The trip took a lot longer than Dark would have liked, but she knew that they could only go so far so fast. Each day on the ship, Dark would assign people to learn different things from different people and to do different chores to keep everyone occupied. At first people were reluctant to follow her orders, but after they noticed her doing all the work if they didn't pitch in, they started doing the chores as well. It amused Herobrine immensely, seeing as how she often times described herself as a weakling that barely had any intelligence. From his perspective, she was just undermining herself.
In the time that he had spent with the young player, what he had noticed was that she was resourceful, annoying at times, stubborn, and yet very apologetic. She had a tendency to apologize about stuff, even if it wasn't her fault. She also tried to learn how to do anything and everything that the others could do. She tried to be courageous like Dan, Einshine, and Freddisaal. She knew a little bit about reading maps, but continued trying to learn from Star. She worked on potions with Soul. She even tried shooting with Pat and Jen whenever they stopped for supplies along the way.
Dark was a confusing player, but she was willing to learn. The others started trying to learn from eachother as well once it became apparent that it would be useful. Even Herobrine started participating, trying to keep the boredom away at the least.
That day, Dark Rose was helping Dr. Trayaurus and Einshine with the weapons. Pat was with Freddy and Dan in the galley, trying to cook some food for the group. Jen and the others were looking over the maps and trying to get an idea on where they were and how far it was till they reached D.C.
Amazingly, it was Grim of all creatures who called alert to the situation of being too close to land and near the Washington Monument. Herobrine pulled the ship to a halt as carefully as he could. They were still a good hour's walk away from the White House where the group was supposedly holed up, but that didn't bother Dark Rose. She grabbed her pack, and checked her sword. Though she wore no armor, she certainly felt dangerous, though she looked childish. Dark had proven herself to be stubborn and a natural leader, though she held no self-confidence.
"Alright, Pat, Jen, since you two have the most experience with the Crafting Dead series, I'm going to need your help. Soul, Star, and Dan, I'm going to ask you three to join us so you get more experience. Never know when we'll end up in another Zombie Apocalypse scene considering we're facing something none of us have ever dealt with before. Any objections?"
"What about the boat?" Star asked as she was handed a set of swords by Trayaurus. They were similar to a set of twin katanas.
"Herobrine's in charge. No worries. There's still some people here."
"Fine… I still don't like it."
"You're still not trusting him because of all the rumors. Look, the ship will be fine. Come on, we gotta go meet up with some of the leaders of Sky Army, now don't we?"
Dan grimaced, being the leader of a different faction. "Sure, if they're up for working with us."
"Dan, this is something that's messing with all of our lives, be we members of the Sky Army, The Diamond Dimensions, or even the Atlanteans; we are all in danger. Get your head screwed on correctly now before a Zombie makes you die." Dark rolled her eyes.
Everyone grimaced as Dark started off towards the forest behind the White House. Dark Rose had her sword out but no armor, unlike the rest of the team. They all had armor on, mainly iron or leather. Pat and Jen had their special commando like armor from their time in the Crafting Dead series; which meant they were mainly just wearing a set of military armor and a tactics vest, but that also meant that they were about the fastest two in the group.
Dark sent them ahead when she heard a sound, knowing that she and the others wouldn't be able to keep up. It took only a few minutes of watching Dark Rose's running to notice that she was limping for some reason. When asked why, she would say it was something from their home world, and nothing to worry about. Though no one liked it, Dark Rose was still very secretive.
Pat called back to them after a few minutes, "DARK! Get over here! We got trouble!" The remainder of the group started running. Dark ran as fast as she could. Hoping to catch up to the others. When she made it to the edge of the forest where the others were, her gaze hardened into a fierce cold glare. "Looks like they got trouble in the capital." The city had some buildings on fire. The monuments had holes and were broken. Just fifty blocks ahead of them seemed to be a warzone. Dark then noticed that Bomby and Jen were not anywhere nearby. Pat noticed her look. "I sent Jen and Bomby up ahead to find Sky and the others."
"Not safe, even if Bomby's a creeper." Dark Rose started forward again. "Let's go, guys… Soul, got any speed potions? I can't run very fast. Star, know anything useful about DC or is that more architecture than geography?"
"Sorry, Dark, it's not something I know." Dark just nodded slowly as she kept walking with the others right behind her. Soul started digging into her bag for potions.
"Right, Soul, your potions?"
"On it, and don't worry, I've mixed up some health potions and other boosts too." Soul smirked as she pulled out a blue potion.
"Sweet. Dan, you any good with that blaster in your hand, or are you better with a sword?"
"I've got this. No worries."
"Right." Dark stopped in front of the battle zone. There were zombies and a shadowy looking Ross fighting a bunch of Youtubers who were in apocalypse gear. Jen and Bomby were helping Aphmau ward off zombies. The Nightmare Ross was fighting a very scared looking Jinbop. "I'll handle the guy who looks like Ross and save Jin."
"You mean that's not House_Owner?" Star smirked as she got out her kitty claws.
"Yeah, no, he's a shadow of him, also known as a Nightmare version of him." Dark Rose pointed him out. "Look at how that dark stuff is swirling around him. Plus, his eyes are straight. Ross' eyes are derped like a squid." Dark looked at her obsidian sword and then to the team. "Shall we let them have all the fun?"
"CHARGE!" Dan shouted with a smirk. He was shooting zombies left and right as he ran towards SGCBarbarian.
Soul smiled, threw the potion at Dark, and ran in after him to help Aphmau and Jen. "We're going hardcore mode!" Star laughed and ran in with Pat right behind her.
Dark took a second to absorb the potion's affects before running towards the Nightmare Ross and Jinbop. Just as the needle that would turn Jinbop into a zombie was about to pierce his skin, Dark blocked the narwhal's hand.
"WHAT!" The grey skinned mad doctor looked at the dark clad girl with fire red eyes. "YOU DARE!"
"I dare." Dark had a dangerous smirk on her face. 'I never get to do anything like this in my world. Back home, I'm just the nerd and the most action I get to do in real life is first aid at school… I love speed potions. I could never run this fast back home.' Dark then looked down at Jin who was looking up terrified at what he thought was his friend, Ross. "Relax, this isn't the real Ross."
"HEY LOSERS!" Everyone turned towards the sound which was coming from what appeared to be a flying pirate ship. On the edge of the ship was a narwhal with derped eyes and a dirty outfit that resembled the one Ross wore during the Maze Runners series where he had supposedly been killed. "It's Ross Time!" Ross swung down on a rope with a sword in hand like he really was a pirate. Behind him was ThatGuyBarney, SkyDoesMinecraft, and three other people who were swinging down on ropes as well.
Ross and Sky made their way towards Dark and Jin. Jin was just panicking because he didn't understand what was real and what wasn't anymore. Ross was helping Dark to fight off his evil clone/twin (Depending on what you're opinion on a shadowy nightmare creature taking your looks would be called :P ) while Sky tried to pull his scared friend back away from the fight. Barney and the other three crewmembers were busy helping the others.
Dark called out to Sky as he tried to wake his friend up from his shock. "Hey, Sky! Get him somewhere safe! We've got a boat back at a river behind the forest. Tell Herobrine to get his lazy carcass over here and help!"
"WHAT!" That froze half the fight right there. The only ones unaffected by it were the people who had been with Dark and Herobrine long enough. Even Zombies froze in shock.
Nightmare Ross looked at Dark like she was insane. "You would dare to call the god of Mobs that?"
Dark gave him a deadpan stare through her mismatched eyes. "Yes, just like I dare call you a Shadow… in fact…" She brought out a torch that she always had equipped. She threw it at the shadow figure, who caught it with one hand.
"Wha?" While distracted, Dark made her move and ran her dark sword through the shadowy figure, making him turn into his usual form; a small Endermen like creature with red eyes instead of purple. "AGH!"
Ross' eyes widened in fear as he was worried that she'd do that to him next. "Whoa!"
"What do you know, Light doesn't affect shadows." Dark grimaced. "Guess that rules out the giant flashlight plan."
The shadowy figure glared at Dark as it started to dissipate. "You shall fail, just like last time, Rose of Darkness." Then he looked to the Narwhal. "You shall be the first to go, just like last time, Rossome of the Narwhals!" Dark raised an eyebrow as the figure faded away, taking half the zombies with him.
"Anyone else wondering what he was talking about?" Dark muttered as she looked around. Jinbop was curled up in a ball in front of Sky while the budder wielding commander looked at Dark like she was insane. Barney and the others were also looking at her weirdly. "What? Just me?" She then counted off her people that she had brought with her. "Jen, Pat, status on the zombies?" Everyone of her people were fine.
*Krack* "All gone… for now. We'd best get moving to our next destination." Pat responded. He was too focused on the zombies to be worrying about what the shadow had said.
"Where to next, Dark?" Jen asked as she checked Bomby. He was still fine. He smiled up at his human as she picked him up.
Dark nodded. "Let's get everyone to our ship." She then turned to Barney. "Do you want to keep that ship of yours or are you willing to move with us?"
"Where we going? Who are you even?" Barney glared through his eyepatch. His friend Jin was hurt, and he had seen her kill Ross' duplicate with ease. He was not a happy camper.
"I'm Dark Rose. Nothing special, but we are going against a goddess of nightmares. Her name is Nightshade, and it's her fault we're here in the first place." Dark looked around at the Youtubers surrounding her. "Guess we won't need Herobrine's help after all. Let's get going guys… Soul, Star, help wounded. Aphmau, you and Sky grab Jinbop. SGCBarbarian, check to see all your guys are with you. Ross, you and Barney stick with me, Jen, and Pat as we take up the rear. HEY, Dan! Do something useful and help with the wounded or something, will ya? Jeez…" Dark Rose smirked as Dan scowled. It was starting to become evident that when Dark Rose was worried, she became even bossier than usual, and though she tried to joke, it still sounded poor.
SGCBarbarian counted up his men and looked to Ghetto, who had been bitten by a zombie earlier in the series. They were unsure of whether or not he'd be fine now that they really were in the world of Minecraft. "Do you got a doctor on board that boat of yours?"
"We've got a scientist, a potion master, a witch, and then I can do basic first aid. What's the need?"
"Ghetto got bit a while ago and…"
"Lucky for you, we've also got Herobrine on our side, and he knows all about mobs. If it's a problem, he'll know." Dark had on that smirk that would drive the others crazy with anger eventually. She was way too confident about everyone's abilities! "You willing to trust us?"
SGC and the others grimaced. "Do we got a choice?"
Dark shrugged. "Yeah, but it's not a good one. You can either join us and put a stop to all this madness by defeating a crazy nightmare goddess who's trying to kill us all. You can go on Barney's ship and do whatever he's doing. Or, you can stay the way we found you. You're choice, guys."
Barney glared at Dark. "Oh-par, you dirt! That no choice!"
Dark shrugged again. "Yeah it is. I did warn you that it wasn't a good one though." She then started towards Aphmau, Jinbop, and Skydoesminecraft. "Do you need help?"
Sky and Aphmau looked at eachother and then to Jin. "Can you help him at all?" Sky asked cautiously. He was dressed as though he had just come from the Roommates series or the Minecraft school series (aka, his usual outfit).
Dark Rose kneeled down in front of Jin to get a good look at him. "He's just in shock. He'll need time to snap out of it, but hopefully he'll recover." She then stood up. "He's practically been traumatized by the fact that an evil version of one of his friends was about to kill him when another version showed up to save him, even if we are in Minecraftia."
"Minecraftia?" Jess (Aphmau's real name) looked at Dark with concern. "Is that where we are?"
Dark Rose nodded. "It's the name of the land of Minecraft." Dark grimaced. "I wonder if we have an annoying toaster he can yell at… that might help."
"Huh?"
Sky grimaced. He knew what she was talking about. "I don't think that thing will be of much help. I sorta smashed it on my first day in the house… it was annoying me."
Dark Rose just laughed. "Figures. Did it burn your toast as well?" Sky pursed his lips as he nodded, trying not to laugh at the references this strange girl was making to one of his roleplay series. "Well at least you could have used the TDM to get here faster, or did you forget about that?"
"I actually don't know how to use that stupid machine on my own. I did manage to find Barney and rescue Ross from being killed with it though."
"Well at least you're good for something." Dark laughed. She then looked at Jin who was starting to stop shivering. "Let's get everyone back to the ship. We have a lot to talk about and we have to choose our next destination."
Sorry this took so long! UGH! I couldn't access Youtube for a while and School's killing me faster than Nightshade's curse and these wretched zombies! UGH! Hope you don't mind the entry for these guys, but eh, what ya gonna do? Wonder who the newbies that came with Barney and the others, huh? Well they'll be introduced next chapter! OMG, I'm actually excited that I managed to get this done finally! Don't worry about all my other stories. I'm slow on all of them. I guarantee though that they shall all be continued, so no worries! OH, and, eesh, sorry about killing Shadow Ross right in front of ya, Jin, but it was you or the shadow, and I think we can all agree that the shadow thing had to go! Wonder what he meant about Rossome though... guess we'll find out later? WHO KNOWS!