LET ME OUT OF HERE! GO TO THE NETHER! YOU STUPID BAGS OF SCUM! HELP! Here's Chapter 7. I'LL KILL YOU ALL AND YOUR—!

Sky POV—

I blacked out after the squid threw us up. I had hit my head on a rock during my fall, so I took some bad damage. I don't know what happened to the squid or my friends at that moment, but all that I knew was that I was drifting. Pain and suffering seemed so far away…

"Sky? You okay? C'mon bud!"

I moaned and swatted towards the voice. "Ten more minutes…"

"C'mon, Sky! It's Antvenom!"

I blacked out again after that. I vaguely remembered some people carrying me some place, only they didn't look normal. Then again, everything was blurry after the explosion.

I randomly drifted in and out of consciousness, making it hard to know the difference between reality and just dreams. Sometimes images of friends, or strangers; sometimes visions of the squids destroy humanity and making slaves out of humans. When I truly woke up, I was greeted with a head connected to a green T-shirt. Messy brown hair covered most of the figure's face, but I knew who it was.

"Toby?" I croaked.

"Welcome back. An interesting… choice of reentry back there…"

The first thing that came to mind: "My base camp? Recruits? Friends?"

TobyTurner sighed. "The base camp was destroyed—"

"Naturally."

"—all the recruits made it out with some minor injuries. You're friends…" Toby trailed off.

"Oh, Notch, no…" I slammed my head back and closed my eyes.

Toby suddenly waved his hands back and forth. "Oh! No! They weren't killed Sky. The squid escaped, and he took most of your friends. We don't know if they're alive... All that remain are Antvenom, Captainsparklez, Ethan, and… your new bud."

IAngel. I had forgotten about her. I quickly sat up. "Where are they?"

My temples throbbed and black spots danced in my vision, and I was forced to lay back again. "Ant! Sparklez! Ethan! IAngel!"

Toby shushed me. "Keep it down, will ya? The main Audience is at a meeting!"

"Audience?"

It then occurred to me: if my main HQ was destroyed, then where would we go?

Toby grinned. "Welcome to TobyTurner Head Quarters. Main base of Audience Members and now: The Sky Army."


Honestly, I was genuinely impressed.

It was huge. There were buildings that reached up to 200 blocks high. The defensive walls went up to 150 blocks, topped off with tripwire that let dispensers shoot arrows. There was a blacksmith that Captainsparklez was at, learning how to craft other weapons and teaching the others his "TNT bow" idea. People were everywhere; training, talking, eating, or rushing over an injured person (which was very rarely). The head building—oh my Notch—was enormous!

"500 blocks up, made completely out of obsidian," Toby informed me, a tinge of pride in his voice.

I couldn't speak. It was amazing. All it needed was some budder.

"Sky!"

IAngel ran up to me. "Dude! Isn't this place awesome?"

"Oh my Notch…"

"I know! It's so cool!"

"Oh my Notch…"

"Hey! You gotta see your friend. What's his name… Ethan! You gotta see Ethan!" IAngel waved me towards were she came from.

"Why? What's wrong with Ethan?" I felt a sudden defensive feeling for my friend.

She laughed. "Nothing's wrong with Ethan! He's talking!"

Ethan was with some people, laughing. He turned, and his red eyes pierced me. He smiled and walked over. "Sky! How are ya doing, buddy?"

I nearly fell over. His voice was exotic, with an accent that sounded a bit Canadian. I didn't know how his voice would sound, but I didn't expect it to sound like that.

Ethan laughed. "Now the 'shut up, Ethan' jokes make sense, eh?"

"Holy mother of budder, Ethan! You can fucking talk!"

"Hells to-the yeah I can! Just because I'm a mute, doesn't mean I can't talk when I want to!"

Point taken.

I was stunned. Ethan could talk, and I was surprised. "What happened to the others, Ethan?"

My friend had a sudden interest in his feet.

I clenched my jaw tightly and invaded his space. "Where. Are. They?"

Ant stumbled out of nowhere. "SQUIDS!" He curled into his now-usual fetal position. "Squids… Squids… Squids…"

I sighed as I hefted Antvenom back to his feet and wrapped his arm around my neck for support.

"Squid dimension… Bodil… Dawn… Jason…"

I snapped my attention fully to Ant. "What did you just say?"

"Squid dimension…"

Ethan nodded. "Sky, the squid took them to the squid dimension."


I hate squids.

Well, I would hate them even more now. They took my friends to the squid dimension, destroyed my base, and killed so many of my recruits. My mind simply gave up and said: "Okay, I can't hate the squids any more than I do now."

We sat at a table—Antvenom, Ethan, iAngel, Captainsparklez, Toby, and me—a large map laid before us. Toby was marking places on the map using a stick dipped in squid ink. "We got lakes here, here, here, here, and here. Most of them are full of the squids, and if we even capture one of them, we have a chance of getting into the squid dimension. Sky, they only react to your gold weapons."

"Gold weapons?"

"Sorry… budder weapons." Toby apparently didn't like to call it budder. "All we need to do is capture one, and Sky does the rest."

Sparklez cleared his throat. "Even if we do manage to get the squids to cough up the info, what if it requires rare items or something, like a Nether Star or some emerald blocks?"

IAngel chuckled. "Got that covered. I have a knack for finding rare items."

I decided to not ask how.

"But what about our fighters? We need all kinds of weapons and armor and potions." Ethan pointed out. "I mean, when we do get to the squid dimension, we need to fight like hell."

Toby laughed. "Now that Audience is an ally with the Sky Army, we should be able to mine enough supplies to get stuff for everyone." He looked at Antvenom with a look of concern. "Is he okay?"

"Just another panic attack. He'll be fine in about an hour."

Toby nodded, then went back to the map. "Alright. I'll get some of my hunters and send them to go capture a squid. Sparklez, you go with the blacksmiths and start crafting. Ethan, go into the mines and get what we need. Ant… I think he'll find something to do. IAngel, start training in combat with the other Audience Members."

We all nodded, and our tiny meeting broke.

Chapter 8 will be out tomorrow. In the mean time, I gotta run. GET AWAY FROM ME! WHERE DID YOU PUT MY BUDDER SWORD!?