Julien's kingdom from the rest of the zoo.
"OH DANG!"
Not many hours ago, Maurice's eyes had fallen on beautiful patches blossoming with flowers, all products of Alice's hard work and toil. Now, they were all barren, not as much as a single blade of grass on the vacant patches. Maurice slowly turned to look at King Julien, or rather, the flowers that concealed him. He was wondering how Alice would react to such an incident where the only thing that gave her boring job a little bit of color all vanished.
"I know I've said it before, but, this is not going to end well…"
*Somewhere else*
"KOWALSKI! Kowalski, we're losing him!"
Skipper's vision continued to blur as keeled over on Private, the young penguin trying his best to support his former leader's failing state. Through half-closed lids, he was able to make out Rico and Kowalski furiously attacking the mechanical behemoth while dodging its attacks. Rico weaved in and out of Blowhole's attacks, while regurgitating bombs every now and then, all which were almost ineffective against the near-invulnerable chrome plating; and Kowalski was idly jotting things down on his clipboard, looking up every now and then to dodge an incoming roundhouse or laser blast. Despite his weakness, annoyance coursed through him at the sight of Kowalski's 'combat stance'. Skipper's eyes jerked open when he saw the drill on the robot's left arm miss Rico by a feather, the psychotic penguin responding by sending a volley of bombs at the robot's behind in anger. His vision swam, and as his eyes refocused, he could see the tall form of Kowalski beside him, studying his condition.
"No! Vital signs are dropping. No, he's just lost too much blood! Rico, the serum!"
The sound of Rico's regurgitating barely registered to Skipper's near-dead senses; nor did any of the explosions, Private's worried yells, or Blowhole's snarls. He knew he could no longer deny the fact that he was going to die; that he was finally going to join Marlene in what he presumed was the next life.
"Private! Hold his head up or else he might choke on it."
Skipper felt his head slowly lifted upwards as pain radiated all throughout his system. Private was aware of all his pain, the boy could practically sense it. He slowly supported Skipper's head with a loving and gentle manner, afraid Skipper might break if he wasn't gentle. Skipper's vision refocused, his icy blue eyes meeting Kowalski's sapphire ones, and could read all the worry that the strategist now experienced. Kowalski nervously placed his flipper on Skipper's beak and slowly made to open it wider, but jerked it away as Skipper started coughing up blood. All sensations receded from his body, the numbness coming from his side replacing all feeling from his body. Every sound around him became even more distorted, and he could barely make out Private's whimpering, let alone the words Kowalski said.
"He … punctured … lung!"
What was left of Skipper's will power finally ebbed away, no longer powerful enough to keep Death from claiming the once-stalwart penguin. As his vision slowly started turning to white, he felt Kowalski's flipper on his beak, and something hot and liquid trickle down his throat. He could no longer feel the numbness that overcame him; in fact, he could no longer feel anything. All he could hear were Private's anguished cries, yelling his name; and Kowalski's whispered pleading.
"SKIPPER! SKIPPER, DON'T LEAVE ME! SKIP-HA-PER!"
With tremendous effort, Skipper turned his head, and with his last ounces of concentration, and felt himself slowly being lowered; and caught what were going to be the last words he heard before Death took him.
"It's okay Private, I'll take over. Go on, help Rico. Private, please, go on."
"NOOO! NO, I'M NOT HA-LEAVING HIM KOWALSKI! I CA-HA-N'T!"
"It's alright Private. It'll be fine, just go and help Rico. Come on…"
"BU-HUT-"
"Private! Go help Rico! That's an order!"
Skipper's body was slowly lowered and placed gently on the concrete floor. He could sense Private's departing presence as the muffled sounds of war escalated momentarily when he heard Private's distorted battle cry; he had never heard the young penguin cry out like that before. Skipper smiled inwardly at what Kowalski had done; and felt that Private was still too young to experience or even comprehend death, especially that of a loved one. This was it then, the moment at last. As frailty and weakness quickly began to take him away, he felt detached from his body. He would soon become but a mere memory to all that knew him, whether they cared for him or not. He sensed himself becoming less corporeal; the numbness in his side finally deadened his entire body, to finally carry him away. Skipper felt sorrow for leaving Private, in fact his team like this. Still, there was nothing he could do to stop it, there was no stopping Death from claiming even him. His thoughts drifted around his team, hoping that they would be able to avenge both him and Marlene. If not, well, at least they would meet again. All of his thoughts then wandered over the prospect of death, if there really was something beyond it. Well, he would soon find out. He wanted to embrace death, unafraid, and with welcoming flippers, but all that was changed when he heard a voice call his name.
"Skipper?"
Oddly, it didn't sound like Private's anguished cries nor Kowalski's pleading nor Rico's sorrowful grunts, not even Blowhole's menacing laughter; no, it sounded feminine. Only then did it hit Skipper that the voice … was Marlene's.
"Don't give up!"
A sudden current of power surged through Skipper's body and spirit with the speed of light. It ran throughout his entire form, his entire system, and throughout his very essence. His blurring vision was replaced with a blinding light, and the numbness faded into a sudden feeling of renewal. The power continued to surge inside him, building up with tremendous force, until it imploded with the force of a supernova. It wrapped itself around Skipper, a halo of purest light surrounding him. He felt renewed strength course through him, empowering his very core, the force of which made Skipper felt like his brain was going to explode with the power that now surged throughout him. All sensation of weakness and numbness ebbed away; all his thoughts about death were now filled with images of Marlene, the one who he had ever truly loved. His heart pounded rapidly, bringing life to his rapidly strengthening body. It was over as soon as it had begun, all of it happening in a time too small to be measured by any clock. Skipper jerked his eyes open, and saw Kowalski crumpled over him, sobbing onto his belly.
"His body's not accepting the serum! I've failed! I've failed…"
Skipper turned his head to the left, hoping, just hoping that... His icy blue eyes met Marlene's hazel ones, staring at him with anxiety and worry, and in that instant, sudden joy overpowered him. How wrong, how very mistaken, he was to think that Marlene had died. Yet there she was, still suspended with chains, a smile breaking over her face in pure relief. There were no words Skipper could think of to describe what he had felt to see her alive and breathing after thinking she was dead. He gasped in a lungful of air, the sudden movement alerting Kowalski to his renewed presence. He turned his head to gaze at Kowalski, whose eyes had met his, and a smile break over his stricken face.
"Kowalski!" Private shouted.
Kowalski stood and turned to see Private, but a split second later was tackled by the young penguin as a missile soared over the spot where Kowalski's head was a moment ago. Skipper became instantly alert, and made to get up, but the rest of his body disobeyed him. He could feel the surge ebbing away, but it was draining slowly, and left him paralyzed as it did so. He turned his head to helplessly watch as Rico continued his dance of destruction against the leviathan, spitting out bombs and explosives after striking the robot with his flippers, weaving in and out of the robot's assaults, trying to catch the penguin with its limbs since its other attacks were rendered useless to such close proximity. Rico maniacally laughed with each successful strike, but stopped suddenly as the hand was able to grab his left foot.
"Uh-oh…"
The robot arm lifted the startled penguin into the air, spun him around in a circle, and threw him with such force to the right, a hole in the wall marking Rico's trajectory.
"Rico!" Private and Kowalski shouted simultaneously, and charged the armored giant. Private directly engaged the behemoth, and jumped to perform a kick his adversary; but failed when a spinning roundhouse caught the young penguin in midair. The only thing that marked Private's 'departure' was a second gaping hole beside the one where Rico vanished.
"Private!" Kowalski shouted in mid-charge, dodging the roundhouse by dropping onto his belly into a slide. Skipper's eyes opened wide when the drill missed Kowalski but a few scant inches, and the strategist finally took part of the battle. Landing a quick series of kicks on the robot's midsection, Kowalski spun around it and landed on the robot's back. He then proceeded to punch it, much to Blowhole's annoyance.
"Get off of there! Hey!"
"The power source must be around here somewhere… Aha!"
Skipper helplessly watched as Kowalski tried to yank something on the robot's behind, Blowhole trying to maneuver to try and get the penguin off. Growling in impatience, Blowhole pressed a button on the control panel, and the missile launcher, fully reloaded, began to fire missile pods. Without a targeting system though, the missiles were without guidance and flew everywhere. Some of them shattered the glass of an exhibit that once contained the villainous Savio; others battered the walls, adding more holes to the right wall; most of the missiles flew in no specific direction, hitting the what once was the floor, almost hitting the paralyzed Skipper; the Reptile House entrance, even the leviathan, but due to its thick armor plating, would might as well have been thrown pebbles. However, one of the missiles soared straight ahead, and struck Marlene. Skipper shouted her name, or at least he tried to. His body continued to disobey him, and the dread that Marlene was dead returned with such force that even without the serum, he would have been paralyzed.
"Marlene!" came Kowalski's distraught voice, and he began to yank harder on the robot's rear armor plating.
He watched the smoke from the missile start to vanish, grief washed through Skipper, a gray wave that swept throughout his core. Dreading the worst, he watched it slowly ebb away. The smoke parted to reveal Marlene, unconscious but unscathed. The chains, however, taking the brunt of the blast, were blacked and battered. Sudden relief broke through Skipper, his heart relaxing from such pounding it did a few moments ago. All of the missiles spent, Blowhole irritated voice echoed throughout what was once a breathtaking attraction of the zoo.
"Gah! Enough of this!"
Skipper turned in time to see Blowhole press another button, and twin saws attached to arms suddenly erupted from hatches on its back. Caught off guard, Kowalski's grip faltered, sending him plummeting down. As he fell, the hand was able to grab him, throw him in the air, and punch him before he fell, a hole beside that of his fallen comrades marking his disappearance.
The red haze started to return to Skipper, the edges of his vision turning a deep crimson as he narrowed his eyes. Anger and fury built up inside him, overwhelming the surge that came with the serum, like a white-hot tide. Blowhole had really gone too far this time, and Skipper was sick of lying on the floor. Skipper fully embraced the fact that he now hated the mad dolphin more than anyone or anything in the world as he watched him torment the ones he cared for the most: first Marlene, then Rico and Private and Kowalski, then Marlene again. The rage reaching a fever point, Skipper resumed control of his body, and stood up, his gaze on the straightening robot. Only then did he notice he was different, very different. The red haze parted momentarily when he glanced at his reflection on a nearby tile. He was taller and bigger, his chest, flippers and legs were more muscled, and he could feel himself processing thoughts at a much faster pace. He looked down at his side and saw no more wound, no more injuries, no more bruises. Staring at his reflection on the tile once more, he saw an image of Marlene replacing that of his, smiling up at him, the words she had last spoken echoing throughout his mind.
'Don't give up!'
Well he wasn't about to. Returning his gaze to the robot, the red vision returning, Skipper watched as the robot turned around, Blowhole murmuring to himself. Catching sight of Skipper, a look of surprise flashed on the dolphin's face momentarily, before it was replaced with a mischievous grin.
"Ah, back for round two? Quite bold of you, Skipper. Hmm, a super-mutated penguin against my mechanical masterpiece, seems like a fair fight…"
Skipper said nothing, instead a snarl formed on his beak as he raised his flippers, preparing for combat that would inevitably come.