June 4th 2017

7:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time

Quebec, Canada

Lake Champlain

(Kowalski's POV)

"so um…now what?" Private asked. Suddenly there was a gush of wind and a flash of lighting and the old squirrel appeared. "you!" Skipper said, "what do you want now!" "You must return to New York. The Warriors of the Golden Squirrel are coming! There isn't much time." She then disappeared in another flash of lighting. There are Warriors of the Golden Squirrel now too? Just when we thought we were done with all this golden squirrel stuff. "Urgh!" Skipper said, "alright let's go."

"Um but the cargo plane is out of gas," Private said. We all glared at Rico, "Sorry" he replied. "Kowalski…analysis," Skipper said. "Um the good news," I said, "is that the Super-plane has landed nearby." "And the bad news?" Private asked. "It is also out of fuel," I said. "Great," Skipper said. "fortunately I had just finished converting the Super-plane into a hybrid…" I explained, "I just need to convert to battery power. Though we would have to go at normal speed as the warp-drive gets a little...uncooperative when the plane's on battery power. Plus the EODs (Enemy Operation Displacement system) if not formatted correctly goes off at random times….but I handled that." "time is of the essence Kowalski," Skipper said, "plus what exactly are the odds."

"95 Percent change of Warp-drive malfunction," I said. "And the other five percent," Skipper asked. "Um…The warp-drive functions correctly," I said. "I can live with those odds," Skipper said. "95 Percent Sure that Private probably won't survive," I said. "what!" Private said. Skipper quickly elbowed me in the gut, "Oh…sorry private." I then awkwardly laughed and said, "well better switch to battery power."

Shortly…

We were quickly in the air faster then usual I might add. "Quicker takeoff times," Skipper said holding a timer, "Battery power has it's perks after all." "Should we really roll the dice with the warp-drive?" Private asked. "No," I said. "Ditto," Rico said. Skipper then did the one thing we did not want him to do. "Initiate Warp Drive!" Skipper said. The Chimp Pilot looked uncertain and looked between Skipper and me. "Well?" Skipper said, "Don't make me order you! Oh wait…I did!" "No," Kowalski said, "the risk of disaster is to high…at least wait until we refilled our fuel-tanks." "When?" Skipper asked. "when we get back to base," I said.

"Oh so you don't trust that the batteries will hold up?" Skipper said. "actually there about a 3 day charge on the batteries," I said. "Initiate Warp drive!" Skipper shouted. The Chimp hit the warp-drive activator. "No!" I shouted. "Warning! Warning! Warp-drive malfunction! You have been warned Skipper." "Kowalski?" Skipper said as we entered warp-drive. "I told you so," I replied. "Alert! Alert! Critical Space-time Teleport Malfunction!" "oh…I may have forgot to mention that when the Warp-drive malfunctions…so does the teleport." "So we could end up anywhere in time and/or space," Private said. "The safety protocols keep us from ending up on inhospitable worlds or the vacuum of space," I said, "so not just anywhere." We exited warp-space over a massive hole in the earth that the ocean was draining into. The roar of many waterfalls forced us to shout over each other.

I rushed to the instrument panel, "Tesla's Coil! That warp drained our battery!" Suddenly a alarm went off as the whole aircraft seized up. "Personally I blame you," I shouted. "Well the official records would blame you," Skipper said. Private, Rico, and I narrowed our eyes and glared at Skipper. "also…AHHHH!" Skipper shouted as we plummeted down the hole the plane hitting the rocky sides on the way down. I closed my eyes as I heard the gut-wrenching sound of one of the wings getting ripped off. This was followed by the gear assembly flying apart….again. "Oh come on! I just replaced that!" I shouted.

The Plane then crashed into the waterfall soaked "floor" and luckily didn't explode. "did we get teleported to another planet?" Private asked. I pulled out my GPS and found that we were in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. "Nope," I said, "still on earth." "A different time then?" Private asked. I pulled out my space-time teleport and looked at the display and read the location, "Um Earth, approximate location Atlantic ocean, year 2019, the exact location…" My eyes went wide at what I saw on the display, "No it can't be!"

"It can't be." Skipper said, "It can't be what?" "I can't believe it," I said, "we're in the hidden world!" "what?" Private said. "According to old Viking legend…or should I say history," I said with a smile, "the hidden world is the birthplace of all dragons. And where they currently reside safe from those who wish them harm. Safe until a time when Dragons and humans can live in peace." "Well it doesn't look like its doing that great," Private said looking around. I looked around and noticed ancient and modern ship-wreaks, Refuse, the wreaks of aircraft, piles of dragon bones some recent some blackened with age, and of course mountains of plastic.

"Look at all that Plastic garbage," Skipper said in shock. "Another Pacific Garbage patch," I said with disgust, "Not even the hidden world is safe from Mankinds effect on the environment." "are there even still dragons here?" Private said. "If there are…the species is probably on it's last legs…this is an extinction level environmental collapse." "How did this rubbish even get here?" Private asked holding a piece of plastic. "Wind, ocean currents," I replied, "the ships and aircraft that fell down here."

"The Hidden World destroyed," Skipper said, "without a single drop of dragon blood shed." "The Destructed Power of a man-made material," I said picking put some plastic pieces, "slowly making the environment more toxic and slowly poisoning every living thing." We were then assaulted by a horrible rotting smell as we came across the still rotting corpse of a bewilderbeast. I pulled a sheet of plastic wrap off it's nostrils, "suffocated on plastic," I said sadly. Rico hacked up a flashlight and illuminated the inside of the dragon's massive mouth. Down it's throat reflecting the light of the flashlight was a piece of plastic blocking the dragon's windpipe.

"Or maybe it choked on it," Private said. I looked around seeing the half buried remains of the plastic sea's latest victims. The rotting remains of a half a dozen species. "how did these guys die?" Private asked. "Choked, suffocated, or drowned by plastic," I replied. An army of giant crabs risked becoming victims of plastic themselves to scavenge the body. A army of seagulls descended from above and joined in on the feast. Giant insects from deep inside the hidden world also shared in the dragon buffet as compys and pterodactyls swarmed in. A T-Rex roared in frustration as it's jaws snapped closed on thin air as it tried to nab one of the pterasaurs. In the distance a herd of triceratops were in a defensive position trying to fend off a pack of raptors. And a allosaurus was locked in a losing battle against a lone stegosaurus. Mammoths and Wolly rhinos just went around their business unfazed by the activity around them. And as a silent witness to it all was a forest filled with trees, prehistoric plants, and towering mushrooms.

"This truly is a lost world," Private said. "Great when do the gigantic radioactive material loving Kanji show up?" Skipper said sarcastically. "Funny," I said as we got on mostly plastic-free dry land. Suddenly there was a blast of plasma and a loud roar. All the scavengers and predators that gathered quickly dispersed as a night fury landed nearby. Even the T-rex seemed to respect the dragon as it bowed its head slightly as it left.

"Even the tyrant lizard king recognizes the alpha," I said. Order restored the Alpha flew deeper into the hidden world the sounds of far off dragons echoing off the walls. But to my ear they sounded weak and sick and on the verge of extinction. "there has to be something we can do," Private said noticing the ancient remains of a Night fury that looked ready to takeoff. I studied the skeleton and found something off about it. "it's missing half of it's tail," I said, "I think…I think this is toothless."

"Is that Toothless's tail-flap thing?" Private said pointing to something laying near the skeleton. I lifted it up and turned to Private, "His self-opening tail-flap," I said, "Surprising well preserved. A testament to it's creator don't you think." "Looks like he keep hiccup's leg too," Private said holding up Hiccup's well preserved prosthetic leg. Private was tearful. "Don't worry Private," I said, "based on the coloration of the bones toothless has been dead for centuries. Probably lived a long and happy life." A piece of plastic then blew into my face. "Gah!" I said ripping the plastic off my face, "Curse you plastic!" And then a whole bunch of plastic blew into my face. I furiously ripped the pieces of my face some of them sticking to my flippers due to static.

"there too much ground to cover," Skipper said, "Rico!" Rico hacked up the jet packs which we quickly put on. "wait what are you doing?" I asked. "As long as there's a viable population," Skipper said, "the dragons will live to fight another day in the battle against extinction." "Toxic Plastic they can disintegrate into tiny microscopic pieces thus poison the base of the food chain," Skipper said, "well played extinction…but life will find a way to survive this latest threat!" "It's too late for a cleanup the plastic has already entered the environment," I said. Rico hacked up a force-field generator and threw it into the center of the garbage sea.

A force-field shot out and cut off the sea of garbage from the rest of the environment. "but can't the toxins from the plastic leak out under ground?" Private asked. "That force-field is designed to surround an area 360 degrees and that includes underground," I explained, "hopefully rico set it to environmental toxins mode." "Yup," Rico said. "But won't that things battery run out?" Private asked. "The power-cell that powers that force-field generator can last for one million years…the half-life of Uranium." "did you test it?" Skipper said. I pulled out my space-time teleport and set it to December 31st one million years from now.

I hit the teleport button and Skipper, Private, and Rico disappeared in a flash of white light. When the light faded I found myself standing before the force-field the only thing inside it a collection of ship-wreaks and dragon bones. But no plastic, "Oh it does last One Million years," I said as the force-field died.

I then teleported back to 2019 as Skipper looked at me expectantly, "So?" "I just went one million years into the future," I said, "right before the force-field ran out of juice." "So good…environment collapse averted." "But sealing off the contamination will do no good…if there isn't a viable dragon population," I said, "and there is only one way to find out." "Rico…Jet packs!" Skipper shouted. "Um…" Private said turning to show his jet pack, "we already did that." "Oh right," Skipper said, "Um…initiate launch procedure!"

A quick shake of the soda bottles and we were airborne and deep inside the hidden world. We quickly found ourselves amid a glowing forest of rock formations studded with neon colored gem-like dragon eggs. We were quickly surrounded by little dragons that glowed like lighting bugs. "Baby dragons," I said, "that's a good sign." We landed on the ground near a vast chamber with a weird anti-gravity affect. Dragons of all shapes, sizes, descriptions…and well life-stages were effortlessly floating in the gravity well."whoa!" Private said. "Is that viable enough for you Kowalski?" Skipper asked. "Nature is full of surprise isn't it," I said. They flew down towards the bottom of the area and then flew towards the top before effortlessly gliding to the bottom. On a top of a towering rock in the center surrounded by dragons of all species was a nightfury.

The Night fury roared and all the dragons bowed down to him respectfully. "Now there is a king," Private said. "The King of all dragons," I said. "why aren't they attacking us?" Skipper said, "isn't this the dragons detect us and they try and protect their home and they attack us part of the adventure." "Well we don't smell like humans," I said. "No we smell like prey," Skipper said. "Oh," I said as the dragons started to sniff the air. "time to bug out," Skipper said blasting away on his jet pack. "Yeah," I said as Private, Rico, and I also took off.

Shortly…

"Ah!" Private shouted an army of dragons hot on our tails. "How many are there!" Skipper shouted. "They can't chase us forever!" I shouted. Suddenly my jet pack ran out of fuel, "Einstein's hairbrush!" I shouted. "Maybe we should have use a different fuel source than soda!" Private shouted as he and Rico also ran out of fuel. "Wait!" I said keeping my wings out, "if I can keep my wings out…I could maintain my course and glide thru the air." "And if I can catch a thermal gust…" I said. I then shot up to Skipper's height. "excellent thinking Kowalski," Skipper said, "Too bad I thought of it first." Rico and Private copied my trick and quickly joined us at altitude. Unfortunately the dragons did it instinctively and started to launch fire, plasma bolts, spikes, acid, wind, and ice; and one monstrous nightmare lit itself on fire and flew straight at us. We managed to expertly dodge all the different natural weapons. A zippleback flew in front of us one head spraying gas at us "evasive!" Skipper shouted.

We flew out of the way as the other head sparked the gas causing an explosion. "Red death! Red death!" I shouted as a massive dragon flew towards us. "Dive! Dive! Dive!" Skipper shouted as we began a rapid descent and splashed into a body of water. We ditched out jet-packs and we shoot thru the water with our streamlined penguin bodies. And bunch of dragons splashed in after us but we were too quick. We swarm to shore and found ourselves surrounded by raptors. "Oh this is just great," Skipper said. We got into defensive stance and slowly moved past the raptors. And then Skipper stepped on one of their eggs. "Nice one skipper," I snapped. The Raptors instantly went aggressive snarling angrily. The leader called out for reinforcements which quickly appeared cutting off all exits. There was a loud hiss followed by a bunch of shouts and barks. The other raptors quickly interpreted the noises of their leader and started to close in.

"The most dangerous predatory team in the history of the planet," I said. "but they haven't hunted the most elite team in the history of the planet," Skipper said, "rico deploy…one of our secret weapons!" Rico hacked up a…dog whistle? Rico then blew and seemly out of nowhere their was a blast of plasma and a Light-fury appeared growling menacingly. The Alpha Raptor let out a high-pitched noise and the Pack quickly dispersed. "So now what?" Private asked. The Light-fury fired off a warning blast, "Run!" I shouted. We then ran in the opposite direction of the light-fury all the way back to the entrance area. "wait isn't the super-plane…INSIDE THE FORCE-FIELD!" Private shouted. "ah…sorry…an oversight on my part," I said, "but…" I held up the Space-time teleport, "we got an S-T teleport."

I hit the button and we teleported onto the super-plane. "I have the right to give you a piece of my mind," the british accent of Mason snapped. "How the repairs going mason," Skipper said. Mason just glared and said, "good day to you sir!" he then stormed off to the back of the plane. Skipper turned to Phil, "what's his problem." Phil signed something which Mason angrily translated from the back of the plane, "well you left us trapped inside a force-field…without food or water for hours!" "oversight by me," I said, "sorry." Phil signed something. "Phil! You wash your mother with those hands!?" Mason said. "why what did he say," Private asked. "Don't worry about it," Mason said before glaring at Skipper, "and yes he was directing that at you!" "What did he say," I said as Mason whispered what Phil signed into my earhole. "oh…that's…not…nice," I said.

I then whispered it into Skipper's earhole. "Oh you just ignited my angry words!" Skipper shouted. Rico quickly covered Private's ears as Skipper let out a barrage of "angry words". After a while Skipper calmed down. "You good?" I asked. "Oh…yeah," Skipper said. "I still heard some," Private said as Rico uncovered his ears. "So how are we leaving…if we can't rebuild the plane…and we stuck in a bloody force-field?" Private asked. "Hmm…the plane's Space-time teleport still has some juice in it," I said. "then use it!" Skipper shouted. "Let's…June 6th 2017…the central park zoo…penguin HQ…the hanger…and here we go." I hit the button and the hidden world disappeared in a flash of light and we found ourselves back in the hanger.

Skipper turned to the chimps who had just appeared. "The Super-plane has sustained serious damaged! Began the complete overhaul and repair ASAP!" Skipper shouted. The Chimp's quickly got to work as we exited the hanger and got on the elevator. Within seconds we were back on the main level of the base. "AH…home sweet home," Skipper said. Suddenly Marlene appeared, "where have you guys been?" She asked, "the old squirrel has visiting me every two hours for the last two days!" "about what?" I said. "About warriors of the golden squirrel…and that there coming…and that we're running out of time…basic end of the world stuff," Marlene said. "And what's so bad about the Warriors of the Golden Squirrel?" I said.

Suddenly there was a gust of wind and the old squirrel arrived, "gather the lemurs and the otter!" she said, "meet me near the tall oak tree! There isn't much time!" "why do we need to bring the lemurs," Marlene said. "The Original adventure team," Skipper said, "I guess…we need Fred again too." I shudder at the thought. "Kowalski adventure analysis," Skipper asked. "High probably of ancient evils, ancient curses, epic pitched battles, unexpected allies, and the revelation that the golden squirrel was actually a terrible villain this whole time," I said. "but how does this involve us?" Marlene said. "let's find out shall we?" Skipper said as we left to get the lemurs.

To be Continued in…

The Unexpected Files: The Warriors of the Golden Squirrel.