Chapter 9
Lobster Says Nighty Night
"Here, put these on," Screamo, er Lbp, tossed something that looked like a black cloak on the floor in front of me.
At the moment Lbp had his nose stuck into a classic wooden chest, sort of like one of those your little sister has for dress up. And what did said chest hold? You guessed it, what appeared to be old articles of clothing. I would say in an attic to be more cliché, but it appeared that we were in a storage room somewhere on one of the upper levels. I shoved the cloak over my head and the hood ended up covering most of my face, Sith style.
Lbp grunted in annoyance and tossed out two more cloaks like my own, hitting Cavedog in the face with a wad of fabric. He narrowed his eyes and put the garment on, giving KB the other.
"Last one," Lbp muttered before giving one to Kaska.
"What exactly is the significance of this?" Kaska asked as he fumbled with finding the correct way to put it on.
Lbp pulled his on easily and gave each of us a once over before heading back out the way we came.
"Lord Adkhi's orders. You four don't want to be seen just yet," Lbp replied hastily, heading down the stairs we'd come up earlier.
"I thought the point was to kidnap the other admins..." KB pointed out.
Lbp looked back at us with his mouth twitching in annoyance.
"You heard his orders. You'll do what he wants when he wants, no exceptions."
I knew we weren't going to take lightly from taking orders from our new king. Didn't anyone around here have the slightest idea what separation of powers meant? I sighed and kept walking, suppose not.
We finished scaling the stairs fairly easily and came upon the main level that it seemed everything was held on. At the bottom of the stairs three guards were waiting for us, standing rigid as stone with golden eyes fixated on us.
"We're quite ready to depart," Lbp said.
"Yes sir," the guard replied.
In the blink of an eye one of the black pony guards had teleported us to the village outside of spawn. It was tempting to think about overthrowing these guards to escape, but not a soul was around and we didn't have a very good chance. I glanced over longingly at the lit up castle of Spawn, it seemed so far away. Well, as was freedom at that moment.
"Stay close," Lbp instructed, pulling the hood up over his head and beginning the trot towards Spawn.
"Pull your hoods up. Stay quiet," one of the pony guards grunted, each of them dressed in their own cloak.
I didn't hear anything but some grumbling from Cave as we all proceeded at a fairly brisk pace towards Spawn. Glancing to my left I was able to make out the feet of Derpy and bit back some laughter. That pony and Hell's weird black magic brought us all here in the first place and I wasn't too sure if that was a good or a bad thing. So far this had been pretty enjoyable, scratch being kept prisoner and possibly screwing up Chimerical for good. Oh yeah, let's just forget that ever happened.
We continued to walk through the village outside of spawn and proceeded onto the bridge that connected it to the main castle part of Spawn. The night's chill didn't touch us because of the cloaks, though we could probably all agree that we felt cold just doing this.
The wind blew lightly though it didn't ruffle our cloaks in the slightest as I looked up at the lit up Spawn, my eyes instantly snapping ahead of us where I saw some movement. We kept going and I was able to get a look at the person since the guard ponies had moved and thought I recognized the face. Flyn was standing at the entrance of Spawn looking out past us when to his right a fluffy brown pony with a cutie mark that looked like : trotted up to him. By now we were three or four yards from them and counting. If we kept on this same path I wasn't sure how they weren't going to see us. Lbp looked back at us, meeting each of our eyes as if to warn us not to say a word. I still couldn't figure out how we were going to sneak past these too.
"Hey Slag," Flyn said with a nod of his head and his eyes still fixated outside.
"Flyn."
Slagmoose returned the nod and went past him, continuing in the opposite direction off to do whatever. We were a couple feet from Flyn when he froze, looking around until his eyes were directly on mine. I almost stopped but one of the pony guards pushed me forward silently as we went past Flyn as if we were never there. Flyn shook his head, "Could've swore I…"
Seeming to forget it he continued off in the direction Slagmoose went and didn't look back. Our group on the other hand kept on, meeting no more ponies and arriving at what we recognized as the admin shops. Lbp nudge Cavedog ahead before looking around and then spoke.
"Open it," Lbp replied.
Cavedog looked confused, as he was lead to the final stall that was always empty for whatever reason. Everyone stopped with Cavedog and Lbp in the front, Kaska, KB, me in the middle, and the guard ponies bringing up the rear.
"You know exactly what we're talking about moderator," Lbp growled, eyes sternly on Cavedog.
Cave looked down and grunted in annoyance, leaving me confused. Open what? He was staring a wall… Seeming to surrender, Cavedog raised his hoof up and tapped it on the floor two times, shattering the silence. Almost like magic the area that was once just an empty stall completely transformed into a flight of stairs with torches on either side, seeming to go down forever.
KB, Kaska, and I probably looked like we'd just seen something implode and then explode…oh me and my weird analogies. But what was it? Some kind of…moderator/admin secret party room? Of course I was being too sarcastic for my own good, but what else was new?
Lbp gave Cavedog a strict nod and was ushered back into his place beside Kaska by the guard ponies. Lbp took the first steps down the stairs with Kaska and Cavedog behind him, then KB and I, and finally the guard ponies. I couldn't help but jump as opening closed up once again making a loud whooshing sound as it proceeded to cloak itself from the rest of the server. Our hooves clicked against the stone steps as Lbp lead the way to wherever we were going. Eerily the light from the torches cast our shadows on the wall as we made the descent.
My curiosity got the better of me and my mind started to wander again, no big surprise there. This could sort of be compared to Dante's Inferno… you know where he was descending to the gates of Hell. Or even sillier, what if this was like that episode of My Little Pony- oh wait.
After several pointless arguments with myself later we reached the bottom of the staircase and came into a huge room made of what appeared to be iron blocks. For at least sixty blocks out you could see double chest after double chest filled with who knows what mysteries. This was certainly no hellfire. On the very back wall I did notice a huge sign…well more like a billboard that said "The First National Bank of Bilbo". I squinted my eyes and could make out something else in significantly smaller print. (Esk is watching you). Well how wonderful.
Though the room was relatively simple, Lbp looked like he had just struck gold. Kaska, KB, and were looking around curiously when we got smacked in the face with a cloth sack, rudely thrown by one of the guard ponies.
"Search the chests, we want anything and everything of value, especially weapons, armor, and redstone. Load everything you find into these bags and make it snappy. Sirus, Rigel, stand guard with one at the base of the stairs and the other at the top. We don't want anypony getting curious," Lbp snapped.
Cavedog shot us a look that seemed to say "I'll explain later" and we got to work, each taking an aisle of double chests. I couldn't help but marvel at how many there were as I selected the first one in the row. As the chest creaked open I was surprised to see that it was merely filled with dirt. What if I just filled my sack with dirt and called it good. Lord Adkhi could eat it for breakfast along with some flowers as a side. Good protein. With one last grumble I let the lid fall shut and moved to the next chest, also filled with dirt.
As I went down the row I was almost completely convinced that it was the dirt row until I got to the second to the last chest. As I opened it I saw that instead of dirt it was filled to the brim with redstone. Just what we were looking for!
"Jackpot," I muttered to myself, beginning to scoop the redstone out in hand- hoovefuls and into my bag.
"Hurry up," Lbp griped from a couple chests away.
I acquiesced, biting back an insult and instead shot him a glare, getting the last of the redstone out of the chest and into my bag.
"Here's another."
Lbp handed me another empty sack as I returned from dropping the other full sack in the pile we had going near the base of the stairs. We had a little over 5 bags now of various items, plenty for each of us to carry. As I scooped out more redstone into the sack I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. Stealing had never been my thing because I actually received enjoyment for earning what I wanted, not just taking it. Since being captured by these crazy people the rules weren't exactly followed. I felt sorry for whoever was going to have to replace all this we were taking. Kaska looked solemn as he dug through the chests on the other side of me, filling another bag and adding it to the pile.
"This is ridiculous," I whispered as he passed me.
"Tell me about it," he snorted.
"There are four of us and three of them…why don't we just…"
I didn't even need to finish that sentence. Kaska raised an eyebrow and noticed I was right, running his gaze over the scene. The likelihood of an escape was very slim. Lbp wasn't the problem; I could take him myself if I had to, but the guard ponies were a bit of a different story, not to mention that they could have some kind of system to alerting Lord Adkhi of our insurrection. Maybe it was like a giant easy button but instead of easy it said Adkhi.
But then again it wasn't like we needed a full-blown escape to work… that is if we were able to alert some other people above ground to our situation. Better yet, some admins. On the contrary, there was that whole threat about really messing Chimerical's shit up if we went AWOL on Adkhi…huh we just had to weigh the options here.
Was it likely he actually had a mass destruction weapon? Maybe, maybe not, it was sort of a 50/50 chance…like when you're taking a test and they put those true and false answer questions in there. So while taking this test you're unsure what the answer is, and you select false because it's the first thing that comes to your mind…after all, how the hell would you know if the sun's main energy source was helium or not? Then a couple days later you get that same test back, and you check that question, realizing you got it wrong. Yeah, that'd be me, every time. 50/50 chance situations where I have to guess usually equal getting the wrong answer. "Part of me wants to say go for it, but then again, look at the situation we're in," Kaska replied with a frown.
Sadly he was probably right. We may need to lay low for a while and then attempt an epic escape once we get a better idea of what Adkhi was trying to do. Maybe get some inside information somehow after getting on his good side and destroy it from the inside out. I knew that none of us wanted to acquiesce and refrain from fighting them off at that point, but we didn't really have a choice.
"That'll be a wrap boys and girls, let's get out of here. Finish filling your current bag and then take as many as you can carry," Lbp announced.
The guard ponies were now joining Lbp at the base of the stairs, watching the rest of us get finished up. I stuffed the last of the redstone in the bag and closed it, picking it up. It was strange to have to pick something up with my mouth and carry it mother dog baby dog style. In that retrospect I sort of missed having hands. I kicked the chest shut with my back hoof and began to make my way to the pile when I heard a noise, making me halt immediately.
Aside from the clopping of our hooves and the closing of the occasional chest there was no sound in the huge room. My eyes shot up to the top of the stairs and I could make out what sounded like voices. Cavedog, KB, and Kaska were a couple chests away frozen in place. I could hear the entrance to the Bank open and the sound of hooves on the stairs. Oh shit pellets.
"Hide, now. Don't say a word," Lbp hissed, ushering the guard ponies into the dark corner of the room.
Glancing around frantically I saw what the others were doing and selected a chest to hunker down behind. Laying the sack of redstone down beside me I laid as flat as I could behind the chest, not liking the open space all around us. We just had to hope they didn't come down the rows. I could now make out the voices clearly as they came down the stairs.
"I'm telling you that is the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen. Kezies really outdid himself this time. He made the Yogscast one look puny," someone said.
"Ugh, really, someone needs to take that banner down," replied the other.
"The Eskallon thing? Yeah, ever since he got mod he's been going a bit overboard."
I dared to peek out from behind the chest and saw Hellwyrm and this other pony I didn't recognize now reaching the bottom of the stairs. Hell! Maybe he could help us! Glancing over at KB and Cavedog I could tell they were having a hard time not yelling at him, SOS! Hadn't Hell noticed our absence yet? Where was the huge rescue army?
"Lobster does not appreciate Esk. Lobster thinks he is strange," the pony that was obviously the player Lobsterlobster commented.
I mean come on, who else calls himself a Lobster and speaks in third person like it's commonplace? The one and the only, Lobster! Hell was just about to say something when a puzzled look came upon his face. It was obvious he'd spotted something…maybe one of us? I peeked out again and noticed he was slowly walking over to the bags of redstone. Lbp, you dumbass, you just left them there! It wasn't us being found that was going to get us caught it was our so-called mission leader's genius.
"What the…" Hellwyrm trailed off, hovering over the bags.
"It seems as if someone forgot something," Lobster replied, poking one of the sacks curiously with his hoof like it was some type of mysterious substance.
"It's redstone," Hell announced, looking down into the bags one by one, "bags and bags of redstone. Huh, who would just leave this stuff sitting here."
"Lobster nominates Cavedog for prime suspect."
I saw Cavedog stiffen out of the corner of my eye. Well, yeah, part of it was Cavedog so you have that right Lobster! But then there were the rest of us…ugh, forced labor, we had no choice.
"Naw, Cavedog wouldn't do something this stupid. I don't know why but I just have a weird feeling about this," Hell sighed, glancing over the lines of chest that were spread across the room.
Then he seemed to change his mind, picking a line of chests and going to one about five or six in front of where KB was hiding. His brow furrowed as he opened up the chest, finding it empty. He then moved to the next, also empty.
"Hm, they're all empty…I guess someone just took all of the redstone out and put them in these bags," Hell said slowly, coming back over to stand beside Lobster who was looking down at the redstone.
"Hmm, very queer indeed," Lobster said, doing the thinker pose while staring down at the pile of bags.
Hell sighed and began to pace back and forth in front of the bags, looking quite perturbed.
"I can't believe someone would just leave this there, I mean why? The only people who come down here are part of the staff and they wouldn't be this stupid to take this stuff out and just leave it here. Unless…unless whoever was in here wasn't staff- no, staff only know about this in the first place. Still, maybe some type of thief? But what would they want with a bunch of redstone? What would they use it for and why is it so important that they had to steal 40 billion pounds of it…"
Hell stopped in front of the bags, glancing at them and then turning his back, looking out over the chests with a puzzled expression. I could tell he really wanted to figure this out. What happened next really took the cake, I wouldn't have thought in a million years Lbp would be so careless.
"What if they're still here, the thieves…gah, am I just being stupid, over thinking things again…I don't know, what do you think Lobster?" Hell asked.
The room was silent as he waited for a response, slowly turning around and wondering why Lobster hadn't even answered him. Sure, sometimes he could be a derp, but it didn't take him this long to answer! Man, was the guy speech impaired now?
"Lobster…?" Hell asked, turning around slowly.
Lobster had a derpy look on his face, sort of like those ones in a cartoon where you had birds flying around your head. Yep, just like that.
"Lobster says goodnight," he squeaked in a really high voice before face planting into the sacks of redstone, limbs going every which way.
Hell didn't even have time to react before Lbp jumped forward, smacking Hell right in the face with what appeared to be a huge board. Hell's deer in the headlights look faded as he went down, his face connecting with the floor below in a very short amount of time. The score was Lbp two, and staff members…well, zero. "What the hell Lbp!" Cavedog shrieked, running over to his friends with Kaska and KB hard on his hooves.
I got over there quickly and watched as KB nudged Lobster.
"Well I had to do something. Those admins were getting a bit too curious," Lbp defended, steely eyes fixed upon us.
Cavedog poked Hell and elicited no response, same with Lobster, so long story short they were both out cold. Not to mention Hell's face was probably broken. "Well good God did you really have to smack them with…with that huge board?" Cavedog sputtered.
I was about to nudge Lobster again but Lbp obviously didn't like that.
"Don't wake these asshats up! The last thing we need is to be found out," Lbp hissed. "Well that's pretty damn inevitable now. What are they going to do when they wake up? Hell will remember everything and then you guys will be screwed," KB contradicted, a slight smirk on his face.
"I think I managed to hit them hard enough that they won't be remembering anything for a very long time."
One of the guard ponies had enough guts to interject, making a surprisingly good point too.
"Sir…Lord Adkhi did specifically asked for a pony called Hellwyrm…I do believe that this pony on the left is Hellwyrm," he pointed out.
Lbp was about to snap something back at him when his demeanor completely changed. His frown was turned to an evil smile…dangit I didn't like that look.
"Very good point indeed Rigel. Lord Adkhi will be pleased if we bring back another couple staff members for him, very pleased indeed. Get the redstone and the two ponies. Back to the castle," Lbp commanded.
Cavedog, KB, Kaska, and I all looked at each other, then back down at the limp bodies of Lobster and Hell. Oh boy, who else had we drug into this mess? So…I suppose you could say mission one went…well? I've never been so unsure about anything in my life.
A/N: Well there you have chapter 9! :D Sorry about the long wait guys, I've had so much other crap to do it's not even funny. I'll try to get a couple more chapters pumped out on Christmas break, man I can't wait. Any comments are appreciated and I hope you enjoyed!
