I was laughing so hard after reading DJMidge's review.
"So... who's this crazy lady calling Preston Fufufu?"
Aah, Midge, you never fail to amuse me. And you're the only one who's actually inspiring me to keep on going :3 the DJ of Inspiration (too soon?)
Anyway, there were hints and it was revealed.
Claimed a prison as her own...
Likes experimenting...
Has a gang of dudes who speak in weird accents *cough* Klüb IcE *cough*
Number 7, the Magician, the Witch, yes? No? 'Fufufu' is how she chuckles darkly. I guess.
Anway, YAYS! Twenty reviews *w* and 1,400 views! PARTAY!
Not sure how to celebrate it though...
Ah well. I'll think of something.
ENJOY THE CHAPTER! :D
POV: Dawn
That plan was insane.
Smart, but insane.
It could be a trap. It could be a way to catch us. It could go wrong in so many ways I don't even know why we were considering it.
But we were.
"I don't know guys, it seems pretty risky..." Jason commented, dubious.
"It's our best bet. Besides, if we do pull it off, it'll be worth it," Jerome replied.
The arguments pretty much followed this line: Too risky, but good rewards. Danerous, but you get something good.
Finally, SSundee said, "Can we trust her?"
That brought everything to a halt. We were more worried about the plan rather than the trustworthiness of the plan maker.
"..."
"Okay, go to the left if you trust her, to the right if don't."
Jerome immediately headed left with SSundee going to the right. The other members took a while to decide, but resulted in Jerome, Mitch, and Sky on the 'trust' side, SSundee, Jason, and Husky on the 'don't trust' side, and me and Seto undecided.
I had my reasons. She was a total stranger, and a deadly one at that, being part of the KeyRing. But, I could tell that she wouldn't betray us. At least, not now, not when we had Ty and Noah.
Seto was thinking. He sort of zoned out when this happened, so it was easy to tell.
"Ok, now," I said. "You guys have to convince us, as in Seto and I, to trust or not trust her."
"It's the best shot we've got to save Preston," Jerome said. "We have to take the risk."
"But what if she just turns us all in? It'll be incredibly easy!" SSundee countered.
"This is how I see it. Save Preston or not? Trust being save, and and don't trust being not save. Easy choice," Bajan replied. "You guys are choosing 'don't save Preston'."
"I'm sorry guys, but the risks are too high. Think of it! If bad things happen to us, it could start a war we would probably lose, if these Keys are as powerful as they say," Jason reasoned.
"If we don't rescue him, Preston would think we could have abandoned him. He'd be left alone, lonely, miserable, and forced to do whatever the Witch wants him to."
That did it for Seto. He joined the trust side, leaving me as the decider. Go with the plan, or to the tiebreaker?
Lunara did seem to be hiding things, but I had a feeling that helping Ty caused her to owe a debt to us. And because the debt was related to someone she cared about, she would pay it back, to the fullest.
So I joined the trust team, 5-3, Trust to Not Trust.
Jason, Husky, and SSundee sighed, resigned.
"Alright, we give."
"..."
"Did we all just agree to trap ourself within a crystal ball to save our friend?"
"Yep."
POV: Dawn (Still)
I left the meeting room to get back to the patients in the medical ward. The others could think up of fail safes in case it was a trap.
"Dawn!"
Upon seeing me, I was immediately swarmed by my medics, experienced and non-experienced, all asking questions.
"So I use a golden apple right?"
"Health or Regen?"
"Burn antidotes or should I wait a bit?"
"How do I clean a cut like this?"
It was like this all the time, and unless I had an emergency, which I didn't at the moment, I would answer each question, and assign the experienced to help the newbies.
After a few hours of tending to patients, ranging from some cuts to severe burns or broken limbs, the medical ward's chaos lessened to a manageable amount, and I sank into a chair, sighing.
"Dawn, I'm going to grab some food. Do you need anything?"
"A steak, maybe a cookie or two, thank you Emer."
Emer left silently, and without any questions, thankfully.
One last patient to check on. Luckily, he was deep asleep, and his condition has stabilized considerably.
I stood up, yawning, and walked over to Ty's room, where I froze in the doorway, aware that someone else was in the room. I relaxed when I saw it was just Noah, and a small smile tugged my lips. Noah had fallen asleep in his chair, his head resting on the same bed Ty was on, like whenever someone was in an accident, and someone would fall asleep next to them during a visit.
"You think it's cute."
I whirled around, and there was Lunara, sitting in a chair.
"I do. But when did you get here?"
"Before you walked in."
"I didn't see you."
A smile, one that suggested that she had been told that many times. "Sometimes you see what you want to see. Sometimes you don't."
I considered the phrases for a moment, before deciding to mull it over later. There was just one patient left. Plus, maybe I could get some info out of her. There was bound to be some info she wouldn't tell the group, but maybe she would tell me.
So I walked around, checking over everything. I didn't bother Noah, as he was fine where he was.
"I think he'll wake up soon, tomorrow probably. Ty will probably just be hungry, and once he eats, he'll be just fine," I said as I finished the last checkups.
"Thank you." An actual smile, I think. Not one that was fake, or amused. Genuinely happy and grateful.
For a moment, we just stared at the two sleeping forms of Ty and Noah.
"Complete opposites, yet they are the best of friends." Lunara started talking on her own, and I decided to stay silent and hear what she had to say.
"One was born in the Aether, with Aetherian blood, the other from the Nether, with the blood of a 'demon'. But they're only half Aetherian and Netherian (I guess)."
Lunara kept on talking.
"The other half is what ties us together. All three of us. That's what makes us related, powerful. And supposedly unstable, from the information gathered."
What?
Icy blue eyes turn to me.
"You don't really fit into the group." A statement not a question.
"I don't," I admitted somewhat sadly. I didn't know whether it was because I was a girl, or a medic, or somewhat who didn't really fight, but despite being a leader, sometimes, it felt as if I didn't belong.
"You'll be the glue in the future. Don't give up that hope. Your role is just as important as the others." Another real smile from Lunara, laced with sadness this time, like she knew more. Then she left, leaving me alone with Noah and Ty.
"Dawn?" Emer was back, with two slices of steak and two cookies for me.
"I'm here." I took the food gratefully, and devoured a steak swiftly.
"Lunara passed by. Was she checking on him? Or those two?" Emer nodded at Ty and Noah.
"Yes. Ty will be fine tomorrow." A yawn. "Goodnight Emer."
"Goodnight Dawn."
POV: Ty
Time: The Next Day, Noon
Uuuuuh...
It's bright again...
Maybe if I just curl up and go back to sleep, it'll be dimmer...
I opened my eyes just a bit, then shut them again.
I'm still in that place, where-
I bolted upwards, suddenly remembering that I snapped, but not remembering anything after giving in.
"Ty!" Noah beamed at me.
"Noah?"
Hang on...
"How did you get here? Where did you go? What happened when we went through the portal?" So many questions.
"Not now. Lunara's waiting! Come on!" Noah pulled on my arm.
"Let go of my arm!" I was grinning. Noah and Lunara? And we weren't back in the Nether. This was good news.
I got out of my bed, and we raced down a few hallways, into some portals, and arrived at a room somewhere up near the top. Noah slammed the door open, and we arrived, flushed, and bit tired, but happy.
There was all the leaders and subleaders, and across the room was Lunara.
"Hi Lunara," I said, grinning, but that faded as she stood up and stalked toward us, the mood darkening.
"Lunara?"
When she was right in front of us, she punched us both, enough to hurt, but not damage anything.
"YOU IDIOTS!"
The two of us both flinched.
"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT LEAVING! OR ABOUT YOUR PLANS! I HAD TO GUESS! DID YOU KNOW HOW FREAKED I WAS? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY DIFFERENT PLACES I SEARCHED?"
"You could've asked Number 2?" Noah offered timidly.
"HE DIDN'T SAY CRAP! AAARGH!"
Lunara glared angrily, before scooping the two of us into a hug that I'm pretty sure was supposed to suffocate us.
"But seriously, next time you decide to do something like this, tell me. Alright?"
We could only nod before Lunara noticed we needed air, and she let us go.
The Team Crafted people were just watching awkwardly.
"Uh... Saving Preston?" Bajan suggested.
"Right. Now that Ty's better-" Lunara spun on her heel and her long ponytail brushed against us, "the plan is smoother. Number 7 will probably think I'm telling her that I've found Ty and Noah. We'll check around the prison, ask her about. No. 7 enjoys showing off her 'lab'. She won't mind us looking around too much."
"What if she can tell we're there?"
"Don't worry, she won't steal you. Not while you're in the ball."
"You're putting them in there?" I realized, shocked.
"You know that they're stable Ty. Plus, they need to save their friend."
"Alright..." I hated those things. Fake worlds. Noah and I were stuck in one for a while, and it was not fun. The scenery was nice, and there were things to do, but someone could just glance in the ball and watch your every move.
"What if she turns us in?" Noah asked, worried. That was a question I myself was about to ask.
"She won't. She'll think I am turning you in."
"Will you turn us in?" I asked her, sad and scared.
Lunara glanced at me, gaze softening. "Only if you want me to."
POV: Sky
Two hours later...
We finalized the plans for rescuing Preston. All of the leaders would go, and the subleaders would stay behind to watch the base. We, the leaders, would go into "Illusionary Worlds" because apparently these worlds would hide our "presence" so Number 7 wouldn't catch us.
"Hey Sky, Jordan, Seth, and Ryan are here," Jason said, probably receiving the message through his helmet.
"Send them up." I brightened. They could help us defeat the squids, Ryan being the Mayor of Power Move City, Jordan as the guardian of a city with as many people as I have recruits, and Seth being a redstone genius.
We were idly chatting when the three entered the room.
"Hey guys," Jordan smiled, Seth nodding politely and Ryan grinning widely. However I noticed Lunara narrow her eyes, suspiciously? Angrily? Almost hatefully? I shrugged it off, not knowing I would understand the reasons behind the glare soon.
"Hey guys," I cheered. "This is Lunara, Ty, and Noah. You three, this is Jordan, Ryan, and Seth."
Jordan held out his hand for a shake, and Lunara accepted it, but neither of them let go. They instead gripped each other's hands tightly, the atmosphere turning cold and icy within seconds, and the two seemed to be attempting to cut off the blood flow to the other's hands as they hostilely glared at each other.
The smiles vanished off everyone's faces, to be replaced with looks of hostility, confusion, fear, and suspicion.
The confusion was us, hostility being Lunara and Jordan, fear being Ty and Noah, with suspicion being Seth and Ryan.
Tense moments passed before Ty spoke up timidly.
"L-Lunara?" He seemed almost too terrified to say anything, and I didn't blame him. I was almost tempted to try to cut the air in attempt to see whether I could really cut.
Lunara pulled her attention away from Jordan and let go of the death handshake. "So, the Aether sends the Utupio (you-two-pee-o)Angel and his two assistances to dispatch and contain the 'threats'." The smile on her face was playful, mocking. "Or has your nickname changed?"
Jordan's, Ryan's, and Seth's faces were in shock. That word meant something.
"Are they-" Noah was about to ask them, but withheld the question, nervous.
"Lets go, you two," Lunara replied, walking to the door, but pausing to let Ty and Noah exit first. She stared at Jordan and co., before saying, "Someday, their own actions would destroy themselves. So, why didn't they realize it sooner?"
Jordan growled and almost launched himself at her, but was held back by Seth and Ryan, who shook their heads.
"And now," Lunara continued, "left on half her body is the scars of an ugly burn. It carves those memories of ours." A smirk, and she was gone.
"AAARGH!" Jordan punched the wall, and left a hole where his fist made contact. "There's no way she should know that. That was years ago, and she had to be in the Aether to know about that." The anger and pain in his voice was unmistakable.
"Aether?" Seto questioned.
"As Lunara said," Seth started, "We are angels from the Aether. And she was talking about an incident that caused someone's wings and lower half of her body to be burned badly in a fire. There was no way for Lunara to know about the incident, unless she was there when it happened."
"You're angels?" I asked, in almost disbelief. We've known them for almost four years now, and they had never said a word about being from the Aether.
"Yeah," Ryan sighed, plopping down in a chair. "We don't do much to help in the Aether, it's too late to get back within the Aetherian loop. So we're Overworld angels, I guess. We help out here instead of up there."
Dawn's eyes widened. "You guys were sent here to capture Lunara, Noah, and Ty."
"You believe everything she says? You understand you're talking to devils here. You're placing your trust in devils," Jordan said.
"But they didn't lie about where they came from. They didn't lie about being part of the KeyRing," Dawn countered.
"You know about that?" Seth said, surprised.
"Yes. The squids attacked Ty because they wanted his power," Husky replied.
"Ok, let's clear some things up, so there's less confusion and surprises," Ryan stated.
"First off, yes the three of us are angels. And we are our literal age, we haven't lived very long (they're about 20-24 ish in this story). We did come from the Aether, and when we were still kids. We didn't come back to the Aether unless called, because we did better here than there."
Seth started talking. "The Utupio Trio was our nickname, and it's a weird play on Utopia, meaning 'failed utopia' (not really, Utupio is just a word I made up in the spur of the moment :P). I think it's because maybe the Overworld was supposed to be a utopia of sorts, but something happened. When we took up residence here, the other angels probably laughed at the thought of us living in this 'failure', and dubbed us after it."
"Before we left the Aether, a high security building caught on fire, and the three of us went in because some other angels were screaming people still in there. There we found a girl who was really badly burnt, and a few angels trying to save here. We put the fire out, and she was sent to emergency care. A few days afterwards, we were told that there was no need to worry, and that we should go and stay in the Overworld until we were needed."
"And that's pretty much it when it comes to the Aether for us," Jordan continued. "Then we were called, recently, and we were asked to take Ty back to the Aether. Solaris adores all of his children, whether they were normally or not. And so now we're here. We only stopped by to say hi, but turns out they're here."
"Ok... That explains a lot, but how do you know about the KeyRing?" SSundee asked.
"We captured a member and questioned him. We learned a lot, but he killed himself before we could learn everything," Ryan replied.
"So what did you learn?" Bajan knew we all wanted to know more, and asked the question on all of our minds.
"Before that guy died, there were 11 members, consisting of Herobrine as Number 0, the leader. Then there's No. 1, the Rose, who's real name is Samantha Winchester. A long, long time ago, her family ruled a kingdom, but that was before the Enderdragon crossed over to the Overworld and destroyed everything. So that kingdom, and her family, is gone, and she joined the KeyRing because she believed that becoming a devil was the way to justice." By Jordan's tone of voice, he couldn't believe her conclusion. "No. 2 is The Ocean, real name Nai Essandré, and we don't know anything about his motives, or his origins. No. 3 is the Princess of Sleep, AKA Sophiette Marquiia. She joined the KeyRing a few hundred years after ancient mages sealed the Enderdragon in the End after poisoning her entire hometown. She thinks everyone is happy when they're asleep and believes death is the ultimate happiness, because it's dubbed 'eternal sleep'. So she pretty much wants to poison everyone or something along that line. That guy was No. 4, but we don't know much about him himself. No. 5 is the Assassin, one of Herobrine's creations. He thinks everyone should die painfully, messy, and gory deaths. Apparently he has a human name, but that was something he didn't tell us. No. 6 is the Warrior, or Noah, as you know him. He hasn't really done anything at that time, because he was probably about 11 then. No. 7 is the Witch, or the Magician, real name Lylia Enchantra, and she's the other Herobrine creation in the KeyRing. She likes experimenting on anything at a to see how it works. Those are all the members then. However, we saw another guy who Lunara was following. We're pretty sure he's one too, judging from the fact he shot the mayor of MC before disappearing into the night. And he had skills that could rival yours, Bajan."
"No way."
"No joke. One arrow was all he used, through the glass and his head. A single shot."
Silence.
"What about Lunara and Ty?" I asked. We knew more about the others.
"Ty is No. 9, last time we checked, and he's like Noah. They haven't really done anything."
"And Lunara?" I pressed for more information.
A pause.
"I heard-" Seth replied this time. "I headed Lunara was another member that joined the KeyRing willingly."
Oooooh, how's that! This chapter isn't very long, and there's a lot of explaining and repeats. Next chapter has a little more explaining, sadly, but once all that's done, the more exciting stuff happens! YAAY! And for the poll, I only have two voters. Sad face. Anyway, I'll try explaining them better.
When Children Strike-A story where all the Team Crafted members are reborn as kids centuries after the originals, or Team Crafted never existed and half the members are kids in an orphanage and are adopted by the other half, who are adults. If you choose this one, leave a review or something to tell me which one you prefer.
Hunger Games-Happens a century or so after the Hunger Games series, but instead of the Revolution, Peetah and Katniss die in the Quarter Quell (don't murder me! It's for the sake of the story!) and the Revolution is stopped before it really begins. Then, our heroes enter and they become the key to the new Revolution.
The Other Side-Based off the concepts "Fallen" by coldstone4815 (used with permission). Team Crafted are angels, within some of the inner circles, but then they get kidnapped by Herobrine and see the "Other Side" of the world.
The only reason why I didn't post these last chapter was cuz I kinda wanted you guys to just pick off the title and see how it pans out. Weird, I know. I'm insane! That aside, you can choose 2 stories you want me to write, unless you're only interested in one. Then whatever. The poll is on my lifeless profile page xD
Next up, I have redrawn No. 1 and 2, drawn No. 3, line-arted and colored No. 4 (she's easy to do, ok? But I haven't done the shading yet), and am starting on No. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 depending on the inspiration that comes to me when I start drawing. They look like teenagers though, despite some being adults -.- oh well~ I'll post them to my Deviantart page, TeamCraftillious, link on my profile page, which I just remembered that it wasn't blank at all, but it's just a link...
Too much rambling, so, I'll post the line arts soon, base color arts, and everything as soon as the art submission page stops lagging and crashing on my IPod -.-
Leave a review, check out the poll, the deviantart page, or whatever. Celetea out :3