Wake up heroes, the world still needs you...
Petra's head shot up in alarm.
"What happened..." Petra said, exhausted.
She took in her surroundings, which was odd for a start.
It was all white, there were no walls visible.
Petra stood up, shaking her head. She had no idea where she was, which was sort of a problem.
"Eugh..." Petra looked to her left, and saw...
"Axel?"
Axel's eyes widened, and looked up at Petra, his eyes squinted. "Petra?"
Petra noticed Olivia, Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, Lukas, and even Soren.
They all woke up eventually, and were just as confused as Petra was.
"Where are we?" Olivia said, scratching her head.
Do you not remember?
Everyone looked around frantically in alarm at the sound of a loud booming voice.
"Who goes there?" Gabriel said, reaching for his sword.
You all have perished by the hand of the Witherstorm.
Petra gasped in horror. She remembered it clear as day.
The Order of the Stone and Jesse's gang had finally teamed up to take on the Witherstorm.
But the plan fell apart, the Witherstorm had slaughtered them, and they all lied on the ground, their life seeping from them. Petra could faintly see Jesse shaking her, tears rolling down his face in horror. To make it worse, most of the other heroes died before Jesse could at least say goodbye.
They all bowed their heads in sadness. Then Axel started asking the one question everyone wanted to know.
"How did we get here then? Aren't we supposed to be dead?"
Yes, but the world still needs you. Your friends still need you.
Lukas looked around. "He's right! I don't see Jesse, Reuben, or Ivor! Are they still alive?"
Yes. But it has been some time since your demise.
Soren frowned. "How long?"
It has been 5 months since your demise. Your citizens are still wrecked with grief.
"Yeah yeah yeah, real interesting buddy," Magnus spat sarcastically. "But do you some how maybe, KNOW the way out?"
Yes. I do know the exit of this world.
"Sorry for my friends bad attitude," Ellegaard said. "But can you tell us by any chance?"
Me.
"Me?" Axel echoed. "What about you?"
I can take you out of this Limbo.
"Then do it!" Petra shouted, finally losing patience. "We need to be there for Jesse!"
Not so fast. It doesn't just work like that, noble hero.
"What do you mean?" Olivia nearly cried out. "Jesse needs us!"
Soren eyes lit up "Well we have been dead for 5 months, suddenly coming back is going to cause chaos, especially in Jesse's case. It could mentally break him."
"Yeah, Soren has a point for once," Mangus said thoughtfull. "The pipsqueak would probably have a mental breakdown if we just popped back in."
"He could still be grieving too, to make it wose." Ellegaard said.
"Then what shall we do?" Gabriel asked the mysterious voice.
Go in disguised, settle in.
"Then what do we after we freaking settle in," Axel grumbled.
You're all heroes. Figure it out.
"Well that's just great, can we go now?"
All the heroes saw as a blinding light, then darkness.
Petra woke up. "I'm getting sick of this." She sighed.
Everyone else eventually woke as well, and saw themselves in a forest at pure daylight.
"I should feel like, happy but like it's been 5 months, yet it feels like yesterday," Axel pointed out.
Lukas nodded. "We should probably get disguises, I'm sure we will need them."
Later...
Everyone had different outfits on, and masks on their faces, just creepers, skeletons, zombies, and endermen heads.
"We'll blend in nicely, with how many people wear masks constantly," Axel said.
Olivia rolled her eyes. "I hope you're right."
Axel grunted as a stranger bumped past him. "Hey, what's your problem man?" Axel cried.
The man turned around. "Didn't you hear? The Order of the Stone is going to speak during the ceremony!"
Everyone felt a heartache hearing that. Petra was the first one to snap out of it. "Uh, mind telling us where it is?"
The man smiled. "No need, it's starting in a few! Follow me!"
The group looked at each other and nodded. "Lead the way friend," Soren said.
The man nodded and began jogging away, which the group followed.
It wasn't a long walk, but the crowd was pretty huge. It was nightfall, but monsters were seemingly not a problem, as the place was lit up with colorful lights and torches. Redstone devices clanked and hummed silently, working away at the features of the ceremony.
Suddenly, a man walked onto the stage, and stomped loudly. "People! Your attention please!"
The noisy crowd eventually silented. The man smiled and continued. "It is my pleasure, and honor to present to you; the Order of The Stone!"
The crowd went wild as a pig came out from backstage first.
"Hey..." Lukas said. "Is that...Reuben?"
Indeed it was, Reuben ran around the stage and oinked, making the crowd screech even louder.
Next was...
"Ivor?!" Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Soren would of rubbed their eyes if their masks didn't block their face.
Ivor ran onto the stage, waving and posing for the crowd, which the crowd ate up.
"Yes, it is I, Ivor! Member of the Order of The Stone!" Ivor exclaimed excitedly, pleased that he was the center of attention of the crowd.
And finally...
"Jesse.." Petra whispered.
Jesse calmly walked out, softly waving out the crowd timidly, but the crowd loved it, they screeched louder.
"Yes, hello! Welcome to the Ceremony! It is so good to see..-"
"WELCOME TO THE CEREMONY EVERYONE!" Ivor yelled. "IT MUST BE AN HONOR TO BE STANDING INFRONT OF THE ALMIGHTY MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF THE STONE!"
Instead of being angered or annoyed, Jesse simply stepped back from the spotlight calmly.
"I'M SURE YOU ARE ALL EXCITED, BECAUSE I SURE AM! TELL THEM REUBEN!"
Reuben oinked and ran around, hopping in a circle, which excited the crowd even more.
Ivor went on a big speech, with Jesse watching quietly from behind.
Soren leaned over to Magnus. "Jesse is acting different then when we...last saw him"
Magnus nodded. "I remember pipsqueak being a lot more...vocal then he is right now."
Olivia frowned behind her mask. "Maybe he's still mourning. Poor Jesse."
The group stayed quiet until Ivor stop talking. Ivor turned to Jesse, but Jesse whispered something. Ivor's eyes widened.
"Oh right..." Ivor said softly.
Ivor turned back to the audience. "It seems we have forgotten...a saddening topic to mention."
The crowd hung their heads in respect.
"5 months ago, 8 heroes gave their life for this world. Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, Soren, Axel, Olivia, Lukas, and Petra. Because of their efforts, the terror ending in a peaceful manner. The Witherstorm is now on our side!"
Axel shook his head. "Maybe it's because I haven't eaten for 5 months, but did Ivor just say the Witherstorm is a good guy?"
Soren shook his head too. "That's impossible, it's an unstoppable monster!"
"Seems not," Lukas pointed out.
"But how?!"
"No idea," Ellegaard replied.
"We will be able to find out later," Gabriel stated. Let's just watch the rest of the speech.
Petra noticed during the talk of the dead heroes, Jesse had a depressing stance, staring at the floor. His shoulders shook time to time, a sob most likely. Petra's heart broke seeing him like this.
"If you wish to pay your respects, you should head over to the monuments built for them by the dome."
The crowd hung their heads in silence for a minute in respect to the "Fallen" heroes.
After that, Ivor cleared his throat. "Thank you for coming everyone, the party takes place in the plaza, there will be free cake at the booth."
The crowd cleared out, with the group blending in.
They went to a dark alley to talk.
"That just happened," Petra said dryly.
"What do we do now?" Lukas said. "Where can we stay?"
"I know!" Axel cried. "We can totally stay at our old treehouse!"
Olivia nodded. "Since Jesse is now a star, he probably doesn't bother going there anymore."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Magnus hissed. "Let's. Go."
Later...
After walking a reasonable distance, there was a surprising lack of monsters.
"I do not like this," Gabriel said. "There should be monsters, where are they?"
Soren's foot bumped into something. He looked down, and let out a shriek.
"Whoa..." Petra said.
There were dead mobs everywhere, headless skeletons, spiders with some of their limbs pulled off.
Zombies lay against the trees, their intestines splayed out on their lap for display.
Ellegaard gagged. "I think I'm gonna be sick," she said with a hand over her mouth.
"Who could of done this?" Soren said thoughtfully.
"We can find out if we follow the trail," Petra said smoothly, and began following the corpses of different mobs.
The group followed the trail until they stumbled into a field, and saw...
"That's a lotta mobs..." Axel said.
Indeed, a large number of different mobs were seemingly heading quickly in the same direction.
"Where are these beasts headed to?" Gabriel wondered.
"They look like they're...running?" Magnus said.
Low and behold, a figure stomped out of the forest after the mobs, and grabbed a zombie and tackled it.
"That definitely isn't a monster," Olivia said. The others nodded and walked towards the figure wrestling the zombie.
"Uh, hello?" Ellegaard asked quietly.
The figure wrapped his hands around the zombies throat, and began strangling it. Olivia shuddered.
The zombie finally stopped moving. The stranger turned to them. He wore a pumpkin on his head, and had blue glowing eyes.
"Who's asking?" He said, his voice garbled.
"Uh, my mine is...Charles?" Lukas said nervously.
The stranger looked at the group, and noticed they all wore masks.
"At least you have a good taste in fashion," The stranger said, tapping the side of his own mask.
"We noticed your...trail on the way to our treehouse. What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"
"Hunting, what does it look like?" The stranger hissed.
"Whoa, take it easy, we were just curious. Why hunt monsters?"
"Because," The stranger said, grabbing a fleeing spider and yanking it's eye out. "It makes me happy."
The stranger cackled at the dying blind spider. "It's funny when they run sometimes, they delay the inevitable."
Axel marveled at the enchanted sword that the stranger held. "Whoa! Cool sword man!"
The stranger seemed to be in a trance, then shook his head, snapping him out of it. "Uh, thanks."
Axel grinned under his mask. "Any time!"
The stranger then took in the group. "Then what are you do out here in the middle of the night? No weapons at all."
Lukas stuttered. "Uh... well, uhh."
Then the stranger shrugged. "Eh, with how many you are in your group, you could just beat everything to death with your fists."
Olivia then looked around, then tapped Petra. Petra raised her eyebrow. "What?"
"Uh, I think we're kinda lost after the sidetrack."
Petra then realized she was right.
"Lost?" The stranger said.
"Oh, uh, you heard that?" Olivia said timidly.
The stranger nodded. "Well. I have a base of operations you can stay at for the night."
Gabriel put his hands on his hips. "Really? Does your Headquarters have enough for the squad to take shelter?"
"You have no idea," The stranger said dryly. "This way."
The stranger led them on a sand road, occasionally getting sidetracked by a monster dumb enough to get in his way.
After a long time, they finally arrived at a mountainside, with a small opening.
"It appears we have arrived," Soren said lightly.
"Mhmm.'
They went through the dark opening into the mountain.
"How long until we arrive at the actual base?" Axel said.
"Patience friend," The stranger said.
After a little bit, they literally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. When they reached it, the sight made the groups jaw dropped.
It was a huge area, all underground made to look like the outside. Hundreds of torches and different lights. Petra realized she just stepped in...
"Grass?"
Indeed, the entire place had dirt and grass everywhere. There were trees, small water pits and magma puts, even animals roaming around.
"Think of it as home away from home," The stranger said.
"Cool place pumpkin dude," Magnus said. "But why bother making it in the first place? This look like it took weeks to make."
The stranger simply shrugged. "I had a lot of freetime."
"This place is amazing," Ellegaard said in wonder. She then looked to the stranger. "What do we call you then?"
The stranger turned to them. "Stranger."
"What?"
"Stranger. Call me Stranger."
"Well," Petra said. "Fair enough. Where do we rest?"
"Anywhere." The stranger had a bed gripped tightly in his grasp.
The group decided near the pig area, where pigs oinked obnoxiously.
"Good choice," The stranger said while setting down the beds.
The group picked their own beds, while the stranger began walking towards a door on the cow section of the field.
Petra frowned. The Stranger was surely mysterious. Maybe they'll figure out more about him next morning.
If the stranger isn't capitalized, they are just referring to him as a stranger. If it has caps, it's "Stranger."
Well, that chapter was a little longer then the first, and a ton more polished, please leave a comment and favorite if you wish to see more!
As always, I don't owe Minecraft.
