A Hero's Journey: Mystery Island's Mystery Monster

     “A spell!” Mipsy was back-to-back with Velm, firing spells at the bouncers coming toward them while the Red Techo created shields in front of them so any bouncer within range bounced off them. “Oh no, Talinia!” She blasted a chill wind into the face of the Pink Poogle, who stumbled backwards in surprise.

     The Shoyru jabbed Rohane in the stomach with her club and soared into the air again, headed toward the direction of the pathway.

     “Stop her!” he shouted.

      Velm sent up what looked like a shower of stars that engulfed the Shoyru, causing her to fall unconscious to the ground. A Bori tried to take advantage of this brief opening and rushed forward, but Rohane grabbed him and pulled him away, causing him to stagger.

     “Ahhh!”

     Mipsy tried to dodge an incoming staff that swung toward her head and tripped, but she continued firing spells from where she was on the manicured artificial grass while Velm struck her would-be assailant – a stocky island Jetsam – against the shoulder with his own staff. Meanwhile, the Bori got back onto his feet, brandishing his club and growling as he focused on Rohane, who blocked the club and then followed through with a disarming strike so quickly that the Bori’s weapon was knocked away. The White Blumaroo kicked the club away into a nearby pond before hurrying to help his friends.

     “Hey! I-I hope we’re not too late!”

     A Brown Peophin emerged from the brow of the hill, accompanied by a few familiar faces who immediately threw themselves into the fray. The Darigan Buzz with the eyepatch and the yellow Hissi took to the air and pulled Mipsy and Velm from the knot of bouncers surrounding them, while Jhun was among them like a purple bowling ball among pins, demonstrating that his muscled arms were not just for show. The impassive Shadow Lutari suddenly snarled and flung themselves at a Tuskaninny who managed to break away.

     Meanwhile, the Bori went after Rohane again, his club foregone. Rohane ducked a hard right and struck with his blade, causing the Bori to cry out and drop to the ground, clutching his arm.

     “Right, where did Cade go?” asked Maritess. “And where’s Talinia?”

     Velm, who was glowing with healing magic, pointed wordlessly at the path leading down to the beach below.

     “We have to go help her, but can you…” Mipsy flapped a hand over the bouncers who were already being tied to the trees by Jhun, Feldiwell and Hara. Groaning softly, Velm approached them, staff bathed in soft golden light, to tend to their hurts.

     “Yeah, go on ahead, I have a plan,” said the Peophin. “Go help Talinia and catch up with Cade.”

     The Blue Acara smiled. “Thank you, Miss Maritess. We owe you one.”

     “You have a plan?” the Buzz asked as he watched Rohane, Mipsy and Velm head down the path and vanish beneath the cliff ledge. He was toting a crossbow, but the bolt loaded into it was blunted with a rubber cap.

     “Listen up!” the Peophin shouted at the bouncers. “You lot could continue working for Cade McCaden, who just left you to deal with three very skilled fighters, which is likely way above your pay grade. I’ve heard a lot about how he deals with his employees, and I’m here to offer you a deal. Cooperate with us, and I’ll offer you real employment, with leave and benefits, and definitely more than fifty thousand Neopoints a month.”

     “Didn’t the boss reject your application for leave so you could attend your kid’s graduation?” the Island Shoyru, who had finally regained consciousness, asked the Tuskaninny, who nodded sadly.

     “H-How do we know you’re not gonna stab us in the back, huh?” the Pink Poogle demanded. Jhun cuffed him soundly on the ears.

     Maritess arched an eyebrow. “Ask any of the folk at White Shores Inn. I treat all my employees fairly. Any more questions?”

     The Bori raised his hand. “Uh, I don’t really like working as a bouncer at all. Can I apply to be a cook or something?”

     * * *

     Talinia was forced to almost do a somersault in midair as another jet of lightning blazed toward her. Cade’s face was twisted in frustration and mounting rage as he flicked his pearl staff, creating more bolts of electricity, some of which struck the invisible barrier surrounding most of the beach and fizzled out of existence.

     She nocked an arrow to her bow and loosed it, aiming for Cade’s staff hand, but the arrow was disintegrated by another electric blast.

     “If you leave me alone now,” said Cade, seething, “I’ll forget all about this.” His weapon crackled again, and he let out a yell as he fired lightning at her. She dodged, and he hit the cliff face, causing rocks to fall and then vanish before they hit the ground.

     A jet of bright pink light suddenly arced toward the Woodland Cybunny, who barely evaded it with a shimmering pearly shield of energy, and was forced backwards from the impact. When he looked up, he scowled deeply and swept his staff in a wide crescent that generated even more lightning, cutting through the air and emitting a booming sound. Mipsy gasped and ran down the path, with Velm and Rohane well ahead of her.

     “I told you to leave,” Cade hissed. “If you’re still here, you’re trespassing. I could call the authorities on you.”

     “All this trouble over a little barrier,” said Velm, stepping onto the sand and grimacing. “Something smells fishy, and I also mean that literally.” With his own staff, he cast an ethereal, sparkling shield over his companions. Mipsy fired more blasts of multicoloured magic that met Cade’s white lightning and caused a series of little fireworks. Cade braced himself as the Blue Acara raised her wand again, but was surprised when she instead aimed it at Rohane.

     And judging from how fast he sprinted and closed the distance between himself and Cade, Mipsy had performed a haste spell.

     The Woodland Cybunny hurriedly stepped away, but he couldn’t stop Rohane’s next strike, which knocked his staff out of his hands. A flurry of stars from Velm’s next spell blinded Cade long enough for Mipsy to levitate the pearl staff up and into Talinia’s hands.

     “Give me my staff back! Trespassing, stealing…some adventurers you lot are!” Cade angrily blinked away the last of the stars in his vision but froze in his tracks as the barrier rippled and glowed.

     The huge Swamp Gas Flotsam emerged, snorting and emitting its foul breath. It bore down upon Cade, who shrank away and backed up so far that he wound up getting his shoes and trousers wet.

     “G-Get them!” He pointed to the four adventurers at the beach. “N-N-Not me!”

     “It’s not attacking us,” said Rohane, staring at the pearl staff that Talinia passed to Velm.

     “Have you noticed,” the Red Techo said sagely, “that most reported sightings of this monster didn’t involve anyone getting hurt? In our case, perhaps it was merely defending the island of Omara’s shrine – sacred ground, by all accounts.”

     The White Blumaroo nodded. “And before we got back here, it also left us alone after it overturned our boat. The monster believed coming here was more important.”

     Velm held up the pearl staff and approached the Flotsam. “O Great Omara, patron of this beach, goddess of Mystery Island,” he called out, “we, travellers from other lands, bring you an offering to sate your thirst for justice, and to help you take back what is yours.”

     “O-Omara?” Mipsy exclaimed. “This…this monster, is…”

     The Flotsam turned away from Cade, who was futilely shielding his face and head with his arms, and stared down at Velm, who proffered the staff.

     “No, no, my staff…” The Cybunny reached out and took a few tentative steps to wade back onto the sand, but he was too late.

     As soon as the Flotsam took hold of the staff, it broke the weapon with a decisive snap. Cade made a noise like a Kadoatie whose tail was stepped on as the air around most of the beach began to flicker and crackle. In the midst of the magical static, glimpses of the beach could be seen until the last of the barrier ebbed away as though being washed away by the tides.

     “Oh, no,” said Talinia, grimacing. “What have you done, Mister McCaden?”

     The beach hidden away from the public was far from empty. The skeleton of a building façade greeted them, with a large sheet of cardboard serving as a makeshift sign that said, “Cade’s Coast Cuisine” in hastily applied black paint. Materials like planks of wood and sacks of cement haphazardly littered the area. Dumpsters overflowed with all sorts of garbage, and sticking out from the cliff face, beneath the hotel, was a pipe leaking sewage into a poorly dug trench at the bottom, which threatened to carry its contents into the sea.

     The Swamp Gas Flotsam hissed again, and opened its, no, her mouth to speak.

     ”It is time you cleaned your own messes, Cade McCaden. You refuse to change your ways, so now, I bring down upon your own head what you have done.”

     After throwing the remains of Cade’s staff into the nearest open dumpster, she held her fins high. Dumpsters and trash and building materials and even the wastewater were lifted off the beach, buoyed by raw power that caused everyone watching to back away, and then rained down over Omara’s Bounty Hotel. Everyone heard the clattering of cans, splintering wood, and the slimy splash of sewage. Employees and guests alike streamed out from the hotel to see what was happening and immediately ran as far as their legs and other limbs could carry them, screaming.

     When she was done, the beach was pristine, without a single scrap of litter. Even the stench and the sewage were gone. The Swamp Gas Flotsam transformed into an island Flotsam with a circlet of crystals and pearls on her head and a gossamer gown reminiscent of the breaking sea. In her fin was a trident hewn from coral and shells.

     On the cliff pathway, Maritess and her friends halted, gasped in awe and bowed in respect before they filed onto the shore.

     “M-My hotel. My restaurant…” Cade gaped at the beach and rounded on the adventurers. “This is why I told you I could handle it! I would’ve had my restaurant open if it weren’t for you meddling heroes!”

     “You were using this place as your personal landfill!” said Rohane, jabbing a finger at Cade’s chest. “No wonder you didn’t want any of us to see what was under the barrier!”

     “So, the rumours were true,” Maritess remarked. “Omara’s Bounty Hotel had some…er, outdated reports and permits related to waste management and garbage disposal. We had also been wondering how he got around them, if he bribed anyone or what. Turns out, he swept everything under the barrier along with a restaurant he wanted to put up right on this beach.”

     “Why, you – “

     Talinia, Rohane, Jhun and Hara all stepped forward, but Omara beat all of them to the punch. She brought down her trident over Cade, who winked out of view.

     The brown Peophin fiddled with the collar of her dress. “Great Goddess Omara, if I may, where did he – “

     ”Call your authorities, Maritess Baitan. I have detained him for the time being on my island.” Omara smiled warmly, like the breaking dawn. ”I want to thank these four brave adventurers, and you and your friends, for your help.”

     “Will we…be seeing you around more often then, ma’am?” asked Jhun.

     ”I am always around. In the sea, upon your beach…and of course, on my island. After all, I am but a remnant of my former self; my outrage altered my form for a time, but now…” The Royal Flotsam gradually became more transparent. ”Farewell.”

     And then she was gone.

     * * *

     “Many hours of community service, in addition to his hotel being shut down and fines upon fines,” said Jhun, grinning crookedly as he waded into the sea, a surfboard under his arm. “Cade and his entire board of directors will be cleaning up that area for a while, and more besides.”

     “What, no jail time?” asked Mipsy mulishly. She accompanied him and carried her own surfboard – bright red, with a tropical flower motif. “Feels like he got off lightly.”

     The purple Skeith sighed. “Cade’s still got some friends in high places who probably just managed to keep him out of jail. But the local council will be filing for reconsideration.”

     “Typical,” said Velm, as he and Hara worked on a sandcastle. “Where’s Talinia and what’s his name, the Buzz with the eyepatch – “

     “Danneth?” The yellow Hissi overturned another pailful of wet sand, creating another tower. “Heh, he said something about an archery contest today and took her to sign up. There’s a team category too, maybe he wants to compete alongside her.”

     “What’s the prize?”

     “Probably a tidy sum of Neopoints, or another trip to Mystery Island.”

     “How’s Maritess, by the way?” Velm paused to watch Jhun and Mipsy catch a wave and surf. Nearby, Feldiwell cheered as Rohane got onto his own surfboard.

     Hara stuck a little leaf as a flag onto one of the sand towers. “Up to her ears in job interviews. After Cade’s hotel closed down, many of his employees went to apply with her. They had no idea about the barrier or the garbage dump he was creating, and even if they did, I doubt any of them would’ve been able to bring Cade to justice.”

     The Red Techo chuckled. “The problem was so bad, Omara had become an entirely different version of herself to do the job. Still, we wouldn’t have been able to help her without all of you.”

     “Okay, since you seem to be the expert on gods and all, all this time, Omara could have done what she did to Cade. Why wait this long? Why wait until now?”

     “She was only a remnant of herself, remember? Consumed by wrath and pain from Cade ruining the beach, I figured she would eventually snap out of it once she saw Neopians fighting for her. Making an offering probably helped, too.”

     “Woohoo! Watch me!” Mipsy waved her arms as she and Jhun rode their wave all the way back onto the shore, laughing uproariously. “Rohane, how are you do – “

     “C’mon, you can do it!” said Feldiwell. The Shadow Lutari led the way along the next wave as Rohane valiantly tried to keep his balance.

     “You won’t be the only knight who can surf when I’m done, Jeran!” the White Blumaroo shouted over the sounds of the sea before he lost his footing and tumbled, board and all, into the water.

     Mipsy and Velm traded a look. “Yeah, you should stick to your day job,” the Acara pointed out.

     “I heard that!” said Rohane irately as he surfaced and then paddled back to shore with Feldiwell.

     Velm stood back and examined his and Hara’s masterpiece. “Hey, when you’re done with your surfing lesson, we should probably go to that archery contest Danneth mentioned and cheer Talinia on.”

     “Sounds like a good idea.”

     Mipsy nodded. “Finally, we’re having a real vacation! Anyone up for some cliff diving tomorrow?”

     The End.