Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with yet another chapter for Hourglass! Hey, everybody! Bet you thought I was gonna do it again, huh? Nope! I meant what I said last week and I'm getting serious on this one! :D
But I should stop rambling, really. My last author's note was pretty long...
Replies To Reviews...
Marshman101: Maria did mention why Jeff couldn't use his Block powers! Just look towards the end of the chapter to find that line. It's there, trust me! :)
Airas Slayer: I was actually surprised at how upset everybody got at Kenneth's death! I knew you guys liked him, but not THAT much! I mean, I knew he was going to die off pretty quick since his conception. Considering I made him to be able to see people's code, it was inevitable that he'd see Ben inside of Adrian. After that, he'd be totally done for. Sorry, dude! ^^'
Badgerman: Patrick will have to remain my sugarbowl? What...exactly does that mean? XD Anyway, I think I can't find your YouTube channel because when I search for it it'll only bring up channels that have uploaded at least one video. Otherwise, it's like you don't even exist because their algorithm makes it think I don't want to find viewing-only channels like yours. So, if you upload a video, literally ANYTHING, I should be able to find you pretty quick!
I was writing the responses out and accidentally clicked out of the editing box, then pressed the backspace bar a couple times and undid everything. I'm so good at life. XD
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 29: The Amalgamob Revealed
Morgan felt her heart pound nearly out of her ribcage as she sped down the seemingly endless maze of halls and prison cells. She'd never had to run for so long in her life; the heels of her peep toe boots had been almost totally worn away by the days of travel through jungles, forests, and now a creepy castle full of the undead. So much so that it was now nearly impossible for her to run at all.
"Agh! Notchdamnit!" she cried, staring at her hotbar as she ran. "Not like I can make another frickin pair of shoes or anything!"
She swore and half-swore for another ten seconds as she stumbled across the cracks in the floor. A little while later, she turned down a hallway to her right. And then to her left a couple minutes later. And then another left.
Right, left, left, right, left, left, left, right, right…
"Those zombies back there could've given me some directions or SOMETHING!" she growled, baring her fists. "Then again, I could've stolen a sword or some food from that hag, or maybe I could've gotten some real clothes, even! …lots of things that could have happened."
All of a sudden, Morgan skidded to a halt, almost falling over because of her broken footwear. She'd just heard a laugh; she stood perfectly still, doing nothing but listening to the cold air of the prison. A few seconds passed before she heard another laugh, this time louder. It sounded like a witch's cackle.
"Maria…" she murmured, recalling the name.
"Morgan!"
Morgan shrieked an ear-piercing scream and jumped in place. When she turned around, she saw another Minecraftian lying on their back on the floor, seemingly in pain.
"JB?" she said, her everything shaking now.
JB stayed on the ground, grimacing as he rubbed his head beneath his iron helmet.
"Ugh. Morgan, I didn't mean to scare you, but…ow."
Morgan quickly came to her senses, her heart rate lowering for a moment as she made a motion to bend over with her hand out, offering it to the teen on the floor. Even in his discomfort, JB lost a bit of his self-awareness and locked eyes with Morgan for a moment, going instantly red in the cheeks. It was a good thing the hall was dimly lit.
When JB didn't take her hand, she decided to just go the full way and grab her wrist, pulling him to his feet with some difficulty. She grasped his shoulders, much to his surprise, and gripped them tight.
"Maria. The woman that witch told us about. She has the answers I'm looking for. And she's in. The. Building."
JB turned his head away from her slightly, still managing to keep eye contact, and replied,
"You're not usually this engaged in something…"
That moment, the witch's scream of laughter echoed in the distance again and Morgan jerked her head up, looking down the next hall intently.
"There." she said, letting go of JB's shoulders and standing straight up.
The two of them stood in silence for a moment, staring down a broad cobblestone corridor that stood directly to their left. Morgan turned once again to the young inn owner and they locked eyes a second time. For a moment, JB remembered that she was two years older than him. Thankfully, the torch down the hall wasn't quite close enough to fully illuminate his next expression.
"You ready to do this?" she asked, her voice trembling a little; whether this was from excitement or fear, JB couldn't quite tell.
He cleared his throat and broke the connection, gazing down the shadowy passage.
"I-I guess, yeah." he muttered, a terrible feeling forming in the pit of his stomach. "Jeff's still in here too. I said I'd meet him down the hall back there, but…I think he found Maria already. Or she found him."
It was the sound of his Mistress that woke Evan up. No matter how badly his head was pounding now, he just had to be presentable in front of her! Otherwise, he was TOAST!
"Soldier Evan, Rank 2016, reporting, Ma'am!" he declared, standing straight up from off the ground.
All of a sudden, the entire room froze. Jeff's eyes were now open, unwaveringly locked on Evan, as well as the face in the living cloak. Zombulk's fingers froze by his butt, which he'd just reached to scratch. Even the lava flow stopped a mere block from Jeff's head, its surface animation stuck on a single frame. Only the sound of the wind outside made its presence inside the chamber. A few seconds passed. Nobody moved.
And then,
"Evan, I only now realized…did you…did you urinate in your pants early in the day?" spoke the robes, its face in total shock.
Evan's eyes widened and he glanced downward, remembering his incident in the woods around the prison. He immediately covered up the splotch while still trying to keep erect where he stood. Presentable.
"Y-yes, Ma'am! Please forgive me!"
The face contorted into a quick grimace and then began to shift in place; the cloak around Jeff was starting to move. To Jeff's disbelief, he felt his bonds loosen and the dark robes slide off of his body, landing on the floor to his left. As he watched Maria's real figure swirl up into view, he began scooting as quietly as possible towards the edge of the stand and away from the lava above.
Maria began to take small steps in Evan's direction, a look of true anger on her face.
"Something in my brain is telling me that it should not be this man on the pedestal being burned alive, but you. You worthless, whimpering green stain!" she spat, her bright whites bared in her scowl.
Jeff extended his arm over the edge of the stone blocks to touch the floor, giving himself a little more balance. One foot slowly made its way past the corner. While he was busy on making an escape plan, Evan stood directly in the Mistress's line of sight, trembling unbearably on the spot. Maria lifted her finger and curled it at him, continuing with another line of venomous words.
"From the very beginning, you were a weak link in our army. You were a runt when you first spawned and a runt you are today! Always slower, feebler, and about as skilled with a weapon as a drunken Creeper!" she snapped furiously, raising her hand bit by bit. "And ALWAYS thinking! Thinking, thinking, and thinking again! I myself would think every day, "Why can he not just accept his place in life and stop thinking about it? You were always too smart for your kind. After all, I've only chosen the path of a necromancer for the access to a never-ending army of dimwitted brutes that were good for two things: killing others and FOLLOWING ORDERS!"
She screamed that last part, causing Evan to jump almost three blocks into the air. It was at this point that his will was broken; tears sprung to his eyes and he audibly began to cry, cowering more and more as she got closer to him. By this time, Jeff had made it to the ground and was creeping around the stone plinth, readying himself for a perfect opportunity.
Unfortunately, his iron sword had been thrown across the room and was now leaning up against the corner of the left wall's broad doorway. It was still within the witch's peripheral vison; he would need to figure something else out.
"And WHY did I not realize that you would eventually do something like this?!" she cried, waving her hand and barely whiffing Evan's cheek. "Attempting to help an outsider to infiltrate my manor is an offense to my code on the highest level! AND YET—"
She stopped herself suddenly, regaining her poise. When she cleared her throat a moment later, the look she had was that of a calm woman. Only a hint of her true rage showed in her eyes.
"But I'm getting carried away. Mustn't lose my own composure because of one measly defect! Rather, I think it would be appropriate to…" she had backed Evan up against the front wall now, and leaned in to stare him deep in his sockets, which remained wide as dinner plates. "…punish you for your disrespect."
Jeff was going for it. His sword had gone out of her eyesight and he had a chance to pick it up once again. But the moment he stepped foot out from behind the pedestal, he felt five massive fingers curl around his waist and lift him high into the air, squeezing the air right out of him.
"Ma'am!" his captor shouted, causing Maria to whirl around in front of Evan. "One of your prisoners: he was trying to escape!"
To Evan's relief, and to Jeff's great horror, Maria fully redirected her attention back to her original victim, who was now struggling in the hand of Zombulk.
"Mr. Ironblock!" she declared, her voice full of the same venom she'd used to break down Evan. "Were you trying to slice me in two again? You and I both know that your puny little breadknife will never suffice as a weapon against me…"
She thrust her hand towards his sword and her cloak sprung back to life, shoot out with one sharp end and slicing through the air around it. In an amount of time too short to react, Jeff watched as the jagged spike tore through the sword, splitting the blade from its hilt and sending both halves flying from each other.
"NO!" he cried, but it couldn't have mattered less at this point.
The tendril of cloth slithered back into the mass around Maria, turning fluid again. She turned only her head to look at Jeff's shaken expression.
"Well then! Now that I haven't any further distractions, I believe that it's time for both of you to be sacrificed to the night! You by the creature who holds you now and is surely ready for a midafternoon snack," she rotated in place and returned her gaze to a frozen Evan, who looked away from her immediately. "and you to the molten lava!"
A claw-like hand thrust forward and grabbed the clammy skin of her minion's neck, lifting him into the air. Jeff felt the hand around him start to lower slowly and he twisted his head around, watching in horror as his head was being pulled close to Zombulk's filthy trap. For both him and Evan, things couldn't have been any bleaker. He tried to think of something to do. ANYTHING he could do!
Instead, Jeff did only what came to him through instinct. He made a jerking motion with his head towards the mouth below him and a block of iron appeared inside the monstrosity's maw, blocking his two sets of teeth from crushing Jeff's skull. He knew it would only last for a few seconds, so he had to make each one count; he glanced hastily down at Zombulk's feet, creating a spire of blocks that shot up and smacked him in the crotch. Zombulk cried out in anguish, unclamping his jaw and falling backward. Jeff pushed off the midair block with his feet as he fell out of the boss mob's fingers, jumping out into the air towards the still-stationary lava drip above the pedestal. Unfortunately, Maria had only been generous enough to supply them with helmets outside of what they already owned, so his left sleeve just grazed the lava as he careened to the floor.
"MR. IRONBLOCK!"
Not a moment before he'd landed, Jeff felt something fast sweep him off his feet. He landed on his back rather painfully, almost losing the air in his lungs, but instead let his adrenaline guide him. When he was able to get back on his feet, he saw Maria running towards him with incredible speed, her robes billowing behind him and forming several moving, fluid claws.
Jeff gulped and dashed behind the pedestal, using the lava above it as coverage. Maria read his movements instantly and darted to her right, thrusting her hand out at him and sending out a silk tentacle. He managed to duck and avoid the first jab, but it jerked back in an instant and wrapped around his arm. Before he could try and rip the cloth or even pinch it a bit, Maria twirled her pointer finger and threw Jeff high into the air. He screamed as he flew, but the sound was torn out of him as another tendril locked around his ankle and ripped him out of the sky, smashing him into the stone floor. He could feel himself take at least six points of fall damage when he hit the ground; he wasn't originally from Earth or anything, so he was more vulnerable towards being hurt than a lot of his friends were. He only just started to get shakily to his feet when he got a hard punch in the stomach with a chunk of fabric. He went flying across the room towards the staircase entrance.
Quite literally as Jeff's body was soaring through the air, JB's head poked up past floor level of the chamber and looked around. He didn't even have time to look surprised as Jeff's body hit him full-force in the face and knocked him down the stairs. The two of them tumbled down each step with a grunt on each impact, eventually hitting rock bottom and sliding to a stop.
Morgan stared at the two of them in a tangled mess at the base of the staircase. It was only when she heard a swishing sound behind her did she turn back around. There she was: Maria. She really was an unsettling woman, with those several untrimmed nails, the deep wrinkles, and those cruel, shallow, green eyes. Morgan jumped up onto the last step clenched her fists, feeling a sudden sense of confidence.
"Maria." she murmured, getting an eyeful of the witch. "Are you…the Mistress?"
Maria smiled with only her lips, licking them once before continuing with her own words.
"Yes, Ms. Ironbars." she answered, taking in Morgan's changes in appearance. "You've been gone for not quite a week and yet you look so much different. Less filled with fear, more independent…and you've gained a fantastic fashion sense, I see."
Morgan gritted her teeth at the thought of what she was wearing. If she wasn't a weakling to cold, she would have thrown one of her boots straight at the woman's ugly mug.
"They're not mine." she replied bluntly.
Maria giggled airily and then took a look at her nails, saying,
"And yet despite all you knew you would need to endure to get here, you still came looking for me. Why?"
Morgan took a bold step forward and leaned into her next words.
"I think you know why! Maybe you don't know about the flashbacks I keep having, but otherwise I bet you get what I'm looking for! I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to hurt anyone…I just want some questions answered." she said, and Maria raised an eyebrow at her last statement. "Like, why did I…wait, no. What am…damn it, I just don't know how to say it!"
Maria's smile broadened and she raised a finger to interject, though Morgan stopped her a split second later as she came to a conclusion.
"Where did I come from? I don't know anything at all!" Morgan gasped, feeling the realization hit her hard again; she glanced at the floor, desperately searching her short memory. "Before being chased through the woods by that…that THING, I can't think of any memories! M-my parents, any family, any life at all!"
She turned her head to look up at Maria again. A deep desire for knowledge started to burn inside of her.
"I can only remember you…your voice." she looked across the room to see the beast that was Zombulk leaning up against the back wall, taking a well-needed breather after taking a block of iron to the nads. "And…I think his voice, too."
It was at this time that JB's hand made it up to the last step, trembling as it gripped the surface of the cobblestone. He hoisted himself painfully over the edge and leaned while sitting up against the corner of the room's entryway. Unable to stand, he watched with baited breath at whatever was now going on between Morgan, an unarmed, barely armored Minecraftian, and Maria, the super scary witch that Matilda had told them about. Maria let out a bored sigh and took a glance over at Zombulk as well, looking quite unpleased at his weakened appearance. She continued the conversation without looking back at Morgan.
"You never had parents, Morgan." Morgan jumped at her words, a sharp pang hitting her stomach. "Or family at all, for that matter. You were never born into the world, either. Rather, you were one of my, well, special creations."
Morgan took several more steps towards the Mistress and shouted,
"What the hell does that even—"
Maria threw out a hand to silence her and said,
"Don't interrupt me, young lady!" she cleared her throat, keeping her eyes on Zombulk as she began speaking again. "What you and all others of Minecraftia should understand is that the people here can only ever keep one power for themselves. Usually, this is a Block power, such as the ability to summon pumpkins or mycelium, or even portal blocks. And then there are those few individuals who are granted the power of controlling mobs. It was a unique ability, one rarely ever seen in any community. I, when I finished school at the premature age of fourteen years, didn't understand why I had been given the power of Zombiewhisperer. I had heard stories of legendary Mobwhisperers who were loved by everyone they knew and who knew of them, though as a raiser of the undead I was avoided for the rest of my youth by all who encountered me.
"Something was quite different about zombies in comparison to, say, tamed Creepers or tamed Endermen. It was this: no matter how hard they would try, they couldn't make a zombie any more friendly-looking, helpful, or cuddly. Zombies, even when tamed, are almost always braindead animals who are of little to no help except in hunting other entities. As dull as sheep, but not as easy on the eye. For these reasons, no one would ever let me take my undead friends inside of buildings, to public events, or even inside of my house. My parents had always been of harsh ideals, and so I ended up being thrown out of my own home. What was even more sickening about this was that my sister, who you know to be Matilda, shared a similar code pattern that gave her the abilities of a Skeletonwhisperer. Even skeletons were far more accepted than any zombie I could have brought home."
From where he was, JB could see the dangerous mix of emotions present in both women. Morgan's fear, her anger and grief, the total confusion—all of it, leading up to an inevitable burst. He just didn't know when. And in the witch Maria, he could see that her rage was increasing gradually as well. Talking about her past and all, something central inside her was eventually going to snap.
"C'mon, Bed!" his thoughts shouted at him. "You have to do something! Just THINK!"
"All I could do then was leave town and search for a place to live by myself." said Maria, not taking any notice of JB's presence. "A place where no one would have to deal with my Notch-given necromancing that was not even my choice to begin with. I found this spire of ores and stone in the center of the woods and figured that anyone who came across it would immediately steer clear due to its unsettling appearing. Then, over the tens of passing years, I built up my own life with an army of my only possible friends. I'd gotten so used to the dimwitted nature of my zombies that any individual who turned out smarter than the rest was unnatural to me. I'd learned not to trust anything that can form its own opinion and would immediately feel resentment towards it.
"But as I grew older and became more, well, curious about the darker sides of magic, including the extents of necromancy, I made the decision to enact revenge on all the people who'd rejected me in every possible way. And to make every single Mobwhisperer in Minecraftia pay for their free fame! I'd gone into witchcraft enough at this point where what I desired to create was entirely possible albeit difficult. I would create an entity that had the ability to control ALL mobs. Passive, neutral, and hostile…"
Morgan's blood ran cold as Maria's words registered with her. Was she…
"I would be able to take away everything they loved! And all by using their own pets against them!" Maria declared, letting out a short shriek of laughter. "In my mind, it was and is the most fitting justice these people will ever receive! And so, I got to work on creating a monster that could do exactly this. It would have to contain the code of every mob in existence, though this created a problem as I could not fit all the needed commands inside a normal Minecraftian body. Instead, I created a monster that had the ability to disguise itself in another person's skin. This task took several sleepless months on end to complete, but I finally put the final touches on it as of…about six days ago."
Morgan mouth fell open along with her eyes as she was fully smacked in the head with reality. She glanced slowly down at her fists and opened them, staring in horror in at her trembling fingers. Her heart leaped a great distance when she saw a small bulge rippling past her right palm. She screamed and shook her hand, falling back a bit and nearly landed on her butt.
"Oh Notch…oh NOTCH, NO!" she cried, shaking her head. "Th-this isn't real!"
JB was clenching the wall with both hands, now fully aware of what was about to come. If this story was really true, then something terrible was going to happen to Morgan in the following minutes. She jerked her head up at Maria, who merely stood there in smug silence, and jabbed her finger at the witch.
"Y-you're lying!" she snapped, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm just a Minecraftian and y-you know it! I'm…I'm not…"
She looked down at her hands again. She could see her veins being to pop, pulsing and moving without warning. A deep, sickening pain had formed in her stomach and was beginning to grow. It wasn't just fear or disbelief, but another feeling that she couldn't recognize. She felt like she was going to throw up. Maria flicked one gnarled hand over her shoulder, making the lava spire in the center suck itself back up into the X on the ceiling. Once the opening at the top had closed, she gradually began making her way to the pedestal in the center. By the time Morgan was able to tear her eyes away from her own skin, she saw that the Mistress was now standing straight up on top of the center stones.
"When I give the command, you will finally be allowed freedom! No more sad thoughts, no more bodily restraints! You will be able to fulfill the destiny you've been given from your conception!"
Morgan froze in place, positively vibrating with panic. Maria lifted a fist to her lips and coughed, clearing her throat. She took a breath.
"/admin passcode: dt2k16—"
Morgan threw out a hand and screamed,
"No! NO, PLEASE DON'T!"
She turned around once again and saw that JB was still leaning up against the corner by the stairs. She ran to him, scaring him terribly by grabbing his arms.
"JB, I know I've been an ass to you,"
"—release command begin activation for [mob: Amalgamob]."
"But please listen now!" she croaked, their pairs of equally frightened eyes locking tight. "Get your friend down there…Jeff, get him to safety! Get as far away from me as you can!"
"/run unearthing code at [time: present]. Begin activation."
"Coming here was a mistAGCCKKK—"
JB fell down another step as Morgan let go of him violently and seized up. Every inch of skin on her body shifted and rippled like living jelly as she knelt there, arms out wide and eyes dead. Although he was pretty bulky for his age, Morgan grew to twice his size in a matter of seconds, her entire body deforming before his very eyes. Mixes of green, silver, purple, and other colors appeared on her figure as she continued to grow into a shapeless mass. Then, Morgan let out a screech and blasted JB in the eyes with a blinding white light.
JB stumbled backwards and began his long, painful descent down the rocky steps. When he hit the bottom, his adrenaline forced him to his feet and he stared up at the creature that had just formed up above.
Flailing its way down the staircase was a monster of unimaginable stature, standing ten blocks tall at least. From bottom to top, one massive foot was comprised of two mobs fused together awkwardly, a witch and a villager, with its other made up of a combined slime and magma cube. A combination of a squid, Wither skeleton, Mooshroom, a zombie Pigman, a few wolves, and a number of bats, Endermites, and cave spiders collectively formed a pair of twitching legs. It had the torso of a supersized iron golem with a Wither skeleton's ribcage wrapped around it.
Spiders, sheep, Guardians, skeletons, zombies, snow golems, pigs, cows, zombie villagers, and horses had been twisted together to form arms. Its right hand had an unnatural large Shulker shell over it with an Elder Guardian residing inside, its single crystalline eye livid, while its left was a tangle of shifting Blaze rods, squid tentacles, and Ghast tendrils. The heads of several small mobs were littered across the nightmare's body, including that of silverfish, rabbits, chickens, and ocelots. A massive Enderman head stood perched atop the left shoulder and there was one of a donkey on the opposite. And there, in between the two, was the Enderdragon's head, eyeing down JB with a thirst for blood.
And this thing was careening down the stairs straight for him.
All JB could think was this:
"Goodbye everybody." he spoke silently, shutting his eyes tight. "I'll see you in the Aether, Malcolm…"
Ohhhhhhhhhkay...good Notch, that thing is scary. I got the shivers just by writing the description! 0.0
Is Jeff okay after falling down all those stairs and being thrown around by Maria? Will Maria's plan to control the mobs of the entire dimension truly work? And how is JB going to escape being eaten alive by thirty different severely-angered mobs? Answers to these questions and even more next time in Hourglass!
This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!
*throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar*
...Goodbye for now...
~Pastrinator64 [~]
