Foreword

Good morning! So good to see you again! :3 I have a new chapter for you, and I think it came out purdy good. ^^ In the future, I think I'll stick to writing things before I start posting them though. :P Or at least planning them out all the way.

Anyway, enjoy! And I hope your day is splendid. ^^

Chapter XIII

A Recipe For Disaster

««««« … »»»»»

Ivor strutted down into his lair, a triumphant grin on his face. He had just finished setting up the redstone behind the stage without being seen, heard, or even given a second thought. While invisibility potions did help, and so did the ruckus of the crowd, he would like to thank his cunning stealth and timing skills for his flawless success.

It was all downhill from here. As long as there were no more unpleasant surprises.

Ivor had been planning this for a long time. The years before he'd started planning he'd spent stewing in bitter resentment. Left alone with nothing but his own thoughts for company, Ivor had only one thing on his mind.

Regret. He felt nothing but regret for the foolish promise he made over a decade ago, the promise that ruined his life. It was a strange irony that that same regret was all that was keeping him going now. Regret, and the promise he made to himself. He promised he would make things right, but he would need to do so without breaking his first promise.

That was when his plan took root, and here he was today. He had awaited this moment for years.

"Don't you recognize me?!" he blasted at the air, imagining the baffled look on that self-righteous fool's face. "Or wait..." That wasn't very cool… "Surprised to see me?!" he practiced again. "No, that's not good... Thought you were rid of me, didn't you?!" Ivor smiled. "That's better…"

Ivor was on his way to put the finishing touches onto his masterpiece when he noticed… the secret door… it was open.

"That's… strange," Ivor muttered. He could have sworn he closed it before he left…

Curious…

What were the chances, he wondered, that he had remembered doing something he hadn't done? Not likely. Ivor was many things, but delusional was not one of them. Or… was it?

No matter. Ivor knelt down and opened the large chest that contained the three skulls, but just as he was about to pull them out, the sound of a glass bottle clattering against stone rang out.

Ivor spun around, the chest closing behind him. "Who's there?!"

Dead quiet.

Ivor walked back into his myriad of bookshelves to where he found a potion of swiftness on the ground, but no one was there. Or… were they?

Quietly, he crept around the side of the bookshelf.

Hiding behind it, cautiously looking away from him, was a girl dressed in red.

"YOU!" he shouted, causing her to whirl around and jolt back. She tried to scurry away but Ivor caught her by the back of her collar, pulling her out of her hiding spot.

"What are you doing here?!" he demanded throwing her down on the ground in front of him.

"HEY!" Ivor heard out of nowhere, and snapped his head up again just in time to see none other than Jesse, the one he'd threatened for the Wither skull, charging toward him. The very next second, Jesse had pounded his fist into his face, causing Ivor to reel back.

Ivor tried to ignore the sting in his face as Jesse grabbed the girl by the arm. He pulled her away and she seemed to shy back behind him, keeping her eyes fixed on Ivor.

Right behind Jesse, out came another unfamiliar face, and Petra herself.

Well isn't this just perfect! he internally grumbled.

"Leave her alone!" Petra spat, while the larger, sloppier-looking boy, said, "Yeah! Back off, pal."
"You two?!" Ivor bellowed, incensed at the gall of these children. "Did you follow me here?"

"What do you think, thief?" said Petra. "What, that you could just threaten my friend, screw me over and get away with it?"

Ivor crossed his arms and corrected with his chin up, "I technically never promised you anything. I only said that a diamond sounded like a fair trade."

Petra seethed. "Why you—you little—"

"What are you going to do about it?" Ivor questioned, hands to his hips as he boasted, "I have what I want and you have exactly nothing on me." He narrowed his eyes and said menacingly. "Now get out before I put you out."

Hmm… that could have been better.

"Hey!" the larger boy said, stomping up to Ivor. "Nobody talks to my friends like that! Now shut your mouth—or else."

Ivor, already burning a short fuse, was running on borrowed time.

"I won't be threatened," he huffed, "—not by the likes of you."

"Look, we're not here to cause trouble," said Jesse, "we just want what we're owed—"

"Enough!" Ivor interrupted. "You've wasted too much of my time already."

With that, Ivor dashed off to the bottom of the stairway where his last resort was waiting. The group of kids was right on his heels, but it was too late for them. As soon as they caught up, Ivor was already in place behind the iron framework of his defense. One more block to the structure, and it would become a force that not even Petra was equipped to handle.

Ivor held a pumpkin over his head, and as they spotted him the only one to visibly react was a blonde guy Ivor hadn't even noticed was there until now. The rest of them seemed slow on the uptake.

Ivor looked down on them. "If you won't leave of your own volition, I'll happily remove you myself!"

Ivor dropped the pumpkin into its place and the blocks rumbled until a plume of particles erupted from its form. The creature unfolded its long arms and stretched out to its full size, leaving a metal mammoth standing before them, eyes red and fixed ahead. An iron golem.

He'd always wanted to have an excuse to build one, so perhaps this was a good thing after all.

They reacted now, looking suddenly terrified.

Ivor grinned, crossing his arms and speaking to his creation, "Show our friends the door, will you?"

The iron golem stepped forward then stopped suddenly, slowly raising a hand to point behind them. The group looked confused, and most of them looked around to see what the golem was pointing at. It was the door.

Ivor smacked himself.

"No, no!" he bellowed in exasperation, then met its confused eyes and pointed at the intruders, ordering as clearly as possible, "Attack them you nitwit!"

The iron golem looked back to the group in confirmation and started to close in on them. It took one swing at them with its heavy iron fist and the little cowards scattered like chickens. Each time it struck, they dodged, but as a testament to its strength it broke whatever it did hit. It smashed its fist into the wall, then brought up its arms and hammered downward, busting a hole in the ground.

Shame. I'll have to fix that now.

It wasn't long before the interlopers were headed for the Far Lands, out the door in seconds.

Once they were all gone, Ivor smiled again.

Finally there were no more problems. No more setbacks. Nothing could stop him now.

Soon…

Yes, soon.

"Soon my plan with be complete, and the world will finally know—!"

Tap tap.

It was the iron golem. Ivor spun around and glared at it for interrupting his monologue—according to a book he'd read, they were good for building confidence.

"What?" he grumbled shortly.

The golem reached out one of his massive hands and presented Ivor with a poppy.

Ivor blinked. "Oh. Thank you."

« … »

Jesse held Reuben tight as he ran, heart pounding, refusing to look back. Jesse followed behind as the rest of his friends made their way up the stairs, out the door, and around to the back of the crowd.

After Jesse was sure they were safe, he caught his breath and asked, "Everybody okay?"

"Um… guys?" Olivia sounded nervous, looking around as she finished, "Where's Lukas?"

Jesse looked back and around, but sure enough, he wasn't with them.

"I… thought he was right behind me."

Then Axel jumped in. "Well, if he's not here, the only place he could be is—"

Jesse stiffened as all eyes turned back to the door they had just come from. "He's still down there!"

Petra immediately jumped in. "Lukas is trapped down there with an iron golem and a dangerous madman with a flip-ton of potions. If either of those monsters finds him…" She didn't need to finish the thought. "We have to act fast."

Olivia explained, "It just so happens that the greatest warrior of all time is in the building. We should ask Gabriel for help."

No way, Jesse thought.

He couldn't just leave Lukas down there all by himself. He'd be hesitant to even leave Aiden to fend for himself with a monster like that, and Lukas was many things but Aiden wasn't one of them.

Jesse steeled his nerves and frowned. He'd made his decision. "I'm going after Lukas by myself."

"By yourself?" asked Petra, sounding surprised.

Jesse's frown softened against his will into a more worried look. "Yeah."

"No way," Petra insisted, but before he could argue she stated simply, "If you're going, I'm coming with you."

Jesse couldn't help but smile, even though they were both risking their lives.

Reuben squealed in agreement, marching up next to him and standing firm, sticking his snout in the air.

Jesse nodded to him with the same smile.

"All right then," he said. "Axel, Olivia. You go get Gabriel."

Olivia nodded as well. "We're on it, Jesse."

Axel punched his fists together. "Let's crash this party."

"We'll be back as soon as we can," Jesse said, and with that, he, Reuben, and Petra retraced their steps back to the fake closet. On the way, Jesse heard the words of Gabriel the Warrior from the stage.

"You can't go looking for greatness. Greatness is built one block at a time. With the right training and guidance, anyone can become a hero. You just have to believe it."

Anyone can become a hero…

In those words, Jesse took as much comfort as he could, wondering if he himself had what it took.

I don't need to be a hero for long. Just five minutes. Hopefully we'll still be alive by then.

Jesse stopped at the door, taking a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing..." he muttered, and walked back into the darkness behind the basement door.

« … »

Do iron golems eat people?

It was a silly idea once he thought about it, but at the moment Lukas didn't care. He just wanted to get as far away from that thing as possible.

He tried his best to keep his breathing quiet, reminding himself that it was only because he was in a chest that it seemed so loud. Still, he feared that the man outside would hear him, or worse—the monster.

"Now where was I?" said the man. Ivor, they'd called him. "Ah, yes." he cleared his throat.

It was a good thing Ivor talked so much.

He started rambling something about everyone finally something or another. Lukas was too frazzled to pay much attention. Ivor was going to show them all, they were all going to see, his plan would—

Wait—What did he say? Plan?

Lukas' curiosity finally got the better of him. Slow to move, he pushed the lid of the chest open with his head until he saw a small sliver of the room outside.

He peeked out right as Ivor was kneeling down by a large chest that sat right in front of the soul sand build. Lukas almost gasped when out of the chest, Ivor pulled out—

The skull!

It had been right under their noses, and they were so distracted by that weird block that they—

Lukas lost his thought when to his shock, after the one, Ivor pulled out two more Wither skulls.

"Wh—" Lukas almost muttered in surprise, but stopped himself. What?

Ivor had not one Wither skull, but three. Why would he want three Wither skulls?

Three Wither skulls… Why did that sound so familiar?

Lukas took another look at the build of soul sand behind the secret bookcase door.

Soul sand,and…three Wither skulls… That's—

Lukas' eyes shot open when he realized where he recognized that specific construct of blocks, and where he remembered those words. It was from a book on buildable mobs.

That's the recipe for a Wither!

He should have realized it sooner—Ivor threatening Jesse, stealing a Wither skull of all things, his 'creepy villain lair'. It was more than obvious that he had been up to no good the whole time, but Lukas had assumed he was just a con, or—something else, but not this. This was in a whole different dimension of lunacy, and they were all right in the middle of it.

His heart just about stopped when Ivor placed the first skull onto the top left block of the structure as the reality of his place in all this hit him like a piston to the face.

He's building a Wither! He's building a Wither! Holy crap, he's building a—I have to get out of here! I have to—

Before he could react however, Ivor stopped after placing the second Wither skull and pocketed the third.

"Now they'll see," Ivor mumbled. "Now they'll see what kind of hero you really are, Gabriel."

What… what is he talking about?

Ivor grabbed a purple potion from a quartz pedestal in the middle of the room and started to walk off. Before Lukas could see where he was going, the iron golem turned in his direction. Lukas quickly ducked back into the chest, and Ivor's footsteps got quieter until they had completely vanished.

Holy crap! Lukas thought, cringing in the chest as the golem passed by. This is bad! This is really bad!

« … »

Jesse took one look back into the mass of books and precariously perched glass bottles and swallowed.

"You see Ivor?" he asked. He hoped he didn't sound too jittery.

Not sounding nervous at all, Petra guessed, "He must have gone out another way."

Jesse wondered if she actually wasn't nervous, or if she was just better at faking it than he was. Either way, he envied her composure.

Well, no sense waiting for the perfect opportunity.

"You cover the right," Jesse said, "I'll cover the left."

"On it."

Jesse checked 'check the right side of the room' off his mental to-do list and went straight to searching the left side, Reuben right on his tail. While the room really wasn't huge, the vast amount of clutter and shelves in tandem with his frazzled nerves made it seem like a maze.

"Lukas?" Jesse whispered. "Can you hear me... even though I'm whispering?"
"Jesse?" he heard from somewhere to his left and looked to see Lukas' eyes peeking out of a large chest. "Is that you whispering super loudly?"
"Lukas!" Jesse whispered super loudly.

The iron golem—Ron, Jesse decided to name it since naming things made them less scary—was prowling around the open space in front of the weird block display. Jesse noticed him turn around, evidently deciding to check things out, so Jesse and Lukas ducked impulsively into their respective hiding places.

Meanwhile Reuben, Jesse noticed, was sniffing at a little potted poppy.

Huh. I don't remember that being there.

As soon as Ron passed, Jesse peek out again and asked, "Are you okay?"

Lukas' head poked out again. "D—uhh… I've been worse," he said, terror strung through his voice.

Doubtful, Jesse thought.

"Good," he said. Then he frowned and whisper-blasted, "Why did you run off and hide in a chest?!"

"I panicked!" Lukas whisper-shouted, sounding offended that he would ask such a thing. "Are you here to help or not?"

"Okay, just sit tight, Lukas. I'll get you out."
Lukas furrowed his brow at him and whisper-snapped at him, "You came back just to tell me that?!"
"It's part of the plan," Jesse lied, hoping Lukas would just take his word for it and calm down.
"'Stay exactly where you are' is a plan?!"

Jesse ignored him, noticing a potion on the shelf he was hiding behind. he snagged it and prepared to throw it.

"Wait," Lukas stopped him. "What are you doing? You can't throw that at him!"

Jesse lowered his arm. "Why not?"

"Because that's—! You don't know what that will do to him!

"It could slow him down," Jesse argued.

"Yeah. Or it could turn him invisible!"

"You got any better ideas?"

Lukas shook his head at him incredulously, then insistently whisper-yelled, "Yes! Do nothing! Nothing would be better!"

Ron took a glance over at them and they ducked.

A few moments later, Jesse heard a quick, "Pst!" from behind him. He flinched and turned around to see Petra crouching there. "You find him?"

"Yeah, he's over there hiding in a chest and making himself at home."

Jesse pointed over to the chest where Lukas peeked his desperate blue eyes out again.

"Lukas, what are you doing?!" Petra whisper-demanded.

Lukas scowled and whisper-barked, "Crafting a cake!"

Jesse gestured and said a knowing, "See?"

Petra looked annoyed and grumbled, "Seriously Lukas?!"

"You think I'm ridiculous," said Lukas, "Jesse was going to throw a random potion at it."

Petra turned on Jesse and grumbled "Seriously Jesse?! Good grief, why are boys so—?!"

"Duck!" Jesse pulled her down as Ron decided to check up on them yet again.

As soon as he was gone, they both came out again.

"Okay," Jesse said, "I'm gonna go in swinging."
"With what?" Lukas questioned.

Ugh, he's worse than Olivia.
Jesse pulled out his shiny gold sword with a proud smile. Lukas looked nervous.
"Don't take this the wrong way but... don't do that. Just... just don't."
Jesse decided to take it the wrong way and frowned indignantly.

"Jesse, I admire your bravery," said Petra, "but Lukas is right."

"Any other bright ideas?" Lukas whispered.

Jesse looked to Petra who raised an eyebrow at him, then back to Lukas and shrugged.

Lukas stared at him quizzically before finally stating sarcastically, "I guess I could get used to living in a chest. At least I'd probably starve to death before getting tired of the view."

"Lukas, this is not the time for your sass!" Petra snapped.

It was a good thing iron golems were dumb as dirt.

Jesse was about tell Lukas to just make a run for it already when he glanced near the back of the room where he saw the iron golem… and Reuben.

Reuben! He thought. He had to bite his lip to keep from shouting out to him, calling for him to get away from the golem. Thankfully he thought better of it before his instincts could kick in, and instead he poked Petra and pointed.

"Look!" he whispered as urgently as he could.

Petra looked up and Lukas turned around in his box to see. They all watched with rapt attention as Reuben slowly shifted toward the golem, the little potted poppy on his head. Reuben, the smartest little piggy who ever lived, had slipped around to the side of the room and skirted the edge so that Ron would be looking away from them.

The golem looked down to Reuben, and Jesse prepared himself to run in and fight if he needed to. Reuben stared up at the monster. Eyes wide, he stood his ground, and with the little pot atop his little head, Reuben offered Ron the poppy.

Jesse couldn't blink.

"Lukas…" Jesse whisper-murmured. "Get out of the chest slowly… and get ready to run."

Lukas looked at him fearfully, but obeyed without question.

Ron stared at Reuben, for a moment not moving at all, until he looked into his hand and materialized out of nowhere another poppy. Reuben slipped the pot off his head and onto the ground, then sniffed at the flower in Ron's hand.

Lukas slipped around behind them, and once he was out of sight behind their bookshelf, Jesse gave a quiet whistle, hoping Reuben would catch the signal. Sure enough, Reuben appeared around the corner a moment later. Jesse smiled.

"Okay," said Lukas, "come on! Let's go!"

The three of them made their way back to the stairs, and as soon as they were far enough away Jesse said enthusiastically, "Nice one, Reuben!"

Reuben oinked happily.

"Sorry for snapping off," Lukas addressed Petra. "Thanks for coming back for me. I didn't know if anybody was going to."

"Hey, don't thank me," she said. "It was Jesse's call."

"What?" Lukas looked somewhat surprised. "Jesse—"

Lukas looked back down to him, and Jesse smiled. Lukas smiled back.

Jesse dashed up in front of him, happy that they were finally home free, and met Petra at the top. "Let's get out of here!"

Reuben oinked in agreement.

"Actually," Lukas said, and Jesse and Petra looked back to where Lukas had stopped on the stairs. "There's something I need to tell you guys."

Petra, seeming a bit tired, said, "If you're about to get sappy, can it wait until we're out of here?"

Lukas looked up at them, a grave look on his face, and simply said, "No."

Petra went quiet and Jesse blinked, suddenly feeling tense.

Lukas explained. "While I was stuck down here, I saw what Ivor was doing. That Wither skull you got for him wasn't for decoration. He's been collecting them to build a Wither."

"But... a Wither…" Petra mused, "that's—"

"One of the worst monsters there is!"

"Worst?" Jesse wondered. He knew they were bad news, but… "Like, worster than an iron golem?" he asked.

Lukas blinked at him. "Uh… yeah. A lot worse than that."

"Umm…" Jesse muttered, "like… how worse?"

"Like, 'target all living things with fireballs and explosions' worse."

Jesse just gaped at him.

Oh.

That was… a LOT worse.

Could… such a monster even exist? How could such a monster be allowed to exist?

Jesse looked to Petra who wore the same look of shock, and he knew they were thinking the same thing.

This was way more serious than they thought.

« … »

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.

— Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Author's Notes

"Worst?" Jesse wondered. "Like, worster than a creeper?"
Lukas blinked at him. "Okay, maybe not THAT bad."

Fun fact: It's hard to tell with the lighting, but the potion Jesse throws in the game looks like a swiftness potion to me, and speed would definitely not be a good thing to give an iron golem that wants to kill you. :P

Also, in case anyone wonders why no one would think of the Wither sooner, a friendly reminder that the people in the Minecraft world don't have a Minecraft Wiki to consult. :P When you actually live in a vast world and have to search out knowledge the hard way, it's much harder to know literally everything.

- Ron — Because I-ron. :P Yeah, Jesse is just as silly as me.

-Reuben's Distraction— In MCSM, the iron golem never specifically targets Reuben. In fact when Reuben squeals to distract him, he looks at him for a second and then looks right back to Jesse. This makes sense since in Minecraft, iron golems won't attack animals. While in my version I imagine they could probably be commanded to, they're not going to on their own and it's likely that because Ivor wasn't super specific, Reuben was just completely left out of the equation when he was ordered to attack. Good thing, too. Just one hit from an iron golem would kill him dead. XD

Hope you enjoyed! God bless! ^^

Choice Notes

- Going Back for Lukas— This is one of those choices that's always just been non-negotiable in my book, but like all of the significant choices, I still put significant thought into what would actually be best for the story. Unsurprisingly, it was still the way to go as the alternative it pretty boring, and avoiding spoilers in saying, what it effects later wasn't important enough to merit making a choice just for that. :)-Why not do… ALL of them?— That conversation Jesse has with Lukas during the rescue has always been one of my favorite interactions. XD No matter what you do, it's hilarious, and I didn't want to lose a single line. Of course, I couldn't just keep every single line, but I still fought as hard as I could to keep as much of it as possible without it dragging on and on, and I came out with this funny scene where they're going back and forth all the while trying not to alert the brainless/OP security guard. X)

- "Nothing would be better!" — Yes this was a nod the [! Silence is also a valid option.] thing. ;P

Glossary

- Withers — A Wither is a highly destructive mob, created with soul sand and Wither skulls of course. It targets living mobs and destroys pretty much anything it touches. It also fires two kinds of fireballs, both of which explode and one of which (the blue variety) causes Wither sickness (or just 'wither').

- Iron Golems — Made by placing a pumpkin on a T of iron blocks, iron golems are meant to act as defenders for villages. When they're not mercilessly tearing apart zombies, they can be found handing out poppies to little children. Just to put in perspective how powerful iron golems are, one can kill a player without armor, in two hits (on normal difficulty of course). That means that since Jesse can actually get hit three times during this part of the game, if he does he really should be dead. XD Also, I guess they have really bad hearing.

- Far Lands — I should have mentioned this in Chapter I but it seems I didn't, so here you go. XD The Far Lands were (they've been removed since [at least in Java]) the boundaries of any Minecraft world, in which the world would start to break, the game would start glitching, and these giant obfuscated walls would form. I recommend looking them up if you haven't seen them before, they're actually really cool looking. :)

- Nitwits — Not important for you to know, but this was actually a funny double meaning because nitwits in Minecraft are basically worthless villagers. :P