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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 himby 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 master). 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.
    â€œWhat 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.”
    â€œWait, they yelled something before that, didn’t they?” asked DZ.
    â€œYeah, 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 triedto kill you?” asked Archie.
    â€œYeah,” said Kat. “Why? Does that mean anything to you guys?”
    â€œOh, 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?”
    â€œYeah . . . ,” said G slowly. The two of them had had to leave the council meeting early because of it.
    â€œWell, we went to a Noctem Alliance rally in the Residential District,” said Jayden.
    â€œYou did
what
?” shouted Stan, taken aback.
    â€œYeah,” 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.”
    â€œAnd what did you find?” asked Bill. Stan was dreading the answer.
    â€œThe 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.
    â€œYeah, 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?”
    â€œThat’s just it! The guy at the rally said that the NoctemFreedom 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.
    â€œ
Viva la Noctem
. The motto of the Noctem Alliance.”

CHAPTER 4 VIVA LA NOCTEM
    T here 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.
    â€œAre you serious right now?” wailed DZ in despair.
    â€œHold 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