The New Order

“Well, the scout said that when he approached the base, he was shot at by figures in black tunics and caps that were patrolling the watchtower on top.”

The room was filled for a moment by a stunned silence. Then DZ threw his hands in the air and yelled, “Oh, come on!”

“Do you mean to tell me that our Jungle Base was taken over by the Noctem Alliance?” asked Charlie, his face reflecting his shell-shocked disbelief.

“It would seem so,” replied Archie gravely. “It looks like not only is the Alliance still alive, but it’s powerful.”

“It’s not possible!” cried Stan. His stomach had knotted up, and he was beginning to sweat as he started to think about what this information meant. “The Jungle Base is one of our most fortified! All twenty of the guards in there were skilled fighters with enough armour and gear to fight at maximum capacity!”

“That’s not all,” added Archie, the fear in his voice almost tangible. “One of the Noctem soldiers was Leonidas, Stan.”

“What the what!” shouted DZ. “Leonidas is dead! Wasn’t he killed at the battle along with the rest of RAT1? Right? Stan?”

But Stan was staring at Charlie in horror, who returned with a stare of absolute astonishment. Their eyes locked, and it was clear that they were both thinking the same thing. The military had, after investigation, concluded that Leonidas had been killed in Becca’s TNT trap at the Battle for Elementia. The police had determined the same thing. There was only one source in the kingdom who had stated that Leonidas was still alive, a source Charlie had talked Stan into disregarding.

“You weren’t just hallucinating that night, were you, Stan,” said Charlie. It was not a question. Even Stan, who had brushed off the nocturnal visit by Sally’s voice as nothing but a delusion brought on by fatigue, now knew perfectly well that everything he had heard was indeed Sally trying to contact him from beyond the server.

“What are you talking about?” asked Archie, in a nervous, alarmed voice.

“Yeah, what are you talking about, Charlie?” asked DZ, his face taking on an uncharacteristically freaked-out look.

“Stan …”

Stan leaped up. That voice did not belong to Charlie. It did not belong to Archie or DZ, either. And, based on a quick look around the room, he was the only one to hear it.

“What?” Charlie asked, looking at Stan in panic. Stan paid no notice to any of them. He was already sprinting down the hallway, taking a sharp left, and bolting into his room. He needed this conversation to be private.

“Sally? Is that you?”

“Stan … I don’t … much … time …” Sally’s voice from nowhere was punctuated by bursts of static, and Stan could barely make out what she was saying. “Noctem … Alliance … alive …”

“I know Sally, I know!” cried Stan. “They just took over our Jungle Base!”

“I know … but … another … attack … inbound …” Her voice was barely audible over the now loud static. It was as if somebody was trying to jam her signal.

“Don’t … know … heard … fragments … tennis … danger … losing … I … contact … you … later …” There was a burst of static, and then a pop, and Sally was gone.

Stan’s head was spinning. The Noctem Alliance had attacked them, and another attack was incoming. And she had also said something about the Tennis Machine! What did that mean? Regardless, after the attack on the Jungle Base that apparently was led by Leonidas, Stan had no qualms about deciphering the information given to him by Sally, and acting on it.

“Stan, what happened?” Archie asked when Stan walked back into the common room. “Charlie told us that you’ve been in contact with Sally? How is that? She’s dead, Stan.”

“I know that, but somehow she’s found a way to partially hack her way back onto the server, and I can hear her voice,” said Stan, ignoring the looks of scepticism on Archie’s and DZ’s faces. “She contacted me once before, and told me that Leonidas was alive, and that he and Caesar were raising some kind of force. I thought I was dreaming it at first, but then it turns out that a well-equipped force led by Leonidas just took over the Jungle Base! It can’t just be a coincidence.”

Archie and DZ were staring at Stan wide-eyed, knowing that he was telling the truth even though they weren’t sure how it could be possible.

“OK, we get that,” said Charlie after a moment, “but what did she say to you just then? That is why you ran out, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is,” Stan replied. “She just told me an attack was incoming, and that the Tennis Machine was a danger.”

There was a pause. Then …

“Are you losing your mind, Stan?” asked DZ.

“Stan, how can the Tennis Machine be a danger? It’s just a recreation thing,” reasoned Charlie.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t the one who said it!” yelled Stan.

“OK, OK, let’s disregard that for a second,” said Archie. “What was that about an inbound attack?”

“I don’t know,” said Stan. “Her voice was cut off by static half the time.”

“Stan, it’d be nice if your dead girlfriend could be a little less vague,” said DZ with an exasperated chuckle.

“Well, seeing as we don’t have any real idea what the upcoming attack is, or when it’s coming, I say the only thing we can really do is prepare our military,” said Charlie. “I’ll alert the soldiers to do double duty in patrolling our walls, and I’ll send messengers out to tell all our outposts to do the same. DZ, can you go and tell Ben to get the police to step it up, too?”

“Aye aye, Captain,” replied DZ, and he stood up and crossed the room to the door that led to the stairwell with the courtyard at the bottom.

“What do you want me to do, Charlie?” asked Archie. Stan’s eyebrow twitched. He almost resented that Archie asked for a command from Charlie rather than him. On the other hand, he did feel rather disgruntled at the moment, and it probably showed.

“I want you to go out and finish the preparations,” said Charlie with a grin. “We’ve still got to have Elementia Day, don’t we?”

“That we do,” boomed Archie, and he swept out of the room after DZ.

“I’m gonna see what I can do to reconnect with Sally,” said Stan. “Maybe she can tell us more about this attack.”

“Good thinking, Stan,” said Charlie as he stood up and went the way of Archie and DZ.

Stan walked out of the common room back to his quarters, and he lay down on the bed. Stan focused all his being on Sally, hoping there was some iota of chance that she could reconnect with him.

But Sally didn’t reconnect with him. Not in his bedroom, not when Archie told him it was time for the celebrations to begin, not during the pig race when Charlie won his bet against Kat that Bob would win, and not during the sparring tournament. Stan found it difficult to think of anything else. It was as if the players in the crowd were on a TV that Stan wasn’t really watching.

Stan kept telling himself he wanted to contact Sally for the sake of intelligence on the impending attack. Really, though, the reason was that he wanted nothing more in the world than to hear her voice again. Perhaps, although it seemed impossible, they could discover some way that Sally might rejoin Elementia.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” boomed Archie’s deep voice, cutting through Stan’s thoughts like a knife, “President Stan2012 will take the stage for the re-enactment of the great battle between himself and the tyrannical King Kev.”

Stan sighed. This was perhaps his least favourite part of the ceremonies, yet, for some reason, it tended to be one of the most popular. Although the people of the republic had been loud and rambunctious in the ceremonies all day, the loudest cacophony of cheers and praises rang out now, as Stan climbed the stairs up to the imitation bridge that had been constructed at the centre of the park.

The re-enactment had only been added last Elementia Day. Blackraven had suggested that it was fitting that the people of Elementia celebrate how their beloved republic came to be, and that Stan himself should play his own part in the play. Stan was still determined to give his people the show they loved, despite how uncomfortable it made him to relive the deaths of his friends.

He looked down the bridge at the actor dressed now as King Kev. It was a different actor this month, Stan noted. Although it was impossible to tell two players with the same skin apart at a glance, it was possible to tell by truly examining their eyes. Every player’s eyes had a unique gleam to them.

Stan, who had earlier been adorned in diamond armour with two iron axes strapped to his back just as they had been the day he had challenged King Kev, drew one of these axes now. The King’s eyebrow twitched, as scripted, and Stan charged down the stone bridge towards the King Kev doppelgänger. The King’s sword was drawn, as was necessary, and, at the right point, Stan threw the axe at the actor’s head. The actor dive-rolled to the side and was then supposed to raise his diamond sword to counter the downward blow from Stan’s axe.

Instead, the actor thrust the sword upwards into the handle of Stan’s axe and gave it a sharp twist, sending Stan’s weapon spiralling to the side, just as the Avery actor grabbed Stan from behind in a full nelson and raised his own diamond sword to Stan’s throat.

There was a horrified silence in the crowd for a moment, before screams began to erupt. All throughout the crowd, figures were buttoning on black tunics and pulling on black caps. They held blue-grey Potions of Slowness in their hands. Stan, even with his limited movement, could see that the black figures had enough radius to neutralize the entire crowd of thousands if need be.

The King Kev actor picked up Stan’s axe, attached it to his belt, and then picked up his own sword. The instant it touched his hand, the sword darkened to black to match the tunic and cap the actor had pulled on. The King Kev actor cleared his throat, and spoke. “My name is Emerick, corporal of the Noctem Alliance. My agents and I have captured and taken your president hostage. As such, I now claim this city in the name of the Noctem Alliance and its leader, Lord Tenebris.”

And through the stunned silence of the crowd around the imitation bridge, all the black figures gave the same unanimous cry that had haunted Stan’s nightmares.

“VIVA LA NOCTEM!”

CHAPTER 7

THE COUP

With the sword held against his neck, Stan could barely breathe, let alone turn his head to see the looks of terror on his citizens’ faces. Stan willed himself not to panic. He knew this bold attack by the Noctem Alliance would ultimately be useless.

Even as Stan thought this, arrows flew from the plain-dressed guards Stan had positioned throughout the crowd, an added security measure suggested by Gobbleguy. Stan saw with a painful glance that several of the Noctem troopers who had been holding the crowd at bay with potions had already been felled by arrows, and the rest had disappeared in bursts of fire.

Stan felt the grip around his neck loosen, and he broke out of the Avery actor’s chokehold. Spinning around, Stan found him dead on the ground, an arrow protruding from his forehead. Stan lunged sideways and scooped up the dead actor’s sword.

“Pursue the attackers!” Stan bellowed at the guards in the crowd, who pocketed their bows and began chasing the remaining attackers, who were fleeing the scene. A small smile crossed Stan’s face as he turned his attention to the Noctem corporal named Emerick who, inexplicably, was returning the expression.

This didn’t sit well with Stan, and his own smile vanished. “Why are you smiling?” Stan demanded. “Your troops are dead and your little hostile takeover lasted less than ten seconds. What part of this do you find amusing, exactly?”

Emerick’s smile just grew, and in a matter of seconds a low, evil chuckle sounded from the Noctem corporal. Stan suddenly felt a surge of rage towards Emerick and the Noctem Alliance that he served. His attempt to seize power had failed, yet he still found something to be happy about? Was this some sort of trick?

Stan lunged forwards, sword in hand, ready to sink it deep into Corporal Emerick, but the corporal feinted backwards faster than Stan had ever seen a player move before, and with one jump, he launched himself high over the crowd. A series of black orbs, barely visible against the black sky, flew from Corporal Emerick’s hand and hit the ground in a burst of fire. As he disappeared into the smoke from the fire charges, Stan barely made out the faint blue and orange smoke curling off his back.

No! Stan thought. If he’s using Potions of Swiftness and Fire Resistant, how am I gonna catch him? Corporal Emerick was clearly the head of the operation, and Stan knew that bringing him to trial was imperative. Stan then noticed the possessions of the Avery actor lying on the ground behind him. After a moment of rummaging, Stan found what he was looking for. Wasting no time, he poured the two potions into his mouth, and leaped into the flames after the corporal.

Stan, having never drunk the Potion of Swiftness, or QPO, before, was amazed by how lighthearted and free he felt. It was as if he could do no wrong, and he instantly felt that regaining the huge lead Corporal Emerick had taken would be nothing short of easy. Stan recognized the pleasant tickling sensation that came from running through the flames the fire charges had left on the ground.

As Stan burst from the smoke, he saw Corporal Emerick sprinting full speed down the main street, a trail of blue and orange fumes in his wake. Stan followed in pursuit, his own feet feeling like they weighed nothing under the effects of the potion. He soon realized he was not alone. Stan glanced behind him and saw DZ and Archie running alongside him, trailing blue wisps of smoke themselves.

“Hey, Stan!” said Archie, surprising Stan. He hadn’t realized the potion enabled them to talk easily while running.

“Hey, Archie,” said Stan with a grim smirk. “Sorry all your plans got ruined.”

“Honestly, I’m just thankful we all got out alive,” Archie replied.

“So nobody got hurt in the attack, then?” asked Stan.

“Nah, our snipers took ’em all down,” said DZ. “I gotta say, if this is the Noctem Alliance’s idea of an attack, then we really ain’t got too much to worry about.”

“I’m still getting over the fact that the organization still exists,” said Stan, his face reflecting the worry boiling within him. “I gotta be honest, these Noctem guys have shown that they can be both really smart and really rash and dumb.”

“That’s a good point,” said Archie, a frown crossing his skeleton face. “One day they override the redstone circuits of the courthouse, something we still haven’t figured out, and the next, they pull something like this? I mean, this was, like, the worst-thought-out offensive of all time!”

“It scares me, to be honest,” said Stan, speaking truthfully as they rounded a curve, following the corporal onto the main street of the government district. “When there are inconsistencies like this, it makes it hard to draw patterns. Are these guys from the Noctem Alliance smart or not? And, more important, are they a serious danger to the city?”

“Well, hopefully this little jerk’ll give us some answers. Look where he went.” DZ smirked, pointing as Emerick disappeared into the front doors of the Avery Memorial Courthouse.

Stan’s heart roared in triumph. The courthouse walls were made of obsidian. Corporal Emerick had just trapped himself in the building.

As they ran up the front steps of the courthouse, DZ yelled out, “Here, Stan!” and Stan saw something blue and brown flying out of DZ’s hand. Stan caught it and recognized it as his own diamond axe. He nodded a quick thanks to DZ, holding it in his hand as he pocketed the sword he had been carrying. DZ drew out two glowing diamond swords, and Archie drew his bow. The trio burst into the courthouse. Stan reached back without checking his speed and, in one movement, punched a painting off the wall near the door and pulled down the switch hidden behind it. The iron doors of the courthouse slammed shut behind them. Stan heard the mechanical whirs of various other mechanisms within the building ensuring that escape would be impossible until Stan input the security code.

The effects of the potion were beginning to wear off. Stan, Archie and DZ walked into the main courtroom immediately adjacent to the entrance hall, which was the only room in the building. The room sat stagnant as ever, the same rotunda of wooden seats around the main floor. Obsidian pillars stood looming in the middle of the rotunda seats. The Noctem leader could be hidden behind any of the seats, or any of the pillars, Stan realized.

Stan, Archie and DZ looked at one another in silence. A series of eye and head gestures seemed to indicate that splitting up was in order. As DZ snuck around the pillars and Archie stood ready to shoot at a split second’s notice, Stan crept through the seats, methodically and meticulously checking behind each and every row. However, the search yielded no results, and a quick shout down to DZ confirmed that his search had been equally unsuccessful.

Stan was stumped. Corporal Emerick was clearly somewhere within the room, but Stan had checked all the hiding places. From where he was standing, Stan could see the entire courtroom, including behind every single seat. He saw DZ and Archie checking around the pillars for a second time, and the looks of bewilderment on their faces were indicating that it was to no avail. Where was …

“AAAAUUUGH!”

Stan almost stumbled forwards off the seats at the yell from DZ that echoed throughout the rotunda. A pained grimace had taken to DZ’s face, and he was clutching at his arm, staring in surprise at the arrow that had just sunk into it. Stan whipped his head to the side, wildly thinking for a moment that Archie had betrayed them, but his skeletal face showed surprise to mirror DZ’s and his own.

Stan heard a whizzing sound, and he turned in time to see an arrow flying out of the vacant seats towards his face. Stan lunged to the side, the arrow sinking into the wall behind him. Sheathing his axe and drawing his bow, he tried to distinguish the source of the arrow. As he stared intently at the place where the arrow had originated, utterly confused and terrified as to what was happening, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. An iron sword, having materialized in mid-air in the middle of the rotunda floor, was now flying across the room, on a collision course with Archie’s back.

“Archie, hit the dirt!” Stan bellowed. Archie did so without hesitation, and the sword soared over him just as Stan sent an arrow towards the sword’s point of origin. The arrow connected. Stan heard a grunt of pain as the arrow found its unseen mark. Stan saw Corporal Emerick flicker into visibility for an instant, with an aggrieved look on his face, before vanishing once again.

“Guys, he’s there!” Stan yelled, directing DZ’s and Archie’s attention to the place where an arrow was being yanked out of the unseen player’s shoulder and tossed to the ground. “You can’t see him, but he’s there!”

Recognition flashed across Archie’s face. “He’s using an Invisibility Potion!” he cried, sending an arrow towards the invisible corporal, which Emerick sidestepped. Now that Stan knew where Emerick was, he was certain he could see a slight shimmering, as if heat were rising off of pavement, wherever the invisible player was. Stan saw Emerick darting across the room. A visible diamond sword appeared from thin air in what Stan assumed was his hand, flying right towards Stan himself. Stan drew his own axe to engage the corporal in combat.

This was easily the most bizarre fight Stan had ever been in, and considering what he had endured on his campaign to overthrow King Kev, that was saying something. Stan could not determine any distinct part of the invisible enemy he was fighting. It was all Stan could do to raise his axe to counterattack the levitating diamond sword, which was making floating jabs and slices.

Stan felt his legs being swept out from under him, and he knew that Corporal Emerick had swept his invisible foot underneath Stan’s own. Stan tumbled to the floor, barely raising his axe in time to block the sword that was coming down onto his neck. As Stan struggled to regain his upright footing, he felt an invisible foot pinning his chest to the ground. Stan felt he was being drained of all energy as his blood rushed from his heart in a wave.

Just as Stan was about to determine that it was too much, that he couldn’t fight any more, the pressure lifted the slightest bit. This gave Stan the opportunity to fling himself upwards and onto his feet. The corporal tumbled down the rotunda seats, a shimmering marking his place as well as the arrow sticking from his shoulder blade.

Stan’s vision on the rotunda floor refocused on DZ trying to mend the wound from the arrow he had pulled from his unarmoured bicep, but he did not see Archie by DZ’s side. Stan saw Archie firing arrow after arrow at the place he assumed the crumpled form of the corporal lay. A black tunic shielded the onslaught of arrows. As the floating tunic crept further and further backwards towards the door, Archie advanced on him at a much faster pace.

Having the upper hand, however, had made Archie overconfident. Just as Corporal Emerick was backed up against the locked doors, a potion bottle came flying out of nowhere as the black tunic disappeared into a newly created plume of black smoke. The potion slammed into Archie’s red-haired skeleton head and exploded into a cloud of blue-grey smoke. He keeled over to the ground, clutching his head in agony. DZ rushed in to help Archie, but Stan was staring in horror at a lever that he had never noticed before on the wall. This lever was in the On position.

Fear coursed through Stan. He had fought far too many players who utilized explosive traps in their surroundings to not know one when he saw one. He and his friends needed to evacuate the courthouse immediately. His shout of “RUN!” was deadened by the explosion in the centre of the rotunda seats behind him.

Stan didn’t even have time to look towards his two friends when the wave of fire slammed into his back. He was launched forward at breakneck speed through the two doorframes that had held iron doors seconds before. Stan felt himself tumbling wildly through space, only stopping when he was thrown down into a viscous substance. As he opened his eyes, he realized that he had landed in the bottommost pool of the Apothecary Memorial Fountain. Although it sat a distance from the doors of the courthouse, it still had one of its sides blasted away by the explosion. Stan let the current of the gushing fountain carry him down to the road. Everything ached at once from the sheer force of being caught in that blast. However, as Stan turned his head to the side, he saw something that rendered all his pain irrelevant.

He could see two shadowy figures sitting not far away from him in the darkness. One appeared to be shaking the other, who was limp and unresponsive. Stan’s forehead immediately broke out in sweat, as did his palms. The horribly familiar feeling of dread bubbled up inside him, threatening to boil over as he ran to the two figures. He saw DZ, uncharacteristically shell-shocked, holding Archie’s body in shaking hands, a ring of items lying around them haphazardly.

Four months ago, when Stan had stood in the tower of Element Castle alongside the Apothecary, King Kev had chosen to kill himself rather than die at the hands of Stan. The magnitude of the alarm that had struck Stan at that point could only be described in two words: shock and awe. Now, seeing DZ sobbing as he shook Archie’s dead body, demanding that he wake up, another round of shock and awe whipped Stan across the face like a white-hot iron. Six hours ago, Stan had believed the Noctem Alliance no longer existed. Now, their leader had just killed one of his friends.