CH. 2: "Groundbreaking"

DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING.

R&R, and enjoy. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Gary fumbled as he sprinted up the failing cobblestone steps of the island's oldest structure. The slopes of the mountains were only making his journey harder. If he didn't reach those penguins in time, he didn't know what he'd do.

He finally made it to the top of the hill, where he buckled to his knees to rest for a few seconds. But his rest would have to wait, as their were too many lives in danger.

He tried desperately to pry the huge wooden doors open, but they wouldn't budge. Almost out of breath, sweating with anxiety, irises dilated with fear, he banged on the door as loud as possible.

From inside the Dojo, the students paused their training instantly when they heard thunderous banging on the doors. If something big was trying to get in, it surely sounded like it could break the large planks in two! Penguins of all colors and belts made their stand at the front door. It was their main defense. If whatever it was broke through, they would have to fight. In their positions, they almost looked unstoppable.

Sensei, aroused from his peaceful meditation was instantly at the doors with his students, ready to make the first attack. He was unsure what it could be. This was completely planned and he had no idea of the situation through any visions or dreams.

Confused, the group lowered themselves to the doors when it stopped banging suddenly. Sensei silenced any whispers in the background to make out muffled shouting.

"Everyone at ease, it is merely a visitor," Sensei said confidently. He wanted to be presentable to anyone, even if the trespasser be Herbert, their as-of-now secret threat. Only few counselors knew of Herbert's misdeeds. Sensei was one of them.

Sensei motioned his flippers forward forcefully, causing a great wind to gust around them and throw the old doors open.

In the dust, he took the opportunity to move in front of the stranger who was clearly caught by surprise when the doors opened.

Suddenly, the doors blew open, a huge wave of dust and air shooting out at him. Gary fell backwards, temporarily blind and very surprised. He landed harshly on the pavement by the steps and did his best to shield his eyes.

It swiftly subsided, and he stood to finally see the inside of the Dojo, but in the base of the entrance was a shadow. The dust was completely gone now, and Gary saw the very penguin he was looking for.

"Sensei!" Gary rushed to greet him in terror, his flippers meeting his old teacher's robe. "Please, you have to evacuate everyone! Herbert has placed an explosive device somewhere in the Dojo! It will go off in approximately 30 minutes, and we need to get all the penguins here to safety!" Gary stressed.

He had his elite team evacuating those who occupied the areas nearing the bottom of the mountains in case of an avalanche or rock slide. The outcome was disastrous and inevitable, but if he could at least get all penguins in danger out of the way, he would be able to sleep at night during the reconstruction of the damaged city.

Sensei's eyes widened at the news, and he turned to his students, and gave them a single nod. They had heard Gary's plea, and they were all shocked, but ready to use their skills to ensure safety of every individual. No penguin left behind.

"Thank you, my young friend, now you must reach the highest peak of the neighboring mountain. There you and the others will be safe. My students can reach it with my lead, but I must see you to the site first, above all," he instructed his greatest acquaintance.

He had known the inventor a long time. When the middle-aged penguin had first happened upon the Dojo during an aerial expedition in the snowy climates for research, he had invited the scientist to train with him. He had offered Gary a journey to "find himself" among mastering the elements. Gary accepted his offer, and they had grown into the greatest of company ever since.

On hearing the words, a few students gathered to accompany Sensei on guiding Gary to the mountain site.

They reached the peak in little time, and as Gary leaned close to the edge of the blanketed rocks, he could see the remaining ninjas-in-training quickly climb or parkour their way up the steep side of the sister slope.

Leaning back to look at his friend, Gary realized Sensei wasn't there. He anxiously peered down at the Dojo below, and distinctly, he could almost make out a grey figure in the eye of a miniature hurricane.

He watched as the Grey One bent his wings to match the giant ribbons of wind and sleet he forced over his only and beloved home. The airs pocketed above, below, and on all sides of the building, and in a second they had swallowed the structure whole, enveloping it like a flower blooming in reverse.

The winds and rain suddenly shoved the encased Dojo underground. Then he saw with another swoop of the flipper, Sensei buried his home under the rocks, a single platform the size of the mountain peak, flat and almost a shape, slam the hole shut, shutting the building in forever.

Sensei was a bloody genius. If he couldn't take his home with him, the explosion wouldn't take it either.

The winds dispersed and revealed the aged penguin once more. He landed simply on his feet and used his gift of fire mastery to boost himself into the atmosphere.

As he rocketed towards the secure spot on the sister mountain, Sensei could hear a slight scream over the thundering of his take-off. The chemical reaction of friction against oxygen was a blast of smoke and sound, but this shout was much louder. He realized the call was his name.

"SENSEI!"

He looked to the site, and as a tiny blue dot on the edge of the rocks, he saw Gary waving to him. It appeared from afar that he was holding something.

Sensei landed with elegance on the beacon created in the snow by the students. They moved out the way of the flames and they continued talking to one another. There had to be at least thirty of them on the peak.

"Sensei, these rocks cannot hold the weight of thirty penguins for very long. We need to get to safer ground!"

"I assure you, these mountains have been still for a hundred years. They will not crumble at a fraction of their own weight," the Grey one said plainly.

"Then why is my sea-level scanner giving me such drastic readings?"

Sensei looked at his friend. He noticed how tired his old student was, and the purple rings forming under his eyes from stress. He had never seen Gary this exhausted. He had never seen his friend so afraid.

The lenses of G's glasses shimmered in the reflection of his handheld device. He looked harder, and he could see the building tears in the penguin's hidden eyes.

Gary felt a wing on his shoulder. He didn't notice it at first, but after a moment, he realized Sensei had seen his trauma more clearly.

He straightened.

"Sensei, if we could move about half these penguins to the caves, the mountain would be stable before it-"

Gary's sentence was cut off when they all heard a rumbling, and then they saw red, orange, yellow, grey, and black.

*BOOM!*

It was a minute before the party awoke from the explosion.

Gary sat up and wiped his glasses clear of the soot that covered them. He glanced to the rest of the penguins some still standing, others helping others up, and more still unconscious. Of the latter was Sensei.

Gary, confident his friend was okay, only leaned in to hear his heartbeat, and sat back up with said desired results.

He looked over to where the Dojo once stood, proud and ancient on newly made ruins. The entire mountain top had almost been blown off. Luckily, only the slab had caved in, not causing any further damage.

Everyone alert now, they all gathered closer on the broad spot of the peak. Gary had been right about the edge.

Ashes fell with the smoke that hung in the air. A few penguins cried. One in the back kicked a tiny rock off the peak out of frustration. They had all lost dearly today, and at the hands of Club Penguin's greatest criminal.

Herbert had really pulled off a feat this time. The EPF never would have known. How could this all really be happening?

Gary sat with his feet hanging off the rocks, a long, long, long way down beneath him. The peak was a little shaky, but that could just have been Gary's anxiety.

All of a sudden, the rocks stabilizing Gary gave way under the cliff. Sensei tried to grab his lab coat, but he was a few inches too short of reach.

G's eyes went wide and the next thing he knew, he was holding onto the edge of the rock formation for dear life.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!"

Sensei and the others looked in horror as they watched the inventor fall, most likely to his death. The only thing that remained of him on the peak was his glasses. They had been pried from his face when gravity came to shove.

The scientist's scream was the last that they heard. They were sure his agony had been beared throughout all of the island from bouncing off the echoes of the mountain.

"Oof!"

Gary landed harshly in the snow at the bottom of the slope with a thupuff of snow blowing from underneath him as he made contact with the ground. He frantically looked up to see where the rock had landed, but all he saw was a white blur.

A huge, white, blurry WALL. And it was MOVING.

He flinched from the illumination attacking his eyes, and as he shielded his face, the so thought white wall of snow fell and covered the entire landscape.

Gary was buried alive.

Jet Pack Guy landed on the snow softly, horrified for once in his life about what happened to one of his only.. "Friends."

Dang it! This is why I'm alone! This is why I don't make friends! he thought helplessly as he searched in the snow for a body involuntarily. He was on autopilot as he scolded himself for getting close to his superior.

They always leave you in the end.

More members arrived on the avalanche scene to remove the masses of snow from behind the mostly-intact Ski Lodge and the Everyday Phoning Facility.

Soon, Cadence, Rookie, Dot, Aunt Arctic, Classified (the Special agent, wink wink), construction workers, and eventually Sensei were at the landing to search for the only counted casualty.

"Why did it have to be him?!" Rookie sobbed out loud, upset but still digging. He couldn't lose the one penguin who had given him a chance at anything important. Ever.

"Please don't be dead," Cadence whined. She had always enjoyed having coffee with Gary on Wednesday mornings before work. If he was gone, she would never drink coffee again.

"Come on Gary. Where's our Gadget Guy?" Arctic pleaded with the lifeless glittering substance. She didn't know how she'd run the agency and half of the island without him. She couldn't be without her greatest asset, nor one of her closest friends.

"What is this place gonna do when all of the tech wears out in ten years from now?" one of the workers wondered aloud. So many of them would be without tools. It was Gary who had supplied the island's essentials of crafts all these years, and now everyone would feel the effects of his death.

"No one can live on this island without you." (Special)

"Stand aside, for a great force will serve our cause better, and may preserve precious life in the right time," Sensei ordered out of the blue.

Everyone stood back a few feet as Sensei pulled some cards from under his hat and flipped through the entire deck in less than three seconds. Then, he stopped at a card, put it back in the deck, and put the cards back under his hat for safe-keeping.

He flexed his flipper, and a bottle of hot sauce appeared out of thin air. He burned the snow on the ground around him to be sure not to possibly hit Gary's body in the process. The area turned into a puddle, and the master waved his wing once more to cause the water to rise.

He forced it into a wave, and he sent it crashing down onto the snow. Luckily, the water had kept a little heat as not to freeze the snow patch where it sat.

The snow gradually melted, and as it neared the bottom, a yard away, there lay Gary Somerville, as still as a stone and frosty to the touch.

"Gary?" Rookie squeaked. No one was sure if he was still alive.

Sensei moved closer to his friend and felt his forehead. He was cold, completely frozen. He tried to warm him up with a little heat-patching, but it did not rouse him.

JPG and the others were just staring. It was the first time anyone had ever seen Gary without his glasses, and his eyes gave a perfect reason for it.

Jet searched his eyes for two minutes straight. They were sagging open, but Gary still lay immobile, solid. He could see how bleary they always were, and how little colour they held in reality.

Everyone thought he was just short sighted. But there was more to the story than that. Gary had been born like this as an egg. His eyes had always been dull, void of radiance unlike his parents. His mother had had sparkling turquoise irises, and his father, she'd said, had had a cafe brown, like hot cocoa stirring around in a cup.

Like mint chocolate, they were brilliant together, one pair magical with lights and the other melting with richness. Gary had once been jealous of normal penguins, although now he had grown to embrace his uniqueness. In fact, he enjoyed studying it!

Everyone almost broke when Sensei gasped randomly. Turns out, Sensei had found his heartbeat.

Gary stirred in his bed. Wait, was it his bed? It felt more flat. His eyes flitted open, squinting at the lights in the ceiling and from the natural gel surrounding them in a paper-thin layer.

He blinked the glaze away, only to be greeted with a fuzzy world instead of a wet one.

Sitting up suddenly, he gasped, forgetting he could breathe when snow wasn't all around, a white wall of death the last thing he remembered. Everything was black after that.

G finally realized he was blind. Well, not blind, but without lenses.

Lenses.

"W-where are my glasses?" Gary asked innocently. "H-hello? Is anyone there?"

His flipper reached out to try to find something or someone to lean against, something to help him stand up.

He had to find those glasses. He was doomed to humiliation if he didn't.

Jet Pack Guy took a case out of his pocket. Out of it he took a pair of large, circular glass lenses.

"Sit still, G."

Startled at the voice, Gary almost jumped, but he remained in place to maintain any composure he had left.

JPG bent and focused on Gary's eyes for a few seconds. He could read the fear like a book G wrote himself.

Jet slid the glasses into place, G blinking back tears.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Sensei saved you, and I found your glasses on the peak bringing some penguins down the slopes," the red one explained.

"Thank you," G coughed, his eyes connecting with the world and his mind connecting with his nerves. Everything seemed to be in order.

Back from the dead almost as soon as he had fallen, G was ready to move on. He tried to push himself off the examination table- that's what it was- but he felt a jolt of fire ride up the bone of his lower wing.

"Ack, that's not going to work," Gary said clumsily, trying to keep himself from screaming in pain. He had control of his outside, but he could scream on the inside however he liked.

Rookie, standing by Cadence, who was by the wall by Sensei and the rest of the crew who had witnessed his 'death,' plus some who had already heard, could tell that Gary had a fever just by looking at him.

"G, you should rest. I would love nothing better than to hug you worse than Herbert right now, but I can't knowing you need your rest more than you need to be a cripple," the normally ditsy penguin (or so everyone thought) said wisely.

"Grasshopper here is right, my friend. While we recovered you in the mountains, you are not yet well enough to go about your work. All ninjas need their rest, just as you need yours," Sensei advised.

He had just realized how many people were in the room when Rookie spoke to him. Now there were too many people here. His claustrophobia was beginning to slightly kick in.

But G, unable to deny that their words were brimmed with the right advice, didn't fight them. He simply walked toward the counter, grabbed a key, and headed for his igloo. Everyone was glad to see him go in the right direction.

"Thank you DJ," Gary said gratefully. She had brought him some hot soup from Frankie's. Only the best for her coffee buddy!

"Anytime. I'm just glad our coffee schedule hasn't changed, is all," she said gleefully. She really would have never set foot in the coffee shop again if he had- you know..

Rookie and the rest couldn't be there, they all had jobs to do, assignments from the Director to fulfil to ensure proper rebuilding of the Dojo, but they all signed a card.

Cadence, free for the morning this Tuesday, was off, so she was the messenger of everyone's love and best wishes.

He took the envelope and set it on a table by his bed, mentally noting to read it later when his company departed.

"Well G, I agreed to oversee the Dojo project, so I have to get going to be ready by this afternoon. Never get a break, huh?"

"I suppose not," he said plainly. His words hid a small smirk.

"Give me a ring if you need anything," she said, waltzing out the door. The moment she was gone, Gary opened the letter.

What he read almost made the natural glaze in his eyes melt.

My friends..

G,

I am more than relieved as of your survival. I am unsure what I would have done personally if something had happened to you. You are too important to this island and to me to leave us in your prime. As your newest agent, I am glad to be back in business under your direction. As your average citizen, I am happy to be assured of your safety and the benefits of your survival. But as your friend, I can't write you how much I look forward to seeing you in the lab again, reminding me of the potential of this island and that your consistent geniosity still stands dormant in the heart of the EPF, too.

See you next week.

Yours truly,

Agent You Know Who

Dear Gary,

I'm so glad you're okay! If you had left us, I could never bear it! I never told you personally, but I think you should know this as long as you're here: You are the only one who has ever believed in me or stuck up for my future at something worthwhile. For that, thank you so much.

Anyway, see you next week, and welcome back!

~Rookie~ :)

G,

It's good to have you back. You know I'm not normally the promising type, but swear me one thing; Don't you dare scare us like that ever again. I was afraid we had lost you. Plus, digging for your corpse up in the hills sucked.

See you next week.

JET PACK GUY

Dear Gary,

So good to know you're well. I hope we will see you in the labs again soon, getting back to the action. You worried us so bad when we heard you fell, presumably to your doom, but I secretly never lost faith in you. That's what you taught me, G. Never give up on your hopes and dreams. Luckily I put my faith in the right place!

Love ya, and see you soon!

~Dot

Gary,

Frankly, I'm glad you're alive. Never do that again! You will be glad to hear that you saved all the penguins, and no harm came to the Ski Lodge or the Sports Shop. It looks like you had a live action-film of your very own, all it most likely needed was a soundtrack. Glad your groovy, and keep up the great work, minus the pit-falls. Take care, coffee buddy!

See you on our normal schedule next Wednesday morning. DJ out.

-Cadence

G,

I am personally relieved to see you made it. You are one impossible gadget guy. Next time, try not to give the club such a scare, you read me? In the meantime, take your time to heal and rest before resuming your work next , I thought for sure I had lost one of my most valued agency members and most priceless friends. I've known you a long time, so I couldn't imagine you leaving us without you saying goodbye.

Well, you know what to do. Report to my office after you check in when you return. Stay warm.

Arctic

At the bottom, he saw a quote from Sensei. It read:

'Remember your green teas and meditations. Such things are vital for replenishing the body, just as a note from good friends and kind words are vital for strengthening of the heart.'

~Sensei

Gary smiled. He was right. He was alive, he had saved many penguins, and he had actually died for the students that would soon be masters like Sensei in the future, and others who would fulfill their destinies like his friends. Maybe one day someone would take his place.. maybe not.

Well, now Gary could sleep tonight.

Reminder: Let me know what you think! I'll post again, perhaps soon.