And this here is Chapter 4.

Two reviews. I won't lie, but this was a pretty big blow to m confidence.

Seeing the sudden decrease in reviews for the last chapter, I take it that most people didn't like it, and I am sincerely sorry for that. Still, I'd like to thank EppopinkfangirlXDXDXD and Medicus Serpentis for their reviews. It was really kind of them to review a chapter not liked by much.

I really like this chapter. It's also what I think a lot of you have been waiting for. Please enjoy reading it. It's very loosely based on various episodes that have a certain otter in them.

Disclaimer: The Penguins of Madagascar belongs to Tom McGrath. There, I actually said it properly for once.

Chapter 4: Enter Marlene

It was another normal day in the Secret Operations Headquarters. Everyone was going about their own business and there weren't any missions to be given. You could say that everything was peaceful.

For all but one, that is.

Skipper fumed as he marched down the hall, trying unsuccessfully to calm himself down. In fact, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

Who does that Lemur think he is? I swear, the next time I get my hands on him, I'm gonna…

The rest of that thought was censored because they're too gruesome. Even for a T-rated fic.

Other operatives cleared a route for the steaming Penguin leader automatically. No one in their right mind bothered Skipper when he's like this. Not even his own teammates. Once, the three tried to do the suicidal task of calming Skipper down. Doris had her hands full after that.

Said teammates were now sort of stalking behind their leader, mainly to prevent Skipper from hurting anyone unintentionally.

"How long do you think it'll last this time?" Private asked uncertainly.

"Well, judging from how he's acting now…" Kowalski winced when Skipper drove a fist into a nearby metal locker, denting it in the process. "I'd say a very long time."

Rico placed a hand to his forehead and groaned. He hated these stake outs. You couldn't do anything fun.

Suddenly, Skipper stopped walking. His three teammates halted behind him. For a tense minute, none of them moved. Then, Skipper veered off his original path and headed towards the elevator.

Private and Rico were about to follow when Kowalski stopped them. "No, guys. This is as far as we go."

"But Kowalski! What if he hurts someone wh-" Private stopped abruptly when Kowalski sent him a mild glare. "You know Skipper's better than that, Private. Besides, you know the deal we made. No one follows anyone when someone wants to spend time alone topside."

Private crossed his arms and pouted. "You three only made that deal because you actually have a place to spend time alone at."

Kowalski's glare softened and he smiled. And to Private's chagrin, he reached out and ruffled the boy's hair. "You'll get your place soon enough."

The late spring wind blew into Skipper's face. Skipper took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was still angry, and he knew the perfect place he can let out the steam.

Though he made a really big secret out of it, it was really just the rooftop of a small apartment building that he was pretty sure no one had been to for at least three years. He had found the place on one of his usual exercise run, and it had become his personal training spot ever since. There weren't any training equipment there, but Skipper still made the best of it by using it to practice his martial arts.

He liked having this place to his own. It wasn't that he didn't like having his teammates around, but he liked having a bit of privacy. Besides, he was pretty sure Kowalski already knows about this place, though he's not sure how the scientist had found out.

Back to the present. Skipper couldn't suppress a smirk as he climbed the fire escape he had become so familiar with. Using some moves he had taught himself, he jumped up the last few floors in record time and leaped into the air when he reached the top, landing perfectly on the rooftop. He swept his vision across the platform, and another smirk pushed its way onto his face.

Walking over to an old wooden bench, he shrugged off his jacket and dropped it on it. He looked over the edge of the roof to make sure there was no one coming up, and once he saw that the coast was clear, he nodded to himself and went to the center of the rooftop.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, allowing himself to think of the cause of his discomfort. The second Julien's obnoxious face floated up in his mind, he felt annoyance boil up in him again.

Eyes still closed, he slid into a stance he was comfortable with. For a moment, he stayed like that, forcing himself to calm down.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. In one swift motion, he began to move. Punch. Punch. Kick. Spin. Kick. Kick. Punch. Block. Uppercut. Punch. Jump. Kick. Kick. Block. Slide. Roundhouse. Back-flip. Swipe. Elbow. Punch…

He continued, never slowing. He used move after move, each connected perfectly into an entire new style that only he knew. He focused on the space in front of him only. Every attack held power behind them. Not one move was wasted, each strike meant to take out the nonexistent enemy. Each step flawless, right where he wanted them to be. He was a fury of punches and kicks that no criminal would want to meet.

He focused entirely on his practice, clearing everything else from his mind. He paid no attention to his surroundings, giving the space in front of him his undivided attention. Later, he would blame that for not noticing the door to the apartment below open and someone stepping onto the platform.

He had just finished the final kick and slid back into another stance when he heard it.

"You!"

He spun around in surprise.

At the door, a young woman stood. She had a look of annoyance on her face as she pointed a finger accusingly at him. "You're that jerk the other day!"

"Jerk?" He repeated, at a complete lost of what to do. How did this girl get under his senses, anyway? How come he didn't feel her presence? Still, she looked vaguely familiar…

"Yeah, the jerk," She marched over to him, jabbing her finger on his shoulder, "that couldn't even apologize when he runs into people!"

Suddenly, he remembered. She was the one that had tried to get him to apologize back at the subway when he and Rico were running from Officer X. He quickly dug through his memories and compared his mental image with the girl in front of him now. Yes, the same brown hair that had covered half of her face, tied into a high, long ponytail. They were the same.

"Are you even listening to me?" The girl demanded, arms now crossed in front of her chest.

"Look, I was in a hurry then." He replied like he didn't just recall the incident. "It was pretty much a matter of life and death for me."

"Oh yeah?" The girl rolled her eyes. Clearly, she didn't believe him. "What were you running from? The alligators in the sewers?"

Skipper felt his eye twitch. This girl was almost as annoying as that narcissistic Lemur! Almost.

"That's classified." He replied curtly. In a way, it was. He's not supposed to exist, after all.

"Classified?" The girl actually laughed. "That's the lamest excuse I have ever heard anyone come up with."

Skipper felt his eyes twitch again. Deciding it was time to regain control over the situation, he sent the girl a mild glare, "What are you doing here?"

"Me? This is my place." The girl glared back. "I think I'm more entitled to ask you the same question."

"Classified." Skipper said.

"Again with the classified thing? Who are they classified from, exactly?" The girl shot back at him. Skipper smirked before leaning into the girl's face, with every intention of intimidating her. "From people like you who can't keep their nose out of business that is not theirs, doll face."

Suddenly, his reflexes kick in and he jumped back, successfully avoiding a high kick that has been aimed at his head. He looked at the girl with surprise, completely thrown off guard with what just happened. The girl glared at him with hard amber eyes, anger visible in them. She leapt at him again, lashing out with punches and kicks, with Skipper dodging every single one.

"Don't." She growled between attacks. "Call. Me. Doll face!" She finished the last word with another high kick at Skipper's face. This time, Skipper caught it.

The girl's eyes widened in shock. Clearly, this had never happened to her before. Skipper took note at how she was able to maintain perfect balance even with one foot suspended in the air. He smirked. "So, you know karate."

"Yeah? So what?" The girl growled. Skipper said nothing, and only smirked a little wider.

Suddenly, the girl found herself staring at the sky, nursing a suddenly aching neck. She glanced up at the man she was attacking only a few seconds ago. The man had a triumphant smirk on his face. "Unfortunately for you, you only know karate."

Inwardly, she flinched at how true the words are. Outwardly, she huffed and crossed her arms, looking away from him.

"Here." The man's voice suddenly softened. She stared at the hand offered to her, and, reluctantly, took it. The moment she was up though, she withdrew her hand. The man smiled amusingly at this, making her slightly uncomfortable.

"They call me Skipper." The man said suddenly. "What about you?"

The girl looked away. She wasn't sure if she should introduce herself or not. But he did it, and it was only polite to return it. Besides…

"Marlene." She finally said. She turned around and looked at Skipper in the eye. "My name is Marlene."

Afterwards, the rest of the Penguins quickly noticed the slight changes in their leader's behavior. For one, it took longer for Julien to anger him. Skipper was almost always smirking. There was also the fact that he went topside almost every afternoon. When asked, he always said he wanted to train, but the training room was occupied. The others bought it for a while. Before Kowalski pointed out that there was no one in the training, that is.

But Skipper still didn't tell them where he went or why he went. The others soon decided that since Skipper didn't seem to be doing anything bad, it'd probably be better not to pry anymore.

Two weeks after their fateful encounter, Skipper sat on the old bench, thinking about what had happened after he and the girl introduced themselves. Marlene had stated bluntly that the roof was her territory, and Skipper volunteered to vanish. He chuckled inwardly when he recalled what the girl had said.

"You can stay, but under two conditions." She told him. "One, never call me doll face again."

Well, that one was fairly easy.

"Two…" She took a deep breath, as if trying to convince herself that what she was about to say was the right thing. "Teach me."

And so began their training sessions. They met on the rooftop every afternoon in which they were available. If one of them couldn't make it, the other would practice old moves that they knew.

Today was one of those days. Skipper had already gone through five different sets of moves, and Marlene was no where in sight. He picked up the bottle of water he had brought with him and gulped down about half of its contents.

"How long have you been there?" He asked casually after he finished.

At first, he didn't get any response. After about fifteen seconds, a sigh was heard and Marlene stepped out from behind the slightly ajar door, a cell phone in her hand. "About five minutes." She replied sulkily. "How did you know I was there?"

Skipper gave her a pointed look, and Marlene rolled her eyes. "Right. I forgot who I was talking to. Of course you knew I was there. All hail the great Skipper."

"Thank you." Skipper said with mock authority. They both laughed.

"What were you doing with that cell phone?" Skipper asked. He was quick to notice how Marlene's hand shifted unconsciously out of his view when he asked.

"Nothing much." She said. "Just some text messages."

"Right." Skipper said. Suddenly, he was behind her. Marlene's hand grasped at the suddenly empty space between her fingers.

"Hey!" She spun around. Skipper was looking at her call phone screen with an amused expression on his face.

"You really should mute your shutter when trying to sneak a photo of someone." He suggested while turning the phone around for Marlene to see, revealing several pictures of the Penguin leader. He smirked when the girl's face reddened with what he assumed was either embarrassment or anger. It was probably both.

"You can't just look through my cell phone like that!" She protested.

"I can when it involves my privacy." Skipper said almost too cheerfully. Marlene, having no argument for that, huffed and looked away, face still red.

"Well, then, now that we got that clear, let's delete them." Skipper said, returning his attention to the cell phone.

"What?" Marlene's head snapped back at him. "You can't do that!"

"I can, and I will." Skipper replied, still using the almost too cheery tone. "And…I'm doing it."

"Wait!" Marlene jumped at him, but the leader just sidestepped, letting Marlene fall to the ground. Marlene quickly rolled to her feet, but by then it was already too late.

"Sorry, Marlene." Skipper said with a wide smirk, offering the cell phone back. "I don't like getting my pictures taken."

Marlene snatched the cell phone back from him and quickly opened it to look through her photos, just to make sure if he really did delete them.

He did. She thought with slight disbelief. Every single one of them…

She sighed in defeat and sat down on the floor.

"Why were you taking photos of me, anyway?" Skipper asked as he turned to place the bottle back on the bench, in turn not noticing Marlene's face grow a shade redder.

"I've been…talking about you to my brother. About how you were teaching me." Marlene said. "And he wanted to see who you are. I didn't want to bring him here, so I…yeah." She finished off rather lamely. Technically, it was the truth. He did ask her about Skipper. And she did promise that she would bring pictures. So it wasn't a lie.

Right.

Skipper seemed to buy it as he chuckled. "As much as I'm flattered that you actually talk about me, I can't have my pictures shown to everyone."

"And why not?" Marlene demanded.

Suddenly, Skipper's expression changed. He looked at Marlene solemnly. "The thing I do, Marlene…it's dangerous. If my enemies found out that you have pictures of me, they would know that you've been with me at some point. They'll do anything to get to me."

He stopped there, letting Marlene figure out the rest on her own. Marlene frowned. "It's only in my cell phone. Don't you trust me enough?"

"It's not you that I don't trust." Skipper said bluntly. "It's that brother of yours."

"Really?" Marlene rolled her eyes. "I've known him since, like, forever. He wouldn't hurt anyone."

"Well, seeing the way you were so willing to hurt me when we first met, I'd thought it was in the genes." Skipper said. He jumped up to avoid Marlene's attempt to swipe his feet out from under him. "Anyways, no pictures."

"Fine." Marlene stood up and dusted off her hands. "But, you have to teach me a new move today. It's payback for deleting my pictures."

"Don't you mean my pictures?" Skipper smirked as Marlene glared at him. "Don't rub it in, Skipper."

"Alright, alright. Let's get down to business, then." Skipper said. "Let's start with you showing me what you've got so far."

Marlene frowned. "Didn't we do that in our first lesson?"

"Well, here's the different part." Skipper smirked. "Attack me."

Marlene stared. "What?"

"Don't worry." The Penguin leader said brightly. "I'll be able to dodge all your attacks."

Marlene felt a vein pulse. Somehow, that made me want to attack him more.

"Don't regret it." She muttered before lunging at Skipper.

She started with a fake punch, but instead brought up her knee. Skipper took one look at her fist and moved to the right slightly, avoiding the knee and the fist altogether. She spun around with a roundhouse, followed immediately by another punch. He took one step back to dodge the roundhouse and ducked down to evade the punch. Marlene growled in annoyance before launching another attack.

After ten seconds, Marlene started to get frustrated. No matter what she did, her mentor always dodged them with the least possible movements. And he did it with his hands in his pockets. And he also had a smirk on his face the entire time. None of these did anything to help with Marlene's growing frustration.

Argh! She thought angrily while throwing in another move. Why can't I even touch him!

And it was to her surprise when a hand suddenly grabbed her own right after the thought flashed across her mind.

"Stop, stop!" Skipper said with a frown.

"Is something wrong?" Marlene asked cautiously, lowering her stance.

"Yeah, it's wrong." Skipper said. "Who taught you that move?"

Marlene blinked. "Which one?"

"The one where you spin and supposedly drive you elbow into your opponent's stomach, followed by an immediate uppercut."

"My brother. Why?"

"Well, I'm not sure what your brother was thinking when he taught you that, but you're not going to hit anyone with that."

"What?" Marlene said in bewilderment.

"All your other attacks before that were perfect, so it kind of threw me off guard." Skipper continued. "I gotta hand it to you, Marlene. If it was anyone else that wasn't me that was being attacked by you, he'd probably spend a week at Doris's. But that elbow and uppercut combo was completely out of sync. In fact, it also leaves you with a lot of openings."

"Wait, let me get this straight." Marlene rubbed at her eyes. "So you're expecting me to believe that my brother whom I trust more than anything was teaching me a move that could get myself killed?"

"Hey, you said it, not me." Skipper put his hands up in mock surrender. "You can believe whatever you want to believe, but I'm just telling you that that combo is never going to work."

"But my brother…" Marlene frowned. "He always told me that the combo is my trump card that I shouldn't use unless absolutely necessary. He demonstrated it a couple of times, and he always took out whoever he was attacking."

"Look, I'm not implying that your brother's been lying to you. All I know is that you have a move that we need to work on perfecting." Skipper stated bluntly. "Now come at me with it again."

"Okay." Marlene gave herself a mental shook and made a mental note to ask her brother later. She charged at Skipper again, and as she spun and brought her elbow forward, Skipper quickly stopped her. "Okay, stop right there."

Marlene froze her movements but still kept her stance. Skipper took hold of her elbow and lowered it slightly. "Lower your elbow a little bit like this. Try to keep it level with your shoulder. And if you can, spin a little harder. It'll add more force to the attack." He explained as he moved her arm around to show her how it was done.

"Like this?" Marlene did a quick run of what she was told.

"Yeah, that's good." Skipper nodded approvingly. "Now continue into the uppercut."

She did as instructed, and Skipper stopped her again. "When you let your fist up, make sure it's after you've completely spun around. You don't want to lose your balance here." He took hold of the elbow again and grabbed her fist with the other hand to help her understand what he was saying. Marlene focused on the movement he was leading her with, trying to get the feel of it. It was hard to change after doing it the supposedly wrong way for such a long time, but she decided that if Skipper thought something was wrong with it, then something probably was wrong with it. He's the expert, after all.

It wasn't until something warm suddenly breezed down her neck did she realize how close they were. Skipper was right behind her, one hand grabbing her elbow and the other her wrist. He was still talking, and that was the source of the air that breezed her neck. Her immediate reaction was to tear herself away from him and rub the spot where she felt the breath, all the while trying to contain the blush that was making its way unto her face.

"Marlene?" Skipper asked, a bit surprised by her sudden movement. Marlene took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "It's…it's nothing." She said. "You were saying about the uppercut?"

Skipper gave her a look before shrugging, deciding to let it go. "Actually, I was saying that you can come at me again."

"Yeah, yeah, okay." Marlene nodded furiously, still trying to get over the creep-out feeling of Skipper's breath on her neck. "Okay." She took another deep breath and shifted into her stance. But before she could move, two different kinds of beeping suddenly sounded from both sides of the roof.

They both blinked in confusion before realizing the sound was coming from both of them respectively. Marlene dug out her cell phone while Skipper took out something that looked like an earphone.

"Uh, sorry…" Marlene said.

"Excuse me…" Skipper said at the same time. They exchanged an awkward smile before each answering their call.

"Hey, sis, where are you? You're late for dinner." A masculine voice came from the other end of Marlene's phone. "Which is a miracle in itself. Marlene missing dinner, who would've known?"

"Hey, Ant." Marlene said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm so sorry that I didn't live up to my reputations."

"You'd better be. The cheese is getting cold. You know I don't like eating cold cheese." He said in a playful tone to let her know he was joking.

"Whatever. I was just busy. I'm coming home now." Marlene said. "See you in fifteen minutes."

"I do hope those are regular minutes, not Marlene minutes. Think of the cheese, sis."

"Right. Bye." Marlene hung up with a smile. She turned to Skipper. "I'm sorry, Skipper. I'm late for dinner, and my brother doesn't like cold cheese. So I'll get going." She stopped when she saw that Skipper was still talking into the earpiece.

"No." She heard Skipper insist. "That was just…uh…that was just a random girl I was passing by."

A slight pause.

"No, I'm not meeting anyone." Skipper half hissed into the mike. "Look, I'm on my way back right now, end of discussion. Bye."

Skipper pressed the button on the earpiece and groaned. "Uh…stupid smart guy who thinks he knows everything…"

"So…I take it you have to leave now?" Marlene asked with a knowing smirk. Skipper shrugged and smirked back. "Yeah. It seems like you have to, too."

"How convenient." Marlene muttered sarcastically. "So, tomorrow. Same time, same place?"

"Naturally." Skipper nodded. They shared another smirk before saying their goodbyes and heading off in different directions.

Marlene climbed the stairs that led to the small apartment she shared with her brother. Well, he wasn't actually her brother, to be exact. But he had taken her in when she was living on the streets, and over the years she learned to love and trust him like a brother. She was certain he felt the same.

She went through her phone again, staring at the empty photo folder. She sighed as she remembered Skipper deleting them. Then she smirked.

Luckily, I had already moved one photo into another folder before he took the phone from me. She thought smugly as she opened the said photo file and examined it. It had a clear view of Skipper's face, showing the smirk the Penguin leader always wore. Marlene couldn't quite remember when she took this picture, but she figured it didn't matter. Ant had wanted to see what her mentor looked like, right? This should be enough.

Before she realized it, she had already reached her door. She took one glance around and quickly reached under the mat for the key. Neither she nor Ant carried the key with them. It was too troublesome, they had concluded, and decided to leave the key under the mat so that both of them could get in when either of them returned alone.

Marlene tossed the key into the air and caught it. She twirled it a few time before finally sticking it into the keyhole.

"Sis, you're home!" Her brother beamed up at her from the couch in their living room/dining room. "I was about to consult Mr. Microwave!"

"Sorry I'm late, Ant." Marlene said. She sniffed the air. "You got pizza for dinner again?"

"But of course!" Ant laughed, already holding a slice in his hand. He bit into it and chewed. Then he frowned. "Well, the cheese got cold anyways."

"Hey, I can make it up to you." Marlene said as she took her seat beside the older man. "I got the picture of the person teaching me moves."

She handed her phone over to her brother, and he took it. Ant looked at the picture for a few seconds. Although his expression didn't change, Marlene thought she saw something flash through his eyes. Was it…anger?

"You need to thank me. It wasn't easy getting a picture of him." She said, mainly to let herself focus on something other than Ant's eyes. "He made it clear he didn't what his picture taken, so I only had the chance to take one. Of course, I can't send you the photo, either."

"No, that's okay." Ant replied, his eyes still on the picture even as he gave the phone back to her. "This is all I need. Seems like a good enough guy."

Marlene rolled her eyes. "He's annoying, but I guess he's alright."

They ate the pizza in silence after that. It wasn't until they were nearly finished when Marlene spoke again.

"Say, Ant?"

"Yeah?"

She took a deep breath before finally voicing her question. "You know that elbow-uppercut combo you taught me?"

"What about it?"

"Did you…did you teach it to me…properly?" She asked uncertainly, hoping with all her heart that the answer was yes.

"Of course! Why would I teach you something that wouldn't work?" Her brother said with a laugh. Marlene inwardly sighed with relief. Maybe Ant didn't know he got the move wrong, either. Yeah, that's gotta be it.

"Marlene, what do you think about getting a tattoo?" Ant suddenly asked.

Marlene almost dropped her slice in surprise. "Me? Tattoo?" She asked incredulously.

"Yup. I bet it'll look cool on you." Ant said with a smile. "Look. It's something like this." He rolled up his sleeve to show her. Marlene quirked an eyebrow at the black design on his upper arm. "The ace of spades?"

"All of our other friends' got it." Her brother told her happily. "I was just thinking that maybe you can get one, too."

"I don't know…is it painful?" Marlene asked uncertainly.

"Since when had you let pain stop you from doing anything?" Ant replied with a laugh.

"Point taken." She said with a shrug.

"C'mon, sis. It'll be great! You'll be just like us!"

Marlene pondered the pros and cons for a while. Then she finally nodded. "Fine."

"Great! I know just the one we can go to for this…"

As Ant continued talking, Marlene chuckled and shook her head at how enthusiastic he seemed.

It's just one tattoo. That couldn't mean that much, right?

To be continued…

So, enter Marlene. Finally. *cheers*

The personality change in my Marlene is pretty obvious. She's a lot more tomboyish than the original, and she's perhaps more independent, too. And I made Skipper a bit less paranoid and serious than the original. Of course this story is going to contain Skilene. I'm a fan of it, after all.

There are probably some of you that think the way they met is out of character. Would Skipper and Marlene really be willing to trust someone they just met and fought? Trust me, I asked myself that a lot of times. But I seriously couldn't think of another way for them to meet…so yeah, this was the result.

I really like this chapter. This is actually only the first half of what I had planned. I just kept writing and writing, and before I realized it, I already hit the 4000 word mark. So I had to chop the chapter in half. It'll get more interesting in the next chapter! I can almost guarantee it!

~ruth~