It's a Long and Complicated Alliance

I HAVE REASONING BEHIND THIS!!!

If anyone's ever watched the episode of The Penguins of Madagascar, "An Elephant Never Forgets", than you should know that Bert the elephant dresses up as an ice cream truck to get out of the zoo.

Skipper gives him (roughly) this cover story: Now, if anyone asks you're Frosty Fun Times ice cream truck number 26. You was trained as a laundry service vehicle, but on your 18th birthday you decided to follow your dream and never look back.

Private asks why... Skipper's answer?

"It's a long and complicated alliance."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Now, for what's happening in the picture.

After getting Bert back to the zoo, Private was still wondering about Skipper's comment earlier. It just seemed such a strange thing to say. Skipper knows trucks can't talk... we all do. Well... maybe Blowhole or Kowalski built one, but how would it then be an alliance? he thought as he went about the rest of his day. Later that night, he decided, he would ask Kowalski. Skipper kept a lot of secrets, and Private (he'd admit) was a little nervous about asking Skipper about his past. Kowalski? Not so much.

The tallest and smartest of the penguin team was -as usual- preforming experiments in his lab. "Why can I never get you to behave?" he was saying as Private waddled in. Whatever he was talking to he quickly hid behind his back. "I- I wasn't doing anything!"

"Kowalski? Is that... Jiggles?" Private asked upon seeing his comrade.

Kowalski looked offended. "No, it is not... and if it did happen to be, he'd not be an evil monster any longer."

Focusing on what Private was going to ask, he shook his head. "Never mind. Anyway, what's this alliance Skipper was talking about earlier?"

"Oh," Kowalski muttered, turning around, bustling about until he had supposedly found a place to hid his invention. "You... uh, you mean the one about the ice cream truck?"

"Yeah, that one. Why would anyone ask a truck? Seems kind of silly to me."

Kowalski waddled to the other side of his lab, punching a code into a padlock. "You know Blowhole... well, at one point he wanted to go back in time. All the way back in time to the age where the first man evolved, therefore by destroying him or her, he'd cutting off mankind's reign. He built this machine," the door had opened, revealing a strange ray gun, "to go back in time... all it succeeded in doing was going to a different dimension."

Private was enthralled. "Really?"

"Affirmative. And we were all forced into the dimension eventually. Even Blowhole... it was by pure chance we managed to get out. But now? Now we know how to, so that if ever we needed to go back we could."

Just then, Skipper, with Rico holding a flashlight by his side, stepped into the room. "Kowalski! I thought I said that that time machine ray gun wasn't ever to be released from that cell again?"

Kowalski startled over Skipper's yelling, accidentally throwing the switch with one flipper. A loud zapping sound and bright light emanated from the machine... and within moments the penguins had disappeared from the laboratory.

"Great... good going, Kowalski," Skipper yelled once more after seeing where they were. "Now we have to go through this whole thing over again. Rico, gas masks."

"Gas masks?" Private asked, breathing in the air here. He instantly regretted it. The stench of petrol filled his beak with foul flavor, and his lungs burned from the air. Holding his breath, he waited for Rico to hand him a gas mask. Luckily, he was able to in only a short time.

"This dimension's air is spoiled with fossil fuels, thanks to its residents. It's amazing the grass is able to grow," Kowalski stated after putting on his mask.

That was when Private noticed the place they were in for the first time. They were on a very high point of rock, overlooking a plateaued bluff. Hills rose and fell in the distance, with a river surrounding much of the bluff, branching and stretching out to points the penguins couldn't see.

A small town was scattered on and around the bluff... which wasn't unusual. What WAS unusual, however, was that there were no humans nor animals. Only vehicles moved around below. Peering closer, he saw that they had... no... it was impossible.

"Yes, Private," Skipper stated, "They are alive. And yes, they have eyes. And mouths. Creepy at first, but you get used to it. Now, let's go visit some old friends..."

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................</span>