Author Topic: A PENGUIN Story  (Read 17804 times)

Tubbius

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A PENGUIN Story
« on: December 08, 2012, 05:19:57 AM »
Part 1: Of Flippers and Faux Hawks

"Look, lady!  Just gimme the purse, and nothin' has to get hurt!"

Jenny knew she should have listened to the activist by the City Hall steps a block over and signed up for those self-defense classes.  "Your purses will thank you!" he said.  She hadn't--no extra money except for the occasional splurge on nacho cheese for her quesadillas at Super Mexicano--and now?

Now, Jenny Hall, occasional spokeperson for the Muscle Sprouts health food and fitness supply chain and host of Run Your Buns!, had been jerked aside by some punk Hellion wearing a leather jacket in the middle of summer and sporting a faux hawk in his attempt to look threatening.

She wasn't impressed.  All this chump really had going for him was he had a little better upper body strength.

"Don't just run all the time, Jenny!" Candy "Cardio" Carradine, founder of Muscle Sprouts, had told her repeatedly.  "You've got to work those arms, girl!"

"Oh, I'll work 'em out some time, Cardio."

"What-ev-errrrr."


Her sprint down Memory Lane stopped cold.

The surrounding temperature around her feet had just dropped about eighty degrees or so, and the Hellion was screaming something about his legs, his Monday-to-Friday legs.  Pressure on the purse gave way, Jenny found herself stumbling back, and, crouched about twenty feet distant, was. . . a penguin?

"Waddle HERO!" came a shrill squawk from the little creature's beak.  His flippery hands flapped up again, and Jenny had to jerk aside as a thin sheen of gleaming, blinding ice spritzed over the Hellion, simultaneously cooling him off and shutting him up.

"Waddle hero.  Right. . . ."

The penguin bounced forward, covering the twenty feet in a catlike pounce, his glistening arms wrapping around Jenny's shoulders.  Orange feet met shaking knees, and up the animal lurched, landing safely atop a nearby bench, balanced and again crouched.

There's a penguin on a bench, Jen.  And he's a hero.  And why's the ground--

Whumpf.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2017, 06:11:24 AM by Tubbius »

Taceus Jiwede

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2012, 10:16:36 PM »
LOOOONG LIVEEE WADDLESS!!!!! I love it Tubbius keep em coming

houtex

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2012, 05:29:29 AM »
*watching intently for next part*

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2012, 05:25:43 AM »
Part 2: Radio WDDL

On top of the world. . . .

The Carpenters.  Wonderful love songs.  Something to wake up to when the clock radio by the bed goes off at six in the a.m.  In fact, this morning, Jenny Hall had indeed woken up to it--and promptly shrugged it off.  She wasn't in the mood today, for some reason; Cardio had been going on and on for days now, swooning about some stud of a former soldier turned Outcast leader turned hero--some Pistola guy--so love songs, at least today, weren't really her thing right now.  She just hadn't had time to change the radio.

Those same lyrics drifted through Jenny's head as she groggily came to her senses.  Wherever she was, it was a little hard to breathe--

And don't those clouds look awful close, Jen?

"Friend OKAY!" came a shrill pipe nearby, and Ms. Hall found herself jerking upright--and being, quite literally, on top of the world.

"So this is Atlas. . . ."  Granted, the truth was that it was closer to a woozy-headed, swimmy-stomached blaaaaeeeeeehhhh at this height.  Jenny Hall never cared for heights.  She kept her feet on the ground, pounding the pavement and sidewalks and grass and treadmills and--

"Friend. . . not okay?"

Cold!  The frigid shock of Arctic temperatures, the clammy slip of a fishlike flipper down an unsuspecting shoulder, and a shriek from Jenny.

"Waddle sorry!  Waddle sorry!  Waddle--bad?"  The flipper was removed, and a throaty cluck and gurgle escaped the talking penguin, whom Ms. Hall finally, slowly peered over to study, still quivering.

She hesitantly reached a hand over, herself, to return the gesture, patting the mostly black, misplaced fowl on his shoulder.

"W--"

What are you doing, Jen, talking to a penguin on top of a statue the size of the condo you call home?

"Waddle. . . Waddle okay.  Waddle better than okay.  Waddle good!" She offered.  The runner then turned a thumb into her chest.  "Jenny.  Can Waddle get Jenny. . . umm. . . down?"

A glance stolen over the side of Atlas's globe was a Very Bad Idea on the line of going to a Carnival party or asking Lord Nemesis for simple directions.  Down Jen started to flop onto her back, her vision spinning.

Jenny Hall's back never hit the giant sphere.

Wind almost immediately whipped past her face, setting her hair streaming.  Three quick, running steps; a scoop of those mighty little arms; and a powerful lurch of leg muscles impossibly strong for a four feet tall bird; and they were airborne, due west, for the Mission Architect building about a block away.

Landing wasn't nearly as rough as Jen expected.  A spurt of shimmering, crystalline ice softened the blow and set them gently skidding along the rooftop, whirling about like a child's top or gyroscope, spinning until coming to an easy stop.

"Waddle find door!  Door good!  Door help friend down safe!"
« Last Edit: December 11, 2012, 04:15:48 AM by Tubbius »

houtex

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2012, 04:08:00 AM »
Go Waddle!  Waddle IS good!

Tacitala

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2012, 02:38:28 PM »
Suddenly, even my Carnie character seems sane.  :)
"And I, of course, am innocent of all but malice."
- Princess Fiona of Amber

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2012, 04:15:32 AM »
Part 3: PENGUIN: Hunted!

"Good Waddle!"  A little too happy, it seemed.  Jenny Hall was just glad to be back on normal flooring, and into the nearby door into the rooftop access she went after giving the appreciative penguin a scratch to the head and a smile.

Target sighted.  Sixty yards.  Target stationary.  Capture?

Affirmative.  That is a go.  Capture the Metahuman.

Target is more of a Metapenguin, sir.

A blue energy bolt erupted from the blaster held carefully at the Sapper's shoulder, arcing through the distance from the nearest rooftop--and missed!  The penguin's peripheral vision was warning enough, and a leap from the fowl later, Waddle's shoulder slammed heavily into the Sapper's chest, flattening him against the roof.  In one smooth sequence, the penguin agent leaped sharp to the left, away from City Hall.  Flippery foot slapped off a flagpole hanging from the side of a building, and ricocheting like a black and white pinball, Waddle was free!

Or was he?  What were Malta agents doing in Altas Park, chasing him here?  Wind was fast, cool, and free, streaming around the plump bird's mostly aerodynamic figure.  A splash of ice against an awning as he fell gave him something to slide on and bounce from, giving another vault into the air with a shrill trilling of laughter.

But there's a little thing called physics.

And there's a little thing called sharpshooting.

And there's a little thing called a Gunslinger, taking careful aim with his dual pistols.  Simultaneous ca-crack-ing later saw Waddle dropped from the air, locked in an icy sheath and falling thirty feet down hard and fast toward a passing convertible below, top down in the Paragon summer.

"Look, Mommy!  Birdy!"

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2012, 08:22:26 PM »
Part 4: Wadd-owwwww!

"Hang on, baby!" Thus did Bodelia Cleveland floor it, nearly running off the street and into a bench.

That was when the falling, frozen fowl hit the asphalt, shattering the ice around him--and, with a squaaaaawwwwk to split the ears, the poor penguin's left leg.

Cli-clack went the falling, now empty clips from the Gunslinger's weapons.

Target downed, sir.  Closing!

Hold your ground.  Repeat: do not advance.  Do not advance!

He has a broken leg, sir--

Not for long he doesn't.  Watch.

The area immediately around the penguin glowed lime as healing energies spread through the aching avian.  With a shudder of his slick, chilly body, the penguin crouches with his eyes studying the surroundings.  Not there.  Not there.  Not the-e-e-eeeere. . . . There!

The penguin slowly smiled--and promptly leaped out of the vicinity on his newly restored limb.  "Waddle play Catch!  Metalfaces catch Waddle!"

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2013, 06:19:59 AM »
Part 5: A Time to Rest

There ain't no way I'm chasing that bird all over town, sir.

You want to tell that to your other superiors who aren't as forgiving?

Of course not, sir.  But isn't there a better way to track this crazy bird?

Maybe.  I'll ask.

Meanwhile, Waddle sped away, alternating between fast, flippery feet on concrete and a series of powerful jumps.  In mere moments, he was half of Atlas Park away, pausing only to catch his breath atop the police station--and to smile as his beady, penguin eyes surveyed the area from that safe vantage point.

"Metalfaces not catch Waddle!  They not like Waddle game?"  Thus, taking time to curl up among the air conditioning machinery atop the station, Waddle promptly decided to take a short nap, getting a little sun at the same time.

houtex

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2013, 02:51:18 AM »
Aww yeah, more Waddle has been posted.  Frelling cliffhanger again, though.  Heh. :)

/Keep 'em comin', Tub!

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2014, 07:03:02 AM »
Part 6: PENGUIN Acquired

There's nothing quite so nerve-wrenching as being awoken by an electrical blast from twenty yards distant, even if it's only for a moment.

That was thirty seconds ago.  Waddle had thought himself safe and comfy atop the Atlas Park police station, safe from the chasing Metalfaces--the childish penguin's term for most of the armored villainous types in Paragon City.

Now, Waddle is not doing very much thinking.  He is unconscious and loose in the arms of a Malta Gunslinger.

Target found, and target downed, sir.

Prove it, Alpha.

I can't activate the camera on the side of my hat while I'm holding an unconscious mutant penguin, sir.

Oh?  Then bring him back to HQ.  We'll either put him to good use, or we'll ship him back to Crey where he belongs.

Thus it is a good many hours later, nearing three in the morning, when Waddle the penguin drowsily awakes with a squeak and a flippity flap of his avian body.

He is in a metal room devoid of furniture.  Bowls of water and raw fish rest a few feet distant on the floor.

Using his powers requires being a little less groggy and a little more alert.  It also requires his not being in a room with a technological inhibitor field tinting the air a light, faint blue.

So it is that, as the penguin settles in to eating and drinking, a voice comes through an intercom in the wall.

"Waddle, Crey Biotech PENGUIN project nine-two-three-three-five-three, you are in a Malta holding facility.  You will remain in this facility until you no longer serve our purpose."
« Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 07:19:41 PM by Tubbius »

houtex

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2014, 05:05:45 AM »
Uh oh... What've ya got into now, Waddle...

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #12 on: June 08, 2014, 07:21:02 PM »
Getting this back up and running, one post at a time.  Very sorry about the massive delay, but watch this space!

Also, bonus points if you figure out why Waddle is designated Crey Biotech PENGUIN Project #923353.  This was actually part of the mission clues in one of my old PENGUIN arcs, if you remember those from the AE in-game.

Tacitala

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2014, 02:57:40 PM »
You should try making a screenshot using Icon to go along with each chapter.  Or maybe just a picture of Waddle in general(hopefully you kept the costume file).  :)
"And I, of course, am innocent of all but malice."
- Princess Fiona of Amber

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2014, 01:53:24 AM »


WADDLE!

Admittedly, there was a "PENGUIN Part 4: Waddle On" (#554993) that went live around 8:00 p.m. Eastern on the last night.  Only half a dozen folks got to play it, though.  It was a nice bit of closure for the series at that point.

Will keep the story going soon.  Just woke up from a nap an hour longer than it should have been, so brain is kind of mush at the moment.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2017, 03:15:30 AM by Tubbius »

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #15 on: June 16, 2014, 08:45:11 PM »
Part 7: PENGUIN Escaped!

Muscled calves set flippered feet into a powerful spring forward, slamming the pudgy mutant penguin into the cell door, rattling the loosely installed intercom. . . and rattling something else?  The blue, shimmering field in the room flickers.

"Waddle wants out!  Waddle wants home!"

From amid the sparks and fizzles of the intercom speaker. . . .

"Sir?  I think we made him mad."

"That field will hold up.  He can't heal anything or freeze anything with it in place."

WHOMPF.

Bzzzt-bzzzztack!

"Sir?"

WHOMP-FWAM!

"Sir, he's loose!  He broke the door down!  The penguin broke--"

"Get men down there!  Now!  Go go go!"

A triumphant, shrill shriek reverberates down the hallway.  Flippers are already running, sprinting along an instantly created swash of sparkling, crystalline ice lining the left wall leading from Waddle's cell.  One flipper keeps up its ice-spouting wave at the wall for a few more feet, and then--

OFF the wall and onto the fedora-sporting head of a gunslinger sprinting toward the cell.

The left flipper stops its frozen cascade; the right one takes over, locking the gunslinger's upper body into an arctic block, an instant glacier, as Waddle kicks mightily away.

Collar bones and new ice snap on impact from a foot putting out the pressure of many, many mutated pounds per square inch.

Water, freezing immediately, zig-zags from the penguin hero's arms--one trail setting up another slippery-slidey path to run upon as the other glazes the metal floor for the next ten yards and around a corner.  Booted feet clump-clank and then there are startled cries as men hit the ice trail and sprawl down and forward.

The ice trail continues, weaving and waving over the fallen, as the bird's eyes flit left, right, straight.

A door ahead.

A lunge forward.  A heavy plant of penguin foot into a security code pad.

A door ahead now opening halfway. . . .

Tacitala

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #16 on: June 17, 2014, 02:40:17 PM »
Go, Waddle, go!

He looks immensely hugable by the way
"And I, of course, am innocent of all but malice."
- Princess Fiona of Amber

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #17 on: July 14, 2014, 12:17:54 AM »
Part 8: PENGUIN Free!

And through the door to the blinding brilliance of a sunlit, woodland exterior.  Without thought from the errant penguin, arms swing in an arc before him, a wave of ice gleaming and freezing all around him, as he dives headlong out of this would-be Malta base.

If it could even be called that.

This is a retrofitted Crey Biotech research facility, the Crey sign stamped over in a militaristic black stencil row of X's.

Two Malta guards, caught in the middle of agony, are frozen in blocks to either side of the door--the lone sentries on this side of the door.

The penguin grins.

The penguin likes to jump.

With calves dropping down to the ground in a squat, the mutated penguin thus leaps up, away, and out, a black and white streak lunging forward and free into the sunlight above the treetops.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #18 on: July 16, 2014, 02:59:45 AM »
All controller Numia TF in Founder's Falls, level 45 or better to open, send resume and headshot to Paragon Comptroller, better hurry only 7 slots left.

I thought I would interject a little gameplay type announcement.

Man.  I even miss recruiting for Task Forces.

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #19 on: July 16, 2014, 03:04:34 AM »
Ack!  :)  An ad!

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #20 on: July 21, 2014, 04:12:21 AM »
Pretty funny, better hurry only 7 slots left.
I remember spending a good half hour juggling 3 or more conversations while recruiting for a task force.
There would be team chat, as the leader you would have to reassure them that you didn't DC and you were actively recruiting.
You would need to send tells to players begging them to join.
And you would need to advertise on one or more channels for prospects on other servers and such.
And someone might respond to a tell with a question.  That was when things really got interesting.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #21 on: July 26, 2014, 06:11:21 PM »
OK, sorry Tubbs.
Please continue the story of Waddles.

No more ads from me ... for a while at least.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #22 on: January 13, 2015, 04:59:23 AM »
Yes, I even miss recruiting for a task force.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #23 on: April 25, 2015, 06:45:20 AM »
Long story, short, Jenny dumped the Penguin.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2015, 01:21:21 AM »
Ok, ok, the Penguin gets away and lives a long happy life.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #25 on: November 03, 2015, 04:23:35 PM »
I always liked it when players made characters beyond the superman or batman look.  To make a superhero look like a penguin, man, what a character creator CoH had.

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #26 on: November 21, 2015, 07:30:39 AM »
Did I highjack this story?
Sorry Tubs.
It is a good story.

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #27 on: December 16, 2015, 05:49:58 AM »
Oh wow!  I totally forgot I had left this thread as it was!

Part 9: PENGUIN Pinball

Treetops.

These are the usual places for birds.

Granted, the birds that now flap and flutter away from their avian cousin's barreling feet first into the branches have proper feathers and working wings.  They do not have flippers or webbed feet or mutant ice-generating powers.

Waddle the Penguin gives another shove forward from upper branches, a streak of black and white through the sky that fades back beneath forest canopy with a crash of leaves and angry squawks.

Even little mutant hero penguins, though, need to rest.  He finally huffs to a stop some twenty feet up and. . . how many yards distant from the retrofitted Crey base he left behind?  Beady, tiny eyes squint the way he came.  He doesn't hear any Metalfaces tromping through the woods.  He must, thus, be free.

"Freeeeeee!" comes the merry squeak, and, done resting, away he leaps--

only to break free of the treeline and find himself soaring over a rooftop and into the top of a billboard for the local Super Mexicano.  One leg and one arm catch the advertisement, and there the penguin hero dangles, reverting to instinctual, frightened awks as he scrambles, hanging, off-balance and not really wanting to fall some twenty or thirty feet uncontrolled.  He is a penguin, not one of those funny, fluffy things that go mew and have twitchy, long tails.

But from below, on the sidewalk, coming out of the Super Mexicano in question?

"Waddle?"

"You know that. . . bird, Jenny?"

"Candy!  Just. . . I don't know!  Help me get him down!  He looks hurt!"

"Down?  He got you down from Atlas, and he--"

Down!  Hand loses grip, and then leg spasms, pumping the bird away from the billboard in a somersault away over the street.  The heads of Jenny Hall and Candy "Cardio" Carradine crane in a circle, following the flight of the flightless bird.  But what?  Wait?

Icy brilliance bursts forth from the bird's body, circling the entire creature in a sphere thick and solid.  Smashing into the side of an apartment complex, some fifteen feet from the ground, cracks the ice, and down the protected bird goes, rolling down the bricks until bird and ball come to rest amid bushes.

The two fitness gurus change glances, and across the way they sprint, while Jenny calls out a single, frightened word.

"Waaaaaaddle?"

Paragon Avenger

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #28 on: February 22, 2016, 04:14:55 AM »
I'm glad to see that Jenny is still an inportant character in this story.

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #29 on: August 06, 2016, 05:04:23 AM »
"Again!"  Cried Waddle.

Tubbius

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Re: A PENGUIN Story
« Reply #30 on: May 12, 2017, 06:05:40 AM »
Part 10: Reunion

"We are so NOT going into that ghetto to check on that freaky penguin thing!"

"Ghetto?  That's called 'across the street,' Candy!  Paragon's not that bad, and--"

And Jenny Hall was interrupted by a gleam of brilliant green flashing emerald at first and fading to lime.  Hands cover her eyes and those of her friend and employer Candy Carradine.  As the light clears, a familiar squeak trills from the bushes at the base of Hero Highrises.

"Waddle HERO!"

Eyes are just blinking clear of brilliance when the short, stout, and fully healed penguin hero slams heftily into his new friend, Jenny, dropping her to a grassy stretch by the concrete walkway.  Those same eyes finally squint, staring up, at a happily beaming--smiling!--beak.  Below that beak, somewhere in that pudgy penguin's belly, a gurgly rumbling echoes.

"Candy?"

"Jen?"

"What do penguins eat?"
« Last Edit: October 09, 2017, 03:58:50 AM by Tubbius »