How Many?
Happy Blackout, this is super late and I’m sorry! At least it came out before the party ended lol-
Blue is not my OC, she belongs to @adelieblue. Check out their fanfics on AO3, they’re super good! Rest of the characters are either mine or property of Club Penguin.
Summary: In the heat of Operation Blackout, a mission goes terribly wrong.
“Okay Marcie, you got the plasma laser?”
“Yep.”
“Slam, you got the map of Herbert’s base?”
“Right here!”
Penny looked over at her two co-agents: Slam with his relaxed smile and Marcie with her grim determination. Glancing up at the towering building above them, Penny couldn’t help but remember the events that led up to the Blackout.
It’d been rather worrying when Gary had gone missing, especially with the mess they’d found in the lab suggesting some sort of struggle. Every single agent was immediately on high alert, searching the entire island for any trace of him. Penny’s girlfriend Marcie had been the most stressed, barely sleeping for days on end trying to find the missing inventor. Even Slam, who often tried to keep things light, had been freaked out by Gary vanishing. Penny had found herself being a calming presence for the two, forcing Marcie to get some sleep and trying to reassure Slam that they’d find Gary. Eventually, things reached a state of…well, not calm, per say-everyone was still freaked out by Gary’s disappearance-but something akin to it.
Then Penny woke up to the island plunged into darkness at nine in the morning and an alert on her Spyphone saying the Everyday Phoning Facility had been blown to smithereens.
As it turned out, Herbert had managed to kidnap Gary, uncovered and released personal information on several agents, and, most importantly, set up his newest invention: the Solar Laser. With it, he had essentially begun stealing the sun’s energy and using it to warm his lair, plunging the rest of the island into a frozen gloom. Using this power (and a crab army he’d secretly assembled), he’d taken over Club Penguin and was now ruling it as a dictator; anyone who broke his rules was summarily caught and frozen.
However, not all hope was lost. A group of agents that hadn’t been captured (Penny and her friends included) had gone into hiding and were fighting Herbert from the shadows. So far, they’d managed to break into his fortress and get past two of the security terminals, and today they’d be breaking through a third.
“Alright you guys,” Penny said, turning to look at the ladder that led to the central room of Herbert’s base, “Let’s go.”
——————————————
“We’re outside the third security terminal. Marcie, that’s your cue.”
Marcie nodded and turned to face the door. With a quick tap on her shoulder, she activated the laser and began cutting through the metal. Penny turned to Slam, flippers crossed as he stood guard. “Have you been in contact with Dot lately?” she asked, “We could really use some new intel.”
“No, actually. You?” Penny shook her head, and Slam frowned. “Huh, weird. I asked some other agents that earlier, and they all said the same thing.”
Suddenly, the air felt much heavier. “Wait, nobody’s heard from Dot? Like, at all?” Ice water flooded Penny’s veins and her chest tightened as her mind raced with possibilities. This was exactly like what had happened to Gary; they’d lost contact with him a few days before they found out he was missing. What if Dot had been captured? She could see it now: Dot desperately trying to escape, pulling out every disguise she had as an army of crabs descended upon her, struggling to run as Herbert lumbered over with a diabolical laugh and someone was grabbing her from behind-
Penny screamed and jumped away, heart pounding against her ribcage as she frantically looked around. Slam backed away, flippers held up in surrender. “Woah woah, it’s okay! Everything’s okay, Pen, it was just me.” Penny forced her breathing to even out as Slam gave her a reassuring smile. “And Dot’s probably doing just fine. I mean, come on; she’s Dot. She’s probably just hiding out in disguise somewhere and hasn’t gotten a chance to talk to anyone.”
“Yeah…yeah, you’re probably right,” Penny mumbled, giving Slam a weak smile. “Dot’s probably fine.”
Still, though, something inside her was screaming that Slam was wrong, that Dot was gone and they were all in danger…
“Alright, the door has been wrecked!” Marcie shouted, interrupting Penny’s train of thought. She turned towards her fellow agents and smirked. “Slam, you’re up!”
“No problemo!” With that, Slam snuck over to the doorway and flattened himself against the outside wall. He peered around the corner, gave a quick glance left and right, and chucked a snowball at the security camera. The snowball exploded against the lens, covering the camera and rendering it useless. Slam grinned and pumped his flipper. “Score!”
“Okay, camera is down. Pen, your turn to shut down the terminal,” Marcie said, walking into Sector 2. Penny smiled and walked up to the security terminal. Turning it on, she gave the sliding puzzle a quick once-over before getting to work.
“Alright, now this goes here…slide this one there…just one more…and done!” With a final flourish, Penny slid the key into the hole, causing the terminal to shut down. The three cheered, high-fiving each other with a smile.
“Three down, three more to go! Let’s get back to HQ and reconvene with the other agents,” Marcie said as the three turned back towards the destroyed door-
-only to freeze at the sound of the security terminal door opening. Penny turned around slowly, heart thudding in her chest, and came face-to-face with a certain bear.
“Herbert!” she squeaked out, falling backwards into her teammates’ arms. The polar bear in question snarled, glaring at the trio as they gazed up at him.
“I should’ve known it was you three breaking into my lair and causing so much trouble,” he growled as he stepped into the room, “After all, it’s always you three causing me problems. Destroying my inventions, messing with my plans, ruining any chance I have at peace and quiet.” An almost deranged smile crossed his face. “Finally, finally, it’ll be all over soon, and I will have my victory.”
“Run!” Marcie shouted, grabbing her friends’ flippers and bolting towards the door. Penny only had a moment to glance behind her at the bear charging at them before being yanked through the doorway and into the first sector; behind her, Slam picked up the destroyed door and shoved it back into the doorframe, shoving his body against it as Herbert made the door shake with his blows. Penny shot Slam a grateful look as she and Marcie wove around the tables and ran into the room with the first security terminal-
-and felt her heart freeze when she saw the covered vent.
“Nononono-“ Penny mumbled, eyes widening in horror at the sight of their only escape being blocked off. Marcie looked over at Penny with a raised eyebrow before finally seeing the problem.
“Shoot! Uh, it’s okay Pen, just give me a second!” Marcie climbed onto the vent and began wrestling with the cover. As Penny stood frozen in the corner, she could faintly hear someone stumble into the room over Marcie’s reassurances. She turned around to see Slam doubled over, panting with a worried frown.
“Sorry guys, I tried my best to keep him busy, but-“ he began before a loud slam! cut him off. Everyone turned to the source of the noise.
Herbert stood panting, glare fixed on the penguins in front of him. He stood partially doubled over with a death grip on the doorway; Penny could already see the bruises beginning to form on his knuckles. He glanced up, and the frown on his face turned into a warped, angry smile.
“While I must admit this has been fun,” Herbert snarled, standing up straight and stepping into the room, “It’s time to end this little game of yours and finally claim my victory over you foolish fowl!”
Out of the corner of her eye Penny saw a black blur dart towards the bear. Before she even had the chance to process what she saw, she heard a crash and a yell from Herbert. She blinked and was greeted by the sight of Slam wrestling Herbert on the ground. She and Marcie stood transfixed as Herbert stood up, Slam still clinging to his arm.
“Run!” he shouted. Herbert reached out and tried to swipe at Penny; she tumbled backwards and scrambled away, not stopping until she felt the cool metal of the vent on her back. Slam’s eyes went wide with panic, and he yanked Herbert’s arm. There was a loud pop! and a pained roar and Herbert’s arm wasn’t supposed to look like that did Slam just dislocate Herbert’s shoulder-
Clang!
Penny jumped as the vent cover smashed onto the floor in front of her, followed by Marcie. Without a moment’s hesitation, Penny darted out from underneath the vent, grabbed the edge, and began hauling herself into the vent. She turned around, just to make sure that Herbert wasn’t following them, and saw Marcie frozen on her feet, glancing between Slam struggling against the now-injured Herbert and Penny perched in the vent.
“Marcie, come on!” she shouted. Marcie didn’t even flinch, her eyes now fixed on Slam trying to wrestle his way out of Herbert’s grip. Realizing she wasn’t going to respond, Penny dug around in her bag until she felt the cool metal of the grappling hook. She pulled it out and fired it, one of the barbs landing in the back of Marcie’s coat. Marcie barely had time to react before Penny made the cord retract, sending Marcie flying directly into her chest.
The two tumbled down the vent for what felt like forever before finally crashing to a halt. As they laid dazed, an angered shout echoed through the small space. This seemed to snap Marcie out of her stupor; she quickly tried to scramble back up the vent, only to be quickly restrained by Penny.
“Marcie, come on, we have to go!” she whisper-shouted. Marcie tried to wrestle her way out of Penny’s grip, pointing towards where they’d fallen from.
“But-but Slam is still in there! We have to go back for him!” she replied frantically. Penny forced Marcie to look at her, flippers tightly gripping her girlfriend’s shoulders.
“Marcie, listen to me! We need to get out of here; if Herbert finds out where the base is, it’s all over for us! We can’t risk it!”
“But Slam-“
“Slam will be fine; he’s handled worse situations by himself before. Now let’s go!”
Marcie looked between Penny and the vent’s exit one last time before finally sighing and turning back to Penny. “Alright, fine. Let’s go.”
“Don’t worry, everything’ll be okay. You’ll see,” Penny reassured as the two crawled through the vents.
—————————————————————————
“And you’re sure you can’t get into contact with her?”
“Positive. Not only that, but some agents are saying they saw her in one of those cryopods Herbert’s been using.”
Penny sighed and rubbed the side of her beak. She and Marcie had returned to the Secret HQ to some rather troubling news: Dot had, in fact, been kidnapped. The Director had sent the message sometime during their mission, leaving her and Marcie out of loop until relatively recently. Forcing down the now all-too-familiar feeling of panic, Penny turned back towards the informant in front of her and tried her best to look cool and collected. As the EPF’s highest ranked medic, she’d been given permission to give orders to newer or lower-ranked agents, and she figured that she might as well try to look the part of a leader.
“Understood. Go and help out at the Lighthouse; there’s an influx of hypothermia cases they’re too short-staffed to deal with. I’ll join you there shortly,” she told him. The agent saluted and ran out of the room. Once he was gone, Penny sighed and walked over to the blackboard. Gary’s smiling face stared down at her, a constant reminder of the EPF’s failure to protect those that needed it. She gingerly shifted the photo before pulling a photo of Dot, taking a moment to stare and smiling purple penguin. With a sigh, Penny pinned the photo to the board and leaned back onto the table, letting the sheer despair of the situation wash over her.
The leads weren’t the only penguins who’d become victims of Herbert; they were just the most notable. Other agents, those whose names and faces weren’t nearly as available to the public, had been captured and frozen as well, either due to rebelling against Herbert’s draconian rules or even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It felt like Penny was taking calls from panicked or concerned friends or family every day now, talking about how they hadn’t seen so-and-so in a while or how their loved one had been snatched up by crabs right in front of them. She buried her head in her flippers and closed her eyes, the names and faces of those taken flashing in front of her. So many penguins who’d been taken from them, from their families and friends. So many penguins that became victims of one bear…
We never should’ve done Operation Hibernation. We never should’ve let it go this far.
The sound of a snowball exploding made Penny lift up her head and glance at the Herbert-shaped practice targets in the training area. Marcie stood across from them, her face a mixture of anger and stoicism. With a quick twist of her shoulder, she threw the snowball and nailed the standee across from her right in the center of the bullseye.
“Coin for your thoughts?” Penny asked, walking over to the practice arena. Marcie didn’t even pause, picking up another snowball.
“Just waiting for Slam to get back.” Another snowball thrown, another bullseye.
In all the years the two had dated, Penny could confidently say she knew her girlfriend pretty well. She knew Marcie was creeped out by the puffle clock in the lodge but would never admit it, she knew Marcie would always try to sneak a dollop of hot sauce into the hot chocolate she’d sometimes get from the cafe (and how frustrating the barista found that habit), and she knew that Marcie stuck her tongue just a few inches out of her mouth when she was deep in concentration.
She also knew that Marcie was beginning to get obsessed with Slam’s lateness, and that Penny was going to have to do something fast before she did something stupid.
“Hey, remember when Slam forgot to take off his Herbert costume and sent the whole base into red alert?” Penny asked, leaning on the railing of the stairs. At this, Marcie let out a snort and turned to face Penny, half an amused smirk on her face. Penny felt her chest flutter as she smiled; it wasn’t much, but it was better than no response at all.
“Oh yeah, I remember that! Didn’t it take him, like, five minutes to figure out what the heck was going on?” she replied, clearly trying not to laugh. Penny began to giggle as the memory flooded back.
“Yeah! And then when he finally figured it out, he took the head off the costume and said, ‘Sorry about that you guys. Anyways, anyone want some pizza? If I can trick the sensors here-“
“‘-then I can probably trick some crabs into ordering some food for us!’” the two said simultaneously before dissolving into laughter. Between bouts of giggles, Penny couldn’t help but feel relieved. It seemed like Marcie had been dissuaded from whatever plan she’d concocted to rescue Slam and had finally relaxed, a rare occurrence ever since this had all started. For a moment, it almost felt like the Blackout had never happened.
“Um, am I interrupting something?”
Their laughter died down almost instantly as the two turned towards the voice. A blue penguin was standing in front of the holograms in the back of the room. She wore a brown wig underneath a fedora and a standard issue EPF suit with a matching black tie. Now much calmer, Penny nodded and gestured for her to come over.
“No, you’re fine, come over; it’s Blue, right?” Penny replied. Blue nodded and walked over, briefly glancing between the two with a look of…worry? “Any updates?”
“Yeah, actually. I was sneaking through Herbert’s base to try and find any weak points we could exploit, and I found some other agents-” she explained, pulling some photographs out of her pockets only for Marcie to practically lunge forward.
“Did you see Slam? Is he okay?” she interrupted frantically. The worried look in Blue’s eyes intensified as she looked between the two, mouth opening and closing like a fish. Penny felt her heart sink into her stomach. She didn’t like how reluctant her fellow agent looked. What was going on?
“…I’m so sorry,” Blue finally mumbled, handing the photos to Marcie. She quickly snatched the pictures and began rifling through them, muttering frantically all the while. She came upon the final photo and promptly froze, flippers shaking and eyes wide.
“Marcie? Marcie, what’s wrong?” Penny asked worriedly. Without a word, Marcie shoved the photo into Penny’s flippers and promptly hugged herself, backing away from the piece of paper like it would explode. Her flippers trembling, Penny held up the photo to get a better look at it.
The photo showed Slam in one of the cryopods, Herbert towering over him with a sneer.
A flood of emotions hit Penny all at once: confusion, despair, and fear, among others. Slam had been captured? But he was doing so well against Herbert when they’d left, what had happened? Marcie was right, they should’ve gone back for him…but they couldn’t have stayed, otherwise they ran the risk of the whole mission being compromised! So what were they supposed to do? What was the right option? Was there ever a right option? Penny began quietly hyperventilating as she stared at the awful truth in front of her; the only things she could hear were a high pitched ringing in her ears and a low whine from her left-
…Wait, who’s making that noise? It’s not me, and Blue has been quiet this entire time, so that leaves…
Penny turned towards Marcie. The pink penguin was letting out a distressed whine, flipper held over her beak and still backing away from the group. “Marcie,” Penny began, gently reaching out to her girlfriend, “Marcie, hon, it’ll be okay, we’ll-“
Before she could finish, Marcie immediately turned tail and ran towards the holograms. Penny followed her, calling her name, but it was all for naught; Marcie ran straight into the Ski Village hologram and vanished. Penny stopped dead in her tracks, staring dazedly at the row of holograms in front of her. Behind her, Blue awkwardly rung her flippers.
“…I-I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have-“
“It’s fine,” Penny interrupted, sighing as she rubbed the base of her beak. “You didn’t know-neither of us knew she’d react like that.” She turned around to face Blue, her face stony serious yet tired. “Hold down the fort here, okay? I’m going to find her and then head over to the Lighthouse to help out.”
“No problem,” Blue replied with a salute. Nodding, Penny walked over to the row of holograms and stood in front of the one depicting the Ski Village. Mentally steeling herself for whatever lay ahead, she stepped forward into the orange light.
——————————————————————
The moment she teleported in, Penny knew exactly where Marcie had gone to.
She sighed as she turned to face the ruins of the Everyday Phoning Facility. The fire the explosion caused had been extinguished a while ago, so now all that was left was the empty, destroyed shell. In front of the building was an erratic trail of webbed footprints. Following the trail, Penny took a deep breath, steeled herself, and walked through the door.
Marcie sat in the middle of the destroyed testing room. She was curled up on herself, and Penny heard the tell-tale sniffling that told her Marcie had recently been sobbing. Penny stepped towards her girlfriend and gingerly reached out to her. “Marcie-“
“We should’ve gone back for him,” she mumbled hoarsely. Penny sighed and stared down at her feet.
“Marcie, I know you don’t believe it, but we made the best choice we could at the time; we couldn’t risk Herbert finding the HQ. And Slam knew it too, that’s why he told us to run! I know this hurts, but-“
“Of course it hurts!” Marcie snapped, whipping around to face Penny with tears in her eyes. She stood up and threw her flippers in the air. “I just lost three of my closest friends to that…that stupid, selfish, awful bear! And-and so many other penguins have lost their loved ones too, and everyone’s so cold and miserable all the time and I’m sick and tired of not being able to do anything! We’re the EPF, for goodness sake! We should’ve been able to stop Herbert the minute he escaped! I should’ve been able to stop him! But now the whole island’s gone dark, crabs are taking penguins left and right, and the EPF is literally in ruins! I just…I just…”
Just as suddenly as she started ranting, Marcie visibly deflated. She stumbled over to Penny and shoved her face into her chest, much to Penny’s surprise. “I’m just so tired and so unhappy, Penny. We’re supposed to be the island’s best defense against evil, but the EPF’s losing members left and right to someone we used to be able to beat no problem. Gary, Dot, Slam, everyone else…” She looked up, eyes watering with tears. “How many more friends do we have to lose before this finally ends?”
“Oh, Marcie,” Penny murmured, gently wrapping Marcie in a hug. She brushed her flipper through her girlfriend’s red hair as Marcie’s tears fell into her coat. “I know this has been rough. We’ve all been working so hard, but it doesn’t feel like we’ve gotten anywhere. We keep losing friends, the island keeps getting colder, and Herbert…well, he keeps being Herbert.” That got a chuckle out of Marcie. “But I know that this Blackout can’t last forever. We’ll beat Herbert like we always do and fix everything he destroyed. Until then, we’ve got to keep up the fight; if we don’t do that, Herbert will win, and we won’t let that happen.” She gently cupped Marcie’s tear-streaked face in her flippers. “Does that help at all?”
“…Yeah, kind of,” Marcie mumbled, giving a half-hearted smile. Penny smiled softly and kissed her girlfriend on the forehead.
“That’s good. Now, let’s get to the Lighthouse; they’ve still got cases to deal with, and it’s way warmer there than it is here. You’re probably freezing by now, right?”
“Mmhm.”
“I figured. Come on, let’s go.”
As the two walked out of the Everyday Phoning Facility, Penny looked up. In times like this, she’d usually find some sort of comfort in the twinkling night sky. Now, however, the cloud cover was so thick that not even the brightest of stars shone through. Just another thing Herbert had taken away from them.
Sighing quietly, Penny held Marcie’s flipper and walked towards the Lighthouse.
