Chapter 3- Winky (Private's Story)
It was another normal day in New York City, and the penguins were off on a snack run, as they had just run out of stock this morning.
So as they reached Bailey's Snackatarium, the penguins grabbed the soda barrels that they use for storage and split up, both pairs hiding behind each of the barrels as they rolled inside. Once they reached the counter, Rico knocked out the cashier, and they rolled the barrels back into the store, filling them with whatever they could find.
The only one not collecting snacks was Private, as his attention was occupied by something interesting on one of the shelves.
Skipper looked up from where he was busy collecting snacks and found the young penguin standing there, his beak agape. Immediately, he walked over, intending to confront him about the delay.
"What's the hold up, Private? We don't exactly have all the time in the world here!"
This snapped Private out of his stupor, but instead of replying, he simply pointed his flipper at the top shelf. Skipper looked up, and what he saw was something he never thought he would see again.
"What in the world?"
On the shelf were five boxes of Peanut Butter Winkies, and Private was just about ready to climb up and grab them, when he was grabbed from behind by Skipper.
"Hold your horses, Private. I want to make sure that we're not walking into a trap. Kowalski, front and center, soldier!"
The analyst did as he was commanded, and rushed over to where Skipper and Private were, standing at attention.
"Go take a look at those Peanut Butter Winkies on the top shelf, and make sure there's nothing that's going to blow up in our face when we take them out of here."
"Peanut Butter Winkies? I'm quite positive that they closed the factory a few months ago."
"Well, those boxes on the top shelf seem to say otherwise. Now get moving, Kowalski!"
As Kowalski climbed his way up the shelf, one thought crossed his mind.
"I don't understand. Why is it that months after the factory closed, there are still boxes being sold?"
As if to answer Kowalski's question, the television near the counter suddenly flipped on as the clerk woke up, showing the news on screen. Ace news anchor Chuck Charles was just introducing himself when there was a breaking news alert.
"We have some breaking news today. Let's go live to the Wally Winky factory for the story."
The picture then changed to Chuck standing once again in front of the Wally Winky factory.
"This is Chuck Charles, here with some good news for fans of Peanut Butter Winkies and Marsh Meow-Meows. A few minutes ago, Wally Winky himself held a press conference announcing that the factory will be reopened and his products will be returning to stores, but only for a single day. When asked about the incredibly short timeframe, Wally said, quote, 'Because I like messing with people's heads, and limiting production to one day will really get them going.' A strange answer, but nothing new from the eccentric owner. This is Chuck Charles, reporting live from the Winky Factory. Back to you in the studio."
As the picture returned to Chuck in the studio, Private turned towards Skipper.
"I don't understand, Skippah. Why would he only open the factory for one day?"
"What do you expect? The man's crazy. He barely even comes out of the factory!" said Skipper.
Skipper paused for a few seconds, before looking up at the top shelf where the Winkies were.
"Kowalski, what's the status on the Winkies? We're running out of time!"
Kowalski looked out from behind the boxes.
"I've performed all of the tests that I could think of. There's no sign of any tampering with these boxes."
"Well then, what are you waiting for? Push them down here so we can get out of here!"
Kowalski was just about to do that when the front doors suddenly slammed open, and a parade of footfalls that felt almost like an earthquake started coming closer to their position.
"We've got company! Everyone move!" yelled Skipper over the commotion.
Private, Rico and Skipper cleared out of the aisle as quickly as they could while pushing the soda barrels along with them. Kowalski, meanwhile, couldn't go anywhere, so he quickly looked around the shelf he was on and found a dark corner, almost flinging his tiny body into the corner so that he could hide from the ensuing rush.
It was chaos for the next few seconds as a large crowd of people ran back to the candy aisle, cleared out all of the Winky products and immediately left. As soon as the crowd left, the penguins returned to the aisle, with Kowalski breathing heavily and Private looking at the empty shelves in disappointment.
"What are we going to do now, Skippah? This is our only chance to stock up on Winkies before they're gone forever, for real this time!"
"I think we'd better go with the sure thing, Private. Kowalski, options!"
Kowalski had only just rejoined the rest of the team from climbing down the shelf, but he immediately pulled out his notebook and furiously scribbled some pictures.
"We could go to the factory again. No humans that aren't employed by the factory are allowed in, so we can easily sneak in and grab some boxes."
"Oh no. That is not happening, Kowalski. Don't you remember Rico nearly eating you?"
Kowalski gave an involuntary shiver while Rico chuckled nervously.
"I was hoping never to be reminded of that. Disgusting."
Kowalski fell silent for a few seconds as he tried to forget about that ordeal, before Skipper cleared his throat and signaled for him to continue.
"Oh, right. Sorry, Skipper. The only other reasonable option we have is to go to some other stores and hope that they haven't been cleared out already."
"But there's no telling if all of the stores in the city haven't been cleared out already!" said Private, as he started to panic. Thankfully, Skipper was there to slap him and calm him down.
"Thanks, Skippah. I needed that."
"No problem, Private. Anyway, we're not going to find out if there's any left just standing here. Let's move out!"
The penguins pushed the barrels up to the counter.
"Rico, you know what to do." said Skipper.
Rico did as he was asked, regurgitating a smoke bomb and quickly setting down the payment for their snacks. But before he could return to the rest of the team, his eyes caught something pink and marshmallowy behind the counter.
"Ooohhh…Meow Meow…"
Thankfully, the penguins invested in smoke bombs that lasted longer than before, so the weapons expert had some time to grab the candy and uppercut the clerk, knocking him out once again so he wouldn't notice them leaving.
As Rico made his way back to the team, he quickly snuck the package of Marsh Meow-Meows into one of the barrels and joined the rest of the penguins as they pushed them out the door.
After returning to the zoo to drop off their haul for the day, the penguins jumped into the car and drove off looking for any stores that had Winkies left.
Unfortunately, they had no luck, as either they were already gone or they were scooped up by a crowd of people not long after they arrive.
The constant failure was starting to wear on Skipper's nerves, so after giving up and returning to the zoo, Private decided that he needed to do something to cheer Skipper up.
However, not even a second after they returned to their HQ, Skipper sat down at the table and began scribbling some drawings on some paper that was near.
"Nobody bother me. I'm going to try and think of some other plans that we can use to get those Winkies."
Kowalski opened his beak, intending to ask why he's suddenly decided to go with making up plans on his own, but Skipper silenced him with a glare before returning to his work.
An hour passed, as Rico, Private and Kowalski attempted to relax and watch television, but their worry over Skipper who still hasn't come up with an alternative plan, combined with the news report that was on recently letting the public know that the Winky factory would close for good in three hours prevented them from being able to completely enjoy it.
Having had enough, Private decided to try and convince Skipper to go for their original plan of going to the factory, so he got up from his seat and was about to walk over to give Skipper a piece of his mind when he was stopped by a flipper on the shoulder from Kowalski.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Private? Skipper doesn't like to be bothered when he's working like that."
"Yeah I'm sure, K'walski! We're not getting anywhere just letting Skippah do his own thing. Besides, you heard what Chuck Charles said. There's only three hours left before the factory closes for good!"
Kowalski sighed before relenting and letting Private go. The young penguin walked over to where his commanding officer was angrily crumbling up yet another unusable plan and throwing it over his shoulder, where it ended up hitting Private on the head before landing on the floor.
"Permission to make a suggestion, Skippah?"
"Denied, Private. Now please leave me alone. I can't think when I'm being bothered."
Private was about to turn around and head back to the TV, but he quickly changed his mind, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere by being timid.
"I'm sorry for being out of line, Skippah, but I think you really need to hear this!"
Skipper sighed in defeat before looking up at the young penguin.
"Make it quick, Private."
"Oh! Um…why don't we try going to the factory to find some Winkies? Besides, it's not like we have much of a choice at this point."
"I thought I made it perfectly clear that the factory was out of the question. Isn't that right, Kowalski?" said Skipper.
"Crystal, sir." said Kowalski from where he was sitting.
Private quickly racked his brain trying to come up with something to convince Skipper to try the factory. Soon enough, something came to him.
"But Skippah, the only reason our first trip to the factory failed was because I wasn't ready to lead. I'm sure that with you in charge, we'll get some Winkies no problem!"
Skipper opened his beak to counter, but realized that he had nothing.
"You're right, Private. I forgot about that part."
"So are we going to the factory?"
"Yes we are, Private. Yes we are."
Skipper turned towards Kowalski and Rico, who were still plopped in front of the television.
"Kowalski! Rico! We're headed out to the Winky factory! Let's move! Double time!"
The two penguins immediately hopped up to their feet and saluted before climbing up the ladder and going through the hatch, Private and Skipper following close behind them.
With Rico's manic driving, they managed to make it to the Winky factory with an hour to spare. Rico parked the car in a bush across the street so that no one would see it, before the penguins hopped out and slid over to the front door, hiding against the wall next to them. Skipper then opened the door, and the other three penguins slid in with the leader following behind them.
When they finally got inside the factory, they were surprised to find that all of the machines were still running despite there being only an hour left before shutdown. It was almost like the factory never closed, if you leave out the presence of spider webs and other things that show the factory's disuse.
As the penguins made their way through the factory in search of the Winky stash, Rico suddenly veered off to the side, having noticed the production line for the Marsh Meow-Meows. Thankfully, Skipper noticed the crazed penguin walking off and stopped the search.
"Where are you going, soldier? We're on a time limit!"
But when he saw Rico's planned destination, his quickly shouted out his orders to the other two penguins.
"Kowalski! Private! Restrain him before he gets to the Marsh Meow-Meows!"
The two of them immediately leapt into action, sliding over to where Rico was and tackling him to the ground. But Rico wasn't going to go down without a fight if it meant getting more than just the package he swiped from the Snackatarium.
So, he tried his best to throw off Kowalski and Private, but their combined weight was too much for even him, so all he could do was desperately crawl towards the production line.
Unfortunately for him, Skipper had reached the three of them by that point, and he hogtied Rico with a licorice string.
"Sorry, Rico, but I can't risk the mission being jeopardized by your insatiable love for Marsh Meow-Meows."
The weapons expert grumbled, but he knew that he still had the package back at the zoo that somehow none of the other penguins found out about, so not all was lost.
"Alright, men, let's keep moving. Kowalski, you're bringing along Rico."
Kowalski opened his beak to protest getting stuck with Rico duty again, but decided against it, knowing arguing was pretty pointless. So he simply sighed and grabbed Rico, dragging the hefty penguin behind him.
Shockingly, outside of one incident where Rico broke out of his restraints and tried to go back for the Marsh Meow-Meows, the rest of the search for the Winkies went pretty smoothly. The penguins finally managed to find a large pallet full of boxes of Winkies in the shipping department.
"Wow, the last shipment of Winkies ever made! I can't believe that we've finally found some!" said Private giddily.
"Settle down, Private. We just need to worry about how we're going to get these out of here and back to the zoo. Any ideas, Kowalski?"
"We could fly these out of here. We'd just need a helicopter and a cable to lift all of these."
"And how much would that cost us?" asked Skipper, eyebrow raised.
"Around…three million dollars."
"Let's try going for something a little more in our price range this time, Kowalski."
The analyst thought for a moment before giving out his next idea.
"I've spotted a few trucks while we were walking through the factory. We could steal one of them and drive the Winkies back to the zoo."
Skipper considered the possibility for a second before responding.
"Not the most subtle way to transport these, but I suppose that's the best way we've got. Does anyone know how to drive a stick shift?"
None of the penguins raised their flippers.
"I guess this means we're just going to have to wing it, then."
Before Skipper could give his next orders, the pallet of Winkies was suddenly lifted off of the ground.
"Wait, where's it going?" asked Private.
"Doesn't matter. Just follow that forklift!" said Skipper.
The penguins immediately dropped on to their bellies and gave chase. However, the forklift began pulling away, reaching one of the trucks and placing the Winkies inside.
Knowing that they weren't going to catch up in time, Skipper frantically looked around the area for any way they could prevent the truck from leaving. His eyes eventually landed on a control booth and he turned towards Kowalski.
"Kowalski, head for that control booth and find anything that can prevent that truck from leaving, pronto!"
"Right away, Skipper!"
Kowalski veered off towards the control booth as the other penguins continued to try to catch up with the truck.
Once the analyst entered the booth, he hopped up on to the control panel and quickly looked around all of the buttons, trying to find what he was looking for. However, the lack of any words on the buttons made it pretty much impossible to tell which was which, so he slammed his flipper on the first button he saw and hoped for the best.
Nothing happened for the first few seconds after Kowalski hit the button, but suddenly a loud siren started blaring around the factory and a voice from the speakers said something that made the analyst's blood run cold.
"Five minutes until self-destruction. Please evacuate the building as quickly as possible. Five minutes until self-destruction."
Not knowing what to do, Kowalski went with the first thing that came to his mind, screaming like a little girl and running away. But before he could get out of the control booth, he was met with an angry Skipper.
"Kowalski, what happened? I thought I told you to stop the truck, not blow the whole building up!"
"I don't know! None of the buttons said what they did!"
"Now we're never going to catch that truck!" said Private, disappointed.
"Truck! Truck!" said Rico, frantically pointing towards the truck, which was miraculously still there with the front door wide open. Most likely the driver had already evacuated.
"It's still there! Come on, you guys, let's go get that truck!" said Private.
"There's no time, Private! We'll be blown to smithereens!" said Kowalski.
"But…the Winkies!"
Private considered going for the truck, but he soon realized that he didn't want to throw his life away just for Winkies. So he turned back towards the rest of the team, his head drooped.
"Let's go, you guys."
"Alright, men, let's move! Double time!" said Skipper.
Thankfully, the shutter door the truck was about to head out of was still open, so the penguins slid their way out and to a safe distance before the factory finally exploded.
"Yay, kaboom!" said Rico, laughing giddily as he took in the destruction and mayhem.
The rest of the penguins weren't so enthusiastic about the factory blowing up, especially Private, who took it the hardest. Skipper walked up to the young penguin and placed a flipper around his shoulders, trying to cheer him up.
"I'm sure they all made it out okay, Private. There's no doubt that one of these days they'll rebuild and maybe they might start making those Peanut Butter Winkies again."
"Really? You think so?"
"Absolutely, Private. Now let's head home."
As the penguins began walking back to the car, one question came to Private's mind.
"Hey Skippah, why would a guy like Wally Winky need a self-destruct button for a candy factory?"
"Must be another one of his crazy fantasies, I guess."
Once Skipper completed that sentence, he suddenly noticed a small dot coming from the sky and rapidly growing bigger, heading straight for the penguins.
"Look out!"
Without questions, the four penguins dived out of the way of the projectile, narrowly missing getting hit by it. Private was the first one to get up and take a look at what the projectile was, and what he saw made his face light up in joy.
It was a box of Peanut Butter Winkies. The cardboard box was smoldering from the fire, but the Winkies themselves look almost good as new, outside of being slightly melted.
"Wow, how did this survive the explosion?"
Rather than wait for an answer, Private immediately grabbed one of the chocolates and opened the wrapper, only for it to be slapped away by Kowalski. Ignoring the glare Private gave him, Kowalski explained why he did that.
"We can't eat these now, Private. We need to find out how these Winkies managed to survive being in an intense heat like the factory was in. Imagine the kind of technology we can create with this breakthrough!"
Private was disappointed to not get to eat any of the Winkies, but he decided he could let it go if it was for the good of the team.
Later, once the penguins returned to the zoo, and Kowalski went into his lab to perform experiments on the Winkies, the rest of the penguins found out on a news report that thankfully there were no casualties in the explosion, which relieved a lot of the pressure that Private was feeling at that point.
So, as they continued watching TV, Private couldn't help a warm fuzzy feeling from appearing in his chest, knowing that he's not only got a team, but three great friends to be with him, and he was alright with that.