Author's Note: Disclaimer: I do not own Wizard101 or any spells or enemies mentioned here. Talon Skullflame is one of my characters.
This is a short story I felt inspired to do while playing in Marleybone, as I feel the actual in-game event is sadly lacking in action and suspense, caused by the battle system in the game. I obviously took literary liberties with all of the characters and the spells. Look at this as a re-imagining of what the action could be like.
I call this a compendium because I cannot guarantee I will not want to write another short adventure, for the same character or another one of mine. These stories may not necessarily be in order either. It's just a bunch of short stories lumped into one place because I cannot say how many I would wish to write.
Enjoy, and don't hesitate to review. Thank you.
The Adventurum: A Compendium of Adventures in the Spiral
The Catnapping
"This looks like the place." Talon Skullflame muttered to himself, leaning on his cane-wand. It was an exquisite golden eagle-headed walking stick with a ruby in the bird's beak, a polished black stain on the wand reflecting in the streetlight. It was about the only thing the red-headed, ragged-haired pyromancer owned that looked even remotely Marleybonian.
Yet he didn't feel like an oddity. He wasn't unnerved by the looks his pointed wide-brim hat and partially red-checkered patterned tunic gave him walking down Marleybone's streets. Rather, as the streetlamp illuminated his red-lined tan wizardly outfit, he felt more unsettled by the fact that he was in a city, on a rooftop no less, and doing the police's work. He preferred the wilderness over cities.
But this was where that cat said Baxter would be hiding; and Talon never ended a task halfway through. A blue dragon with orange wings growled softly beside the pyromancer, beckoning action from the wizard. He promptly tossed the cane-wand and with a flourish swiped it out of the air in front of him, holding it in a proper wand grip.
"Dakota, are we clear?" Talon asked, and the dragon fluttered over to one of the small windows of the O'Leary Fraternity house, peering in. After a time, the reptile nodded. "Alright, you stay out here and keep watch. Find Sherlock Bones and bring him here if I don't come out." Instructions given, the little dragon took his post, and Talon entered the warehouse looking building.
And like a warehouse it most definitely was; the place was filled with crates and boxes of various heights, but all above his head. Talon froze; something was very wrong.
"Help! I'm being catnapped!" It was a cat calling out, meowing for aid desperately. Talon moved forward just as a dark cloaked feline rushed out from one of the aisles of crates into the main corridor, rolling awkwardly as if hit by some force. Before Talon could move to aid the cat, an iron spear blocked his path, a golem of some sort following it out from the crate aisles. It was a machination of wood and metal, gears spinning in its open chest and a single revolving gear crowning the expressionless forehead.
"Hey! Watch where you point that!" Talon snapped, wand before him as he backed away.
Two more of the gear golems emerged from the crate maze, spears pointed at the cat in trouble. His masked face turned to the wizard in desperation. "Save me! Don't let the Metal Man take me!"
"Don't worry Baxter." Who else could it be but him? "I'll save you as soon as I roast this walnut." Fire crackled over his wand as he spoke, but his concentration broke as a shadow loomed over the wizard.
"You ain't savin' nobody, kid." A red cloaked feline hissed as Talon turned around, blazing wand out in defense. The cat was wielding two daggers with threatening deftness.
"You will not have this one, Wiz-ard." The gear golem droned behind the pyromancer, sparks crackling over his spear. "We must return with him to our master. Resistance is futile!"
"We'll just see about that!" Talon smirked as he spun around, a ball of fire jetting from his glowing wand to flare towards the golem. Anticipating a move from the feline behind him, he followed the spell with a dive to the left, rolling and dashing into the rows of crates. There was a crackle of fire and lightning; the firebolt was likely countered.
Bugger. Talon knew he should've expected complications to arise; they always did. But he wasn't prepared for it to get this complicated. He barely had time to put up a fire shield before a growl made him look up.
"Gotcha!"
"Crud!" Talon ran, just as a dagger sliced through the air from above, catching his arm briefly but painfully. The O'Leary Napper was on the crates! He could hear his heart beat as he weaved between aisles and stacks, picking through his mind for a spell.
Whirling around and flourishing his wand at the grinning Napper, Talon shouted "Leprechaun" and weaved the Life symbol before him in bright emerald light, the spell flashing to green life. A rainbow formed over Talon, a pot of gold materializing at its end. The cat skidded to a stop.
"Eat gold dust, pussy cat." Talon smirked. A somewhat eerie laughing filled the air around them as a leprechaun rode the rainbow onto the pot, grinning maliciously at the cat. Wide-eyed, the Napper leapt onto the top of the crates to avoid the attacking elf, running at Talon from above while weaving a glowing orange Fire symbol in the air with his knife. Just as his spell flared to life in a ball of fire, the leprechaun chuckled merrily and grabbed the pot, leaping into the air and hurling it at the feline. Unable to dodge in time, the pot slammed onto his head as the leprechaun turned into leaves, blowing away. The cat stumbled about, trying to get the iron pot off his head, and fell off the top of the crate.
The flare of fire, however, had morphed into a Fire Cat and landed in front of Talon with a spray of embers. Talon shielded his arms in defense, the fire shield sizzling to life as the inferno roared at him, redirecting the flames around the pyromancer easily.
But the fire shield failed to redirect the bolt of lightning surging at the wizard from his side, originating from a Thunder Snake summoned unnoticed. The wizard was sent careening to the ground, clutching his wand tenaciously. He bounced painfully once, twice, before coming to rest to see his attacker, the gearhead, readying another sparks-filled attack.
"Oh no you don't!" Talon snapped as a vortex of electricity opened up above him, three purple bats crackling with energy whirling out of it. They got into formation, and Talon ran.
A crackling beam of violet lightning scorched the ground behind him as he ran between crates, just barely avoiding the attack. He swiftly etched a Fire symbol in the air, casting the Fireblade and wreathing his whole body in flames. Where did Baxter and those other two go?
"So help me, if they left…" Talon didn't think on it further as he heard the familiar laughter of a fire elf, bouncing about merrily above him. Flaming arrows rained down on Talon not a moment later, one catching him in the left shoulder. The fire elf laughed malevolently as it dissipated in a blazing burst.
Gritting his teeth, Talon weaved another fire spell, watching the four points of flame on the floor converge into one fiery body, the Sunbird emerging from the blaze with a squawk. "Get the gearhead." Talon ordered, the flames licking his body coruscating through the air to wreathe the Sunbird in greater fire. It cawed and soared into the air, leaving a trail of flames in its wake.
"Don't let them take me!" Baxter called out again from somewhere to the north of Talon's position. The wizard turned towards the sound, weaving through the crates. He stopped when the ground shook.
"You can't be serious." Talon muttered in disbelief as the ground cracked in front of him, and then a Cyclops burst out in deadly glory. Talon ran around the corner, cape whipping around him and wand weaving a Life symbol to try and cast a Legend Shield before it was too late. The Cyclops stomped after him, took up position at the end of the aisle with a roar, and slammed the stone hammer into the concrete.
The hit traveled faster than Talon and caught him from behind before he finished the spell, sending him reeling. He skidded to a halt in a heap, the O'Leary Napper landing just a few feet away, knives ready for their work. Talon got to his knees and weaved his wand in an emerald Life symbol again.
"Seraph!" The cat stopped, and Talon closed his eyes as a low and musical humming filled the air. An angelic woman flashed into existence between them, facing the feline. Her voice rose as the music grew stronger, and brilliant jade light shimmered over her sword, which she raised towards the ceiling.
The Napper tried to leap to the crates for safety again, but was caught midair by a column of glorious green light and sent backwards to the floor. When he landed, the seraph leveled the sword at the cat outlaw, who put his hands up to his chest with a pleading look in his eyes, backing away. The seraph didn't back down.
"And stay out you flea-bitten mongrel!" Talon shouted after the O'Leary as it chickened out, leaping away from the menacing angel and out a window. The Seraph faded away.
"Now where's Baxter gotten too?" Talon inquired, getting up with a grimace and breaking off the fire elf's arrow. With that out of the way, he rushed north, the direction he'd last heard the cries from. As he ran he cast a Legend shield and Glacial shield, just in case that gearhead had more surprises for him.
"Nooooooooooo!"
"Crud. That was Baxter. Bugger it!" Talon weaved a hasty Fire symbol, snarling. When the spell flared to life however, nothing seemed to happen, but the Pyromancer crouched down.
Portals opened above him here and there, sending superheated stones of tremendous size hurtling through the frat house. They crashed with deafening, fiery explosions all over the place, violently shaking the building. The fiery onslaught carried on for half a minute before the building finally stilled.
When Talon stood up, there were no crates left intact. Some were obliterated, while others were ablaze where they stood and contemplating collapse. Smoke curled in the air.
"Baxter?" Talon called out, moving through the wreckage of the strike with the air of one who was accustomed to such effects. "Baxter? Darn it where are you?" Talon grew frustrated and stopped in the middle of the large room.
Something moved under the wreckage, and Talon grew hopeful. "Baxter, that you?"
"You. Will. Die." A mechanical voice proclaimed from under the wreckage, causing Talon to roll his eyes.
"Why don't you?" Talon jeered, pointing his wand at the rising gearhead. "Save us both the trouble of continuing the fight and just fall apart, will ya?"
The only response the gearhead golem gave was to twirl its spear at Talon, sending a coruscating funnel of bright magical energy at him that was dissipated by the Glacial shield, crackling around him but never touching him. Talon sighed.
"Want something done right," his wand carefully etched the Fire symbol, the orange light searing the air before him in ripples, "you have to do it yourself. Heckhound!"
The burst of fire from his spell flared forward onto the ground, before dissipating to reveal a small doghouse. Smoke curled out from the entrance as the sound of panting arose, and than a deep, dark growl. The gearhead hesitated.
Suddenly, an inexplicably large hound burst out of the doghouse, embers falling off his red and yellow fur like loose dirt and dust. Flaming pieces of doghouse rained down upon the already burning wreckage of crates as the Heckhound looked up to howl and gave two ground-rumbling growls, flames spewing from its maw. Backing up from the gearhead, the giant hound assumed a crouching posture. The gearhead turned to run.
As if the Heckhound was anticipating this it pounced forward, bellowing out gouts of intense flame that completely engulfed the fleeing golem. Its wooden body caught fire and as the hound dissipated into breeze-blown embers the golem's screeching cries filled the room. Talon stood still and watched as the flaming homunculus charred, the iron melting into orange, molten slag while it staggered and screeched to its death. When it finally collapsed, an iron gear rolled to rest at Talon's feet.
"Had to learn the hard way." Talon sighed, holding his left arm to minimize shoulder movement and turning to the one door the catnappers had to have escaped through, since Dakota was guarding the other. Talon darted up the stairs after a deep breath, ready for another fight even though his wounds were unhealed.
Instead, he was greeted by an empty rooftop. The breeze blew stray newspapers across the concrete, but the place was as barren as the Krokotopian deserts, and there was no trace of them. "Ms. Conrail isn't gonna like this."
Talon decided he should probably heal his wounds before he brought Ms. Conrail the bad news; Baxter had been catnapped.