Moon Island: Path to Reunification

## Chapter 1

The Members of Parliament were in shock as they heard Charles Freeman’s speech. The 27 year old MP, who represented the Democratic Socialist Party and his constituency in Typhoon City, was launching an attack on one of the most notable, and perhaps notorious, political leaders of the country.

“Last year alone, he earned 1.3 billion Club Penguin Coins in dividends alone from one of his companies! Do you know how many schools or hospitals could be built with that amount? That could pay for the welfare cheques of 100,000 penguins living in poverty! Why are we not redistributing this obscene amount of wealth?!”, Charles said scathingly.

A female legislator stood up. She adjusted her microphone before she countered the socialist’s attack.

“The laws of the Golden Coast Region are that this earning shall not be paid. Any attempt by the federal government to redistribute it constitutes a violation of the GCR’s autonomy, and my constituents will **not** tolerate me just allowing that to happen! You will not violate our autonomy, especially after what our region has contributed to Moon Island!”, the legislator said. Upon hearing her, there were rounds of applause from some other legislators around her.

“Of course his favourite gook will defend her beloved husband-“, Charles retorted in a manner that was probably too personal before the legislators around her started jeering at him. He tried to continue speaking, but the jeers drowned out his speech by a considerable margin.

“Order in the house!”, the Speaker said reluctantly after exchanging eye contact with Prime Minister Penstubal, who represented a constituency in Gdanham. To everyone else in the room, however, it was clear that the speaker of the parliament had deliberately allowed Charles to be jeered at.

A male legislator seated next to the female legislator, who also happened to look alike, stood from his seat. “The racial slur made by Mr. Freeman is inappropriate for this hollowed hall. Under the Code of Conduct of the Parliament, I hereby propose that Freeman be suspended at the Speaker’s pleasure as a reminder that unruly conduct will be given zero tolerance in this pristine hall,” he said.

“This is a thinly veiled attempt to silence criticism on your father, huh you daddy’s boy?”, the defiant democratic socialist rebuked.

“I hereby declare that Mr. Freeman will be suspended from the parliament for 5 days, with immediate effect. Please leave or you will be escorted away,” the Speaker laid down the punishment. The MP looked back in disbelief.

“Fine! This parliament is biased!”, he yelled before the novice legislator left the hall. Before he left the room, the female legislator took a chance to mock him. “I recommend the esteemed voters of Mr. Freeman’s constituency to vote for someone who does not throw racial slurs in parliament during the upcoming election in 5 years’ time.”

As she sat down, the male legislator besides him high-fived her. “That was a good comeback, mom,” David Jeon praised. Jeon Hyun-min smiled and replied, “Nah, it’s just an effort to defend your father. In fact, the entire family did really well in cancelling him.”

When the speaker called for a recess, David, Hyun-min and another 5 MPs around them waddled out of the hall together. Several legislators noticed that 4 of them, including David, looked like the State-President of the Golden Coast Republic. Meanwhile, Hyun-min and 2 other women were some of the State-President’s wives. The “direct Mason bloc” alone held more seats in the parliament than Charles Freeman’s party.

Ouyang Haoguan was arguably one of the most privileged penguins in Moon Island. Born to the wealthy Ouyang family, which had produced diplomats, judges and other senior officials, he brought further glory to the family when he ascended to the position of Governor of Tanthu.

Thanks to his 2.1 million CPC per month trust fund allowance, it was no surprise that he was able to afford an escort that cost 10,000 CPC per meet. As he laid on the bed in his suite in the Tanthu Hotel, which is one of the only 2 five-star hotels in the region, he took out 2 joints of marijuana. The escort was still showering. He took a sniff of the marijuana. It smelled like a strain of expensive marijuana sold by the Phoenix Weed Inc (PWI), which was the largest marijuana company in Moon Island and one of the largest in Antarctica.

"Hmm, this smells really familiar," Haoguan uttered. It was then that the escort walked out of the bathroom in a white bathing robe. "We should order something to cure the munchies later," she said after eyeing the joints on the governor's flippers. He gave her the menu and said, "Here, have a look."

"Alright I'll get the carbonara," she replied. The governor noticed that she always ordered that dish, because the hotel was the only place in Tanthu that served authentic carbonara with guanciale and pecorino romano. He smiled in approval of her exquisite culinary tastes. "You know what, I'll get some carbonara as well," he said. Using the telephone, he called room service and order the 2 dishes of pasta with a bottle of Krug champagne.

The escort lit up one of the joints and took a puff. "I thought you wanted to buy the Ballonian strain," she said. "What do you mean? I bought the Ballonian strain," he replied curiously. A look of confusion was on his face. *Did the shop give me a wrong strain when he bought it?* He took a look at the original case of joints, which clearly indicated those were Ballonian strain.

"Give me a joint," he said while holding the joint, which she lit. He took a puff and it felt the same as the Phoenix Dragon strain he usually bought. "This *is* the Phoenix Dragon strain!", he exclaimed angrily. "I think the Ballonians stole this strain from PWI. I'm informing Slender right away. This will be international news," he said again before he started dialing a phone number on his smartphone. The call was picked up after a minute.

"Yes?", a voice said lazily on the other end. It was apparent that the caller had just woken up. "Slender! Have you tried the new Ballonian weed strain?", Haoguan asked. "Umm, no. I haven't had marijuana for years. What's up?," the voice responded. "It felt the same as your company's premium strain. I have a feeling that Ballonia stole this from us. Those fucking bastards," Haoguan accused angrily.

"Alright, hold on. Send me a sample of the strain and I'll have it compared with mine. If it matches, then we will be going to war," the State-President of the Golden Coast Region declared before he hanged up. Haoguan quickly changed from his bathrobe to his suit and tie. "Where are you going?", the escort asked. "Slender told me to send the sample to him right away. I need to go now!", the governor responded before hurrying out of the suite.

The Democratic Socialist leader, Jason Hart, was shocked when he looked at the letter he received. He was in a meeting with the other leaders of the Democratic Socialist Party. Charles Freeman, the leader of the party's youth wing, was also present.

"Thanks to you, Slender Mason is suing us!", Hart exclaimed furiously as he threw the letter on the table and banged it. "Why the fuck did you publish that Cheep?", another member of the politburo questioned Freeman.

"Jason, we can't just let him get away with his abuse of power and corruption!", the youth leader exclaimed indignantly. "That doesn't mean you could just call his children half-breed on social media! You do realise that we stand against racism, right? Was it not enough that you got suspended from parliament?", Hart admonished him.

Freeman sulked silently before he came up with a response. "Do you think he has a chance of winning against us?", he asked. Hart took off his spectacles and sighed. "I don't know, but does it matter even if he doesn't? All he wants to do is drain us out of as much funds as possible so that we won't have enough money to stand in the next election. Our coffers already took a hit after the high court ruled against our favour when we accused Imran Farouk of corruption previously," Hart said.

The Democratic Socialist Party was one of the more minor, albeit influential, political parties in parliament. Throughout the years, it had accused the Front United to Combat Kleptocracy, which was perhaps the most powerful political party in the country, of corruption and abuse of power. This led to Slender, who was the chairman of FUCK and the State-President of the Golden Coast Region, repeatedly suing the DSP in order to bankrupt him. On the two occasions when FUCK came close to bankrupting the party, Hart was saved by donations. This time however, he wasn't sure if it's possible anymore because the DSP's seats were reduced from 9 to merely 5 seats.

"Perhaps we could crowdfund the legal fees", Freeman suggested. "Are you sure it will work?", another politburo member asked. "Of course, I just have to appeal to the right audience."

On the flight to Snowdon, Slender thrusted deeply into Nicole Cecil as she held on tightly to his shoulders. Moans emitted from her until she started panting, which was a cue for him to stop. He got off her and laid on the bed.

"So why are we here again?", Nicole asked, covering herself in the blanket. "To visit your family, of course," he replied. "We are visiting your brother's estate 2 days later, is that correct?"

The Cecil family held the Earldom of Raylesbury. The current Earl, who was Nicole's elder brother, inherited the title after their father passed 4 years ago. Nicole, or more accurately Lady Nicole Cecil, was Slender's third wife in 1995. Out of his 4 wives, she was the only one who didn't hold a seat in the Moon Island parliament. However, it was also said that she helped him tremendously in consolidating his power from 1994 to 1996, when he was merely the chairman of FUCK and not the State-President yet.

As soon as they got off the plane, they were chauffeured to Slender's townhouse on one of central Snowdon's most exclusive streets. It was morning when they arrived. They quickly had a full English breakfast before napping for a while.

2 hours later, Slender woke up and had himself chauffeured to the Golden Coaster Representative Office (GCRO) building, which was hosted in a white stucco townhouse of Regency design. Upon arrival, 3 diplomatic staff greeted him and escorted him down to the basement. Seated at one end of a mahogany table was the son of his arch-nemesis back then, Mark Perot. Golden Coaster Security Forces agents had kidnapped him earlier and brought him to the building.

Slender: "Hello there, Mark."

Mark: "LET ME GO, YOU SCUM!"

One of the guards proceeded to whack him in the torso with a wooden stick.

Slender: "Now come on, let's be civilised. I have more reasons to lash out than you do, but yet I kept my composure."

Slender will never forget the trauma that he endured on his path to become the State-President of the GCR. Having founded the Front United to Combat Kleptocracy with his best friend Dr. Ian and 2 other penguins as co-leaders to protest against Mark's father Henry Perot and his corrupt regime, Perot enacted revenge by having his best friend's parents killed, before orchestrating a fatal car accident for Slender's then girlfriend Miranda. When Miranda's family prohibited him from attending her funeral out of anger, Slender's parents attempted to settle on his behalf, causing all of them to die when Perot's men had the funeral parlour bombed. The final straw came when the other 2 co-leaders of FUCK had Dr. Ian killed so that they could elect Slender to the party presidency and control him as a puppet, which made Slender snap.

Having teamed up with Peter Keller, then having promised to make Slender the next president as he himself was dying of cancer, as an independent but FUCK-affiliated presidential candidate, Slender's party eventually managed to win the election and force Perot into exile. As the *de facto* leader of the region from 1994 until 1996, Slender purged his party and the country, confiscating properties from those who were cronies of the former regime and having them trialed. The 2 other co-leaders were each killed in different incidents, thus consolidating Slender's power. He then created the position of party chairman and had Imran Farouk, a senior officer in the GCSF who agreed to work for him by killing one of the co-leaders, voted into the party presidency. By the time Peter Keller finally passed away in 1996, Slender was one of the wealthiest penguins in Golden Coast due to the fortune left to him by Dr. Ian, who had no remaining family member. As the State-President, his first act was to have Henry Perot, who fled to Snowdon, murdered via strangulation.

He subsequently expanded the Golden Coast Security Forces and started conquering other territories to be annexed into the region. Exploiting the natural resources of these territories, Slender amassed a fortune of over 36 billion CPC by the present day. With the vast swath of territory and large number of penguins under his rule, Slender forced the national Moon Islander government to give his region a one-third representation in the Moon Island parliament. Eventually, Slender teamed up with the Ouyang family in nearby Tanthu and some local politicians in the Freezestonian Autonomous Region, achieving more than half of the federal parliamentary seats in the previous 3 elections. The front then formed a ruling coalition with United Moon Island party and the Liberal party. While FUCK would elect presidents from United MI and prime ministers from the Liberal party, the federal government was to give free reins to Slender's activities and corruption.