Chapter 1 – The mark

A/N: I'm back with a new story. This is a sequel to Waddling Shadows: return of the Peace Keeper but it won't contain fantasy but mysteries and revelations of a certain paranoid penguin leader who never told the truth about his origins. It's Skipper.

There was a long, grey table in the middle of dark room. There were some large screens on the walls and chairs around that table. In the end of long grey, a penguin was sitting and drinking coffee with fish in his mug. He had a brown cap like the ones generals on his head, had a half armored face with a glowing red eye like Dr. Blow hole, and his left flipper was made of metal.

Then there was door knocking. "Come in" the mysterious penguin answered.

A penguin figure clad in black came in. he wore black mask that had big white eyes. "Sir, the search squad came back from their mission" he said as he saluted.

"Really, and what did you find?" he asked and took a sip from his mug.

"We have located the traitor, sir" he answered and the penguin that seems to be the leader paused "Which one?" he asked, showing slight interest.

The masked penguin waddled closer to the table with a file in his flipper "It's Lee, sir" he passed the file sending it sliding to his leader. The file had pictures of a flat-headed penguin with others. One was thin, one was hefty with head feathers on his head like a mohawk, and a young round one.

"He lives in New York City, in Central Park Zoo and he's the leader of those three penguins you see there. Their daily activities are random but also scheduled and according to what the spy penguin crew reported, Lee taught them well" and once he was done with the analysis he waited for orders.

The superior penguin grinned darkly and glared at the pictures "Oh Lee, I can still remember the day we've found him like if it was yesterday. He was one of the victims of the Great War. We found him lying on the icy coast and was injured badly so, we took him with us and gave him a place to stay until he regains conscious, but when he woke up, he couldn't remember anything. Not even his own name. So we gave him a home, gave something to eat, the honor of working with us, a name" his grin changed into anger expression "But in the end what did he do, WHAT DID HE DO!" flippers clutched, heat rising to the top of his head "He betrayed us!" he hit the table with his metal flipper, splitting it into halves.

The masked penguin went to his leader and placed a comforting flipper "Sir, please take it easy. Now that we found him, things will go smooth" he said darkly. The leader calmed down and moved away from the broken table. He grabbed a remote from the floor that was on the table before it was smashed. The superior penguin waddled to the large screen and turned it on, showing pictures of the flat-headed penguin. He smirked "You will learn the lesson soon Lee. You can't turn your back on this organization. Just wait and you'll see" and end it with a sinister laugh.

Meanwhile

It was 6:00 PM. The closing time for Central Park Zoo after a long day of entertaining visitors. The zoo keeper lady Alice was pushing and dragging people towards the exist "All right people, it's closing time, now get out here will you!" sheesh she's always in bad mood.

In the penguin habitat, Skipper and his men. Kowalski, Rico, and Private were waving for the leaving humans.

"Smile and wave boy, just smile and wave" Skipper said with a chill tune. Once every human was gone, the penguin leader smiled "And that was the end of another satisfying day" he turned to his boys and congratulate them "Nice work boys. Especially you young Private. Of all the cute and cuddly antics I've seen from you, today it was pure penguin gold" he stared at him fondly. In truth, Private was like a little brother or even a son to the avian captain and was ready to do anything for him.

Private giggled by the compliment and replied "Oh thank you Skipper, I've been practicing, and I do enjoy spreading smiles and joy into people's hearts, actually. Just like the Lunacorns" he exclaimed with a rainbow smiled. Rico shrugged while Skipper rolled his eyes. Man the kid needs a new role model to look up to. It has to be a penguin, but what TV show has penguins doing commando stuff, hmm.

Soon the aquatic birds went inside HQ, and each one of them attended his usual spot. Skipper went to the coffee maker and made himself some black fish coffee, now that's an extreme drink for artic machos. Kowalski locked himself in his lab with his never-ending experiments and gismos. Rico was reading a comic book in his bunk, at least seeing the colorful pictures and as for Private it was telly time.

They stayed like this until it was dinner time. The penguin commander got up and announced "All right boys, its dinner time. Private, go get Kowalski and Rico, you help me with the table settings"

"Aye-aye Skipper" the two saluted and did as they told. The rookie moved away from the TV and went to get the scientist out of his lab. Private thought he would be really hungry since he never gets out for even a snack.

While the manic helped Skipper set the table. Skipper went to the kitchen to get the plates and food and Rico up chucked some plastic knives and forks and put. One plastic knifes and a fork for each.

After some time, Private managed get Kowalski out of his lab and they both sat down. Everything was set. "All right men, because you did a great job today. We're gonna have….Sushi!" Skipper exclaimed and the team cheered. Boy, how they loved tasty food from the land of the rising sun that is Japan. Skipper looked up to the crazy penguin "Ready Rico?" The manic nodded and put on his chief hat.

He used his big knives to slice the fish and remove the skin. He swung them so fast you can barely see what's happening to the fish. For a wild, destruction machine like Rico, the bird was totally focused on his job.

Finally, the sushi is served. It was the Futomaki rolls; it's a type of sushi that is formed into cylindrical pieces wrapped with edible seaweed that is called Nori in Japan. Rico bowed and other clapped for him, and they dug in. Though no one knew where the rice or seaweeds came from since they observed his movements and didn't see any on the table, but didn't care. It's Rico after all. That crazy bird is an unsolvable riddle.

Once the rolls got into their beaks their eyes widen. It was so good. The flavor was out of this world. They savored every bite of salty delicacy "Nice work on the rolls Rico" Skipper exclaimed. Rico rubbed his neck sheepishly.

Skipper thought watching some TV would make this meal even more delighting so, he gave an order to the scientist "Kowalski, switch on TV, let's see what they have on the news channel"

"Roger that Skipper!" Kowalski grabbed the remote and switched the channel. A man with silver hair appeared "This is Chuck Charles reporting you live from the center of New York City" he was standing in the middle of a street and the sight was unpleasant. The street was half destroyed. There were mail boxes and garbage cans scattered everywhere. Windows smashed and even cars flipped over. Like if a stampede of Rhinos passed there.

"As you can see, the entire area is destroyed. And the funny fact is that no one knows for sure what caused this major havoc" he wandered around and asked a woman who owned one of the destroyed shops. She said that she was working in her shop and nothing seem suspicious when suddenly, there was a black out. Then she heard loud noises and smashing coming from everywhere. First she thought they were robbers but when the lights turned back on the whole place was trashed. She went outside to get help but was shocked when she saw the whole street flipped up-side-down.

The penguin team was astonished. Not even they could cause such critical damage in such short period of time. Whoever did it must be super-fast or maybe they were hundreds of them. But the question is who? Hans, Dr. Blowhole, the Red Squirrel, or maybe the rats.

Then Chuck continued his wandering and encountered a waste collector wearing an orange coat. He walked to him and stretched his microphone "Excuse me sir, but can you tell the audience what you think about this crisis" the man paused and turned around. When he removed his white mask, the penguin team gasped "X!"

"That's right kids, it's X and I know who's behind this sick wave of devastation" the American-African man clutched his hand. X was a former animal control officer, then an exterminator, a temporary zoo keeper, a fish monger, a food shop employee, but he and the penguins always come face to face in the most unexpected places every time, get into a fight and in the end he gets fired for the mess that's left from the battle.

Chuck raised an eye brow "Is it the penguins?" he taunted to receive a spine- freezing glare from the collector "Yes it's them, and this time I can prove it" he claimed as he dragged the reporter to a wall and showed them a black mark that is drawn with spray cans. It was a circular symbol of a black penguin with its wings curved into an arch to the sky. Skipper's eyes widen when he recognized that mark.

"See I told, it's the penguins mark to show us that their planning for an invasion, I can smell the penguin's stench from it" and he grabbed the camera and stared at the screen "I would like to take this moment to say. I TOLD YOU SO! How do you like me now momma huh-huh?"

Kowalski turned off the TV by the scene. Utter silence. Then laughter. The three soldiers thought X's theory was nothing but complete rubbish "Oh look at me, I'm Officer X, and I told you so!" that was Kowalski pretending to be X with a think, deep voice but, when they glared at their leader the laughter stopped. Skipper was like if he was frozen in time with his beak hanging wide open.

The trio glanced at each other in puzzlement of whether he still didn't recover by the scene and about burst in laughter and mocks him, or something was bugging him.

"Um Skippah, are you all right" Private broke the silence with his British accent.

No reply

"Hello, Skipper can you hear me" the scientist tried too, still no reply. The leader was lost in his own world, spacing out. Rico waved a flipper in front him until he got sick of it and shook him "Wa'p"

Skipper jumped by the sudden call "Wha, what, who?"

"Skipper, what happen? You were so oblivious and out of our reach" the strategist asked. The avian leader looked nervous "Ah, nothing, nothing at all, I'm just….tired" he faked a yawn "Well, time to hit the bed, boys, nighty-night" he climbed his bunk and turned to the wall, he faked snoring.

The team grew suspicious but decided to leave it for tomorrow. It was getting late anyway so, they climbed their bunks and soon drifted into the world of dreams. Skipper shot an eye open. He looked above him to other bunks to check if they were asleep. He sighed "How did they found me, what will I do now?" he thought maybe some sleep would help him get his mind off those thoughts and closed his eyes and drifting away.

Suddenly, Skipper shot his eyes open to find himself lying on a grassy hill. It was a starless night and there was a dusty road beside him. He looked around and nobody was there. Until his gaze fell on a penguin figure in the distance. He was as tall as he was but more muscular and wore bitter black glasses and a brown field cap.

"Jake…" Skipper murmured with grief. The mysterious penguin turned his back to him and waddled away. Skipper tried to catch up. To his surprise he was moving but going nowhere. He tried harder but it felt like if he was moving in slow motion. The other penguin waddled away on the dusty road until he was out of sight.

Skipper was finally able to move normally and he belly-slid to the hill. He saw many roads but didn't know which one the other took. Skipper frowned and knelt and started hitting the ground with anger. Then he realized he wasn't on the hill anymore but in dark void, surrounded by three mirrors. Each mirror had a different reflection of him. One was him as Skipper. One was him clad in black and holding a black mask. And the third which was the creepiest. It was blank. It didn't have a reflection like if his third reflection or identity is lost.

Suddenly memories and flashbacks burst in his mind. Memories of him being with his teammates and others with masked penguins. He held his head in pain.

"Who was I been?"

Skipper gasped awake. He looked around in fright. He sighed with relief when he recognized the HQ. He frowned and looked down "I knew this day will come. I have no choice" he jumped out of the bunk and looked at his men with a sad smile "Well boys, it's time for this bird to take off, again"

In the next morning. The three penguins woke up, but surprised too. Why didn't Skipper wake them up earlier, he always does? Private met Kowalski and greeted him "Morning Kowalski" Private chirped. "Morning Private, say, have you seen Skipper because I haven't"

"Not really, and I looked everywhere for him" now the youth began to worry "Do you think he's all right" he asked with concern. Kowalski gave him a comforting smile "Don't worry Private, I'm sure Skipper is probably doing one of his secret solo missions and will be back once he's done"

Rico who was still in his bunk half asleep got up and whipped away his drool. He jumped out of his bunk and waddled to his two companions "Mo'nin" he greeted and the two greeted back. He asked them about Skipper but they didn't have the slightest idea.

The manic spotted something on the table. It was Skipper's recorder. He went to get a better look it. Why would Skipper leave his recorder behind like that? It seems to contain a message. The trio looked at each other in confusion and it was the analyst to press the button. The type was played for them.

"Kowalski, Rico, and young Private. If you're hearing this message right now, it means I'm gone. I know you're wondering why, but that will remain a secret. What I want you to know is that I'm no longer apart of this unit and you must go on without me. Kowalski, from this day on you're in charge of leading this unit. Rico you're the toughest member of the team so I'm counting on you to protect your teammates. And Private…be strong…for me, I know you'll go far….I'm sorry boys but I have to go. Skipper out.

(Look up to the Penguins of Madagascar: What if Skipper left? On Tumblr by Extreme Light 9"

Silence fell. Everyone was speechless. What just happen? Was what they heard was true? "Skippah…is gone!?"

In the otter habitat. Marlene woke up with a beautiful, red rose and a white card beside her. She held the rose with confusion "Who could this be from?" she thought out loud. Then she opened the card and her eyes widen. There was a picture of a flat-headed penguin waving "Skipper…"

Meanwhile

The flat-headed penguin was waddling in the park. His destination was unknown, but he knew one thing for sure "It's for the best. boys, Marlene. I'll miss you"

A/N: So what do you think, I think it was amazing. Stay tuned for more.