Midnight: Either episode one is a lot shorter than I remember or Legend tried way too hard to fit it in under ten chapters.
Neither, really. I have no idea how this happened.
Midnight: Right.
"Remember what Endercon was like before it was cool?" Petra asked.
"Remember what we were like before we were cool?" Was Jesse's response.
"Some people just won't be cool." I contributed, but there was no dry, sarcastic laughter from Jesse.
Of course, to ruin the moment, more monsters just had to show up on the bridge. Surrounding us on both sides were mainly creepers and zombies.
"This isn't good…"
"Well, there's only one way off this bridge."
We fought. I hoped for a chance to use that weird power before, but it still wouldn't work well enough, and it was starting to tire me out. Eventually though, a creeper got too close for comfort and exploded, knocking us all off the bridge.
After a very long fall, we landed in the water below the bridge. Petra, the animals, and I landed smoothly, at least compared to Jesse, who belly flopped on top of the water and sank painfully. Naturally, he complained as soon as he resurfaced.
"Don't you know? You dive into the water, you don't land on top of it." Petra told him. "Pull yourself together, and follow me." And so we swam all the way back to Endercon.
Before they met up with Axel and Olivia, I left to go find the other Ocelots.
Out of all four of them, Aiden was the last I expected to find, yet he was the first one I saw. Well, he saw me, but still. Unlike what I expected, he actually seemed relieved to see me, pulling me into a hug when I finally noticed him.
"Glad to see you missed me, Aiden." I decided not to get mad at him for the fire out loud, especially since he seemed so apologetic now.
"You think I was worried? You should've seen Lukas. He nearly went crazy wondering where you were." I had to admit that it shocked me a little. After all, we had only just met a few days ago. Was I already that important to him?
It's because he likes you too.
You can shut up.
After talking to Aiden a bit more, running into Maya and Gill and receiving the same story about Lukas from them, I finally found the blondie himself.
True to the others' words, it was easy to tell that he wasn't having a good time. Tossing a slimeball in the air seemed to be the only thing keeping him busy at that moment, and even then, his expression gave everything away.
"Hey Lukas." I greeted him casually, as though I hadn't disappeared for about an hour.
"Midnight?" For the second time in the span of half an hour, I was the recipient of a giant hug.
"So what Aiden, Maya, and Gill said was true. You missed me that much?" To my immense disappointment, we broke out of the hug, but Lukas' wordless nod was enough to keep me from showing it.
We talked about what happened when I left the competition, but I left out the weird power that I discovered, figuring that no one except Jesse would believe me. And Jesse would only believe it because he saw it himself.
"I still can't believe Aiden did that."
"Jealousy can really bring out the worst in people…" I said that not only referring to the competition, not like anyone else would be able to figure it out.
I was expecting Jesse or Petra to show up at any moment to inform me on what happened with the deal. But neither came to us, so I just stayed close to Lukas since they'd have to talk to him eventually for his slimeball anyway.
Of course, I was right. After a while, Jesse finally walked over to us.
"Hey, uh, Lukas? Can you do me a favor?"
Lukas stopped tossing the slimeball for a moment. "Anything's possible."
"I need slime balls. I swear I have a really good explanation-" Petra, Olivia, Axel and Rueben approached as well, which was all that we needed.
"Whatever you guys are doing, count me in." Lukas said.
"I'll help too, any way I can." I added.
"Thanks Lukas." I heard Petra whisper to Jesse immediately after, "Told you he was useful."
"Aw, man. These two aren't actually cool, are they?" Axel asked, disappointed.
"Remains to be seen." I tried to ignore Olivia's addition.
Jesse went to craft the slime block while Lukas tried to strike up conversation. Once he was done, Olivia took it and placed it in just the right spot for Jesse to be able to launch himself to break the chicken machine. He ended up slipping and headbutting the glass instead of punching it, though it worked all the same. The usher ran right into the swarm of chickens, giving our group the opportunity to get to where the keynote was being held.
"Where'd he go?" Petra asked once we got inside, seeing no sign of him.
But then I noticed the slightly open door and pointed. "There!"
We stopped right before going in. "What do we do once we catch him?"
"We politely ask for what's ours." Judging from the way Jesse put extra emphasis on 'politely', he either meant the opposite or was just really adamant on that plan.
"Alright, I can get behind that." Jesse just simply nodded in acknowledgement, not bothering to respond to me.
And so, we went down into the basement.
The labyrinthine bookshelves with random potions scattered about really added to the atmosphere of the basement, but not in a good way. Some of the books were so thick that even I'd fall asleep reading them, and I could probably read a four hundred page novel in a single weekend. Just the result of having far too much free time.
Everyone scattered around to look for Petra's skull, but I set my sights on the potion to stop the wither storm. I figured that if I got it before Axel or Jesse, then I would have time to give it to Ivor before things got too out of hand. I reached for it, only for someone to snatch it away at the last minute.
"Hey-!" I looked, only to find Axel pocketing the potion and replacing it with a different one.
"Finders, keepers." He responded, glaring.
"I found it before you." I felt like it was a lie, but I knew I was looking for it before he even discovered it.
"Well, I stole it before you." I sighed and continued on, knowing I wasn't going to be able to convince Axel to give me the potion. There went that plan.
I went looking through a chest and found a golden axe. I knew gold was infamous for its weak tools, weapons, and armor, but I still took it anyway.
"Didn't you make a sword back in the cave, Midnight?" Petra asked me, as she herself was stealing a gold sword. I didn't even notice that she'd never heard my name before as far as I was aware.
"I'm more of an axe person, really. Swords are neat and all, but you can still get a lot done with an axe." She shrugged it off.
Suddenly, a bookshelf slid down to reveal a T-shape of soul sand, with a command block in the middle.
"What the heck is all this stuff?" Everyone who wasn't already nearby had come to look.
"Soul sand. It was everywhere in the Nether." Petra explained.
"What about that block in the middle?"
"It's called a command block." I had to rush to find an explanation of how I knew that. "I- I read about it before, can't really remember much about it, though."
Seemingly satisfied with the answer, Jesse looked inside the chest right in front of the setup.
"So… good news, weird news. I found the skull, but…"
"What the heck? Why'd I risk my life for that skull if he's got two of them already?" I could see Lukas was beginning to figure something out.
"This has gotta be connected somehow… The chest with the skulls was hidden back here with everything else. That's gotta mean something." With that revelation, Lukas finally figured it out.
"I think I know what's going on here. Soul sand, plus three Wither skulls… that's the recipe for a Wither." Naturally, everyone else was concerned by this.
"But… a Wither… that's-"
"One of the worst monsters there is." I finished.
"We came down here to find the skull. Well, we found it." And stumbled into something bigger by accident.
"Maybe we should just grab it, and get out of here, while we still can." Before we could, though, we heard a door opening. Ivor had come back.
"Uh, guys?"
"Scatter!"
I have to admit that I panicked while trying to find a spot to hide. But thanks to the fact that I was conveniently smaller than Jesse, I was able to fit inside one of the smaller chests. And that still left room for Dipper.
This did mean that I couldn't really hear anything very well, though. I'd just have to rely on my sense of timing. Or, if I wanted to be risky, I could try peeking out occasionally and risk being caught.
When I did hear something, it was the iron golem's creation. By then, I was frozen in place. I knew that even with my size, I wouldn't be able to escape quickly enough.
So, I stayed hidden and hoped someone would come back for me.
Midnight: Jesse's gonna come back for me, right?
Well... if you read my notes like you said you did.
Midnight: Jesse's gonna come back for me, right?
You'll just have to wait and see.
Midnight: Not again!
See you next time!
-LegendEmpress