Alaska silently cursed her former boss Regulus Sir for not giving them more concrete information. She had to pull herself away from the angry thoughts as she realized this was not Sir's fault. Perhaps he had been left in the dark and only had crumbs to offer.
They reached the elevator of the Everyday Phoning Facility and Yukon punched the button urgently. The pair descended down, separately figuring out their next move.
The shiny doors opened.
The empty desks were the first things that Alaska noticed. The crowd of penguins around the main TV was the second.
On the TV, a reporter could be seen behind a desk. A breaking news emblem was shown prominently beneath the rookie, who, up until this point, had only ever written stories. He was grossly unprepared to be an anchor and his demeanor showed it; he was fidgeting and sweating as he struggled to relay information being given to him off camera.
"Um....we're being told that something....something awful has happened," he said.
-----
Some twenty minutes earlier, the Caster had glided back towards the main island, her former asset now nothing more than a distant memory, slumbering somewhere she had already forgotten about. She had been ready for this moment for years. This was going to be fun.
The Beach stood deserted. The snow had picked up in the last few minutes and the light of day was disappearing. Virtually no one was out and about at this time. Not a single person stood on the shore of the room.
However, someone stood a few feet away from the shore. Captain Rockhopper stood on his ship, untying his sails and getting ready to leave the island of Club Penguin once again. He wanted to leave before the storm got any worse.
Rockhopper heard a cough behind him. "Just a minute, me matey," he said, without turning away from his work. "Let me finish here and I'll visit with you." The Captain always made time for a fan.
"I'm sorry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry," the woman behind him said.
Rockhopper stopped his tying. He remembered that voice from somewhere. Oh, yes. He knew exactly where it came from. He had almost forgotten.
The Captain slowly turned and faced the Caster, whom he had not seen for decades.
The Caster chuckled as she saw Rockhopper's shocked face. "That's hardly a good way to welcome an old friend." she said cooly. She then thrust Rockhopper towards her with her magic.
"What....what do you want?" asked Rockhopper, still perplexed by the reappearance of the woman.
"I've been keeping close watch on you since I got a vacation home here," the Caster began. "This island really is a scenic beauty. One must be a dunce to leave it. You certainly have the hat to prove it."
The Caster waited a moment, but Rockhopper, who had recovered from his initial shock, now only showed a look of annoyance and defiance. "You don't like my humor? I'm merely trying to lighten things up. And you are certainly going to need that soon." The Caster gave a hearty laugh. "Very soon."
A yell escaped from Rockhopper as a magical green chain flung itself around his body, tying him up and silencing his words.
-----
The novice newscaster struggled onwards. "There's word coming into the newsplex that local celebrit-"
The picture began to pixilize, with sections of the image flinging around the screen. The sound of the young boy became only an indistinct blabber of a word before he partially returned. "-has gone-anfdjghapn-miss-"
The screen went black as a long, irritating, buzzing noise replaced all other sound.
"Oh, no," breathed Alaska as a new image came to the screen.
The Caster hovered above the ground of the ship hold of the Migrator, with a defeated looking Rockhopper chained to a chair by a mysterious, glowing, green chain.
The Caster began to speak. "Hello and welcome. I don't want to spend a lot of time introducing myself, so I'll just say that I am the Caster and I think far differently than you penguins. I guess you might call me a villain, but I find titles to be a waste of time. I'm sure you expect some grand lecture since I cut into your regular programming through hostile measures, but I'll just tell you my plans upfront; your dear Captain Rockhopper here is now being held hostage in his own ship by myself. Don't worry: he'll be well fed for as long as he is in my company. However, he will never, ever get to leave this room again unless I become the new president of Club Penguin. As your new leader, all other postions on the board would be eliminated and I would make all of the decisions."
"Now, for those who don't think this affects you, listen up. My magic can do many things and I plan to extend this nature-driven blizzard so that it does not end until I have power. While I know you people like snow, I highly doubt you'll enjoy it in this form. Good day!"
The hushed group quickly dispersed, with panic spreading across the room.
It had begun.
To Be Continued
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