Chapter 29: News is Never-Ending

With the sheer cliffs of Talus Bluffs and jagged range of the Crescent Mountains to contend with, we chartered a basket from the Balloon Master in Soleus City. Fizzu was ever-ready for flying trips and eager to harness up.

The Air Magic capital was a sight to see, especially from above. Spires of spiraled glass glimmered below us, entwined throughout with ropes and wires. Windmills with flowing pennants twirled with the winds, but how they never tangled, I did not know. I marveled at how the architecture blended with the mesa’s geology; sandy browns and mineral-etched habitations.

Quicker than I liked, the city was behind us and now the mountain range loomed ahead, a treacherous battlement of ancient stone. I was happy to be bypassing it from the sky, but the look of it could make even the least alive person nervous.

In stark contrast, the Crescent Valley rolled out below like a fuzzy green blanket stitched together with rivers and creeks. Far across, miles and miles away, I knew the Bone Bramble twisted along the Crescent Mountain range’s westernmost foothills. Though I had not visited it in my current incarnation, the foreboding feeling it conjured to mind told me I had beheld it before.

“Look at that,” said Relja in a dry whisper.

I summoned binoculars from my inventory, glad I had asked Medett for them back. I peered at where the Air Mystic had pointed. A dark scar among the pines and oaks far below, like a wide road built with fire and axes and boulder bowling.

“Investigating might be inefficient,” said Vick5.

“I received a quest back on the mesa,” I said. “Berem and Medett asked us to confirm reports of a metal monster.”

“She said it exploded in the sky and crashed all over,” said Relja.

“Quest sharing request sent,” Vick5 stated.

I pondered momentarily. Medett asked me to keep the orange potion a secret from him, but not Quest: “Metal Monster Mystery.” Since Relja had already told him some, I elected to share the quest with him.

“Appreciation,” he said. “Reassessing. Yes, investigation is logical. Proceed.”

Relja altered her [Spell: Silverwind Song]’s tune, descending us onto a scorched patch of splintered forest.

“It’s like a comet hit or something,” Relja whispered. It was quiet except for chirping bugs and the crackling of ember-low logs strewn like scattered pencils.

“Vick5,” I said, “can you calculate—assuming a comet or meteorite or some such did in fact crash to the earth here—where the object would be?”

The Telemoon technology on his headgear whirred into motion and his scanning monocle tilted over an eye like coin-shaped cards fanning out. “Scanning,” he said.

We watched him scan around like a confused owl. “I have determined its location to be in this direction. Accuracy level: 87%.”

“I mean,” Relja cocked her head, “I could have told you that just by looking at the impact scar.”

“Aye,” I said, “but I am eager to find Azwold. Overeager.”

“Right you are,” she said, nodding. “Okay, efficiency it is.”

Relja tied the balloon basket to a stump with a wide, knotty trunk and blasted off top. Then she mounted Fizzu.

“I don’t think motorcar mounts will do well in this terrain,” she said.

“The scenery measures on the bug scale,” said Vick5. “Air Mystic Relja may be correct. Just ride your mesa strider. I will transport Gnarlroot_The_Eld via [Hydraulic Leap]. Several of my movement and transportation abilities remain intact.”

Then the gadget-equipped player clamped a belt around my waist. It reeled me into the back of his harness, where I was belted in automatically.

Then we leapt several fathoms forward, landing heavily among forest rubble.

“That was… jarring,” I said.

Relja and Fizzu leapt, flapping to meet us. “I guess that’s one way to travel,” she said.

“Mayhap I should ride with Relja,” I said.

The belt unclasped and Relja lent a hand to me.

“Did you take damage?” he asked.

“Not of a physical nature, no.”

“Acknowledged,” he said. “Proceeding to target.” Then he bounded several more fathoms ahead, hissing out a cloud of steam like a smithy’s bellow blast.

“That reminds me,” said Relja. Once I was in the strider’s saddle she handed me a cloudy, sky blue potion in a squat, circular bottle. “I made this [Potion of Spell: Levitate] for you. I saw DarkNeon did some gem work on your rib and thought I should give you something nifty, too.”

“My thanks,” I said. “It will give me a new levitation spell?”

“Mhm.”

“This should make balloon rides less worrisome,” I said. “Many thanks, indeed.”

“You’re welcome,” she smiled.

~<>*<>*<>~

By the time we located Vick5’s predicted triangulation, my mood had fixed on glum. The object was not where predicted, but Vick5 assured us the error margin was small. We should find it.

But I suspected my shift toward gloom had deeper origins. For a start, I had expected a yellow light beam, but my hiveworks had yet to illuminate. DarkNeon had never used the ability with restraint before. It concerned me.

But more, I feared for the mage’s well-being. I knew what it was to feel imaginary, or like my existence could blink out in a puff of deleted game code if I made a wrong move. Others had recorded his location as “Unknown.” The circumstances of his banishment were strange. I failed to grasp the inner workings of it yet. Mayhap I never would.

“What is this thing?” Relja hummed a nervous note.

“Metal detected,” said Vick5. “Location within margin of error parameters.”

“Do I detect bragging?” said Relja. “Tell me what the thing is and I’ll be impressed.”

The material reminded me of the glimpse of gunmetal I caught right before the kobold shaman kicked the Telemoon musket off the cliff and into the sea. But it was much, much larger. My best guess was a hunk of machinery, maybe something broken apart from an even bigger device.

“Upon assessing,” said Vick5, “I have determined it to be a robot arm. I am 99.7% sure.”

“A robot?” said Relja. “So the ‘Metal Monster’ we’re dealing with is a giant robot? That makes sense.”

“A giant robot that blew up in the sky and crashed all over the countryside,” I added.

“I must add to our discussion,” said Vick5. “Telemoon was developing several prototypes in their Robotics Laboratory.”

“Prototypes for what exactly?” said Relja.

He averted his cyber-eyes.

“Remember our bargain,” I prodded. “Do not withhold details.”

Vick5 processed a subtle twitch.

“Are you shutting off more confidentiality protocols?” asked Relja.

“Though I was a full-fledged Telemoon guild member,” he said, “I did not possess full information clearance. But what I do know may not strike you as good news.”

“News is never-ending, I find,” I said. “Let us judge if good or ill.”

“Telemoon was developing prototypes to house the Goddess,” he stated.

“So they summoned her without a place to keep her?” asked Relja.

“Not exactly,” he said.

“Something went amiss with this robot monster,” I said, “and we have found its arm?”

“Hey look at this,” said Relja, running her finger along the metal. “It’s a glyph.”

“Be reminded,” said Vick5, “this prototype recently exploded.”

“Ah, fair enough,” she said, taking two steps back.

“However...” he said, stepping closer despite his own warning. Vick5 inserted his finger-key device, and I heard a faint whirring and a click. A panel on the arm’s side slid outward, then fell to the dirt with a clunk.

A gem was embedded there among a bed of wires and tubes. It flickered in a spectrum of electronic yellows.

We watched in astonishment as the gem morphed into something like an apple-sized ball-lightning. It dripped upward where broken tree branches had stood, darting here and there like a spastic wisp.

Then it swooped to eye level with me. It sprouted two gossamer wings, woven through with a zappy web.

“An electric faerie?” Relja was squinting at it.

And then, quick as lightning, the creature bolted off into the sky.

“What just happened?” she asked Vick5.

He shrugged. “Unknown.”

A distant commotion caught our attention.

“That will be Telemoon coming to recover their lost asset,” said Vick5. “We must retreat to an undetectable distance.”

“Not like we can lug this thing with us anyway,” said Relja.

We snuck away to a hill with a cottage-sized boulder next to it. We hid.

With radar-green lasers scanning and machinery cranking and humming, a squad of Telemoon players entered the clearing and located the robot arm. And to my incredulity, I thought I saw the Earth Mage Demolitionist from Stonesthrow Island. Either I was seeing things, or a victim of my [Spell: Plunder Memory] had bypassed their banishment and figured out how to log back on.

“Vick5,” I said, “can you identify that big guy with the stonemetal harness and huge gauntlets?”

“Affirmative,” he hesitated. “But his presence makes as much sense as a lightning faerie.”

“Meaning what?” asked Relja.

“Tect0n encountered an enigmatic problem during a mission on Stonesthrow Island,” said Vick5. “He has not been online... until today.”

“Blast,” I cursed. “And that other one there, Sprock3t; I have had run-ins with him at least twice. Once on Stonesthrow, where I used [Spell: Plunder Memory] on Tect0n. The same spell that banished Azwold.”

“Sprock3t did submit a report about your encounter on Stonesthrow Island,” said Vick5. “One among many watchlist offenses.”

“The one called Sprock3t,” I told Relja, “is an Electricity user. He escaped, but his big friend did not. If Tect0n is online, that means...”

They waited, watching my skull face.

“It means Azwold’s status may have released my [Spell: Plunder Memory] victims.”

“Is that good?” asked Relja.

I ruminated a moment. “Good and bad, I think.”

“Sweet fancy breezes!” Relja yelped.

I fixed my gaze on where she pointed.

A flash of laser yellow light cast the charred scar of forest in brilliant silhouette. And in an instant, DarkNeon was on Sprock3t’s back, shoving a dagger into his electronics.

The next moment, DarkNeon and Sprock3t were both teleported away.

Tect0n and the rest of his party struck defensive positions. A blinking laser light swept across our lichen-covered hiding place. But their scan failed to reveal our position.

“What the heck is she trying to do?” said Relja.

“A distraction tactic?” suggested Vick5. “DarkNeon is your ex-party member, correct?”

“She overestimates her abilities,” I said.

“Or maybe we underestimate hers?” Relja shrugged.

“Negative,” said Vick5. “The odds of a successful ambush versus a Telemoon party of that size was a poorly calculated risk.”

Then the Light Rogue and Electric Combat Technician plummeted to the ground. In a combo move, Tect0n performed a ground pound ability, sending a wave of stone shards into her. DarkNeon’s healthbar disappeared in the overflow of damage.

The Light Rogue had lost. Her corpse lay in a dirty neon pile between shattered and charred logs.

Unhesitant, the Telemoon party equipped the wayward robot part with blinking devices. They activated them, and it levitated. They attached cables to it, then mounted and departed, towing the arm behind them like a gravity-defying, avant garde kite.

When we deemed it safe, we went to stand above DarkNeon’s body. We waited, knowing she would hop back into herself momentarily. Like most normal players, she was not bothered by Realms of Lore’s death penalty; the ghost jaunt of defeat.

She rose and dusted herself off.

“You guys could’ve jumped in at any time!” She frowned. “We could’ve taken them. We, not me.”

“Negative,” said Vick5.

“Please don’t let it talk to me,” said DarkNeon.

“Have you listened to reason?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “I have been trailing you guys, though. Since I haven’t seen this guy screw you over yet, I thought it might be time to show my face.”

“My allegiance is no longer with the Telemoon guild,” said Vick5.

“Do his ear holes work?” she said.

“I don’t think our friend will forgive any ex-Telemoon yet,” said Relja.

“Understood,” said Vick5. He grew silent.

“So,” said DarkNeon, “what was that thing they took?”