Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters, but I do own Hannah and her aunt.
The leader of the penguins glared after the young human as she left with someone older than her. He was shocked to discover that the girl could talk to him, and now he's worried their secrets will get out. He can't trust her not to tell everybody about them.
What if she tells Alice? he suddenly thought. Their whole operation might be in danger. Should they leave before they get exposed? If they waited to see what happens, it might be too late. He needed options.
Turning his back on the last spot he saw the young girl, he waddled over to the fishbowl, kicking it aside, and starting to climb down the ladder. He hid the hole again and dropped down to the floor.
Skipper looked around. His teammates were trying to look busy, but he could tell they all were distracted, most likely by the discovery of a human who can talk to them.
He passed Private and Rico, who were playing cards but neither of them made a move. There was a distracted glint to their eyes as they stared at the wall. He walked over to Kowalski, who was absent-mindedly messing with one of his inventions. He didn't even look up as his leader stopped beside him.
Skipper cleared his throat and the tall penguin glanced up, grunting in acknowledgment but he was still thinking about something else, clearly.
"I need options," the leader said, and suddenly Kowalski snapped to attention.
"Yes, options." He placed the invention on the floor and stood up. Then he hesitated. "About what?" he asked carefully.
Skipper glared at him. "About that girl! I need to know if she might be a threat! Should we leave before she tells everybody about us? It might already be too late." He started pacing, just barely noticing the others gathering around him. "She's probably already told Alice. We need to be ready to leave at a moment's notice." He paused and glanced at Rico. "Make sure you have all our weapons. We can't let any of them fall into the wrong hands." He turned to Private. "Gather our snacks. We need to have food if we're going on the run. And Kowalski, get rid of all your inventions. Leave no trace of them behind. Blueprints and all." His teammates just stared at him like he was speaking another language. "What?" he snapped.
"Skipper, I think you're overreacting," said Kowalski. "She didn't seem like someone who would expose us."
"Yeah, she seemed really nice," Private added, and Skipper gave him a dubious look. Private thought everyone was nice. And most of the time he turns out to be wrong. From Skipper's experience anyways.
"She might seem nice," he growled," but that doesn't really mean that she is." He shot each of them a glare. "And I'm not risking everything on what seems to be true. We don't know her. She could be trouble."
The others exchanged uncertain looks. "Maybe we should talk to her some more," Private suggested. "If we talk to her and she says she's going to tell or it seems like she would, then we can talk about leaving. Though I don't want to," the young penguin said sadly. "I like it here."
"Me too," Kowalski said. "But I think we should do what Private said. We talk to her, see if she's planning to expose us, then go from there. If we have to leave…" He trailed off, looking around their hidden HQ with a deep frown on his face.
Even Rico was looking upset like he didn't like the thought they'd have to leave either. Skipper didn't like the idea of talking to that girl, but he reluctantly agreed with them. He made a mental note in his mind that no matter what that human says, if it looks like she might tell anyone else about them, he'll order the others to move from the Central Park Zoo to someplace safer. Someplace where they can build another base and do their thing from there.
He found himself also thinking that he would miss their base if they had to move. But he pushed those feelings away. If they had to move, then they had to. He would make sure his friends were safe, no matter what.
The next day the penguins did their usual routine to please the humans. But Skipper kept one eye on everyone walking by, expecting to see that girl from yesterday.
It wasn't til midday that he spotted her skipping by their habitat. He was surprised to see her heading to the lemur enclosure. He watched as she looked around to make sure nobody was near and then she waved and he watched with increasing distrust as the tall lemur, King Julien, waved back.
Skipper frowned as the king said something to his advisor and then he grabbed his boombox and disappeared from sight. Something didn't feel right.
Where did Ringtail go? he thought, and a moment later he spotted the lemur gesturing to the girl and both of them hurried off together, toward the reptile house. They were up to something. But what could it be?
He called to the others and they gathered around him. He told them what he just saw and they seemed worried, too. He ordered Kowalski and Rico to stay here and distracted the humans while he and Private went to see what was going on.
Once Skipper was sure nobody was paying attention to them, he led the way over to the water and swam over to the gate. He waited for the young penguin to catch up and then he dropped to his stomach and slid to where he last saw Julien and that girl. As he stopped outside the reptile house, he stood there and listened. Just then Private came up and they took a few steps forward.
Skipper halted when he heard faint music. He followed the sound to the back of the building where he found the human and the king of the lemurs dancing. He shared a look with Private. Then he slid over to the boombox and turned the music off.
The two stopped dancing and turned to look to see what happened. As soon as Julien saw the penguin, he stomped over and glared at him.
"Why did you stop the music?" he demanded, trying to reach around Skipper, but the penguin blocked his path. "Move so I can turn the music back on!"
"No." Skipper stood his ground, but he switched his glare from Julien to the girl. "What are you doing back here?"
"Um… dancing?" the human tried, looking nervous.
"But why?" Private stepped forward. "And why back here?"
"We tried dancing in the shipping area yesterday," Hannah explained. "But Alice almost caught us. Julien suggested we try back here because nobody ever comes back here."
"Not that it's any of you penguins business!" Julien snapped, and he tried going around Skipper again, but when Skipper went to stop him, he suddenly changed directions and pushed past him to press play on the boombox. "Ha!" he laughed and danced his way over to the human.
Skipper growled under his breath and reached over to pause the music again.
"Hey, stop doing that!" Julien shouted.
"I have a few questions for her," he retorted.
"Who? Me?" Hannah blinked several times. "I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with me. And besides, you didn't let me ask you any questions."
"I just want to know that you won't expose us," Skipper said, annoyed. "I need to make sure my team is safe."
"Expose you?" Hannah looked confused. "How would I do that?"
"By telling Alice about us," Private said in a softer voice. "We don't want you to tell her, just to be clear."
Hannah looked hurt. "Of course I won't tell her or anybody else about you! I'm not sure what there is to tell. But I won't breathe a word to any human about you," she promised quickly. "I mean, to do that I have to reveal my secret that I can talk to animals and I'm not ready for that. And when I am, if I ever am, I won't tell anyone about you!"
Skipper eyed her suspiciously. Should he believe her? He looked over at Private who was looking a lot more relieved. But Skipper still didn't know if he should trust her.
Deciding to just stay on alert and be ready to move his team out if the worse happens, Skipper turned back to the lemur. "Why are you dancing with a human?" he demanded.
Julien shrugged. "Yesterday Maurice and Mort were being boring and wouldn't dance anymore, but she said she'll dance with me if I'll be her friend. I thought why not? What could go wrong? So I agreed."
"Alice or someone else could catch you two dancing," Private pointed out before Skipper could. "And that wouldn't be good."
"That's why I suggested we come here because there's no chance of getting caught back here." Julien looked annoyingly smug and Skipper wished he could slap that look off his face. But he took a deep breath to calm his anger.
He asked the human what he needed to ask her. For now he decided to trust her that she wouldn't tell anyone, but he'll keep an eye on her. He didn't like that she and Julien were together, but as long as they don't get caught by anyone, he decided not to worry about this.
"Come on, Private," he said, waddling away.
Private turned to follow him, but the penguins stopped when Hannah called them back.
"Do you want to dance with us?" she asked.
Skipper eyed her and shook his head. "No," he said and then he dropped to his stomach and slid away. He didn't stop until he got back to his habitat. He waited for Private to catch up. Then they splashed into the water and hopped onto the island. Nobody seemed to have noticed they were gone.
Kowalski hopped from foot to foot, stopping beside Skipper and murmuring," What happened?"
Sighing softly, Skipper explained what happened while he and his team did their practice routine to please the people. The whole time he kept asking himself: Can I really trust her?
And he kept reminding himself: Be on alert. Be ready in case she breaks her promise and does tell someone. Gotta keep the others safe.
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