Part 2 - 'Til Death do us Part

Chapter 44 - First Deployment

Miles' condition had slowly become less severe over the next three days. Gwen had tried to stay awake for another night, but the doctor had ordered her to sleep. Despite that, she still tried to stay awake. Edward tried to talk her down from her strike but failed, so he and the doctor came to a joint conclusion to put her to sleep. It was hardly a pleasant rest: her dream refused to leave the subject of Miles dying, apart from one part with a dragon. However, she woke up in a hospital bed nineteen hours later, feeling cold. Someone was shaking her. For a second she thought it was Miles, but when her eyes had adjusted to the light she saw it was Teresa. The commander had a stern look on.

"Wake up. Flux Force is being deployed."

"What? Where to?"

Gwen slid out of the bed. She looked around for her suit but remembered it was in her quarters with the plate.

"Dimension 6834, specifically decimal 5,198,217,654. Apparently it matters with 6834."

Teresa handed her a glass of water.

"Is this drugged as well?"

"What?"

"The doctor drugged a glass of water to put me to sleep."

"No, I just got it out a tap."

"Good."

She took a sip. She always thought water tasted strange when she first woke up, but she was thirsty so drained it.

"Grab your suit. Briefing in five minutes, ship jumps in ten."

Gwen entered the briefing room off the side of the bridge. It was nowhere near the size of that on the Valour. Instead, it had a single long table which sat seven people, although only three seats were filled. The rest of Flux Force were already there, apart from Miles of course. Gwen took her seat next to Peter as Captain Lucille strode in with a tablet. She dropped it on the table and sat.

"This is your first mission, all of you. Don't mess it up or I'll have you greasing the engines. You are being deployed to 6834 point 5,198,217,654. We have no intel on this dimension, and it's a mystery why things have to be so specific. Helltreader's flux is located at local co-ordinates 6195, 3714. You will be dropped a thousand out. Once you're there, hit the flux with the mini collider and you can go back to bed. Any questions?"

"Can you tell us anything at all about this dimension?" Asked Teresa.

"It's in stream six. Anything else?"

"Any specific threats to look out for?" Asked Gwen.

"As I said, no intel on this one. Watch each other's backs. Is that all?"

The team nodded.

"Good. You are dismissed. Be on the ramp in T-minus five."

The captain stood up and left the four looking at each other.

"She's narky today." Said Peter.

"She seemed so nice a few years back." Sighed Gwen.

"She has a star ship to run nowadays. Presumably a new command is stressful."

"Any ideas about 6834, Darian?" Asked Gwen.

Darian nodded.

"The world is made of blocks about a metre in size. Punch one, it'll feel like you're punching cardboard. Punch it enough and you'll collect the block. It's a strange place, and I have a feeling it won't be as much of a walk in the park as the captain makes it out to be."

"Why didn't you speak up?" Asked Teresa.

"The captain was in a bad mood; you learn how not to annoy senior officers after couple of years in Sol. Anyway, we need to get going."

A minute later, the group were standing on the ramp of the SGC Arachnid. The ship had just touched down and this was their first look. Teresa had her pistol drawn, but pocketed it seeing no threats.

"This is really weird." Breathed Gwen, leading the way down the ramp and onto the grass.

She stooped down and began to punch the ground in front of her. After a few hits, the block exploded in a puff of brown specks. A small, brown cube appeared in her hand. She tried to shake it off but it wouldn't budge.

"Err..."

Darian rolled his eyes.

"Tap it on the top, bottom or side of a block you want to place it on."

Gwen followed the instructions and the brown cube popped back into its hole, missing the grass that had been on it before. Darian looked up at the sky.

"Mid day. A daylight cycle lasts twenty minutes here. When it get's dark, stay away from everything. We need to move."

Teresa noticed Darian's choice of weaponry as they started walking towards their destination. A sword was sheathed to his waist and a shield clipped to his back. He also had a standard issue Sol pistol on the side of his waist.

As the group walked, they entered a forest bordering the plains. After five minutes, Gwen stopped. She had been leading the group with a small device which told her their current co-ordinates. They were in a clearing containing a small lake.

"This is it, anyone see anything?"

The team searched the area but found nothing.

"Maybe these glitches don't last long?" Suggested Peter.

"I think I can explain." Said Darian as Teresa went to respond.

"Worlds in 6834 are strange. They have this, the overworld. Then there are two sub-worlds: the Nether and the End. The glitch could be in any of the three."

"Why didn't you say that before?" Snapped Teresa.

"I didn't think it would be relevant."

"Not relevant? Why the hell would it not be relevant?"

Gwen stepped between them as Teresa tensed up to start throwing punches.

"Stick to the mission. We're here to defeat Helltreader, not each other. Darian, how do we get to these sub-worlds? Can we warp there?"

"Clearly not. It must be done using techniques native to this dimension. I did it once, but it was a long time ago. I remember something about the word 'Ender', and something to do with obsidian."

"I guess we better buckle up. This is gonna take a while."

The team had begun walking again as darkness began to fall. They reached the Arachnid as the square sun disappeared beneath the horizon. Since Gwen was technically the commander of Flux Force, she was the one who had to give Lucille the report. The Captain growled.

"We need to do research on this. You have ten minutes until daylight returns at which point you will have a solution to get to at least one of these dimensions." She snapped back.

Gwen gave the news to her team.

"Great. Reading." Grumbled Peter.

"Reading can be quite inciteful. All knowledge can be found in a book if you know which one to look in." Replied Darian.

"True. But I'm going to get screamed at if we don't have any results in ten...sorry nine minutes." Said Gwen.

She sat down at a computer terminal and began typing frantically. Teresa did as well, hunting through records of her own dimension's history. Darian disappeared to his quarters and returned with a stack of journals. Peter helped him to check each one for answers.

Just as the sun poked above the horizon, Teresa found an answer. She gave the report to Lucille:

"I found this dimension is practically identical to an old video game in my dimension called 'Minecraft'. To get to the Nether, we need obsidian, at least ten blocks of it. Then we need to set that on fire. As for the End, we have to go the Nether, get 'blaze rods' to create 'blaze powder' which we combine with 'Ender Pearls' to create 'Eyes of Ender'. Throwing them in the sky should lead us to a stronghold where we can find a portal. There was a bit more but I didn't get to that in ten minutes."

Lucille stared at her like she was about to rip her throat out.

"Helltreader will be an old man by the time we get all that done. How do we get this obsidian?"

"Merging lava and water, or we can use a diamond pickaxe to get it from a natural source. That being said, I'm not sure we want to venture underground. There's some creepy stuff down there."

"Admittedly the first option would be easier if we had lava, but we don't. How do we get a diamond pickaxe?"

"I didn't get that far."

Lucille turned to Gwen.

"You are the commander of Flux Force. From now on, you sort out every problem yourself and give me progress reports. Get it done."

"Yes ma'am." Gwen replied.

The captain turned on her heels and stormed away to her office. Gwen took a deep breath.

"Teresa, I need you to find us a way to get what we need."

"I'm already on it."

She sat down at the computer again and began scrolling and typing. After a couple of minutes, she turned back to them.

"Good news or bad news first?"

"Good." Said Peter.

"The whole 'crafting' system is pretty simple in the game. I assume it's just smashing stuff together for us."

"What's the bad news?" Asked Gwen.

"To get a diamond pickaxe we have to go underground to Y level eleven. Only problem is...at that depth there's some pretty hideous stuff."

"Such as..."

"Mostly undead mobs. But a couple of other things."

"We have no other choice. To the depths we go."

The team descended the ramp. Everything looked as it had before except a number of green creatures wandering aimlessly. Darian warned the group to stay away from them unless they wanted to be blown to pieces. They walked for a few minutes until they came to a cave. As far as they could tell, it was extremely deep. Teresa switched on a flashlight attached to her pistol, as did Darian who had gathered a few blocks of wood on their way here. He raised a hand to stop them. Teresa knelt down, pointing her weapon down into the depths. Darian pulled his blocks of wood from seemingly nowhere. After doing something, Gwen didn't know what, he had created a crafting table which he placed down and used to create a wooden pickaxe. A few seconds later he was hitting the blocks of stone surrounding them. Gwen and Peter watched curiously, feeling slightly useless. Darian stood up straight, picking up the crafting table, wielding a stone pickaxe. It disappeared from his hand. Instead of doing something else strange, he reached for the sword sheathed to his waist and drew it. The blade was like none Gwen had ever seen. It was mostly a pale colour, but part of it near the handle was darker. Gwen drew a black katana and looked between her subordinate's weapon and her own. Darian chuckled and moved on, without saying anything. She and Peter followed him and Teresa deeper and deeper. Gwen kept an eye on the co-ordinate device, watching the number ticking down from originally over two hundred past one hundred. Suddenly, Teresa and Darian stopped and looked around. Suddenly, Peter's spidey sense lit up. He ducked out of the way as a blocky looking arrow stuck itself into the wall. Teresa turned and fired a single shot. A mob resembling a grey human skeleton turned briefly red, fell on its side and disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving some items bobbing up and down on the ground.

"Sadly that thing is nothing compared to what's to come." The commander muttered.

Peter sighed.

"That would have hurt."

"No. It wouldn't." Replied Darian who disappeared into the dark.

Teresa turned her pistol so she could see what he was doing. She was just in time to see him slash his sword across a green and blue creature. It didn't take a genius to realise the blue was clothes and the green its skin. Whatever it had been, it turned red and went up with a puff of smoke just like the skeleton. Darian looked around.

"It's far too quiet."

He pulled his own pistol out again and used the flashlight to look around. He stopped it over a hole which he approached and looked down into. The weapon's beam seemed to flicker...no, not flicker: it dimmed then grew brighter again. That scared Gwen; being underground was bad enough. Being blind underground was what she dreaded most. It scared her more than Helltreader. Suddenly, there was a growl behind her. She swung her sword back, slaying another of the blue and green creatures.

"Nice one." Grinned Peter.

Teresa had knelt down next to the hole and was talking quietly to Darian. She beckoned the spiders over. They approached cautiously.

"We have two choices. From what we can tell, the cave splits here. All the paths go upwards, at least initially, apart from one: this hole. What's our Y, Gwen?"

Gwen glanced at the device.

"Sixteen."

Teresa glanced at Darian who shrugged.

"This should take us down to Y eleven. Only problem is it's a biome called the Deep Dark."

"What's so bad about that?" Asked Gwen.

Teresa put her finger to her lips.

"It's not the biome itself. It's what lives there. They're called Wardens. If one hits you, it'll kill you instantly. If you were a native of the dimension it wouldn't be a problem, but we aren't so it will permanently kill us."

"Why does the flashlight keep dimming?" Asked Gwen.

"The Deep Dark does that. Nothing we can do." Replied Darian.

Gwen shivered.

"Do we have to do this?" Complained Peter, clearly enjoying this just as much as she was.

"Yes, if we want to stop Helltreader. Look, when the flashlight brightens you can see some diamonds."

"Not that it'll do us any good." Sighed Darian.

"Why?" Asked Teresa.

"Stone pickaxe, we need iron at least or the diamonds won't drop."

"Then let's find some iron. Shouldn't be hard, right?"

"Nope. I saw some further back."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't think anything of it."

Gwen sighed, peering into the Deep Dark.

"Let's go before I freak out." She said.

The team began to retrace their steps. Teresa walked beside Gwen.

"I never thought I'd see a spider scared of the dark."

"It's not the dark, it's being underground in the dark. It's...creepy. How are you not scared?"

"I am. I just have the view that it doesn't matter. If I get killed then at least I'll have dealt with my problems."

Gwen thought about it a little. It was hardly a comforting philosophy, but it kept the commander happy. For her, though, she wanted to get back to Arachnid and be there when Miles woke up. He would have hated this just as much, so maybe it was lucky for him to be unconscious at the moment.

A few minutes later, Darian had created an iron pickaxe. The team were staring down into the hole once more.

"We have to stay as silent as possible. If you set off a skulk sensor, you're screwed." Explained Teresa before unloading her pistol.

Gwen wasn't sure what she was doing for a moment, but after pocketing the cartridge and stray bullet from the chamber, she loaded some sort of sharp arrow straight into the barrel. She fired it at one of the cave walls and began to abseil down. When she reached the bottom, she looked around. Nothing as far as she could see, so she signalled for the others to come down. Gwen and Peter came first, crawling down the wall like spiders. Darian abseiled down as well using Teresa's rope. Gwen wondered how such a tiny weapon could hold such a long rope, but remembered it was technology from a scientifically driven world. As Darian reached the bottom, he suddenly slipped. His sword clattered to the ground, his foot hitting it hard a moment later. The team tensed up as strange dark blue-green things on the ground sent a signal between each other and away into the darkness. Darian stood up slowly as they heard the first of many sounds to come: a deep thump. The light dimmed darker than ever. Teresa waved at them all frantically and mouthed 'move'. She led them away from the direction the thump came from. Darian stopped them and began to hit stone embedded with a light blue colour with the iron pickaxe. Teresa stared in the direction they had come from. As Darian mined the last diamond, she snapped her finger to her lips then pointed. The other three looked as the flashlights grew brighter again. For a moment they caught a glimpse of something. It was the same colour as the skulk sensors, at least Gwen assumed that was what the things that had emitted the signal were. The lights dimmed again before she could get a proper look, but she could tell it was big. The thumping began again, and even in the dimmer light, they could now see it. What looked like fungus stuck out from its blocky head, most of which was taken up by an enormous mouth. It stopped, seemingly listening. The team held their breath. Suddenly, Gwen had an idea. She slowly raised her hand and fired a web past the Warden. It turned to her with the web shooter sound, but then came a skulk signal from where the webbing had landed. The behemoth ambled away towards it. Teresa gave Gwen a thumbs up. They followed close behind it. However, Peter made a nasty mistake. He put his foot down right on a skulk sensor. It shook violently, sending a signal to its neighbours. The Warden picked up the signal and whirled around, staring directly at him.

"Oops..."

It roared, at the team.

"Run!" Yelled Teresa.

They didn't need told twice. But the Warden was just as fast as them, even as Gwen who was the quickest. It swung at Darian who ducked, just avoiding the deadly hit. Gwen fired a web behind the beast but it ignored it, clearly aware it was just a trick. Teresa had reloaded her gun with bullets and fired three shots. They hit it, turning it red for a moment, but it still charged. However, it did stop it for a brief moment allowing Darian to put a little distance between himself and the creature. However, instead of just running like the other three, he stopped. The creature still charged; he opened his mouth and belched out two, or it could have been three, words in a language Gwen didn't understand. But she didn't need to: their effect was obvious. A blue shockwave rattled out, blasting the Warden backwards. He swiped at the creature with his sword as it struggled to gain its balance, Teresa emptied her pistol into it as well. As the beast managed to get its feet again, it swung at Darian who just managed to grab his shield from his back and deflect the blow but was knocked off his feet. Gwen leapt up, fired a web at the roof, and swung at the creature, pushing it backwards a little, just enough for Darian to be able to stand up and run. Gwen fired a web at her three teammates, pulling them up. They dangled above the Warden which still seemed to believe they were ahead of it. It stormed after its prey and out of sight. Gwen slowly let out more web, lowering the group to the floor where she cut them loose. Teresa didn't let them catch their breath. She led the way back to the way up.

Ten minutes later, the trio were standing outside the cave. It was noon, thankfully, so there was little danger. They collapsed into the grass under a lonely oak tree. Teresa glared at Peter angrily but said nothing. Gwen looked at Darian.

"What was that?" She asked, referring to what he had done which had most likely saved them.

"A question for another time. We need to get back to Arachnid. It isn't far, but we need to go now or we won't get back before dark. That being said, zombies are nothing compared to Wardens. I did not miss 6834."

The group began walking, but Gwen decided to persist.

"That was crazy. And where did you get the sword? It looks cool."

"It's a powerful weapon. Yours would shatter under the forces this can withstand."

"I don't want to fight you any time soon, especially if you can blow people away with your voice."

"Hmm..."

Lucille was waiting for them on the ramp of the Arachnid. Darkness was falling, and as soon as they were aboard, the entrance closed.

"Report, Commander Stacy." She snapped at Gwen.

"We have the diamonds. We just need obsidian and we can go to the Nether."

"Good work. Report to medical, the doctor wanted to see you."

"Yes ma'am."

As the captain marched away in her usual mood, Gwen turned to her team.

"Take a break. I'll come and get you all once I've seen the doc."

The team nodded to show they understood. Gwen half-ran to the elevator and took it down to the lowest deck before turning through a door into the medical room. The doctor looked up when she entered.

"Ah. Your husband is awake. His body is weak so refrain from being too clingy. And don't be too long, he needs rest."

Gwen's heart seemed to jump for joy in her chest. She strode across the medical room and into the ward. Miles' eyes were closed but he opened them as the door hissed. He moved his eyes instead of his head, clearly the doctor hadn't been exaggerating when he said he was really weak. When she entered his field of view, he smiled but didn't say anything.

"Hey, Spiderman." She said, sitting down next to him and taking his hand.

"H...hey Gw...Gw..."

Whenever he tried to say her name he seemed to freeze up, then be able to move again a moment later.

"How do you feel?"

"C...crap. Wh...where have y...you been?"

"On missions. You did it, Miles. You got Helltreader into the collider."

"H...how long h...have I b...been unconscious?"

"I don't know, to be honest. I starved myself of sleep a lot while you were out in case you woke up."

"B...but you w...were on m...missions?"

"We're in the middle of one. Dimension 6834. This place is freaky. We had to go underground for diamonds and there was this thing called a Warden, then Darian did something and saved us."

"D...Darian?"

"Oh...sorry, you haven't met him. He's part of Flux Force. Him, me, Peter B Parker and Teresa. And you, of course."

Miles looked around as best as he could without moving his head. After a last look at Gwen, he closed his eyes.

"I...I'm t...tired."

Gwen nodded. She kissed his forehead.

"I know. You can sleep. Goodnight."

He was already lost in the world of dreams. She let his hand go and left. The doctor was sitting at his desk.

"How was he?"

"He's asleep again. He kept trying to say my name but couldn't. Whenever he did he was paralysed."

"Hearing your name does the same. I don't know what's causing it, but it may be the poison."

"That was no normal knife blade."

"As if I hadn't noticed. Go back to your mission. There is nothing else you can do for now."

When Gwen tried to find the other three, she was unsuccessful. She asked random crew members, but the only answers she got were 'no idea' or 'they went outside'. Gwen looked around the outside of the ship as well but couldn't see them. She boarded again and sat down on a crate beside the ramp.

"Computer, locate members of Flux Force."

"No other members of Flux Force are present on the ship."

"Where did they go?"

"Local co-ordinates: 2117, 1615."

"Why did they go?"

"Unknown."

Gwen sighed and buried her face in her hands: a husband who feared her name and friends who ditched her. Was this what her life was? She felt the grips of depression closing in again. She guessed all she could do was head out to find her friends; sitting here was achieving nothing. She stood up and took a deep breath, morphing her mask over her face by double tapping the side of her head.

"Computer, locate Flux Force."

"Current location of most Flux Force members is local co-ordinates 2033, 1555."

Gwen reached into her pocket and pulled out the co-ordinates device. She headed down the ramp and began to walk. As she entered a forest, she thought it might be better to climb on the tops of the trees, but she didn't feel like doing so. Suddenly, she noticed it was getting dark. She drew a black katana and kept walking, ignoring the mobs that popped up around her as she entered a desert. She glanced at the co-ordinates device and realised she had passed where the computer had said they were. They were nowhere in sight. Suddenly, there was a growling behind her. She turned, catching her katana on a brown and grey creature that vaguely resembled the blue and green zombie in the cave. It flashed red and was knocked back a little. Gwen hit again and it died. She spotted something in the distance: a light; it had to be her team.

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Minecraft (1.17/1.18 which aren't released at the moment but...you know...)
There's also that other secret crossover which some people might have figured out, but I'll leave it a secret until the big reveal or something...