Animal

Chapter 1

Chantel DuBois groaned as she did her best to sit up in her crate. She had been sore from being crammed in small space for so long. The penguins had put her and her officers in crates that were to be shipped to Madagascar. She closed her eyes in anger, remembering how she was so close to killing Alex so she could had his head added to her collection. She didn't know how, but somehow she would get revenge on Alex and his friends. Though other than that she oddly felt different that morning. The bonds on her wrists were tighter, as if her wrists were bigger. Her thoughts were interrupted by the ship coming to a rapid halt. Her crate broke free from the ropes holding it in place and tumbled off of the ship. Her gag fell off of her mouth and she tumbled out of her crate. Quickly she freed her wrists from her bonds and stood up. She examined her new surrounding that was the sandy shores of Madagascar.

"We need to go back to America and get revenge on that lion! Now men we must take the ship and sail for America." she snarled in her french accent.

Her officers had tumbled out of their crates too, but they froze when they saw their commanding officer.

"Why you all hang with your mouths open? I said we're going after lion." she demanded.

She took a step toward them and they backed up.

"How dare you disob..." she started, but stopped when she saw her hand that was actually no longer a hand, but a paw.

She lifted her paw in shock and took a few steps back. Due to not watching where she was going she tripped over a rock behind her causing her to fall to the ground. When she sat up she saw her entire body had changed. Quickly she ran toward one of the ships windows and stared at her refelection. The face of a red headed, lipstick wearing French woman was gone and the face of a light brown furred lioness took it's place. She patted her paws all over her face seeing that she indeed had turned into a lioness. Due to the shock of her becoming the very thing she hunted she quickly fled into the jungles of Madagascar, not wanting to be around her officiers for what she had become. People called her an animal and now she truly is an animal. DuBois kept running until she could run no longer she plopped on the ground out of exhaustion next to a tree.

Since she was now a lioness she decided she might as well see what skills she still has from being a human, what skills she has lost, and what skills she has gained. She flexed her paw, unsheathing her deadly black claws. She seemed pretty happy that should could still kill, then she wondered about her teeth. She ran her tongue over her sharp white teeth, liking the fact that now she can be even more deadly when she bites. Finely she wanted to know how strong she she could be. She dug her claws into the tree bark and pulled down with all her might. She was not pleased that based on the deep markings she made in the tree bark, she was not any stronger than she was as a human.

"Hmm. Duex out of trois will do." she said to herself as she got on all fours.

Walking on all fours was not a foreign trait since she did it as well as a human. That was when she began to realize she could actually still get revenge on Alex. She didn't need her officers to help her, she was now a lioness, much more deadly than when she was a human. An evil grin formed on her face as she liked this thought more and more.

"Lion be prepared because the all new Chantel DeBois is coming for you." she said before laughing, which to a huamn sounded like mighty roars.

Back in America Alex and the others were preparing for their big show. Marty and Stephano were praticing their "animal" cannonball act, Gloria and Melman were working on their tightrop dance routine, and finally Alex was with a certain jaguar doing their trapeze.

"Okay Gia get ready I'm going to swing!" Alex yelled.

"Okay Alex you will swing and you catch me, americano circus." Gia giggled.

Alex couldn't help, but smile in happiness. Ever since he met Gia he was attracted to female jaguar. Her brown eyes seem to always sparkle and the blue necklace adds onto that according to his opinion. Focusing back on the task at hand he gripped his paws tightly onto the handlebar before swinging off of the platform. Gia swung off her platform as well and let go of her bar. Alex hung upside and caught her by her arms. He pulled her up so her face was facing his. Seeing her smiling and laughing, he knew he had to tell her at that moment.

"Gia?" he started.

"Yes Alex?" she asked.

"Gia I l-l-l-..." Alex tried to say, but he was started to get dizzy from hanging upside down.

"Alex your face turn red. Is that also americano circus?" the jaguar said in confusion.

"No. That means I'm hanging upside too long." Alex answered, his face turning more red by the second.

He got his legs off of the bar, allowing Gia and him to fall safely into the net. Alex took a few gasps of air as he sat up in the net. Gia giggled at the site before her. She saw most of the redness had left Alex's face, but she wondered the redness hadn't left his cheeks.

"Alex why are your cheeks red? I thought only hanging upside down too long make face go red." Gia said.

"Oh uh it's just a um side effect where part of your face stays red." Alex lied.

"Well Alex I'm going to see what Vitaly up to." Gia said with a smile, but before she got off of the net she kissed Alex on the cheek.

The male lion froze at this and his face turned red once again. Gia believed Alex's lie and thought it was the side effects from hanging upside down too long. With a smile she slid off of the net and headed toward the train carts. Alex placed his paw on the cheek Gia had kissed and began to smile, maybe Gia did share the same feelings that he had for her.

DuBois had been walking through the jungles of Madagascar for a while. She hoped to find some way to get to America since the boat was out of the question, her former officers had probably already taken it to sail back to Monte Carlo. She groaned as she placed her paw to her forehead. Suddenly she thought of a question that she should have asked herself in the first place and that is how did she turn into a lioness. She knew she had to have been asleep because she remembered waking up in the crate before still as a human.

"If this is universe idea of a joke it's not funny." DuBois said out loud.

"Universe never makes mistakes. You were called animal and now you are animal." a voice said.

The lioness looked around at her surroundings till finally she spotted a brown female lemur in the tree with a leaf wrapped around her body and was holding a stick in her hand like a staff.

"Who are you lemur and why can I understand you?" DuBois asked.

"I am wise woman of lemurs. I give advice to lemurs since King Julien leave. Also you can understand me because you animal like me." the lemur answered.

She hit her head when the lemur told her this, of course she could understand the animals since she is now one of them.

"Okay then tell why did le 'universe' change moi into an animal." DuBois asked, putting emphasis on the word universe.

"Universe did it because you no act like human. You act like animal, so universe fix. Universe use powers to change you while you sleep. That how you become animal." the lemur said, "I must go now. Must talk to other lemurs. Lizard as king not a good idea."

Before the lioness could say anything else the lemur disappeared into the trees. Not quite understanding what the lemur said DuBois placed her paws on her head in frustration, but she forgot to retract her claws. Feeling the pain from the claws being pressed into her head she removed them and mouthed the word ow.

Back with the others Gia had walked up to Vitaly's train cart. She took a deep breath, a little bit nervous before entering the train cart. Inside she saw the Russian tiger planning out his daring act, this time he was thinking about jumping through two rings set on fire. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Gia cough to get his attention. He turned around to see the female jaguar smiling at him

"Ah Gia what brings you here?" Vitaly asked.

"I decided to see what you were doing. I couldn't help, but see what you are doing for new amazing circus act." Gia answered.

"Oh well I haven't decided yet. All I know is act will be more daring and entertaining." he replied.

Gia clasped her paws together at the thought of an act like that. She always liked that about Vitaly, how he always wanted to take risks, and she was so glad when Alex brought back that side of Vitaly. She always loved watching the daring tiger do the impossible when jumping through the smallest of hoops. They've been good friends ever since they first met, in fact it saddened her so much when during the time Vitaly became distant with them ever since the fire ring incident. Now thanks to Alex she has been able to be close to him again.

"You know Gia you're pretty amazing when you're doing the trapeze. It actually makes me glad that you let Alex and his friends on train." the russian tiger said.

"Thank you Vitaly you're words are kind." Gia said with a smile.

"Though they are the truth." Vitaly replied as he took Gia's paws in his.

Seeing this Gia began to instantly blush, wondering why she was feeling like this, though she remembered feeling like that a few times when she was with Alex. Her heart began racing, she couldn't think, all of the sudden out of impluse she kissed the russian tiger. Vitaly was shocked by this action as well as Gia.

"I'm s-sorry Vitally I must go." she said.

She let go of his paws and quickly left his train cart. She quickly ran to her train cart and once inside she plopped on the ground.

"I can't believe it. I'm in love with both Alex and Vitaly." she said in between breaths.

Her heart was still racing as she tried to come to terms that she is in love with two males.

Meanwhile with Alex he met up with his friends Marty, Melman, and Gloria. They had all finished praticing their acts and decided to relax for a bit before moving on to the circus' next show location.

"So did ya guys hear? The penguins are thinking about going back to the zoo." Marty said.

"Why I thought they loved it here?" Alex asked.

"They figured that the zoo would be chaos without a leader so the penguins are going to take on that role." Melman explained.

"Wait you mean the birds are leaving? They can't leave or I'll have only Mort and Maurice to boss around." King Julien said as he walked up followed by Mort and Maurice.

"It isn't just them. The chimps are going too. They think the zoo is a much calmer environment and that running a circus got too stressful." Gloria added.

"Well I guess no one can stop them if they want to go." Alex sighed.

"Hmm the zoo. That sounds like an interesting place also sounds like it needs a King to rule it." Julien said happily.

"Wait what about you and Sonya?" Marty asked.

"Eh it was not working, we decided to go see other people." the grey lemur answered.

Thinking more about the zoo Julien, Maurice, and Mort walked off. Maurice though was hoping that Julein wasn't serious and didn't want to go to rule a zoo. Alex and the others though hope that Julien doesn't leave since the circus would never be the same if they left. It was even saddening to learn that the penguins didn't want to stay. They only hope that if the peguins are wanting to go take their place as former leaders of the zoo, that they better do a good job of it.

DuBois had gotten tired of seeing the similar trees of the jungle. She kept traveling till she found an clearing. Once she got there she was enraged to see she was back at the shores of Madagascar. She snarled in anger as she stood up on two legs once again. She was right about her hunch about the ship being gone since there was no sign of her former officers or the ship.

"How am I suppose to get off of this stupid island. Le boat is gone and I have no way how to get to America to get revenge on lion." she said in a voice full of frustration.

"Perhaps I can help." a familiar voice said.

The lioness turned around to see the same female lemur from earlier.

"Exactly how can you do that?" she asked the lemur, crossing her arms in annoyance.

Instead of answering the lemur gestured with her staff for DuBois to follow. Seeing she had no other choice she followed the lemur. They walked down the beach until finally she saw on the beach a boat made out of the crate she came in.

"I good at making boat. Now you can leave island." the lemur said, outstretching her paw toward the boat.

Without another word DuBois quickly ran to the boat and shoved it off into the water. She quickly lept inside and saw there was even a wooden plank that can be used as a paddle. She took ahold of it with her paws and using all her strength began to quickly to paddle out to sea. The brown lemur watched the lioness paddle away and formed a grin on her face.

"Universe make no mistakes. Universe show you that you weren't meant to be human. You meant to be lioness." the lemur said before walking back to the jungles of Madagascar.

DuBois had no idea how long it would take her to reach America, after all the ship did take days to get there as well. Though that didn't matter to her at the moment, her goal was reaching America to get revenge on Alex. Her eyes examined the blue expanse of the sea ahead of her as she continued paddling. Of course nothing like that ever stopped her before. She ran through walls, jumped across buildings with her bike, ducked under incoming trains and managed to roll out from underneath it while it was still moving, all to just try to get Alex. That is exactly what she was going to do again. No matter what she planned to get her revenge on Alex.

"Get ready for trouble lion." she said to herself as she continued to paddle with all her might for America.

Back at the circus the penguins were getting ready to leave to head back for the zoo.

"That place will probably be madness without us. Besides there's still that female otter that could get in trouble without me there." Skipper said placing a flipper on his chest.

"Don't you mean us Skipper? Private asked.

Skipper's face dropped in shock when he realized what he said.

"Of course I meant us Private, I was just testing you to see if you were paying attention." Skipper lied.

"I'll just be glad to be back at my zoo habitat. Phil and I agree that the zoo is a much calmer place. We like to go back to our old lifestyle of drinking coffee and reading the newspaper." Mason stated.

Phil nodded and used his sign language to add that it'll be nice to stay in one spot instead of constantly moving.

"Skipper preparations are at eighty-five percent to leave." Kowalski announced.

"Good. Many memories will be leaving being, but a leader's duty has to be done. Skipper replied.

As soon as they were ready they would start the long journey to head home. It was true they would be a bit sad about leaving, but they would be sadder if they didn't return to the zoo. Skipper especially since he would never get to see a certain otter again. The only thing they hoped is that King Julien doesn't come along because the last thing they would want is to live with him in the zoo.