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.

Hey guys! I've just been so busy for the week, but I finally squeezed enough time to watch the newer episodes of PoM. I can't believe I only watched Otter Woman last weekend, I missed so much! Thanks so much to CalmKlawd for the help with this chapter, and to reviewers xxAznPenguin, The Darkly Angel (ty!), hardrocker21 (yes you did spell it right 8] ) lemurqueen (I know right? *squeals*) Soft Kitty [DrunkenTavern], and to Skystar Leader of FlameClan. Oh well, on to chapter!

~Triksterr206, DrunkenTavern Juniors

Chapter XIII: Desperate Alliance

It was late, but he paid no attention to the hours dwindling by. None of it mattered anyway, as he didn't feel sleepy or tired. No, for him, sleep could wait, for he had something more pressing to attend to. He sighed as he eased himself in his chair, metallic and cold to the touch, but extremely comfortable for him. His right flipper rested on his clipboard, a half-completed blueprint of a new invention on its surface, a pen sitting idly beside it. His left was on the arm of his chair, balancing his slowly drooping head, and leaving it only if he needed to pick a snack from the bucket of fish placed conventionally beside his flipper. The others were probably asleep, snoozing in their bunks, and paying no attention whatsoever to what he was doing. Well, if he was doing anything at all. The light from the gigantic screen in front of him cast an eerie glow over him, making him look almost ghostly in appearance. He sighed deeply, his artificial eye unblinking, as he reminisced once again.

It had been a while after his defeat at Skipper's hands, but the thing that bothered the mad dolphin was the way he moved, with uncanny speed and determination, so assured of himself. But this time was different, for Skipper was even more determined, if that was even possible, to complete his mission, which was saving his 'friend' and absolutely ruining an invention that took him months to perfect. For that, he vowed revenge, but the plan on revenge wasn't working out so well, in fact it was all piling up. Revenge on the humans, that stupid 'trainer' of his at the aquarium, Skipper, his team, and, of course, that traitor lemur. He all had plans for these, most of which included drowning and boiling, but some of which involved incinerating, beheading, using Chrome Claw again, or perhaps experimenting with the so called 'boring to death' tactic used by Kowalski countless times. Although all these elaborate plans of execution were all catalogued on his database, he had something special planned just for the lemur.

His reverie was broken as the blue screen turned red, and an alarm blared all around him. Instantly alert, he sprang from his chair as he reached for his stroller and landed on it in one smooth fluid motion. He looked to his right as he heard scuttling, but upon seeing nothing, looked down instead to see one of his own personal henchmen striding up to him.

"Master, there's an intruder alert and security breach on levels B-4, B-7, and A-1!"

Blowhole snarled and pressed a button on the control panel before the metal chair. A camera feed appeared on it, showing lobster henchmen moving out to the breached areas, bloodshot-eyed and annoyed. He pressed another button, and saw a gaping hole on the wall, the edges still smoldering, clearly from a controlled explosion. He pressed the same button, and saw a number of lobster servants unconscious in the hallway. He turned to the servant behind him, glassy eyed as he stared at his unconscious brethren. His mouth was open wide in disbelief, and Blowhole had to growl to get his attention.

"Take the 3rd and 4th patrols up to the breaches, take the 2nd to secure every entrance and exit, I don't want anyone getting out, and then send the 1st to deal with the intruder!"

"The 1st? T-the Cl-claws Master?" stuttered the crustacean.

"OF COURSE THE CLAWS YOU IDIOT! I DIDN'T APPOINT YOU RED ONE JUST FOR YOU TO BACK INTO THAT BLASTED SHELL OF YOURS IN AN ATTACK! NOW DO WHAT I TELL YOU TO DO! IS THAT CLEAR?"

The henchman quickly nodded his head with much difficulty, and scuttled off toward the doors and out the control room while Blowhole turned to the panel and flicked through the security cameras, trying to decipher who the intruder is. The loud, shrill blare of the alarm echoed off the stone walls of the control room, but it did not distract the dolphin for even a second. Crustacean henchmen, some unconscious or dead, he didn't care which, briefly flashed across the screen. He heard an explosion somewhere above him as he clutched his chair to prevent him from falling over. He snarled again, and did a quick calculation as he pressed another button, and found the camera that was positioned in the area. Upon finding it, his eye went wide as he caught the sight of several figures moving in the thinning smoke.

*Somewhere else…*

The sudden sound of the alarm almost caused Kowalski to scream out loud, and he had to clamp his beak shut with his flippers to stifle the scream. He glanced at his companions, who were staring at him in surprise, until he calmed down and jumped into the entrance that Rico was kind enough to provide, the other following suit. They moved along the hallways until Kowalski found it: a metal grille, which was bolted with nails and hinged on the right side. He wordlessly signaled Rico and Private over, as the two nodded in response and shot forward, hiding behind a column protruding from the wall. Rico started to pull the corner of the grille, grunting in effort, but it didn't budge. Snarling in exasperation, he regurgitated a crowbar and stuck it in the corner, pushing against it, straining, as it came free with a loud clanking noise. Private nimbly jumped in and gave the 'all clear' signal. Rico and Kowalski followed, the intellectual shutting the grille behind him. The others were already moving up the ventilation shaft, and Kowalski had to speed up considerably to catch up with them. He glanced at an opening and caught a patrol of eight drowsy, red-eyed henchmen passing the grille. They made it past, but the one henchman in the rear caught sight of the crooked grille, and signaled the others as he came close to investigate it. Likewise, Kowalski signaled Rico to take them out quickly, lest they lose their cover. Nodding maniacally, he quickly regurgitated a prototype invention of Kowalski's own design. Looking like a metallic pancake, it was specially designed to release a high-pitched whine, on a frequency low enough to prove harmless to penguins, but would prove to be a nightmare to the crustacean henchmen, incapacitating them for hours. Rico tossed it down; right behind the distracted lobsters as it lit up and turned red, releasing the whine. The lobsters clutched their head and snarled, but it proved futile as they crumpled a few seconds later. Private sniffed, pitying the unconscious sentries, as Rico scoffed at his weakness and gave him a hard slap across the head. Kowalski continued, with the two following behind him. They moved as fast and silently as they could, wanting to get away before more guards were alerted. They caught sight of a few more patrols as they moved past, but none were aware of their presence. Rico poked at Kowalski and did a begging gesture, as Kowalski stared at him for a few seconds before realizing that Rico wanted to beat them up. Kowalski shook his head and looked at him sternly, as he whined in disappointment. The minutes dragged by, and so did the patrols, with Rico whining more loudly with each patrol they passed. Kowalski felt something poking his side again, and grunted exasperatedly before seeing Private beside him.

"Kowalski," he whispered, trying to ignore Rico's grumbling as another patrol passed. "Do you think we are doing the right thing? I'm really worried about Skipper; maybe he's gone too far. I mean Marlene and everything-"

"Private, you've got to understand." Kowalski whispered harshly. "Skipper doesn't know what he's doing, but we have no other choice but to do this mission!"

"I know Kowalski but-" Private began, but a loud explosion boomed beneath them.

Caught off guard by the boom, the two looked behind him as they heard Rico laughing maniacally. The psycho in question was next to a metal grille, regurgitating another bomb and preparing to throw it down.

"NO RICO!" Private and Kowalski shouted simultaneously.

"Awww" Rico whined loudly and swallowed the bomb again after putting it out.

"Rico what did you do that for?" Kowalski demanded exasperatedly. "Now our cover's blown!"

Rico did a shrugging gesture, as if to say 'they deserved it'. Kowalski growled in annoyance as he heard scuttling coming in their direction, no doubt having seen the open grille.

"Too late!" Kowalski exclaimed, before staring at Rico sternly. "Well Rico, it looks like you got what you wanted!"

Rico started to chuckle evilly as he heard a scuttling sound quickly approaching their location, as anything Kowalski said that didn't have to do with fighting fell on deaf ear holes.

"This isn't a stealth mission anymore!" Kowalski said, stretching his flippers and legs. "It's time to bring it to them with the speed of light and with the force of an atomic bomb!"

Rico grunted in agreement, understanding the tone of his voice without having to comprehend the words, and was getting ready to spring. Private smiled at Kowalski, and followed the intellectual's movements.

'He's becoming more and more like Skipper everyday! Well, without that atomic part that is!' he thought to himself, as he placed his left flipper over his head and stretched it, as the scuttling sound grew ominously close.

Rico was the first to spring, a fierce war cry erupting from his beak, which caught the patrol off guard. They cried in surprise as the bulk of the maniac crashed into scarlet shells, and as the two joined in the attack. Rico babbled crazily as he picked one up by the tail and swung him in a wide arc, catching Private and several goons. Private was slammed against a wall, with several lobsters meeting the same fate. Kowalski glared at Rico in disbelief as Private started to rise.

"Crikey Rico!" Private wheezed, clutching his sides before countering a punch from a recovering henchman beside him.

A barely audible grunt which faintly sounded like 'sorry' escaped from the war machine, not even looking at Private as he regurgitated something that fell right into the center of the regrouping guards. Rico turned and covered his ears, with the other two realizing it and doing the same. A flash of pure white and a deafening howl came from behind them as the crustacean guards cried out in agony. The light and whine died away as Rico turned and slammed the nearest lobster into the ground. Kowalski dodged the clumsy strike of one of the guards and countered with a blow to the unarmored underbelly and another one to the head, knocking him out. Private charged, but was caught by Rico's strike, sending him flying backwards. Rico didn't bother apologizing, clearly oblivious to everything except the fight. A few seconds later, all members of the patrol lay unconscious on the ground, as Private picked himself up, not even hitting anyone. Rico was still chuckling to himself, as began kicking the unconscious guards. Kowalski put a flipper around Private and looked at him with concern, analyzing his medical condition at the same time. He shook his head in disgust at Rico, as he wordlessly signaled him over. The maniac complied, and he came over, kicking bodies along the way. Kowalski gave an order to move out, but before he even completed it, they were bathed in silvery-white smoke, so sudden, it caught them by surprise. They all coughed as the smoke started to thin, as they saw Rico holding a portable electric fan and pointing it at the smoke, which began to thin quickly. Globs of digestive fluids splattered on the two as the blades spun, as Private retched and shivered before wiping it off.

"Yuck Rico!" Private started, but gasped as he caught sight of three figures moving amidst the thinning smoke.

The figures were crustacean in form, but it proved to be more dangerous and menacing as the smoke cleared completely. The lobsters were similar to the ones they just knocked out in size, but that didn't make them any less intimidating. Their entire shells were painted midnight-black, with several shiny, lightweight metal plates adorning the chest, claw, and back carapaces secured by strips of grey cloth. The one in the center wore a charcoal- black robe, clearly tailored for his use, which definitely concealed an unknown array of weapons he was carrying. Each of them sported a grey colored, triangular-shaped piece of cloth around their mouth area, and carried a miniaturized katana in their left claw, razor sharp and deadly. Kowalski was awed by these figures, as he caught the sight of a crude caricature of that face, artificial eye and all, on their chest plates, Blowhole's insignia, which confirmed their identity, and his worst fears: they were the fabled Claws of Blowhole, the mad dolphin's own personal cadre of Ninja Lobsters. They had a legendary reputation of being master assassins, scouts, infiltrators, and escape artists, and were known for their skills in fighting and weaponry, which were on par or even superior to that of Skipper's skills. Kowalski took great relief in knowing that the only thing they lacked was numbers, with only a mere two dozen of them as accomplished Claws and the lengthy and hazardous process of training, which more often than not led to the unfortunate death of many a lobster. This made them much more loyal to their mad master, and they answered directly to Blowhole, and to Blowhole alone. Luckily, Blowhole rarely deployed them on the field, and when he did, he only did so for missions of dire importance. Kowalski considered their organization to be the single best creation Blowhole ever created, even more successful than the mutated Chrome Claw, even wondering whether the allegations of Blowhole having them mutated to further enhance their already incredible powers were true.

"Oh no Galileo" Kowalski whispered in awe.

The eyes perched on their stalks were unblinking, staring only at the intruders, sizing up and analyzing the penguins. Kowalski was too awed to do the same, as his eyes fell on the robed one in the center; he tried to remember every detail he recorded from every possible source he could find concerning the Claws of Blowhole, which was an almost impossible feat at best. They were almost non-existent, for Ninjas were taught and trained to never leave a trace and were extremely thorough; minimizing anything Kowalski or anyone could research on. The robed assassin met his eyes, as the intellectual summoned up the will power to get his mind working. The one in the robe was obviously a grandmaster, a rare sight, and that which shook Kowalski to his core. He broke the gaze and looked to his right, and saw Private shaking in fear, but he gasped when he saw Rico still smiling, a grin forming on his face which made the scar on his beak stretch wide. Kowalski was both shocked and appalled that he didn't even show even the slightest trace of fear or awe. He glanced back at the figures in front of him, and upon noticing the maniac's smile, slightly raised their weapons.

Rico's response was immediate, as he quickly regurgitated a lit bomb that flew with such force at the assassins it was but a blur. The robed crustacean responded even faster, drawing his katana high and, using the blunt side of his blade as a baseball bat, deflected it back. Rico's eyes opened wide as the deflected bomb smashed and exploded upon Private, who was hurled backward onto the wall. The duo were astonished at this feat and barely reacted in time as the two lesser ninjas leapt into action, their robed leader still keeping his stance, the katana above his eyes. Rico quickly regurgitated a metal baseball bat and brought it up just in time to parry the deadly strike, and began to exchange blows with his assailant. Kowalski brought his flippers together as if clapping, catching the flat sides of the blade before they cut him in half. His combat training coming quickly to him, he yanked forward, moving his belly to the side as the lobster sprawled toward him, refusing to let go of his weapon. Kowalski raised his brows expectantly, but that fleeting moment of victory vanished as the crustacean released the weapon before he could topple over, and placed a claw on the metal floor and used the momentum to spin in a multiple legged cartwheel. The tall penguin quickly dodged the falling tail before thrusting the katana to behind him in an intimidating gesture, but only to have it embed itself on the wall and almost impaling the recovering Private. He tugged at the handle, wondering why it wouldn't budge, and turned around to see it stuck in the wall. Smiling uneasily and with no time to say 'Oops', he met eyes with his foe, who quickly drew small twin knives very similar to the ones human use when peeling vegetables and were obviously pillaged from a kitchen, and raised them in a defensive stance. Kowalski backed up a couple steps, and grabbed the handle of the katana still protruding from the wall, two inches from Private's face, and tried to yank it out again as the ninja charged. Kowalski tugged harder, but it wouldn't come loose, so it forced him to weave in and out of the strikes of his opponent. Catching his foe's outstretched claw, he delivered a swift but powerful kick to its unarmored head, sending him sprawling in pain. He glanced at Rico, still exchanging blows with his attacker, before he regurgitated a hollow block that smashed against the started ninja's face, breaking in half with a smashing sound before it crumpled unconscious.

"Oooh my head…" came Private's voice, as he tried to stand as Kowalski helped him up.

Rico turned to Kowalski and with one careless pull, yanked the katana free. Kowalski turned to analyze Private's condition, but was tackled by the young penguin as a six-edged blade in the shape of a star, a shuriken, whizzed at the spot Kowalski's head was a moment ago. He turned his head to see the robed figure drawing more weapons from his tattered coat and throwing them with unerring speed and accuracy at the trio. Rico raised the stolen katana and was barely able to deflect the thrown blades before they sank themselves in him. The strategist stared at the grandmaster, placing his claw in his robe before withdrawing it with a knife or two in it and throwing it with uncanny aim at the three, and all in a space of less than a second, making his movements blur and distort, and Rico was hard pressed to deflect it all. Kowalski realized it was a futile situation, as the ammunition of the master assassin seemed inexhaustible, with him slowly stepping forward with each knife, shuriken, blade, or piece of glass thrown, and as the ninja Kowalski kicked began to rise and draw his blades again.

"RICO!" Kowalski roared, with Private still on top him, frozen and catatonic in fear as the blades whizzed past. "CONSTRUCTION WORKER ALPHA! NOW!"

In a swift fluid movement, Kowalski threw Private off of him and seized the katana Rico released a millisecond ago, and took up his stead in deflecting the rain of blades. The psycho backed up, standing behind his commander and strategist as he began to retch and gurgle, straining to regurgitate it. Private clutched onto Rico's leg, seeking comfort even from someone as damaged as Rico. Kowalski took a quick glance behind him to see Rico's progress, but paid for his inattentiveness as a knife trimmed a few of the feathers on his face as it whizzed past, almost severing Rico's Mohawk as well. Kowalski jumped in surprise and was determined to not let it happen again, as Rico's more forced retching starting to give him a signal of when to retreat. He knew it had but a 2.27% chance of working, and he dearly wished Skipper was beside him, instead of being hung up on Marlene. Rico gave a cry of pain and determination, and Kowalski knew what it meant. In a breath of a few seconds, Kowalski ducked and twisted, as a five-foot tall, six-foot wide brick wall erupted from Rico's maw and landed in front of them, shielding them completely. While twisting, Kowalski wrapped a flipper around Rico's midsection and pulled him down before any of the blades that made it past the falling wall injured the vulnerable weapons expert. Rico quickly regurgitated a hair dryer, and handed it over to Private, who began aiming it at the wall, making the digestive fluids that bathed it from Rico's gut harden and solidify, turning as hard as concrete. The brick wall covered the entire hallway, as the trio pressed onward to the control room, not even sparing a second to look back as they shot forward on their bellies towards the room.

*Later On…*

Blowhole stared at the screen, awed by the battle that unfolded, after which he shut the screen off and snarled in frustration. He slammed his flipper on his chair, just as the metal grille from above the center of the control room fell to the ground with a clanking noise as the three penguins descended. Blowhole snarled again and eyed the intruders. The scarred penguin regurgitated an object, which fell on the control panel, and a few seconds later, emitted an electric shock which fried the entire mechanism. The dolphin raised his fin to shield himself from the sparks but looked at the penguins with curiosity and dislike, but paused when he realized that there were only three of them.

"Wait, where's Skipper? Surely he would want to be here when he gloats over another victory hmm?"

"Skipper's not here right now Blowhole, but we wanted to have a word with you." Answered Kowalski nonchalantly, even doing a few gestures with his flipper

"Oh is that so? Well, what do you want peng-you-ins?"

"We just have a proposition for you Dr. Blowhole!" Private exclaimed happily, apparently trying to seem nice to the dolphin, even talking as if they were close friends who wanted to draw unicorns on construction paper, so sugary was his tone.

"A proposition?" Blowhole said, clearly intrigued. "Now what is it that you want to propose, my dear peng-you-in?"

"It's all in this file!" Private said, and at which point Blowhole realized this was his usual way of talking, but who was also convinced it was fake. "Rico, if you'd be so kind!"

The penguin in question regurgitated a brown folder sealed in a plastic bag for cleanliness' sake, and unzipped it and handed it over to the dolphin as he stooped to pick it up. Blowhole stared at them for a while, clearly suspicious of their motives, but gazed at the folder in his fin. He eyed them again, and saw Private nodding at him as he placed his other fin on the other side and opened it the other way as he moved his face away from it, and holding it as if it were a bomb. A few seconds later, he shook it a little to be assured there was no explosive inside it, and read the file. His eye quickly widened in astonishment as he read it. The three penguins looked at him expectantly as he looked up from the document. They tilted their head to one side, just as Blowhole exploded into laughter, clutching his sides and howling with mirth. Private looked at his companions, who shrugged in response just as Blowhole recovered.

"If you-haha-think-hihi-you can even foo-fool me-hee, you're wrong!" Blowhole wheezed.

"But we aren't trying to fool you!" Private said innocently.

"Wait, what?" The madman said, choking on his ceased giggles. "Wait, you're serious!"

Blowhole looked over the file again, his eye moving so fast it was but a blur as he quickly riffed through the pages, his maw open wide in disbelief.

"You see," Private pressed on, looking up hopefully. "Skipper's been down in the dumps lately and-"

"I know, I read the file!" Blowhole snapped.

"Well, will you help us?" Private said, sounding hurt.

"Wait; allow me to straighten this out." The dolphin said, tapping his razor sharp teeth with the tip of his fin. "You want me to kidnap this 'Marlene', use her as bait for Skipper to fight and ultimately defeat me, and then she will fall in love with him, so he doesn't have to leave the zoo and everyone will live happily ever after?" He added sarcastically.

"Yup!" Rico said, nodding, but froze when his eyes fell on the bucket of fish beside Blowhole.

"Then you must be idiotic to think I would even go along with this stupid plan of yours!" Blowhole retorted, throwing the file onto the metal chair.

"We are willing to negotiate you know." Kowalski muttered, clearly insulted at Blowhole's response. "Rico, if you would do the honors!"

At this point, Kowalski glared at Rico expectantly, but saw that Rico was not paying attention, as he stared at the bucket of fish.

"RICO!"

"Huh? Ohyah!"

He regurgitated a white metallic suitcase, and approached the dolphin, which narrowed his eye in curiosity and suspicion.

"What could you possibly have to offer to get me ingrained in this pathetic plan of your-"

Rico swiftly opened the suitcase as an arctic wind escaped from it, blowing upon the dolphin. Blowhole shivered and stared at the contents of the briefcase before pulling it out. He sniffed it, analyzing it, and finding it to contain water, sugar, and a slight hint of-

"Raspberry!" Blowhole exclaimed. "That's my favorite! How could you possibly have known-"

"Lucky guess!" Private chuckled. "Go ahead! It's a Snowcone."

The dolphin eyed them suspiciously as he brushed his tongue very gently across its semi-frozen surface. Upon touching it, Private noticed his eye widen in ecstasy and delight, and couldn't help erupting into squeals and giggles. However, Rico took the chance to snatch up the fish as Blowhole was distracted, which resulted into him receiving a slap from Kowalski.

"So Doctor Blowhole" Kowalski began, stressing the title in an effort to regain the dolphin's attention, who acted like the six-year old boys Kowalski had to entertain every day at the zoo. "Will you help us?"

"Oh, I apologize. What again?"

"If you promise to aid us in this undertaking to win Skipper's heart, you will receive more of these Snowcones. Are we upon a mutual agreement?"

"Oh, yeah!" Blowhole replied absentmindedly, licking the frozen treat greedily. "I'm listening."

"YAY!" Private squealed and launched himself a foot in the air in utter delight.