Hi.
Thank you to Miragold123, TheAmberShadow and The Sorrowful Diety for your reviews. You guys helped me out a lot writing this chapter. More than I can ever explain.
Disclaimer - I own nothing.
POV JESSE
By mid-afternoon, almost everything was ready for the girls to head off on their journey for the legendary engineer, except for one thing… Lukas had found it, which is why he called Jesse (alone with Reuben) into a weird part of the library, that almost It's encased them with shelves and books, with only one tiny exit and a small desk shoved in the corner.
The young blond held a folded piece of paper out for his girlfriend to take.
"I found the map for you and Olivia," He whispered. It was the map with the correct railway track to Redstonia. It was a great relief for Jesse, they wouldn't have to hop from track to track just to fail to find the right one.
"Thanks," Jesse looked down at the map of the Nether, with dozens of railroads scattered across the chunk but only one edge with the words "Redstonia" at the end. She smiled up at Lukas as further thanks. Her smile faltered when she saw Lukas coughing slightly into his sleeve. "Are you okay? You don't look too good." Lukas quickly stopped and cleared his throat.
"I'm fine, Jesse," He assured weakly. "Just… drinking two potions at the same time might not have been the best idea." She raised an eyebrow.
"What are the consequences?"
"Nothing fatal, just side effects that resemble a minor cold. I'll be fine within the hour." Even he didn't sound too sure, making Jesse even more suspicious. She wanted him to spit out what he knew was wrong with him, but there was nothing she could do.
"If you're sure," Her tone was doubtful, clear that she didn't believe a word he said.
"I am sure," Lukas sounded more confident this time, barely. "I might not be an alchemist or a doctor, but I know my stuff." Jesse scanned his paling face for any indication he was lying.
"Okay," He seemed truthful, to a degree… Regardless, Jesse gave Lukas a quick peck on his lips. It would most likely be their last for a while.
"JESSE!" Olivia yelled somewhere in the library. Jesse sighed, hugging herself while she looked down at her feet.
"Time for me to leave," Jesse stored the map in her inventory. Lukas looked sad to have her leave as well. The two shared a hug, then Jesse was on her way with Reuben out of the weird part of the library. "Be safe, don't kill each other," Jesse advised before she left, referencing Axel. Lukas nodded.
"Promise."
When she left Jesse couldn't find Olivia in the library, so she went to where she last saw Olivia at the front of the temple. The other girl wasn't anywhere to be seen, so she decided to wait for her. As she waited, Reuben tugged on her pant leg to grab her attention. He was ready for this adventure too.
However, Jesse had other plans.
"Okay, Reuben," Jesse bent down to his level. "you're gonna stay here with Lukas…" Reuben oiked in protest, pushing his way into her arms. "I know, I know you want to come, but there's something wrong with Lukas, and you need to watch him for me. Okay?"
Reuben thought about it, before oiking in agreement now that he knew he had a mission.
"Good." Jesse rubbed his ears just as Olivia entered the area with Axel. "I'll be back soon."
The track that leads to Redstonia was harshly labeled "Track 57." Why the Order named each track after a number was beyond her. It was so inefficient, and worse it made her nervous. The lines of tracks she and Olivia passed never went above the number 25, and the only one she saw above 25 was "track 72" the one that was made (most likely) by Magnus and nearly gave them all heart attacks.
"Being on this track makes me nervous!" Jesse shouted over the polluted air rushing by. She was leaning over the side of her cart and staring at the bubbling red and orange lava below her.
Olivia was having the opposite experience, she was leaning far over the side of her minecart with deep awe in her eyes. She was laughing every so often and ignored how the air made her wheeze and cough every couple minutes. She was having the time of her life.
"Come on, Jess, this is so cool!" Olivia exclaimed joyfully. She turned around to the back of her cart, looking at the tracks as they raced back.
"Do I need to remind you of our previous experiences with minecarts in the Nether?" Jesse asked flatly, she shivered at the thought of all the ghast.
Olivia scoffed, waving her friends concern off.
"That was all Magnus' doing, this is one of Ellegaards tracks!" Jesse was not convinced this was entirely Ellegaards just yet.
"I guess."
"I mean," Olivia continued blissfully. "can you imagine the amount of engineering this must have taken to build an automated track to anywhere in The Nether? All the scaffolding you'd need? Ellegaard was probably fighting off Zombie Pigman with one hand, wiring redstone with the other…" Jesse chose to not mention the fact pigman don't attack unless they are attacked first, like untamed wolves.
"As impressive as I admit this is," Jesse cut her friend off from her ramble about her hero, "remember we are on a mission. We are here to grab Ellegaard and leave, I don't want this trip to be longer than it needs to be." Olivia turned as red as her shirt.
"Of course. It's just…" Olivia trailed off with a sigh. She laid against the back of her cart and looked up at the netherrack ceiling rolling passed above them. "a dream come true for me... Have you ever met Ellegaard?"
Jesse raised an eyebrow at Olivia's out of place question.
"Formally? As in, 'Hello, my name is,' handshake?" Jesse asked. Olivia nodded. "No, but I have seen her with my own eyes." Olivia gasped, her eyes turning into snowballs with shock.
"What! Why are you telling me this now!?" Jesse chuckled, Olivia was a joy to have when she was excited.
"It was for a school field trip when I was eight," She reminisced. She hadn't thought about the time she visited Redstonia for a long time. "Which was eighteen years ago, there isn't much to tell about it." Olivia jumped forward, rocking the carts together violently. She grabbed Jesse's hand as if she was going to start praying.
"What was she like?" Jesse shrugged.
"Don't remember."
"Do you remember anything?" Olivia stressed, practically jumping in her cart. Jesse had the think about the field trip really hard.
"Other than the fact I got a headache from all the redstone talk," Jesse replied slowly. "nope." Olivia looked positively floored.
"How… Jesse!" Olivia screamed, pointing ahead of them. Jesse was hit in the face by Olivia's hand but she saw where her friend was pointing.
Clear ahead of them, was the largest ghast Jesse had seen yet. It was a whole block taller and wider, with a hissing sound coming from its closed mouth just like a creeper.
The mob opened its red mouth and glowing eyes, Jesse barely had time to curse before the ghast shot a fireball at the girls. It hit and exploded the trails in front of them, sending the two girls flying out of the minecarts and into the gravelly netherrack. The minecarts had more luck and tumbled together to the edge of the small piece of (extremely lucky) land they found themselves crashing into.
Olivia scrambled to her feet, rushed over to Jesse and help her friend up. They both ran away from the ghast and took cover next to a patch of soul sand.
Jesse looked around their barrier of protection at the ghast.
"If I ever meet another ghast after this it will be too soon," Jesse growled while silently damning the awful mob to… the surface? Where do you damn things that already live in the Nether?
Olivia peaked at the mob over Jesse's shoulder.
"How are we going to get around it?" Olivia asked nervously. "Without getting blasted into the lava." Jesse didn't know, she was just thankful she didn't take Reuben or Lukas with her.
She scanned the piece of land for anything that could help them. All she saw was their only form of transportation slowly pulling itself along into the lava lake.
"the minecarts!" Jesse gasped. Olivia's eyes grew when she finally noticed the minecarts were about to commit suicide.
"This is not good." Her voice shook with fear. Jesse looked around one last time to assess the situation. She quickly had a plan
"You grab the carts, I'll distract it," Jesse pulled out her golden sword. Olivia eyed the gold sword nervously, but she nodded anyway.
"On it!" Olivia was off to grab the carts and Jesse was off to fight the ghast.
It wasn't really that exciting. It was just a pointless and slightly annoying bump in the road. Olivia got the minecarts away from the edge and onto the tracks. While Jesse knocked back one of the ghast fireballs with her sword. The ghast died instantly and one of its tears floated on the ground just begging to be picked up. Jesse ignored the tear and walked up to Olivia.
"You okay?" Olivia asked.
"Yes." Jesse nodded, she didn't' care if she sounded slightly annoyed, because she was; she was done with ghast and she wanted the world to know.
Maybe they'll leave us alone now! She thought to herself.
"Good." Olivia nodded. She faced the carts, getting ready to push them when ready. "Let's get in." Olivia pushed the carts to forward. Jesse quickly jumped into the first one, with Olivia following her into the second cart behind her.
They rode together in silence for a few minutes. They were just trying to forget almost being thrown into lava and losing their only form of transportation.
You did a great job, Jess," Olivia broke the silence, her words making Jesse thankful to have her as a friend. "thank you."
"No problem," Jesse muttered sincerely.
Soon, the two got over the lake of lava and was now safely traveling over netherrack blocks.
The journey was quicker than expected. It was a huge relief off of Jesse's shoulder knowing they weren't going to be too long.
"Hey, look at that sign!" Olivia pointed excitedly at a sign up ahead, with the words written across- "Redstonia! Here we come!" Jesse chuckled at her friend's delightful antics.
Track 57 lead them to the right destination, a little Nether Portal built inside a small cave that (hopefully) lead to the surface.
Olivia was bouncing when she walked.
"There's the portal," Jesse sighed thankfully. "The worlds greatest engineer is on the other side." Olivia grinned from ear to ear. She never looked happier and seemed to have forgotten their near-death experience with the ghast.
"Who would've thought that someday we'd be heading to Redstonia to save the world? It's incredible." Olivia thought aloud. Her joyful look faded quickly without warning. "Do you think Ellegaard will be willing to help us?"
Jesse had thought about that before and it scared her. If they failed, they didn't have a backup plan and won't be able to figure out a new one in time.
"she better be, or else we just wasted our time," Jesse explained darkly, causing Olivia to break into a sweat a bit. Olivia took a deep breath before they both entered the nether portal.
The other side of the portal led them to the top of a structure made of every type of marble. Upon further inspection, they were on top of a giant column in the middle of an island bay.
"Woah," Jesse mumbled is slight amazement. A million faded memories pushed past her subconscious and into the front of her mind. The beautiful island of Redstonia was like a humongous, glorified garden, with statues, buildings and decorations in the form of random inventions spewed between large trees, patches of flowers and a running stream through the island. It was breathtakingly lovely, it was as if the Witherstorm never excised, just bright sun and giant, full-bloomed roses.
And it hadn't changed at all. From what Jesse remembered from her last visit (when she was eight) it looked exactly the same. The same daisy patch, the same sunflower grove, the same group of trees and the same tall crazy inventions.
"This is amazing!" Olivia was taken away by the beautiful sight, while Jesse was disappointed. She was expecting it to have gotten better, bigger, and more extravagant, but it hadn't. It was just… Redstonia, in a bad way.
"This place is so beautiful," Olivia added. The two walked to the side of the column, and an elevator lifted itself from the bottom of the bay for them to stand on. Jesse and Olivia walk onto the platform, and they descended down to a bridge that led to the island.
"Yeah, beautiful." Jesse agreed shortly after Olivia's comment.
They followed the gravel path past a few inventions, people and flower patches to the middle of the island, where a huge building in the very center stood tall and proud. It was made of iron, marble stained clay and different sandstone in a circular dome. It had many entrances but only one at the top of a set of red sandstone stairs mattered.
A large group of people stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at a small observation deck above them. On the deck was the charming engineer who changed the modern world single-handedly with her redstone genius and expertise. To be in the presence of such a legend and personal hero, Olivia leaned back like she was about to faint. Jesse caught her before she fell and listened to Ellegaard.
"Builders of Redstonia!" Ellegaard announced, her voice commanding attention and grace. "I want you to know how much I value and adore each and every one of you. Your hard work inspires me every day! As you know, I am about to enter my Dome of Concentration, where I will be unreachable for the foreseeable future, but I will emerge when I complete my latest and greatest creation: the Command Block!" Olivia was close to fainting a second time at the mention of the command block.
"What did she just say?" Olivia gripped her friend's shoulder as confirmation she hadn't lost her mind.
Jesse assured her she heard correctly and to shush up. The young brunette was just as freaked out as her friend over the news.
"So please!" Ellegaard continued her announcement. It took everyone in Jesse to not think anything negative about the engineer because she had no idea how dangerous that block was. "Continue working! Continue building! And whichever person most impresses me, shall be my protege! Ready to help me usher in a new era of innovation and creativity! Calvin, throw the switch!" An older man monitoring the crowd walked to a set of levers on a control panel and flipped all of them off. Ellegaard waved goodbye to her people, her smile infectious. She turned around and walked into her home.
"Wait!" Olivia shouted over the roaring crowd that was clapping with approval.
"No!" Jesse panicked. She pulled Olivia along with her as she pushed through the thick crowd.
The big iron door closing behind Ellegaard, iron blocks blocked the windows and the stairs were pulled into the wall by sticky pistons.
The girls didn't even make it to the bottom of the stairs. Everyone in the crowd began to leave, not paying attention to the weird duo.
"Damn it." Olivia cursed. Jesse searched the area for help.
"Hey!" Jesse yelled at the man that flipped the switches; he did a double take at being called out. "You in the dark, dull green jacket! Calvin was it?" Calvin walked over to the duo awkwardly.
"Uhh, yes, that is me." He nodded and shook both their hands formally. "What can I do for you?"
"We need to speak to Ellegaard. It's urgent!" Olivia exclaimed. Calvin raised an unimpressed eyebrow, eyeing Olivia up and down.
Great, we have a stuck-up, Jesse thought.
"Oh, I'm afraid that's quite impossible. Did you hear the speech?" He deadpanned casually. "She's on lockdown until she completes her next great invention. Lucky for you, I'm here." It was Jesse's turn to raise an unimpressed eyebrow. "How can I help?"
"It's urgent, we need to get this message to Ellegaard, can you please take us to her," Olivia asked, stepping closer to Calvin and past Jesse.
"Look," Calvin said, more sincerely this time but still just as stuck up. "I can tell you aren't from around here and you…" Calvin turned his head when he switched from looking at Olivia to Jesse. The way she acted and spoke tipped him off somehow.
"I'm from Oak across the way." Jesse had this unique ability to imitate accents. If you gave Jesse a few hours with anyone, she'll be talking just like them in no time. She'll be saying the same lingo, amount of curses, even the way they might accidentally skip certain words and pronounce others. So she quickly gave into Olivia's and Axel hometown of Beacon Mines way of speaking.
But just for this one sentence, she went back to her roots. The way people from Oak City stressed each vowel in every word, giving off this effect that they had to take a breath after each word they spoke. They spoke slow and kept their voice tight. It was unique to them and them alone.
"Ahh," Calvin nodded, while Olivia's jaw fell at the unrecognizable accent. "then you can level with me. Tell me, who are you? Why do you need to see Ellegaard?" Jesse sighed, going back to Beacon Mines speech pattern.
"I have a message from Gabriel, Ellegaard's old friend?" Calvin frowned, turning around and walking away from them a few steps. He was thinking.
"You must admit this seems a little outlandish."
"Look," Jesse brought out the amulet Gabriel gave her. "This is Gabriels' amulet. He gave it to me so we could find the Order. You have to let us inside." Calvin turned around to see. His eyes widen with awe.
"Oh my," Calvin muttered. He regained his composure just as quickly as he lost it. "That is interesting." He stated. "If you'd like I could send that to Ellegaard?" It was such a small offer with such big potential consequences.
She didn't have time to think about them.
"Alright." Jesse handed the amulet over to him. Calvin thanked her and threw the piece of jewelry into a water stream that led inside the dome.
Calvin returned shortly after.
"That should do it. You're going to have to wait for a response." He informed the two girls. Jesse grew annoyed.
"And that will take?" She asked.
"Undetermined," Calvin answered. "Now, if you will pardon me, I have business to attend to…" He turned on his heels and muttered something about a repeater and picked one up as he walked past a redstone trail that led to and from the control panel.
It was the once things that stopped the girls from entering the dome without permission.
Jesse and Olivia circled the spot long after Calvin left, weighing their options.
"We can't get in without that repeater," Olivia noted.
"What about just a piece of redstone?" Jesse asked, proving how much she didn't pay attention in that class in high school.
"No that won't work." Olivia shook her head. "Each trail is spaced perfectly, we need a repeater to make the signal stronger." Olivia pointed at how dull the redstone was lit up at the end.
"Great," Jesse scowled, already turning to her friend with a plan. "We have no time to lose, you see if there are any ingredients and I'll see if I can just find a repeater." Olivia nodded.
"Got it." They spit up.
Walking around the familiar island was very nostalgic for Jesse, though she had no idea what was going on. She saw cows being thrown across the sky, chickens being trained like dogs and wolves being forced to outrun sheep with strange devices on their wool. This place might not have changed much, but the fact she was a complete noob didn't.
Every person she met she asked for a repeater.
"Do you happen to have a repeater?"
"No, sorry."
"Do you have a repeater?"
"None that I can spare."
There wasn't even a person with an invention with a visible repeater she could steal.
Finally, she was on the edge of the island, walking up to an awkwardly dancing guy on a modern updated disco stage.
She didn't think her life could get any weirder than this.
"Hey, how's it goin'? How ya doin'?" The Disco Man asked… twice. "Here to see the next great revolution in entertainment?" Jesse forced a smile on her face.
"Actually I'm here to ask if you have a repeater," She said sweetly. The Disco Man stopped dancing. He looked down at her with apologetic eyes.
"Oh? Well sorry, friend, actually just used my last one on this puppy." He motioned to his machine around him and kicked a lever up. The lava curtain at the back of the disco stage gave way to a group of three jumping cows in a cage. It was very odd for Jesse.
The Disco Man then motioned to an exposed repeater next to the stage. If only she could grab it… "One of the key components that help the cows dance. Haha!"
Dancing cows? Jesse thought.
"Errr, alright," She tried not to sound rude, but couldn't tell if she was failing or not. "care to tell me what exactly I'm looking at?"
"This is a Bovine Lava Disco!" Doesn't sound dangerous at all! "The perfect fusion of my two loves, Cows and Music. Ellegaards gonna see it and make me her protege for sure!" Jesse nodded along with what the afro man was saying.
"Okaaay," Jesse knew she sounded weirded out. "I'm gonna keep looking around." Before she turned to leave, The Disco Man shook her hand.
"See you around, friend," He exclaimed for all to hear. His friendly smile dropped into a serious expression. "But, before you go, just between you and me, stay away from that little schoolboy, all right? He's never had an original idea in his life." The Schoolboy in question looked like he was barely twenty years old, with a strange dull green hue to him, like he was constantly covered in slime. Behind him was a redstone robot the size of an Oak City apartment complex, made out of slime blocks, redstone blocks and pistons.
As much as The Disco Man told her to keep away, she needed a repeater, so she went up to the much younger Schoolboy.
"Hey, What's up, what's up?" The Schoolboy smiled cynically. Jesse wondered if it was this islands thing to say any form of 'hello' twice. The Schoolboy set both hands on his hips while he spoke. "Here to see the… best machine…" The boy stressed each word. "that ever graced Redstonias shores?" Jesse was about to answer when a high pitched scream erupted her.
Jesse looked up to her right to see what was going on. A girls flying machine looked to have malfunctioned and was flying her straight into the atmosphere. The Schoolboy looked taken aback at the sight of the girl flying away, along with the number of people running around with buckets, and yelling into the sky for her to stay calm and stop the machine by breaking it. Some noble men were trying to build a similar machine to chase after her.
Jesse wished she could help, but she couldn't.
"Uhmm, no," Jesse answered the Schoolboys previous question. "no I'm not. I just want to know if you have a repeater I can borrow?" The Schoolboy scowled.
"No, sorry, I don't." He certainly didn't sound sorry. He seemed angry in fact. Jesse knew it was because she didn't ask about his precious invention.
Not wanting to make enemies, she said, "Your machine is impressive. Did you build it? Like, came up with the idea and everything?" The Schoolboy got quickly excited. Then looked slightly confused.
He scoffed.
"of course! What makes you think otherwise!" Jesse put her hands up defensively.
"Woah! Calm down. Just," Jesse pointed at The Disco Man behind her. "he said you stole all your ideas, wanted to see your side of the story." The Schoolboy looked very offended, almost repulsed.
"That… no good… dirty…" The Schoolboy muttered before exploding, "Disco-Freak!" The Schoolboy stomped over to the person he hated most in this world. "I have a bone to pick with you!" He shouted.
Jesse didn't mean to, but she created a distraction to steal a repeater. Her mission was close to completion.
If only it didn't require her to steal. This person's machine will be ruined for who knows how long. But it was just a repeater, what damage could be done.
Jesse took the repeater from the trail. Instantly there was a grind, a spark, and a snap.
"Wha- NO! My machine!" The Disco Man screamed. Jesse ran to the front to see the damaged. The lava curtain was gone once again. The Cows were on fire, jumping or 'dancing' until they tipped over and died, leaving their cooked drops behind. "My cows! Something's gone wrong with the clock! It's not switching to water! No!" The Disco man broke down crying, breaking Jesse's heart. She wished she never took the poor mans repeater.
"Oh no, your amazing invention." The Schoolboy smirked. Jesse scooted away from the scene just as people who weren't trying to help the poor girl in the sky came running to help the poor Disco Mans ruined invention.
Jesse found Olivia near the crowd trying to save Sky Girl.
"What happened?" Olivia asked, pointing to the crowd on the other side of the island. Jesse crossed her arms and looked away.
"I kind of just stole this guys repeater and now his invention is ruined." She said, completely embarrassed.
Olivia's eyes widen.
"Really? Damn," Olivia blushed dark red. "now I feel bad... I sent Sandy up into the air to steal some stone to make a repeater." Jesse scratched her upper arms.
"Looks like we're both horrible," she tried making a joke out of it. She shook her head. "Come on, we can't dwell on it. Let's go get Ellegaard."
POV: Lukas
Lukas knew he promised Jesse to try to get along with Axel, but it wasn't working. As much as he tried, they were constantly arguing and bickering with each other like an elderly couple in a desperate need of a divorce or separation and it was beginning to take its toll on Lukas.
The young blond was sifting through a large chest to find suitable materials for fixing the temple in an old storage room that was in the very back of the building. The fact he wasn't finding anything useful was already making his mood turn rotten, (if it was like the Order didn't keep anything organized) but arguing with Axel was forcing a sharp headache into Lukas skull, that was becoming agonizing. He wished he could say Axel could leave, but he was across the room from him, finding his own materials for the poor excuse of a temple.
The only redeeming thing about his hour was Reuben; sweet, sweet Reuben. He was laying down next to Lukas loyalty, oiking every few minutes with big sad eyes up at his male owner. He had no idea why the piglet was acting so strange and sad but he didn't care, the piglet was making him feel better whenever Lukas felt like throwing something at the person across the room.
Lukas pulled out a couple dusty books from the bottom of the chest. The little specks of dust that had clumped at the bottom flew up his nose which caused him to sneeze, and worse, cough into his sleeve. He was getting tired of the coughing, and he was running out of clean places on his arms to do… anything.
Axel gave him a dirty look from across the room, the one you give your brother when they're sick and walking around the house instead of staying in bed.
"You aren't getting sick, are you?" Axel asked skeptically. It was the tenth time he had hometown Lukas, and the latter was starting to get annoyed with the question.
"I'm fine! Stop asking me that!" Lukas growled tiredly, he was too drained to snap back. He felt like taking a long nap.
"Hey, I'm trying to be nice here," Axel argued back. Lukas snorted lazily in response. "It's not like you're helping with getting this place ready before nightfall." He sighed at Axels claims, They were both looking for materials, he'd call that equally divided work.
Lukas looked behind him at his girlfriend's friend across the room and the pile that laid next to him. It was made of nothing but cobble and pumpkins, with the odd redstone lever and old bricks covered in moss.
"Can't we use something stronger," Lukas asked him, too tired to sound rude or disrespectful. "like redstone, and iron?"
"We don't have enough materials for that. Pumpkins and cobblestone will have to do." Lukas turned around, he didn't' need to think too hard to know that was the dumbest thing he had ever heard; cobblestone is strong (barely), but pumpkins and mossy stone bricks aren't going to get any job done.
"That's not going to hold for an hour, let alone a whole night and we might need it to hold longer than that," Lukas told him factly. He tried to make it so there was no room for negotiation, however, Axel always found a way to argue.
"It will hold," Axel said. Lukas snorted again as he brought out a pitiful stack of seeds and nether warts.
"Have you seen this place! a is crumbling at the seams and you think pumpkins and cobble are going to hold it together!" The boy in leather asked hysterically, he was grinning from ear to ear and was barely keeping in his laughter. Poor Reuben didn't like the look. "You're delusional!"
Axel turned around just to glare at the blond. He pointed at the door that went into the hallway, the only place it led to was the library.
"why don't you just go read a book, I'll finish this up." Axel turned back around and began to search the chest some more. Lukas ignored him by staying and adding anything he could think of that was stronger than cobblestone and broken, mossy bricks.
It took half an hour of complete and utter silence to get enough materials to fix the temple. Or, at least, make it safe for them to spend the night. Axel took the front and the left side, while Lukas took the back and right side. Lukas was slower, he took more breaks and ended up with more aches than Axel by a considerable amount. While Axel only took two and a half hour, Lukas took five. He The didn't feel like doing much. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or maybe it was something else he couldn't place; either way, he wanted to take a long nap.
By the time Lukas was back in the temple, he felt like he had a sunburn on his neck and Axel was reading in the library. Whatever the griefer was reading had his full attention, his eyes never wavering from the words as he turned each page of the fragile piece of literature.
For a second Lukas thought it was a redstone book of more complex traps for pranks and the like just by the red leather that surrounded the book. Something that he could never understand, but maybe Axel could. However, when he walked past the griefer, Axel called out to him.
"Hey, Lukas," He said, eyes still on the page." You said you know a little about Boom Town?" Lukas was too tired to wonder why Axel wanted to know about Boom Town; a quaint little piece of the Nether that had somehow surfaced into the overworld and refused to leave. Which was about as much fact as it was opinion.
"Yeah," He said tiredly. He thought about all the horror stories he was told as a child about Boom Town. Even the funniest ones couldn't make him laugh he was so exhausted. "We called it Griefer Glades, why?" Why did he ask that? He could've gotten out of this conversation quicker that way.
"I just found a map with the track that leads to Boom Town through the Nether." Lukas didn't notice how off Axel sounded; fascinated, the slight longing and the complete and utter determination that clouded it all. "What's it like?"
"I don't know," Lukas yawned truthfully. He took a single second to wonder why Axel was suddenly so curious but quickly abandoned the thought. "It used to be a mailing and shipping town before a huge famine hit the area. Sahara City and the city then named Sunstone suffered for about three years; a lot of people left until it was abandoned. After that, I guess Magnus made it his base or something and a hundred griefers from Sahara moved there. Place got renamed and the guards stopped bothering trying to round them all up. Griefer Glades is like a freaking fort at this point." Griefer Glades, as his hometown called it, was just out of sight from the naked eye if you looked in its direction. (Even from the tops of the highest building in Sahara) In reality, however, you take a half an hour ride by horse and Boom Town came into clear view like an old friend. A beaten up, fatally diseased friend.
"Have you ever met Magnus?" Lukas was surprised by the question that almost completely woke him up.
"No," he mumbled, skeptically eyeing the other man. "didn't know he lived in Boom Town until yesterday." He wondered if anyone back in his hometown knew this very exciting information. This was stuff you read in the newspaper or was shouted in cafés. In other words, he should've known unless this was a secret kept under lock and key. It couldn't have been just the adults knowing about Magnus and them not telling the kids because it would give them a reason to want to go there, because a twenty-eight-year-old adult, that would be insulting.
"What else do you know about Boom Town?"
"Nothing but rumors and myths." This did not seem to satisfy Axel, as he slammed the book shut and looked at Lukas with a hard glare.
"What are they?" Lukas backed up a bit at Axel's demand.
"They got a king, their own little monarchy. There are more deaths there in a week than in a year compared to Sahara. Bombs line the outside of the city. Snipers hide in the tallest building, waiting to take people out… those are the ones that are… not that insane." The others were pretty ridiculous like there were creeper tamers, vengeful ghost and insane warlocks enchanting the city to keep outsiders out. Even as a kid Lukas knew that one was stupid.
Axel looked at the book for a minute, eyes conflicted and mind arguing with itself.
Lukas thought the conversation was over, so he began to walk away to find a bed.
"You know what?" Axel yelled at Lukas, though he didn't sound like he was talking to him specifically. "I'm going." Lukas stopped dead in his tracks and turned on his heel. He was beyond puzzled.
"Excuse m-" Lukas cut himself off with a throaty cough. He was borderline gagging to try to get a chunk of mucus out of his lungs but for some reason, the lump in his throat refused to leave.
Axel pushed past Lukas and the latter's coughing fit.
"I'm going to go get Magnus by myself," Axel explained. "you can stay here and fix the rest of the place." Lukas finally stopped coughing enough to sputter.
"You can't leave!" He croaked hoarsely. He quickly followed the man into the back room, where Axel was collecting items for his trip.
"If Ellegaard doesn't come with the girls, then we are without hope, and I trust Magnus more than that red wearing nerd." Now that was hard, even for Axel, against the old engineer.
"We promised Jess we would stay here!" Lukas argued.
"No, you promised to stay here." Axel now had the stuff he thought he needed and headed straight for the front door without once looking at Lukas.
"Axel, you can't leave!" Lukas didn't know what to do, he couldn't stop the other man twice his size from leaving but it wasn't like he had a choice.
"Already am!" Was the last thing Axel said before he went off on his journey, leaving a sleeping Reuben and an emotionally drained Lukas behind.
Lukas didn't get much sleep at all. He kept imagining The Girls coming back with Ellegaard and wondering where Axel was. He wouldn't know what to tell them. That Axel left? That he went to grab Magnus? That he was on a suicide mission in the place that was pumping out bodies more than a funeral home after the plague?
Would Jesse be disappointed in him? Would she realize just how much this wasn't going to work? Would she side with her friends? (Of course she was, she's Jesse) Would she break up with him? (Not that he blamed her)
Like he needs it on top of everything else, but his stomach was acting up again. He was coming down with something and he was beginning to think he had the worst luck in the world.
After a few hours of torturing himself with his endless thoughts, he felt a dip in the bed by his feet. Lukas turned onto his back to see Reuben walking hesitantly across the bed onto his chest like a pup.
The little piglet oiked, sounding concerned.
"Looks like we are by ourselves, Reuben," Lukas' voice was starting to sound rough and scratchy, like sand.
Another oik. Reubens' eyes turned narrow and sad, almost like he wanted to cry.
Reuben was sensing something was wrong, but Lukas couldn't tell what it was.
"Yeah," Lukas scratched the piglet behind his tiny ears. "This sucks."
He laid there on the bed with Reuben on his chest for a while, he tried not to move much because the piglet was causing more pain than he was relieving any.
He got a few hours of sleep, which was great. Sadly, he woke up too quick for it to be considered anything but a nap.
The third time he woke up from a nap, Reuben was whining loudly, sounding terrified. It took a few moments to realize that Lukas was having trouble breathing, (though, how that's possible is a mystery to him) and he quickly coughed aside whatever was blocking his airways. He gripped his pounding stomach and groaned loudly, afraid to even turn on his side so he could curl into the fetal position.
"What the Nether is wrong with me?" Lukas cursed. He slowly sat up in the bed, coughing a little along the way. Lukas felt a little better, not as fatigued and his abdomen wasn't feeling as bad as when he woke up. He still felt lousy.
Reuben oiked fearfully. He put his nose close to Lukas' side, a part his jacket would cover up and where a small hole in his shirt rested.
Lukas turned his head, confused. He didn't understand why, but he followed his pig's instructions; he slowly lifted his shirt up so he could look where his piglet was pointing at.
His skin under his shirt was pale white and small patches of purple were surrounding the tiniest cut Lukas had ever received in his life. It was an ugly sight, making the owner of the sickly sight feel sicker than he clearly already was.
"I think my cut is infected," Lukas' cleared his throat to keep it from cracking (any more than it was already). "Come on Reuben, lets head to the library." Reuben oiked obediently.
Together, the two got up to head to the library in hopes to find another healing or regeneration potion. Thankfully, there was several laying around the place, so it wasn't hard to find.
He poured the reddish-pink liquid over his wound to get faster (and maybe better) result. It didn't heal, it just stayed there, completely unaffected.
"What the…" Lukas trailed off weakly. It clearly wasn't working, he couldn't understand why.
Why wasn't this working? It practically went against the laws of science.
The young man began looking around in medical books, most written all by Ellegaard and/or Magnus (surprisingly unsurprising?). He found the biggest one in the library, maybe he'd find out why the potions weren't working.
"Coughing, bruising/infection around cut, fatigue, paleness…" Lukas listed off carelessly as he turned each page. Nothing fit the situation or the symptoms and when he thought he found one, at the bottom of each page it said, "Healing potion will suffice."
Lukas flipped to the back labeled "fatal illnesses," he doubted his condition would be there but he looked anyway. Each disease needed medical treatment from doctors, but none fit his symptoms or situation.
At the very back of the book, was a black page with white wording rather than a white page and white wording. The number of skulls and warning signals decorating the corners were a clear indication that this was more than just a little deadly, this was agonizing.
As someone who took advanced health (again, wanted to be an alchemist) he knew only one of a couple of diseases in the world could get this treatment in a health book. This level of worthy bastardization.
"Wither," Lukas shivered at the words written in a different print from the rest of the diseases and illnesses in the rest of the book. Reuben oiked nervously. "No, no, no. It's just a disease you get sometimes when you fight the Wither. It's so powerful, not even milk or health potions can get rid of it." Oik, oik, oik. "Yes, I've heard of it. Of course I've had." Oik. "Not a cure you can make no. People get it and it goes away… rarely. But it is fatal. We don't… Reuben…" Lukas felt a cough before he actually did it.
He coughed so hard he tasted something salty fill his mouth. He coughed into his hands, this time purposely putting more gusto into each breath to get that lump in his lungs out once and for all. When he succeeded, it was a small ball of mucus (like he guessed it was) but it was runny, like water and was the color of blood. While the actual blood that he coughed up to gets that lump out was thick like slime (he knew it was blood because of the taste and the fact his lip was covered in black as if he was wearing lipstick) and it dripped from his fingers. His blood was black and purple.
Lukas shared a look Reuben, who was shaking in terror, on the verge of squealing away at top speed.
"I think we have…" Lukas croaked, more hoarse than ever before. "an issue."
*shakes head*
This is why I should be given the ability to do whatever I want. I DO STUFF LIKE THIS!
Sorry for being so late. I haven't been getting many reviews and it kind of bummed me out. I could really use a few guys! PLEASE! Just like… a few more would be great? ….
Anyway, I won't hold you guys.
Sorry for the grammar and misspelling you may see reading this. I am trying to improve much as I can.
REVIEW RESPONSE!
TheAmberShadow - I don't know why everyone assumes griefers are idiots, they have to understand redstone better than most 'engineers'. No, drinking two healing potiosn is probably not a good idea. Thank you for liking my journal idea! I always had a problem with canon game version. Ahh, don't worry. Your song was adorable. Thank you for the compliment.
Well, I'm sorry for the late update. But I am not giving up. But I could really use an extra review this time. I would greatly apprieciate it.
BYE!
-Kayla