Funny note: I got Phil and Mason backwards in this chapter, but it is fixed now.

The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 26 - Action

"THEY'VE GOT KOWALSKI,"

Marlene said it even though the other animals in the room had already realized it. There was a moment of awkward silence as everyone dealt with the sudden shock.

"Marlene," Skipper spoke up first, "where did Kowalski say he was going?"

"He didn't," the otter answered, staring at the clipboard, "He was yelling at Private so I tried to make him stop. Then he stormed out of the room. I figured he was just going to get some fresh air and clear his head."

"K'waski," wheezed Rico, shaking his head sadly.

"Private clasped his hands over his beak. Even through them, Skipper could tell his voice was shaky. "I tried to ask him w-where he was going, but he just told me off and left. I could have stopped him, S-Skippah. Why didn't I stop him?"

"That's not what matters right now, soldier," answered the leader penguin, "right now we have to determine where he last possible confirmed location was."

Private nodded, "He walked out the hatch and I think he was on his way outside."

"Well, then we know he didn't stay nearby. Where does Kowalski like to visit on the outside?" asked Skipper.

Private looked thoughtful. "K'walski doesn't really go anywhere without us," he acknowledged, "he prefers to be here in the HQ most of the time."

Manfredi put a flipper on Skipper's back. "Skipper," he said, "Would not it be more effective to try to find out where these hostile penguins may have taken your friend?"

Skipper thought for a moment. He wondered why he had not thought of that himself. Nodding to Manfredi, he turned his attention to Marlene. "You said you were attacked by that penguin last night, right?"

Marlene nodded, then continued to tell Skipper as quickly as possible the story of the terrifying night the her and penguins had. Private interjected a few times to fill in missing details. Together, they told Skipper and Manfredi that the small penguin they had just seen was Geir, and he was packing that was just pointed at Marlene. They explained how there was a large penguin, even larger than Rico, who was named Thurgo.

"They kidnapped me and took me down to the sewers," explained Marlene, "but left me alone when I made them believe I didn't know you, Skipper."

"Why were they trying to get to me through you?" wondered Skipper.

"Beats me," offered Marlene."

"Wasn't there one more as well, Marlene?" asked Private.

"Oh, yeah," answered Marlene. "They had a leader, who actually looked quite a bit like you, Skipper. He had a flat head like you."

Manfredi's eyes lit up significantly and he rushed up to Marlene, grabbing her arms and startling her. "This penguin... their leader," he said slowly, "what is his name?"

Marlene stuttered slightly, looking into the large penguin's eyes. She couldn't help but see a deep look of hopefulness. "His henchmen called him Sarge," she said simply. Immediately, Manfredi backed off, leaving Marlene to rub her arms where the penguin had gripped them. The large penguin turned to Skipper, eyes glazed over.

"Skipper, do you realize who she is talking about?" he asked simply.

Skipper didn't respond. He knew exactly who Marlene was referencing to. Although his team did not know it, Sarge had once been Manfredi, Johnson and his own Staff Sargent. Skipper recalled only seeing him a handful of times throughout his time in the Pen guin Army; at least until he, Manfredi and Johnson rebelled. Then he saw the penguin's face enough to never forget it. A flat-headed penguin, with blue eyes as deep as his own. Skipper simply nodded to his friend.

Manfredi continued, "I have spent nearly two years searching for my target, and only weeks after finding you, you have led me to him."

Skipper nodded. That means that the penguin that attacked Marlene over a month ago in her habitat was also Sarge. Why didn't he realize that an enemy was so close much sooner?

"Manfredi," spoke Private, "What do you mean 'your target'?"

The large, robot-penguin turned around to look at the much younger penguin. "That is between me and Skipper, Private," he said, glancing over at the flat-headed penguin, "and he will tell you when he is ready."

Private looked hopefully and curiously at his leader. "I'll explain it later, Private. Now is not the best of times," Skipper told him. Private nodded. "We need to find out where Kowalski might be," said Skipper, getting back to business, "Private, didn't you say you were tracking me with some sort of a remote control?"

"Yeah, Skippah," explained the smaller penguin, "At least we were trying to, but you were blocking your signal." He picked up the device and looked at it again. He tapped on the screen of the device. "You know what, I think this may as well be Kowalski's location." Private passed the device to Skipper.

Skipper looked at saw only one dot, moving slowly up a major street through the city. He reached into his bag that Manfredi had set down and pulled out the small radar EMP device. He switched it off, and sure enough, three more dots appeared on the screen in the center of Central Park. He set the jammer down and continued to look at the strange GPS.

"So this is what Alice was using to track us this whole time?" he asked.

"Yes," responded Private, "She knew where we were at all times of the day. We stole it from her office, though, so unless she had another she won't know where we are anymore."

"Well then we need to follow Kowalski's signal to where ever these hostiles are taking him," Skipper concluded. Private nodded. Skipper turned to his ex-teammate. "Want to join us, Manfredi? We could really use your help."

"Rescuing your friend may be the only way I will ever finally reach my target," the large penguin agreed, "and that is all that really matters."

Skipper nodded, then turned to the others to see a mildly uncomfortable look on Private's face. When the small penguin noticed his leader looking at him he cleared it up and gave a slight, awkward smile. He's scared stiff of Manfredi, Skipper thought.

"Guys, Guys," started Marlene suddenly and excitedly. "There's some writing here on the second page that I didn't notice before. I don't think it's Kowalski's writing either." She had removed the feather and was flipping through the pages of the pad on the clipboard. Skipper walked over and Marlene handed him the clipboard. He first noticed a few lines of symbols and words he couldn't understand. There was a crudely drawn picture of some animal over the top of the words. It looked like some type of mammal. Skipper interpreted its meaning though; these hostile penguins wanted him to take it to the chimps so that they could decipher its meaning.

"Alright, team..." his words trailed off as he glanced at Manfredi, "err, men. And... uh well Marlene." We need to take this code to the chimps for decoding. It could contain what these hostiles are demanding for Kowalski."

"Abduction is merely a method of achieving a larger goal," concluded the robot-penguin.

"You're right," Skipper acknowledged, "so lets move out."

It was a short walk to the chimp's cage from the penguin exhibit. Luckily, the zoo had finally closed down for the night and almost all of the employees had gone home. Without the risk of compromise, the small group of animals could move with ease through the zoo. The sun was now setting low in the sky and the lights of the city had come on. The shadows from the walls of the zoo grew long on the paths. The air was cool and crisp—Skipper knew that autumn was right around the the corner.

The leader penguin watched some pigeons swirl overhead, the remnants of the midday sun glinting back into his eye off of a tall, glass office building. He wondered for a minute why he ever wanted to leave this place forever. Even though it was just a zoo, it had its own sense of unique beauty. It was home, he thought. He noted how hours after he had left his team had been attacked by someone looking for him. It was like some force had been acting against him the whole time. He shook the thoughts from his head—there were much more pressing matters right now.

Skipper looked around at his team; Marlene was still trying to make heads or tails of what she could on the clipboard. Rico was walking in the back of the group, trying to maintain his composure, but Skipper could tell he was worried for Kowalski. Private walked just a little ahead of Skipper, and every once in a while the leader penguin noted his small friend glance towards Manfredi and then towards him. It seemed the penguin insisted on keeping Skipper between himself and Manfredi. He'll have to learn to trust Manfredi soon, thought Skipper.

"Yes, Sir?" said Private when he noticed his superior looking at him.

"What? Oh, nothing, Private. Just thinking," returned Skipper. Private nodded.

Skipper turned away from Private to see a small door at the base of the wall of the chimpanzee exhibit. It was almost like a doggie door, thought Skipper. It was used to easily push plates of food into the exhibit for the only other entry into the enclosure was to climb over the wall with a ladder. Fortunately for the chimps, it had been made much too big and they often unlocked it to explore the zoo with the penguins. Skipper unlatched the door and the animals slid through. What he saw on the other side, though, was not what he expected.

Mason was sitting alone at the chimps' checker board, moving both sets of pieces in no specific order. He was shakily sipping a small teacup and had a tired look on his face.

"Hey Mason," Marlene spoke first, walking up to the light brown furred chimpanzee. Mason did not respond; his back was turned to the otter. "we were wondering if you and Phil could determine what this writing means for us." continued Marlene. She held up to clipboard where the chimp could see it.

Mason did still not respond. He knocked one of the pieces off of the checkers board by accident, but did not reach over to pick it up. It was like he was in a daze.

"Hey, Mason," said Skipper, "did you hear Marlene?"

The leader penguin walked up to the chimp and placed a flipper on his shoulder. Suddenly, Mason whipped his head around and screeched so loud it made Skipper jump back. Mason jumped off his chair and grabbed it. Screaming again, he swung the chair as hard as he could at the penguin, making Skipper roll to dodge out of the way. The mammal took another swing at Skipper, who parried the incoming blow.

"Mason!" shouted Skipper, "Mason it's just me. Skipper!" Mason didn't respond, though. Skipper saw his eyes glazed over like he was in a trance. The chimpanzee screeched again and swung at Skipper, who rolled behind him. To Skipper's surprise, though, he heard a loud crack as the wooden chair splintered into several small pieces.

Skipper turned around to see what had happened. Manfredi had grabbed the chair from the mammal's shaky hands and had thrown it forcefully against the chimps' tree. Mason stood in front of the large penguin, stunned.

"We are not going to hurt you," said Manfredi calmly as if nothing happened. "We only require your help."

Mason blinked a couple of times and then looked at the animals around him. "Oh my," he said, "terribly sorry, ol' fellow." He put a hand to his forehead and sat down in the other, still intact chair.

"What's wrong, Mason, what happened?" asked Skipper, wondering why the chimp had attacked him. Skipper knew Mason was a peaceful animal and he had never seen him attack anything before.

"Oh my," repeated the chimp, "I blacked out. Truly sorry, Skipper."

Skipper gave the Chimp a few seconds to regain his bearings, then asked again, "What happened, Mason?"

"Oh, Skipper!" exclaimed the chimp suddenly, "It was terrifying! There were three penguins that invaded our home and took Phil!"

Skipper heard Marlene and Private gasp. "What?" he asked stupidly.

"They showed up out of nowhere, and when I tried to to fight back, they held a gun into my face," Mason explained, "Then they tied up Phil and ran off with him."

Skipper slapped his head in disbelief. "Why in the world would these penguins want Phil?" he asked to no-one specific.

"No clue," offered Marlene.

"Phil is really the only animal that can read at the zoo," said Private, "maybe they needed something read, Skippah?"

"That doesn't make sense, Private!" said Skipper, frustrated. "They can obviously read and write if they left us this note..." he trailed off as he pointed to the clipboard.

"Wait a second, do you think Phil wrote the note, Skipper?" asked Marlene. Skipper nodded as that was precisely what he was thinking.

"Let me see that clipboard again," he said, holding out a flipper. Marlene handed over the clipboard and Skipper looked at the picture near the top of the second page again. He now noticed something he had not seen before. The crudely drawn animal had a long, curvy tail with several rings scribbled on it. "This isn't Mason," he observed, pointing to the picture, "This is a picture of ring-tail!"

Private slapped his head, "Of course! Skipper, Julien learned to read recently. Phil must have given him lessons."

"The lanky fellow who insists on shouting?" Mason said, now looking very tired, "Yeah, he was stealing us chocolate covered bananas from the food court in exchange for reading and writing lessons from Phil."

"When did you start the lessons?" asked Private.

"Oh, I'd say about two, maybe three weeks ago. Even as obnoxious as he is, Julien is an awfully fast learner."

Skipper looked towards the lemur habitat, where Julien was visible sleeping in his throne. He turned back to the others and said, "Let's go pay ring-tail a little visit, then. He might be the only one who can decode this for us." The leader penguin looked towards the troubled chimpanzee. "Those penguins that kidnapped Mason also kidnapped Kowalski. We're going track them down, though, so we'll get both our boys back."

Mason simply nodded, looking a little more hopeful. Marlene gave him a hug and then the group left to go to the lemur habitat. Using a tunnel entrance, they entered into the so-called kingdom and proceeded to wake the sleeping mammal up.

"Hold on, guys!" said a voice behind them, suddenly. Skipper turned around to see Maurice hurrying up to them. He spoke in a loud whisper. "What are you doing here?"

"We need Julien to read something for us," explained Marlene, holding out the clipboard. Maurice waved his hands.

"You guys need to leave now," he urged. "You can't wake up King Julien!"

"Why not?" asked Skipper, arching a brow.

"He's taking his beauty nap. He'll flip out if you wake him up now," explained the wide lemur.

Marlene scoffed. "Maurice, Kowalski and Mason have been kidnapped and this note might be our only way of getting them back."

Maurice went wide eyed with surprise. "Oh, uh, sorry. I didn't know. Follow me, I'll go wake him up."

Skipper nodded, Maurice started walking, but as he spotted Manfredi he stopped. "Who are you?" he asked.

"A friend." explained the robot-penguin simply. Maurice looked to Skipper for approval, who nodded. Maurice shrugged and began leading the group to the sleeping king. After throwing a tantrum for being woken up before he was 'rested', Julien noticed the penguins and Marlene standing near him. Skipper introduced Manfredi before explaining their situation.

"Aha!" exclaimed Julien, "If I was there, none of de fishy penguins would be stealing de other fishy penguin, no?" He formed fists with his hands and began striking the air. "I scared one of dem away; I could scare dem all away."

Skipper shook his head. "We just need you to decode this message for us, Ring-tail," he requested. "We heard you learned to read from Phil."

"I assure you de king was learning by himself," he told, taking the clipboard from Skipper, "but despite your insult, I will still read what de fishy penguin has to say." Normally, Skipper would shoot something back toward the lemur king at this point, like a remark on how annoying he was. Now was not the time to get into that kind fight, though. Julien began reading the paper, although he read it word by word and it sounded very rough. Even though, Skipper and the others understood their meaning.

"'If this mess-age reach you, Julien, please read it to de penguins. Kow-a-ski and I have been cap-ture-ded by three crazy penguins. They have not told us what they want with us yeet, al-though their leader said, 'We only need you to solve a rid-dle.' Don't wo-orry, they have not harm-ded us at all yeet and are only leading us though de sew-wers. They said, how-wever, that they will be taking us to Ant-tar-tica to solve dis rid-dle unless Skipper come and gives them de ans-wer. They said to meet at the har-bor at mid-night tonight with de answer, or else they're going to take us to Ant-tar-tica. If we can't solve de rid-dle there, they will dis-pose of us. I hope you penguins know where Skipper is, because Kow-a-ski said he left fore-ever.'"

Julien concluded with a "So de smart fishy-penguin and funky monkey have been... kidnapped!" He put emphasis on the last word like the rest of the animals didn't already know. Skipper shook his head.

"Well we know what they want now," he said to himself.

"We've got to go to the dock, Skippah!" instructed Private, "We can't let them take Kowalski and Phil all the way to Antartica. You'll have to give them the information they need."

Skipper gave the young penguin a glare that made him regret saying that. "We're not going to give them anything they want, soldier," he said, glancing at Manfredi when he said 'soldier', "but we are still going to get our boys back."

"Skipper, don't you remember? They have weapons." said Marlene.

Skipper realized this. But he also knew that he couldn't give them the information they sought; the answer to the riddle. The answer was the key to a much greater weapon, one that he had saved the world from once already. "We'll get some of our own," he finally offered back, although he knew that their secret panel had already been cleared out and he had no idea what they were going to use. Rico was resourceful, he thought.

"De king will be happy to help you on your rescue mission," announced Julien, as though he was waiting to be invited, "I beat that evil fishy penguin once, I will be doing it again." He brought his fists up and began striking the air. Skipper saw Maurice slap his forehead and sigh.

"That won't fly, ring-tail," he responded, "This is between us," he gestured to himself, Manfredi , Rico and Private, "and those maniacal penguins."

Julien crossed his arms. "Maybe de king shouldn't have read de note for you then."

"No offense, Julien, but you have been more of a nuisance than a help on our previous missions," explained Private.

"What about de time I saved you from de crazy toy factory?" whined Julien.

"You saved us from the situation you gotus in," shot Skipper, "We would have been fine without you."

"Hmph, I was thinking I was doing a pretty good job," muttered Julien, then threw the clipboard on the ground and walked away.

"Are you sure you don't want us to come with, Skipper?" asked Maurice.

"Positive, Maurice," responded the flat-headed penguin, "but you can still help us by trying to keep Alice busy. She's up to something, and you can help by keeping her off our backs. Try to keep her in the zoo as long as possible."

Maurice nodded, then went off to find the sulking Julien. Skipper knew that Alice would be after them as soon as she realized they were no longer in the zoo. Even though, he knew that rescuing Kowalski and Mason was more imperative than being stealthy at this point.

The sun was now fully down and the zoo was illuminated only by a half-full moon and the city lights around it. The four penguins stood at the gate of the zoo, ready to leave. They stood across from Marlene, who was still holding the clipboard from when she had picked it up. Skipper opened the painting-made-door that covered the secret passageway out of the zoo.

The penguins had packed some basic supplies. Being resourceful, Skipper had put the rest of their cans of tuna into a few bags for the penguins to carry. Other than that, they didn't have much. Because Alice had taken all of their equipment and gadgets, they were going almost defenseless. The only thing she knew they had was a knife she had seen Manfredi slide into his backpack. She knew the penguins were more than capable in hand-to-hand combat, though. Private held onto the GPS tracking device that showed Kowalski's location; the key to his rescue.

Skipper signaled to the other penguins that it was time to go, and one by one they entered the tunnel. They're going out into the world, Marlene thought, on an adventure. They were going to rescue their friends from those evil penguins. Marlene hated those penguins. She wanted to go with the penguins, to help them rescue Kowalski and Phil. She didn't say anything to Skipper though, in fear of what she knew he would say back.

"Ooh, sounds exciting. Can I come?" She recalled all the times she had asked him that question in the past.

"Uh, Marlene," Skipper began, sounding serious, "We're going outside of the zoo."

"Oh," the otter responded simply, crestfallen and knowing exactly why Skipper was so skeptical about letting her outside of the gates again.

Last time she had been outside of the zoo, it had been the first time she had been outside of the zoo since she was brought to Central Park. Only a few steps outside the walls, she recalled feeling so free, so alive, and so full of energy. That was the last thing she remembered, the next thing being trapped in a cage with Skipper telling her that she had flipped out and attacked them, while also falling in love with Julien. Now every time she asked to go with Skipper on an adventure, he declined. She knew she would be able to control her emotions now though; being in the sewers and on missions with the penguins around the zoo had helped that. She was afraid to convince the leader penguin that she could, though.

"We'll be back as soon as we can, Marlene," said Skipper, breaking her momentary trance.

"What? Oh, yeah," responded the otter, "Good luck."

Skipper nodded, then began making his way through the passageway. Suddenly, Marlene said, "Skipper, wait!"

Skipper turned around. Marlene felt her works get stuck in her throat. "Be safe," was all she could think to say.

"Thanks, Marlene." returned the leader penguin before he disappeared as he closed the painting on the opposite side of the passage.

Marlene stood there near the entrance for a few minutes, cursing herself for not going with the penguins. It was her opportunity for adventure, to help the penguins rescue their, and her, friends. She knew she could help them too, even though she was not a fighter. She had some sort of connection to those penguins; after being tied up in the sewer she saw how they worked. Thurgo did not get along so well with Sarge, who was commanding altogether. With all the confusion, she had not been able to tell Skipper about it either.

As she thought about these things, she felt a sudden feeling rise inside of her. She couldn't quite understand it, but it was like the walls of the zoo were closing in on her. She felt like she needed to get out; needed to go catch up to the penguins. She turned around and looked around the zoo; nobody was watching her.

Without taking another moment to think about it, she dropped the clipboard and rushed through the passageway. She didn't know if she would break down when she stepped outside again. If she didn't, she didn't know how to find the penguins.

She didn't care, though; she did it. She was going on an adventure, and nothing was going to stand in her way.

Meanwhile, King Julien peaked out from behind a nearby bush. Noticing that the coast was clear, he followed the otter into the night.

~( Author's Note )~

This chapter is terribly long! I hope it was at least entertaining. Let me know if you liked it, because a lot of stuff happened story-wise.

Here's some random facts:

- Most experts agree that your average paperback novel has about 250 words per page. This story would nearly be a 250 page novel. And its barely half done!
- With this chapter I become one of only a few PoM authors to break 60,000 words
- Roughly estimated, I've written 145 words per day since I started this story. Breakneck speed, eh?
- This story broke 5,000 hits not too long ago. Thanks for all the intrest!
- My writing style had changed dramatically from the beginning of this story. You can probally tell.

Hope you're enjoying the story and please review!