January 11th 2016
Rome, Italy
Ancient Roman Ruins
9:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
(Lord Shen's POV)
"Lord Shen, Sir!" one of my soldiers said, "the army is ready…" "Excellent," I said, "Our conquest of this poorly designed city will begin." "Sir the penguin's flying machine has been sighted," another wolf said. "Right on schedule," I replied, "ready the cannons!" "Right away Lord Shen," he said, "Ready the cannons!" "Soon this city will be mine and Blowhole will have his victory over those stupid flightless birds," I said. "Sir, The Penguins are in firing range," a wolf said. "Take Aim!" I said. All the cannon were lit and I looked at their machine in the distance, "I hope you had a nice trip little penguins," I said, "it will be the last one you will ever take…" I pointed my sword at the penguins flying machine, "FIRE!" I shouted.
9:20 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
(Skipper's POV)
"Skipper we have incoming projectiles!" Kowalski shouted. "Evasive maneuvers!" I said. The Pilot nodded and performed a variety of flips, loop-de-loops, barrelrolls, and spins to avoid the Projectiles. "Funny," Private said, "the projectiles look a little like cannonballs." "Skipper I have isolated the source of the projectiles," Kowalski announced, "Those ruins over there!" Kowalski pointed towards the remains of roman buildings and toppled over roman columns. I looked in the direction and quickly noticed something that shouldn't be there…an asian style building in the middle of the ruins with cannons on top of it.
I took out a pair of binculors and focused on the building. Thru the binculors my gaze fell on one smug looking Lord Shen. I lowered the binculors and looked toward the pilot, "plot a course to that building! Let's give that Peacock the surprise of his life!" The Chimp pushed a button on the controls and we warped to he building. "You idiots! Take them out already!" Shen shouted. "Sir, we are trying…" "Keep firing! Keep firing!" Shen shouted. Rico took took the wheel and kept the plane in motion making it impossible for shen's army to lock on. "Deploy banana gun!" I shouted. The sounds of servos filled the air as the gun turrent was lowered. "rapid fire!" I shouted. A barrage of bananas flew in the direction of the cannons on the roof.
"That's their defense against us?" Shen asked, "Bananas?" A barrage of banana flew into shen's face knocking him down. Lord Shen got up with mushed banana running down his face. All his wolf minons started to laugh their heads off at this. Lord Shen with a look of fury in his eyes started to choke the nearest wolf. He eyes burned with fury as he glared as his minion silencing the laughs. "Keep firing! Keep firing!" Shen shouted his dominance reasserted. He then looked our way his eyes filled with hate and fury as he seemed to stare into our souls. A barrage of cannonballs flew in our direction and no amount of evasive maneuvers could save us.
I then in an instant I came up with a plan, "aim for the cannons!" The banana gun operator started to send barrages of bananas at the cannons clugging several of them. A bunch of banana clugged a cannon that was already lit and it exploded blasting several wolves off the building. Two more cannons exploded after getting blocked by banana mush. And then the banana gun jammed and the turrent was destroyed by a cannonball. Shen four remaining cannons were fired and cannonballs ripped thru the super-planes wing and smashed thru the engine. A cannon ball hit the super-plane's rotor sending us tailspining to the ground. The Plane hit the ground and exploded in a massive fireball sending us flying in all directions.
When the smoke cleared I found myself next to a smouldering crater with flaming wreakage in the center of it. The Plane had spilt into several sections all of them still on fire. Cars, smashed traincars, downed electrical towers had been lit ablaze. Several smaller sections of the planes lay near the crater and had created many small fires. In the distance I could hear Lord Shen, "Search the Wreakage! Make sure there are no survivors!" I got up and rushed to find my men without drawing attention. "Fan out!" a wolf holding an axe shouted, "Kill any survivors you find!" Wolves holding a variety of swords, hammers, and crossbows went off in all directions intent on hunting down any survivors. I sneaked past a wolf holding a spiked club and two wolves with sinister-looking swords.
I found Kowalski in his own crater five feet from the main crash site. "Kowalski status report!" I said. "We need to get out of here!" Kowalski said. "I hear survivors!" a gruff voice shouted, "Take them out!" "Retreat," I said. Kowalski and I ran off searching for Private or Rico. I sighted Rico hiding behind a burnt out car. "Rico," I said, "status report!" "Ka-boom! Ka-boom! Ka-boom!" "Rico's fine," Kowalski said. We snuck off moving from burnt out car to burnt out car. We snuck behind a burnt out bus and we started to head towards our next hiding spot. I took one step out from behind the bus and saw the back of shen's neck in the distance. I stepped back behind the bus and stop Kowalski and Rico from going forward. We peeked around the front of the bus and saw Shen interrogating Phil and Mason.
Phil and Mason were tied to a burnt out telephone pole and had a cannon pointed at them. Shen got close to Mason and had his sword mere inches from the chimp's neck, "Why shouldn't I snap you vocal cords right now," Shen asked. "Do you have sign language translater in your inner circle?" Mason asked. "I'm not asking the mute monkey next to you I'm asking you," Shen replied. "Monkeys have tails. We are…" "Going to die unless you tell me where Skipper is!" Shen shouted. "Skipper isn't stupid enough to stay here long enough for you to kill him," Mason replied.
"So you honestly think I am going to believe that skipper well just leave," Shen said, "Without the most meaningful and valued member of his team!" A wolf appeared holding private in a chokehold. "Private!" I shouted. Kowalski looked at me like I betrayed him. Shen removed his sword from Mason neck and turned around, "Ah, so nice of you to join us Skipper," Shen said, "You're just in time for you friends demise!" Shen turned to his wolf minion, "Fire the cannon!" "No," the wolf said. Shen impaled him with his sword and lit the fuse, "Nothing get's in my way…not ever you. Rico narrowed his eyes in angry and hacked up a bomb and threw at the cannon. The Cannon exploded sending Lord Shen flying across the wreakage field. Private untied Phil and Mason and gave the wolf a mournful look. "Let's get out of here," I said.
"But look around the super-plane is gone," Kowalski said, "How do we go anywhere!" "We have to hitch a ride," I said. "ARCHERS TAKE AIM!" Shen shouted, "FIRE!" "evasive!" I shouted. We ran in a zig-zag pattern as flaming arrows hit the ground all around us. "You will never Make it to Paris!" Shen shouted, "You will die in the ruins of the roman empire!" "So blowhole doesn't want to get his flippers dirty," I said. "He's in Pisa to correct their leaning tower…" Shen replied. "Correct?" Private said. "By turning into the Falling Tower of Pisa!" "What is it with blowhole and destroying world landmarks?" I shouted. "Not that your going to survive to stop him!" Shen shouted, "Now if you excuse me I have to go sack monte carlo." "The humans will stop you," I said. "The humans won't know what hit them," Shen replied. "give this message to blowhole," I said, "We will stop him." "Finish them!" Shen shouted and the archers prepared a new barrage of arrows.
"Farewell Little Penguins," Shen said, "I battled fate and won…now I'll claim my prize…The World!" Shen then flew off laughing evilly. "Oh he just have to rub in our flightlessness!" I said. "Well, technically Peacock don't fly," Kowalski said. "Well this one apparently does," I replied. "Um…aren't you forgetting something!" Mason shouted. "Like what?" I said. several flaming arrows flew past me, "Oh I don't know…firey arrows of death," Mason replied. And then Blowhole teleported in, "Ah, Phil and Mason," Blowhole said, "I knew I forgot someone." Blowhole then teleported away with phil and mason. "No!" I shouted, "Kowalski don't you have a device to block enemy teleports?" "Enemy teleport blocker…" Kowalski said. "Yeah…do you have one?" "Do I have one?" Kowalski said, "wanted to built something like that but didn't." "We'll just rescue them later," I said, "also…Tactical retreat!" We ran off screaming as flaming arrows flew all around us. "Sir," a wolf said, "their out of our firing range…should we give chase?"
"don't let them escape!" the wolf general shouted. Ten archers armed with crossbows chased after us their arrows getting frighteningly close to hitting us. "There is no escape penguins!" one of the archers replied. We ran thru the deserted streets only to get back up to a wall. The archers had switched back to bows and were lined up like a firing squad. "It's seems you got trapped between a rock and a hard place," the wolf general said. "The Wolf version of Officer X," Kowalski said, "great." "Options?" I said turning to Kowalski. "think happy thoughts," Kowalski said. "On my command!" the wolf general said, "take aim!" All the archers pulled back their arrows as a wolf ran across lighting each arrow. The Wolf General held his paw up, "You have five seconds to say you goodbyes!"
"Skipper?" Private said. "sorry private," I said, "there is no escape this time." "Close your eyes so you don't see it coming," Kowalski said. "Stay strong soldiers!" I shouted. "This can't be how it ends!" Private said. "We had a good run," I said, "it's has been an honor serving with you boys!" "But skipper…" Kowalski said, "we can get out of this!" "Not this time," I said. Wolf had a sastified look on his face, "Fire!" he shouted. The Archers loosened their hold on the bowstrings but right as they were about to releash the arrows the ground under them exploded knocking them to the ground. "What?" the general replied.
And The North Wind Jet appeared out of a cloud and landed where the archers were standing. The cargo door in the back opened and Classified exited fully decked out in his high tech battle armour. Corporal appeared also in battle armour holding his trademark gaint gun. Short Fuse appeared his his personal hovertank, "The penguins are under the protection of the North Wind!" Classified said. "So back off sucker!" Shortfuse said. "Retreat or face the full might of the North Wind!" Eva voice announced out of the Jet's speaker. The Wolf general took one look at Corporal and his big gun and ran off. "How did you escape blowhole?" I said. "Nothing breaks the Wind!" Classified said. "You think a mad dolphin could hold back the North Wind?"
"Classified we need a ride to Pisa," I said, "Blowhole is planning to take down the Leaning Tower of Pisa." "Meanwhile Lord Shen is on a Warpath to Monte Carlo," Kowalski said. "That's not the only threat," Classified said, "Dave is back to his old tricks in Venice…and mysterious firebeasts had been sighted near the swiss alps." "Fire Queen involvement?" I asked. "Without question," classified said, "and we fear Blowhole has big plans for Paris." "Stopping Blowhole in Pisa is the first step…" I said. "The let's make sure the Leaning Tower is still standing," Classified said. we pailed into the jet and the cargo door closed behind us. The Jet took off and rocketed towards our next destination.
(end of chapter one)