DK's POV: Crash keeps pacing around, telling everyone to quickly eat dessert. I shove whatever is left of my toasted marshmallows in my mouth, then stand up. The others take their time. Crash takes out one of her little blocks - command blocks - and presses it. A splash potion appears above her, then lands in her other hand. She tucks the command block back onto her belt. Then she starts tapping her feet impatiently.
"Honestly, dude! Why so serious?" Cheese asks Crash.
Crash glares at him. "Just eat quick. I've seen toddlers eat faster than you guys. DK gets the idea".
I walk up to Crash and look at the potion in her hand. It's a blueish-greyish colour. Swiftness?
"What's with the potion?" I ask Crash.
"We're chunks away from you friend's place. We've got to get there fast," Crash scratches the back of her neck. "It's probably too late, but we've gotta check anyway".
Everyone finishes their marshmallows. Alex takes the marshmallow bag, opens it, and eats another pink fluffy candy.
"Go on, I'll eat on the way" Alex says with a mouthful of marshmallow.
Crash facepalms, then holds up the potion. "This is a modified version of a swiftness potion. We'll travel a lot faster than normal".
I nod as she throws down the potion. Immediantly, I feel a lot more jumpy and hyper as if I had a sugar rush with a thousand times more power. Crash gestures to follow, but I already know where to go. And the very moment we take one step, everything goes by in a blur. We exit the forest, then go through a desert, and back to the familiar flatlands near Steve's home. This must be how the Flash feels. From that far away, it would take ages to reach Steve's home. But with this OP Potion, we get there in less than a minute. Even the motion of getting a bucket of milk from my inventory is lightning quick. I gulp it down, and reduce to normal speed. Then I look around.
At a glance, the beautiful area seems calm and fine. But then I notice a few changes. The chickens in the chicken coop are scared and disturbed, running around the small area like crazy. The house looks a bit shaken. A few trees are chopped. Strange marks are on the ground; axe marks?
"Nice place. Except for the trees" Creep nods.
Crash goes straight towards the house and starts a full search. While she does that, Alex finishes off her bag of mallows. Creep fiddles with his sword. Cheese plays with his cheeslings. I go to calm down the chickens. I come back with a couple of eggs, right when Crash finishes her search. When she comes out she looks agitated.
"Not there. It must have manipulated them already," she mutters. "They may already be in her clutches..."
"Crash, can you tell us what's going on?! Really, we want to know" I ask Crash, putting my hand on her shoulder.
"Fine, you win! I'll tell you the facts!" Crash snaps at me, but then breathes and begins the story.
VVVVVVVV FLASHBACK VVVVVVVV
1 Year Ago, Friday 13:30pm, Crash and Hack's underground bunker (before they went public and got a mansion).
Crash's POV: I slam a flurry of punches into the armour stand dummy in front of me. Hack has his hood down, and is tapping away on his laptop, playing Agario. Hack is wearing his usual going-out clothes. Power gloves with special buttons for cool trolls and pranks, black leather robe, glowing armour. He blows a bit of his brown hair off his multicoloured eyes. The robot butler, Sam (Super All-use Machine [Hack came up with that name]), dusts off and tidies up the lounge of the underground bunk. 'Chirp' is playing on a jukebox.
"Argh! Noobish Doge cell!" Hack rages in his game (has this happened to you before on Agario?).
I roundhouse kick the dummy, knocking it's head out of place. Then I do a finishing punch, sending the dummy crashing to the ground.
"Did you accidentally enter a virus cell when you were too big for it?" I ask Hack, as Sam stops his chores for a second to reposition the dummy for me.
"Yeah, Doge led me into it" Hack replies, and is about to shut down his laptop, but addiction gets the best of him and he starts the game again. "I'm gonna get you, glaring Shibi Doge!"
I take a look at Sam. His build looks like a snow golem's, with his head and lower body being big and his upper body small. His not-so-alive dispenser head is emotionless. Sam's rusty iron body makes a small squeaking sound whenever he moves. His four arms are useful for tidying the place. He floats in the air using a magnetic device. Sam may be a bit old, but he's still useful and sometimes fun.
Sam fixes the dummy and leaves. I stand behind my brother and watch him play.
"Dude! Split! He's gonna get you!" I point out.
"Yup. I'm doing that now".
"Eat that mini cell!"
"Doing that".
"You're on the leaderboard!"
"Crash, you know you can be really annoying sometimes, right?" Hack grumbles.
I grin. "Sorry 'bout that".
A massive blue cell named 'TruceNot' eats Hack's CIA cell despite his evil bugs and cheats. Hack grabs his laptop and nearly throws it across the room, but then a 'da-ding' sound plays. Sam enters again. He's got mail. I take the envelope off him, then open it. One note, and two neck key chains labeled 'special pass' with some small text underneath it. I ignore the tiny text, but read the note aloud.
"This message is for Hacker and CommandCrash. From ?. Meet in Orelando (see what I did there?), 24:00pm tonight in the 'Mining Fatigue All-night Bar'. Look out for the guy with the weird wither skull hat. The rest will be explained there. There are two special passes included in this envelope for access to the bar. The prize: Explained later, due to these messages being inspected, but it's darn good. Don't be late, or else".
Hack slowly puts his laptop down. Then he lunges at me.
"Orelando Mining Fatigue BAR?!" Hack yelps, shoves me to the ground and then grabs the invitation to check that I'm not lying. "Dude, that's a five star VIP bar for only amazing people like Youtubers and all that! We've gotta go check it out".
"Let me guess, you still think you have a chance at being friends with DanTDM, don't you? Don't you remember what happened last time?" I get up and smirk, acting out the scene with my hands and using sound effects that involve being hit on the head by a giant evil cyborg clone and being splashed with a shrinking potion instead of regeneration.
"No! That was fun! I volunteered to be the test subject!" Hack snaps at me, but his face turns a bit red.
My smile widens. "Yeah, yeah. So, how far is Orelando?"
Hack presses a button concealed under his gloves. A holographic map appears in the air.
"Not too far from here. We can just click a button and teleport there. But it's way too early".
"Ok then," I announce as Hack closes his map. "Let's wait the longest 11 hours ever!"
"But we've got a time skip!" Speaks a voice.
"WHO WAS THAT?!" Hack jumps.
"Who cares? Let's just listen to that voice and take the time skip!" I roll my eyes.
VVVVVVVVVVV TIME SKIP VVVVVVVVVVV
21:25pm, Orelando Mining Fatigue Bar.
"So, this is the place, isn't it?" I ask.
We crouch behind a blue parked Formula One Cart Mark II and observe the scene. The sky is almost pitch black, but the street lights and the light coming from the bar light it up a little bit, with the occasional plane flying by. The parking is completely full, with lots of good looking or expensive carts taking all the places. A few campers are spread out, who still have hope in trying to enter. Two massive bodyguards, who are almost replicas of iron golems, guard the iron doors from any 'normal' people, insane fangirls and paparazzi without any $500 tickets or a 'special pass'. At one point some naked guy with only his underwear is on the run from some moderators. The massive neon flashing sign with a giant potion bottle stands out on the top of the building. I watch as famous Youtuber Skydoesminecraft shows his very own special pass and enters the building, with lots of yellow-clad Sky army fans cheering.
"Yup. Now, all we have to do is wait until the right time. Then we can go in," nods Hack, tightening his tie. For fun he went all stylish and decided to wear a navy blue tux. He still has his power gloves.
"But we ARE three hours early. Should we make the most of it before we go through the deal?" I ask.
"Derp YEAH!" Hack grins, and whips out the special passes and hands me one.
We step out of our hiding place and stride past the expensive carts, food stands and news reporters and paparazzi, resisting the urge to steal some little kid's cookies. We push past the queue of desparate fans and walk straight towards the door. The massive robot-like guards notice this and block our way. They wear dark suits and black pants under some iron armour, with slicked back hair and reflective shades. Something green shines on one of their ears. Earpieces.
"VIPs only past this point" The one on the left tells us in a deep voice.
Hack smiles and points to the passes. They are very flashy and futuristic looking. The guards hesitate, but then open the iron door. "Enjoy the night".
I can sense Hack's heart beating faster, so I roll my eyes and I drag him into the mob as the fans and paparazzi scream with jealousy laced in their voices. And we're blinded by flashing lights and our ears nearly pop from the music and cheering.
When my senses adjust, I quickly scan the area. There are multiple strobe lights flashing, as well as a massive disco cube (no balls or circles in Minecraft, remember?) spinning in the middle of the room. To the right, the bartender and his collection of brews. And on the left is a stage, with a DJ. C418 (the guy who made the Minecraft soundtrack)! 'Minecraft Style' by CaptainSparklez is playing full blast, as people dance and party. At first, I don't recognise anyone, until I notice Hack is gone from my side. I look around, and notice him buying 'Redstone Essence', an extremely expensive and rare type of drink. Before I can go up to him, he shakes hands with a guy with brown hair, a black jacket, golden limb pads and his distinguishable goggles on his head. Of course it's TheDiamondMinecart, aka DanTDM. They chat and laugh, then wander into the crowd. I could easily follow them, but I don't bother. I let him be. I spot two Youtubers, PopularMMOs and GamingwithJen, having a sword fight with gardening hoes. In another area, CaptainSparklez is singing kareoke with his song 'Revenge'. Stampylongnose and his girlfriend, SqaishyQuack, are eating cake together. Even Jeb, lead developer, has visited from the Mojang Office in the Aether just to attend this party. Most likely Notch is too busy to be here.
Someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around. A brunette is standing there, sipping on some 'Minecrafters' nightmare', apparently the bar's special brew. She has put the drink in a takeaway cup in case she spills any of it on her blue tuxedo and white shirt. The girl looks at me with her yellow eyes, the shade of a blaze. I feel a bit odd for a while, but I shake my head lightly, and the odd feeling is gone. Probably just the party fever.
"Um, may I help you?" I ask her, unsure.
"Sorry, my noob brother just dared me to go up to you and give you a drink, weird right?" The girl reaches into her inventory and pulls out a 'Creepa-Cola'. "I'm Aquarius, but you can call me Aqua, by the way".
I hesitate, but go to accept the can of Coke. But then I suspect something. The brunette, Aqua, is trying to hide a grin. And the Coke can doesn't look legit, as if it were painted by a mediocre artist. So without hesitation I tap the guy nearest to me.
"Hey, dude, do you want this can of coke? I haven't licked it or anything!" I ask the man. "She offered it but I'm not much of a drinker".
He looks at me as if I were insane. I point to the Coke. The guy sighs and takes the Creepa Cola. And when he opens it, nothing happens. Just a little fizz. But he yells and falls onto the ground as if Herobrine were right at his face. A few people stare at him, but mind their own business after a few seconds. The man glares at me and storms off, leaving the Coke can on the ground. It vanishes a few seconds later. I stare at Aqua.
"You did that? I mean, why did that guy just scream the life out of him even though nothing happened?"
Aqua smirks. "Congratulations! You're the first person who didn't fall for the prank! But for real though, to answer your question, I'm a trained illusionist and hypnotist. I can mess with people's minds. It's a career. But since you're an actually smart person, I won't do that. Truce?" She puts out her hand.
"Truce, I guess..." I check to see if she's only an illusion before shaking hands. "I'm Crash".
I hear a clacking sound so loud it's actually a bit louder than the part music, and then someone appears to the left of Aqua, and they nod. The guy to the left pulls his hands out of his lab coat pockets and wipes his glasses with his black leather gloves. His overshined black shoes must have made the clacking noise; I begin to wonder if they are tap dancing shoes. He has brown hair, similar to Aqua, but it's a bit darker. His dark green eyes look at me.
"Crash, meet my brother, GameMod. Game, meet Crash. Crash, Game. Game, Crash. You know what I mean, right?" Aqua slaps us both on the back.
"So, Game, what can you do? Your sister can crack people's minds, what about you?" I ask Game.
"Well, I can make cool things normal Minecraftia doesn't have. Like Lucky Blocks".
"Oh, I've heard of those. I guess I've heard of you before".
I hear a yelp behind me. It's Hack, shrieking and falling to the ground. I manage to spot the Creepa-Cola in his hand before it vanishes. I burst out laughing. Hack glares at me.
"It's not funny, sis" Hack growls. "You would have fallen for the same trap".
"Actually, no" Game calmly jumps in. "She didn't fall for it, she passed it on to someone else. She outsmarted the prank my sister made".
For a while, we're silent as the party rages around us. Then the rest of us just laugh as if someone did something wrong.
"Hey, you want a drink-off? Winner gets bragging rights, you in?" I ask.
"Awesome!"
We fistbump, and as new friends we party for whatever amount of time we got.
VVVVVVVV END OF FLASHBACK VVVVVVVV
DK's POV: Crash stops telling her story, shakes her head, and sharpens her sword. We all stand in silence, waiting for more.
"That's it?" I ask, after a while. "You became friends just by attending a party and playing pranks on each other?"
"No. It's more complicated. It's just that I don't want to explain it graphically" Crash scratches the back of her head. "Let's just say the wither headed dude wanted to kill Game and Aqua, they had really bad injuries, we saved them, Aqua got Guardian abilities to save her life and we teamed up. The end (if you DO want the full story I can PM it to you)".
"But Guardians only came in 1.8 a few days ago, so how can she have guardian abilities?" Cheese asks suspiciously.
"Hack, being himself, managed to hack into the Mojang office. He found out these Guardians were being developed, so he replicated their abilities and transferred them to Aqua".
"I still don't see the big deal, you know?" Alex is still confused.
"Basically, Hack and Game tricked your friends. Game sent a giant metal beast to distract them, then tell them where you guys were. It sent your friends to not the real location, but to Aqua's underwater temple home" Crash explains.
My heart pounds a bit faster when she says 'underwater'. Being only half ender, I won't die in the water, but it stings badly.
"She's still in the gig. So now it's most likely your friends are probably already on their way, or maybe already under her control," Crash finishes. "We need to go, now. Or else they'll be brain-dead".
We shuffle around for a little bit.
"I don't even know your friends and I'm more willing to help them than you are, how is that possible? Did I say LATER? No, I said NOW, and now means now, so let's go NOW!" Crash yells.
"OK OK! No need to be shouty! Where do we go from here?" Creep winces.
Crash takes a moment to calm down, but eventually points south. I'm still a bit wary about it being 'underwater', but I breathe and pull out my bow.
"Let's go" I say.
VVVVVVVVVV TIME SKIP VVVVVVVVVV
"We're here" Crash announces.
I survey my surroundings. We are on a flatland biome, next to an ocean. The ocean itself is more darker than usual, and I see what looks like oil in it. 'Not oil' I think. 'Ink'. I see blueish things floating on the water, and some are washed up on the shore. Dead squids. That explains the ink. There is a village next to it. It's a bit worn down, but it looks as if someone had been here and fixed a little bit of the major damage. That must be Steve and the others, doing good deeds. The villagers hurry around, repairing anything else, replanting some crops. I go up to a villager wearing a top hat, who looks like the mayor. He looks up at me, curious.
"Excuse me?" I ask. "Have you happened to see anyone else around here?"
He simply stares on, then shakes his head, and I sigh. But he's not making eye contact. He's lying.
"I'll give you some emeralds" I cave in and hold up my 4 only emeralds.
Mayor stares at them, and accepts them.
"I apologise for my selfishness, but we're just really poor. But yes, we have seen some people. Just half an hour ago, actually" The Mayor tucks the emeralds away in his pocket as he speaks. "An odd group of six. One of them we knew from other villages. They helped us out a bit, then went into what we call the 'Cursed Waters'. And they were gone. If you plan to go there, then you better have some mighty fine luck".
I turn towards the shore, where the others are splashing around. Crash is trying to talk to them but no one is listening.
"Well, thank you for doing business" I look back to thank the Mayor, but he's already gone to talk with one of the architects.
I shrug and walk back to the gang. I tap Crash on the shoulder.
"Just a question, why do they call this the cursed waters?" I ask.
"Because once someone enters they never come out. No one. Even if they do, they act never the same. It's like Bermuda Triangle. They don't know that it's actually just Aqua doing all this. The only GOOD thing is that you can breathe in the water, so we have no fear of drowning" Crash replies.
I hesitate, but shove my hand underwater. As soon as I make contact with the liquid my hand starts to sting. But only for a brief moment, because it eventually stops stinging and even feels quite nice. Grinning, I throw the rest of my body in the water. I flail around for a moment, apparently the water becomes deeper really quickly, but I calm down and relax. I can see every little detail under here. Shells, debri, dead squids and seaweed. Is this how people in space feel?
I hear a splashing behind me. The others have dived in. I grab a random pair of legs and drag them down. It's Cheese. He yelps, but eventually stops struggling.
"Wow, this is cool!" He laughs.
It sounds a bit bubbly, but it's still clear. Creep, Alex and Crash join us.
"Come on, I see the temple over there, I think!" I point to some colossal building a bit far off, and Crash nods.
"One more thing, guys" Crash says quickly. "If you hear a new voice, don't trust it. No matter what. Anything can be an illusion or mind trick. And if you see a brunette, don't trust her at all. That's my job".
We nod, and swim as fast as possible towards the temple. After a while of swimming and listening to Alex complain about her legs hurting, we reach the temple. It not anything like I've seen in news reports or guides or wikis. It's twice as big as a normal one, and there are some odd carvings in the prismarine walls. It's like a massive underwater pyramid. We reach the seafloor and stand in front of the grand entrance.
"Ok, we are going to be entering a maze. It's like a giant wall, and then the rest of the temple is inside. But you don't have to go through it. I can tell DK the coordinates and she can teleport. You can do that, right?" Crash speaks up suddenly, then points at me, and I nod. I can do that, I've done it before. "I can use my command blocks underwater. It will be a diversion for Aqua. A small one, but it may give time for you guys to find DK and find your friends. I'm going to have a word with her. Understand?"
"Since when were you leader?" Cheese asks, but when Crash glares at him he grins. "Sorry, only joking. Yup, we've got it".
Crash tells me the coordinates, then pulls out a block. I quickly memorise the coordinates, and I nod to Crash. She nods back and presses a button on the command block.
"Go go go!" Crash shoves me quickly, and I yelp.
Without any more hesitation I teleport. And I'm in an open area. It's like the lobby of a hotel or something, just underwater. There is no water in this area, so this space must be protected from any water entering here. The sunlight coming from above and shimmering on the walls is pretty beautiful. I notice a giant shining pile of gold in the middle of the room, and my jaw drops. That's a lot of gold! I start to consider whether I should pack as much gold as I can into my inventory when I notice a strange object in next to the pile of gold. A simple chair, with a body slumped over it. I stop, taking Crash's advice to heart. It might not be real. But I can't resist the urge to walk towards it. I stop only a block away. There is a slight movement, so I know the person is alive. Being this close means I can see who it is. I'm facing the back of it, so I walk around it slowly, until I reach the front. And when I take a look that's when I realise something. The person on the chair is Icy. Not dead, not unconcious, but sleeping. Sleeping? I start to think it's most probably either gas or potions or darts due to the fact there are no injuries, but all these thoughts stop when Icy clasps her hands around my throat.
WWWWWWWWWWWWW
There we go! New chapter! Hurrah! Hooray! A few words. First of all, updates will be slow. You know why. End of school tests and stuff. I've also got a school production and Christmas assembly to do. Secondly, I might be starting to morph into Aqua. In one month I've hypnotised 3 friends, made 6 people fall asleep for a while and made 14 people really tired for a few minutes! Whew! Then again, not everyone can be hypnotised, but yeah! Anyway, early Merry Christmas! Brooke will appear in the next chapter, as well as another OC, called...
New OC: *slaps Ender* DUDE, STOP SPOILING!
Me: Ok! Gees! Just don't keep repeating my name over...
New OC: Ender Ender Ender Ender...
Me: SHUT YOUR CHAT WE'RE ENDING THE CHAPTER NOW! Anyway, that might give you a hint on who it is (depends if you use wattpad), but byeeeeeee!