Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from the beloved Hourglass!
I know I've been gone for a bit longer than usual (almost 10 days!), but I wanted to remind you of the situation I'm in because of finals and mental health issues and...you know, the usual fun stuff. I'm working as often as I can on these chapters and I am now determined to do as MUCH as I possibly can before June 17th, which is the day I leave for my vacation. I don't want to leave you guys hanging for too long, so I'm grinding away at each chapter with all the strength I can muster! We WILL have a true ending to this series!
Replies to Reviews...
Badgerman: No, the Master Compass was given to Mark in VOiD when he was able to survive the Mastermind's trials. I found the typo, also! Fixed! :D
And with the whole "deus ex-machina," I had already planned out for this to occur. If you payed attention during the descriptions about the Mistress, ones made by both Evan and Maria herself, it notes that she can resurrect people even if they're taken by the Glitch. Some zombies spawn naturally with tools and weapons...just think about it for a moment. (A better explanation will come before the story has fully run its course.)
Airas Slayer: Danny was my personal favorite, honestly. XD Gabe and Lucas haven't appeared yet just because I don't feel comfortable integrating ANOTHER set of characters to have their own plot going on among the other ones. I have, like, six already. Simultaneously. What you said about OC's is totally right and that caused some of the problems in the first place. I'm managing, though!
Okay, so before I sign off for a moment and let the chapter start, let me just say this...HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! Clearly, you've all been checking out my YouTube channel like I hoped you would, because my subscriber count has reached frickin 30 in a real short amount of time! Jerik00, Chariot-Child, Pixelized Pikale and Company, ZomBusters U, The Nexu, Marshall F, Jorge Arturo, bUTTER-nUGGETS, Chocolatesmash, and several others: THANK you! Seeing a whole bunch of you join me on my journey into animation has really boosted my self-esteem and motivation for a lot of my creative projects, especially the animations.
And if you haven't already checked out my YouTube channel yet, I'd still urge you to just watch the two 35 to 40-second videos I put on there. Since I can't provide a link, just search up Pasty's Bakery and click on "Search instead for Pasty's Bakery" when it asks you about typos. Thanks again, everybody! :D
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 36: A Whole New Level of Done
Norman soared seven stories above the ground, his entire body cloaked in an aura of silver. He hovered from building to building, deeply wishing that he could move at least a little faster than his current maximum speed. For the past half hour, he'd spied through the windows of every major building in the city: 64 Rockeflesher Center, the Porkota, the Crispler Building, and even Rump Tower! He hadn't yet bothered to check the Empig State Building; there was no telling just how long it'd take for him to look through all of those windows.
As he flew above the streets of Hamhattan, he tried to see if he could spot any of his friends down below. Only one time was he successful, however, but this was only because Alexander had gotten into a fight with a homeless lady after she tried to mug him. This attracted quite a lot of attention, but Norman could tell even from his distance that Alexander and his trusty stick were more than a match for some random woman off the street in an anthropomorphic Shulker skin.
He stopped just above the skinny roof of the Fatiron Building and lowered himself onto it, sitting down at its edge to take a break. Something above being suspended in magnetic energy really wore away at his body. After tugging his pant leg out of the mouth of the pig beneath him, he cracked his neck painfully and then his back, sighing and starting to think of where he could check next.
He tried to remember back to the Palace of 0 when Serisdo was telling him about that room full of hourglasses. He had said that Froace had a love for money and raw resources, so that's where the fine diamond powder for each of the magic timekeepers came from. What had he said about Firzon, though? That's what he couldn't remember…
After a few minutes of useless wondering, Norman removed his Blockpack and set it next to him. He quickly located the 64th Dimension's hourglass in all its auburn and emerald glory, checking how long he'd been away from the group. Just to confirm, he also checked with time with F3: 52 minutes. He had told everyone to meet back in in less than an hour, hadn't he?
"Geez…maybe the others had better luck than I did."
He stood up atop the Fatiron Building and jumped lightly off the roof, plummeting downward. Now that he'd done so much airborne fighting over the past twenty years, he'd become accustomed to moving through the air at high speeds. He slowed his descent as the pavement got close and landed gracefully on the ground. Damn, his landings were getting good!
He jogged down the street, his armor clinking with every step he took. Now that he was separated from the rest of his group, a great number of people on the street tried to stop him and get a conversation in. At one point, he even got stopped by a man who said he was from Smelttown. Apparently, he was one of the spectators during the coliseum match that Norman and Liz had interrupted. Surprised that anyone else had survived the attack on the island, Norman couldn't help but talk to him for a few minutes before going on his way.
"Gee, the Minecraft Dimension sometimes feels smaller than it really is." he said to himself, "It's A Small World" randomly appearing in his head; ooh, that was annoying…
He opened the world data for a brief few seconds, checking the time once again, and recognized that he had two minutes to get back to the main square. In roughly that time, he stepped past the last set of buildings and walked out onto Rinds Square. Hundreds of players milled about the area, most of them on the constant move while a select view could be found standing in groups, talking and buying from street vendors. He didn't see a single one of his friends despite it being exactly an hour from their last meeting. He groaned and crossed his arms, dangling Shatter in front of him with a loose couple fingers gripped around its handle.
"Where is everyone?" he grumbled, glancing this way and that to peer through the crowd. "I would've at least expected Bailey to show up on time."
As he waited there for another ten minutes, an odd pitting feeling made its presence inside of him. The longer he stood there, the more he felt that something else was off. What were the chances that every single one of his team members would forget when and/or where to regroup? A good portion of them wouldn't surprise him by not showing up, but as he would have expected, Kelsey, Adrian, and obviously BAILEY should have found him by now.
Suddenly, amidst his thoughts, a sharp click sounded near him and snapped him to attention. He looked around quickly, but couldn't spot the source. It sounded oddly like a switch or a button or—
The pigs beneath him shifted away without warning, sending Norman plummeting down a hidden tunnel in the fleshy floor. The shock had taken him completely and he didn't even scream when this happened. He'd only been falling for about four seconds before he hit solid ground and blacked out on the spot.
When Norman awoke, the first feeling he recognized was that of a disgustingly slimy something covering him from his toes to his neck. Wherever he was, it was pitch-black and he couldn't see a single thing. Being stuck inside what felt like a massive pile of slime blocks, he couldn't even move either of his arms to check his hotbar; clearly, his Blockpack was gone, so there was no point in looking for an escape tool there.
Quietly, he curled his fingers, inside the slimy prison and tried to place a cobweb at the far end of the room. If he wasn't able to at all, however, that meant this room stretched for more than a hundred blocks. He tried placing his signature block at the wall in front of him, and thankfully he was able to do just that. Judging by the sound, it seemed like this first wall was only ten-ish blocks away from him. He did the same with the left and back walls. Again, ten and ten. Just as he was about to check the final one, he was interrupted by the voice of another presence in the room.
"Ah, you're finally awake!"
Suddenly, several clicking sounds were heard and the ceiling above him shifting, revealing a line of glowstone lamps that filled the room with their golden light. Norman gasped upon seeing that it was not any Minecraftian individual who'd spoken to him, but instead a suit-clad Enderman with its lanky black arms folded together. The room itself was barren except for an iron door embedded in the back wall behind him. And unlike the rest of the city that was likely now above him, plain ol' polished andesite made up the ceiling, floor, and all four walls.
"I can't believe it, I really can't…" said the Enderman, its jaw unhinging momentarily into a grin.
It lifted a handless arm and cracked it in a whip-like fashion, declaring,
"Sullivan, you can drop 'im."
The large slime holding him captive jiggled slightly and replied in a deep, growly voice,
"Yea, boss."
It bent back for a full two seconds before lurching forward and spitting him out onto the cold, hard, unforgiving floor and hopping a few blocks back. Norman grunted in pain and coughed, slowly pushing against the stone so he could stand upright again; being immobilized inside of a slime was literally the most uncomfortable experience in the world.
"Alright," he grumbled, straightening up and cracking his back. "what's the deal, Enderman? You're definitely too enabled to be a wild mob, but you're also probably not affiliated with the queen's army. Anymore, at least…really, though, I've got a majorly important quest to carry out and I've only got eight days left to do it, so…"
The moment he took his first step forward, the Enderman teleported behind him and grabbed his arm, bending it painfully around.
"GAH!" Norman cried at the unexpected attack, cringing at the angle his arm had been put. "What the hell, Enderman?!"
Not surprisingly, this reminded him of his days at Diamond University when that other Enderman crumped him up into a block and carried him around.
"Bud, you can call me Edgar…" the Enderman said calmly, sincere satisfaction in its tone.
Norman used his free hand to stack a tower of cobwebs up around the Enderman to distract it, but the mob teleported just before the blocks were placed, its lanky figure reappearing in front of him; he couldn't react fast enough and was smacked away by a harsh strike from the creature's arm. Norman stumbled backwards for a moment before being bounced right back by Sullivan the Slime. With little control over his momentum, Edgar stepped forward swiftly and practically clotheslined the Ultra Hero in one fluid motion. Norman's head stayed where it was while the rest of his body flew up and then fell back to earth with a heavy thud. Without turning around to look at him, the Enderman once again folded its arms and muttered,
"Please don't make this difficult, Cobweb."
Norman groaned as he got back to his feet.
"Why don't you—"
He grunted as his hand flung out to the side, another pillar of cobwebs forming where the mob had been moments earlier.
"—stop moving?!"
Just as Edgar appeared in his line of sight a second later, he dodged the swipe and punched it straight in the gut. It made a choking sound and teleported again, this time on top of Sullivan, who nonchalantly accepted his fate as a stool. Norman merely sighed and looked up at the dark creature, squinting at him for a moment before saying,
"I've met too many supposedly all-power, super important, unstoppable sorcerers, beasts, and organizations to be phased by something like you anymore."
Edgar the Enderman looked furious after that comment and he raised an appendage, ready to retort before being abruptly cut off again.
"Before I leave, can you at least tell me where I am, or why I'm here, or…or even who you're working for? Like I said, I'm on a time limit."
Edgar crouched on top of Sullivan, who squished lightly into the ground from the movement.
"For your information, hotshot, I'm the leader of the SOSKC!"
Norman froze for a moment and purely stared at his captor. What was that he just said?
"Did you…you're part of the Society of Splendidly Knowledgeable Gentlemobs? What are you, one of their rebels, or—"
This time, however, Norman was cut off by the rapid swipe of the Enderman's arm. He immediately gained an annoyed expression that showed clearly in his lavender eyes.
"No, not that fruity, tea-sippin' band of whackjob scientists! I'm talkin' about the SOSKC! The Syndicate of Seriously Killer Crimemobs! Totally different organization, Cobweb! I'm perfectly aware of your association with that other group."
"Huh. Neat." Norman piped, and then took a few steps toward the mob. "Now, I'm going to find my stuff and get out of here in a m—"
It teleported once again, only this time Norman raised both hands and filled the entire room up with webs, successfully slowing down both Sullivan and Edgar, the second of the two in mid-swipe as it tried to move through the sticky substance to smack Norman upside the head. He smiled slightly and walked past both of them, approaching the back door and starting to slam on it with his fist.
"Well, that was rather odd…and pointless." he mumbled, feeling more annoyed than anything in this setback.
He'd gone through so many bad experiences in this world that it seemed like nothing would phase him anymore. Perhaps a direct meeting with the Glitch or one of the Unforgiven Spawn, but that was about it. At the current state of his mentality, he was at a level of being done with it all that he bet for a million dollars no other human had been able to reach before. Twenty-five seconds later, the iron door shattered beneath his knuckles and sprayed him with grey particles, which he routinely brushed off as he strolled through the open doorway.
A zombie, a Wither skeleton, and a magma cube, all three wearing similarly expensive suits, spotted him in an instant and charged, readying their own unique attacks.
"Get 'im!" the magma cube gurgled, leaping high into the air.
Norman grumbled and raised his hands again, filling this slightly larger room with cobwebs just as he did with the last one. This put barely any strain on him compared to the thousands of cobwebs he'd likely placed over the years, so he continued on his way to the tall security doors of pure diamond at the other end of the second room. As he made his way over, the cobwebs around him revitalized him and healed all the bruises and bumps sustained from the fall he took earlier.
"Hmph." he grunted, pushing past the fancily-clad zombie suspended in slow-motion. "I sure hope I wasn't out for too long!"
Upon reaching the two locked barriers of diamond, he glanced over at the command block that was embedded in the wall next to the set. He took just one step to his left and leaned forward, beginning to work his technical magic on the nine multi-colored buttons. It was a good thing he took pleasure in being way too smart when he was a teenager—for the first time, of course—because it took him just two and a half minutes to crack the code and force the diamond doors open for him.
Before he left the room, he looked behind him to see a Wither sword just a few ticks from head, inching towards him pixel by pixel and slowly eating away at the cobweb blocks thanks to its poisoned edge. He chuckled and moved to the side, putting a finger on the flat of the blade and slowly removing the entire sword from his enemy's bony grip. Glad to have a real weapon in his possession, he left the mentally "advanced" mobs to struggle in his webs.
It suddenly dawned on him that these things could actually have spawned from the same mod that created the professors, only that they chose the path of evil over everything else.
"Well, now isn't that a shame?" he said to himself, at first sarcastically, but then, "Hm. I'm sure Professor Pigson would've been legitimately depressed to hear that, though…if he doesn't already know."
He was met with a short checkered hallway and two skeleton guards that stood at its other end. They spotted him immediately and drew their weapons, firing their arrows in sync just a few seconds later. Norman lifted the Wither sword to his chest and deflected both, trudging forward with little change in his step. Before they could let another two fly, he threw his hands downward instead, willing the cobweb blocks to become solid as they smacked both lifeless creatures to the floor in a crackle of bones on more bones.
It didn't take long for him to reach the set of wooden doors, but the moment he did he was quick to recognize the great activity going on past them. He peered through the empty squares and caught sight of a small stage, a couple bathrooms, and a bar chock full o' monsters with unnecessarily expensive clothes.
"Three cave spiders, three regular spiders, four zombies, one zombie villager, one snow golem, one iron golem, two Blaze, and five skeletons…I guess Endermites and silverfish just weren't scary enough to make it in the Minecraft mafia." he joked, his smile returning for a moment.
He cracked his neck on either side, feeling a sudden surge in confidence despite the ridiculous numbers disadvantage. It wasn't often he got to fight on his own, so this was a bit of a refresher for him—especially considering the permanent pessimist's attitude he couldn't seem to shake.
"Twenty of them, just one of me; for once, I'm not bothered by those kinds of odds…oh wait, twenty-ONE of them. I did not see that Guardian in the fish tank."
Norman pushed open the doors and promptly sauntered on into the room. Every single creature inside stopped what they were doing. He shouldered the Wither sword, being sure to lay down its flat, non-threatening edge so as not to foolishly injure himself. With all the frozen, contorted, and confused faces looking his way, he took a brief glance around and said,
"So, um…" he began, "Would someone be able to show me the exit to this fine establishment?"
Jeff's legs buckled when he broke through the last few layers of vine, his whole self falling forward into the tall grass of the clearing's rim. JB struggled greatly to keep an unconscious Evan from bonking his head on the ground, stumbling forward to hold up the young monster's middle.
"Jeff, c'mon!" he cried, groaning from the literal dead weight in his hands. "It's right there! We can make it!"
The fall he'd just taken was hard enough to knock some of the supplies from his hotbar, landing the Master Map directly beneath Jeff's head. He stared at it for a moment, his heart pounding and his entire body weak from extreme fatigue. Even with all this stress on his limbs and organs, he found the strength to shake his head and clear his vision, instantly recognizing the massive shadow that had been cast over the corner of the map. By now, he could feel the force that the plasma waves let loose with each pound on the jungle floor; they had maybe three minutes before they were dead meat.
"You'd better be right, JB…" he wheezed, lifting a trembling leg and somehow getting back on his feet.
Amya brought up the rear a second later, something brown and muddy-looking clutched in her right fist. She held it up proudly between her and JB, shouting,
"Look! Cocoa beans!"
"AMYATHERE'SNOTIMEFORCOCOABEANS!"
Startled by Jeff's furious response, Amya yelped and bolted toward the witch's hut suspended above the pond in front of them. She jumped up into the air and created a pack of TNT with every step she took.
"Let's get out of here, bros!" she yelled, waving for them to follow.
JB knew there was no way Jeff could continue carrying Evan with him, so he took up the rest of the bulk and followed closely behind their adult leader as he scaled the staircase of explosives. Among the tens of furnaces lining the inner walls, a single chest was stuck in the corner, just barely visible underneath the many stone stoves. JB knelt down in front of the chest and opened it, peering directly through the furnace to check its contents. Y'know, because dem's the rules of Minecraft!
"Oh, thank Notch!" he cried three seconds later, returning from the depths of the container with a half stack of obsidian. "She actually has some! Usually she just teleports herself to the Nether when she needs to, but I remember he saying something about it always making her need a nap afterwards, so basically she isn't always feeling up to it—"
"Alright, alright!" Jeff exclaimed, waving his hand in a circle. "What about a lighter? Flint and steel in there?"
JB revisited the inside of the chest, but returned with a look of pure horror instead of the needed materials.
"No, there's nothing!" JB replied, utterly terrified.
A powerful tremor shook the entire hut, making Jeff lose his balance and fall to the floor again.
"Damn it with the falling!" he shouted, gritting his teeth. "Wait a moment, I've got a couple iron ingots left in my inventory! From what, I have no idea!"
He gave both Amya and JB frantic looks, adding,
"Do either of you have a flint? We can just craft our own!"
The two of them checked their hotbars, but to no avail did they find anything useful. It sure didn't help that the four of them were now without Blockpacks after the catastrophe at the tower. Just as all hope seemed completely lost, JB's eyes lit up with a brand new idea.
"Wait! Gravel always spawns by water! Is there gravel outside?"
Jeff's arms flung out to either side and he retorted,
"I don't know, I've only been here twice as of now! Just go out and look yourself!"
Another earthquake shook the earth, causing the wooden cabin to creak on its supports; that certainly was an unsettling sound considering the usual logic that applied to Minecraftian structures. JB shook his head and said,
"B-but I don't want to go back out there!"
"Me neither, Jackery!" Amya piped, taking a sharp intake of breath at the thought.
Jeff gave a short yell of frustration and then declared,
"FINE then! I'll do it myself! Just build the frame for the portal!"
Jeff scrambled out the open doorway and jumped down into the water, his heart leaping high at the sight of gravel blocks. There were only six or seven of them, so it was literally a matter of how good his luck was. He broke open the first four to be greeted unpleasantly with mere gravel, but he didn't slow down whatsoever and kept on pounding the packed pebbles. The wind had gone from a strong blow to the level of a small tornado, blowing loose grass particles in his face and making things just that much more difficult for him. However, he certainly thanked the Minecraftian gods after destroying the sixth block, which did in fact yield a single chunk of flint.
When he got back inside, he saw that JB and Amya had deconstructed the floor of the shack in order for the portal to fit somewhat inside, leaving the top half open for them to walk through. Jeff pushed past both of them and leaned over the edge, staring down at the bottom of the frame and focusing hard on it. He picked up the iron ingot in one hand and the flint in the other, striking them together in one swift motion and igniting the blackish rocks for only a moment before a familiar purple substance filled his view.
As yet another rumble hit them hard, almost giving JB a concussion when it bounced him into the hut's low roof, Jeff hastily slapped the flint and steel onto his hotbar and grabbed Amya and JB by their collars, saying,
"We've got about seventeen seconds before we're dead meat, so I say we just jump for it. Ready?"
Before either of them could say anything, he smiled briefly and said,
"Good!"
Jeff shoved the two of them into the portal, sending them through to the next dimension within their dimension. Before hopping on in himself, Jeff whirled around and gripped Evan by his underarms, dragging him toward the swirly vortex now behind him.
"This'll feel awkward for sure…" he grumbled, leaping backwards and taking Evan along with him.
Wherever they ended up respawning, he was confident this approach would probably land him with a broken back. But when you're being chased by millions of plasma particles all compacted into supermassive waves of death and destruction, you don't often think about the practicality of your portal-entering stance.
Yeah, that sounds like an odd way to enter the Nether...with your back to it. Wouldn't you want to see what's ahead in case, oh, I dunno, a GHAST or something sees you and wants to bake you into the Netherrack floor?
Will Norman be able to defeat all twenty of those suit-clad monsters on his own? Is he any closer to finding Firzon the Fifth? Will Jeff, JB, Amya, and Evan be able to ever find their way to safety? And WOW isn't Norman a lot cooler when he's irritated? You'll likely get a couple of these questions answered in the next installment of 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 [~]