Episode 5: Hive handiwork
The ginormous spires of Mount Pillar towered overhead as various Danians scuttled across the walkways and tunnels that made up the awe inspiring structure. A platoon of mandiblor's made their way from one room to another, the pair pulling up the rear stopping when they heard a thud.
"You hear that?" one asked.
"Uh huh" the other replied as they approached the source, spears drawn.
"HEY," their commander yelled. "Don't break formation, now catch up"
The pair grumbled as they walked back.
"Probably just Bathax wrecking the training room again" one stated as they left the room only for the actual source to topple out of their hiding spot.
"Ow" Linus exclaimed as he rubbed his lower back, "think I fell on something"
"Trust me, that's better than if we fell on them" Coley stated as he peered into the next room. "All clear, let's go"
With that, they continued to sneak their way across the compound.
"Armoury should just be up ahead," Coley explained as he pointed to a pair of large door's.
"And the sting blade's in there" Linus asked
"Not just any sting blade, it's Ekuud's personal sting blade, he's had that thing upgraded so often it makes the regular version look like a butterknife"
"Oh, this should be good," Linus said as he rubbed his hands together in glee. "How do we get in?"
"Just got to enter the password" Coley answered as he reached up to a set of orbs lodged into the door's, spinning them till it opened with an ancient creak.
"Can't believe the girls are missing this" Coley stated as they looked at all the battle gear stored in the room.
"Well Shiho had a match today" Linus countered as he peered into a large glass vial, a smirk forming on his face when its contents tried to pounce on him only to slam against the glass.
"What about your sister?"
"She forgot to port her code before school".
"So?"
"So, her school has a rule, no electronics beside your phone"
"Sound's rough"
"You have no idea. Still, school ended thirty minutes ago so she should be in Chaotic by now".
Haley could practically hear her soul shrivelling up and dying, she had faced danger and challenges before but this was on a whole other level.
"Next item on the agenda, the spring formal"
Haley barely stifled a groan as she looked up at the clock behind her, praying for it to speed up. When she got into private school on a scholarship her mom had suggested she join a club in order to get the most out of the opportunity and she decided to apply for the student council, betting on it being as inactive as the one in her old school.
She had been wrong.
So she was stuck listening to four other girls debate where some dance should be held and what decorations should be used, for a second she almost wished she was Linus at that moment, not a pleasant thought to be sure.
"This is getting us nowhere," said Marie, a tall girl with long blonde hair who was student council president. Let's take a break and then make a final decision before heading home.
A quick chorus of agreement was given before everyone went about themselves. Haley taking the opportunity to stretch a kink out of her arms and check time again.
"The sooner we deal with this, the sooner I can get home and port to Chaotic" she thought to herself, reaching into her pocket to pull out some of her cards. "And the sooner I can find someone to to battle"
"What are those?"
Haley yelped as the voice caught her off guard, nearly flinging her cards into the air in a panic. She looked over her shoulder to see a shorter girl with chin length brown hair and round eyes behind a pair of big and round glasses.
"Sorry, I was just curious what you we're looking at"
"Just some cards," Haley replied, trying to obscure them under her arms.
"As in flash cards" she asked.
"Yes exactly, flash cards, for studying. Gotta make sure i'm ready for-"
Before she could finish her sentence, a card slipped out from under her, calmly landing on the desk for all to see.
"What's this?" she asked, reaching over to pick it up. From Haley's perspective time practically slowed down, this was it, all that time and effort getting accepted into a fancy all girls private school and every opportunity it presented about to be washed away thanks to her hobby getting her laughed out of the place.
The girl continued to examine the card before turning to Haley. "Vidav?"
"Huh?"
"That's what it says on the card" she continued, sitting down next to Haley and pointing at the image on it. "Is that his name?"
"Yeah"
"I like the artwork, can I see the rest?"
"Sure" Haley responded, pushing the pile of cards over to her, slightly puzzled at the interest this girl showed pouring over the different cards.
"Thanks, we haven't really been introduced yet, I'm Theresa"
"Haley"
"Don't really like the look of this one" she stated as she held up a Dardemus card"
"Yeah not really an underworld fan either"
"Underworld?"
"The tribe he's from," Haley explained.
"Tribe?"
"Oh boy," Haley thought to herself. "This is going to take a while".
"Have you found the sting blade yet?" Linus asked as he examined the different shelves of gear.
"Not yet, keep looking though. My buddy said they hide it in plain sight"
Linus sighed as he began scanning the room once again, he a coley had been searching for half an hour without finding the gear and if the stories he heard about how many guard patrols went through this place were even half true, he was pretty sure one had to look into the armory sooner rather than later.
"In plain sight, in plain sight" Coley muttered to himself before his eye caught something interesting.
"Hey Linus, think I found it,'' he said, pointing to a set of armor on display in the room's center, an ornate sword clasped in its hands.
"You weren't kidding when you said he had upgraded this" Linus stated as he looked over the weapon and let out a low whistle.
"Right, my buddy says it even gives a boost to earth attacks on top of the regular boosts it gives"
"Remind me to thank that player when I meet him"
"Sure thing" Coley answered, a smile forming on his face that went unnoticed as they aimed their scanners.
"Man this is too easy," Linus muttered to himself.
"INTRUDERS" a voice behind them screeched, "SEIZE THEM"
"Me and my big mouth"
Quickly, a squad of Danians had spears pointed at the boy's throats. Their only available response was to raise their hands in surrender.
"Take them to the dungeon" the leader announced as he scuttled out of the room, Linus and Coley being promptly frog marched after him by the other guards.
"So what now?" Linus hissed to his friend.
"Give it a minute," Coley calmly replied.
"Quiet humans" one of the mandiblor's screeched. "You'll speak when your in front of the battle master"
"Somehow I doubt that" Coley responded.
"What did you say?" the leader said, fury dripping in his voice.
"I said that I doubt that"
"Well, guess I'm gonna die tonight" Linus said glumly.
"Your friend is correct" the squad leader stated with a sickly grin. "Ready your spears"
"Sir this isn't proced-"
"YOU WILL DO AS I SAY" he yelled in response.
"Could you answer one question for me before all of this" Coley interjected with a smug grin.
"What is it human?" he groaned in frustration.
"Does he have to do as you say as well?" Coley stated as he pointed behind them.
With that, the platoon turned to see a large and intimidating figure with amber carapace and bright green eyes staring down at them.
"Ibiaan" the leader choked out. "We we're just"
'Just what, ignoring the hive's laws' he snarled, bearing down on his fellow, now petrified Mandiblors. "The battlemasters will be very interested to hear this''
"Will report to them right away, we just need to bring these human's along and-"
"Save it" Ibiaan interjected, "i'll do it since you all can't be trusted with them"
"Fine" the squad leader said, spitting out the word as if they were poisonous to him.
With that, the platoon scuttled away and left the boys with the large and intimidating insect.
"You are really testing my patience with this," Ibiaan stated as he addressed Coley. "How hard is it to scan a single piece of battlegear?"
"Cut us some slack, the goon's squad showed up as soon as we found the thing"
"I hate to interrupt," Linus interjected as he gestured to the two of them. "But would either of you care to explain this?"
"Right, Linus, Meet Ibiaan. My buddy and inside source for all things mount pillar"
"Greetings" the Danian said as he offered an insectoid hand to Linus.
"Nice to meet you" Linus replied as he calmly shook his hand, earning a nod of approval from Ibiaan
"Huh, use to human's panicking when they get this close"
"Eh, I've seen things scarier than you in the last monster movie I watched"
"Cocky little guy" Ibiaan retorted with a chuckle. "Come on, let's get your scans and you can port out"
"So how exactly did this little arrangement come to pass?" Linus asked as they walked back into the armory.
"Ibiaan caught me sneaking around Mount Pillar one night, thought I was toast until something fell out of my bag and caught his eye".
At that Ibiaan pulled out a dog eared book and held it up to Linus.
"Sun Tzu's, The Art Of War?" he said, somewhat shocked. "You let him go for that"
"The tactics in this book got me on Bathax's good side" Ibiaan said with a strange, clicking laugh. "Figured I owed the kid for that and snuck him one of Khavakk's rare mugic's to scan.
"Since then I've gotten him books on strategy and combat that he can pass the ideas on as his own" Coley continued.
"And I show him rare battlegear, mugic and locations around Mount Pillar" Ibiaan finished as they stepped in front of the sting blade, scanners raised.
"Nice" Linus stated as he looked down at the copy in his scanner. "Coley, i'm sorry I ever doubted you"
"No worries, this is what I do best. So you wanna go and rub this in your sister's face"
"So much," Linus giddy answered.
"Hey, before you leave too, who knows where. I'd like my payment now" Ibiaan stated, his hand outstretched.
"All right, all right. Don't get your plating in a bunch, its right here" handing the Daniaan a paperback"
"What's this?" Ibiaan asked.
"Beginner's guide to judo" Coley replied. "Figured you could pull off some of the moves in that to wow during hand to hand combat drills".
Ibiaan once again let out that clicking laugh before pocketing the book. "Pleasure doing business with you"
"As always" Coley replied as he ported out.
"Nice meeting you" Linus said as he followed suit.
With that, Ibiaan went back to his usual patrol, opening the new book as he did so. "Chapter one" he mumbled to himself, "stance and positioning".
"And that's how you play a match" Haley said, finishing her little lecture on Chaotic.
"Wow" Theresa said as she looked over the card's in her hand once again. "This sounds incredible"
"So where can you buy these cards?" another girl named Binita asked as she pulled out a notebook and pen.
"Card shops I guess, my brother and me usually go to the one on east and Northman"
By this point Haley was somewhat confused by the small crowd that had formed around her as more and more of the student council overhead and became intrigued by the various stories and game elements she talked about.
"This sounds so fun," Theresa exclaimed.
"Quite" stated Marie, "but need I remind you all why we were here"
"Sorry," Haley offered awkwardly.
"It's quite alright, we will come to a decision on the formal next meeting. Everyone can go home now".
With that, the various girls filled their way out of the room and towards the building's exit, waving goodbye to the janitor as they went, who politely returned the gesture with a warm smile.
"One more thing Haley," Marie said as she walked up beside her.
"What?" Haley nervously asked, expecting an earful from the other girl.
"Could you just quickly walk me through that insect like tribe again"
"Huh" she replied in sheer confusion.
"Well, the game, it did sound like a fun pastime" Marie explained in an embarrassed tone.
"Oh, okay. The tribe is called the Danians, their very teamwork heavy, with units being able to trigger something called hive ability, depending on who does this, it can do a lot of things and you need a type of danian called a mandiblor on your team to use it"
"Interesting"
"Yeah, i was even looking for a scan of something from the Danian tribe with my-"
"HALEY"
With that the small crowd of girls turned their head towards the source of the yelling, a look of shock on their faces except for one.
"Do you know him?" another one of the girls named Catherine asked.
"Yes," Haley responded in an exhausted tone. "He's my twin brother"
"You're not gonna believe this," Linus exclaimed as he rushed up to them and held out his scanner, showing off his prize.
"So you got the sting blade and came to annoy me with it" Haley grumbled.
"Like you wouldn't do the same" Linus retorted with a laugh.
"Whatever, are you done?"
"Not until I tell you what happened, it was incredible"
"Whoa, would you look at the time? Mom is probably getting worried, we should go" Haley awkwardly exclaimed as she wrapped an arm around Linuses shoulder and pushed him forward. "See you tomorrow," she said, waving back to her classmates.
"What's the big idea" Linus exclaimed.
"You really think it's a good idea to talk about Perim in front of them"
"Good point" he relented before looking back and giving a smirk. "Ladies".
With that, Haley gave him another shove and the two made their way down the street with the other girls looking on.
"He seems like something of an odd boy," Theresa stated.
"I don't know," Marie countered. "Kind of reminds me of my brother".