#yes i AM just peppering various nuggets of info in here bc i don't know where else to do so even if they're not herbert-related

[fullmoonfireball]

alright! I foresee this getting long, so I’m gonna slap a readmore on this.

let’s go from the mission after the first one I focused on (is that wording confusing? it feels confusing. whatever, this is from mission 7 onward.)

so this one isn’t all that eventful, but Herbert’s broken the clock tower! which is bad, since all other clocks are directly linked to it and they’re now going haywire. 

(fun fact! Gary built the Clock Tower because he was bored)

more specifically, Herbert’s stolen the prime gear, the removal of which sent one of the springs flying, and Klutzy decided to make off with its snowball target. most of the mission is just retrieving the missing parts... except the prime gear. you have to make a replacement for that one. but hey, at least it’s fixed and things are back to normal!

uuuntil tremors start happening around the island. turns out Herbert took that gear for a reason, and that reason was making the Earthquake Driller! he drilled around a bunch, making a maze for the player, and drilling through the Gift Shop’s foundation enough to make it fall underground, just to block your way. gotta love that villainous need to just,, inconvenience people. so once you (presumably) get back his map (I think you can do it without actually doing that? but don’t quote me there, I’ve never tried it) and find a way to lift the gift shop and keep it there, you can actually get to the polar bear meat of this mission! Herbert’s trying to steal from the boiler from well,, the boiler room. walking in on him distracts and upsets him, though, and he hits his wrench on one of the pipes... causing the boiler to shake violently. violence isn’t the answer, Herbert. apparently it’s overheating and gonna blow up! so, of course, Herbert hightails it out of there and you’re left to fix his mess.

mission 9 is just trying to track down Herbert, so he’s not really.. in? most of it? the parts he is in though... honestly, I’d just recommend watching it yourself. Herbert dancing is much better with visuals.

(fun fact!

this makes absolutely no sense out of context and doesn’t really make much more sense in context!)

mission 10! I really love this one bc it’s a fun story. we open with mission briefing from Gary (we’re supposed to keep a golden puffle statue safe at the Night Club), but then Herbert hacks into the PSA’s computers! pretty much just to gloat about how he used the camera from the last mission to hack in and that he’s also got a plan! but uh...

.... yeah, i think this speaks for itself.

THANKFULLY, though, this was all planned! Gary (and The Director) wanted this kind of slip-up, because this is all one big plot to capture Herbert! after you help JPG and Rookie with their preparations (and then get distracted by Klutzy), Herbert shows up at the Club to steal the Golden Puffle. dropping the cage on him seems to work until he just.. lifts it off. despite everything, he is a polar bear, and thus, is pretty strong. but joke’s on Herbert, because we have backup! and you can rely on either of your teammates to trap him again, either by shining the spotlights on the Electromagnet 3000′s solar panel to strengthen it, or by taking JPG’s jet pack and strapping it to the cage. either way, the cage gets slammed back onto Herbert. Gary comes in and goes through some options as to what to do with Herbert (ban him from the island, detain him in a holding cell, make him do community service, let him go because they’re nice (that one was a joke)), and the mission is over...

(fun? fact! the “first” time I played this mission I just kinda.. stole Guy’s jet pack and did Rookie’s solution anyways bc I 1: just meant to talk to him and 2: I didn’t realize that was a solution! sorry Guy, but you’re not getting it back.)

except it’s not over! Herbert demands one phone call and... well... Rookie gives him his Spy Phone. and he teleports out of there. cue mission 11! though since we’ve already gone through that, I’m not gonna re-explain The Veggie Villain. that’d just be redundant.

what we will get into real quick is the Battle of Doom! after a Medieval Party where Gary built a mechanical hydra to fight, Herbert took that robot for his own purposes and tried to attack the Everyday Phoning Facility with it. some damage was done to the exterior, but the robot was still pretty easy (and fun! I can attest!) to beat, and no damage was done to the EPF HQ. 

(fun fact! the music for this fight slaps.)

next comes Operation: Hibernation! the name is,, pretty self-explanatory, I’d say? gotta make the bear go to sleep. despite the fact that polar bears... uhhhhh... only do that sort of thing when pregnant? but that’s a can of worms I am going to throw RIGHT out the window. 

the writers later lampshaded that fact anyways. whatever. just add it to Herbert’s Un-Polar Bear-iness List. don’t look too far into this- it doesn’t make any sense either way. also I’ve spent way more time on this than it deserves.

and now let’s get into the final part here! which is going to be Very Fun to talk about! Operation: Blackout!

a while before the event, a certain “Hubert P. Enguin” (no relation, I’m sure) wrote in to Ask Gary, asking how to build a “high frequency infrared reversion laser”. after that, Gary went missing, with evidence to suggest a kidnapping. Field-Ops went offline. the EPF went on Red Alert.

exactly one week after that, the Blackout started. the laser was built and used. not only did it block out the sky over the island, but it was also used to blast the Everyday Phoning Facility, successfully destroying it this time. Herbert’s in control of the island now, babey! he’s revealing agents’ identities while hogging the sun’s warmth! well... the two that already had their real names in their most-known names, at least. (Dot and Guy) but I think that was just coincidence.

so slowly and surely, as the island grows colder and more EPF agents go missing, the player has to make their way into Herbert’s base. first, Herbert captured Dot. then Rookie. JPG was ambushed by crabs, and met the same fate as the others. and finally, The Director was captured while giving the player instructions...

and it was strongly implied you were next.

Operation: Blackout was,, really dark. ba-dum-tsh! and I’m kind of upset at myself for having fallen off of Club Penguin too early to experience it, but at the same time... I’m not entirely sure 11-year-old me would’ve taken it so well. 

but yeah, you self destruct the solar laser and get to see this video! I really like this one, so I’m just poppin’ it in here.

and yeah! that’s about where my knowledge ends vis a vis Herbert! thanks for like,, actually reading this if you did, bc this post is a mile long