The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 9 - Developments

Skipper hopped up into the hole in the wall just outside the zoo gates, and after letting Rico, Kowalski, and Private enter he slammed the sign that concealed it shut. All of the penguins were breathing heavily from fleeing the food mart. They stepped out of the little tunnel through the arch and into the zoo.

The sun had gone down and the zoo was illuminated only by the lights of the city. Lights could be seen shining down from the highest offices in the skyscrapers around Central Park. The zoo itself had been closed for several hours, and none of the lights were on except for a sole lamppost every few hundred feet. All of the zookeepers had gone home, and only a lonesome few security guards patrolled the paved pathways.

"Well, that could have gone better," said Private, chuckling.

Skipper couldn't help but smirk. "Mission accomplished, men. We successfully infiltrated the market and made off with some fish."

Skipper high-fived Kowalski, Private jumped up and down gleefully and Rico grunted with happiness as he played with one of the cans of tuna. Skipper smiled. He had come to the zoo hoping for an escape from his military past, but Rico, Kowalski, and Private were always so eager and determined to get the job done. They followed orders and solved problems with pinpoint accuracy and worked together to satisfy their needs as a team.

"Skipper! There you are!" called a deep voice, making the leader penguin jump. He peered to his left to see the wide lemur Maurice walking towards them.

"What's going on?" Skipper asked.

"I was wondering when you were finally going to come back. King Julien and the others are waiting for in the Zoovenir."

"Why would Julien want to see me?"

"There's been a break in, Skipper." explained Maurice, looking solemn.

Skipper suddenly grew very serious. "Let's go."

The penguins knew the Zoovenir shop well. It was the zoo's only gift shop, located near the entrance. The animals of the zoo had been using it for meetings for as long as Skipper could remember. The building was small, tucked into a corner as if it had not been part of the zoo's original design. Pictures of animals hung on the exterior walls and several pieces of merchandise were visible through a display window. A large, colorful sign hung over the door. Maurice opened it and the penguins entered.

"...This guy is obviously not to be messed with," said Marlene as they walked into the main area. She was sitting on a barrel full of stuffed Private the penguin dolls and had her arms crossed.

"I saw it with my own eyes. He gave me the chillies," responded Julien, seeming to agree. He was sitting adjacent to the otter and had a bandage around the tip of his snout.

"Good point, Phil. How do we know this mysterious penguin is really a major threat to the zoo?" said Mason the chimpanzee after reading Phil's signing. The two of them were resting on the counter next to the cash register.

"He told me that he had an army of one hundred highly trained penguins ready to attack the zoo on his command." explained Marlene.

"Fish and chips," interrupted Skipper. "What are you talking about?"

All of the animals in the room directed their attention to the four penguins now standing in the middle of the room. Besides the ones that were speaking, there several other, small small animals crowded around Marlene and Julien. Skipper didn't recognize many.

"Gee, Skipper," said Marlene, "Do you always go on late night escapades?"

"Ha, ha, very funny," countered Skipper.

"Whatever. Glad you're here," Marlene started, "A mysterious penguin broke into my habitat from the sewer entrance today. He was asking me a lot of questions about you."

"What kind of questions?" asked Skipper, arching a brow.

"He was asking me about where you were, really," responded Marlene.

"Then he was attacking Marlene, and I, your king and valiant fighter, scared the fishy penguin away with a deep battle cry." said Julien, smiling widely.

"Uh, your majesty, you got punched in the nose and gave up," corrected Maurice.

"Lucky hit," said the lemur king with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Anyway, before any of that," continued Marlene, "he pretty much described this whole zoo to me. He knew who I was, and he described Julien, Maurice, and Mort. He even knew who Rodger was. The scary part of that is that none of us have ever seen that penguin before."

"What did he look like?" Kowalski asked, producing a clipboard and pencil from nowhere and getting ready to draw a sketch.

Marlene explained how he looked much like Skipper with one blind eye. Despite random outbursts from Julien trying to make the penguin seem larger than life and make him seem like more of a hero for his bravery, Marlene managed to get her point across. Skipper looked at Kowalski's drawing. He didn't recognize the penguin; he thought he was just looking at himself with a mohawk.

"How would this penguin know about all of us, if we have no idea who he is?" Private asked, peering over at Kowalski's sketch.

"That's what we're wondering," said Mason.

"He must have been observing us from a distance for some time," concluded Kowalski. "Whoever he is."

Skipper crossed his flippers in thought. He wondered about the pigeon he had seen in the alleyway and the penguin she claimed to have killed her husband. Her description was not anything remotely close to Marlene's. Marlene didn't mention anything about the penguin being half robot. Still, he had a gnawing feeling that the two penguins were the same thing. After all, the pigeon might have been crazy.

Noticing how the room grew quiet for a few moments, Marlene continued to finish her story. "What's really got me creeped out is how this penguin said if I didn't tell him where you were, he was going to attack the zoo with an army."

"An army of what?" asked Kowalski.

"'Highly trained penguins' apparently," responded Maurice.

"Why, an army of penguins? That's completely idiotic." Mason said, also crossing his arms.

"Not as idiotic as you may think," said Skipper quietly. Nobody seemed to hear.

"Right before you came in we were debating about what to do." Marlene said.

"My opinion matters the most," said Julien, "and I say that we should move all of our things to a new zoo."

Several animals countered Julien with arguments against picking up and moving all because of one silly sounding penguin. Julien simply frowned and grumbled under his breath.

"Well this penguin was pretty easily frightened," commented Maurice.

Marlene nodded. "True, but he also didn't have his army to back him up."

"That's if he even has an army," countered Mason, reading Phil's hands.

"Anyway," Maurice said. "we should stay put. If this penguin comes back, we can fend him off. If he tries to bring his army, the people won't let him just waltz in here and destroy the whole zoo.

Several of the animals in the room agreed, including Kowalski, Private, and Rico. Skipper seemed distant. He couldn't keep his mind from comparing the penguin described by the pigeon and the penguin he had seen Kowalski draw.

"That would be the best course of action," agreed Skipper finally. "There's no point in running away. Maurice is right, after all. It would be impossible to move that many penguins through the city without getting animal control called."

"Do not you understand? We are all in serious danger you silly penguin!" Julien said, sounding dramatic. All of the animals ignored his random outburst, knowing that he was just struggling with his giant ego.

"I for one am tired of the problems associated with that sewer entrance in your home, Marlene," said Skipper, "We're going to seal that off once and for all."

Skipper knew of all the problems that particular drain had caused, starting with the investigation of a strange noise coming from beneath Marlene's home. That had been Skipper's first time down in the sewer, and he remembered feeling fear for the first time in a long time.

Feeling dismissed, most of the animals left the Zoovenir and went back to their exhibits to go to sleep. Julien was still trying to blow the whole story up, but he eventually gave up and went back to the lemur habitat with Maurice and Mort. Soon it was just Skipper, Marlene, and the chimps left in the room.

"Skipper, did you ever find that food store you had Phil look up?" Mason asked.

"Yeah, we managed to find some fish but only in these weird metal casings." Rico held up the can of tuna that he was still holding. It was dented from beating the window.

"Well, Phil was reading the paper this morning and we found some information that may be interesting to you." Mason explained. "There's been a huge shortage of fish all on the east cost, and it derives directly from the fact that there seem to be no more fish in the ocean. The paper said that fishermen all over have given up simply because there are no more fish to catch. The whole fishing industry in New York has been crippled by this odd event. People are complaining because they can only get imported, canned fish from Europe, where the fishing is very good, apparently. All of the world's best scientists are baffled."

Skipper rubbed his beak, "That's not good news for us penguins."

"Skippah, I don't want to eat fishcakes," said Private.

"Neither do I. But as long as we can get fish in these cans, we won't have to."

"Thanks again for the info, mammal," said Skipper to the chimpanzees, who nodded simultaneously before leaving the Zoovenir for their habitat.

"Now, Marlene," Skipper said, "let's get rid of your little sewer issue."

Marlene and Skipper left the Zoovenir, shutting the lights off behind them. Rico, Kowalski, and Private followed closely. When they were close to Marlene's habitat, Skipper signaled his men to assemble and lift up a manhole cover just outside. It wasn't too much of a difficulty, as Rico had lifted them up before on his own, and the four of them were able to carry them into Marlene's exhibit without must difficulty.

Once inside, Skipper instructed Rico to lay the solid manhole cover directly on top of the grate that already existed. Then, Rico regurgitated a blowtorch and smiled widely as he welded the two pieces of metal together. There was no way anyone or anything was going to be able to use that particular sewer entrance again, Skipper thought.

Covering the sewer was of no particular loss to any of the animals in the zoo. They used the sewer to move around the city, but there were plenty more access points around the zoo and just outside. The only reason they used Marlene's was for quick access to her habitat or to go see Rodger the alligator in the sewer, which they rarely did.

"Thanks a lot, Skipper," Marlene said, smiling, after all the work had been done. She had covered the unsightly manhole with a fabric mat she had taken from the Zoovenir gift shop long ago.
"Not a problem," responded the leader penguin.

The four of them saluted Marlene and then made their way back to the penguin HQ. It was late, and even the city had quieted down to some extent. Judging by the moon, Kowalski told them that it was well passed midnight. Skipper didn't like to run operations so late into the night, but the day's events had called for it. When the reached the bunker they all took their bunks, exhausted from their journey to the food mart.

Skipper heard Rico's snoring within moments after he had said lights out. Private's small breathing noises soon followed. He assumed Kowalski was also asleep, and closed his eyes and attempted to do the same. He couldn't though; he couldn't stop his mind's senseless buzzing.

"Are you okay, Skipper?" Skipper heard Kowalski's voice. He opened his eyes and saw the penguin leaning down and looking at him with a look of concern visible in the faint light.

"What do you mean?" the leader penguin responded.

"At the market, after the alarm sounded, you froze up and didn't move for a while. It looked to me like you suddenly realized or remembered something important. I was just curious if it was something bothering you."

Skipper smirked. Kowalski had always been able to read him like a book. "Nothing at all, soldier. I was just momentarily stunned by the loud noise."

Kowalski looked at him for a moment, and then seemed to buy it. "Alright. Goodnight, Skipper."

"Goodnight, Kowalski."

AN/ Sorry for the week long haitus. I hate writing unsuspenseful chapters like this, and I was dealing with some writer's block. Also, please review! Each time you read a chapter and don't review it, a puppy dies. \AN