War for the Obelisk

Neopedia : Brute Squad

Known Members: Commander Flint, Alhana the Patient, Khadir, MAGAX, Tyran Far
Favourite Weapons: Yes
Motto: Stronger Together
Suspected Involvement: War of the Obelisk

The Brute Squad is a recent addition to Neopia's secret society roster, one which values its selection process more than its secrecy. After all, one member said in an interview, if you've got the best of the best, why hide it? To qualify for the Brute Squad requires years of training.

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Buster was looking for work. "You're scaring the patrons," they'd told him at his last gig. "We can't have you onstage." And that was that -- the end of his jazz career. He played a mean trumpet, but no one would pay him. A Poogle needed to eat, so Buster was browsing Neopia Central's shopping district. It was the largest in the world. Somebody had to be hiring.

"Join the Brute Squad!" an armoured Kyrii with a mace cried from the booth. Buster slowed down to read her sign. Find Fun In Fighting! it proclaimed. The marketplace was full of eccentrics and weirdoes, but the relic Poogle had never seen an ad for brutes before.

The Kyrii spotted him and grinned. It was the sort of grin that made lesser Neopets shiver and run for the nearest faerie. "Come sign up! You look like just the sort of brute we could use!"

"I'm not a brute! I'm very nice!" the Poogle protested. Sure, he visited the Battledome in his spare time, and maybe he'd trained until his strength was amazing, but that was just a hobby...

The mercenary groaned. "Why must everyone equate physical prowess and mastery of tactics with being mean?"

The Poogle shrugged his massive shoulders and stepped up to read the brochure. "Maybe it's the name."


Buster signed up. It paid well enough, and the work seemed fair. When he reached the main camp and saw Commander Flint in action, he even got a little excited. The Skeith was incredible in practice drills, swinging his flail with perfect control, then bashing opponents with his shield as though it were another weapon.

"How did he get the idea to form the Squad?" Buster asked a nearby magma Kau. His only response was a hostile grunt.

"Martha doesn't talk much," the Kyrii recruiter, Alhana, said. She was lugging a backpack full of extra weapons. "But I can tell you. Our commander was a general in the army of Altador, back in the day. He fought the wraiths when Faerieland fell. Then he retired and took up whittling. But something bothered him. Dark magic kept showing up and almost destroying Altador – the world, in fact, this last time."

"I remember that," Buster said, surprised. "Commander Flint helped fight the wraiths?"

"Flint's said that the army was caught unprepared and could barely keep the wraiths at bay. He thought someone should assemble an army designed to fight this kind of thing before it got out of hand. Gang up on trouble with the sort of brutes that even trouble feared." Alhana shrugged. "If you ask me, it's about time. Help me carry this over to the arsenal, will you?"