The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 3 - Of Penguins and Fish

Skipper sat on top of the artificial ice floe and gazed into the morning sunrise. The sun had just broken over the horizon, visible only through the sparse gaps in between the towering skyscrapers that were like giants looking down on the city of New York. The sun illuminated only one side of each building with a gray but warm light. The other side remained in shadow and Skipper could see the lights of offices.

He smiled, holding up his coffee mug and taking a long drink of the warm liquid. He then took the fishtail he used to flavor the drink and swirled it around, eyes locked onto the sun. The morning sunlight reflected off his blue eyes, causing them to shimmer. They were a crystal blue, and the faint morning light caused them to glow with unusual brilliance. The the corners of the penguin's short but wide beak perked up into a slight smile as the sun warmed his chilled feathers. The feathers on his back were a dark, charcoal black but he also possessed snow white feathers on his chest and face.

Skipper quite often enjoyed to awake early, earlier than his team, and get a nice glimpse of the sunrise before the chaos of the city took over. Soon enough, sounds of sirens would be echoing up the street and into the zoo. The sounds of cars speeding away and the chatter of people walking from place to place would fill the air. His crazy neighbor Julien would be breaking into the headquarters in only a few hours. Then the zoo would fill up with guests and the penguins would be acting 'cute and cuddly.' That was life for him, and he enjoyed it. But nothing beat this: A quiet morning and a warm cup of joe.

Skipper drained the last of his coffee and happily munched on the fishtail. Then he stood, noticing that it was nearing time for his team to engage on their morning training routine. Skipper was not a big penguin, but was certainly not a small one. He stood straight and proud, carrying an air of confidence and leadership as he walked. He had, long, sleek flippers and a flattened head.

The penguin reached over his head to stretch out his back and looked at his surroundings. The zoo was small; a place of recreation in a bustling concrete jungle. It was shoved into one corner of Central Park, one of the only places left in New York to get away from the stress of everyday life. All of the exhibits were closely grouped together and winding paths that guests crowded onto divided them. No animal in the zoo had enough space for themselves; some barely had enough room to even turn around. The zoo was a pinnacle of organization, no better zoo could be built using the same amount of space.

Skipper recognized several exhibits: the otter exhibit which housed his friend Marlene, who was sometimes annoying but not anywhere as annoying as Julien who resided with Mort and Maurice in the lemur habitat. Skipper shook his head at the visible lemur king sprawled out in his throne, fast asleep. He noted several other exhibits: Joey the kangaroo, Doris the dolphin, Bada and Bing the gorillas. He recalled on the adventures his team had had in each exhibit, some going better than others.

The penguin habitat itself was not a prize in the zoo. It was simply a small ring of water with a fake ice floe in the middle made of concrete. There was nothing to make the habitat look like Antarctica, or anywhere penguins may be found for that matter, as it was just a flat slab of artificial rock. All that existed on top of it was a bowl for holding fish that concealed the hatch entrance to the penguin headquarters. This headquarters had been the base of operations for Skipper and his team for more than a year now, and although it wasn't special, it was home.

Skipper walked over to the food bowl, opened it and slid down the ladder into the darkness of the HQ. He glanced around and saw the television, the chess board, the refrigerator. All things that they had stolen from the humans and smuggled into the headquarters was neatly organized around the concrete home.

The leader penguin looked over to his teammates asleep in their bunks. Skipper's bunk, the top one, was empty and the blanket was already neatly folded on top of the pillow. He glanced down and looked at his teammates one by one in their peaceful slumbers, another smile pulling at the sides of his beak.

"On your feet, soldiers," commanded Skipper. His voice was deep and soft, yet still held a feeling of authority anytime he spoke.

Upon hearing their leader's voice, the three penguins still in their bunks hopped out and saluted Skipper. They lined up uniformly, just the way they had been practicing for months. Their blankets and pillows landed neatly on their bunks behind them.

"Reporting for duty, Skippah," responded Private, the shortest of the penguins standing in the room. He spoke with a British accent, signifying his European past. He was the shortest of the four, being only slightly shorter than Skipper. He was more rounded than the leader penguin as well. Skipper knew him to the the youngest, newest, and most inexperienced member of the team. The leader penguin had given his younger comrade the duty of specialist, and he handled anything that the other three were unable to do. Skipper nodded to him and looked at the penguin standing next to him.

"Affirmative," Kowalski stated, "I am also." He was the tallest, taller than Skipper by a considerable amount. His body was long and slender, allowing him to glide through the water as if it were air. Kowalski spoke with an air of intelligence, and it was clearly noticeable in his word choice. He was highly intelligent and was not only Skipper's strategist, but first lieutenant and best friend. He was usually seen planning out strategies and options on his clipboard, which he would then list to Skipper in a methodical manner. Skipper offered him the same nod as the previous penguin and looked to the last penguin in line.

"Awake!" wheezed Rico. Ever since Skipper first met Rico, he had known of the heavyset penguin's speech impediment. Even though, Rico was not one to be underestimated. He possessed great strength and the brains to know how to use it. Rico was just a little taller than Skipper, but he was not as tall as the strategist next to him. He was the heaviest penguin, but he was most certainly not fat. His face was wide and usually expressed either happiness or confusion. The top of his head was garnished with a small mohawk of feathers.

The strange thing about Rico was his extraordinary ability to swollow anything and regurgitate it later when it was needed. Skipper took advantage of Rico's unique ability by having him hold on to the team's weapons, mainly explosives. Over time Rico became skilled with the explosives and Skipper desided to designate him expert in the field.

Skipper nodded to Rico as well.

"Excellent job," remarked the leader penguin, "That was considerably faster than yesterday. Kawasaki, what's on the agenda for training this morning?"

Kowalski walked over to his trademark clipboard, picked it up, flipped through a few pages and then spoke. "We're practicing our dropkicks and roundhouses, Skipper. Followed by some scheduled maintenance on the HQ."

"Alright, sounds good to me." said Skipper.

"Roundhouse?" inquired Private. "You mean like that move the Julien intimidation robot used on you when we tried to teach it?"

Skipper sighed. "Yes, Private. That day made me realize that we're not as good of fighter's as I thought. So I scheduled some basic combat training to practice some key moves." Private nodded in understanding.

"Fiiish!" Rico grunted, pushing over a bowl full of mackerel and tuna. He sat down next to it when he got closer to the others and happily began stuffing his face. Skipper, who had not had breakfast yet, helped to himself to a particularly big fish.

"Skipper, when do you think our fish supply will run out?" Kowalski asked his superior after they had finished eating. Private and Rico were already up on top of the bunker setting up the ninja bowling pins to act as targets for the penguins. "We don't have much left."

Skipper knew this dilemma was bound to come soon. They had always intercepted a delivery truck that goes from the docks to some place he didn't know, but for some reason the trucks had stop coming. They had waited for hours at intersections but the trucks just wouldn't come. The team later went several miles away from the zoo, using the sewers to transport themselves, and took fish directly from the fishing barges that came in to the docks. Those barges didn't last long though, and soon the team couldn't find any fish at all. They had much packed away into reserve, but even now that was waining.

"I don't know, but we're going to have to find another source soon unless we want to eat those fishcakes the zoo keeps giving us. Got any ideas?" said Skipper.

"Well since all fishing operations have ceased down at the docks, I really don't know where to start looking for some more." Kowalski stated, glumly.

"Well where do the people get their fish, if they don't get it from the ocean?" asked Skipper.

"Maybe they could obtain some through an exchange at some sort of open market?"

Skipper rubbed the bottom of his beak thoughtfully. "We're going on a mission tonight."

"What do you mean?"

"We're going to find where the place where the humans get their fish, and take some for ourselves."

Kowalski nodded in understanding. If they didn't act soon, they would be forced to consume the inedible fishcakes that the zoo was trying to force upon them. He picked up his clipboard and jotted some things down before looking back up at Skipper.

"What are you thinking?" Skipper asked him. "Got some options?"

"Remember when we ordered Chinese last week?" Kowalski responded.

"Yeah, but we do that every week. Or at least when there's enough money in the reflecting pool."

"Well, Mason told us the wrong number from the phone book again, remember?"

Skipper recalled how Phil the chimpanzee was the only animal who could read well, or understand complicated human talk for that matter. The only problem was that Phil was mute, and spoke with sign language. Mason was another chimpanzee who interpreted the complicated hand gestures and translated them to speech for the rest of the animals to hear. They made a great team, although they made many mistakes in their translation and it usually took more than one try before both Phil and Mason got it right.

"Yeah, when the humans answered they said 'You've reached Marthe's Hometown Food Mart.' or something." answered the leader penguin.

"According to my calculations, fish and food are one in the same," Kowalski said simply, "So if we find this food mart we should be able to find the fish. After all, a mart is a place of exchange."

Skipper clapped his tall friend on the back. "You're a genius."

"Thanks, Skipper. The only question is, where do we go?"