Chapter 1 - The Newcomer

"Troops, rise and shine," said Skipper, opening a hatch to let the early morning sunlight penetrate deep into the concrete bunker. As the light fell onto one of three of the penguins still snoozing in their bunks, Skipper heard a groan and some shifting of his comrades in their bunks.

"Skipper, five more minutes please," he heard his tall teammate Kowalski groan.

"Men, get out of bed, I told you we had training bright and early this morning." snapped Skipper, waddling from the entrance to where the penguins were sleeping in their concrete bunks. He knew they had stayed up late the previous night watching television, even though he had warned them about the early training sessions. He noted that all three penguins argued by not getting up.

"Mutiny!" scowled Skipper. He reached over and grabbed an air horn off a nearby table. "Men, you have until the count of three to get out of bed. One. Two." Without any more of a warning Skipper pressed the button on the air horn and it emitted a loud screech. Kowalski sat up so quickly he slammed his head on the top of his bunk. Private, the smallest and most inexperienced of the penguins jumped out of bed and saluted his leader. Rico, who was nearly mute, jumped so hard he fell out of bed and landed on his stomach, forcing him to regurgitate a hammer, which he quickly swallowed before standing up. Kowalski jumped down from his bunk, rubbing his head, and stood next to Rico. Skipper finally released the air horn.

"This is what happens when we don't follow orders around here, troops," said skipper, placing his flippers on his hips. "What if we were in danger and we had to evacuate?"

"But Skippah," started the small penguin in his British accent, "That's never actually happened yet."

"I don't need any of your sass, Private," growled Skipper.

"Sorry, sir!"

"Alright men I want to see twice as much effort today. I don't care if your tired, just get something to eat and meet me up top in fifteen." As he finished he turned from his teammates and climbed the ladder outside, closing the hatch behind him and bathing the bunker in darkness once again.

"Skipper sure lets his position go to his head from time to time," stated Kowalski glumly, walking over to a bowl of fish on a table. Rico nodded his head in agreement. Private remained quite and looked at the ground, feeling embarrassed. Kowalski noticed.

"Ah, Private, don't worry. He gets that way sometimes." stated the tall penguin, putting a flipper on his shorter friend's back. Private nodded and picked up a fish.

Their training session was the same as it always was. Skipper used a stopwatch they had found a long time ago to time Kowalski, Rico, and Private as they made laps in the pool around the bunker. Skipper, of course, had the fastest time, closely followed by Rico. Then they practiced their hand to hand combat techniques. Once again, Skipper came out on top. When the session was over, all four penguins were winded although Skipper was not one to admit exhaustion. It was nearly time for the zoo to open now, and the four penguins took a rest before it was time to preform for the guests. Before any of the penguins could sit down, however, there was a knock at the hatch.

"Guys! Come check it out! There's a new lemur that was delivered to Julien's exhibit today." said an excited, brown furred otter when Private opened the hatch door and Marlene climbed inside the bunker.

"Marlene, are you aware that the zoo opens in a few minutes? Get back to your own post before Alice catches you over here!" stated Skipper firmly, waddling up behind Private.

"Skipper, you know that Alice has off on Monday and the zoo is always empty until later." Marlene said, rolling her eyes.

"She has a point," Kowalski said from halfway across the room, busy messing with his clipboard.

"Anyway, a few of the animals and I are going over there to check the new guy out. Want to come?" The otter asked.

"Please, Skippah, can we go?" asked Private, turning to Skipper.

"Sure, why not. Maybe this newcomer will be able to keep King Julien out of our hair a little."

The five assembled and went into the secret passage entrance in the penguin's bunker. It led to an system of tunnels under the zoo and had a convenient entrance not far from the lemur's exhibit. The group sneaked passed a zoo employee and entered the enclosure, after meeting up with a few other of the zoo's animals.

King Julien, a tall lightly colored lemur was walking around the exhibit, showing a shorter, darker furred lemur his 'kingdom'. He had his arm wrapped around the smaller lemur's shoulders and was dragging it around like a rag doll as he moved from place to place.

"... and this, my friend, is the place of much partying and fun, my bouncey thingy!" Skipper heard Julien say, gesturing to his large, multicolored, inflatable bounce house. The smaller lemur smiled insincerely, and Skipper noticed. He saw the smile, but he could read the lemur's eyes and noticed that they wern't happy. They almost looked angry. He shrugged and figured it was just because the poor thing was being annoyed out of its mind.

"Hey, Ringtail, who's your friend?" said skipper loudly. Julien spun around and let go of the darker lemur. His eyes landed on Skipper and he began to speak.

"Hello my penguin friend! This is May-lay, and she comes from Madagascar!" The Darker lemur walked up to Skipper.

"Ignore him," it said with a sweet, female voice "the name is Maelie. Pleasure to meet you Mr...?" She extended a paw.

"Skipper. Just Skipper is fine," He shook her paw with his flipper. "and the pleasure is all mine." Now that she was closer, Skipper had a better view of her. She was tall, not as tall as Julien but taller than himself. Her body was curved and covered in soft looking dark brown fur. Her paws and the rings on her tail were a slightly lighter than the rest of her fur. Her snout looked much like Julien's, and it was easy to tell they had both come from the same place. Her eyes were a eerie deep green, and her ears were tipped with white fur.

"So you come from Madagascar like Julien?" asked Private, who was standing next to skipper.

"Yes, me and May-lay had much of the parties back on Madagascar," answered Julien, who had made his way over to the group. Mort and Maurice had also joined the group.

"So what made you come all the way here?" Private continued to question. Maelie paused for a second.

"Well Julien, Maurice, Mort and I were good friends on Madagascar, and when they left things became awful boring. So I stowed away on a ship that visited until they found me and brought me here." she explained, cheerfully.

"Well glad to have you here, Maelie! Welcome to Central Park Zoo!" said Skipper warmly.

Several minutes later, and every animal had a chance to great the new lemur. Kowalski vigorously shook Maelie's hand, while Rico's grunts of happiness made her giggle. Marlene talked about how nice it would be to have another female around. Maurice and Mort joined the group as well and introduced themselves to the newcomer. Eventually it was becoming closer to noon, and guests started to filter into the zoo. The animals returned to their own habitats to avoid being caught.

The day went like any other Monday, except for the fact that this Monday most of the guests wanted to see Maelie in the lemur habitat and the penguins received even less attention then usual. They preformed their routines for the few families that watched, and received mostly fishcakes as a reward. They were more common, but once in a while they would have real fish thrown. If the penguins were lucky, someone would toss popcorn when a zoo employee wasn't looking.

That night, the penguins were gathered around their television set watching some nature documentary on a jungle in Africa. It entertained everyone except Kowalski, who preferred to read and write things on his clipboard.

"So, what do you think of Maelie?" Skipper asked when the documentary was over.

"She seems nicer than any of the other lemurs by far," private answered, "except maybe Mort.

"I like her. She is a very intellectual and highly educated being!" said Kowalski, smiling. Rico nodded in agreement.

"I'm just glad she's already a good friend of Julien's. Now he has someone to bug other than us." stated skipper, making his way over to his bunk. "Alright men, lights out."

"Aye, aye, Skippah!" Private said, turning off the TV.