Defenders & Artefacts: Broken Rules

     Location: The Maze

     Discoveries: Baby Vandagyre, Wooden board

     Azul fell back on the stone floor, with a thump, and his bag fell next to him. He looked up in horror. The candles were still lit. Shining their orange hues onto the skulls that made up the walls of the Maze, it made them appear sinister. Was this all true? Had Blanca really betrayed them? He felt a knot in his stomach when he thought of her. He was always looking for the opportunity to get to know her more, but he never managed to do it. Constantly putting it off because of fear or anxiety. He admired her knowledge of ancient Neopia as well as her spark to work in unfavourable conditions with no complaints; an admiration he never expressed.

     If it was all true, he was in big trouble, being stuck in the basement with yet no way back up. He started panicking. Their plan had to be to find at least one of the weapons, but - checking the blue map on his wristband - the Hall of Heroes and Library were on the ground floor, and the Treasury hadn’t been found yet! In these moments, he felt useless and unworthy of the title as a junior defender. His crippling anxiety crawled, resurfacing like an old friend.

     He allowed himself time to calm down and tried to find the positive side of this horrific situation. The silver lining was that Verde was in the attic, albeit stuck in there with thick smoke. His wristband informed him that Verde had an opportunity to search for a weapon, even if the smoke would hinder him. However, the white dot of the treacherous Blanca was only a few rooms away from him, in the Paved Pathway. He trusted Verde, and he truly believed that he was meant to be a defender and, more specifically, a leader out in the field. He sometimes felt that his father would have been much better off with a son who shared Verde’s resilience and courage and not stuck with someone like himself.

     With deep breaths, he composed himself, trying to eliminate the negative thoughts from his mind. He didn’t have time to worry about Verde and what their atrocious old colleague would do, but about himself and the baby sleeping in his bag. He had one goal right now. Find the stairs back up to the foyer and make his way to the Hall of Heroes or the Library to search for a weapon.

     He stood up from the ground and carefully lifted and put on his bag. He picked up the wooden board that was previously stuck on the wall and inspected it. It had a rectangular shape, and it was polished, its surface reflecting the orange light from the candles. Engraved on the top side of the board was a plethora of unknown symbols. It might have been a long-forgotten alphabet he was not aware of. Surely Blanca would have known. He checked his wristband for more information, and he was displeased to find out that the wooden board could be used to spell out the name of the next room that would be opened in the house.

     “This is so useless,” Azul muttered, “When I use it, enemies can move closer to us - the defenders - as well? I have no use for this garbage, especially during this mess,” he continued, frustrated. He got the impression that this artefact was meant for someone evil, someone like their former friend and colleague, whose moral compass had broken down somewhere along the way of this journey. He stuffed the wooden board in his bag, snugging it behind the baby Vandagyre to act as its support, which had woken up and cooed when it felt the cold surface of the board against its feathered body.

     He decided that it bore a greater risk to try and cross the Maze than turning back and searching for the stairs. Thus, he turned around and walked through the door he had just come through, returning to the Basement Landing, which was still as empty as he had left it. Purpura was still in the room in front of him. If she had found the stairs already, they would have appeared as a new room on his map, thus he decided to turn left and explore more, in hopes of finding them soon.

     He pushed the door to the next room and he was greeted with the most succulent smell he had ever smelled in his life. The room was very well lit, with a single chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. He saw a fridge, a stove and a sink, all in a line on the opposite wall. The Kitchen floor was made of black and white square marble tiles that reminded him of a checkers board. Everything was immaculate, dust-free free as if someone had just cleaned. The counters were spotless, and the wooden cupboards hanging from the left wall were sparkling with a freshly applied layer of varnish. Besides, it smelled of dessert. He couldn’t place his finger on what the smell was exactly, nor could he see where it was coming from. Overall, a very pleasant room to have discovered, but it was not the stairs he so desperately required to find.

     Right below the chandelier were more counters, which formed an island in the middle of the room. A fruit basket was left in a corner, with fresh oranges. Above the island counter, a Cirrus floated. It grinned at Azul and happily started hovering up and down in the air, its wispy cloud exterior squeezing and compressing. It had the familiar, by now, white glow around it. Azul got closer and braced himself for the head-spinning experience just before touching it. He reached out his hand and made contact with the fluffy petpet.

     Nothing happened; the room stayed in its place. No streaks formed around him from the items in the room nor did he experience any strange activities. He checked his wristband to find that he had gained two points in strength but lost one point in clarity, as long as he took care of the Cirrus. He reached out and softly petted the soft petpet, thanking it for its aid.

     Purpura

     Location: Gym

     Discoveries: Mask, Moehog skull

     Purpura fell on the Gym floor, her head hitting a punching bag right behind her. The Moehog skull had fallen from her hands and hit the metallic locker where it once hid inside. She got up and her feet were trembling.

     “Is Blanca really a traitor as Orion said?” she thought, horrified. They always had some healthy competition between themselves, having both been exceptional in their written defender’s exams. However, she never understood her. As much as she liked to consider her as a friend after all the training they’d shared, she always found her closed off to herself. She did try to get to know her more, as she was quite interested in Blanca’s affinity with artefacts, and she believed that she could be helpful. Purpura had always been interested in items that would help her track down her parents, but Blanca never helped her even after asking her multiple times, something that irritated Purpura.

     She struggled but managed to get up and rubbed her head. She felt fine as the punching bag had somewhat cushioned her fall. She quickly scurried to find the skull; it was of utmost importance that she carried it with her. She saw it lie next to the locker, picked it up and tucked it away safely. Her wristband informed her that Azul was in a nearby room and, upon seeing his blue dot, a feeling of responsibility overtook her. She desperately needed to find the stairs for both their sakes. At this exact moment, not only did they have a fearful threat approaching them, but they were also rendered incapacitated by the basement floor, unable to aid in the search for the weapon. The only available door was on her left, as the one she had entered from led back to the basement landing. Walking over cracked weights, sweaty t-shirts and old exercise mats, she reached the door on the left-hand side of the room and walked through.

     The room that spread in front of her was paved with tiles which angled upwards. It was, in fact, a narrow corridor, with two torches held in place in the middle walls by a metallic hook. She had done it, she had managed to discover the stairs from the basement which led up to the foyer. She recognised her luck, as this door could have as easily led to an underground lake for all she knew. She smiled with satisfaction as she started climbing up the steps, ready to continue her search for a weapon. The claustrophobic room led to a wooden trap door just above her head. The door was lined with two metallic rods running parallel to its surface and a lock, which accepted a ten number sequence.

     “Ten numbers? Why can’t anything be easy in this house?” she muttered, frustrated. She took a step back to have a better look at the whole hatch in front of her and closed her eyes. This task required either strength or intelligence, and she was not about to brute force her way through. She focused on her intelligence. With a few deep breaths, she managed to tap into the mind world. The door and all the surroundings lost their physical outlines and became hand-drawn lines. Colours shifted to shades of purple. On the door, she noticed a word, two letters and two numbers etched into the surface, their deep purple hues clearly visible against the indigo shades of the grain of wood. None of these were visible to the naked eye. On the top of the list, the letter A was etched with an arrow pointing to number one. Just below it, the letter Z was etched, and its arrow pointed to number twenty-six. Last on the list, the word VISION was written in capital letters.

     She thought about the task at hand for a second, and she understood what she had to do. If her idea was right, she had to correlate all the letters to their corresponding number, given that the first letter corresponds to number one and the last letter corresponds to number twenty-six. Her target was the numbers corresponding to the letters that made up the word VISION. She started counting letters and numbers in her mind. After cracking the first letter, she remembered that, within the mind world, she could take notes of her thoughts. As her finger traced the void, magenta-tinted letters and numbers appeared and floated in mid-air, which made it easier to crack the code.

     She opened her eyes and her surroundings returned to their original colours. She rushed back up the last few steps to reach the lock and entered the newfound code: 2291991514. This had to be correct; she counted and recounted the letters and numbers to ensure her success. She turned the knob on the lock and, with a click, it opened. She turned her back to the hatch door and, with all her strength, she pushed against it. Light rushed into the torch-lit corridor as the hatch swung open outwards, against the pull of gravity. It hit the floor of the foyer, its metallic handle crashing loudly against the floor.

     She scurried out of the basement into the foyer. The stairs from the basement had led her to the trap door that they had seen earlier, half hidden within the foyer floor, but it couldn’t be moved. Right beside the hatch was the door that led to the Corridor of Statues. A thought crossed her mind; what if she scanned the embracing dolls again she had found in the Ballroom for a chance to acquire a weapon? After all, her wristband informed her that items were hidden in the surroundings of the dolls. Despite Orion not referring to that room, she believed that there was a possibility. Worst came to worst, the more items she possessed, the better it would be for everyone. Especially for her.

     She had no time to waste, she quickly moved straight to the Abandoned room where she had found the mask and then turned right into the Ballroom. She was greeted by the rainbow reflections of the light from the chandeliers hanging from above. She followed the rainbow until she saw the two Usul dolls that reminded her of her parents. This time, she was determined. She closed her eyes and concentrated on entering the mind world. Despite her determination, it was much harder to achieve a good link with the mind world, since she had just entered and already felt drained. With much effort, she managed to tap in. Just like before, the hand-drawn outlines of the dolls appeared with their already familiar purple tint.

     Time was now against her. If she failed, her mind would get attacked by the same entity that would provide her an item if she succeeded. She started scanning the dolls, commencing from the head of the left one. She found nothing. She quickly moved to the head of the right one, with no success. She was getting irritated; it took a lot of effort to stay in this state, let alone doing it twice in quick succession, due to the strain it took to open the hatch door moments earlier. Her mind concentrated on the four hands which were embracing in the middle of the dolls, right below the Spyder webs. The clock was ticking! She sensed a strong aura coming from there. As the yellow flash started emanating from the dolls ready to attack her, she latched onto the aura with her mind and exited the mind world.

     Verde

     Location: Attic

     Discoveries: Bite

     Verde fell onto the attic floor, disturbing the smoke and making it dance around as if it was alive. He opened his eyes and tried to remember where he was. Above him, the smoke flowed and changed shapes before settling into a thick layer that smelled of dirt. He raised his wristband, and the green light washed over his face. He was in the attic, affected by the smoke. Blanca was in the Paved Pathway nearby, and she had recently been affected by a strong gust of wind.

     With a sudden jerk, his torso lifted from the floor.

     “Blanca!” he shouted angrily as he pushed against the floor to help himself up, fuming. He remembered the traitor who wanted to jeopardise their mission. Defenders were meant to help and protect, not betray and destroy. He couldn’t let her get away with it. Her actions were certainly going to hurt the reputation of the defenders, and he simply couldn’t allow that. Not only that, but this was his first mission without any field guidance by a higher-ranked defender, which meant that he had to see it through. Nevertheless, he was reassured to be in the attic, one of the rooms that could hide a helpful weapon. He calmed himself and decided that the best course of action was to start the counterattack. After all, a strong defender was a determined defender, and he did not lack any determination. He knew he had to rely on his intelligence to find this weapon, but where could it be? With the smoke blocking his vision, this was an even more complicated task.

     He stood in the centre of the small room, right below the light bulb, and closed his eyes. He tried to concentrate on his intelligence, taking in deep breaths. For fleeting moments, he was able to tap into the mind world. But every time he managed to get a glimpse of it, thick white smoke flooded his mind and ejected him. He stopped trying and shook his head to clear it from any unfavourable thoughts. He was committed to not let that traitor ruin their mission. He shut his eyes once more and, letting his full intelligence take control, he entered the mind world.

     The whole attic got drained of its original colour. The outlines of each item turned to black lines of varying thickness, as if drawn by a brush using watercolours. Everything preserved its brightness and contrast, but converted into shades of green. The annoying smoke followed him as well, staining the room around him with a white mist. It lingered in the air, obscuring his vision. He wandered around the green room, looking for any sign which could signify a potential weapon hiding location. He scanned every nook of the attic, starting from its slanted roof and the light bulb. Everywhere he turned, the smoke was quick to swoop in and try to cover things up, to make this impossible task unimaginable. He was starting to feel tired as it took a huge toll on him to stay in this state, and he wasn’t any closer to uncovering something useful.

     As he kept checking one location and another, checking the floor, the window, the bed, he noticed that the pillow on the bed had a layer of particularly thicker smoke compared to the rest of the room. It looked like a big puff of mist, which felt almost solid, was obstructing the view of the celery green pillow more than it impeded the view of the borovan bedsheets. With one last effort, he pushed away the smoke from the pillow, sending it swirling around the room and latched onto the pillow, as he exited the mind world.

     He gasped for air as the attic returned to its original colours, smoke drifting mindlessly around him. In his hands lay a crescent moon-shaped weapon with no string attached. However, its colour didn’t correspond to the blindingly reflecting surface they had seen in Orion’s vision. On the contrary, it was dull grey.

     Having found a weapon, it was now time to get as far away from the attic as possible. Blanca was extremely close to him, and she would soon start her reign of terror. With no second thought, he clasped the bow firmly in his hands and started running out of the attic back to the Research Laboratory. He jumped over spilt beakers and broken benches and swiftly continued straight, back to the dusty hallway. Covering his nose and mouth to keep the dust specks from troubling him, he turned right to the creaky hallway. The noise that echoed like high-pitched shrieks, as if the house was crying with his agony, did not deter him, for he sprinted through the symphony of cries and creaks to reach the Upper Hall. He quickly started climbing down the stairs and reached the grand staircase on the ground floor when he froze in place, eyes fixed on the creaking Entrance door, truly scared for the first time during this mission. Someone was entering the house.

     Blanca

     Location: Paved Pathway

     Discoveries: Crystal ball

     Blanca’s feet gracefully touched the surface of the Paved Pathway as she slowly descended from the skies. Around her, she could see and feel a strong white aura emanating and protecting her from all the misfortunes of the house. She knew he was near. She felt rejuvenated and his presence empowered her even more. Her plan was finally in motion; years of belittlement and fake friendships, of putting up with each one’s capricious wants and childish complaints. Her time to shine and take revenge was upon them, and they would feel her wrath. Maybe they would finally show an ounce of respect to her, or better yet, if they still refrained, she would impose it on them to recognise her.

     She let herself feel her emotions. She disliked Verde with all his perfect stories of adventures, all the places he visited and traversed through, as if she didn’t have equally as interesting or even more exciting stories. No one ever asked her about her explorations of the pyramids or the ancient Geraptiku ruins she mapped. Her feelings towards Azul were pure disappointment in the system and the future defenders selection process. How could they have chosen someone like him? Was it just because of his father’s status? He certainly did not deserve the spot he filled. Most of all, though, she loathed Purpura and her constant interest in Blanca’s artefacts. That was the one true thing that Blanca knew defined her: her love for her artefacts. Purpura was constantly extremely eager to get involved and learn more about them, as if she could comprehend them.

     She glanced up at the imposing Tower in front of her. There was no longer a reason to visit it, even if she was intrigued to study the strange symbols that she had seen engraved onto the door. She was certain the Tower would hide interesting books, but more pressing matters were at hand at this moment, the downfall of the defenders. She turned and passed through the wooden door back into the Rotten Room. It was no longer reeking, or at least she couldn’t notice the smell. She checked her wristband. The white map that jumped out informed her that a green dot, Verde, had made its way downstairs, so she decided that there was nothing left for her to gain on the top floor.

     She turned left to the Game Room and passed through, ignoring the game of checkers that had intrigued her so much, and turned right into the Dusty Hallway. Dust particles were flying around her. They hit and bounced off the faint white aura that engulfed her. Not a single speck touched her. She made her way to the end of the room and entered the Creaky Hallway. Her feet touched the marble floor of the hallway. It was calm and quiet; neither a shriek nor a creak sounded from the crying room. Finally, she was receiving the respect she was owed.

     Albugineo

     Location: Entrance Hall

     Albugineo pushed the door to the entrance hall and entered, floating above the ground. His white aura was emanating and his venomous green eyes contrasted with the snow white colour of his mane. A brute Wocky with immense strength and prowess, he was easy to manipulate to do one’s bidding. He was here to take revenge on behalf of his sister, Blanca. His gleaming green eyes scanned the whole area around him and locked on a target. Further ahead, a foe was standing at the end of the staircase.

     He didn’t need a map. He was capable of sensing everything around him, friend or foe. He arrogantly glided through the rooms, leaving behind the entrance hall and passing through the foyer. He reached the grand staircase where he saw him. A Green Kacheek was standing at the bottom of the staircase with a grey bow in hand. They locked eyes. He did not fear this Kacheek, he was the unstoppable Albugineo after all.

     Albugineo’s aura suddenly turned into two mighty knuckles, which ejected from the surface as if by spectral magic, and hurled towards the staircase. Verde fell to the left at the last second, hitting the newel as he tried to dodge the attack. The white knuckles hit the bottom step and sprang back to become part of Albugineo’s aura once more. Verde couldn’t run away as he had no movement left. He had to defeat this beast right now and start learning how to use the weapon in his hands which was currently useless. White knuckles emerged from the aura again and were rushing towards Verde. He quickly rolled on the floor on his left to avoid them. With a crack, they lashed against the floor and returned to Albugineo.

     “He is certainly strong, but he is also slow,” Verde thought. That might have been their only plan of action for attacking.

     Albugineo stopped moving and attacking with his aura. He had sensed Blanca right above them, as she was getting closer to join him and together they would show these nuisances who they truly were and what their family name signified. He glanced upwards and, staring at the ceiling, he took a deep breath of satisfaction. Verde noticed Albugineo’s arrogance getting the best of him, saw his chance and took it. He concentrated immensely on his strength and felt it flow through his muscles, just like they were taught by Orig the Great during their melee fight training.

     “Use the element of surprise to outsmart your enemies,” Orig’s words flooded Verde’s mind as he felt the rush of strength overtake him.

     With a vault that made the floor shake, he jumped towards Albugineo with his fist extended and struck him right on the black symbol painted on his left hand side. The blow pushed Albugineo back several metres, however he was slow and didn’t notice that Verde was now behind him, preparing his second blow.

     The venomous eyes turned to face him again and that’s when Verde lunged once more, to deliver the second blow with his left fist. Albugineo managed to block it with a knuckle which quickly leapt from his aura, leaving a small gap on his protective field. Verde swiftly used this opening to land a third blow right onto the other symbol using his right fist. Albugineo was knocked backwards and he hit the bottom of the staircase. With a poof, he disappeared from sight, leaving Verde’s paws burning like fire.

To be continued…