A/N: I don't know if this will be long or not. Sorry :p Also, even though the Sport Shop was blown up in 2010, I decided this is some AU where the Sport Shop is next to the Everyday Phoning Facility. So yeah! Don't get confused ;)

Stacey was a penguin of little experience. Her life consisted of eating, sleeping, and walking puffles. She had hardly any friends, and even when people tried to be nice to her, they were shrugged off.

She had chances to actually do something with her life, considering her brother was Petey K and she was very close to him. But her real chance to be something came in late October, when she stumbled upon the Everyday Phoning Facility. She did the test and was accepted to the EPF. But that wasn't all.

Once November hit, Operation Blackout started, and there was no scarcity of agents willing to help. There was, however, a scarcity of agents who took their job seriously. Stacey was part of it.

When Gary, her now best friend, was taken by Herbert, she took her work even more seriously than before. And that's one of the reasons Herbert was stopped.

November 8, 2012

Stacey woke up and turned on the TV. It was any other Thursday for her. She picked up The Club Penguin Times from her doorstep, but didn't find the time to read it, and pulled on clothes and walked out the door. From the moment she was out of her igloo, she knew something was wrong. Penguins were looking around frightened, and amazingly, there weren't many around.

She decided to head to the Sport Shop, like she did every morning, to meet up with Gary before she went to work in the Tech branch of the EPF. As she walked there, penguins she knew just stared at her sadly like a relative had died or something. It worried her, and she quickened her pace as she neared the all-too familiar Sport Shop. But something there wasn't familiar.

On the door was a poster, with Gary's portrait and the words 'missing' typed neatly across the top. She ripped it from its taped spot and stared at it for a minute. Her expression was blank, and she sat down in front of the shop.

Stacey sat there for a while. She got calls from her spy phone about skipping work, but she didn't answer them. She didn't care. Eventually, she went inside. The penguin who normally sat at the front desk was gone, and so Stacey walked towards the door to Gary's room. She looked to make sure no one was watching, and then she reached into her pocket, pulled out a key, and swiftly and silently got inside.

The room was a mess. A broken computer screen, the pin board was knocked off of the wall, and a vast assortment of random items were scattered across the floor. Stacey wasn't pleased. She would probably get in trouble for tampering with evidence, but she put the pin board back and cleaned up the room, knowing that if Gary were there, he wouldn't want it as such of a mess.

Stacey spent the rest of the day in Gary's room, so it was a surprise to the EPF agents to find her there while investigating Gary's disappearance.

"Stace? What are you doing here?" asked Dot.

"He gave me a key. You know that. I'm allowed in." she replied, her voice dull, while she pretended to read a book.

"And why is the place cleaned up? Cashier told me there was quite a racket, and a mess up there, earlier this morning." said Jet Pack Guy.

Stacey was silent, and she felt like she wanted to cry. The other agents might have had as much concern as her, but they were sure good at hiding it. Jet Pack Guy and Rookie acted like all this normal, and Dot just looked uncomfortable. The three of them looked at each other, then to Stacey.

"I...I'm sorry. We shouldn't be bothering you at a time like this..." Dot slowly pushed the other agents out of the room and closed the door behind them.

"We need to look for evidence!" said JPG as soon as they were out.

"Give her time. He's her only good friend. And besides...I think he's more than that to her."

This shut them up, and they followed Dot back out through the changing room passage.

Meanwhile, somewhere far away, a certain polar bear was taking a certain penguin back to his lair...