Reigning Monarchy

Just a warning to those who don't know: If I ever use the name 'Layla' in a story, it merely means the OC, not me. I do not like self-inserts, so this isn't one and I won't make one, even if Hans threatened me to do so. Otherwise, enjoy reading and don't forget to read and review. :)

Oh, a note that humans can't understand the other animals when they speak, alright? Except for you people, of course. ;) Another note that this short story is a standalone.

"Presenting, the king of the steel jungle, the King Cobra!" The mustached man played with his tie as he turned from the empty seats of the auditorium to the shadows of the stage, fidgeting. "How was that, boss?" The man swallowed and chuckled lightly. "Uh, boss? How'd I do? That wasn't too bad, was it? I could do more regal, I just need to get the accent down and...?" The man peered into the darkness. "Uh, boss, you there?" The sound of static reached him followed by thumps and chitter-like noises.

"He. Is. Not. There."

"Gah!" The man jumped out of the way, narrowly missing a small projectile. "What a cold and robotic voice..." He shivered and looked around cautiously. "Wait a minute...Who are you? Show yourself!"

A strange chuckle-like sound echoed, sending shivers down the mustached man. "Way to be cliche, man." This time, the voice was slightly hoarse like it wasn't used to speaking. The man frowned, squinting even more to try to see who was there. "Don't think your puny human eyes are going to see anything, though."

"Wh-who," the man cleared his throat and straightened his back, "who's there? What did yer do to the boss?"

"Changing accents now, are we? Well, well, well, Mister Mustache," Mister Mustache? The man frowned at this and attempted to find the source of the strange voice, "I think-what? What do you mean he's not our guy? The guy has a mustache for crying out loud! Of course it's him! What do you mean mustaches have nothing to do with anything?"

"That," the robotic voice came again, "Is. Not. The. Guy."

"But he has a mustache!" The other voice whined, getting louder and louder with each step the mustache man took toward it.

"Don't. Be. Stubborn. Not. Main. Guy."

"Dude, why're ya still using the Speak n' Spell?"

"Why. Speak."

"Well, why not? Besides, I still need to talk to the butler."

"No. Side. Kick."

"Stop using the Speak n' Spell! Speaking of which, why is the speak before the spell? Shouldn't it be the other way around?" There was a cluster of tiny chitter noises just right before the man as he inched his way even closer to the noises hidden in the shadows. The strange thing was that the noises seem to be coming from below him, instead of straight ahead. They must be pretty small...the man thought as he crept even closer, clutching the tiny penlight he found and getting ready to flash it on the intruders. "But he's got an awesome mustache!"

The man paused and patted his mustache with a proud smirk. "Why, thank you." Two different high-pitched squeals echoed before him and he blinked in surprise before flashing the light in front of him. "Aha! Got you! Oh," the light illuminated what looked like an immobile, red and white furry racoon beside a strange device with letters for buttons and a shock-still black cat staring wide eyed at him with bluish purple eyes. "I could have sworn I heard voices over here..."

The cat blinked slowly, paws reaching out for the flashlight. "Shiny...I wanna..."

"A talking cat?"

The cat shook its head and looked up at the grinning man. "Oh oh."

"Maurice, hurry your big bottom up or we would not to be catching that thief because of you and your big bottom!"

"Y-your majesty," the slightly stubby but mature looking lemur panted as he tried to keep up with his highly energetic brethren aka King Julien the XIII, "why," he paused and took in a breath before picking up the pace, "why are you going after Mort? Don't you usually-"

Julien snorted and laughed. "Ha! We are not looking for that silly lemur!"

"But-"

"We're looking for that evil who dares steal my title!"

Maurice frowned at him. "What? Oh, you mean the man who took Mort?"

"Yes, that King Chupacabra!"

"Uhm, I'm pretty sure he said 'Cobra'."

"Cobra?" Now it was Julien's turn to frown as he looked down at his subject slash servant. "Don't be silly, Maurice. There are no such things as cobras! But chupacabras," the lemur shivered, "they are very real."

Skeptically, Maurice raised a brow. "Have you seen one then?"

"Of course! We're chasing it right now! Hurry," Julien hopped into a familiar pink car with Maurice, revving up the motor as protests came from the penguin working under the car. "We will be borrowing this." The car sped away as Rico blinked after them, holding up the wrench he was using to fix the car. The car came back and Julien snatched the wrench. "We will be taking this too." The car sped away and Rico blinked again.

"HEY!" The penguin called out angrily, muttering out a string of words that should not be said out loud.

"Aren't you a cute little mouse lemur?" A deep sounding, muscular and manly voice cooed to the tiny furry creature nestled in the palm of his hand. "Yes you are."

"I am, I am!" The furry creature giggled and threw its arms up, wriggling away from the finger tickling it. "I'm furry too!" Hugging his tail to prove the point, the mouse lemur, AKA the kidnapped Mort, blinked his huge brownish yellow eyes with a smile.

The muscled man chuckled deeply and tickled the lemur some more before stuffing him in a cage. "You shall be my pet."

Mort blinked in confusion and tilted his head to the side. "Pet?" He gasped when he looked around. "I am to be a pet? But," he grasped the bars of the cage as the man picked it up and started walking down the pathways of the sewage system, "who will be cuddling the royal feet?" His eyes stared off into the distance in a pitiful way as the man whistled an ominous tone. It wasn't long before the pair reached a door, which they passed through quickly and hurried up until they reached another door. Passing through that one, they appeared backstage.

The man hurried forward onto the stage and placed the occupied cage down. "Where'd he go? I told him to wait for me here." He stepped forward, and then looked down when a sharp squeak echoed in the empty place. He bent down to pick up a furry red animal with white fur by its sides, tail and paws, and with black eyes wide and frozen in what could be fear. He picked it up by the tail and stared at it closely before poking it, inducing another squeak. The man grinned and turned to the cage, opening it and stuffing the panda bear inside. "Hey, I found a squeaky toy. Have fun, little guy. I'd be right back."

Mort watched the man go, waving enthusiastically.

A snort came from behind the mouse lemur. "Are you seriously okay with this?" Mort turned around to see the animal standing on its hind feet, dusting off its red and white coat. "Being stuck in a cage? Because I am not!" Mort merely blinked at the animal and played with his tiny paws. The animal sighed and held out a paw. "I'm Leonardo di Beary, Leo for short, a dignified member of the rare and endangered species called the red panda bear, but I am neither a panda nor a bear but a raccoon. And definitely not a squeaky toy."

Mort stared at him before happily shaking the outstretched paw. "I'm Mort!"

"Yes, it's very nice to meet you, Mort. You're strange, aren't you? I would know, since I have a friend who is really very annoying, tends to get us into trouble, us, I mean really, I already left her alone and she already has us in trouble! I haven't done anything! And now, she's dragged me into this mess saying she needs help finding her brother while she's on a mission! And she knows very well that I very much just want to enjoy sleeping for once!" Leo panted for a while, took in a deep breath and started speaking again, not noticing that Mort was busy playing his tail. "I swear, if I ever get my furry paws on that she-cat I will make sure she, she," he dropped the paw he was holding up and scratched his head, "I have no idea what I'd do with her actually. Maybe take her lunch, nah, she'd probably," he rattled the bars furiously as Mort looked up at him, "WHY ARE WE STILL STUCK IN THE CAGE?"

"Is the panda okay?"

"No, the panda's not okay!" The raccoon cried out as he held onto the bars and leaned onto them. "I don't do being locked up! I dislike it! Let me out, please! Anybody!" He paused and glared at the mouse lemur. "I'm a raccoon! A raccoon! Not a panda! Not a bear either! Why does everyone think I'm one?"

"It's okay." Mort patted the raccoon in a sympathetic way. "Do you want a hug, panda? The friendly penguin says that hugs are nice."

Leo held out his paws and whimpered. "Please."

"Aha!" Kowalski triumphantly used a pair of tongs to hold up a test tube covered by a balloon containing a clear liquid that was still bubbling. "I have successfully deoxidized water!"

Private looked up from drawing something on the makeshift table they had. "That's good, Kowalski." Skipper, seated across from Private, sipped on his fish coffee and continued scanning the files laid out before him. "Is that what you have been doing since this morning?" The self-proclaimed scientist smiled proudly and nodded, placing his goggles on the top of his head.

"I was wondering what would happened if you tried to separate the two elements of water through the means of deoxidizing the-*BANG!* The door behind Kowalski smashed into him and continued to the wall as another of the penguin team plowed through.

"Skippa! Skippa! Skippa!" Rico excitedly jumped here and there, jibbering on and on to the leader penguin, who was just taking another casual sip. Though, one phrase that included the words 'lemurs stole car!' that caught the leader's attention, and causing fish coffee to spray over his subordinates, staining poor Private's drawing too. Kowalski, was luckily out of coffee mess, since he was still dreaming about lasers and beating a certain dolphin fiend with his superior intellect on the ground.

Skipper wiped his beak with a flipper while Rico took interest in cleaning up the spilled drink with a rag and swallowing the fish that was on top of Private's head. "What do you mean the lemurs took the car?" The scarred penguin merely nodded frantically in reply. "I told you to watch while you were maintaining it!" Rico pouted and looked at the ground, flippers clasped behind his back.

"Sowwy."

Skipper sighed and took the files he was reading into a pile and dropped them into a box. "I hope that wasn't too long ago. I'd like to stop them before they do anything crazy."

Kowalski shook his head, clearing the lasers floating around his head and got his feet. "Not to worry, I had a GPS system installed recently in the car." The penguin turned around, probably to head to one of the HQ's security systems. "Now, all I have to do is..." He stopped short.

Concerned, Private tapped the elder penguin. "Kowalski, are you-"

"I left it in the car." He stated without emotion.

Skipper got to his feet. "I guess we would have to start from scratch."

"And it's in the car." Kowalski continued, having not heard anything. "And Julien's driving the car..."

"Yes, Kowalski, we've already established that-"

"JULIEN!" Kowalski slid out of the room. "GET BACK HERE WITH MY INVENTION!"

"Follow the scientist, men!"

As you can see, I haven't posted in a long time, and I admit I haven't been watching PoM lately to refresh my memory. I got...interested, in certain things...

Point is, I'd like your feedback on the characters, if you have the time. Thanks! :) And have a lovely day!