Xana's Lair Challenge

I was about to put the finishing touches on this NPC I was working on for the new MMORPG that we are developing. Just as I hit save Kelly came and knocked on the edge of my door. I jumped and almost spilled my soda. I turned around and she had her hands crossed and a grumpy look on her face," Rai wants to see us for who knows why! Lets go Rae, we know how Rai gets when we keep him." She turned around and started walking to Rai's office. I sighed and got up and left. I forget why I even signed up for this job at Xanatos Corporation… When I walked in I saw Aeon, Queen, Felin, Angel, Kelly, Atlas, Suma and Enzo sitting down towards the door and Twiggy, Shadows, Legend, and Rai up front. I saw there was one seat left and I figured that was mine. Joy… I'm the last one here that's ALWAYS good.

Rai turned around and started talking," let me be the first to complement you on you hard work. Rae, Atlas, Aeon, Legend your programs and designs are nothing like I've seen from other companies. Angel, Enzo, Suma and Twiggy those story lines you submitted last week, I could have sworn that was a book series. Last but not least, Kelly, Queen, Felin, and Shadows. Those graphics that I saw for some of those characters just blew my mind." He took a moment to gather his thoughts and continued on," we are so far ahead of schedule that you all can take two weeks off on the company's private island!"

The room burst into excitement, everyone was talking about what he or she would do and what he or she was packing. Even Legend and Shadows was smiling. Rai let us have a moment to get our excitement out before he raised his hand into the air and returned talking," your jet will leave tomorrow, at ten o'clock. Shadows and Twiggy will be driving. Destination? Xana's lair. Enjoy your trip everyone. Meeting dismissed. Oh and by the way, pack shorts and shirts it's going to be hot!"

The next day was a shock for most of the co-workers, it was the fact that none of us had our IPhone's in our hands working, on storyboards, design ideas, programs, talking with our sales reps. Truth be told? It was pretty different for us too. Well like Rai said, a big private jet appeared with Twiggy and Shadows driving. We all loaded up and hung back and said to Kelly and Atlas," wonder how many times they almost crashed to get here?"

Kelly shrugged and got inside while Atlas replied," at least four times." Everyone who heard his comment laughed. Once we were all on board we took off, I brought my IPhone out and was about to turn it on when someone grabbed my shoulder. I looked up and saw Legend," really Rae? You are going to work while we are on vacation?"

I laughed and brought my other hand up; it had a pair of apple headphones. "Of course not! I just was too lazy to get an IPod touch when I could have my music on my IPhone. Well I'm going to get a drink, wana come?"

Legend shrugged and followed me. We arrived at the food portion and holy crap! Was it packed! Everyone was there sitting down around one big table. I sat down next to Atlas, and Legend sat on the other side. I guessed everyone was waiting for us because no one else had food or drinks. We quickly ordered and got our food. It was a fun plane ride but eventually we landed.

Shadows came out of the cockpit," so how was the trip?"

Kelly spoke up," yeah it was good, except for the start, and the turbulence," she pointed to the red spot of marinara sauce on her shirt then continued on," and then the few times you almost hit a tree, and the bumpy landing."

Shadows laughed," why not you fly us home then Kelly?"

She shook her head," pass! I'd like to make it home in one piece!" Everyone nodded and got off the plane. We landed on a tropical island and we were greeted with a bunch of flowers. Everyone looked around and saw a nice island resort a few minutes walk from the landing strip. Everyone took off rather quickly and soon everyone got checked in. Angel and Aeon were sharing a room, Suma and Felin were also sharing a room, then it was me and Kelly, Shadows and Queen, Atlas and Enzo, then Twiggy and Legend each got there own room.

I guessed that we all thought all a like because the first thing that came to me was hitting the pool for a bit then the beach. Kelly sprayed me with sunscreen first then I sprayed her. I brought my bag down with some other stuff. Hidden was a water gun. When we were all there I somehow was able to sneak the gun into the pool and filled it up under the waterfall. There was a water slide near it so I sat there waiting for someone to come down. The first unfortunate victim was Twiggy. I unloaded the entire gun on her before swimming off.

There was a drink bar by the pool, which I thought was cool. I got myself a strawberry smoothie. After I finished it and sat it back on the edge of the pool. I got blasted by a crap load of water. Thank god for goggles. After my attackers ran out of water I saw it was Atlas! I swam after him and once he saw the look in my eyes he swam. Fast, very very fast. Then I lost track of him and got pelted by Suma and Enzo this time. Eventually we were all tired, I got rained on at least twenty times. Seven of those times were sneak attacks mostly by Shadows, Twiggy, Kelly, and Aeon. I got Atlas back almost EVERY single time I saw him. And that was a lot. Around eight everyone was out and on the beach.

We were sitting around a fire pit roasting marshmallows. Atlas was right next to me and I leaned on his shoulder, I saw Felin was across from me and I secretly took another marshmallow out and threw it over the fire and hit him right in the face. Atlas saw what I was doing and joined in on the fun, mostly targeting Aeon and Angel. Soon the eight Costco sized bags we had was down to two. Most of the marshmallows were in the fire because they hit the sand. Everyone was cracking up about what just happened. Jokes went around about what happened before Xanatos. I eventually fell asleep on Kelly's shoulder, basking in the warmth was good.

The next morning was paint ball, though instead of a small court it was the entire Island! Enzo decided to sleep in, so it was Twiggy, Legend, Shadows, me and Atlas verses Angel, Aeon, Kelly, Queen, and Felin. Once again I was the target, but once I saw Kelly things got fun," hey Kelly!"

Her head shot up and she got hit by four paintballs across her chest when I hid behind a tree," oh nice Rae!"

I laughed and climbed up a tree and made it to the top just before she found where I was hiding. When she was looking for me I jumped down and got four more clean shots on. I think ran for my life. She shot me a few times mostly in my arms. Eventually a conch shell sounded and we all came in.

Aeon was covered head to toe in paint, everyone burst into laughter," what happened Aeon? Tripped over a paint can?" I said pointing at his head and toes. A hand grabbed my shoulder and forgetting that the war was over I shot the figure in the stomach. I turned around and it was Atlas. He landed on his back, laughing.

After we all got changed and cleaned up it was lunch. Boy was it good! We were making fun of everyone's mistakes this morning. Apparently Shadows was hiding in a tree and scared Queen so badly that she ran screaming through the forest and square into Twiggy! Atlas had a bit worse luck. He walked straight into a trap and Angel, Suma, and Aeon ganked him. He said that he fought like a man. But Angel corrected him and said that he screamed mommy and started running. His rebuttal was that he wasn't retreating, just running in a different direction. That caused the entire table to burst into laughter.

We did different activities over the vacation, but mostly it was go swimming on the beach or pool. Diving or snorkeling was another common event. I got pictures of Kelly and me with dolphins and turtles with my underwater camera. Everyone saw some amazing reefs. We were leaving in two days. Much to everyone's dismay.

We had another war. Only this time it was eggs. The teams were switched up, it was Kelly, Queen, Legend, Suma, and myself versus Enzo, Shadows, Twiggy, Aeon, Atlas, and Angel. I'm still shocked we got Enzo out of bed.

Each team had four-dozen eggs. And a few shields. And when I say shields? I mean umbrellas. I shouted at Atlas when he made his first move," heads up Atlas!" I guessed that his time spent in the office with me has caused him to notice something that I do, because he ducked and hit poor Shadows in the chest with three eggs. Let's just say that Shadows wasn't that happy and returned fire. I kind of panicked and dove behind Kelly. She took all the eggs; I knew that she wasn't going to be happy about that. This kept on going for another twenty minutes until everyone was out of eggs. Surprisingly by the end I was relatively clean. Though Twiggy and Kelly were soaked in egg. Though Twiggy must have hid one because before I knew it I felt something slam into my head and fall down my face. "Ok, I deserved that from Kelly but what did I do to you Twiggy?"

Twiggy shrugged," don't know, just felt like it."

I rolled my eyes," ok jokes on me. Now lets get showered. I feel disgusting." Everyone laughed as I went back to my room. After everyone was dressed we decided to have a little bit more fun.

With my hair still wet I addressed the group," ok lets do some high stakes laser tag!"

Queen looked at me funny," what do you mean high stakes?"

I laughed," three versus three and the loosing team gets stuff dumped on their head. You game?"

Queen looked at the others," why not? Might as well enjoy this vacation while we can!" Everyone agreed. Eventually the teams ended up being Atlas, Shadows, and me. Versus Legend, Queen, and Angel. It was split into three different pathways with areas branching out. I took the top, Atlas got middle and Shadows got bottom.

Unfortunately for them, there was something the three of us did in our rare, but spare time. We played in the laser tag championships and won. So this was over quite quickly. Though I scared Legend when I came out of one of the other pathways. We came out with a triumphant look on our faces.

Later that day after some tarp was sat down we tied the losers into some chairs. We then blindfolded them and got the three buckets. We poured spaghetti on Legends head and made sure some went down his back, we then drenched Angel is chocolate sauce, and because we ran out of ideas we just took a bunch of chicken nuggets mixed with french fries and it on top of her. They yelped and everyone laughed… until me and Atlas came out with whipped cream pies. Enzo still laughing was unaware until it was too late. There was a reason that there was so much tarp. We won because everyone got at LEAST one pie to the face, but Felin and Aeon got two and poor Suma got three, one from me and two from Atlas. The others quickly untied Legend, Queen, and Angel and the joined in on the fun. Though no one was able to hit me in the face I got a lot of headshots and body shots. We eventually tired out and went back for ANOTHER shower.

Since it was our last day on Xana's Lair, we decided to have another bonfire. I was lost in thought before Suma came up with a great idea," hey. If Rai sent us here because we were working so hard?"

Everyone was interested, Legend commented on that first," yeah? What do you have in mind Suma?"

An evil smiled came across his face," we go home, get more clothes considering how often we showered hear. Then after we are done with that. Either you, Shadows, or Twiggy can call him into a meeting. Then when he is distracted Rae and Atlas can come in and blindfold/ gag him. Then we run to the plane and take off."

I laughed out loud at the plan," ok everyone who is in favor of the play say "I"."

"Aye"

"I"

"Yeah!"

"Aye"

"Sure"

"I"

"Ok"

"Why not?"

"Cool!"

"Aye!"

Twiggy took the reigns," well we have a plan now lets get rested up so that way we can execute it!" Everyone nodded and Twiggy looked confused," what are you doing here talking? Lets move it people!" Everyone got up and started to pack.

After boarding the plane and we got into the air. I went over the plan with everyone, we got lunch on the plane and we all set off to do our tasks. I had to be back here in two hours. I rushed home and got everything packed and was back with five minutes to spare. After shoving everything back onto the plane I got into position behind Rai's chair. Atlas was right behind me.

Right on time, Rai came in with Twiggy and Shadows behind him. And as predictable as ever he sat down in his chair. That's when we bound and gaged him. Twiggy and Shadows lifted him up and quickly got him onto the plane and strapped in. Once we were past the point of turning back we unbound Rai.

He looked around confused," where are we? Rae what is the explanation of this? Where are you taking us?"

Kelly laughed," we are in a plane, you told us to take a vacation because we worked so hard so we decided to return the favor and we are going back to Xana's lair…"

He looked a bit nervous but all of us laughed, this was going to be a fun two weeks. Thankfully this time the ride should be a lot smoother, though knowing Twiggy and Shadows that's not a guaranteed.