Preface: Hello, again! I know, I know, it's been a month. I'm sorry! Lots of stuff going on making me not want to do anything. I really have to get back into things - my new goal is to get this done by January. Let's see if I can hold up that promise. Anyway, this chapter serves as this story's equivalent to the intermissions in the first story, in that it's not connected to any particular act, but still advances the story...

MINECRAFT MANIACS:
LIGHT AND DARK

Previously...sometime after their previous adventure, Danny, Liam, Kevin, and their companions were summoned to go on another journey in order to acquire the first Cube of Balance. Along the way, they had their first encounter with the Manipulator, their new enemy.

Now...Danny indulges in a solo playtime, unaware of the treachery behind the scenes...

Roll Call

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

Chapter 10:
An Interrupted Break, Part Two -
Battle of the Mind

[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Personal World]

[BGM: C418 - Danny]

It was the day after the trip to Pikwik and the game's code. It was a Sunday, and I was kinda looking to play Minecraft on my own. So, I went to one world where I could do that: my personal world. It's a pretty standard Creative superflat world, and naturally, I just build things there. Mostly houses. But today, I decided to try my hand at something a bit more unique: a statue.

In case you didn't hear about my previous adventure, I wasn't exactly in the best state mentally. I felt like I hated myself, punching myself in the face whenever I made dumb mistakes and taking the blame for a lot of things. And it was when I tried to make sure Bluey and Bingo (yes, from that show) didn't end up like me that caused my biggest meltdown, prompting Liam and Kevin to finally stage an intervention. While the intervention worked a little, it wasn't until I made some friends from across the multiverse where I really started to feel better.

Anyway, I'm currently not entirely out of that bad place, but I did feel like I was making progress. So I decided that my statue would represent me conquering my inner demons. It took me about an hour, but ultimately, I managed to build a pretty nice statue with a figure made of quartz resting its knee on the dead body of a figure made of blackstone with a dragon head. Even though it was kinda basic, I felt pretty proud looking at it.

This would actually make a good addition to the private world, I thought to myself. Maybe I should take a picture so I have a reference. But when I prepared to take a screenshot of it, I noticed something weird - the eyes of the dragon head on the limp body were…glowing.

[BGM: Johan Johnson - arena1]

"That's strange…" I thought aloud. Considering the kind of stuff that I had faced over the past two years, I decided it wasn't best to leave myself open. So I drew the Chicken Blade and braced myself for what was gonna happen. And that's when the dragon-figure suddenly threw the hero-figure off and stood up. "Yep. Guess I'm doing this now," I said, resigned to how unnatural this was.

The dragon-figure charged at me, flailing its arms. I stepped out of the way and slashed at it from behind. It didn't seem to do much damage, as it then turned right around and prepared to shoot a fireball from its dragon mouth. I brandished my sword and prepared to fire the fireball back at it, but when I hit the sizzling projectile, something even more unusual happened - it vanished into smoke, blinding me. But that wasn't the worst part - what was the worst part was the thoughts that suddenly swam through my mind.

I'm a loser. I can't do anything right, I heard my inner voice say. I should just give up. That's when I realized what was going on - the dragon-figure was somehow using my insecurities against me! I was pretty close to giving in when the dragon-figure suddenly hit me again, snapping me out of my trance and clearing the smoke.

"I'll admit, that was pretty effective," I admitted to the dragon-figure, if it even cared about what I was saying. "But I'm not gonna let that control me this time!" I stuck my sword up high into the air, charging it to 50% power, and charged. The dragon-figure attempted to hit me again, but I managed to summon duplicates of my sword to slash it multiple times. That seemed to weaken the dragon-figure, going by how it stopped moving for a moment and bent down. Taking the chance, I waved my sword above it and started to cause several blocks of TNT to fall onto the dragon-figure. Obviously, that was a dumb move, because it managed to use its fire breath to infect the TNT with more of that self-deprecating smoke.

"Ah, rats!" I TNT blew up, creating a large smoke cloud instead of destroying its surroundings. Since I was in Creative mode, I had the ability to fly, so I decided that was my best option. I hopped into the air, started to levitate, and began to zoom away from the ever-expanding cloud. But the dragon-figure clearly wasn't keen on letting me flee, so it began to fly after me, eventually facing me head-on. "Man, you really are representative of my inner demons!" I said. "You just keep coming back!"

The dragon-figure roared, ready to keep fighting while airborne. Luckily, since I was flying as well, I was a bit more agile. It tried to fire more fireballs at me, but I simply flew out of the way and gave it a good slash. Then the dragon-figure grabbed me and threw me on the ground, but thankfully, it wasn't enough to overpower the lack of damage in Creative mode. I stood back up and jumped right through the figure, drilling my sword through its body. That caused it to start falling towards the ground, where I waited for it and slashed it again, sending it flying back.

"Had enough?" I called to the dragon-figure. Clearly it hadn't, because it just stood right back up like I didn't even use my sword. "No? Well, no matter - I have an idea!" It spat another fireball at me, and this time, I took the hit. The smoke returned, and with it, my insecurities. I'm a bad friend. I spend all my time playing Minecraft. I never make a difference in the world. But I wasn't going to let it control me this time. I fought against the inner voice, refusing to let it control me, and when I sensed that the dragon-figure was coming up behind me, I jumped up and slashed my sword across its neck. The dragon head turned into its item form, falling to the ground and hovering, while the blocks that made up its body were simply destroyed as if they had been mined.

"Well, that was a little bit scary," I admitted, swinging my sword in victory. "I wonder what caused that…aw, crap." That was when I realized that I made a huge mistake - by stopping for a moment, I had allowed the cloud to catch up with me, and I was only able to watch as it engulfed me, sending me back into the darkness and the smoke.

[BGM: Antimo & Welles - Wither Storm Theme (Minecraft: Story Mode 101 OST)]

And let me tell you - it was not fun! If you thought the result of just one fireball was bad, it was so dark not even glowstone worked - I had to use my sword to light things up. But what made things worse was the fact that it wasn't just my voice repeating my insecurities - I could hear my real voice doing it, too. All around, like a surround sound system. Why do I like stuff like this? I need to stop reading about this junk! Do I eat enough?

I think I started hyperventilating at that moment. It was something about the smoke, messing with my head. I could barely keep my wits about me - all I could think about was the crippling self-hatred I thought I had been battling against.. And that's when I heard a new voice. It wasn't a positive message, but it was one that still caused me to think: "I sense you giving into your pain and suffering. Let it, boy. Let it all sink in."

Wait a minute - I know that voice…

No, it can't be.

THE MANIPULATOR?

My wits started to fight against the overwhelming anxiety. I get it - he's the one behind this! He must be trying to get me and the others one by one! And that's when I got an idea to stop him. The fountain gems! Of course! They always give the others and I immense power! I knelt down on one knee, opened the chat, and typed in the incantation: "O fountain gems, stones of miracle, give me the power to defeat a great evil."

Nothing. Not a single stone. Instead, I felt a hit. "Okay, that's not what I was expecting!" I yelled, grabbing my sword. But when I looked at what hit me, I couldn't believe it - it was me! A shadowy clone of me with my decked-out armor, creeper mask and all! And all I could hear from its mouth was "I just can't do anything right" over and over!

So this must be one of my insecurities, I thought to myself. Well, I'm not gonna let it defeat me physically! I got up and swung my sword around, creating a large, curve-shaped laser that spread all around. My duplicate used his sword to block the attack and flew towards me with his elytra to slash me straight-up. I took the hit before slashing him and leaping away.

Alright, looks like we're gonna have a good old-fashioned one-on-one, I decided. And so, I charged at him and slashed my Chicken Blade against his. We began to fight like swordsmen during the Middle Ages, only with the occasional laser shooting. But it was pretty tricky, what with the voices all around repeating my insecurities and this guy just telling me I can't do anything right in front of me. After he got a few hits in, I decided to kick him in his sensitive spots before driving my sword through his body. And with that, my duplicate was no more.

"Okay, I survived that, barely," I said. "Now, where is the Manipulator?" Before I could begin my search, though, another duplicate of me appeared…and he meant business. "I guess I'll deal with you first," I said, charging to fight him, but he just flew away with the elytra quickly and then stabbed me in the back. And this time, I actually took damage! "Well, this isn't good," I remarked, starting to twirl around to perform a spin-slash. I managed to land a few hits in, but my dupe retaliated by slashing his own sword upward, creating a tower out of the blocks below and tossing me into the air.

(BTW - when I say 'dupe', I mean 'duplicate', not me getting fooled.)

"Something's not right," I said, picking myself back up. To be safe, I munched on a bit of chicken, and when I finished my dupe had flown up to me. Luckily, I was ready that time and sent a laser flying right at him, causing him to fall to the ground. "It's like they're trickier to kill or something!" I flew off of the tower to find my duplicate lying there on the ground, and I finished him off with one last slash.

But my inner demons were just zits that wouldn't quit. And it wasn't just one that appeared this time - three of them! "Triple play, huh?" I said. "Okay!" I thrust my sword into the air to create two duplicates of myself to even the playing field. "I go high, you two go low, and if I wave my hand, switch," I said to my good clones, and they saluted and began to do battle with two of the shadow dupes. Meanwhile, I flew into the air and began to attack from above, firing lasers from my sword. Sadly, one of them caught on and flew right up to me, slashing me across the chest. I went flying to the ground and saw as the screen reported, "You died!"

[BGM: Peter Hont - The Arch-Illager]

Thankfully, I was able to respawn fine, and my inventory was all there because I had "Keep Inventory" on. But I was not in the place I was before. I was elsewhere. Somewhere…with a glowing blue figure. "I see you lost," he said to me, almost amused.

"Hello, again, Manipulator," I said, utterly furious. "Y'know, that was a punk move, attacking me while I was alone and messing with my emotions like that."

"I have no care for silly human emotions," said the Manipulator. "Only what will work to advance my goals."

"Well, whatever. It didn't entirely work," I said, waving my hand. "I was able to focus while fighting your shadow demons. I'll fight as many as you can throw at me before I'll give in!" I quickly realized I probably shouldn't have said that.

"Well, if you so desire, then I will grant your wish." And the Manipulator snapped his fingers, and tons more shadow duplicates of me stormed right out of the shadow cloud. Panicking, I took out my sword and started to fight against them, but they completely overpowered me within seconds. No! Why did I do that? I berated myself. Why did I say I'd fight as many clones as he can throw at me? I'm such an idiot…

And that's when it came. The epiphany. I took notice of these shadow duplicates closer than I did initially. While the ones I fought beforehand were straight-faced and repeating their self-deprecating messages robotically, these guys were yelling their messages. I'M AN IDIOT! I DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING NICE! And when I was about to give into their advances, they got even louder and screechier. I'M THE BIGGEST IDIOT IN THIS ENTIRE WORLD! Not only that, but when I looked at their faces, I saw water coming from their eyes. Tears. They were crying.

Then I thought about how the dupes in general were getting stronger the more I fought them. That's it! I realized. If I just fight against them, they just get stronger! But I can't let that anxiety win. And so, I closed my eyes, and tried to find a happy place. And just like that, it popped into my head.

[BGM: C418 - Moog City]

In my mind, I saw myself finishing another statue, this time with Liam and Kevin. "Aaaaaand…done!" said Liam, placing the last block. "Whew! It took a while, but I think this might be one of our best works yet!"

We all stepped back to admire it. Like the statue I made on my own in real life, it was one of me standing atop my defeated inner demons, triumphant. But it wasn't a crude one made with quartz and blackstone - it was more like the one Liam made himself in honor of Buzzer after we defeated Doppel. It stretched all the way up to the build limit and was fully detailed with my avatar holding the Chicken Blade, standing on top of a pile of the shadow dupes. A more meaningful representation of my victory.

"Thanks for helping me build it," I said, smiling. "I still think I should've done it myself, though."

"Dude, you don't give yourself enough credit," said Kevin. "You're a great guy, and a great builder."

"Yeah. Something tells me you're gonna do great things in the future," Liam added.

"Even if it's not saving the multiverse?" I asked.

The other two nodded. "Even if it's not that," said Kevin. I smiled. Even if they were a figment of my imagination at that moment, their words meant a lot to me. Made me feel like I was the kind of person I wanted to be.

[BGM: Peter Hont - The Four Horsemen]

I anticipated those thoughts to vanquish the shadow duplicates naturally, but apparently that wasn't enough for the powers that be. So instead, the thoughts awakened some kind of power in me. I uncontrollably got down on all fours, and the shadows and smoke didn't just vanish - they basically got sucked right into my body (well, my avatar's body, anyway)! And when I finally opened my eyes, I felt the power spread all the way through, and I flew into the air.

"Huh?" I said, confused. I looked at my body - I still looked the same, but I was now covered by a bright white aura.

"No…it cannot be!" said the Manipulator. "The prophecy is true?"

Prophecy? I wondered. But I decided to put those thoughts aside for the time being. I had newfound power, and I was gonna use it to defeat the Manipulator. "It's over, Manipulator!" I cried, and I charged forward, sword outstretched. The Manipulator swung his arm, obviously trying to move me out of the way, but it didn't work. I just slashed my sword right across his hand.

"Gah! You pest!" he cried. He then tried to pry my sword from my hands, but that didn't work, either. I instead tossed it right into wherever his face was. "Grrr…you're working my last nerve!"

"Well, well, well, look who has human emotions now!" I teased. In a last-ditch effort to defeat me, the Manipulator lifted his hands, causing a large portion of the bedrock layer of the world to form a large cube in front of me. All I did was twirl around in midair for a bit before charging forward, drilling right through it and smacking the Manipulator's transparent body.

"GAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" The Manipulator went flying into the air, then just as quickly crashed back down to the ground. It gave a heavy sigh. "This…isn't over…" he gritted before snapping his fingers, vanishing into thin air once more.

[BGM: End]

"Well, if it's not over, I'll be waiting for you," I said. Just then, my newfound power suddenly left my body, and I gently settled back down to the ground. I looked around and viewed my surroundings - I was at the very location of the Cozy Cottage recreation we had helped build over in Thingville, specifically the first version I had built.

Still, now I had questions - another prophecy? What did the Manipulator mean by that? And what was that power that I just received? I better write this stuff down, I decided. I'm gonna have quite a bit to ask Balancia next time…

Regardless, the rest of my play time was pretty low-key, but it doesn't really matter. What mattered was what I wish I knew was going on behind the scenes…

[Character Selected: Manipulator]
[Current World: In-Between Space]
[Current Location: ?]

Back in the space between dimensions, the Manipulator began to rest up to heal its wounds. "So if Danny managed to awaken that hidden power," it reviewed, "then that means the other two may have that power as well. I must be careful with the next one, then." It then turned to its hand and held out a small ball of energy, flashing red and blue. "No matter. I got what I came for - the boy's bio-data." It then turned away from the Minecraft world to witness another world it had its eyes on. "And it seems another player in this game is about to feel my presence…"

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

Monsters all around. Monsters she hadn't faced in forever. Monsters she wanted to pretend were just part of her imagination. Back in her life. Attacking her. She was defenseless.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" She suddenly opened her eyes and woke up, sitting upright in her bed. Okay, it was just a bad dream…

But her screaming did wake up someone else. "Bluey?" Bingo opened her eyes and turned to her sister. "Why did you scream?"

"I…had a bad dream," the young blue heeler told her even younger sibling. "Those scary monsters from those adventures we went on…they were attacking me…"

Bingo walked up to Bluey's bed and sat on it. "I'm sorry you had that dream," she said, holding Bluey's hand. "Wait, weren't we told that we wouldn't have those dreams?"

"Yeah, from that…uh…glowing white guy!" Bluey recalled her encounter with the Amnity, who promised that it would protect her and Bingo from any adverse effects of their adventures. "Maybe he forgot?"

"I don't know," said Bingo. "Should we tell Mum and Dad?"

"No, I don't want them to worry," said Bluey. She thought for a moment. "Can you sleep with me?"

Bingo smiled. "Okay." The two puppies crawled under the covers and went back to sleep. With Bingo by her side, Bluey didn't have any more unpleasant dreams that night.

Unfortunately, this would not be a one-time thing. In fact, if it wasn't properly treated, this could've been something she would be dealing with for the rest of her life…

To be continued...and next time: a chaotic journey begins!

Next chapter: "Old Friends, New Fears" The next story arc, "Chaotic Teamwork" begins as the Maniacs head into the next part of their quest in the Sonic world! And they're gonna need some help from the Heelers and their friends! But there are some new questions in the heroes' heads - like what's with that strange power Danny found? And why is Bluey so skittish all of a sudden?

Postface: Chapter complete! And there we go - the first solo encounter between one of the Maniacs and the Manipulator! there will be two more like this, one for Liam and one for Kevin.

Trivia time! The main idea of this chapter was an expansion of Danny's character arc in the first story, which is briefly recapped at the start. Since he's supposed to be in a better place mentally in this story, I decided there should be a way to show him truly conquering his inner demons. And that's when I came up with the Manipulator coming at each Maniac separately! The inside of the self-deprecating smoke was partially inspired by the Pixar movie Soul. I haven't seen it since it came out, but I remember how if one of the souls in The Great Before let negative thoughts swarm around them, a barrier of sorts is created. Of course, I added my own little touch with the shadow demons. But what about that power Danny showed at the end? That was a bit of a last-minute idea of mine, but it's definitely gonna come into play later.

And, to answer one of my reviewer's questions, yes, the Bluey cast will be major players in the next arc! This time, there will be a bit of a focus on something that sorta bothered me about the last story: the fact that I gave an easy excuse to not have the characters be mentally scarred from the experience. And it seems the Manipulator has his eyes on poor Bluey...

That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you all next time (hopefully sooner that soon has been lately!) for the beginning of Act 2! Stay diamond, everyone!

-Alfred

~Minecraft and everything related to it are properties of Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios. Bluey and everything related to her are properties/licensees of Ludo Studio PTY., LTD., the Australian Broadcasting Corp., and BBC Studios Dist., LTD. 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.~