Preface: Hi, again! Sorry I wasn't able to do the "one per day" thing after all. I'm still hoping on getting the last two chapters up tomorrow, though. Anyway, this chapter is set during last chapter and show what Danny and Liam were up to during the events of last chapter, plus some advancement of Danny's arc. Plus, two recurring characters make their debut...
MINECRAFT MANIACS RPG
THE OVERWORLD SAGA:
DOPPEL STRIKES BACK!
Previously...after journeying across the land and even into Mojang HQ, Minecraft players Danny, Liam, and Kevin have found the five Gadgets of Order. As soon as their new companion Buzzer activated their power, however, Kevin's character fainted.
Now...the remaining party members wonder what to do now.
Roll Call
Danny - Alfred von Any: Hero with emotional issues. The leader.
Liam - Willy Blanq: Expert crafter. The maker.
Pork Chop - Dee Bradley Baker: Danny's companion. The pet.
Spawny and Spawnette - Damien Laquet: The rabborg siblings. The heart.
Buzzer - Jim Cummings: Psychic fly from the future. The fairy.
Chapter 8:
Minds of Power, Part Three -
Spleef War!
[Main Party Selected: Danny, Liam]
[Supporting Party Selected: Kevin, Buzzer, Pork Chop, Spawny, Spawnette]
[Character Selected: Buzzer]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Private World, Mojang Vault]
[BGM: Antimo & Welles - Pale Blue Dot]
"Uh, Kev? You there?"
Liam kicked Kevin's avatar again. A few minutes ago, after he got zapped by the power of the Order Gadgets, Kevin had just been lying there, unconscious. He also wasn't answering his phone, though that may have been just because he was distracted.
"Say, Buzzer," Danny decided to ask, tired of waiting, "what did those Gadgets of Order do to Kev, anyway?"
"Ah, apologies!" said Buzzer. "You see, Kevin is currently in his own mind, weakening his own evil soul. That is what prevented him from fatally defeating Doppel in their previous encounters."
"(So, we just wait?)" asked Spawny.
"Uh, I guess…" said Danny.
"Well, we can't just leave him here," said Liam. "'No player left behind,' right?"
Just then, the vault doors opened. Everyone braced themselves and saw two players. One had the default Steve skin, while the other had the Alex skin. Both wore black t-shirts with the Mojang logo rather than the usual shirts the skins wore, and their gamertags identified them as Bruno and Molly, respectively.
"A-ha! So you're the players that caused that disruption!" shouted Bruno, pointing at the group.
"Look, I know we killed the developers," Liam said defensively, "but we didn't intend to! We just came for the gadget!"
"Or were you trying to leak the new update?" accused Molly.
Danny rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess that's what it looks like…"
"(What are you going to do to us?)" asked Spawnette. "(Even though I have obtained divine power myself, we are just mortals!)"
"Okay, I have no clue why I understood that rabbit thing, or what she means by this divine mumbo-jumbo," said Bruno, "but we're only interns, so we have to initiate the training protocol." He typed a command into his computer, and everyone but Buzzer vanished, leaving the fly with Kevin's still-inanimate body.
"Oh, dear," he said. "I should've seen this coming when we entered the divine realm. No matter," he assured himself, "I'm sure they'll make it through unscathed."
[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Private World, Spleef War Arena]
The place we were teleported to was a large arena made from stone bricks. There were bleachers for an audience, some kind of stall, and we were standing on a floor of snow. Looking at my hotbar showed that I had an iron shovel enchanted with Efficiency. I instantly knew where this was going. "This is a game of Spleef, isn't it?" I guessed.
"Not just ordinary Spleef," said Molly, "but Spleef War!"
"What's the difference?" asked Liam.
"There are three layers, and the first two have TNT traps marked by pressure plates," explained Bruno, pointing to the wooden pressure plates scattered around.
"Two players from each side are the diggers," Molly continued, "and they will dig up the ground like ordinary Spleef. The rest are the throwers, who have an infinite number of snowballs that they can use to knock the other players into holes."
Turning around, I saw that Liam had a shovel of his own, and the rabborgs and Pork Chop were holding snowballs. "Well, this oughta be fun," said Liam. "Been a while since I've been in the Spleef ring."
[BGM: Gareth Coker - Double Time (Tumble)]
Joined with three players that looked identical to them, Bruno and Molly went to the other side of the arena. "Okay, you two," I whispered to the rabborgs, "save the deity powers for later. We might need them for Doppel." We all took our marks, and then, we charged. A barrage of snowballs came after Liam and I, but we dodged them all and I managed to dig out a few blocks. Molly used her own shovel to dig a trench, but I quickly managed to hop out of the way and gestured to Spawny, who threw a snowball at Molly and knocked her in.
Liam and Pork Chop went for a more direct approach, going after the interns' throwers. Pork Chop got up close to the throwers to catch them off-guard, allowing Liam to plop them right in.
"Hey, Liam!" I shouted. "Check this out!" I hopped, skipped, and jumped out of the way of snowballs and tossed a leftover stalk of wheat onto a nearby pressure plate. The thrower was caught off-guard and the TNT block blew up, killing him and giving Spawnette the perfect opportunity to knock Bruno and the other thrower into the open hole.
"Nice job!" he shouted. "But I can do better!" We fell into the hole with Pork Chop and Lam began digging a trench to the right of him. The thrower was cornered near another trap and Pork Chop tackled him onto it.
I watched in a bit of horror as the trap blew up, taking Pork Chop and the thrower with it. I couldn't believe it. I had recently gotten a dog of my own, but Pork Chop felt more like a companion to me. And now he was suddenly gone. I just felt like crying. And sadness turned to anger. And anger became determination.
"Hey, you okay, man?" asked Liam, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I wiped away my tears and looked him in the face. "Yeah, I'm okay. And I'm ready to win." Noticing that there was only one thrower left, I gestured for Spawny and Spawnette to go all-out. Bruno, Molly, and the thrower were all disoriented, allowing Liam and I to get all three of them in a single swipe of our shovels.
We dropped down into the hole caused by the TNT trap and looked around. "Just one more," I said, and I threw my shovel towards the nearest pressure plate I saw. The TNT blew up, and the final thrower was taken out.
"(Well, that's all of them!)" said Spawny. "(We should be good now!)"
"Oh, not so fast," said Molly. A command was entered that caused Spawny and Spawnette to vanish. "When all throwers from one side are eliminated, that's when it becomes a melee free-for-all."
"Well, if it's a battle you want," I said, taking out my sword, "so be it!" Bruno took out his own enchanted sword and we charged. I struck my sword out, and I dashed right through him, sending him flying into the air, where he took out a crossbow. It must've had Multishot on it, because three red-tipped arrows shot out, and one of them got Liam.
"Is that even legal?" he shouted, slumping on the floor and vanishing. It was all up to me. I charged my sword to 25% and waved it around. In an instant, there were four illusions of me.
"Hey! He's using mods!" shouted Molly, taking out a trident. She threw it at one of my illusions, and it vanished, allowing me to slash at her, knocking her into the open hole. I watched as she imitated the ending of Terminator as she sunk into the lava.
In my distraction, Bruno managed to knock me in with a sword enchanted with Knockback. I would've said "If I'm going in, you're going in with me!" if I wasn't so focused on quickly turning around and stabbing my sword into him. I flipped around and kicked him right into the lava as I fell in. He died shortly before I did, and as my screen turned red and read "You died!" I smiled. We had won.
And we had "Keep Inventory" on, too, so we should still have all our stuff!
[BGM: C418 - Danny]
I clicked on the respawn button, but was a little surprised to find myself in the stall in the bleachers. What was that all about?
"Danny!" Liam shouted, and we went in for a bro-five. "Nicely done out there!"
"(Agreed,)" said Spawnette, applauding. "(We make a very nice team.)"
"Thanks, guys," I said, melancholically. "But that won't take away the fact that we lost a team member."
"Yeah, about that…" Liam stepped away, and Pork Chop ran up to me and tackled me to the ground, his tail wagging.
I probably should've felt happy at that moment, because the companion I thought I had lost forever had somehow respawned. But instead, I just felt mad at myself for worrying over something I shouldn't have. I sat back up and curled into a ball.
"Hey, what's wrong?" asked Liam, bending down. "I thought you'd be excited."
"But I shouldn't have worried," I gritted. "I should've known he was alright! Maybe we could've won together!"
"Don't beat yourself up over it, man!" said Liam. "I had no clue Pork Chop respawned, either!"
"Even so," I continued, "he's just code! Why should I even care?"
Pork Chop was clearly hurt by that remark. "Wow. Never thought you'd say that after all you two have been through," said Liam, genuinely surprised.
That's when what I said really sank in. I grabbed a pillow from my mom's bed and smashed it against my head thirty times. When I was done, I was calmed down. "Look, boy, I'm sorry," picking up Pork Chop. "When I'm really upset, I say things I'm not sure I mean."
"Well, I don't know what you did to calm yourself down," said Liam, "but something tells me I should worry about it…"
[BGM: End]
Bruno and Molly ran up to us. "Alright, you cheaters," said Molly, "we have to go somewhere now, so we'll let you off the hook. You can keep that mojang."
"But this isn't the last you've heard from us," said Bruno. The two began to walk away. "Oh, and by the way," Bruno added, "we made it so that tamed mobs killed on the battlefield respawn, in case you're wondering."
"Well, that clears that up!" I said, putting Pork Chop down.
"(Wait, what about Kevin and Buzzer?)" asked Spawny.
As if summoned, Kevin's body suddenly teleported into the stall, with Buzzer nearby. "He's about to wake up," the fly said. "Act normal!"
Sure enough, Kevin woke up and looked around. "Where are we?" he asked.
"Long story," said Liam. "What was it like in your mind?"
"A bit weird," said Kevin. "But I should be a better foe to Doppel now! And, I got this!" He pulled out some sort of metallic orange rifle-like object that had a gauge filled with blue energy.
"The Purifier!" said Buzzer, excitedly. "Perfect!"
"Isn't that your idea for some sort of instant evil-defeator?" I asked.
"Yep! My inner veil was what was preventing me from getting it!" said Kevin.
Buzzer opened himself, coming back from a remote spy. "I just looked into Doppel's lair, and he's ready and waiting for us! Get ready, everyone; we're going to the End!"
[Character Selected: Doppel]
[Current World: MInecraftia]
[Current Location: Planet of the Gangermen, Royal Lair]
[BGM: C418 - The End]
Doppel looked on as Kevin was zapped by the power of the Gadgets of Order. That was his cue. "Perinton!" he called. "I am going to have to face the heroes head-on after all. Is the portal ready yet?"
"Almost!" called back his assistant. He was in the process of putting together an End portal, with the eyes of ender being placed onto the portal blocks he extracted from a stronghold on the main planet. He placed the last eye into the portal, and it roared to life, a galaxy-like vortex appearing in the middle.
Doppel entered the area. "Perinton, you're in charge until I get back," he instructed. He walked up and tried to dramatically lower himself into the portal, but it wound up more as a simple hop.
[Location Change: The End, Middle Isle]
It didn't matter, however. Doppel had entered the End, standing on an obsidian platform a distance away from the island. Pillars of obsidian with crystals on top were at the borders of several normal endermen. And then he heard the roar. Doppel looked up and saw the dragon. He gave a maniacal smile.
The final cards had been played.
The first part of the heroes' quest was about to conclude.
To be continued...and next time: the first final battle!
Next chapter: "The End...Once More" This is it! Danny, Liam, and Kevin are ready to take down Doppel for good, and they aren't holding anything back! Unfortunately for them, neither is Doppel! He's going full-stop on this one, even bringing in the ender dragon itself! With lack of restraint on both sides, who will come out on top? The thrilling climax of the Minds of Power arc and final battle of the Overworld Saga!
Postface: Chapter complete! This one is quite frankly another favorite of mine, because of how it takes a common Minecraft fandom element and makes it quite thrlling!
Trivia time! Bruno and Molly are the newcomers of mine. I initially created them as one-shot characters, but like Andy and Mark, they became recurring characters in their own right, with their very own character arc! Think of them as Andy and Mark's light side counterparts. Spleef War is my own personal reimagining of the iconic Minecraft minigame! I partially based its appearance here off of its depiction in Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 8: A Journey's End?, particularly the TNT traps - the idea of them just makes it more exciting if you ask me! There's more development on the heroes' side - if you think Danny's reaction to finding out he worried about Pork Chop for nothing was a little extreme, remember: he's my self-insert, so I've done it myself sometimes. Plus, Liam's slowly starting to grasp the magnitude of Danny's emotional problems. But they'll have to wait...what's Doppel's plan with the ender dragon?
That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you tomorrow for the final battle of the Overworld Saga! Stay diamond, everyone!
-Alfred
~Minecraft and everything related to it are properties of Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events is either coincidental or done fictitiously.~