Disclaimer: PoM and VV (Voodoo Vince) do not belong to me.
New story! Like Devil's Arms, this is based around a video game. Unlike Devil's Arms, where I expected at least ONE person to have heard of the game, I know none of you have heard of this one: Voodoo Vince.
"But I don't get it," Alice looked down through the gaping hole in the middle of the Central Park Zoo, where pipes were randomly twisted and bent out of shape. It was almost as if something had exploded out of the ground, "What on Earth caused a mess like this?"
Behind her, four penguins glanced at each other nervously, all recollecting that specific event. The rats, as always, had been causing problems for the zoo inhabitants. One slight miscalculation while trying to flush them out of their hideaway, and the underground sewers had gone, as Rico oh so delicately put it, 'Kaboom!'. Actually, Kowalski had mentioned that they had been lucky; that the entire sewer system could have blown up. Still, a large gaping hole in the center of the zoo was not a good way to keep their secrets under wraps.
"Yup, it's going to take days, maybe weeks to repair," Replied the man next to Alice, "I'd get all the animals transferred outta here before they catch some kinda sewer disease."
Alice scowled in her usual fashion, "There is no such thing as a 'sewer disease'," She then set her stare on the animals around them, and her glare softened ever so slightly, "but you're right, I should get them outta here. The boss'll kill me if I don't," Alice grabbed the walkie-talkie out of her back pocket, switched it on, and spoke to her co-worker, "Hey, we need some crates! All the animals gotta go, soon! ..Yes, it's an emergency. There's a hole in the middle of the zoo!"
As Alice argued with her co-worker, a nervous young penguin turned to a slightly taller one, "Did you hear that, Skippah? They're going to ship us off to some place!" The younger penguin was genuinely frightened by the prospect of being shipped off to some foreign zoo where he didn't know anyone. The Skipper chuckled at the young one's naïve concern.
"Relax young Private, there's no need for panic," He placed his flipper reassuringly on the other's shoulders, "We worked out this specific scenario a few dozen times. Kowalski!" He suddenly barked, "Scenario twenty-five delta!"
"Right, in case of emergency hole blown in the middle of the zoo while flushing out bad guys," Kowalski jabbed his elbow into the last penguin, Rico's, guts. The scarred penguin regurgitated a blueprint, which Kowalski spread out on the ground, and explained what each of his strange drawing represented while pointing to them, "First, the whole will be discovered by a zoo worker, presumably Alice. Soon afterwords, all the animals will be transferred to pre-appointed zoos. With the chimps help, all the animals got to choose where they'll go. We penguins will be transferred here, to the New Orleans French Quarter Animal Observatory. It gets little business and Rico has connections there," Rico grinned.
Private looked towards Skipper, hoping for some sort of reassurance. The older penguin smiled, "Relax, it'll only be for a few weeks or so. Besides, don't you wanna see the... the stuff in the French Quarter," Skipper grinned unconvincingly. Private raised his eyebrow, skeptical.
It took several different pleas, but Private finally relented, "Well, alright, I guess it won't be so bad... just what is the French Quarter, anyway?"
"Ya know," Skipper blinked, "I don't really know..."
Several hours later, a truck traveling down a road his a particularly large bump. Everything in it's hold was tossed up, including one crate marked fragile. Within it, Skipper and the other penguins were tossed up and dropped down, forcing the penguin awake. He turned to his teammates, whom were apparently still asleep, "Everyone asleep?" He asked, mostly to make sure.
Private turned over and sat up, looking at Skipper, "You're awake too? I can't fall asleep."
"You always were a light sleeper," Skipper noted, stroking his chin. Glancing back at his teammate, he saw red-rimmed and droopy eyes staring lazily at him, "You should try to get some sleep, though. We don't know what we're gonna face when we get there."
"I know," Private sighed, rubbing his tired eyes, "It's hard to get sleep on this thing, though."
"Yeah," Skipper looked up, "That's why I'm awake right now," Upon noticing the younger one's worry, he smiled wholeheartedly and patted his shoulder reassuringly, "Don't you worry, young Private, everything's gonna be just fine."
"Promise?"
"I promise," Skipper smiled gently, "and if that promise is broken, I promise to fix whatever mess we get into, alright?"
Private smiled back, "Alright," and curled up, "Goodnight Skippah," Not long after this, the Private was fast asleep, gently mumbling in his British accent.
"Goodnight, Private," Skipper turned onto his side, and felt the warm embrace of sleep come over him. Without particularly realizing it, he closed his eyes, and sleep was soon upon him.
They had arrived by the time the team woke up.
When Skipper opened his eyes, he found himself in a big white room. At first he panicked (what if they have NEEDLES?) before realizing that this was just a routine check-up by the doctors here. He relaxed ever so slightly. After all their poking and prodding was done, Skipper was placed in an icy exhibit with no other visible penguins. Minus his team, of course, who were all waiting for him.
"This place feels so... empty," Private noted, "It's like no one else lives here."
Kowalski looked over some notes, "According to my questioning of the neighbors, the old penguins got shipped off for as long as we're hear to make room for us. Apparently my plans were inconvenient for the zoo," His expression turned angry, "Well, SORRY for being inconvenient!"
"Anyways..." Skipper didn't even roll his eyes at Kowalski's behavior. At this point, he was far past used to it, "We're going to be doing a patrol of the city tonight. Need to scope out the area and know just who and what we're dealing with."
Private spoke up, "And if there's nothing to deal with?"
"Consider this a vacation, then," The tone of the commander's voice was flat, "but we do have to do the recon. And no, we can't blow anything suspicious up," Rico groaned, swallowing the already halfway regurgitated dynamite. This disturbed none of the others. They were used to it, "Once this place closes, we'll head out on the town," Skipper confirmed, "Until then," At that point the door opened and a few people came in. Skipper smiled, "Smile and wave, boys. Just smile and wave..."
That night, the group broke out of the observatory. It wasn't hard at all, with Kowalski shutting down the cameras and Rico picking the locks. Confident, Skipper lead the team down the cobbled streets of the New Orleans French Quarter. Private stood to his left, Kowalski to his right, and Rico just behind them. Skipper took a deep breath, "Hmm... nothing like a good stroll through the town to get you opened up to it, eh boys?"
"Right-o, Skippah," Private agreed, then frowned, "Um, what exactly are we supposed to be looking for?"
Skipper turned to him, eyes peeled for danger (not literally), "We're looking for anything suspicious," He announced. Private looked unimpressed.
"Well, that's unspecific," Private remarked. Skipper glared at him.
"Oh?" He stared coldly, "I don't like that tone, mister."
Private frowned, "Look, I'm just trying to say that not everywhere is full of danger like New York. Maybe we should just let bygones be bygones and go back to the Observatory," Private suddenly found anger, and stood tall, "You know, be normal for once?"
"You know as well as I do that we are not normal. If you think like that," A bitter, angry emotion settled into him, "then maybe you shouldn't be apart of this team!" Kowalski and Rico gasped. Private bit back his sadness at the leader's choice of words.
"Well, maybe I shouldn't!" He got on his toes, staring into the face of Skipper. A sudden crash knocked them both out of their sudden anger. Kowalski and Rico had already begun moving in the direction of the crash. Skipper and Private followed behind. The window of a simple shop on the old cobbled street had been broken. Private gasped at the two men inside, "They're trying to steal something!"
Skipper smirked at him, "What did I tell you?" Private looked away as Skipper gave orders, "Move in, men! Don't let them escape, no matter what!" The penguins moved into the store as the two men used a blowtorch to open a glass. They smirked at each other.
"Well done, fingers!" One of them stated.
"Not a problem, Jeb, but we've gotta make sure it's actually in there."
"Right," The one called 'Jeb' opened the bag at the exact time Rico had attempted to tackle him from above. A magical mist sprouted up from the bag and hit Rico, who faded into oblivion. The thieves hadn't even noticed the penguin.
Private gasped, "Rico!" and the whole team sprang into action. Random objects started rising, creating a tornado of inanimate things throughout the room. Along with this were random spouts of light flying around the room. Skipper noticed one hit a doll atop the bookcase, but didn't give it much thought. At that moment, a woman appeared from behind a wall. Whether or not she just got there or had been there the whole time was completely unknown.
"So," She stared, unimpressed, at the intruders, ignoring the penguins, "It's Kosmo's henchman. Come to steal the secret of my zombie dust," Her eyes glistened with unspoken power, Skipper noticed, as she spoke, "You know not what you're dealing with! There is great danger- oof!" She was cut off as a chair hit her, knocking her out cold. Kowalski started hyperventilating, obviously in shock.
"This isn't happening," He repeated over and over again to himself, as though the whole thing would fade like a dream, "This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't- aah!" He was cut off as another spout of light hit him, knocking him into a wall. He vanished as Rico did.
Skipper gasped, "Kowalski!" Then stared in anger at the two cowering men whom caused all this. Private, next to him, also took a defensive stance against them. Private and Skipper both ran towards the goons, ready to fight. Ducking underneath chairs and other random things, they managed to get to the men, who were beginning to stand up, and knocked them down. One of them, mostly out of fear, opened the bag again, sending another burst of light towards Skipper. He gasped as he was knocked away, underneath a desk. Faintly, he could also see Private fighting off the men alone. The magic stopped. Everything fell. Unfortunately, one of these things was a heavy book, which fell right on top of Private.
Private was knocked out cold. One of the men grabbed Private, the other the mysterious woman. The duo walked outside and loaded them into the truck they had brought. By the time they were inside, the woman had woken up, realized she couldn't fight back, and sighed. Private was still unconscious.
Back in the shop, Skipper, with faded vision, saw everything. His last thought was, "No..." before he passed out...
The argument was OOC, so I'm gonna explain it now: the zombie dust had created magic as it's owner, the woman, sensed danger. That magic made Skipper and Private inexplicably angry. Kowalski and Rico were lucky enough to be just outside the magic's range. If you don't like that... tough, cause I've got nothing better.
Next Chapter: Intro to the SECOND main character of this story, followed by the first level, where we meet the main villain!
