Preface: Hello again! I am on spring break this week, so the two chapters this week will be kind of like breather episodes to fit. This chapter doesn't have many plot advancements, but I do have to warn you: there's some pretty high stakes!

MINECRAFT MANAICS RPG

THE WHISKER HAVEN SAGA:
OF PLAYERS & PALACE PETS & KNUCKLES

Previously...amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Danny, Liam, and Kevin were summoned to the kingdom of Whisker Haven, where they learned that they must find a third set of Gadgets of Order across the multiverse in order to expose an imposter of the kingdom's guardian, Ms. Featherbon. So far, the team has achieved the first gadget from the spooky depths of Whisker Woods and the second gadget from King Bowser in the Mushroom World.

Now...the gang recuperates and rests for the evening before their next adventure.

Roll Call:

Danny - Alfred von Any: Hero with emotional issues. The leader.

Liam - Willy Blanq: Expert crafter. The maker.

Kevin - Nevile Napoleon: Part-gangerman player. The brains

Spawny and Spawnette - Damien Laquet: The rabborg siblings. The heart.

Buzzer - Jim Cummings: Fly from the future. The fairy.

Pumpkin - Bailey Gambertoglio: Princess Cinderella's puppy. A prim and proper pooch.

Treasure - Sanai Victoria: Princess Ariel's kitten. Courageous and loves water.

Knuckes the Echdina - Asher Angel: Angel Island native. Master Emerald guardian.

Chapter 30:
In the Chaosverse of Copyright, Part Five,
The Creepening

[Main Party Selected: Danny, Liam, Kevin, Buzzer]
[Supporting Party Selected: Spawny, Spawnette, Pumpkin, Treasure, Knuckles]

[Character Selected: Buzzer]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Whisker Haven Pawlace, Throne Room]

[BGM: The Night Knight Guard BGM]

"Ah, it's wonderful to be back," said Pumpkin. The group was stepping back through the portal from the Mushroom Kingdom back to Whisker Haven, and it was getting a little late.

"Yeah, I agree," said Danny, stretching. "I don't know about you guys, but I think I might just log off here."

"Yeah, me too," said Liam. "See you guys tomorrow!" With that, Danny, Liam, and Kevin vanished into thin air, to the shock of Pumpkin, Treasure, and Knuckles.

"They disappeared like those other blocky guys back in the castle!" stated Knuckles.

"(Eh, they're just logging off for the day,)" said Spawny. "(You get used to it.)"

Buzzer turned towards Knuckles. "So, would you like to return to your world?" he asked the echidna.

"Well, the Master Emerald's wide open for the taking, so of course!" Knuckles answered.

Pumpkin happily responded by taking out one of the Gadgets of Order and thinking about a chamber with a giant emerald in it. Within a second, a portal showing the great emerald where Buzzer and Knuckles' rituals were performed appeared. "Have a good night!" the puppy called as the echidna stepped back through.

"Thanks again for letting me come along, Pumpkin," Treasure happily said. "That was paw-tastic!"

"Well, tomorrow, we shall have-" Buzzer was suddenly cut off by Pumpkin shoving him and the gadgets behind the throne pedestal. At first, he was confused, but as he heard the dialogue from his current position, the fly realized what was happening.

"Ah, there you are, Treasure!" he heard a new voice say. "Where have you and Pumpkin been?"

"Oh, we were ad-" Treasure began, before she was abruptly cut off, possibly having her mouth covered.

"Just planning that surprise I mentioned!" said Pumpkin. "It's getting really close to being done, and I think it'll be ready tomorrow!"

"Ah, I see," responded the unfamiliar voice. "Well, I am feeling a little tired, so I believe I'll turn in early. Good night!"

Buzzer waited a few seconds for whoever had the unfamiliar voice to flutter away. "Is she gone?" he whispered.

"Yes!" Pumpkin called, to which Buzzer floated out from behind the pedestal. "That was a close one!"

Treasure scratched the back of her ear in confusion. "Why didn't you want Ms. Featherbon to see Buzzer?" the kitten asked.

Buzzer sighed. He didn't want it to have come to this, but he decided only teasing the kitten's imagination would be worse. He looked to the right of the pedestal. The big brown book containing the information they needed was still sitting there, somewhat unobtrusively. "We believe that it is not Ms. Featherbon after all," the fly explained, flying over to the book.

"What do you mean?" Treasure asked. But as Buzzer flipped through the pages telekinetically, her question was quickly answered by a page depicting perhaps the most hideous creature she'd ever seen. The creature was red with a large mouth covered in blood, pointed arms and a tail, and a single red eye. Above the picture was a label reading "Exetior".

"As explained in this book," said Pumpkin, "this demon is able to take the form of other beings, some whose magical powers are easier to copy than others."

"You think this creep kidnapped Ms. Featherbon and is impersonating her right now?" asked Treasure, to which Pumpkin grimly nodded. "I guess that would explain her kinda odd behavior lately…"

"That is why we need the Gadgets of Order," continued Buzzer. "With all of them together, we will be able to expose Exetior, which will allow us to fight the demon and vanquish him once and for all!"

"That sounds pretty dark," said Treasure, who then gave a big yawn as her stomach growled. "But I'm a little hungry and pooped."

"Yeah, me too," said Pumpkin, stretching her paws. "I think we're gonna go home now if that is alright."

"Yes, go on ahead," said Buzzer. "I shall watch the rabborgs." The fly watched the pets turn toward the stained glass portraits of Cinderella and Ariel and vanish into them. He took a second to reflect the day's events. "Well, even with the slight mishaps with Knuckles, this is a very swell team we have," he thought aloud. "Perhaps the rest of this will-" He then abruptly had a vision of what would come tomorrow. And it was not going to be pretty. "Oh, no."

[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Whisker Haven Pawlace, Throne Room]

[BGM: Whisker Haven Theme Instrumental]

"And that is why I think this virus was secretly created by aliens to have us realize how selfish we've become."

It was the day after our first couple of adventures and Liam and I were trying to get an early start. At Buzzer's request, we quickly returned to the Minecraft world so we could set up a brewing station, and right now we were brewing some healing and strength potions to make sure we were prepared for the adventures today.

"Hm, alright. That's a good non-sequitur," Liam said as he placed a glistering melon in one of the brewing stands. "I still think 'I knew I should've gotten a down payment on the elephants' is better, though."

"Eh, each to their own, I guess." I was at the crafting table, using some gold nuggets to turn a carrot into a golden carrot. "Do you think we'll need some invisibility potions?" I asked.

"Better safe than sorry," Liam responded, taking some finished splash potions from the stand. "I brought a bit of dragon's breath because I kinda think making it lingering might be helpful, y'know?"

At that moment, Kevin joined the game. "Ah, you set up a potion's stand, I see?" he said.

"We may have a lot of healing up to do, and this will kinda preserve food," Liam explained.

"Still, I made a cake in case we only need to heal a little," I said, placing the last egg in the middle of the grid.

Pumpkin and Treasure both walked through the portals to whatever kingdom they were just in. "Mmm, I smell cake," said Pumpkin, sniffing in my direction.

"Hey! Only for emergencies!" I said, placing the cake in my inventory. "Now all we need is Knuckles and we're good to go!"

"Oh, yes!" said Pumpkin. "Buzzer, may I have one of the gadgets?"

The fly flew over to the white puppy and dropped one of the Order Gadgets into her paw. Closing her eyes, a portal to the Sonic world opened up, and waiting right there was Knuckles. "Alright, so where are we heading first?" he asked, cracking his namesakes.

Buzzer seemed to have some kind of grim look on his face, and I had a feeling that that wasn't why he suddenly turned yellow. "Well, you see…" he began sheepishly. "We were meant to go to this kingdom known as Equestria, but shortly after Pumpkin and Treasure returned to their respective kingdoms, I had a terrible vision!"

Liam turned around from the brewing stands. "What did the vision show?" he asked, anxiously.

Before Buzzer could answer, we heard an eerily familiar hissing sound. It was coming from outside. "I fear that you can simply look outside and see," he said.

[BGM: Antimo & Welles - Boomtown Suite]

I knew that hissing anywhere. I wasted no time in running to the balcony and diving off. Quickly taking out a water bucket, I placed the water down right before I landed. The water flowed out and allowed Liam, Kevin, and the rabborgs to fall safely as well. I started to look around. "Something tells me that…'' The hissing suddenly got louder and quicker. Instinctively, I spun around and slashed the all-too-well-known green creature in the face with my sword, killing it in a single hit and leaving a pile of gunpowder.

"Creeper infestation," said Kevin. "Perfect."

"Still beats having to go to the My Little Pony world," said Liam, taking out his dispenser. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't help these folks."

We all gave each other a nod and sprung into action. Liam and I slapped our hands together and cartwheeled to a herd of the creepers before I aimed my sword down at him. A ray came out that caused Liam to start spinning around, his dispenser firing arrows in every direction.

Spawnette ducked from the arrows as they helped her defeat the creepers with her twirl attack. "(Could you please be a little more careful?)" she called over.

"Sorry!" shouted Liam, leaping into the air. As he got a few aerial shots, I tumbled over to the back of the toy store, where creepers were ganging up against the windows.

"Eat clones!" I shouted, charging my sword to 40% power and splitting myself into four other Dannies. Each of the clones and I slashed through the creepers just as they began to turn white and explode. When they all died, I breathed a sigh of relief because of how close it was. "How're you doing over there?" I called over to Kevin.

"I think we're doing good!" he responded. He was inhaling the creepers that got really close to the windows of the houses and shops and spat them at Spawny, who used his magic blasts to kill them. The scared animals inside (they're called Critterzens) could only watch in awe as we helped them out.

Pumpkin, Treasure, and Knuckles entered the scene as Liam jabbed an arrow into a creeper's skull. "Cartwheeling catfish, what's happening?" shrieked Treasure.

"If any of these things are left alone for one and a half seconds," explained Liam, trying not to get tired in the middle of fighting, "they'll blow up!"

"Blow up?" repeated Knuckles. "What are these things, robots?"

"No clue," I said, joining the fray. I looked through the window of Tilly's Tutu Shop and noticed that the kitten who ran it was hiding under one of her mannequins. "Pumpkin, Treasure, get the Critterzens to the Pawlace."

"Aye-aye!" said Treasure. She and Pumpkin carefully maneuvered around the creeper army as Spawnette continued to twirl through them. But as they walked, I noticed something: the creepers seemed to be running away from the two as they walked towards the shop.

That caused me to remember something I should've remembered earlier. "Creepers are scared of cats!" I said aloud.

"What's that?" said Knuckles, who kept smashing the creepers with his fists.

"Remember, guys?" I said, slashing at whatever creepers got close. "Cats send creepers running for the hills!"

Pumpkin and Treasure exited the Tutu Shop, with Tilly herself right behind them. "Right this way, Tilly!" said Pumpkin, trying to reassure the kitten. And as they walked, the creepers backed away.

"Falling right onto my lap, eh?" said Knuckles. He launched into a Super Sonic Spin Attack to trample the creepers that were scared off by Treasure and Tilly.

Liam took out a few dirt blocks and used them to create a quick pile. I didn't have time to see what he was looking at in the distance before he took out his fishing rod and cast the line out. But I got his plan once I saw the familiar golden bell covered with stripes and sporting a pair of eyes.

"A Super Bell!" I said. Of course! There was a whole bush of them back in Berry's garden!

"I'll take it!" cried Kevin. Liam tossed Kev the Super Bell, and as soon as Kevin grabbed it, a purple catsuit appeared on his body, causing all the creepers to back up in fear. "Beware the fuzzy suit!" Kevin said jokingly.

I kept slashing my sword every which way, killing more and more creepers by the second. Pumpkin and Treasure emerged from the food store, helping the cat that ran the place over to the Pawlace. Combined with being terrified by both actual cats and Kevin in a catsuit, enough creepers kept coming for Knuckles to kill all in one Spin Dash or glide-through. But there were a lot of them, and trying to kill them all was getting exhausting. I knew I couldn't stop for too long, though, because if I did, there could be a part of the kingdom that would be destroyed because of us.

Eventually, though, I couldn't take it anymore and dug my sword into the cobblestone streets. A shockwave went across the road, stunning a major amount of the creepers...as well as Treasure and Pumpkin, on their way to one of the houses. "Why did you do that?" asked Pumpkin.

"Sorry, I just…" I gave a deep breath. "...needed a break."

"You getting tired, too?" Liam asked me. "It's hard to stop when there's stuff that can actually blow us up."

That sparked another epiphany. "Unless we blow them up first!" I suggested. "We set up some TNT, lure the creepers near them, then I put a shield over them and let it take the TNT damage!"

"Alright, I'm gonna go get some sand!" said Liam, just as the creepers started to move again. He used his dispenser to clear a path towards the nearby beach, and I hopped onto his now unoccupied pillar, ready to take over aerial duties.

"Where's Liam off to?" asked Kevin, scratching the creepers as they backed up.

"He's getting some sand!" I responded, firing lasers at the herd. "We're gonna blow these creepers sky-high!"

[Character Selected: Liam]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Whisker Haven Village, Whisker Beach]

The sand was soft and loose, sinking under Liam's feet. Not exactly what could be considered the best for crafting TNT. But there was no other option. Liam smacked his crafting table down on the beach and used some cobblestone and sticks to make a couple of stone shovels. "Dual-wielding, don't fail me now!" he shouted, proceeding to dig a trench in the shore. The sand, while powdery, went into his inventory without trouble.

After digging a trench along the width of the beach, Liam ran back to his crafting table and dropped the sand onto the grid. Mixing in some gunpowder that the creepers dropped, he had a nice amount of bright red TNT blocks. With that, he ran back into the creeper-ridden town square. "I got the TNT!" he shouted.

Pumpkin and Treasure turned around from guiding Barnaby Pickles into the Pawlace. "TNT?" they said simultaneously. "You're not going to-" Pumpkin began.

"Don't worry, I'll put a shield around them!" said Danny, jumping down from the dirt pillar that Liam made. "It'll contain the explosion!"

Liam began to construct a giant pile of TNT from the blocks he crafted. "Treasure, scare the creepers near the pile!" he shouted. "Creepers hate cats!"

Treasure gave a reluctant gulp and gritted her teeth at the strange green creatures. "Get back!" she yelled. "I can be a scary kitty when I want to be!" The creepers slowly backed up to the TNT pile.

Kevin took the other side and used his cat transformation to continue scaring the creepers inside. "Alright, that looks like all of them!" he shouted once a large amount of creepers had been scared to the TNT.

That was Danny's cue. He walked right up to one of the creepers, and it began to hiss and turn white. At the last second, he shot his sword at the ground, creating the yellow barrier that he had been using quite a few times before around the TNT pile. At that moment, the creeper blew up, killing a few of them in its wake and triggering the TNT.

What followed was perhaps one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of Minecraft crossover fanfiction. Every single creeper was killed in the explosion, including the few stragglers that didn't get near the pile, and the only evidence was a tiny crater and a massive amount of gunpowder. "In the words of Ms. Featherbon," Danny said, impressed by his skills, "that was a splenderific explosion."

[BGM: End]

"That was awesome!" Liam whooped. "We need to try and do that again sometime!"

Treasure inspected the tiny crater. Thankfully, it did not affect any of the buildings, but it was a bit of an eyesore. "Well, we should really fix this up sometime soon…" the kitten mused. "But I can't believe causing destruction could be so fun!"

"Well, when you're done celebrating causing a mess," said Knuckles, "there's still something that's bugging me: where did all of those creeping bombs come from?"

"Y'know, I've actually been wondering that, too!" said Liam. "And besides, where's the Gadget of Order, anyway?"

As if to answer their questions, a sudden yellow glow began to come from the fountain, which survived the explosion. In a blinding flash, a villager-like figure in an Egyptian pharaoh's attire and creeper-like makeup appeared. A feeling of grim realization came across the players. "King Creep…" Kevin said in shock. "He's back."

[BGM: Antimo & Welles - Wither Theme]

"It took you mortals long enough!" King Tutencreepmahn shouted. "I was the one who summoned all of those creepers. And now…" He unleashed his magic scepter, which no longer had a TNT block on it, instead having a purple orb on top of it. Out of nowhere, several more creepers appeared, each with a blue, electrical glow around them.

"(Aw, man!)" shouted Spawny, in fear. "(Charged creepers!)"

"They're gonna blow the whole kingdom sky-high!" Kevin shouted.

Pumpkin brandished the purple Chaos Emerald she had the whole adventure. "Not on my watch!" She let the power of the emerald course into her body and ran towards King Creep. She leapt into the air and prepared to weaken the king with a pirouette...when she suddenly felt several golden encasements surround her.

"I've got your back, Pumpkin!" said Knuckles, climbing up the toy store's wall. He hopped off and glided towards King Creep, only to get trapped in the same golden encasements.

"Enough! This is between me and the Minecraft Maniacs only!" shouted King Creep, putting the same golden encasements around Treasure. The three trapped figures were left hovering around the king, leaving only the players and the rabborgs. "If I must be brought back from the non-mortal realm that I so deserved, then I shall take you with me!"

It was then that the charged creepers began to hiss. "Well, I guess that's it for Whisker Haven," said Kevin, calmly accepting their fate.

"No! We can still do this!" Danny began to panic. "We can't let him win! We have to-"

His panic was suddenly cut off by a voice shouting "Chaos Control!" In an instant, three of the charged creepers fell in a single black streak. And in yet another, three more fell down.

"What was that?" shouted Liam. The voice sounded oddly familiar. And so was the sudden laser that shot out at King Creep, causing him to drop his scepter.

"NOOOOOOO!" shouted the king as Spawny grabbed his scepter. History was beginning to repeat itself as the players looked at him with determined looks on their faces.

"Combo?" Liam asked Danny.

"Yes, Liam," Danny responded. "Combo."

That was the only cue Liam needed. He took out his dispenser and unleashed a barrage of arrows onto the vulnerable king. King Creep then reached out for his scepter in an attempt to regain power, but Danny simply made a pile up to the roof of Tilly's Tutu Shop before jumping off and performing a downward thrust onto him. Kevin then waited for the black streak to fly past him, killing some more charged creepers as Kevin was launched into the air. He stretched his arms out and pounced onto King Creep, sending him flying towards the ground, where Spawnette was waiting to twirl into him, sending King Creep flying towards her brother.

"(Goodbye, king!)" shouted Spawny, pointing the king's scepter right in his face. TNT blocks came flying out, blowing up in King Creep's face. He skidded to a halt in front of the young prince.

Liam stuck his foot in King Creep's face and used it to roll it over. "Had enough?" he asked.

King Creep smirked and reached his hand out, and this time, his scepter managed to make contact with his hand. "I must admit: I'm very impressed by your secret weapon that took down my charged creepers," he said.

"Well, we honestly have no clue where it came from, either," Danny admitted.

"But now…" said King Creep, beginning to turn white. "It's time to end this." The five knew what was about to happen, and they would've tried to protect themselves if they knew that they'd still be left in the ruins of Whisker Haven. But then, the strange black streak that took care of the charged creepers appeared one last time, sending King Creep flying into the air, before the king vanished into thin air. His scepter was the only thing that proved his existence.

"Well, guess that's taken care of," said Liam. "Thanks a lot, uh…" The five finally got a look at who the black streak truly was, and they couldn't believe their eyes. It was a black hedgehog wearing rings on his wrists and ankles and red-and-white shoes. He gave a brief look at the players, gave them a quick nod, and vanished into thin air.

[BGM: End]

Kevin just stood there, still shocked at the events. "What just happened?" he asked.

"I...have no idea…" was all Danny could make out.

"Um, a little help here?" Pumpkin called down. She, Treasure, and Knuckles were all still floating in the air, trapped in the gold encasings.

"(Whoops! Sorry!)" shouted Spawny, picking up the scepter. With a flash of the purple orb, the encasings vanished, and all three of them dropped to the ground.

"Oof!" gritted Treasure. "I think you should make sure you're there to catch us next time!"

Buzzer appeared from Kevin's inventory. "I have to say, I'm very impressed," he said. "I've never seen such diligent fighting before."

"Well, we couldn't let those creepers send this place into the next century!" said Liam. "The good part is, we barely got hurt!"

"Eh, my health bar's still a bit low," said Kevin. Sure enough, he had lost about a quarter of his health.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a little banged up myself," added Knuckles.

"Oh, okay. Here you go!" said Liam. He took out the blood red splash potion of healing and tossed it into the middle of the group, filling them all with the healing touch they needed.

"Ah, that feels glorious!" said Pumpkin, basking in the potion's effects.

Buzzer plucked the orb from the scepter. "Now, then, thanks to King Creep's use of this gadget," he explained, "it put a strain on its corruption, so…" He stared into the purple orb for a few seconds, and in no time, it had become the third of the white objects the gang had been looking for, this time glowing yellow.

"Well, the good news is that there's only one more to find!" Danny said, excitedly. "C'mon, guys! Let's get back to the Pawlace and get to that last world!"

"Wow, someone's excited!" said Buzzer, cheerfully.

"I think he just wants to be done with this," said Liam, to which Danny smirked and nodded in agreement. "See?"

"Well, we can't lose focus on what's important," Pumpkin reminded everyone as they began to walk back, "saving Ms. Featherbon and protecting the multiverse!" That little bit of optimism was enough to fill the heroes with the determination needed to find the last gadget and save Whisker Haven.

[Character Selected: Pork Chop]
[Current World: ?]
[Current Location: Fiery Fortress]

Pork Chop looked into the narrow passageway. He no longer had his protective shield around him, but he was told that he would no longer need it. "I've just heard back from Shadow," Buzzer's partner explained. "His mission was a success, so I figured I'd get a few more friends for help. This is the safest place I could find where you can spy on that demon's plans."

Pork Chop nodded and turned around. "Good luck, buddy," said Buzzer's partner, and the pig began to crawl through the passageway. He was going to expose that demon for his plans, no matter what it took.

[Character Selected: Perinton]
[Current World: ?]
[Current Location: ?]

Perinton looked at the fountain he stood in front of. On top of it was the magical scepter he was looking for. He climbed on top of the fountain and plucked the rod from its plinth. "O magic Star Rod," he said, "bring me the living nightmare that once sought you."

Looking into the distance, he saw a strange cloud emerge from the sky, covered in stars. The pig smirked. It was his last chance to stop the heroes, and he was going to make it count.

To be continued...and next time: a dreamy sub-adventure begins!

Next chapter: It's time to cheer "Hearts, Hooves, Stars!" The last world that the heroes have to go to is the Kirby world, so naturally, the puffball himself is gonna help out! Thankfully, he knows a shortcut to the Fountain of Dreams, but looks like there's quite a few obstacles in the way...

Postface: Chapter complete! So, I guess this one wasn't exactly a breather in the main sense. The stakes were pretty high with all those creepers, so I made this a breather by not having too many main plot advancements and just having Danny, Liam, and Kevin be awesome.

There is however, a few lore advancements! For one, we now know a culprit for the Featherbon imposter...Exetior from the ever notorious creepypasta! Why did I decide to include him? I guess it mostly stemmed from some kind of fantasy involving Sonic, Kirby, and Ms. Featherbon battling .EXE versions of themselves, but I think I incorporated him pretty well. And also, a strange new face popped up - I think I made it a little obvious who it is, but for now, my lips are zipped! Little fun fact about the original version of this chapter: originally, the players actually did go into the My Little Pony world! Why did I change it? Because it just served as a setting and nothing more. The Mane 6 didn't show up, the background ponies looked past the heroes...I just thought it'd be better moving the creeper infestation to Whisker Haven. I was also kicking myself over not incorporating the fact that creepers were terrified of cats - it gave me a good opportunity to change how I featured the Super Bell from Super Mario 3D World, especially since I may have to remove how I originally incorporated it later in the story...

That should be it! I don't have any pranks planned for tomorrow, so remember: even if it's April Fool's, do not joke about coming out as LGBTQIA+, death or suicide, physical or mental health or illness like depression or cancer, financial crises or job loss, pregnancy-related situations, or most of all, testing positive for COVID. We're already going through tough times that should've ended a while ago, and we're in the home stretch. Use April Fool's Day to cheer others up without anyone else's expense, okay? :) Stay diamond, eveyone!

-Alfred

~Minecraft and everything related to it are properties of Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios. Characters, ideas, etc. from the Mario franchise are properties of Nintendo Co., LTD. Characters, ideas, etc. from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise are properties of Sega Corp. The Palace Pets and everything related to them are properties of The Walt Disney Co. 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 are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~