Penguins of Madagascar Movie Novelization (11 page)

“He's at stage eight on the mutation scale,” Kowalski yelled. “And the scale only goes to five!”

A shell began to encase Private on all sides.

“Don't worry, a chrysalis is forming around you,” Kowalski said to Private. “That's perfectly normal.”

At this point Corporal stepped in to help. He smashed the glass chamber of the ray, and gently placed Private's chrysalis in front of Skipper.

“Private . . . ,” Skipper whispered.

Just then the outer casing of the chrysalis began to crack.

Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski all gasped.

SPLAT!
The shell exploded, covering everyone in goop.

“Private?” Skipper said cautiously.

Private was woozy. And he had a new mutation. His butt-hand was gone, but now a tiny chicken head had sprouted on top of his head!

“Hello,” Private said.

“Hello!” the chicken head squawked.

The penguins all laughed and cheered, until Private's chicken head clamped down on Kowalski's head.

“Aaagh!” Kowalski yelled.

Private struggled with the chicken head until he finally managed to pull it off Kowalski.

“Hehe. Sorry,” Private said.

Skipper was overcome with emotion. “Soldier, you apologize for nothing,” Skipper told him. “You just saved our lives. Heck, you just saved the whole dad-blasted species! You're the best one of us all. You're the elite-est of the elite. The most meaningful and valued member of this team.”

Private beamed and saluted Skipper, who saluted
right back. Then Skipper stuck his tongue out at Private, and he giggled. Then all the penguins rushed in for a group hug.

Tiny, cute Dave began screaming inside the snow globe. He started running like a hamster on a wheel, and rolled himself over to Skipper.

“Oooh, look at you!” Skipper says.

“You think this is over?” Dave said. “I'm just getting started. I'm going to mutate every cute creature in the world!”

Skipper saw the little girl who had been so scared by the penguins earlier. He tossed her the snow globe. She looked inside and smiled.

“Cool, an octopus!” she said.

Dave smiled back, glad to be wanted.

“I hope you find happiness, Dave,” Skipper said kindly.

The girl began to shake the snow globe. “It's snowing! It's snowing! It's snowing!” she shouted.

“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
Dave wailed.

The penguins suddenly looked up as a loud sound roared overhead.

Classified turned to Skipper and his crew. Then he looked around the park. There was the little girl, shaking a snow globe with what looked like a tiny Dave inside it. There were some humans and penguins cuddling on a bench. Playing catch. Sharing an ice cream cone. Riding a bicycle built for two. He took it all in, stunned.

He cleared his throat. “Penguins, this is difficult for me to say, but—”

“Is it ‘osteoporosis'?” Skipper asked. “You just gotta lean into the vowels. Ahhh-stee-ohhhh-pahhh—”

“What? No,” Classified said. “I need to say that I was
wrong
about you. And there's only one way to make it right.”

“Give us jetpacks,” said Kowalski.

“We could kiss,” said Eva at the same time.

Kowalski's eyes widened. Had he heard right?

“Whoa! Uh, did you just say—”

Eva grabbed him, dipped him, and lifted her wing to block everyone's view. Skipper covered Private's
eyes. When Eva lowered her wing, Kowalski had kiss marks all over his beak.

“Well, that feels right!” he said, beaming.

“I think I'd actually prefer a jetpack, please,” Private said.

Skipper turned to Classified. “You heard the man!” he said.

•  •  •

The next day, the penguins were all merrily soaring through the sky with their new jetpacks. Everything was great, except for one thing. Private still had a chicken head.

Private flew over to Skipper's side. “So, are we turning me back to normal, or . . . ?”

Skipper grinned. “Well, what is normal, Private? I believe we've learned from this delightful adventure that looks don't matter, it's what's inside that counts.”

Kowalski flew over to join them. Private's chicken head suddenly grabbed onto Kowalski's head, ripped him out of his backpack and threw him away. Private gasped! Luckily, Rico caught
Kowalski in time and plopped him back in his jetpack.

“All right, fine. We'll turn you back first thing Monday,” Skipper promised.

The penguins all cheered and zipped off on their jetpacks into the glorious future.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SIMON SPOTLIGHT

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Simon Spotlight paperback edition October 2014

Penguins of Madagascar © 2014 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-4814-3728-8

ISBN 978-1-4814-3729-5 (eBook)