Operation Snowstorm, Chapter Six: Guardian Angel

ALASKA, CP Army Hub Headquarters, Original Stories Office – The CP Army Hub presents to you the sixth chapter of the original story, Operation Snowstorm. It’s been a six week long journey since this story began. For those who weren’t around to read the earlier chapters, here are the links to Chapters One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. For our faithful readers, the story continues as Magnus and his friends launch an assault on Blaine’s headquarters.

Chapter Six: Guardian Angel 

Chilling air swiftly blew the clouds across the grey skies. The window rattled monotonously as the rain drops hammered on it like bullets from a machine gun. Lucas looked around in fury, colder than the air around him. Blaine left nothing of the taco shop intact. The walls were covered with graffiti. It looked like a storm had raged through the taco shop and left no surface or object untouched. Kitchen appliances were lying in pieces on the floor, tables and chairs were broken and thrown across the room, and refrigerator doors hung open with ingredients spilled like trash. There were no penguins in sight, either to serve tacos or to eat them. Lucas felt a bubble of hatred take form inside his heart. The person who could do this to a taco shop deserved to never be successful. After taking one last long, heartbroken look at the ruins that remained of that once glorious room, he went out the door and retraced his footsteps even as the wind and the rain battered his body.

The moment Magnus opened his eyes, he felt a stabbing pain in the back of his head. He must have fallen backwards after being hit. Now that he was fully awake, he could finally remember what happened. Some sort of dart covered with sleep-inducing components must have been fired at them, but he couldn’t find any trace of it. Wherever he was, it was too dark to see anything at all. The air was stale which meant that no one had come in or gone out of the room for a while. Suddenly, a voice groaned, causing him to jump in surprise. “Who is that?” he asked, defensively. “Magnus?” “Bruce? You’re here too!” Magnus exclaimed in recognition. “Magnus! Bruce! I thought I was alone here!” “Ian, you’re here too? But how?” “I don’t know, I never realized anything was happening. I just fell-” “Asleep,” Ria’s voice completed the sentence for him.

It felt good to know that all of them were here. Then, suddenly, he felt his heart sink. If all of them were here, no one could warn the others to return to safety. If they didn’t get a signal, they would be hesitant to launch an attack, and Zebra might be able to convince them to return to safety instead. As he was pondering, he heard a clicking sound out of the blue. The lights turned on, blinding him for a moment. He looked up to see Blaine standing at the entrance of a door that was open right in front of him. There was a conceited smirk on his face. “Finally we meet, Magnus. I’ve wanted to talk to you about your little act of rebellion for a long time now. Such a shame you didn’t bring along your little group of  ‘friends.'”

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Alaska and Zebra carefully scanned their surroundings. There was not a single penguin to be seen, not the smallest sound to be heard. Everything had gone absolutely still. Zebra had an uneasy feeling that something bad had happened to her friends in the building. By now, they should have received a signal to attack. If they had gotten caught…. She shuddered even thinking about it. She couldn’t lose hope this early. She had to stay brave for them.

A blood curdling scream rang out from the building. Goosebumps rose up on her skin as she recognized Ria’s voice. “They’re in trouble!” she cried out. Alaska stared grimly at the building. “We have no other choice but to attack. Let’s go now!” “Wait! If those guys couldn’t beat Blaine, what’s our chances of doing that? We need a plan! Going in without one would be foolish.” Alaska turned quickly as she heard bushes rustling behind her. She smiled with a crazy look in her eye. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this, but yeah, we’ll need a plan. I think I have an idea.” A familiar face was poking through the leaves.

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“What have you done to the other agents?” Magnus demanded as Blaine walked further into the room. “Oh, still concerned about them, are we? I wouldn’t worry about them. They’re quite safe and sound. I’d dare to say they were comfortably settled in while you were hiding in that forest waiting to attack me.” “That is nothing but lies,” Bruce spoke out. “I’d love to take you to them right now, but I’ve got something to do first.” He walked up to Ria who glared back at him with the ferocity of a tiger. “You look quite bold now, Ria.” “You’re still just as disgusting as before.” Blaine chuckled with mock joy. Suddenly, his face twisted with anger. “Give me my device back.” “I don’t have it with me now, Blaine.” “Where did you keep it?” “I threw it away into the lake. You’ll never get it now.”

Blaine strode across to the opposite side of the room, and then stood there quietly, facing the penguins. His expression darkened. He grabbed a screwdriver lying on a table near him and hurled it at the wall. It nearly grazed Ria’s beak and embedded itself in the wall. She flinched, and before she or any of them could react, Bruce was running towards Blaine in fury. A group of penguins, who had been hiding in the shadows while Blaine’s attention was on the captives emerged and moved in to restrain him. A collection of flippers held his much larger physique back as he pulled against them. The brainwashed operatives clenched their jaws and drew him back with all their might. “I guess you’ll be seeing your EPF friends after all,” Blaine remarked slyly.

He gestured to the guards, and they pushed the four penguins into another room. This was one room Magnus would never forget. Now that he thought about it, it was the perfect room that had any chance of keeping EPF agents imprisoned. He smiled to himself as they were shoved into Gary’s gadget room.

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Meanwhile, on the floor below, Beckham and DT supervised the penguins working on the snow cannons. They grabbed some tacos from the small cafeteria that was set up in a corner of the room. While they were at it, Beck told DT about how he had noticed the penguins replacing themselves with the guards from the top of the building, and how Blaine was now dealing with them. The duo then walked in silence for some time. “What surprises me is,” DT finally spoke, “Why did the Magnus dude come alone when he has an actual army to help him?”

Almost in response to this question, the ground began to tremble. Beck heard someone shout, “Watch out!” and at that exact moment, a huge boulder crashed through the window, breaking through the wall around it and destroying one of the cannons. It missed him by a fraction of an inch. A bass sound echoed in the distance, and although it was a ridiculous thought, he could’ve swore it sounded like a tuba. The next thing he knew, snowballs were pouring through the gaping hole in the wall. They hit most of their fellow penguins, and the horn sounded once more, twice, thrice. Before the third wave stopped, a large red penguin burst into the room, shouldering a giant tuba with ease. He blew it once again, producing another volley of snowballs. His goal accomplished, he dropped the large brass instrument and ran towards Beck, tackling him, and had him on the ground before DT could bat an eyelash.

At the same time, several other penguins rushed into the building. All of them made their way directly to the lift leading up to the EPF headquarters. While Alaska and Zebra stood guard, Daniel and Gerry led the others to the floor above.

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Magnus and Ian heard the confusion and smiled at Blaine with a smug look. Blaine yelled in frustration, stormed out of the room, and locked them all in. Magnus turned and came face to face with Gary who looked sick and weary. Dot and Guy sprang up with surprise from the floor on seeing the trio of agents. “Oh, thank heavens you’re here, agents! We’ve been sitting in this room with no means to escape for quite some time now.” “Gary, are you okay?” Magnus asked with concern. The garbled voice of the Director spoke from the shadows. “Agents, thank you for coming to save us. But you shouldn’t have put yourselves in so much danger! Now, how will we get out of here?” Magnus chuckled. “I’m so glad to see that you guys are alright. As for the answer to that question, it approaches in three, two, one, voila!” The door suddenly shuddered under the impact of a heavy object. A moment later, it vibrated again, almost giving way.

Magnus frowned and yelled, “Use the password! It’s 9729!” The door trembled as the object crashed against it once again. “Do as he says, you fool!” Ian spoke up. There was a momentary pause, then a heavy sigh. Four seconds later, the door clicked open and Lucas walked into the room. He was rubbing his shoulder and wearing an annoyed expression. Magnus realized there was no object at all, just Lucas’ large, muscular self barreling against the door. “Where’s Blaine?” “Escaped along with some penguins,” Magnus replied, glad to see another friendly face.

Gary gasped, while Dot and Jet Pack Guy stared in shock. Out of the shadows, the Director spoke out, “Good to see you back, Agent Lucifer.” “I’m not an agent anymore. Don’t mistake my assistance for allegiance.” “As you say.” There was humor in the Director’s tone.

The building shook violently, interrupting their pleasant reunion. “Well, that has been a fun little reunion but since I value my life, I’m getting out of here.” Lucas turned without further explanation and strode out of the room. The Director took charge. “Agents, all of you proceed. I will stay behind here, along with Jet Pack Guy. We’ll work on rebuilding the EPF Headquarters and helping all of those penguins. You need to take on Blaine at all cost, and prevent him from carrying out any more destruction.” “Yes, sir!” The group rushed out of the building, even as part of it collapsed in on itself. Hopefully, the Director and JPG would be safe and take care of everyone still left inside.

Magnus led them back to the elevator that transported them to the ground floor of the Everyday Phoning Facility. Magnus opened the door, revealing Lucifer standing with his back turned to them. On his way out, he had seen the small cafeteria for the brainwashed workers. He held a taco in each hand and was happily munching away, the building crumbling behind him. “Lucas! There’s no time, you gotta hurry!” Magnus exclaimed, outraged at his friend’s priorities. “I couldn’t help myself, they were piping hot, fresh and crunchy,” he said, taking another large bite.

As they dashed out, Magnus tackled from behind as Zebra jumped into the air and hugged him. “We did it! We rescued the agents and overpowered Blaine!” she exclaimed. All of them cheered. A loud mechanical roar overpowered their premature celebration. Even as they turned, three snowmobiles burst out from behind the building without warning. Beck and DT steered one, another hypnotized penguin manned the second, and Blaine himself could be seen furiously driving the third. The cannons that had survived their attack were now mounted on to the backs of the snowmobiles. They were already loaded. Magnus watched with horror as DT and the brainwashed penguin slowly swung the large contraptions around to aim in their direction.   

“Hurry! Rush up the hill! They won’t be able to follow us up there easily!” The group ran towards the hill, even as snowballs the size of footballs zipped towards them. Some of them hopped on the elevator, but a single snowball damaged the levers, slowing it to a grinding halt before it could go far. They continued on foot, sometimes picking up a snowball or two to throw back at their pursuers. By the time they reached the top of the cliff, they were exhausted and the snowmobiles had halved the distance between them. “What do we do now?!!” Zebra asked Magnus, panting. “I’ve been here before, we can take the Bunny Run ski route to reach the Forest again,” Alaska thought up quickly. “They’ll catch up to us even easier on the downward slopes. We have to think of something!” Magnus countered, looking around for a better solution.

Lucas approached Magnus and whispered something in his ear. Magnus fiercely whispered something back, but Lucas just patted his shoulder, and turned to face the pursuers. Magnus paused to watch with sorrowful eyes before he yelled at everyone to grab a sled or a toboggan and start racing down the slope behind Alaska as fast as they could. He waited until the last of them was ready to go. By now, the snowmobiles were close enough to start shooting again. The snow hit Lucifer multiple times but he stood his ground. As they drew nearer, he bent forward in a runners’ starting position and launched himself towards the snowmobile with the unknown green penguin. Taken aback, the brainwashed agent cried out as Lucifer ripped him out of the seat, took control of the snowmobile and rammed it into the side of Beck and DT’s which then smashed into Blaine’s. Blaine, Beck and DT cried out in outrage as the domino effect diverted them towards the edge of the hill, and all three snowmobiles and their occupants toppled over the sharp cliffside into the deep void below.

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Want to know what happens next? Come back next week for Chapter Seven!

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What do YOU think of Chapter Six? What will happen to Lucifer? Will the penguins safely return to their camp? Is it really over? Let us know in the comment section below!

Scorpion Demon

CP Army Hub Story Writer

 Emcee

CP Army Advisor

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