Lukas's head snapped up at that, and he stared at the pieces for a moment before whipping back to face Evie. He wasn't exactly a pale person or anything- fair-skinned, sure, but not pale- but at those words Evie could've sworn that he turned pure white. "Oh, Notch," he whispered in reply, blue eyes widening in shock as he reached up to cover his mouth. "Oh, Notch, you're right..."
Petra's eyes widened a little as she turned to face Evie, shaking her head a little. "But... a Wither... that's-"
"One of the worst monsters there is," Aiden finished for her automatically, pale-green eyes looking a little paler in the faint light emanating from the weird block.
Jesse swallowed- loud enough that there was a small but audible gulp sound as she did so. "We came down here," she spoke up, voice a little shaky, "to find Evie and the skull."
Evie blinked at the statement as Jesse finished, "well, we found them both."
Petra frowned uncertainly at the contents of the chest. "Maybe we should just- grab it, and get out of here," she said at last, eyes flickering through a myriad of emotions within seconds. "While we still can."
As if the universe was determined to thwart them, the quiet sound of shoes clicking on stone stairs met their ears. And it was growing louder and louder as the sound grew closer and closer.
"Uh- guys?" Lukas asked, voice rising into a dangerously frightened, high-pitched squeak.
"Scatter!" Petra hissed.
In perfect unison, the entire group scattered again, racing through the library for a hiding place. Reuben jumped up and nudged the lever to shut it again, while Jesse vaulted over a double-chest and squeezed herself in between it and a bookshelf, crouching down. Evie looked around in a panic, before spotting a tiny niche with an anvil in front of it.
Being rather glad that she wasn't much bigger than she was, she quickly dashed into the niche, diving into it and banging her elbow on the edge of the anvil along the way. She flinched at the feeling of a small bruise-cut forming on the area where she'd banged it, but bit her tongue to avoid making a pained sound. The last thing she needed to do was get everyone caught because she was clumsy.
"Don't you recognize me?!"
Evie flinched at the sudden shout, fear shooting through her and numbing the pain throbbing through her right elbow, certain that Ivor had spotted one of them somehow.
Until he continued, "Or, wait... surprised to see me?!" he burst out at the end, voice spiking dramatically in volume, before pausing and mumbling something. "No, that's not good... thought you were rid of me, didn't you?"
Ivor abruptly appeared on Evie's left, making the girl freeze completely still, holding her breath as he walked by. Thankfully, he didn't spot her- he seemed to be too busy muttering to himself at the moment. Across the way, a chest carefully creaked open, and a pair of clear blue eyes peeped out from under the lid, darting around fearfully.
"That's better."
Evie didn't realize she'd been holding her breath the entire time until her lungs started screaming at her to breathe. She carefully exhaled, doing her best to let out the breath as quietly as possibly. Due to the fact that Ivor didn't spot her or hear her (apparently), she apparently did a good job of it.
His shoes kept clicking against the stone floor, the sound of his shoes on the floor echoing in the giant and, at the moment, completely silent room.
And then they stopped, paused for a moment... before picking up again.
So far, apparently nobody had been spotted. Maybe he'd just paused to have a closer look at his fancy potion or something. Honestly, with how cramped this niche was, she couldn't see anything properly.
With the caution of someone walking into a nuclear radiation zone, Evie lifted herself into a kneeling position using the anvil, carefully leaning herself forward to get a better look at what was going on. Her elbow throbbed in complaint as she used it to keep herself upright, but she bit her tongue and kept her gaze fixated on Ivor, who was barely visible around the corner. She got this injury because she was careless, she had to deal with it.
Ivor was kneeling and rummaging through a double chest- not the same one that held the Wither Skulls, but a different one. Evie leaned forward a little more, narrowing her eyes and trying to get a better look at what he was looking at while boosting herself up a bit so that she could get a slightly better vantage point-
A potion bottle clattered to the floor nearby, startling Evie. Her hand, which had been bracing herself higher up, slipped off the far edge of the anvil, pitching Evie forward towards the floor.
Automatically flinching, Evie did her best to twist so that she landed on her back and not her face, but the heavy anvil that was in the way impeded her progress, and she only made it about halfway before the side of her head slammed into the floor with a loud thud!
And... possibly a slight crack as her skull made contact with the hard stone floor.
"Who's there?!" Ivor exclaimed, whipping around- to see Evie now lying on the floor for the most part, with her torso twisted somewhat awkwardly in relation to her legs and legs sort of balanced up in the air.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch, okay, that hurt, ouchy, okay," Evie muttered to herself almost incoherently, trying to take inventory of all the parts that hurt.
Her head? Yep, that felt like someone had just stuck a red-hot wire through the back of her skull, and she was seeing an entire cosmos swim before her eyes.
Jaw? Yep, that wasn't feeling too hot either. Though it didn't feel broken. Although, Evie wouldn't really know- she'd never broken her jaw before.
Legs? Yeah, since they were twisted so awkwardly in relation to her upper body.
Stomach? She might've skinned that area from slipping on the anvil and then crashing to the floor, but they didn't seem to hurt as much as her head.
Before she could gather herself and get herself back into a standing position, she felt a hand seize the front of her shirt and then haul her up to her feet, and she then found herself face to face with an absolutely furious Ivor.
He had to lift her into the air a little to get on her eye level- though, she was SURE it was much less than he would have to do with Jesse if she did this- and his dark blue eyes gleamed with a barely contained rage. "What are you doing here?!" he seethed.
Evie wished he'd let her get used to her head feeling like it had just gotten a red-hot wire stabbed through it- now it felt like he'd dunked her head in a bucket of lava.
Then he paused, expression changing to one of slightly dawning horror, and his voice lowered to an almost wary tone. "What did you see?"
Before Evie's slightly pain-dulled mind would come up with a response- at this point, it would probably be something along the lines of "Please put me down"- Petra dashed out from behind a bookshelf, glaring at Ivor. "Leave her alone!" she barked, angrily.
"Yeah, back off, pal," Axel growled, coming out from his own hiding place- which seemed to be between a bookshelf and the wall near the wall of potions- and crossing his arms angrily.
As if on cue, the rest of them- Jesse, Aiden, Lukas, and Olivia- also stepped out of their hiding places. Olivia from behind a bookshelf, Lukas opened his chest and stepped out, Jesse popped out from her little spot between the large chest and a bookshelf, and Aiden stepped forward from a particularly shadowy area with bookshelves.
Evie appreciated them defending her, but she really wished Ivor would put her down- her head felt like it was on fire right now.
"You three?" Ivor growled, looking from Evie to Jesse to Petra.
"Yep. Us three," Evie finally managed, headache throbbing away in her temples. "Now can you please put me down?" She tried to sound irritated with him, but she was pretty sure it failed dismally and came out as a restrained whimper.
Ivor glanced at Evie upon hearing this question, seemed to realize he was holding her up by her shirt an inch off the floor, and quickly released her. Evie's legs, which had not been prepared for the sudden release, collapsed beneath her and let her slide to the floor again. At least she didn't hit her head again. Small mercies.
"Did you follow me here?" Ivor snarled, looking around at the entire group with barely disguised disgust.
"You thought you could just screw us over," Petra accused, eyes practically glowing with anger, "and just get away with it, didn't you?!"
"We're here," Jesse continued for Petra, green eyes narrowing at Ivor, "to prove you wrong."
Evie thought about trying to look intimidating, but knowing that she was about as intimidating as a pancake with whipped cream on it- great, now she wanted pancakes- and the fact that her head still felt like it was in a bucket of lava, she decided she'd look more pathetic than anything else and decided to focus on standing up without dying.
Olivia walked over from where she'd been behind Ivor to help Evie to her feet, extending a hand to the girl. Evie gave Olivia a weak smile as she allowed the other girl to pull her back to her feet, while Reuben and Axel moved to stand next to Jesse. Axel's arms were crossed.
"What are you going to do about it?" Ivor snapped, sounding as if he was out of patience, "I have what I want, and you have exactly what you earned."
Evie was pretty sure a Wither Skull was worth more than a single diamond anyway, so she was pretty skeptical about Ivor's claim that Petra had 'exactly what she earned', especially since he'd cheated her and given her lapis instead. But she was hoping there was still a violence-free solution, so even though her head was clearing up and feeling less like someone was poking it with knives that were on fire, she decided to keep her mouth shut.
"Now get out before I put you out."
Jesse stalked towards him, green eyes brimming over with barely contained anger. "We know what you're doing down here." She pointed in the direction of the concealed ingredients. "Soul sand, and three Wither Skulls? You're building a Wither!"
Ivor looked surprised at that for a moment. "... huh. Smarter than you look."
"Hey!" Axel barked, making Evie jump in surprise at the sight of the burly boy suddenly looking angrier than whenever he was near Aiden, and trust me, that was pretty angry. "Nobody talks to my friends like that, and I mean nobody. Now shut your mouth- or else." His voice was brimming over with a sudden malice that Evie had not been expecting Axel to be able to have.
"Enough!" Ivor snapped back, impatiently, "you've wasted too much of my time already." He turned around and sprinted away from them, dashing into the maze of bookshelves. The entire group chased after him, Evie lagging behind at the back with Lukas as her head pounded away along with her feet on the floor. When they burst out of the shelves into the only clear area, Ivor was nowhere to be seen.
Evie frowned. Ivor was like a ninja.
I mean, she liked ninjas, but she wished that he wasn't like one right now.
"Where'd he go?" Aiden asked, frowning and turning around in a little circle searchingly. Everyone turned around, heads turning from side to side as they searched for the man. Evie tried not to move her head too much- despite the agony in her head having turned into something more normal and much less painful, she still had a terrible headache and moving her head around too much was probably going to result in her doing something stupid. Or disgusting. For example, throwing up.
Yeah, she didn't like throwing up. Let's not go down that route.
But since she wasn't moving too much, she- ironically- was the one to spot a flash of movement. She jerked her head up- ignoring the way her head proceeded to complain- and let out an alarmed gasp of shock at the sight of him holding a pumpkin over his head, preparing to slam it down on top of a T-
A T made of iron blocks.
"Iron golem incoming!" she cried out the first thing that came to mind, making the rest of the group whip back around and gasp in shock themselves as Ivor leered down at them.
"If you won't leave of your own volition, I'll happily remove you myself!"
With that, the pumpkin slammed down on top of the T, and he disappeared from sight as the structure began to tremble and shiver together- before coming to stand in front of it as it slammed together into an iron golem, smoke pouring off of it and disappearing from sight as he smirked at the group of teenagers. "Show our friends the door, will you?"
The iron golem turned to face them, dumb eyes gleaming red before it lumbered towards them- and then swung its long arms in a precise, controlled way right at their heads in an attempt to hit them. With a shriek, everyone ducked just in the nick of time, although Evie was almost too slow and nearly got smacked in the face again. As it was, the nearest person to her- Aiden- had to yank her down before she got her head smacked off her shoulders.
Turning back to them, the golem raised its arms again-
Petra and Olivia darted past it for the staircase towards the door, and Jesse was quick to follow, very narrowly avoiding a hit from the iron golem. In fact, the force of its attempt caused her hair to fly up a little as she scooped Reuben up and barreled for the door, Aiden and Axel being quick to race after them too- before Axel skidded to a halt, as if he'd forgotten something.
Evie was confused as she dove out of the way of another hit, stomach telling her 'ow' in complaint. Why wasn't he running?! He was in a lot of danger right now, one good hit from this iron golem and you'd probably get knocked out immediately-
Turning back around, Axel barreled towards her, narrowly avoiding another powerful blow from the iron golem. Before Evie could process what was going on, Axel slung Evie over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes and ran back for the door again, Evie yelping in surprise as she was suddenly bouncing along on Axel's shoulder. "Uh, Axel-?!"
"We just came all the way down here to get you, we ain't leaving you behind!" Axel shouted in response as he charged up the staircase, the iron golem letting out a long bellow as they burst through the doors.
Evie blinked in surprise.
Oh.
That was nice of him.
They burst through the doors, dashing towards the back of the keynote- which had apparently already started, because the lights had darkened and people were cheering and clamoring- where there was a clear space, where Axel hurriedly set Evie back down. Aiden narrowed his eyes at Axel for a moment, but he didn't say anything- though that simply may have been because he was almost completely out of breath. Everyone was panting heavily, trying to catch their breaths as their shoulders rose and fell, gasping in air. Even Evie, who hadn't been running, was hyperventilating slightly for air. That... that had been the most stressful thing ever.
"Everybody okay?" asked Jesse, glancing around at the group.
Evie glanced around at the group, all of them being rather hard to see in the dimness with the stage lights, not to mention that her headache wasn't helping matters. There was Jesse, her gold pin having gotten knocked out of position and hanging near the tip of her hair rather than keeping her hair out of her face, and Reuben, who was squealing and looking around; then there was Olivia, whose goggles were askew and whose dark skin was flushed with heat from the whole ordeal; and of course Axel was there with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, and Aiden was panting slightly, dark brown hair looking a bit messy.
Wait- and now Evie frowned. It might've just been Evie's massive headache talking, or maybe it was just the fact that the whole mess was making her hyperventilate, but...
Wasn't there someone missing?
Olivia suddenly looked up and started looking around as well, eyes widening as she realized the same thing Evie had, although the thought seemed to hit her quicker than it did Evie.
"Um... guys?"
Everyone looked over at Olivia almost quizzically, except for Evie, who was still trying to figure out who was missing.
The next two words made everyone feel as if an ice cube had just been dropped into their stomachs.
"Where's Lukas?"
A/N: Hoo boy. Lukas gets to be stuck in the basement next chapter.
Yay. xD
The MCSM soundtrack is really good... like, have you guys ever just sat down and listened to Soren's song in full, or to the Endercon soundtrack? It's sooo good.
Replies to reviews!
Smile4the-World: Oh... thank you! I'm glad you like the story so far, and I'm glad you like how things are going. / They might show up again, yeah, but I'm not going to say where or when. I'm still trying to figure it out. / Haha, yeah, someone should probably tell her. xD
Princess of Muffins: Imagine Ninja Ivor training Ninja Aiden xD / Ahaha, I'm clumsy too. Tell that to the fact that I got hit with a kickball/basketball in the face or head about fifty times in sixth grade. XD / Thanks! And Merry late Christmas!
LunarTheMooncake: Indeed. / Haha, glad you think so!
AquaK13: I can't do animal art, but aww xD / (snorts) (laughs) Well, chickens aren't that bad. Birds are great, though. / I see, that's an interesting connection to make.
EnderKitty68: (chuckles) / Aww, glad you think she's cute!
Kingdom Hearts Slayer: Thank you!
x.X. A.L. X.x
