Skipper's Log. 06:00 Hours on September the 15th.
"We arrived at Antarctica only a few minutes ago. Manfredi has really beginning to show signs of desperation about the amount of time it took us to get here. The research vessel we boarded took a day or so to study some penguins off of an African Coast, so there is no chance we got here before Flishslader and the Penguin Army. Manfredi realizes that and he's urging us to move out to get to the penguin city as fast as we possibly can. I know he hasn't slept in several days, but he doesn't seem the least bit tired.
"I had to ask him for a few moments to gather our things so that I could break away to record this. I can understand that he's worried for his hometown and his family, but we can't just go charging in there headfirst. We could get slaughtered. Besides, why would Sargent Caspian even bother messing with the small, defenseless village. According to Manfredi, they've got nothing to fight back, with so why bother with them? He wouldn't just massacre them, would he?
"What we need to do is collect our munitions and supplies, and take as much as we can carry from this boat. We've got a lot of fighting ahead of us if we want to stop Sarge from getting a hold of the Sun, so we're going to need them.
"As for Antarctica, it's what I expected. A barren wasteland of endless white and bitter cold. I don't understand how any penguins could live here, or for that matter, build a city. It doesn't seem practical – where would they even get food? The water here is iced over with a sheet thick enough for the humans to drive their vehicles on. How in the world are these penguins feeding themselves?
"Manfredi came from here though, so I'm certain that there is some way they get by. According to what I've heard, for a few months each year, this place is pitch black. The sun doesn't even break the horizon. Why would any penguin want to live in constant darkness?
"For Manfredi's sake, though, I hope the settlement is undisturbed. His sanity seems to be fading every so slightly with each passing moment, and the sight of his hometown destroyed could push him over the edge. All three of us need to be at our strongest now, though, that's for damn sure.
"We can't, and won't, let Sarge get his grubby flippers on the Sun."
The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 38 – Pursuit
" I BE SEEIN' T' SHIP NOW."
"Thanks, Issac," responded Alice.
"You want I should be followin' more close like?" asked the man.
"No, no," answered the redhead. "We need to keep our distance a bit, or else they'll get suspicious. Just keep them in your sights and we should be fine."
"Ay, lass. What be we huntin' this craft for anyhow?"
"Something important to me is on it. Actually, make that several important somethings."
"Be it treasure? Money, jewels? Or did they be capturin' your first-born?"
"Not quite. Back in New York I run the Central Park Zoo. My penguins escaped, stole that boat, and are on their way to somewhere. I have no idea what they have planned but I'd like to find out."
The man looked confused at her, and then said, "And they be tellin' me I'm crazy."
"Forget I said anything," Alice said, waving her hand dismissively. She pulled up her jacket collor and walked away from the man who shrugged and returned his attention to the ship's wheel.
Issac Hull was the only captain they could find who would take them on this penguin chase, if you could even call him a captain. More or less, Alice knew he was just a man who owned a boat in good enough shape to get them across the globe. Despite the fact that he had already been jailed twice for drunken brawls, he was also the only person who was willing to do it on such short notice and for less then a million dollars.
The man stood crooked in his boots that squeaked when he walked. His hair was matted and patchy, and his teeth were few and far between. His left eye twitched when he spoke, making it hard to focus on what he was saying. He spoke with a typical New York accent that had a hint of something stereotypically like a Pirate. He wore a flannel shirt and torn blue jeans and genuinely reeked of dead fish. Alice was happy to get away from him.
His boat was nothing special, but it was sturdy. From what Alice could see of the penguin's boat, it was also in far better condition. Briefly she wished that Andrew had invested a little bit more money and left them a better ship to use. She could see their ship on the horizon, just a tiny speck against the endless blue sky. She looked through her binoculars and thought she could see the penguins practicing on the deck, but she couldn't tell.
As she came into the storage hull that Issac had set up for Alice, Mr. Green, and his colleagues to stay in, she grabbed one of the penguin monitors. Though no surprise to her, her aforementioned suspicions were confirmed. On the monitor was her otter, looking fairly scared. The penguin slowly approached the otter and Alice watched as its flippers flicked in and out of the frame, blows directed towards the mammal. Surprisingly, though, the otter was blocking the swings fairly easily and with a grunt, pushed the penguin away from herself. The penguin toppled to the ground, growling. The otter offered a paw to help her fallen friend up. The otter purred something and the penguin responded with a few clicks. Before Alice had time to figure out what they were saying though, they were back at it again.
From the footage they had received since their departure, she had discovered that her otter and her ring-tail lemur were both aboard the penguin's vessel as well. It didn't make her particularly happy, but after realizing what had happened on the dock and how they had helped she realized that it was a good thing that they were tagging along. Besides, they didn't seem particularly upset about being there and were being taught some animal hand-to-hand combat from the penguins.
Nothing else particularly interesting had happened. She knew that one of the penguins on the boat was always driving, and the other two were preparing for their upcoming struggle. Because she had smashed the leader's video feed she was unaware of what he had been up to for the most part, but through process of elimination she knew he had been driving nearly all of the time.
"Have we finally caught sight of the penguin's ship?" asked Mr. Green upon noticing that Alice had entered. He was hunched over another of the penguin monitors with a few of his interns that had agreed to come along for the trip.
"Yeah," Alice responded, "Issac's tailing them from about thirty miles or so. We can see them, but we can't see what their chasing, if its even anything. Didn't want to risk getting closer or they might get suspicious."
Andrew nodded. In any other event, someone would have asked how a penguin would become suspicious of anything. However, he and his interns had already seen plenty of the penguin's vision to become familiar with how intelligent these particular penguins were.
"Andrew walked away from the monitor and picked up a map. "We've already gone very far south," he pointed to a spot in the Atlantic ocean just south and east of Argentina. "It's pretty clear at this point that the penguins are going directly to Antarctica."
"Antarctica!" exclaimed Alice. "What makes you think that?"
"It's the only logical place, based on their trajectory. It must make some sort of sense to you, though. Antarctica has the biggest population of penguins on the globe."
"Hmm," wondered the burly woman, "what in the world could be there, though? I mean, it's just a barren wasteland, right?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. If they are following those penguins we encountered on the dock, which is likely as one of your penguins is still on the said penguin's craft, there is something worthwhile there. I have no clue what it might be."
"Yeah," answered Alice. She knew that there was something bigger going on than just a rescue mission, and she was determined to find out what it was. Her lemur and otter would not have gotten this involved if the penguins were just going after their exhibit-mate. Those evil penguins would not have attacked her that night in the zoo nearly three weeks back if all they wanted was to steal away one of her penguins. She knew it in her gut that they had something much worse planned then just that.
"Hey, Andy," she said, trying to get her mind off the enemy penguins.
"Mr. Green, please," urged Andrew, straightening his tie. The stout man's suit was crusted with salt now but he still wore it like he was expecting a business meeting sometime soon.
"Whatever. Anyway, don't you think that you could have left those penguins a little bit better boat to drive? From what I could see it looked like it was falling apart," she contemplated.
"Well it wasn't easy to find anything with only twelve hours notice," explained Mr. Green, pushing his glasses up his nose. "There is far too much paperwork involved in one of these purchases. I had to find someone who just wanted cash as fast as possible. You know for a fact that there were no boats at the dock for them to commandeer that night, anyway. They'd be stranded if I hadn't have left it for them."
"That's true," said Alice, sitting down on a crate and leaning back against the wall behind her.
"I did everything else you requested, as well, don't forget. The boat had a full tank of fuel with some extra canisters ready for them to use if they needed them. I also had some fresh water planted on the boat with some food for them as well. I even put the key to the thing right in the helm."
"Okay, okay," said Alice, crossing her arms, "Sorry to have questioned your judgment. It just seems like that hunk of junk could fall apart at any moment. And you know that robot-penguin friend of theirs almost killed himself to start it because they didn't find the key."
Mr. Green raised his brow suspiciously, folding his hands behind his back. "If I didn't know better, Alice, I'd say you're growing a real soft spot for your penguins."
"What? Why?"
"It seems you are hoping for them to be able to ride in total comfort?" The stout man smiled as he spoke. "I'm just as curious about finding out what they're up to and the fullest extent of their abilities, but you seem to be more concerned about their well-being."
Alice sighed. "Of course. I paid a lot of money for them and I'd be pretty upset if they just up and died because of this whole mess."
Andrew shook his head. "If you were just concerned about how much you paid for them, you'd be happy with them being flown to their destination in the storage hold of a cargo plane, so long as they arrived in one piece. I think that you're beginning to love them."
Alice lowered her brow angrily and gritted her teeth. She knew that this whole situation wasn't important, but Andrew was taunting her with it. She knew that he was passive aggressive and liked to get under her skin anyway he could, as long as it wasn't direct confrontation. She was different though. She'd stand right up in his face if she needed to, and that's exactly what she did.
"Lay off," she exclaimed, jabbing his chest with a long finger. "Before all this BS started happening, I thought Animals were just dumb animals. You know just as well as I do that these penguins aren't the least bit stupid. They might very well be more intelligent than you."
Mr. Green frowned profusely, then said, "I seriously doubt a pack of flightless birds can do improper numerical integration and still run an entire corporation."
"Pfft," hushed Alice. "Math isn't going to help you in a real fight. Speaking of which, I bet my penguins could kick your ass if they wanted to."
Andrew pushed his glasses up his nose and took a step back from the fuming redhead. "I'm not exactly sure if they could or not. Actually, you seem to be familiar with getting your ass kicked by penguins, so maybe you could tell me?"
Before Alice could lash at the business man for insulting her, one of the interns suddenly spoke loudly. "You guys might want to stop fighting and come take a look at this," he said simply, holding out one of the monitors to Mr. Green. Alice forgot how angry he was with him momentarily and walked behind him, looking over his shoulder to see what was on the screen.
It was the fourth and missing penguin who was assumed to be still trapped on the enemy penguins' boat. Mr. Green had determined that it was the intellectual, second-in-command penguin they had observed previously. He had been bound and blindfolded for most of the last week, the only input coming through was brief sounds of eating, penguin chatter, or waves sloshing. Now he was free and the blindfold had been removed.
He was standing on the deck of the maniacal penguins' raft looking down at the three of them. Alice immediately recognized them as the penguins who had attacked her, and she felt slightly angry at the birds. They were only birds, but her leg still hurt occasionally from where they had shot her.
Surprisingly enough, though, there was no fighting occurring. She had assumed that her penguin would have immediately attacked the three penguins upon being freed, or at least tried to find away off of the boat. However, they were just standing around, chattering out some sort of a conversation. From what Alice could tell about the penguin's body language, not a single one of them looked the least bit hostel. It almost seemed like a little bit of a friendly conversation.
The blind-eyed penguin in the middle of the monitor smiled, and then let out an odd penguin laugh. The large penguin to his side followed before shutting up as the blind-eyed penguin slapped the back of his head. The rock-hopper did not react to the action, but still looked like he had a slight smile on his face.
Her penguin cooed something to the other penguins, and the blind-eyed penguin nodded happily. The next thing was that her penguin was shaking flippers with all three of the enemy penguins. The sight of it blew her away – didn't they just have a nearly mortal fight on the deck only a week and a half ago? She couldn't believe that they had just made some sort of truce or pact, it just couldn't be true. Maybe her penguin was planning something deceitful? She couldn't help but feel like he was betraying her other penguins though, his teammates. Surprising to her, her gut twisted into a knot. She didn't know if it was from anger or because she was worried, though.
"That is very peculiar," said Mr. Green, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "It looks like he's now going to go to the helm of the ship to steer it... but why?"
"Beats me," answered Alice, "But I hope he's not leaving the other penguins behind and teaming up with these bozos."
"Agreed. The last thing your penguins need is one of their own backstabbing them like this." Mr. Green said as he handed the monitor back to the intern.
"Is that why he had stayed on the boat in the first place?" wondered Alice, "My monkey is no longer there, so he either was able to escape or got rescued by... something. Did he want to stick around so that he could join up?"
"It's very possible. We can't understand what they said though, so its really not clear as to what sort of an agreement they hashed out. For all we know, he could have agreed to navigate them to Antarctica in exchange for his freedom."
Alice nodded then said thoughtfully, "That still wouldn't explain that blind penguin's happy laugh."
~Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed that chapter, it was a tough one to punch out. I really dislike chapters where no real action happens, but at least one major plot point did occur here. Did you manage to catch it? Anyway, lots of little things to be said.
First off: I spent a few hours creating a concept book cover for this story. It's posted on DeviantArt if you want to take a look at it. Just search up "cudabear" on there and it should pop up. With that in mind, also take a look at Digimontamers2000 on DeviantArt, as she was nice enough to draw pictures of both Johnson and Manfredi!
Second off: While rereading chapter 20 I realized I mentioned Dr. Blowhole being the leader of the Penguin Army. It was something I changed shortly thereafter, after I saw the first Dr. Blowhole special. Sorry for any confusion that resulted from that change. Sarge is the leader of the Penguin Army. Dr. Blowhole does not appear in this story.
Third off: While on the topic of canon characters I didn't use, I regret starting this fanfiction before many of the newer penguins episodes came out. Characters like Buck Rockgut, Kitka, Officer X, The Red Squirrel, and Uncle Nigel would have really fit well into certain areas. In defense of myself however, I did not know these characters existed until only a few days ago!
This note is too long now, so I will end it now. Please review if you are enjoying the story, and return soon for the last installment of Manfredi's flashback.