Hello, hello, hello, what's happenin' readers?
Admittedly this chapter was a slight struggle to write, but I certainly enjoyed writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Jagex, RuneScape, or any of the RuneScape characters. All I own is the plot of this fanfiction and some of the characters in the story. I am not making a financial profit from this story.
Chapter 11: Operation Bug-Crush
The tall creature towered above me, roaring its displeasure. It sent its large fist made from stone and lava bearing down upon me. I threw Silverlight into the creature's fist, and it stumbled backwards, screeching. It sent several ranged attacks in my direction and, being unable to dodge, I took the brunt of the attacks, groaning. The creature sent a final ranged attack in my direction, screeching triumphantly. I keeled over and I died painfully, slowly blacking out.
I appeared on the floor of the TzHaar caves, gasping for breath. I was helped up by the small TzHaar who manned the Fight Pits. He patted me on the back, making me hiss silently. "JalYt Mainiac97," he growled. "You did well. You earn 347 tokkul for your efforts." I thanked the TzHaar, took my tokkul, and left the TzHaar caves. I made my way to the village on Karamja to pick bananas, reflecting upon my battle. It had gone well for me and I was slowly but surely improving. I hoped to eventually conquer the challenge, defeat Jad and earn the respect of the TzHaar.
About a week had passed since the New Year and I was still shocked by its events. The Wizard's Tower had almost been destroyed by an imp and demon-summoning madman, and ironically, the very man who I feared the most at that moment had been the very man who'd saved the Wizard's Tower from destruction. Yes, it had been Fiend who'd saved the day. However, he'd done it only because he lusted after whatever artefacts the tower held that would be of value to him.
Sedridor was awfully frightened by the news. Although he was glad that Greyzag was a prisoner and would no longer be a threat to the Wizard's Tower, Fiend was an even bigger threat again and Sedridor saw the danger in the situation. Although the information would help him and the other wizards (who were trying to recover the God Rune), Sedridor was still unsettled.
I reflected on the alternative Wizard's Tower. Sedridor had destroyed the tower and closed the portal leading to it sooner than intended. I was sad to see it go; the party had been a very fun party and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Admittedly being bossed around by a pair of goblins hadn't been enjoyable, but at least I'd been rewarded for my efforts.
I'd been rewarded with a tinsel snake, which currently sat in my pet garden. I now had a name for the snake; I'd decided to call the snake Tiny Tinsel. I doubted that it would remain tiny for long, but I felt that the name suited the snake the best.
Eventually I arrived at the village, picked all the bananas that I wanted, and teleported to Lumbridge. I walked through Lumbridge and Draynor, stopping in front of the Wizard's Tower. I stared at it thoughtfully. I was nervous and I found myself constantly checking on the Wizard's Tower because I always worried that Fiend was attacking it. He had the God Rune; he couldn't be underestimated. Now the tower seemed safe, but it wouldn't be long before Fiend arrived, demanding his artefacts or whatever it was that he needed to continue brewing the horrific potion Master Samuel once brewed.
"Mainiac97!"" somebody called. I turned around, and I saw Capablanca running towards me, gasping for breath. "Aubury has been asking for you," he told me. "Apparently, something is ready." I frowned, trying to think about what Aubury could possibly want. Capablanca handed me a Varrock teleport tablet, pulled out another one, and used it himself. I snapped my own tablet, and I was whisked from the Wizard's Tower. I shuddered as I was crushed by the teleportation process. I appeared in Varrock, disorientated and bewildered. Capablanca tapped my shoulder, and I followed him to Aubury's shop, the base of the Glory Troopers.
When I entered, I found Aubury, the three Glory Trooper commanders (Haldir6, Haru and Creator), and several other miscellaneous Glory Troopers and white knights sitting around the kitchen table, looking sombre. When we walked in Aubury stood up, grinning.
"Hello," he said pleasantly. "Sit down, Mainiac97. Thank you for fetching him, Capablanca. We'll commence with our meeting as soon as Osrie1 returns with Amy11." I sat down and we were all silent for about two minutes until Osrie1 walked in with Amy11 accompanying him. They both sat down after Aubury greeted Amy11 and thanked Osrie1 for fetching her.
"Now that everybody is here, we can begin. What I wanted to discuss was the operation. The planning is finally complete," Aubury whispered. "We're ready." There was a mixed reaction from everybody sitting around the table. Some people gasped, others clapped, while some (including myself and Osrie1) stared blankly at Aubury. "What I am talking about, of course, is Operation Bug-Crush." I finally understood why Aubury had organised the meeting at such short notice. Operation Bug-Crush was the operation that would be the end of the Demon Clan.
I remembered the Demon Clan clearly; the memories were sour and painful. They were a clan of people who rode strange, otherworldly objects (they claimed to be otherworldly themselves) called motorbikes and used different weapons and wore different colours of armour according to their clan name. They'd been wreaking havoc in Varrock for years now. The leader of the clan was the Black Fly; he was a cruel and ruthless man who wore black armour, rode a flat flying metal object called a sky-stick and used an electric sword (I didn't know what electric even meant, all I knew was that the weapon was more deadly because it was electric).
The Brown Beetle was the powerhouse of the team. His armour was brown (hence the name Brown Beetle) and he had no hands. Instead of hands, he had two large and lethal drills that he rotated at will and used to drill through ground and make surprise attacks from below. The Pink Butterfly was the beauty of the team. She wore pink armour, she used a flamethrower disguised as a stick of lipstick as her weapon, and she used large metal wings to fly. The Silver Wasp wore silver armour and used a poisoned javelin as a weapon; I thought she was the most insane, possibly even more insane than the Black Fly himself. The most recent addition to the Demon Clan was, of course, the Red Leech. He was a vampire (which gave him a scary amount of strength), he wore red armour and shot spikes from his arms, and he once had a twin who died at my own hands.
"I've been working carefully for a while now to try and find the Demon Clan," Aubury murmured, looking in the direction of the doorway cautiously as he did so. "A lot of preparations have gone into this operation, and now there is light at the end of the tunnel. We think we know where the Demon Clan are hiding after months of careful deliberation. We have plenty of reason to believe that they are hiding in a hidden cave on the outskirts of the Wilderness. We also have reason to believe that they are there right now. So, I've gathered you all together because I would like to attack the Demon Clan very soon.
"We have some very experienced fighters among us; Haru is a master of the axe, Creator is very good when leading raids, and Mainiac97 here defeated Master Samuel. I feel that, now that we are all together, we could be able to conquer the Demon Clan. We have the numbers, the strength, and the element of surprise. If we can capture at least one of them it would have been a worthwhile operation, because we could then question that member. Are we all in agreement that it would be wise to hold the raid today?" We all nodded. "What time should we do it? We'll all obviously need some preparation time to gather food, prepare weapons, etcetera." We discussed the time of the raid for a few minutes before all agreeing that we should meet back at the Glory Trooper base in 45 minutes. Aubury excused us and we all left, deep in our own individual thoughts.
I returned to my house and began gathering and preparing food, still deep in thought. The moment had arrived. The Demon Clan had been enemies of mine for years and years, even though I hadn't seen them for a long time. They terrorised Varrock and were a nuisance and a threat. Many had already lost their lives at the hands of the Demon Clan and I'd always fantasised about the day where they would receive their vengeance. They'd gotten away with horrific crimes previously; it wouldn't happen again. After about half an hour, I'd finished preparing all the food I'd need, so I polished my armour and sword and left.
I arrived back at the base, feeling nervous. Although I was eager to see the Demon Clan defeated, but at the same time they were formidable foes and it wouldn't be easy to defeat them. Eventually we all arrived, and we decided to set out, Aubury leading us.
We walked into the Wilderness and I instantly felt the warmth vanish from the air. The dust blew around our feet and the silence was a dead, dank silence that made me think of graveyards and rotting corpses. We hurried up, feeling uncomfortable. Aubury didn't lead us very far, thankfully. We stopped at a hole big enough for a man to crawl through (albeit with relative discomfort). He knelt down and wormed his way through the hole, gesturing for us to follow suit.
I wriggled my way through the hole and appeared on the other side, covered with dirt and feeling muddled. Aubury helped me up. I dusted myself off and examined my surroundings as the others crawled through the hole. I was in a tunnel of sorts. The tunnel was very dirty; touching the wall would result in a layer of dust attaching itself to my hand. A rancid smell filled the tunnel, making me shudder. Eventually everybody was in the tunnel and we continued, all thinking the same thing; why would the Demon Clan, such an advanced group, hide themselves away in a smelly cavern like this?
We kept walking and we found ourselves faced with a dead end. We all puzzled over this and Aubury began desperately reading over notes. I leant against the wall of the cave, growing increasingly frustrated. Had a mistake been made? Were we at the right place? Were we risking our lives over nothing? My fears were abated by the wall groaning slightly at my weight. I poked at it, unnerved, before something occurred to me. I took out my hammer and I tapped the wall firmly with it, and a small crack appeared. It wasn't a real wall, it was a convincing disguise! It occurred to me that the Demon Clan were all probably behind this wall and my heart skipped a beat.
I voiced my concerns quietly to my companions and we all decided to cast a spell at the wall or strike the wall on the count of three. Aubury held his fingers up and counted down from three. When his fingers were all down we simultaneously attacked the wall and it collapsed, revealing a relatively small cave that was hidden behind it.
An underground river ran right by the cave. The five members of the Demon Clan sat around the cave, doing different things. The Black Fly was sitting with the Silver Wasp, chatting animatedly. The Pink Butterfly hovered overhead, staring into space. The Brown Beetle was sitting on what seemed to be an oversized pillow, half-asleep, while the Red Leech was punching the wall nearby. When the wall collapsed they all spun around, seemingly shocked. There was a minute of stunned silence before the Black Fly let out a loud war-cry, threw a metal disc in the air which suddenly transformed into his sky-stick, and charged towards us. We all followed suit, bellowing.
The Brown Beetle dove into the floor and jumped up underneath Haldir6, who roared with rage and surprise and elbowed the Brown Beetle violently. We lost our first man sooner or later; a poor white knight had fallen at the hands of the Pink Butterfly and her fierce flame-throwing weapon.
The Silver Wasp targeted me. She sent her javelin flying towards my shoulder and I blocked the attack with equal vigour. She frowned slightly, taken aback by my increase in strength since our last encounter, but she shrugged it off and punched me in the gut. I groaned and keeled back, but I tried my best to ignore the pain and I jabbed her with Silverlight. She hissed and fell back, but she flew upwards and bore down on me, her eyes rolling madly. I was knocked to the floor, but I jumped up again, ready to duel. I threw Silverlight towards her but the attack glanced off her and she kicked me into a wall. I thumped her and she seemed injured by my attack. I sliced her wing and she collapsed on the floor, screaming. Creator took over, kicking her in between the shoulder blades and giving me a chance to escape the fight and recover.
I started chewing on a piece of meat, but just as I finished it the Red Leech picked me up by the throat and pinned me against the wall. I tried to struggle against the insatiable rage of the vampire but it was practically impossible. I could feel the rage emanating from his ice-cold skin. He rammed his fist into my chest, shattering two of my ribs and severely winding me. I head butted him in desperation and he stumbled backwards. I took advantage of his momentary weakness by wiggling from his vice-like grip and kicking him in the crotch. He fell backwards and was distracted by three Glory Troopers ganging up on him.
Haru started attacking the Brown Beetle and the battle grew ferocious as two unstoppable forces collided. The Brown Beetle spun around. He was trying his best to impale Haru, but Haru blocked all the attacks skilfully with his axe. The Brown Beetle grew increasingly frustrated, attacking faster and faster, looking more and more exhausted by the minute. Haru was patient, blocking masterfully yet never retaliating. Sooner or later Haru was ignoring holes in the Brown Beetle's defences that even I couldn't miss.
But then I saw exactly what Haru was trying to achieve. The Brown Beetle's attacks were growing sloppier as time passed and sooner or later he'd be incapable of holding up his defences, leaving Haru with an easy job. Haru eventually raised his axe and threw it down with one graceful swing. The Brown Beetle released a final scream before being sliced open and pinned against the wall by the axe. He gurgled noisily before dying with little dignity. I retched, feeling pleased but disgusted and almost guilty at the same time. Despite this, with one powerhouse of the Demon Clan gone, we'd easily be able to conquer them.
After scuffling very briefly with the Pink Butterfly, I glared in the Black Fly's direction. He was currently butchering a weaker Glory Trooper. He made eye contact with me and sniggered softly. After swiftly beheading the Glory Trooper, he flew towards me and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, taking me by surprise. He flew over the river and my heart sunk. My heart sunk even lower when I saw the Red Leech dive into the water and swim quickly after us, screeching.
The Black Fly let go of me and I grabbed onto his sky-stick as quickly as I could, dragging the metal contraption down. He tried shaking me off, but he didn't need to; the Red Leech had grabbed my foot and had yanked me off. I dropped into the water, struggling to stay afloat. The Red Leech threw himself from the water and landed painfully on me, resulting in me almost drowning. I sunk Silverlight into his flesh, momentarily distracting him and allowing me to swim to the surface.
The Black Fly lowered himself and waved his sword in my direction, trying his utmost not to touch the water with the sword. I didn't understand why. Would the sword break as a result or something? I leapt from the water and struck his sky-stick with Silverlight. He dropped suddenly and the sword struck the water.
Sparks flew left and right and I screamed as an odd pain filled my body, immobilising me. The Red Leech thrashed under the water as the same odd pain filled him. A small explosion ensued and the Black Fly was thrown into the ceiling. He floated downwards, cursing at me. I swam away desperately, trying to avoid his rage. It was in vain.
He flew downwards, sweeping me up and kicking me in mid-air. I hung onto his sky-stick, trying not to land in the water. I clambered onto the sky-stick, finding it impossibly difficult to maintain my balance. I shoved him and he lost his concentration. He stumbled slightly and the sky-stick spun around dangerously. I stuck Madrey1's sword through the sky-stick and it sputtered slightly, letting off copious amounts of smoke.
Roaring with displeasure, the Black Fly swung his sword in my direction. The sword seemed agitated by the water it had been in contact with earlier and it was crackling dangerously. I reeled out of the way and the sword nicked my arm. That same odd pain filled me again and I screeched. I slipped, but as I slipped I made an effort to stab the Black Fly's sky-stick again. If I could pull him off that wretched vehicle and rob him of his sword I could possibly defeat him or capture him. The water seemed to be making his sword more edgy, but he seemed reluctant to make the sword touch the water so I considered the possibility that the water was damaging the sword.
The sky-stick was malfunctioning; it was spiralling out of control. I landed with a splash in the water, and, in hopelessness, I threw myself from the water, grabbed onto the sky-stick (not an easy feat) and struck it a final time with the Black Fly still on it. A large explosion ensued, almost blowing apart the tunnel and throwing us into a nearby cavern.
I stood up, rubbing my head. I inspected my surroundings and I saw the Black Fly lying among the wreckage of his sky-stick, groaning. I quickly cast a spell on him to confuse him. I then cast the bind spell on him and pushed him out of the way. I sat down, chewing on some fish in my bag thoughtfully, trying to digest what had just happened in my head. I'd narrowly avoided death several times in the past ten minutes, and I was grateful for that, at the least. I found the whole thing to be terribly frightening; truly, my heart was pounding like a drum at that moment and adrenaline pulsed through my veins.
I was caught by surprise when a heavy force collided painfully with my back. I crumpled, yelling with pain. I almost blacked out before my attacker grabbed me by the hair and held me up. I saw that it was the Red Leech, who appeared very pleased with himself.
"Listen here, noob," he spat, his hot, putrid breath heavy with the scent of rotting meat. "I've been waiting years for the perfect opportunity to exact my revenge. The death of my twin was your fault, and now you will face the consequences for screwing with a vampire." With lightning-quick speed, he flung me upwards and kicked me while I was in mid-air. I collapsed to the ground, winded.
With a swift movement Silverlight was thrown several feet away, out of my reach. I scrambled around hopelessly and my hand came in contact with the hilt of the Black Fly's sword, which was still sizzling slightly. I waved that in the Red Leech's direction, nicking him slightly. He shuddered, screeching with anguish. I forced myself to my feet and, aiming precisely, I threw the sword javelin-fashion into the Red Leech's arm. He stumbled backwards, giving me time to recover Silverlight.
He pulled the sword from his arm, glaring at me. He prepared to pounce, but was distracted by the cave around us shuddering. The wall opposite us suddenly gave way, and two gigantic forms dragged themselves through the hole they created. I recognised them as three giants, covered with green moss and looking very displeased. The Red Leech and I forgot completely about our fight for a split second, making eye contact and thinking the same thing; we'd wound up in the depths of the Varrock sewers, very famous for being filled with ferocious creatures such as giants.
The giants stumbled towards us, roaring incomprehensible curses. I charged towards the one at the front and I stabbed the creature's knee with Silverlight. It screeched loudly and fell. The Red Leech pounced over me and crushed the giant's skull with one crippling blow. I finished the giant off with a swift uppercut using Silverlight. I was amazed; we were now co-operating to eliminate the threat of the giants when only minutes ago we'd been fighting to the death.
The death of the first giant enraged the two other giants. They threw themselves towards us, smashing us into the floor. I was almost literally flattened; it felt like my ribcage had caved in. I waved Silverlight vaguely in the direction of the giants, but I stabbed nothing. I pulled myself from the mass of limbs and moss, feeling disorientated. The giants pulled themselves upwards, holding none other than a struggling Red Leech in their arms. Victory was theirs. Grunting with what seemed to be amusement, they flung him into the wall opposite. They walked slowly towards him before pounding him into the wall.
I shuddered as I heard his screams of pain as he was practically reduced to a lump of undead, wrecked and battered flesh. It wasn't long before he stopped screaming and his form no longer looked human (although he technically wasn't human, he still held the form of a human). His terribly deformed body collapsed onto the floor before violently being ripped apart by the giants. They tried eating the flesh but they looked disgusted and stopped chewing on the Red Leech's meat. It occurred to me that vampire meat probably tasted disgusting to giants. A dented piece of his red armour rolled in my direction and I picked it up, conceding that I could present it to Aubury as evidence of the Red Leech's defeat.
The giants were just finishing their ripping apart of the Red Leech before I heard a strangled cry from behind me and I saw the Black Fly leap overhead, wielding his green sword. He'd regained consciousness and had broken from the bind spell he'd been trapped in previously. He'd obviously seen the Red Leech's defeat and was obviously very angry as a result. He hurled the sword through the heart of the second giant, killing it instantly. The third giant bore down on the Black Fly before almost having its leg amputated and stumbling away in defeat. The furious Black Fly turned to me. I went into a defensive stance, realising that now was the crucial moment and I needed to hold my own against the Black Fly if the operation was to finish successfully. It was time to crush the dominant bug.
The Black Fly bounded towards me, snarling. I bellowed a war-cry and unsheathed Madrey1's sword. Our swords clashed and the pure fury of two metal pieces clanged together to form an orchestra of rage and pain. I pushed as hard as I could towards the Black Fly, surprising him and almost completely shattering his defence. I pulled from the attack quickly and threw Madrey1's sword downward before the Black Fly could properly react. It collided with his shoulder, splitting his arm open and reducing him to tears. He didn't admit defeat, however; he reacted with an attack so strong and fuelled by venom it left a large dent in my armour and shocked me. The final confrontation followed. We wrestled and stabbed and generally battled with all our might, neither of us really going anywhere. Eventually we both collapsed on the floor, exhausted.
"Listen, kid," the Black Fly panted. "I can't really go any further, and to be honest, by the looks of it, neither can you. I refuse to admit defeat, so let's call it a stalemate and leave the fight for another time."
"I will never!" I breathed. "I came here to finish the Demon Clan, and I swear in Saradomin's name that I will!" The Black Fly grinned half-heartedly.
"It's a shame that faith never got people that far in this world," he chuckled, before pulling out a teleportation tab and vanishing before my very eyes, leaving behind nothing but his green sword. I laid there for a full minute before roaring with anguish. He'd slipped through our fingers. He'd escaped.
I picked up the Black Fly's sword and the shard of the Red Leech's armour and I walked down the ledge next to the river. We'd travelled quite a distance down the river during our fight on the Black Fly's sky-stick, but the walk back gave me plenty of time to reflect on what had just happened and recover from the fight.
I was generally stunned by how the fight had gone. The Red Leech had been destroyed in such a painful way, and despite him being a vampire, despite his wicked and corrupt personality, and despite myself, I felt a twinge of pity for him. He was only trying to avenge the death of his twin, very similar to how I wanted to avenge the death of Dream Decay when he died at the hands of Master Samuel. His attempts only sent him off to an awful doom. I felt guilty even though it wasn't really me that killed him, it was the giant. As I chewed thoughtfully on a meat sandwich I'd prepared earlier, it occurred to me that if I hadn't weakened him previously, he probably would have triumphed over the giant; he was obviously capable of doing so.
I thought about the Black Fly's escape. As dangerous as he was, he was in a very vulnerable position. He was stranded somewhere, weapon-less and without his clan behind his back. He was wanted by most large cities in RuneScape and would find finding shelter a difficult task. I hoped that he'd be captured very soon, to avoid the potential damage a madman of his type could cause.
I eventually arrived back at the Demon Clan's hideout cave and I found everybody except Aubury and Haru crowded around a certain spot and I could hear scuffling and cursing. Aubury and Haru were standing nearby, talking in very low voices. I approached them, and Aubury turned towards me, smiling brightly.
"It's good to see you," he muttered. "I thought you would have died, since you had the Black Fly and the Red Leech to deal with. You look exhausted and battle-worn. What happened?" I recounted the events of the past half an hour to an hour to Aubury, and he nodded sombrely at the end. "Meanwhile, over here, we've had a relatively easy time without the Red Leech tearing at our throats and the Black Fly hovering overhead," Aubury told me. "Right now practically the whole Operation Bug-Crush team are surrounding a very frustrated Pink Butterfly over there, trying to restrain her. The Silver Wasp put up a mighty struggle before fleeing, unfortunately. I'll have to alert the king so he can organise for wanted posters of the Silver Wasp and the Black Fly to be put up. The Demon Clan have practically been disbanded now, since they are definitely nowhere near as organised as they were and are now considerably weaker. I think their order was one of their key strengths. We can probably find the Black Fly and the Silver Wasp with ease; if not they will hopefully either disappear forever or do a Madrey1 and give themselves up. As for the Pink Butterfly, when she is captured we will imprison her and interrogate her; torture may or may not be used."
I watched on as the team successfully restrained, weakened and finally captured the Pink Butterfly. It had most definitely been an eventful day, and while I felt tired, slightly guilty and concerned about other things like Fiend, the defeat of the Demon Clan had succeeded in lifting my spirit and taking a massive weight off my shoulders.
...and that concludes chapter 11. My question to you is, do you think the Black Fly and/or the Silver Wasp will be able to do anything (perhaps in retaliation), considering their current positions? It's defninitely some food for thought.
Regrettably I will be unable to post anything for Valentine's Day, but I can assure you that some romance will be shooting your way soon.
Next chapter, Mainiac97 visits a seemingly innocent island with seemingly innocent people living on it... Also, next chapter I intend to launch a character competition which I will describe in detail next chapter.
Until next time, toodles!