Mira Squad Tales-Portals

      I had decided to stay back just in case there were visitors to the Neohome. I was glad that I did as there was a knock on the front entrance. I simply told whoever it was to come in as the door was unlocked. It was Shadow Breeze, fresh from his return from Brightvale. He quickly took a seat as he told me that his work at Brightvale Library was completed. I nodded and went to our archives to retrieve the notes my mother, Annabella the Red Gelert, made years ago.

      “I wasn’t able to tell you before due to the battle, but since things had calmed down somewhat, it’s probably best to give you my observations and my mother’s notes,” I told him after I returned and gave him the notes to study. “Anyways, there are two portal spells in the spellbook, a short-range and a long-range one. At least, that's what my mother wrote down.”

      “I am aware of the short-range one as it is one that the majority of Neopians use, along with the restrictions in place to prevent misuse. In fact, the majority of the missing theories and notes are based on the short-range one. The long-range one, on the other hand, I was not even aware of. That’s probably the basis for Magon’s theory.” He quickly looked over my mother’s notes again.

      “Why am I not surprised that your mother stated that these spells may not have come from Ramtor himself? It does make some sense, as what little information we had on Neopia prior to the Meridell War has been lost and this is essentially a copy of the book the King’s Advisor was ‘supposed’ to have. Anyways, I want to study these notes a bit more, so you don’t mind if I borrow them for a bit?” I did not mind at all. He safely tucked them into his spellbook.

      As Shadow Breeze was leaving, we spotted a DoN messenger, a White Grarrl, running up the pathway, tipping us off that something was wrong. We briefly waited so that the Grarrl could catch his breath.

      “Urgent message from Agent Forest Knoll. Wraiths are attacking Neopia Central,” he told us. Upon hearing the news of the attack, I quickly grabbed my Jade Staff and headed off to the battlefield. I could hear Shadow Breeze right behind me, due to his wings.

      As soon as I arrived at the shopping district, I quickly scanned the area to see what my main priority was. I spotted Aaron bravely fending off a couple of Wraiths with a borrowed Gilded War Hammer, although there was a third one about to attack him from behind. Immediately, I rushed in and took out the Wraith with a single jab from my Jade Staff, causing it to dissipate. Aaron was so preoccupied with the two Wraiths that he did not even notice me.

      Once I was finished with the skirmish, I spotted a Green Lutari in a red hooded cloak. He immediately ran away, leading me to suspect that it was just a decoy, so I did not even bother pursuing as it was not worth my time. That allowed me to focus my attention on the remaining Wraiths and drive them out of the shopping district.

      Unfortunately, I did not have much time to fight the Wraiths as a collective shout forced me to refocus my attention. It was a few members of the DoN warily surrounding another Green Lutari in a red cloak before they were blasted back. Although it was a brief glimpse, I spotted a pair of glasses and some white hair poking out, confirming that it was Doctor Landelbrot. Knowing that it was impossible for me to fairly fight the doctor head-on, I decided to use a different tactic.

      While Doctor Landelbrot was preoccupied with another DoN member, a Gold Ixi fighting him, I conjured up a mini blizzard and blasted him, catching his attention. He fired off a few magic spells, which I was able to dodge easily by planting my Jade Staff into the ground and forcing myself up into the air. As I was coming down, I used that momentum to bring down my staff right onto his head, knocking him out cold.

      I was uncertain if he was going to wake up and either try to escape or attack again, so I quickly chanted a binding spell just as a precautionary measure. Still, I had a nagging feeling that there was more to this battle than what met the eye. It also felt too easy, given the circumstances, even with the knowledge that Doctor Landelbrot was inept at magic.

      Although Scinitilly gave us the information that we needed earlier, there was still parts of the story that we needed to hear from Doctor Landelbrot himself, so I picked up the unconscious Lutari, with some help from Nimbus, to the DoN, telling an Alien Aisha upon our arrival to inform Forest if he woke up so that he would be able to interview the doctor. The member nodded and took him down the to the infirmary for the Lutari to recover

      There were still Wraiths in the area, and it appeared that more were streaming into the shopping area, thanks to the portals. I wanted to close them, but I did not know the spell and finding Shadow Breeze amidst the chaos would be difficult. However, I also knew that it was research for Ocean, for as long as the portals were open, it would allow her to determine who the mastermind was or to even track down Magon.

      Moments later, I spotted a few of the portals closing up. Shadow Breeze then glided up to me, so I assumed that he was responsible for closing up some of the portals.

      “I’ve identified some of the portals as duds, so I’ve closed them. I’ve also closed a few active ones just to slow down the amount coming into the shopping district. Still, the odds are not quite in our favour, with the amount still running amok and causing havoc,” he told me as I jabbed another Wraith attempting to attack me. Without turning to face him, I simply told him that it was better than nothing.

      As soon as Wraiths began retreating from the battlefield, I immediately knew that something was up. Shadow Breeze noticed it as well as he loudly told me that he would go scout out the area. After he left, I was concerned that the Wraiths were concentrating their attack on the DoN headquarters, but I had to wait for Shadow Breeze to return in order to confirm that suspicion. I also kept my guard up just in case the retreat was a distraction.

      While I was waiting for Shadow Breeze to return, I sensed someone attempting to attack me from behind, only for me to easily dodge it. Once the Neopian lost their balance and fell to the ground, I placed a binding spell on the Neopian before casually walking up to the Green Acara in a red cloak, not amused at what had transpired.

      “If you’re trying to pretend that you’re Princess Roberta, you’ll have to do better than that,” I told the Acara before lifting the hood off with my staff. As I had suspected, it was indeed a Neopian citizen pretending to be King Hagan’s niece.

      Moments later, Shadow Breeze returned with a copy of Ocean and a few members of the Mira Squad, including Aaron. The copy told us that the Wraiths were focusing their attacks on Headquarters in order to retrieve Doctor Landelbrot. I knew that it was a matter of time before everyone inside would be overwhelmed by the amount, so we had to hurry.

      When we arrived, we could see prominent members of the DoN, like Judge Hog and the Kau Defender, valiantly trying their best to keep the Wraiths from entering the DoN and causing havoc inside. I quickly turned my attention towards the team.

      “Someone’s obviously controlling those Wraiths, so while you’re helping the DoN defend their base of operations, look for any suspicious Neopians within the vicinity, especially if it’s a Green Kacheek. Other than that, let’s show these Wraiths they picked the wrong group to fight.” The team nodded and headed off.

      I spotted a few Wraiths somehow breaking through the defences and heading inside. Immediately, I went straight towards them, bashing and jabbing those that got in my way. Fortunately, as soon as I reached the entrance, I saw the Wraiths being blasted out by an unknown magic spell. When I entered, I saw that it was Forest, readying another spell.

      I was about to head back to the battlefield when I heard some snarling. Immediately, I turned around and saw that it was a second wave of Wraiths that had broken through. I did not want to be attacked by them with my back turned if I headed to the DoN, so I slowly walked back in a defensive position until I reached the doorway. Using the doorway to my advantage, I quickly turned my Jade staff into an improvised bar, allowing me to jump into the air and shove the Wraiths back with my feet. Before they could recover, I was already inside and letting Forest put up a barrier to prevent any more from coming in. We took a quick breather.

      “Captain, normally I don’t give updates in the middle of a battle, but this is important. Apparently, there have been a couple of reports from agents that a Speckled Xweetok in a purple cloak was seen within the area directing the Wraiths. That’s going to complicate things, isn’t it?” Forest asked me as soon as we recovered our breaths. I nodded.

      “If those reports are indeed true, it will, especially if it’s Xandra, even if she is from a different Neopia. Other than that, I’m not seeing any clear connections between her and Magon unless they’re both motivated by the same thing.” I began thinking a little bit more.

      “Actually, no, our version of Magon and Xandra were both powerful mages. Both also felt that they were betrayed by a powerful group, in a sense, and that betrayal was strong enough to have them exact revenge.” At that point, Forest motioned me to follow him to his office so that we could talk in private.

      “This is something that I have not mentioned before as it’s something that I’m not proud of, but it’s something that’s vital to the case, given the circumstances. When I was fired by Cayenne, I had briefly considered using forbidden dark magic against the DoN for the ‘betrayal’, but decided against it because I felt that it was too powerful for something that petty.” I was left completely stunned at the revelation that it forced me to take a seat. After a few minutes of awkward silence, I spoke up.

      Since it was likely that my mother was aware of the existence of forbidden dark magic, I asked Forest how he knew about them. He went to his Marble Desk and pulled out his copy of Ramtor’s Spellbook from one of the drawers, confirming that my mother knew. I smiled to myself before replying to him.

      “There are some notes from my mother regarding that same spellbook that you’re holding, however, I gave them to Shadow Breeze for him to study. I’ve never read them fully, but I’m starting to think that she made some notes on the forbidden dark magic, if she found any.”

      Both of us wanted to know how the battle was progressing, so we checked with a Faerie Ruki. She told us that the battle was progressing slower than expected as there were still Wraiths pouring into the area and swamping the fighters, but the barriers were still intact, for the time being. I knew that the longer the battle took, the more likely that the barriers would fail and the DoN would fall. We needed to take our Xandra, and quickly.

      Immediately, I grabbed a pair of Toy Binoculars and headed out to the roof. Upon my arrival, I quickly scanned the area to see if I could spot either Xandra or Magon. I soon spotted both of them nearby, although they were quite some distance away for a long-distance attack to touch them. To make matters worse, there was no one close enough to attack them directly as they were too preoccupied with the Wraiths.

      With the information on hand, I began devising a plan to attack them, although I was a bit nervous as this was my first time attacking someone with magic from a distance as I was used to attacking in close quarters. While keeping a close eye on them, I summoned a few stormclouds and began pelting them with hailstones instead of my usual blizzard spell.

      Much to my surprise, my plan worked a lot better than I had anticipated, putting them both on the defensive for a short period. That was pretty much the opening that we needed as the Wraiths were somewhat disoriented without Xandra directing them. That opening also allowed a small group of Defenders to come in and pick off the Wraiths one by one. They were about to capture both Xandra and Magon, but they must have sensed that it was a losing battle and teleported away. I sighed in relief.

      As soon as I came down, I told Forest to keep the barriers up for the time being as I suspected that there would be another battle soon, given the fact that Xandra and/or Magon had failed to meet their objectives. Forest agreed with that decision. I also thought about moving Doctor Landelbrot to another location while he recovered, but decided against it as there was no guarantee that the new location would be attacked. For now, all we could do is wait, although the delay did allow us make some adjustments.

To be continued…