Author's Note: I worked nonstop to get this chapter done. I was too excited once I got the idea! A lot of things go down here, and some huge climaxes come as well. It's intense stuff, let me tell you!
Edit: No, this story doesn't end here. I've got one last chapter for you guys.
Ch. 9
"Alright, calm down. We can talk about this." Sky said, hands up in defeat.
"This is new. What happened to your usual bravado?" Derpollolus laughed. "Clearly you must now recognize that the Squid Army is superior to your puny team of recruits."
"Don't give up Sky; if we can't find a way, we'll make one!" Nicki encouraged.
A squeak and an oink caught their attention. Turning, they saw a bat and a pig come up the stairs. Derpollolus, true to his word, signaled the squids to drop the two friends.
"NO!" The group was helpless as they watched the two disappear from their view.
Seconds later, Jason rocketed back up, carrying Ty on his back. "You squids are so easy to fool. We were awake this whole time!"
"Where's my Oscar?" Ty laughed.
Jason fist-bumped the two animals. "What's up Dillon, Jeffrey? Thanks for the diversion."
"THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH!" Derpollolus was enraged now. Their delay was severely altering his plans. "IT IS TIME TO BEGIN OPERATION 'SQUIDS RULE'!" At his words, the ground began to shake, and the rocket engines began to fire up. "Do you hear that? That, is the sound of the ruin of your world! Bon voyage Team Crafted!" He took off in an instant.
"Oh no you don't!" Sky hopped onto Pepper, followed by Ty. "You guys stay here and try to shut down those rockets; we'll go after the squid." Ty flicked the reins and took off in a flash, Jason leading the way. Likewise, Nicki took Ian's Charizard and flew down to support the army below, leaving Quentin, Mitch, Jerome, and Ian there on the roof.
The four ran down the stairs and began to search, scanning every room on every floor, searching for the room that controlled the rockets. It just didn't seem to be there. When they finally reached the first floor, they found a room marked in huge letters: 'CONTROL ROOM'.
"Are you serious..." Mitch facepalmed. "We could've just started on the first floor!"
"Whatever, let's go!" Jerome opened the door to find a huge space, filled with machines of all kinds.
"These dang squids must be smarter than we thought..." Ian muttered. A timer hung on the wall, labeled: 'Totally Awesome Countdown to the End of Minecraft'.
"Uh-oh." Mitch gulped. "According to this, those rockets are set to launch in thirty minutes."
"What?" Quentin panicked.
"Don't worry, one of these machines must turn off the rockets." Mitch determined. "But it will take forever to check each one."
"Does that mean we start hitting buttons randomly?" Jerome suggested.
"No, not quite. We'll need something a little more...destructive."
Quentin's eyes lit up. "You really mean...?"
"Yep. Go for it little dude."
"Do-dodo!" Quentin cheered, pulling out his TNT and scattering it everywhere. When they were at a safe distance from the room, the Mudkip took out his torch and lit the redstone trail. It snaked its way into the room, and seconds later, lit and exploded all of the TNT. When they went in the investigate, everything was completely demolished. But looking outside, the rockets were still smoking away and the countdown clock still ticked down.
"...but how...?" Quentin muttered.
Mitch shook his head. "We'll need to try something else."
The trio were in hot pursuit of Derpollolus, chasing him across the deep ocean. Pepper shot out a flame, hitting the squid and causing him to crash-land on a small island below. They hopped off and walked over to him.
"Not so high and mighty now, huh?" Jason teased.
"...foolish...humans...our plan will still p-revail..." The squid managed to utter before trailing off. He remained still, not moving.
"Is he...dead?" Ty inched forward to check. The squid king suddenly rose up, laughing. "YOU CAN NEVER DEFEAT ME!" Derpollolus whipped Ty with a tentacle, knocking him into the ocean.
"TY!" Sky yelled. Suddenly, his amulet began to glimmer brightly, and his body glowed as well. He hovered into the air, holding his butter sword high, and flew forward and stabbed Derpollolus, killing him for real. The spell ended, and Sky regained his senses. "oooooOOoooo...what the…oh no, Ty!" He dove into the water, pulling his limp friend out and setting him down. Ty's headphones were broken, and Sky couldn't feel a pulse.
"Hey, wake up dude." Ty made no response. "C'mon Ty, stop pretending..." Tears were welling up in his eyes. Sky turned, sobbing into Jason's shoulder. Jason could hardly comfort himself, let alone Sky.
"...Hey...Are you crying? What's wrong?" A quiet voice asked. The two turned, and saw Ty, sitting up, and staring at them questioningly. "Did I miss something?"
Sky suddenly understood and frowned. "We thought you were dead, Deadlox you little son of a-"
"What he means to say," Jason interrupted, "is that we're not finished yet. We still need to go see if the guys shut off the rockets."
"Well then what are we just sitting here for? Let's hurry!" Ty whistled for Pepper. As they flew off towards the castle once more, they felt that things were finally looking up for a change.
"WHAT?" Ty gasped.
"Er, can you repeat that?" Jason asked.
Mitch groaned. "We blew up the control room, but the rockets are still preparing for launch, and we only have ten minutes before they will."
Quentin ran in circles, yelling, "We're all going to die!"
"So that's it then? Minecraft is doomed?" Jerome asked.
"Not quite." Jason put in, getting an idea. "If we destroy the portal..."
"Then the rockets would have nowhere to go..." Mitch added.
"And they would go here instead of there." Ian finished. "But wait...that would mean..."
"Yep. We'd have to flood this place and probably drown along with it." Sky determined. The weight of that decision really hit them. Even Quentin couldn't hold his breath in a world completely submerged in water. To save their world, they'd have to sacrifice themselves.
"Well, if that is what it takes to save Minecraft, then I'm in." Jerome said. The others looked around, all of them in agreement.
"So that's it then." Jason nodded. "C'mon Quentin, let's go blow up the thing." The mudkip hopped on Jason's back, and the two headed to the portal. There was a long silence after that, letting the reality set in that they really weren't coming back.
But there was one last thing that Sky wanted to know. "Hey Ian. I need to ask you something."
"What's up?"
"You're into freaky stuff, right?"
"You know me. What is it?"
"Well, I've discovered that this butter amulet I'm wearing grants me this special power. I've only experienced it twice. The first time was when Einshine was attacked by Herobrine, and the other was earlier when Ty got punched by the squid. It was like I get super-powered for a moment, and I come back not knowing what happened. When I try to use its power though, it doesn't work. Why is that?"
Ian pondered this for a bit. "Hm...it seems to me that your amulet only responds to your strongest emotion: your friendship with others. Apparently this power of yours isn't controllable; it only triggers when someone close to you is in danger. I read about this somewhere...I believe they called the sensation immemor amor."
A boom was heard in the distance, and Jason and Quentin appeared soon after. "Alrighty. Portal's gone. Time to start the apocalypse party!"
"Dang Jason, you seem to be handling impending death well." Ty commented.
"It sure does, doesn't it? In reality though, I'm still coming to terms with all this. I'm just glad you guys are with me when this time had to come." The countdown clock ticked louder and louder.
"It looks like we didn't win the Hunger Games after all, Bacca." Mitch shook his head, disappointed.
"I know Benja...and I always thought we'd go out with an Order 66..." Jerome said..The group moved closer, fearing what was to come.
"Jason, I'm startled." Sky said.
"I know. Me too." They closed their eyes, bracing for impact. The countdown ended, sounding a screeching siren. The missiles exploded, and they knew no more.