I, uh, did it again...
Midnight: Did you learn nothing from the first time?
Clearly not.
Midnight: I swear, you're lucky episode two is so short, or whoever your version of Janus is would scream at you to Take a Break.
One, you just mixed three different fandoms in that one sentence. Two, how do you know that I made up my own sides? You aren't even part of that fandom. And three, this chapter felt really short for some reason, even though it's the longest I've (re)written so far.
Midnight: I'll answer that later, on to the chapter.
Episode 2: Assembly Required
Previously on Every Action Matters…
Heroes can come from unlikely beginnings…
...and broken friendships can lead to dark rivalries.
When the world is in danger, fate calls on the ordinary…
To do extraordinary things.
And go on journeys they had only dreamed of.
Our heroes, thrown together by fate…
...must now seek help from a legendary inventor…
But the question remains, will it be enough to save the world?
I quickly rolled my sleeve back down.
On one hand, I expected that. After all, I'd been caught in a beam at least twice, and for a lot longer than Petra, so it made sense that I was worse off than her.
On the other hand, I was terrified. A lot of things had already changed, and it was only episode two. There was no telling what would happen next.
Petra was gathering what little we had to get ready to try and find the Order's temple. I wanted to help, but she told me to take things easy. Then again, I was not looking forward to however long the walk would be. I didn't bother asking for an estimate, knowing that Petra likely wouldn't have a clue either.
Finally, after what felt like forever, we set off.
Very slowly, in fact. It was, for the most part, my fault. Obviously, having been slammed face first into a wall after a harsh impact on the back and being unconscious for who knows how long wasn't good for any part of my body. I tried to ignore any aches that didn't seem likely to be serious, which is easier said than done.
"Would be nice if we could find some horses…" I groaned. I knew full well that the group would be in this same situation later on, and we would find horses then, but I was left wishing.
Half an hour had passed before the temple was in sight, and by then I was using what little energy I had to keep from passing out as soon as I saw it. I had no doubt that Jesse, Axel, and Olivia were gone to find Ellegaard and Magnus. The temple itself was also fortified already. When we got close enough, a familiar voice called down
"Who goes there?" I was beyond relieved, but by then, I had basically turned into a walking corpse, barely able to stay awake and only slightly aware of what was going on around me. Lukas must've seen this (Then again, it'd be impossible not to), because he came running down fast as fire. By the time he got to the entrance, I couldn't stay on my feet any longer and passed out yet again.
Worryingly enough, I managed to hear the words 'Wither sickness' before I did.
Waking up the second time was no easier than the first.
Okay, maybe it was a little easier, but the only notable difference was that I wasn't immediately in pain upon waking up. If Jesse chose to wait until morning to head off to Soren's fortress, I wasn't sure if I would love or hate him for it. No matter how much rest I got, I was more exhausted than before. Petra was nowhere to be seen, but Lukas was looking out the newly made window. Jesse, Olivia and Ellegaard were still unaccounted for, but I looked and saw Axel and Magnus having a conversation nearby.
Seeing that there wasn't much to do except wait, I reluctantly stood up, surprised for a second that I was able to, and trudged over to Lukas.
It was clear to see he wasn't really paying attention to what was going on outside and was just staring off into space. It was only the second time I'd seen him so worried, yet I felt like I knew the look better than anyone else.
"Hey, Lukas." I internally cringed at how weak my voice was. Apparently, it was already really bad. It was loud enough to snap him out of his thoughts though.
We talked for a while, not really about anything important. Even when Lukas managed to crack a smile at something I said, it was crushingly obvious that it wasn't real. After we ran out of things to talk about that didn't relate to anything that was happening, I decided to head to the library.
Of course, most of the books in there were written by Soren himself, but a few weren't. What made me so curious was that I apparently wasn't the only one who had randomly been forced into a video game. More shocking than that, I wasn't the only one forced into Minecraft Story Mode of all games. A lot of situations in one were very similar to mine currently, except it was obviously someone different.
The cover of the story was well drawn, too, better than I could ever do. The story itself got me hooked really easily, too. I got lucky with the voice in my head-
Thanks.
Because the one in the story was a lot more moody. I wasn't able to get too far though, as Jesse, Olivia, and Ellegaard showed up. I pocketed the book (And another one about admins, even though there wasn't much for me to learn about) and went back to the main room.
Petra was there already, Axel and Magnus had just noticed the others, and I realized too late that a feud was about to start.
"Well this is unexpected." Ellegaard remarked. I braced for a headache.
"I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but I'm definitely sure that I don't like it."
"Yeah! Show him some respect!" Axel decided to back Magnus up.
"Would you all cut it out? Holy crap, you're all acting like crazy people!" While I wouldn't have put it like that, I had to agree with Jesse there. I knew it wouldn't stop Magnus and Ellegaard, and least not for very long, but I was grateful nonetheless.
When the two of them began to walk away, Jesse spoke again.
"Uh, people? Can we please focus on the bigger picture? We have a very hungry wither storm in the process of turning the whole world into its dinner."
"It was terrifying. It came out of nowhere and just destroyed… everything." Ellegaard admitted, though of course, Magnus hadn't seen it, so he didn't really believe her.
"Little too scary for you, Ellie? Couldn't just think it away?"
"Would you two stop fighting already?!" I eventually had enough with them. I didn't notice that I'd stood up, but quickly sat back down as I felt that long awaited and dreaded headache start.
"Midnight's right. We need to find some way to stop that thing." Petra said.
"Well I don't know if you've had the chance to poke around this old dump yet, but it's pretty much stripped bare." Magnus pointed out. He was right too. Apart from the library still being fully stashed with books, there wasn't much else in the temple.
"So what are we going to do? How are we going to stop it?"
"Well let's not panic, first of all. That's a good first step." I tried my best to keep up with the conversation, but my mind went elsewhere.
Why is my wither sickness so much worse than Petra's? I know I was exposed more and earlier than she was, but it shouldn't be this bad yet, right?
Truthfully, I'm not sure, either.
Dipper must've noticed my anxiety, as he was right by my side when I turned.
"Hey Dip, how are you?" I asked quietly, and casually, as though it was completely normal. By now, to me at least, it was. He seemed much more worried about how I was, though.
"I'll be okay. Promise." I assured, though I couldn't even promise myself, let alone anyone else.
"Yeah yeah yeah I've heard all about the 'F-Bomb' before." Of all the parts of the conversation to tune back into, that was not what I expected. I couldn't help but laugh a little, but everyone else was either too focused on what was going on or I was quiet enough so they couldn't hear me. Or they mistook it for a cough, that could've been it.
"Do you know where it is? Can we get some?"
"Well, there's a little problem there… We don't know where Soren is." That was not a 'little' problem, and Ellegaard knew that. "But you found us. Do you know where he is?"
Jesse tried putting the amulet back on the pedestal to see if he could find Soren on the map. At first, only a red light and a green one appeared, both centered on the same place.
"Okay, there's your light, my light…" Magnus waited.
Then a white light appeared on the very top of the map.
"That's new."
"There he is. Soren had his fortress deep in the mountains. After the Order… broke up, that's where he went to keep doing his experiments." On endermen, no less.
"So he'll help us, right?" Before anyone could answer Jesse's question another light appeared on the map. This one was dark blue, coming from the middle gem on the amulet.
Ivor.
The light was moving up towards Soren's, and it was already about halfway there.
As soon as I heard the sentence, "It's not far, we could probably make it on foot." I knew that I secretly wanted to wait until morning.
Despite the fact you've already blacked out twice?
Look, I'm exhausted already, give me a break.
"Righteous. We'll get some rest and head out first thing in the morning. Avoiding all the 'nighttime' and 'monsters' and everything." Magnus suggested. Right, I forgot whichever one Jesse didn't go to get would suggest waiting, while the other wanted to go immediately.
"If you had seen that monster, you wouldn't be saying that. We need to leave. Now." Ellegaard argued.
Of course, despite my silent wishes, Jesse voted to go right away.
It didn't take very long for the sun to set, and I did not have the strength to fight.
So of course, what should we run into next but a horde of monsters?
"See? This is why I said we should've waited til morning! We wouldn't need to worry about any of this crap!"
"At least we're keeping ahead of the wither storm!"
Even though I really didn't feel like it, I pulled out my axe anyway. If I barely had the strength to fight, there was no possibility I could use any power, so I didn't even try. I was doing surprisingly well, for being incredibly sick that is.
"It's gonna be light soon! We're gonna be okay!" From undead mobs and spiders, maybe.
We ran pretty much all the way to Soren's fortress.
A room with a mostly broken floor awaited us.
"Yeah and I'm really not feeling those columns…" Being honest, I wasn't either. Magnus jumped to the closest one to prove it was safe, and Axel followed. Soon, everyone else was jumping across. I tried to, made it to the first one okay, but then lost my footing and slipped trying to jump to the second one.
I fell for two reasons. The first was being weak due to wither sickness, and the second because my upper body strength was nonexistent anyway.
Lukas soon fell with me, and insisted it was because he wanted to help and not because he slipped too.
Long story short, Lukas and I accidentally made a bunch of endermen angry, jumped into some water, and then swam to safety.
"Oh be quiet, it's just a pointless building. That's all I'm saying. I mean, just look at-"
"Magnus, if an artist painted the inside of your mind, he'd end up with the most extraordinary desertscape paintings." Oh great, Magnus and Ellegaard were arguing again.
"That's it! I'm going." Ellegaard started walking to the path on the left. "Once again, it falls to me to take care of everything. I'll find this Super TNT myself!"
"Oh no no no! You do not get to be the one who walks away." Magnus went down the path to the right. "That's it! I'm going. See! I'm walking away too now. Super TNT, here I come!"
I didn't even bother to hide my exasperation. Neither did Olivia, or anyone else for that matter.
"It's hard to pick glass half full when they keep kicking the glass over."
Ultimately, Jesse decided to follow Ellegaard again. Something forced me to follow him, probably the game now recognizing that two people had wither sickness and needed to reveal the truth.
Speaking of that, the game's taking having an entirely new character pretty well. It's almost like it adapted the story once it realized I was here.
I don't think you'd want to know what would've happened if it didn't.
Why is that?
Just… know you wouldn't.
"I really feel bad about ditching everyone else…" I mumbled, but not really.
"But it's a private thing, we don't want to worry anyone." Was Petra's response.
"Hey, I trust you two." Since when? What made Jesse trust me? "Whatever it is, you can tell me."
"Thanks for being so understanding."
"We both got away from the wither storm… but I don't think it was fast enough." On cue, Petra and I rolled up our sleeves. I couldn't say I was surprised to see that I looked a lot worse compared to her, but Jesse definitely was.
"Holy crap - What are we doing down here? We need to get you help!"
"I don't think there's anything we can do, Jesse."
"Do you know what Wither is?" Petra asked.
"The wither? Of course. We've been-"
"No, just Wither. Or, wither sickness, I guess." I interrupted.
Jesse tried to insist we get help, but we were rudely interrupted by a creeper exploding. Jesse actually got away in time to not fall.
The same couldn't be said for me.
Jesse and Petra tried to pull me up, but I couldn't hold on for very long. I realized very quickly that I didn't have a light source.
"Can you drop the amulet down here?" I called up. "I can't see." Jesse did so, and I saw the glowing blue light a little too late and it smacked me in the face. Then they left to get help, leaving me alone.
I picked up the amulet and started walking down the dark tunnel, dodging random stone blocks and holes on my way. Then I was met with a huge room, glowstone lighting it up everywhere. But other than the lamps, and some bookshelves, it was pretty much empty. One of the bookshelf walls had a crack in it, so I went there.
But then stopped right before I went through. Ivor was there.
"He must have something useful in here! He has to!"
"Uh, hello?" Ivor turned around.
"You!" I stood up straight for the first time in a while. Not like it mattered much, Ivor was still a good few inches taller than me. "Trying to interfere with my plans again, I see."
"What are you doing down here?" I ignored Ivor, with a question of my own.
"Being rudely interrupted by you, clearly." He interrupted me in return.
"We're here with the Order to find Soren. We're going to take down your wither storm." I told him, despite knowing that plan wasn't going to work.
"The Order? Believe me, that plan will blow up in their faces in more ways than one. They cannot help you. But me? I choose not to."
"Fine, then-"
"Oh, you're not going anywhere." Ivor and I looked to see Petra coming in, drawing her sword.
"Petra! You escaped?" Odd how he was so confused about Petra surviving and not me. After all, Petra must've had to drag me to wherever we were when I woke up after the others went through the Nether portal.
Petra backed Ivor up into a corner with gold swords hanging on the wall. Even though he wasn't the best at fighting with weapons, he grabbed one anyway.
"I'm not letting him leave, either." I said, drawing my own weapon. I came up behind Ivor and smacked him, knocking him to the ground.
"I'm the only one who can stop the wither storm." He yelled. I knew he was right. He had his failsafe locked away in the Far Lands, something no one else knew. "Not you! Not the Order! Don't make yourselves the villains in my story."
Seeing that he couldn't stop Petra, Ivor went for me next. The clash of metal on metal was grating to my ears, but I pushed through. It wasn't really enough though. He swung at me, so I moved out of the way as quickly as I could. While he was recovering, I went around and kicked him in the back, sending him to the floor yet again. Petra got on the other side of him.
"You're not going anywhere, creep."
Ivor got back up though. He knew he wasn't getting past us with brute force. "This could've all been avoided… If you want to stop me, you'll have to catch me first." He pulled out a potion of swiftness and gulped it down.
"Midnight look out!" Petra called. She ran back to the entrance. "You're not getting out of here that easy, Ivor."
It was hard for me to keep up. With Ivor running around me so quickly, I was starting to get dizzy. I was able to spot him for a moment, running right for me, but he was too fast to dodge. He only had to hit me once and I fell. He didn't stop there, either, going for Petra immediately after. The potion started to wear off just as he reached her and knocked her down too.
Petra got back up quickly, but her own wither sickness was starting to get to her. She did her best to block Ivor's attacks, but I could tell she couldn't keep up for long. I got back up and went to help her, knocking Ivor out of the way again.
"Don't tempt your fate." And he was back to running around. I did eventually manage to hit him though.
"It didn't have to go this way, Midnight. You could've just let me go." He ran off in the opposite direction, splashing an invisibility potion on himself. He laughed, thinking he'd won.
"Whatever you do, don't let him leave!" I called to Petra, not like I needed to.
"Vanish all you want, slimeball. You're still not going anywhere."
I saw the harming potion floating in the air just in time to move. The second one too. And the third one.
"End of the rail, Ivor. We're not letting you get away with this." Petra said, looking around.
"This one's on you, you puffed-up fool." Ivor yelled as he threw a fourth harming potion. It was aimed at Petra, but I ran in front of it and it smashed harmlessly against my axe. Ivor's invisibility ran off right after.
"There's no time… This all could have been avoided."
"Midnight! Petra!" I heard Lukas behind us. Sure enough, he, Jesse, Axel and Olivia were running our way, along with Rueben and Dipper.
"Even more of you? Will this endless parade of useless babblers never cease?" Nope.
"What's going on?" Jesse asked.
"We found Ivor, and stopped him." For now, I added in my head.
"Midnight did, anyway."
"False. You have stopped nothing." As Ivor started walking away, he pulled out another potion. "A query… Have you ever seen the effects of a splash potion of slowness?"
"What-" Jesse couldn't finish his sentence at full speed. In the time it took for him to say that, Ivor had thrown the potion at us. "-are you talking about?" Ivor was already outside the bookshelf door as it started to close.
"Magnus and Ellegaard may think they can stop me, that they can destroy the wither storm… But they are mistaken. And it will cost them their lives."
The door closed, trapping us inside.
Episode 2 complete.
Next time on Every Action Matters…
In pursuit of answers, all our heroes found in Soren's Armory was deceit… and treachery.
Locked in a dark chamber deep in Soren's mountain, as the Order of the Stone rides off towards near-certain doom, our heroes must ask themselves…
Would they find a way out of this dark tomb?
Is there any way to cure Petra and Midnight's wither sickness?
Would they find a way to defeat the wither storm?
Or will they remain, trapped, as it continues its ravenous rampage across the entire world?
Only time will tell...
Midnight: Okay so one, yes I did. You're obsessed with Sanders Sides, got really into Hamilton, and now you're starting to get back into MCSM, what did you expect? Two, I know because you won't stop talking about them. Three, how does 3,000 words without A/Ns seem short to you?
I don't know, it looked a lot shorter in Google Docs...
Midnight: Goodness gracious, Legend. You also blantantly copied an idea from A New World, cheater.
Wh- You can't read a book?
Midnight: A book that just so happens to be about a certain someone experiencing similar events to me, and a book about admins I haven't even touched yet?
I- Okay, that's fair.
Midnight: That's what I thought.
Anything else you'd like to say?
Midnight: Other than "For goodness sake, Legend, do not try to put any other episode into one chapter again or I will personally chop you in half", no.
...Alright then. See you next time!
-LegendEmpress