Penguins of Anarchy IV: Endgame

Two

The crowd of penguins screamed in approval or spat out insults as Revnos254 descended the stage after making his inaugural address as the new President of Antarctica. Some president—he hardly had any power since Antarctica was still under martial law, and even if he had been given power, he wasn't sure he wanted to be burdened with that much responsibility. He was truly just a sweet talker that the Antarctican officers had elected to be their voice to the people.

Revnos swept back what little light brown hair he had left over his orange scalp. He had always tried to look respectful and confident in front of crowds, but in reality, he was a stressed-out, self-doubting penguin who had less guts than most of the Antarctican Army's soldiers. The Penguins of Anarchy had found that out when they first met him, so long ago—almost exactly a year and a half ago—when he was merely the administrator of Clearwater Isle and had denied them shelter after their escape from Aurora Base until Fragnile threatened him into providing them with a place to sleep.

Revnos sighed as he walked slowly back to Blizzard Base, the very same base that Omniscion had escaped from, the very same base that Drake had dragged Waff out of before beating him to death in front of everyone. Revnos had never liked Waff. He found him too indecisive. He had liked Drake even less for a while—the reckless, vigilante attitude that Drake had had always turned Revnos off—but now he doubted whether or not Drake had done a truly evil thing by murdering Waff. Maybe it had eliminated the greater of two evils.

But that caused the question of whether or not Task Force Anarchy was really corrupt to surface in Revnos' mind. Revnos hadn't really liked any of them initially, since Fragnile had threatened him and they had tried to convince him that the Martial Alliance would destroy Clearwater Isle, though he completely blew them off. After a while, though, Revnos realized that the Penguins of Anarchy might actually have been the best thing that had happened to Antarctica in decades; they had saved Antarctica from the Martial Alliance occupation, after all. Revnos had later tried to make peace with the members of the task force, but their bitterness over their initial meeting with him seemed to have turned them off permanently—not that Revnos had outright apologized to them or anything; he had just stopped being so rude to them.

Revnos pulled open one of the steel doors leading into the Antarctican military's central headquarters. He almost regretted not truly asking for forgiveness from the Penguins of Anarchy; right now, with everything going so wrong here in Antarctica, he almost wished he had gone with Drake and his three friends when they escaped. Then he remembered that four of Drake's allies were still here, trapped in a maximum security prison, and he had done nothing to try to save them. He rather hated himself for that, but wondered if rescuing them against the will of the Antarctican officers would really be the best choice. He pushed the thought away for the time being as he entered the hexagon-shaped war room.

"Good morning, Mr. President," one of the generals spoke. "That was a fine speech, though I didn't appreciate how fondly you spoke of Task Force Anarchy. That group is a heinous and corrupted organization, and the people need to understand that any good Task Force Anarchy has done is in the past, and now they're nothing but a terrorist faction."

"Yes sir," Revnos replied sheepishly. "Sorry about that. It won't happen again."

"I'm counting on it," the general replied as he turned his attention to the other officers in the room. "Gentlemen, we have to accept that General Waff is dead. He was a conflicted penguin, and he did seem to be turning unstable, but he was also a noble and firm leader, and it will be very hard to go on without him." Revnos could see that the general was lying through his teeth.

"Now," the general began, showing no reverent hesitation, "in light of recent events, we are without a leader. We need a strong and able officer to fill Waff's shoes—someone who can carry on his plan for Project Homefront, and fortify this country as efficiently as possible before the Martial Alliance attacks us again. They're quickly running out of other countries to target."