VI: The Emperor's Sneak Attack
"Hey, another kid!" Willie said as he ran to the exit.
"Hey Ryo... what's going on here?" I asked him. His mood was extremely serious.
"Emperor of Shadows is bombing this place, Neopoints aren't gonna get him outta
our hair this time." Ryo looked irritated from waiting around, so I started
running, and the others promptly followed.
"You know, we might be able to beat his Eyrie if we fight it together," I suggested.
Ryo quickly disagreed, saying that it was superior, even for it's level. So
we just kept running out of the building.
"Watch it, this guy has like a military with him!" Ryo yelled. Soon after he
said that, we came to a 3-way fork in the corridors. Ryo went down the center,
Willie went down the left, and I ran down the right.
"Orichalkon, be on the lookout for anything suspicious!" Of course, everything
was suspicious by now. The entire building was in flames. But then Orichalkon
stopped running.
"Hey Brad, would that count as suspicious?" Orichalkon said to me. I looked
ahead to see a very evil looking Faerie Kougra, except he was pure black. Then
the Kougra lunged at Orichalkon. I took out the NeoP0rt, desperately trying
to find something that could help in the battle. First I performed a NeoPet
Lookup.
"Darkness Male Kougra, Level 11, Fair Stats... Orichalkon, you can beat him
into the ground!" He could to. Although he was a higher level, his stats were
much lower than Orichalkon's. "Use the Improved Lightning Beams!" And with that
command, Orichalkon fired the blasts of electricity at the Kougra. He was hit
by both shots. But the Kougra wasn't finished yet. While I was frantically scanning
through the NeoP0rt, he and Orichalkon were sparring with each other. And then...
I found something. The NeoWeapon.
"What does this do?" I muttered to myself as I selected the option called "Level
1 NeoWeapon". Then, Orichalkon turned to me.
"Brad, I feel... funny!" Orichalkon started to glow, and he put both his fists
out in front of him. He then yelled out, "Daichi-Sen!" Just then, a green and
blue swirling beam shot out of Orichalkon's fists and right through the Kougra.
Yes, right through. The Kougra glowed for a bit, and then vanished into blue
light.
"Orichalkon... you... destroyed it!" I was in total shock. I didn't want the
creature destroyed, I wanted it out of the way!
"Brad... you may think I did an evil thing, but I know that I did the right
thing." And he did. If we had let it go, it would have continued to hurt others.
I quickly pushed the incident out of my mind, and continued towards the exit.
***
"Ryo, are you sure this is the right way?" SnowOhki asked, hovering above Ryo's
head.
"It doesn't matter. Any way we take will eventually lead to the exit." A piece
of the ceiling fell down, but Ryo just jumped over it with no hesitation. The
way Ryo moved was so articulated and easy it was almost as if he knew where
to go before it came. Which must've been how he jumped over the 2 Lupes that
charged at him.
"Let's see what we have in these two... they're both the same! Darkness Female
and Male Lupes, Level 10, Good stats... easy targets." He flipped through the
menu and selected "Level 2 NeoWeapon". Then SnowOhki started to glow.
"Hyousetsu Kaen!" SnowOhki shot a blast of sharp ice-sickles out of her hands,
slaying both the Lupes into the ground.
"Nice work SnowOhki. Another one bites the dust."
"I know, but... it's too easy." Just as they were about to continue, another
Lupe appeared. Ryo flipped out the NeoP0rt.
"All right... Darkness Male Lupe, Level 17, Great stats... well SnowOhki, here's
your challenge."
"Hyousetsu Kaen!" She shot the powerful blasts of ice again, but the Lupe dodged
about half of them. The Lupe then shot a powerful breath of fire at SnowOhki,
scorching her into the ground.
"Come on SnowOhki, get up! You gotta win this!" SnowOhki forced herself up,
and used the Hyousetsu Kaen again, with more luck. Both NeoPets were hurting
badly. The Lupe then charged at SnowOhki, with a ram that would send her flying.
But Ryo jumped in the way, and he was hit with the full force of the blow.
"RYO! You... will... pay!" Ryo's NeoP0rt started going off. Ryo looked at it,
as it beeped and read, "Level 3 NeoWeapon reached."
"Okay, SnowOhki, you ready? Level 3 NeoWeapon activate!"
SnowOhki was glowing. She could feel the new power flowing through her body.
She did not fight it, she embraced it, for she knew it was the key to winning
and saving her owner.
"Okay, Ryo, this is for you! Hora-Gyou!" A powerful blue wave shot from her
hands, followed by an immense blast of water and ice. And that was more than
enough to finish off the Lupe. SnowOhki then ran over to Ryo.
"SnowOhki... that was amazing!" He slowly got up.
"It was you that activated it, Ryo..."
"All I did was press a button." But that wasn't what SnowOhki meant.
"Well, come on, let's get out of here!"
"...Right Ryo..."
***
Willie and Cubix were running down the corridors, watching things go ablaze,
lights flickering on and off, and getting the feeling they were being watched.
Cubix asked, "So Willie, what's your impression of Neopia so far?"
"Well, as if it wasn't cool enough as a web site, I think this is awesome!
If not a little dangerous..." Their conversation was quickly interrupted when
all the lights went out.
"Oh great," Willie sighed. "We're stuck here in the dark." Willie then took
out his NeoP0rt, and used the light coming off of it to guide the way. Then,
the NeoPet Lookup went off. "Darkness Male Grarrl, Level 10, Fair stats." Willie
was aware that there was an enemy in their presence now.
"Psst... Cubix..." Willie whispered, "There is an enemy in this room. And I
don't think he's gonna let us..." Just then, the Grarrl shot a blast of fire,
setting some rubble ablaze, lighting the area. "Go Cubix, you know how fighting
goes!" Cubix lunged at the Grarrl, getting in the first hit. Then the Grarrl
set an inferno on Cubix, disabling him to move.
"Cubix, come on, you gotta get out of there!" But it was impossible. Cubix
was completely immobile. Willie started going through the NeoP0rt menu, and
found something that Brad had missed, Status. It showed Cubix's health constantly
going down. Then, the menu closed itself, bringing Willie to the NeoWeapon screen.
"Hey... what's this? Whatever, I got nothing better to do! Level 1 NeoWeapon
activate!" It was that moment Cubix flew into the air, and curled up his wings.
"Sumizone Rakurai!" At that moment, Cubix shot his wings back out, releasing
a bolt of black energy. It struck the Grarrl head on. The Grarrl glowed blue
for a bit, then vanished.
"Cubix... you destroyed him!" Willie couldn't believe what he had seen.
"I had to Willie... he would've done the same to us. Come on, let's get going,
the others are probably outside by now!"
***
Brad had exited first, Ryo second, and Willie last. They all met outside to
see the Emperor, riding on top of his Eyrie.
"Well, well, well, what a little group you've formed," the Emperor said mockingly.
I remarked, "If you're going to be our sworn enemy of all time, maybe you could
tell us your name!"
"If you must know, my name is Kage." He seemed to have no fear in him, which
was quite the opposite for us.
Ryo started to talk. "I am so sick of you, Emperor. Why do you do this? Why
is it so important for you to take over Neopia?"
"Quite simple, peasant. Because I can."
"But you're a kid, just like us!" I said. "The creatures here want nothing
more than to live in peace and harmony! Why do you want to destroy that?" It
appeared that Kage and I were about to get into a verbal argument.
And, a physical one.
To be continued... | 
