Penguins of Madagascar Movie Novelization (9 page)

Dave held a tentacle over the Fire button. “No, but they'll despise you. Isn't that what really matters? Ready?”

“Negotiations have broken down,” Kowalski said worriedly.

“Rico! The paper clip! Get us out of here!” Skipper ordered.

Rico coughed up a baseball glove.

“We need that paper clip. Chop-chop, soldier!” said Skipper frantically.

Kowalski slipped on the baseball glove and
started to catch the items that Rico coughed up. A toothbrush . . . a teddy bear . . . a sippy cup . . . but no paper clip.

Skipper got behind him, gripped him around the waist, and squeezed Rico's belly. “Where's the paper clip?”

He glanced over at Private. The ray inched closer and closer to the frightened little guy.

“No!” Skipper yelled.

Private looked over and saw Rico trying to cough up the paper clip. That reminded him of something—the paper clip he had swallowed earlier. He coughed and gagged.

Zap!
Dave fired the ray. There was an explosion of green smoke.

“No!” Skipper wailed.

The smoke cleared, and Skipper rubbed his eyes. “Private?”

He looked at the table, expecting to see a monster there. But Private wasn't there. All that was left were a few feathers.

Dave looked confused. “I disintegrated him.
That wasn't supposed to happen.”

Rico was devastated.

“You maniac! You blew him up!” Kowalski yelled.

“No . . . ,” Skipper whispered.

Dave shrugged. “Oh well. This is why we test things, people. I'll have to lower the power for the others.” He nodded to his henchmen. “Gentlemen, chart a course for New York City. The monsters are due in Manhattan.”

Dave made an announcement over the sub's speakers. “All henchmen report to your posts.”

A henchman rolled the penguins' cage away, and Dave followed. Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico wiped away tears. Private was gone . . . gone forever!

Or was he? Once the room was empty, a penguin appeared from behind the metal table. A really cute penguin, holding a paper clip. The paper clip that had unlocked him from the metal table just in time.

Private was alive!

Dave's henchmen quickly got to
work. They chained together the North Wind agents and placed them on a platform in the Death Machine room. One of the henchmen, Brutus, stood behind a console, ready to activate the machine and destroy the agents.

“All right, octopus!” Agent Classified called out. “Whatever Dave's paying you, I'll double it!”

Brutus replied in garbled octopus speech.

“Is that a yes?” Classified asked. He looked at his team members. “Does anyone speak octopus?”

“Sorry,” replied Eva.

“Nope,” said Short Fuse.

“Not a clue,” answered Corporal.

“Blast it!” Classified cried. He pointed at Brutus. “You. Free us,” he said as if he were talking to a child. “We give you ma-ny fish-es.”

Classified pantomimed eating a fish. “Mmm, yummy!”

Brutus ignored him. He punched buttons on the console, and the platform flipped around. An enormous death machine faced them.

“What is that?” Classified asked.

Bright lights came on, illuminating the dials on the death machine: Dead. Deader. Deadest. Really Dead. Really, Really Dead.

“Oh great,” Classified moaned.

The machine whirred to life. The platform slowly inched toward the machine.
Whomp!
Two metal compactors slammed together. As soon as the platform reached them, they'd be crushed.

Whomp!

Short Fuse started to lose it again. “Oh no! This is it!”

“I don't want to die all squishy!” Corporal wailed.

Eva rolled her eyes. She was the only one who kept her cool.

The platform inched even closer. . . .

“Oh, we're dead! Dead! Dead!” Classified yelled, grabbing onto Corporal.

Suddenly, the team was whisked backward just before the compactors smashed together.

Whomp!

Classified's eyes were shut tightly. He didn't realize they'd been saved. “Oh no! We're dead! Deeeeeeeaaaaaaaaad!”

The platform revolved around, revealing Private at the controls, holding a bat. Brutus fell to the ground, unconscious.

Private pressed a button, releasing the chains binding the agents. Classified still clung to Corporal. When he opened his eyes and saw Private, he snapped back into tough-guy mode.

“Hello! I pushed a button!” Private said.

“Ho ho ho! Super! Well done, Private!” he praised.

“Good work,
malinki
,” Eva said affectionately.

“Eh, yes, excellent button pushing,” Classified said, trying to cover for his failure. “Hm. Compliment, praise, etcetera. All right agents, we are back in
business. Time to take down Dave.”

Private smiled, glad to be part of a team again. Then he saw the North Wind racing for the wrong exit. “Wait! Skipper, Kowalski, Rico—and those penguins,” Private said, pointing. “They're this way!”

The agents stopped.

“Right, and as soon as we return to the North Wind headquarters, grab fresh equipment, and work up a smashing new plan, we'll come speeding back and take down Dave,” Classified said.

“But they're in danger!” Private urged.

“We can't go running in without a plan,” Eva said.

“We got no tech, man! I need my booms!” Short Fuse said.

Private was angry. “Skipper wouldn't care! Plan or no! Fancy equipment or no! He'd never leave a man behind!”

His words stopped the agents. They watched as Private, small and alone, took the exit leading toward danger. They hesitated for a moment—and then Classified led them through the opposite door.

“Come on,” Classified said.

Inside his submarine, Dave was
getting ready for his big New York appearance. He spoke to his henchmen. “Gentlemen, what we do now, we do for all octopus-­kind. But mostly for me.” Dave looked up to watch a news report on his TV screen.

“BREAKING NEWS! The penguins have been found,” the reporter was saying. “Okay, according to my notes, genetic researcher Dr. Octavius Brine has found the penguins and is bringing them here to New York's Battery Park. The penguins are coming back! Oh my gosh! Loooook!”

Dave suddenly appeared on the water, rising
from the unseen submarine below him. He held a microphone. He tapped it to make sure it was working and then said, “Penguin lovers of the world! Guess who I found?” The crowd roared with delight.

“It wasn't easy,” Dave continued, “but seeing the penguins get what they deserve will make it all worthwhile.”

“What a weird thing to say,” the news reporter said. “I'm so excited!”

Dave turned to his henchman. “Do it,” he ordered.

Back inside the sub, Private peered through a window at the pile of penguins. He tried to get the attention of his brothers.

“Skipper! Skipper! Rico! Kowalski!” he called out.

They could barely hear him over the triumphant music playing behind Dave.

“It's like I can still hear his little voice, calling to us,” Skipper said.

“You have to get out of there!” Private yelled. “Move!”

“It's like he's saying, ‘You have a great otter there. Moo,' ” Skipper said.

“Why would he moo?” Kowalski asked.

“What are you asking
me
for?” Skipper replied. “I'm not Private's little ghost.”

Then Brutus hit a button.

Zap!
The ray beamed the Medusa Serum all over the captured penguins.

“Noooooo!” Private wailed.

Outside, the crowd couldn't wait
to see their beloved penguins.

“Are you READY?” Dave asked the crowd.

“YEAH!” they cheered.

Dave walked down the side of the sub, laughing maniacally. “Yay! Your new and improved penguins!”

The mouth of the submarine tilted upward, shooting out a mass of penguins. Smoke billowed out along with them, spreading across the water and through the park.

The penguins landed in Battery Park and marched
through the park. Confused, the crowd tried to see them through the thick fog.

“Mommy, it's the penguins!” a little girl exclaimed, walking closer to the line of marching penguins.

Then the fog slowly cleared . . . revealing not a bunch of adorable penguins, but an army of mutant penguins! All their cuteness was gone. Now they looked really scary.

The former penguin-loving people started swatting at the mutant penguins with penguin backpacks and stuffed penguin toys. In a daze, the mutants swatted back at them, all grunting like Frankenstein's monster. The happy reunion became a free-for-all: humans against penguins, and penguins against humans.

Back in the submarine, Private peered through the periscope and watched the scene. This was terrible!

“Oh dear. Oh no. Oh no, oh no . . . ,” he moaned.

Suddenly, Private heard a loud noise. “Crikey!” he said. He turned around just in time to see several octopi henchmen drop from the ceiling, trapping
Private in. He looked around. There was no way out, but he refused to let the henchmen think he was scared.

“Come on, then. You wanna go?” he shouted. “You want some argy bargy?” Then with a sudden burst of confidence, Private charged them. He let out a war cry. “Aaaaaagh!”

The octopi charged, and it looked like Private was doomed. But just as they were about to make contact, Private disappeared.

The octopi henchmen looked at each other in confusion. “Where'd he go?” one asked.

And then the octopi heard a familiar sound—the sound of the ray vehicle revving up.

“YAAAAAAAHHH!!!” Private yelled, as he crashed right through the henchmen. The octopi scattered left and right.

Dave didn't notice Private driving out of the sub, piloting the ray. Private quickly spotted mutant Skipper. With a crazed look in his watery eyes, Skipper was eating stuffed penguins from a souvenir stand. A terrified cat ran by, and Skipper grabbed it.

Private jumped down from the ray and ran to Skipper. “Skipper! Don't eat that!”

Skipper turned to look at Private.

“Gnagh!”
he blurted out. His mind had been mutantized too.

“It's okay, Skipper,” Private said. “It's me, Private.”

Skipper lunged at him, but Private quickly dodged out of the way.

“I know you're in there somewhere,” Private told him.

“Gnaghgnaghgnaghgnagh!”
Skipper replied.

Skipper swung his giant flipper at Private. Now it had a wicked-looking claw at the end. Private dodged again.

“Listen! This isn't you!” Private told him.

Skipper paused. It looked like he was thinking it over.