Blackout 🚫☀️

The Village

Off an obscure and small island in the North Pole icecaps lived a passionate and brilliant bear on a slow-growing village. The island's main profits were fish, snow hut building, and coal. A bland, boring, and cold island who's entire government was created hundreds of years ago and founded upon the believe of Mother Nature and the many Sky Gods.

Mother Nature and Her Sky Spirits

The rapidly heating of the air? The melting of the island caps? The erratic pattern of blizzards and storms? The impossible farming conditions of the North Pole? This was the work of Mother Nature and her Sky Spirits. She decided what happened to the weather and when it happened. Good weather was a blessing by the Sky Gods for the village's hard work. Vicious storms was the punishment the village would receive for rebellion against her and not following the culture norms. The entire village of polar bears spent all their lives predicting the weather to the best of their abilities. They were very accurate when they had the time to predict it! Just by looking at the sky they knew. But when the weather became more unpredictable...

Percival Herbert...

Percival Herbert was smart, a genius, you might say, compared to the boring-minded polar bears of his village. His father was the past Chief of the village. With his leadership, the village advanced twice as fast. Not everyone agreed with his decisions, though. One day, the stress of his job, the panic of the Fish Crisis, and the fighting amongst the village, led his old age to work against him... Mr. Bear inherited his father's genius, and spent his free time growing up learning about technology, building, gardening, and climate. Most of these books could NOT be found in the library. Mr. Bear did a lot of exploring, and found an abandoned lab with a computer setup. He goes there from time to time and works.

And His Igneous and Defiant Inventions

One of the first of his odd inventions was finding a new way to survive, by growing a garden! He created a basic greenhouse system to help keep plants alive. Lots of bears thought this was pretty useful, but an odd choice, as vegetables and fruit was not their primary diet. Caring for his personal garden changed his diet quite a bit, and started his vegetarian craze. He learned how to create general pieces of technology to help his close peers. They appreciated it, but felt awkward about the gifts and didn't use it. The village is so reliant on there own efforts that all of Percival Herbert's technological advancements felt almost like witchcraft and magic.

The Climate Crisis and The Last Solution

The weather became so unpredictable in Mr. Bear's last years in the North Pole that the village's predictions were wrong, multiple times. This sometimes had MAJOR costs to the village's structure. Mr. Bear could not stand to see his village destroyed and have them believe they were the cause behind the rath of Mother Nature. He started created tools to predict the weather (like wind vanes, thermometers, anemometers, barometers, etc). He even started sketching ideas to help miniplate the weather. These were his most useful inventions, but when he showcased these to the village Chief, and the Council heard his ideas and beliefs towards the weather, they feared against them. The idea to control and measure forces of gods was like sacrilege to them. He got the same treatment his father did: fear, anger, disappointment, betrayal, and to the point of mockery. (Imagine the Salem Witch Trials, and you got the vibe).

The Doom of Polar Bear Island and Abandonment

As the worst blizzard to ever occur started to approach the island, Percival Bear informed, warned, and pleaded the island to listen to his words. Every statement he made about this upcoming storm was met with resistance.

"The sky has been beautiful for days! Look out into the sea! No waves have appeared, how could this storm you speak of come?

"Why would you speak against the predictions of the Sky Watchers? They have been trained all their lives. You believe they are not qualified to speak the truth?"

"The Council would not like to hear these words of blasphemy you speak of. Only Mother Nature knows when the end of our island shall be. Not you."

Inevitably, the island was forced to watch as a swift but powerful blizzard appeared suddenly before them, and wiped out their village. In the aftermath of chaos and sadness, Herbert P. Bear was forced to abandon his island. He now believed they could not, and would never try, to understand someone like him...

The agent is at the end of their wits, and all their friends are gone- frozen for as long as the Illustrious Leader deems necessary. At least, that's what they assumed.

[Ace] has been working tirelessly, burning the candle at both ends to find some kind of weakness in his defenses. Because how in the world did he find the Director? There's no way they just gave up on the agency. Ace wouldn't be surprised though, hope was dwindling away like the sunlight on the island, slowly becoming consumed by the ever-present darkness and dread. He must have hacked their secondary defenses, or listened to their secure broadcasts, or- he was able to get away with this somehow.

Staring at the many monitors against the wall, Ace began to organize their final plan to fully infiltrate Herbert's base and shut down the Solar Laser draining the sun. Every screen held security footage of a specific area on the island. Around the screens were sticky notes, newspapers, and photos. All the information gathered through the Operation and the detailed map of Herbert's base were collaborated on by every agent who attempted this same plan to stop him. Now, everything relyed on Ace.

The inside of the agency was silent- the only sounds were the agent's clicking and typing on the EPF mainframe's computer. The sounds of the cold winds outside seemed to seep into the building and the agent shivered in response. The fire was put out a while ago, it didn't take a long time for the island to get together to help. The agents just- didn't feel like working here once Herbert blasted it. Why Ace returned here to do their investigation, they didn't know. But not only did the stress of losing the Director confuse them, but something about returning here felt safe, comfortable, and less "confusing." They're surprised no one else tried to access this computer so far, as it was still intact somehow.

Safety, however, was a mere illusion- as a sound in the distance became more clear. The background noise the agent thought was merely just their typing happened to sound like snapping- no clicking. The crabs- they were nearby.

Jumping away from the computer and shooting their head towards the direction of the sound, they caught sight of red claws out in the snow. Ace frantically shut down the mainframe computer as the clicking and clacking got louder.

Did they find me? The agent thought.

It was nearly midnight when Ace left their igloo to get here. No one was out at this hour, it was far below freezing and almost dangerous for penguins to trek out that far. There was no way they were seen. Still, the agent looked for a place to hide in this mess. There were so many holes and debris filling the room, that they were bound to be caught eventually. The footsteps followed, also growing louder. It felt like the ground was quivering.

Too many thoughts filled the agent's head in a short time. When they finally caught sight of a large piece of rubble against the wall, they sprinted toward it. However, the large coat they wore to shield themselves from the strong winds got snagged against something, and turning around, a little crab held on tightly.

"Augh!"

Eyes wide in fear, Ace tried to shake off the crab, like a pest.

"Get off! Shoo! Go back with the others!" Even though it was small, the crab held its ground, and the agent couldn't get it to let go.

"I'm trying not to get caught! Come on!" The agent reached to touch the crab, but in defense, the crab pinched Ace's flipper. While shouting in pain, Ace holds their flipper back and doesn't notice another crab sneak up from behind and snag their coat also.

The crabs seem to disperse from the darkness as they quickly manage to overwhelm the agent, grabbing on to any and every piece of clothing Ace wore. As they tried continuously to shake them off, slowly the crabs' combined weight began to hold the agent down, almost like being consumed by a massive wave. The rushing movements of the crabs began to slow down, and once the agent was able to see more clearly past the massive crab wave, Herbert stood smiling over the trapped agent.

"I did not expect to see you hiding here, agent. When one of my crabs saw you waddling around the island, I didn't believe them."

"The Director's agent isn't that stupid!"

He burst out in laughter, and the crabs clicked in response. Coming here wasn't a good idea, what was Ace thinking? This place had no security at all, no one to stand guard, no one to have their back if they got cornered. How could Ace ever think of-

"Hello!? AGENT!" Ace was snapped out of their own thoughts to Herbert's yelling.

"I asked you a question, why are you here?"

Since the agent's plan of defeating Herbert didn't seem to be working, they were dumbfounded and didn't respond.

"Were you looking for something?" He turned towards the monitors. While looking over the papers on the wall, he noticed his base's map.

"You were trying to find a way into my base, weren't you agent?" The agent looked down.

Instead of laughing, Herbert seemed to ponder over something.

"How about this... You're the last one in my way, and you know that. You know there's no way you could get into my base alone. There are too many crabs, too many variables, too many risks. I could offer you something else, instead."

To Ace's surprise, Herbert was letting them go.

"I could capture you and freeze you until the Blackout is over. Or," He held out his hand.

"I could offer you a position as my loyal subject. No one would be in your way, not even me, and you could win."

That proposal- it held so much defiance, arrogance- it was so prideful, it made the agent sick. After everything they had done to try to protect this island and after every friend they knew was gone, Herbert expected them to abandon it all to be by his side.

Something was boiling inside of Ace, an anger that was too blind to fear or rationalize. And so they spoke up.

"I'd rather die."

"You'd rather, what?" Herbert stood back, shocked.

After looking at Ace in disgust, he regained his composure.

"Save your sob story for later, agent." He turned his back against them.

"It looks like I'm going to have to freeze you then. I can't believe you denied my offers. Well, it's like they always say..." A crab shuffled from beneath them and put a metal circle on Ace's coat. The agent was confused at first until they remembered that they saw this before, and knew what would happen next.

"You can't always get what you want."

Panic set in. They had to find a way to stop this. The circle was blinking. They only had a few seconds. What could they do to stop this?!

Then they remembered. They were one of the only agents to still carry their PSA phone, in case of an emergency. You couldn't use the phone to call anymore, but the teleport feature worked. Struggling with all their might, they pulled one arm free from the crabs and held the phone in their pocket.

Herbert's laughter filled the room completely, and the agent spun the dial. This might not even work, but this was the only option.

The metal button blinked rapidly, and the crabs started to let go. Instantaneously, they moved out of the way, and the agent disappeared.

Herbert continued laughing at his greatest victory.

And Ace...