Arctic Escape:
By: Taralynn Wakelin
The snow fell heavily as the wind picked up, quickly turning the gentle snowfall into a blizzard. He stood on top of a hill starring out over the barren, frozen landscape through his binoculars. He finally found what he was looking for! After searching for an hour, he had finally found it…a large, female polar bear with two cubs. He put his binoculars back in his backpack; he pulled his hat further down on his head, brushing some of his blond hair out of his blue eyes. He turned to look beside him at his best friend and younger brother.
"We found them!" He said smiling.
"I knew we would, if we doubled back!" His brother said smiling as he brushed snow out of his brown eyes. "The wind's picked up a lot, maybe we should…" His brother was cut off when a gust of wind blew his hat off his head; he quickly caught it before it blew away. "As I was saying, maybe we should head back and wait for the storm to die down a bit?" He said putting his hat back on over his short, brown hair.
"No way bro! If we do, we'll lose them again! You aren't afraid of a little snow are you?"
"No…but this isn't a little snow!" His brother answered.
"Aw, come on bro! Where's your adventurous spirit?" He asked.
"Hey, I'm as adventurous as you are!" His brother said defending himself.
"Sure you are!" He said smiling as he put his helmet on lifting the visor as he sat on his snowmobile. "Prove it!"
"What?" His brother asked as he put his helmet on too.
"Prove it!" He replied putting his visor down, he started the engine and looked back at his brother who started his sled too, before he nodded.
As soon as his brother nodded, he took off down the hill, his brother not far behind him. They raced all the way down the hill, the blizzard got worse and soon all that could be seen was white! He stopped his sled, looking around unable to see anything, he couldn't hear him either, and he began to get worried. Suddenly he saw something coming towards him, he wasn't sure if it was his brother or the bears, so he got ready in case he had to get out of there in a hurry if he had an unexpected visitor. Whatever it was came closer and he smiled as he realized it was his brother; he pulled up beside him and spoke.
"I think we should go back!"
"Yeah, you're right! Come on, you lead the way!" He answered.
15 minutes later, they arrived back at their ship and parked, before heading inside. They took off their outdoor gear and headed to the control room, where they found their three friends.
"Hey, Double Trouble is back!" Their friend Aviva said smiling.
"How was your ride?" Their friend Jimmy asked.
"Good, we found the polar bear family again!" He answered smiling.
"Did you find anymore? Any of the ones you tagged a couple months ago?" Jimmy asked.
"No, but once the blizzard stops we'll go back out and look again!" His brother answered.
"I tracked a couple for you; I'll send their last co-ordinates to your Creature pods." Their other friend Koki said.
"Until then we have to put all that creature info from our last mission into the computer." Aviva said as everyone, but her groaned.
"Do we have to?" He asked, he didn't like doing boring paperwork.
"Yes, we have too! Until the storm stops, there's nothing else we can do. Besides guys it has to be done eventually!" Aviva answered.
"Yeah…hey! Look, the storm's dying down! That's our cue to leave, come on bro!" He said smiling.
"Right behind you bro!" His brother said smiling too as they rushed to the door. "Bye guys!"
"Martin and Chris Kratt, you two get back here!" Aviva said annoyed.
"Sorry Aviva, we've got an important job to do!" Chris answered as they left laughing, Aviva just shook her head while Jimmy and Koki laughed.
"Don't encourage them!" Aviva scolded them as she tried not to smile. "Come on we've got work to do!"
Meanwhile:
The large, grey jet sat in the clearing surrounded by trees, hidden. Outside the blizzard began to let up, inside a tall man with short, brown hair and intense, green eyes paced the control room. He had landed an hour ago, and had been using his radar to search for his old enemies! He had waited three, long years to finally be able to get his revenge on those miserable insects! He hated them…no, he despised them! They had stopped him twice before, but this time he'd finish them off, his plan was foolproof! He couldn't wait to start his plan, the anticipation killing him, but he knew he had to wait for the right moment, even though patience wasn't his strongest quality! He continued pacing impatiently, biting his nails as he waited for his computer to scan the area and find where the cowards were hiding. As he paced his thoughts like usual were of the last time he had been face to face with the tree huggers, and how close he came to destroying them. The door to the control room opened behind him, he spoke to the person without looking at them.
"What is it now?" He demanded.
"Mr. Fox, the blizzard stopped."
"Thank you for stating the obvious, you tool!" He said angrily as he turned to face the man. "Thomas, remind me again why I hired you?"
"You needed my help to…"
"Wrong!" He yelled furious cutting Thomas off, he grabbed the larger man by the shirt and pulled him close, their faces inches apart. "I'm Sebastian Fox! I'm an evil genius! I don't need help doing anything! Understand?"
"Yes…yes sir!" Thomas answered. "Mr. Fox, sir I meant no disrespect! I…I just…"
"Shut up, you blubbering idiot!" Sebastian said letting Thomas go.
"I just meant the storm stopped, so I can go look for the tree huggers now!"
"Not yet, I still haven't narrowed down an area where…" Sebastian began, but his computer beeping cut him off. "Pull up the map!"
"Yes, sir!" Thomas said going to the computer and typed something, seconds later the large screen came to life with a radar.
"Hmm…they're 20 miles from our location. Go make sure everything's ready for tomorrow's recon!" Sebastian ordered.
"Yes, sir!" Thomas said leaving, despite his being larger, and stronger than Sebastian, Thomas was afraid of him! There was something evil about him, and Thomas didn't want to find out what Sebastian was capable of!
Once Thomas was gone, Sebastian stood looking out the window as the sun slowly set. He smiled, things would be different this time; he would be victorious! The reason he'd win, when so many before him have failed…he knew the brothers! He had been close enough to the brothers they called him family! The brothers had been so stupidly blind that they never saw just how truly evil he was until it was too late! For his plan to succeed he'd have to play brother against brother, using the only weakness they had against them…the bond of family!
Days Later:
It had been three days since the Tortuga landed in the Arctic, and their mission to check on the polar bears was almost finished. They just needed to find the last two, male bears they had tagged before they could leave. The brothers had been out searching since the sun rose, but they weren't having much luck. By lunchtime, they returned to the Tortuga, and after taking off their outdoor gear, they headed into the control room. Aviva handed them a hot chocolate each before she sat beside Martin, Jimmy spoke.
"How was the search?"
"We still haven't found them! We got closer today, we found a den and we think it belongs to the bigger male!" Chris answered.
"After lunch we're going to go back there and stake the den out. They can't hide forever, this is the Arctic there's not many places to hide!" Martin added smiling.
"I'll do another scan of the…" Koki began, but her computer's alarm sounding cut her off.
"Koki, what's going on?" Martin asked as they all joined her at the computer.
"We have a problem!" Koki answered typing.
"What is it?" Chris asked.
"Two bears are missing!" She answered.
"Uh…we already know that Koki! Martin and I are…"
"No Chris, not those two…two other bears just disappeared!" Koki said cutting Chris off.
"What? Different ones? Are you sure?" Aviva asked.
"Positive! See for yourselves!" Koki answered bringing up the info onto the screen for everyone to see. "Their tags just quit!"
"Koki can you do a roundup of the usual suspects please? We need to know where each of them are!" Martin asked.
"I'm on it MK!" Koki answered smiling as she got to work.
Meanwhile:
After three days of surveillance, Sebastian had all the info he needed to begin his revenge plan. He learned the Kratts crew were in the Arctic to check on polar bears they had tagged in a previous mission. So, he had Thomas go after two polar bears, he returned with both bears and once on board in cages, Sebastian removed their tags destroying one, and turning the other off putting it away for a future part of his plan. Sebastian knew they wouldn't automatically think he was involved in this at first for two reasons; one- he normally goes after large, wild cats, and two- they had had no contact of any kind with him in three years! He knew they'd check out their usual band of idiot villains first, ruling them out one by one! Then their next thought would be that there was a new villain around and they'll try to figure out who it is taking their precious animals! When the time was right, he'd go after the brothers, again no one thinking it's him until he had them right where he wanted them! He stood starring at the two, angry bears and smiled as he walked up to the closest bear who growled at him.
"You and your friend here are going to play an important role in my genius revenge plan! It's a shame you're too stupid to understand!"
"Mr. Fox, I just returned from the tree hugger's ship!" Thomas said as he came into the room.
"And?" Sebastian asked without looking at him.
"They know about the bears, and are looking for four people just like you said they would!" Thomas answered smiling.
"Good, good! Everything is going as planned!" Sebastian said smiling as he turned to Thomas. "Let's go have a drink to celebrate the success of phase one!"
"After you sir!" Thomas said smiling as they left the room.
Later:
"Like I said guys all four are accounted for; Donita and Dabio are at a fashion show in Paris. Zach is at his mansion, and Gourmand is looking for new ingredients in the Savannah!" Koki explained.
"So…that means there's a new villain?" Jimmy asked nervously.
"Looks like it!" Koki answered.
"Let's not panic JZ! We've dealt with things like this before!" Chris said patting Jimmy's back.
"CK's right! We need to find out who they are first! Anyone have any ideas?" Aviva asked.
"Martin you okay?" Chris asked noticing his brother was starring out the window lost in thought.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Martin answered looking at him, hoping Chris bought his lies. "Just thinking about our mystery villain."
Martin sat at the table with the others, as they talked about the situation Martin tuned them out. He returned to his thoughts, since discovering the bears were missing and their usual enemies were all accounted for, something about the whole situation was bugging Martin. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the whole thing felt…different! The longer he thought about it, the more frustrated he got, it was like the answer was right there in front of him, but he just couldn't figure it out! He hated feeling this way, and was grateful it's only ever happened once before when…no! It…it couldn't be? But what if it was? Thing's just got a whole lot more difficult!
"Martin? Martin are you listening?" Chris asked breaking into his thoughts.
"What? Yeah, I'm listening!"
"Alright bro, cut the crap!" Chris said seriously looking at him.
"I'm fine Chris!" Martin said trying to get him to drop it; he wasn't ready yet to bring up his suspicions, not until he was certain about them.
"Stop lying! I'm your brother Martin, I know you better than that!"
"It's nothing…right now! Just let me…"
"Why won't you tell us what's going on?" Chris asked worried.
"None of you will believe me if I tell you! I don't even believe it…not until I have proof!" Martin answered.
"You think you know who it is don't you?" Chris asked, Martin sighed before he nodded as he looked at his hands.
"Who?" Aviva asked.
"Sebastian!" Martin answered his eyes locked with Chris.
TBC…