"All right, Kowalski." Skipper banged on the door. "Let's see that invention of yours."

"Give me a few more minutes" was the muffled reply.

Skipper groaned loudly and waddled toward the table. Taking a deck of cards, he sat down and looked at the other penguins. "Anybody up for a game of cards? We're playing Stomp the Wombat."

It was a few games later that Kowalski came out, his face beaming. "I've done it!" he exclaimed.

"Let's see it," said Skipper. "You know your invention?"

Private nervously tapped his two flippers together. "Is it going to be dangerous?"

Kowalski scoffed. "Of course not!"

Rico stared at him. "You sure?"

"Yes!" Kowalski crossed his flippers. "I triple checked it last night, and unless somebody tampered with it while we were sleeping –which is highly unlikely– it's going to work like a well-oiled door."

They all stared at him. "It's going to work very well!" clarified Kowalski.

"Okay, can we see it?" asked Private.

In answer, Kowalski disappeared back into his lab. It wasn't long before he came out again, this time wheeling something hidden under a cloth. "Behold," said Kowalski. "The Hotwam!"

"Um," said Private, "Can we see it?"

"Oh, right."

Kowalski pulled away the cloth. In front of them stood a lemur-shaped robot –not unlike Julien's robot, Lemmy. The letters H.T.M.W. were carefully engraved on it, and the entire thing was polished until it was shining.

"Now we have our very own robot!" exclaimed Kowalski, his voice rising higher with each word.

"What's with the name? Hotwam isn't very creative, is it?" asked Private. "I mean, it's just the letters H.T.M.W with the vowels o and a between them. What do they stand for anyway?"

"H.T.M.W stands for Highly Trained War Machine. I needed a name, all right? We couldn't just call it H.T.M.W now, could we?" defended Kowalski.

Skipper held up his flippers. "Now, I don't care about Kowalski's creative skills in names or acronyms. We have more pressing matters."

"It still is a bad acronym," mumbled Private. "You could have just called it War Machine or something."

"I was in a hurry, all right?" hissed Kowalski.

Skipper glared at both of them. "Are we finished?"

They both nodded. Skipper went on. "What I want to know , is why the robot was shaped like a lemur. Of all creatures, a lemur!"

"I used Julien's old robot as a guideline, okay? I can make a penguin-shaped one later! Yeesh, everybody is a critic."

Kowalski clutched his head. The scientist's noggin was spinning after defending himself not once, not twice, but three times. "Can we just get on with it?" he pleaded. "Please?"

"Ooh, ooh!" Private waved his flipper frantically.

Kowalski glanced at him. "Yes, Private?"

"Can I switch it on?" The young penguin's eyes were filled with hope.

Kowalski silently groaned. This was not going to be easy. "Sorry, Private," Kowalski rubbed the back of his head, "but I sort of promised Rico that he could do it."

Oblivious to the youngster's dejected face, Rico stuck his tongue out at Private and pressed the on button. The robot jerked to life and surveyed the room and its inhabitants. "Yes! It works!" Kowalski did a victory dance.

"Um, Kowalski? What exactly does the robot do?" asked Private, unnerved by the robot.

Not grasping the problem at hand, Kowalski casually replied, "Oh it just eliminates everything it sets its eyes on, that's all."

Skipper took a step back. "Would this be a problem?"

The robot had locked eyes on the penguins and was slowly preparing itself. Rico tapped Kowalski's shoulder. The scientist returned back to reality. "Good Golly Wolly!"

**************

Author's Note: While I was writing this, I had a temptation to leave all you readers like this for a while, but I decided not to. Never read an author's note in the middle of a story before, have you? This is not the end, don't worry. Some of you might have skipped this part already, others may have quickly scanned through this in hopes of continuing the story, so I won't keep you any longer. But before you go...

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the Penguins of Madagascar. I only own this story's plotline and the Hotwam.]

***************

The penguins got into their defensive positions. "There are four of us and only one of him. We can do this blind-folded," encouraged Skipper.

Rico hacked up a chainsaw. Skipper nodded. "That's the spirit, Rico!"

"I'm sorry, Skipper." Kowalski shook his head. "But we need a miracle to defeat the Hotwam. The robot is designed to search and destroy until it is broken into a million pieces for Pete's sake!"

The penguins unconsciously huddled closer together. Skipper instinctively moved so that he would take the worst hit –not that it would matter anyway. They closed their eyes and waited for the hit to come.

Time passed, and the lethal blow never came. "What the-"

Skipper had opened his eyes. A sight he would never dream of in a million years stood in front of him.

"Dancing?" Rico glanced at the others, disbelief in his eyes. "He is dancing?"

Skipper rubbed his eyes. "You're not the only one seeing things, Rico."

The robot continued dancing happily. "Should I be worried, Kowalski?" questioned Skipper.

Private declined an invitation to dance with the War Machine. "You have to admit," said the penguin, "he can 'bust a few moves.'"

Kowalski looked over his calculations. "I don't understand!" he spluttered. "Where did I go wrong?"

"I have to say, Kowalski. This is one of the few times one of your 'glitches' actually saved us and not tried to destroy the world," admitted Skipper.

"This is not a glitch!"

At that moment, the three lemurs came in. "Where is my Lemmy 2?" demanded Julien.

Skipper shook his head. "Not now, Ringtail! Rico, escort them out."

Rico pointed his chainsaw toward the lemur. "Come on."

However, Julien had already spotted the robot. He jumped over the surprised penguin with ease and hugged the robot. "You shall be my new best friend."

Mort eyed the H.T.M.W with pure hatred. "Not for long." He began chuckling evilly, but nobody heard him.

Julien and the machine began dancing together. "Yes!" cried Julien. "The hours I spent in here, while the penguins were asleep, have paid off! Thank the sky spirits!"

Kowalski was flabbergasted. "Wait, you tampered with the H.T.W.M.?"

Julien scoffed. "Of course! Who did you think was to be doing it?"

He held his new friend by the arm and began leading it away.

"Now hold on!" Kowalski had blocked their way. "We –I– have spent many hours on that thing, and I will not let you get away with it!"

Maurice came up. "Clear the way for the king of lemurs and his royal guest!"

"Skipper!" whined Kowalski.

"Sorry, Kowalski." Skipper shrugged. "I have to let him go. Without his unauthorized meddling, we wouldn't even be here now, would we?"

But– but–"

Julien and the Hotwam pushed the poor scientist out of the way. Kowalski was left there, wondering where did he go wrong and how long would it take to build another robot.