The screen faded back in as the group literally appeared on the edge of a cliff, Lukas staggering and nearly falling over. Probably from the sensation of teleporting, honestly. Reuben let out an alarmed oink as he spotted something over Jesse's shoulder, and Jesse glanced at her pig before turning around to look in the direction her little pink pig was staring in, her own eyes widening in shock.
The screen changed to show that the entire top of Soren's mountain had vanished, and the Witherstorms were bigger than ever before. They'd also blasted a wide space in front of the mountain. The main Witherstorm that they could see was so big that it made the old Witherstorm look like a baby in comparison.
"Wow," Lukas breathed, eyes as wide as golf balls.
Cassie frowned. "Where are the Endermen? I don't see any."
Gabriel frowned at the sky. "Shouldn't the Endermen have destroyed the Witherstorm by now?" he wondered, staring at the Witherstorms in confusion, "or... am I just confused again?"
"No, he's definitely right," Ellegaard muttered, eyes narrowing at the screen. "Considering the time it took for the group to get to the Far Lands, the Witherstorms should at least be half destroyed."
Onscreen, Ivor was shaking his head almost before Gabriel had finished speaking, his own confused look beginning to form on his face. "No, it's not just you," he replied after a moment, "something's wrong."
"Jesse!" The black-haired spider hybrid had barely turned around when she was nearly plowed into the ground by Axel's enthusiastic greeting hug, letting out an involuntary gasp as her eyes bugged out.
Axel gave Real-Jesse a sheepish grin. She grinned and patted him on the back.
"Hi, Axel," Jesse squeaked.
He let go of her rapidly, practically dropping her to the floor, nodding as he surveyed her outfit, then Olivia's, then Lukas's. "Nice freaking armor, by the way," he complimented with a small smile.
Ivor reached into his pocket and yanked out another set. "You get some too," he replied, holding it out. Axel let out a rather loud, happy gasp, before grabbing the armor. The screen changed to show the rest of the group, Olivia glancing at Jesse and the two girls exchanging a grin and a roll of the eyes, while Lukas just covered his mouth and chuckled. Gabriel just blinked, while Soren smirked in amusement and Ivor rolled his eyes with a grin as well.
The screen switched to show that Axel was wearing a solid green chestplate with black gloves, with a sort of... fishbowl thing as a helmet. The boots and the bottom part of the pants were mottled green, the mottled green fading a ways up the body.
Olivia grinned and patted Real-Axel on the back. "Nice armor yourself," she told him. He beamed at her, making the dark-skinned girl turn back to the screen to hide the broad grin coming over her face.
"Nice armor yourself, Axel," Jesse told Axel onscreen, giving him a grin.
"Hey, I just said that."
He grinned back, before the screen switched to show Jesse's face growing more serious. "Do you still have the amulet?" she asked.
Axel pulled it out of his pocket, his own face growing more solemn. "Safe and sound. That's not the problem."
"Oh, there's a problem. Of course there is," Em sighed, kneading her forehead. Nell patted Em on the shoulder sympathetically.
Jesse paused, staring at Axel unsurely for a moment, before slowing asking, "What is?"
"The Endermen... they're not angry enough. I mean, some are-" Jesse looked up. The screen switched to show, like, five Endermen ripping blocks off of the Witherstorm, "but most of them are just standing around and moving blocks. You know, being Endermen."
Cassie muttered something that did not bear repeating.
"Blast!" Soren hissed onscreen, gritting his teeth in irritation.
"I get the feeling you want to use a stronger term," Jace told the architect. Soren's lips twitched unwillingly.
"They've done a pretty good job of keeping the main Witherstorm busy," Axel continued, glancing over his shoulder as if he were expecting a tractor beam to suck them all up in the next minute. "But one of the smaller ones started attacking us. Magnus ran off to fight that thing, all by himself!"
"You're WHAT?!" Ellegaard nearly shouted, shooting upright and whipping around to stare at Magnus, "what in the name of Notch are you thinking?! That's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen you do!"
Magnus simply raised his eyebrow at the redstone engineer.
"What?!" she demanded, after a moment's pause.
"Didn't know you cared so much," he replied after a moment, a faint smirk sneaking its way across his face.
She smacked him and flopped back onto the couch, expression twisted into an angry one, being careful to hide the smile threatening to make its way over her face.
Onscreen, Soren's eyes widened. "WHAT?!" he almost shouted, making the audience flinch back a bit, "he did what?!"
Ivor's eyes widened as well. "He's fighting a Witherstorm by himself?!" he exclaimed, sounding both exasperated and shocked.
Gabriel stepped forward, making everyone look at the warrior. "If a fellow member of the Order of the... of the..." An unsure expression came over his face. "Uhm..."
"Order of the Stone," Jesse gently prompted the frowning Gabriel.
He nodded his thanks. "Is out there fighting... then I belong out there, too."
"Oh no," Soren moaned. "Gabriel, what are you-?"
"Wait, you're not about to do what I think you're about to do, are you- Gabriel!" Ivor snapped as Gabriel charged forward, running down the hill into the crowd of Endermen. Ivor whipped around to see the rest of the group, shaking his head. "Oh, Notch, I'm not letting that idiot get himself killed! Gabriel, get back here!" And he raced after his amnesiac friend.
"Is he a tsundere?" Jesse whispered into Lukas's ear curiously.
Lukas barely managed to swallow his giggles. "Uhh, maybe?" he whispered back, a huge grin spreading over his face.
"Aww, you do care," Gabriel teased, grinning at Ivor.
Ivor glowered at him, before- to everyone's surprise- his scowl turned into a sadder sort of look. "Of course I do." He turned back to the screen, effectively turning his back to the rest of the Order. "I never stopped caring."
Gabriel blinked at Ivor, before glancing at the others, a more sentimental look seeming to come over his face.
Onscreen, Soren bit his lip, looking as though he were in agony from the decisions he had to make, before rushing after both of them. "Both of you, come back! Without the Command Block, none of us stand a chance! ... and yet, I'm joining you all. I have no idea why." His voice was lost a moment later in the chaos.
"Thanks, Soren," Magnus said, clapping the ginger on the back.
Soren sat there for a moment, blinking, before replying, calmly, "Ow."
Axel glanced at his friends. "Why do they need the Command Block?" he asked.
"The Order of the Stone are frauds," Jesse responded promptly but simply, "all of them."
Axel's eyes widened, and he looked as though he were about to fairly explode with curiosity, when Olivia interrupted, "It's a long story- one that we don't have time for." And she gave him a significant look.
The creeper hybrid deflated with a pout. "Fine."
"Stop looking like a kicked puppy when you pout!" Olivia exclaimed, smacking Axel on the shoulder and making the burly male blink at her. "It's too adorable!"
Axel blinked at Olivia a few more times. She blinked back and then seemed to realize what she'd just said, her face beginning to turn bright pink in embarrassment.
She decided to turn back to the screen and resolutely ignore the giggles now emitting from the audience.
"We'll tell you later," Jesse said quickly, before she blinked and looked up at Axel, an anxious sort of look coming over her face. "By the way, you guys didn't check on Petra and Ellegaard, right?"
Axel shook his head. "No, we came straight back here."
Lukas's ears drooped slightly. "They're still in that cave... I hope they'll be alright," he said, in a quieter, more subdued voice.
Real-Jesse drooped a bit as well, anxiety in her eyes. "Yeah..." she said, softly.
Petra reached over and clapped Jesse on the back, making the muscles in her face momentarily tighten again as she repressed a wince. Lukas's brow furrowed a bit in concern, but Jesse didn't notice since Petra started talking. "I'm sure we're both fine," the redhead said dismissively, "just kill the darn thing already."
"They will be," onscreen-Jesse told Lukas bracingly, "as long as we destroy the Command Block. We just... need to find a way for me to use this," and she flicked out the enchanted sword.
Axel's eyes widened admiringly. "WHOA. That is, without question, the coolest thing I've ever seen!" he exclaimed, a big grin spreading over his face.
"C'mon, let's go kick some Command Block butt!" Jesse said, fist tightening on her sword and green-and-red eyes hardening.
The rest of the group nodded, eyes shining with determination. Jesse turned around, the screen cutting to show them all landing in the crater that the Witherstorm created, before running towards Soren's fortress.
The screen changed again to show the group running through what used to be the main door to Soren's fortress, before it opened up into a vast landscape of stone, bedrock, dirt, and Endermen. Thousands and thousands of Endermen were milling around in the bedrock and stone and dirt, just moving blocks around aimlessly. Large parts of the hallway were being torn away, soaring straight over their heads at the Witherstorm.
Soren frowned but said nothing.
"We need to get the Endermen to focus and attack the Witherstorms, if we have any chance of getting to the Command Block," Olivia spoke, crossing her arms and looking around at the crowd of Endermen. The screen gave them a closeup of the main Witherstorm, Endermen teleporting around and tearing blocks right off of it.
"Can Endermen focus?" Axel mused to himself.
"Too bad Soren ran off... he might've had an idea," Ellegaard murmured.
Soren shook his head. "I somewhat doubt that. I've studied Endermen extensively... but this situation never happened while I was studying them."
"Obviously," Stacy responded, shooting the architect a faintly annoyed look.
"Olivia, can't you just ask the Endermen to attack the Witherstorm? Like, I dunno, an Endergeneral or something?" Lukas suggested to the Enderman hybrid.
Olivia paused, before shaking her head, making disappointed looks come over everyone's faces. "Endermen don't take orders from anyone, not even other Endermen. The one person who they DO take orders from technically doesn't even exist- it's just a kid's story. I could ask them, but they're probably just going to ignore me, so even then that'd be a risky endeavor."
"So that's a no go," Axel summed up.
"Pretty much," Olivia nodded.
"Damn," Magnus muttered under his breath, although it was still clearly audible to some of the groups around him and made them glance at him.
Jesse frowned and looked around at the Endermen worriedly. A tractor beam was roving around the area, sucking up blocks... and Endermen...
Her eyes widened, and an image flashed over the screen- Olivia charging forward to grab Gabriel out of the tractor beam, but then stopping full in her tracks. She started shaking, a strange screech emitting from her throat as her eyes widened in horror.
"Oh!" Maya exclaimed, eyes widening. "I see what Jesse's thinking!"
"Literally," Gill grinned at her.
She poked him.
As if on cue, as the image flashed back out of sight, another tractor beam shifted and landed right on one of the Endermen. The Enderman's head snapped up to face the Witherstorm, jaw unhinging as it screeched with rage, teleporting up in a flash of black. It appeared on the massive cloud that was the Witherstorm and began to rip blocks off of it.
"The tractor beam!" the four hybrids chorused, all of them whipping around to stare at each other, eyes widening.
"That's it, make them chase you into the tractor beam!" Olivia shouted, all of the hybrids dispersing into the crowd of Endermen.
Jesse paused, before shaking her head with a sigh as she charged into the crowd of Endermen herself. "Why in the world must saving the world be so darn stressful?" she groaned.
A/N: Does this chapter seem a bit short to you as well?
RQTC: Oh wow... I just realized we're only FOUR chapters away from that moment.
You're not going to believe what I've got in store (grins). What do you think I've got planned?
Emily The Avenger: (laughs) Yeah, I was dying while writing that.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (laughs) Yeah, this chapter might be the silliest one I've written yet xD
RapidSammi: (laughs) She was just acting sexy. In other words, I have no idea, I'm the farthest from sexy you can imagine xD / This was one of my favorite chapters to write, I was just laughing silently the whole time.
LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) So am I, don't worry xD / I'm surprisingly excited for all of them. Even that moment, but that's only because of what I've got planned. / My favorite episode... hm. I think that would actually be Episode 5, it made me laugh a lot xD
Guest: Yep xD
sailor. mikuchan: Yeah, I just got that idea randomly and I couldn't stop laughing while I wrote it. I literally had to stop writing several times so I could get over my giggles. / Oh dear xD
Kaos Ruin: Yep. (deep breath) Both excited for and dreading it. Can a person feel like that?
Darkbeast Dend: Okay :3 / Hehe yes he should xD / I have never watched Transformers xD
NinaNaranja: You ain't the only one xD / Aww, thank you! / Alright, thanks :3
J.M.M: Oh, you said 'Vocaloid? Going to need some description on that'. I didn't know what you meant by that, so hence why I asked. xD
x.X. A.L. X.x
