Penguins of Anarchy III: Edge of Disaster

Twelve

Drake groaned as he woke from his uneasy sleep in the fuselage of the gunship. His back was sore from lying on a steel seat for a bed. He sat up. Celtic and Glyphton were looking out the window, and Larikos was sound asleep.

Drake got up and walked into the cockpit. Nekron was leaned back in his chair, looking at the clouds in front of him and the vast green landscape below. It was a strange feeling to be able to see the little specks down below that were actually penguins, knowing that they couldn't see him, or his aircraft.

"Is it on autopilot?" Drake asked.

Nekron nodded. "We're headed straight for New York City. It shouldn't be more than a half hour."

"And thanks to that jamming transmitter back on Alcatraz, no one even knows we're here," Drake added.

He shifted the conversation, wanting to learn more about his mysterious new ally. "So Nekron, what's your story? How'd you end up as a prison guard in Alcatraz with a hidden grudge against your own people?"

Nekron sighed, having known Drake would ask eventually. "I grew up thinking that America was the greatest nation on the planet. Then I saw us kill innocent penguins and steal their homes, and I realized that we weren't the patriots we claimed to be.

"So one day, I was forced to join the Martial Alliance because they needed as many soldiers as possible. I was out in Central America, killing a bunch of unarmed penguins just because I was ordered to, when some guy in a mask disarmed me, held a knife to my throat, and was about to kill me. I didn't want to die, so I told him I didn't really want to be in the Alliance, and that I was forced against my will to kill all these penguins. I wasn't even sure he understood me until he gave me a contact number and said, 'If you want out, if you want to make the Alliance pay for what they've done, let me know.' Then he left, and I spent another four months killing innocent penguins before I finally contacted him.

"'So you want payback?' he asked. I told him I did. So he gave me careful instructions to do everything I could to get a job in Alcatraz. Eventually, I got in. Gostt told me to take good care of you and described you to me. That's when you and I met up at the prison. So there, that's my story."

"So you're on a revenge mission just as much as I am, huh?" Drake muttered.

"You could say that."

Drake nodded. He patted Nekron on the back. "We'll get our revenge. Nice talking to you."

"Yeah, let's do it again sometime," Nekron replied wryly.

Drake returned to the fuselage. Celtic and Glyphton turned around when they heard him walk by and faced him expectantly as he sat across from them. "What?" Drake asked.

"I'm guessing you'll want to know our stories too?" Glyphton asked.

Drake nodded. "I like to get to know who I'm working with. It makes it easier for me to trust them."

"And it makes it that much harder once they die on your watch," Glyphton remarked.

Drake frowned. "Yeah, but it's still worth it." He waited for one of them to begin.

Glyphton sighed. "There's not a whole lot to my story. I got bullied when I was a kid. I joined the army so I would never get bullied again. I rose up the ranks until I became a captain. That's when the Alliance came, and I was captured like almost everyone else. Before you drove them out of Antarctica, they transported a lot of prisoners to America; I guess we were sort of like their trophies or something. So I ended up in Alcatraz, and I used my toughness and wit to stay alive for over a year until you showed up and broke me out. I had turned into the bully that I used to be afraid of as a kid. I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is."