Sean Wolfe - The New Order

Stan was shocked. What was this? Who were these players, where did they get all these potions, and how did they learn to fight with them so well? Stan, desperate as more Potions of Poison and Harming flew his way, looked around for help. He realized with a jolt that all the high-ranking officials of Element City, all his friends, were now engaged in combat with these players. He was equally alarmed to see that all the mysterious players fought using potions, keeping even master sword fighters like DZ from getting in close enough to use their skills.

As Stan drew his axe to engage his attackers at close range, he reminded himself that he had to be careful. He had no idea where these players came from or who they were, but they were clearly in the order of assassins. That meant that besides escaping the attack and staying alive, Stan had an obligation to take these players prisoner. If he killed the players or let them escape, they would never be interrogated and Stan would never find out why they had attacked him.

Stan ducked another Potion of Harming, and he slammed the butt end of his axe into the thrower’s head. The player, whose eyes were barely visible under a ninja mask and black leather cap, looked stunned. He fell to the ground at Stan’s feet, just as Stan felt a sting on his unarmoured back. As he cringed, Stan realized that he had been hit with a Potion of Harming from another assassin. Stan spun around just as the attacker was about to throw another potion. Stan ducked the bottle, and he swung his axe blade under the attacker’s legs, knocking him to the ground. Stan surged forwards and stepped on the player’s chest, pinning his throwing hand to the ground with his axe.

“OK,” said Stan, breathing heavily. The potion stain on his unprotected back was burning, intensifying his rage. “Who are you people, and why are you attacking us?”

There was no hesitation. The attacker, with his free hand, drew a purple potion from his inventory at light speed and poured the entire contents down his throat. There was a quick shudder, and the attacker’s hand went limp, the empty bottle rolling to the side. His items burst about him in a ring, a sure indicator that the attacker had died.

Stan looked around and saw that like himself, all of his friends had bested the attackers. The black-robed forms now all lay on the ground. In the hands of each of them were the glints of empty glass bottles.

Stan was stunned. What motivation could these players possibly have had that they would rather die than be captured? Stan looked down and realized that one of the attackers was not dead, just unconscious. Well, I’m sure he’ll be able to explain this to us , thought Stan as he dragged him by the knees over to the others.

Kat and G were each drinking a Potion of Regeneration to counter the poison that had exploded in their faces. Kat was using another potion to heal her dog, Rex (who had appeared from nowhere to defend his mistress). Bob was using a Potion of Healing to mend a burn that a Potion of Harming had left on Ivanhoe’s side. Besides that, everybody seemed fine.

Five players were rushing over the Element Castle drawbridge. As they approached, Stan recognized them as Blackraven, Councilman Jayden, Archie, the Mechanist, and Gobbleguy. They looked around in shock, disgust and horror at the black-clad corpses that littered the ground, and the empty potion bottles beside them.

“What happened out here?” asked Gobbleguy, his face stricken with worry.

Stan explained, “We were having an after-party to celebrate the Zombies winning the Spleef match, when out of nowhere a few of the fans tried to kill Kat. Then a bunch of other players pulled out black caps, tunics and swords, and tried to kill the rest of us.”

“Wait, they yelled something before that, didn’t they?” asked DZ.

“Yeah, they yelled ‘Viva la Noctem,’” said Charlie.

Jayden’s and Archie’s faces morphed into alarm. “Did you say … they yelled ‘Viva la Noctem,’ and then they tried to kill you?” asked Archie.

“Yeah,” said Kat. “Why? Does that mean anything to you guys?”

“Oh, boy … yes it does,” said Jayden, pressing his hands together, sweat accumulating on his forehead. “You know how Archie and I said we had business yesterday?”

“Yeah …” said G slowly. The two of them had had to leave the council meeting early because of it.

“Well, we went to a Noctem Alliance rally in the Residential District,” said Jayden.

“You did what ?” shouted Stan, taken aback.

“Yeah,” said Archie. “We went undercover there. We wanted to know more about the group, you know, check out whether or not they were just a protesting group, or something more threatening.”

“And what did you find?” asked Bill. Stan was dreading the answer.

“The guy speaking there said that the upper-level citizens of Element City deserve better than to share the streets with what they called ‘lower-level trash’,” said Archie.

“Yeah, well, we know that’s what the views of that group are, they’ve made that very clear from the get-go,” said Charlie. “But what does that have to do with what happened today?”

“That’s just it! The guy at the rally said that the Noctem Freedom Fighters – that’s what he called them – must be willing to go to any lengths to preserve their ideals. The rally finished with the leader doing that chant. The entire rally started chanting.” A shadow crossed his face as he said the phrase once again.

“ Viva la Noctem . The motto of the Noctem Alliance.”

There was stunned silence. Stan could not believe what he was hearing. The attempts to kill him and his friends … the black tunics … the chant … it seemed clear to Stan that the players who had tried to kill them tonight were working for the Noctem Alliance.

“Are you serious right now?” wailed DZ in despair.

“Hold up, DZ, don’t jump to conclusions,” said Gobbleguy quickly. “It is very possible that these attacks were a result of the Noctem Alliance, and at this point it may seem like that’s the only explanation. However, let me remind you that we cannot know this for sure until the attackers have stood trial. For all we know, these people could have been trying to frame the Noctem Alliance.”

“How are they going to stand trial?” asked Blackraven, gesturing to the corpses around him. “They all killed themselves rather than allow themselves to be captured.”

“Not all of them,” Stan and Kat said at the same time. Stan looked down at the would-be-assassin who he had knocked unconscious with the butt of his axe.

“Four of them weren’t killed,” said Kat. “Stan knocked one out, and G and I knocked out three more. When they come to, we can have them stand trial in the name of their co-conspirators.”

“We’d better strip them of their stuff, though,” added Ben, “or else they’ll just try to kill themselves when they come to.”

“Good idea,” said Kat, giving him a smile, which he returned. Stan noticed G instinctively edge a little closer to Kat.

“OK then,” said Stan. “Charlie, come with me and clean up the items these guys dropped. Bill, Ben, Bob and DZ, you take these four.” He jerked his thumb at the four remaining black figures, the others having vanished. “Bring them down to the jailhouse, but strip them of their items first. The rest of you, go down to the courthouse and let them know that we have four assassins who attempted to kill us, and we need to have an emergency trial. OK, let’s go.”

And with that, Rex, Ivanhoe and all the players went off in their respective directions.

By that evening, the Elementia courthouse was prepped for what people were calling the biggest trial of all time. Indeed, since Stan had come to power on the server, this was the first attempt by anybody to attack him. The trial of those responsible was extremely important.