Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Well, I just got back from engineering camp, and I have to say, I was extremely impressed! Even so, I knew I couldn't live without all you guys! Also, sorry about the later post, I kinda slept in... Yeah, and it takes a while to prepare the Author's notes and stuff.

Also, on an unrelated note, I'd just like to say that my younger sister has just gotten a Fanfiction account, and I'd like to recommend her to you. Her username is Rehtse46, and she's currently writing a Super Smash Brothers story. She's already in my Favorite Authors list.

Anyway, :D so now that I'm back and ready to go, how about some replies to reviews?

Replies To Reviews...

Kyle McShade: Why yes! I have practiced the fine art of mind-reading... Hasn't everyone? :3

YoshiEmblem: Trust me, this camp wasn't like a "fill-in-the-piece-of-freaking-math-problems-by-to morrow" kind of camp, it was actually enjoyable.

Guest: You find out later, and it really is something, I'll just say that.

Enderdude: I've always wanted to go to Mall of America, but... Sadly, we don't have the time nor the money to do that, so it's not really a reasonable plan. Oh well, you can't have everything can you? :)

Tribble Queen: I hate Papercraft too, I tried making a squid once and, well, let's just say I got frustrated after ten minutes.

Happy Anonfish: As I was writing it I was thinking of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I was playing it at the time and I was totally obsessed. Yeah, it's the second time I've played it, though.

CSICreeper: Give me a P! Give me an A! Give me an S! Give me a T! Give me an R! Give me a Y! What's that spell? PASTRY! WOOOOOT! RAWR!

Guest: Hey, hey, it just took me a long time to write! Chill, man...

Alrighty then! Now, who'd like to get on with the story?

Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Last time on VOiD we watched from Adrian's point of view as his hat was stolen by a witch, and he was led to a cave, finding an ancient spirit inside that he was forced to let free. He received a curse that would allow him to crumple up into a ball whenever he shook hands (he has yet to find a use for this). Then we switched to Gabe's point of view. There we saw a very interesting scene involving him and Lucas, in which he was pinned to a wall with Lucas's diamond axe (named C.H.O., short for Chops Heads Off, if you remember). Both points of view proved to be quite interesting, but now we watch from Vanessa's POV as she masters the art of Light magic. After that we'll see how Rexum reacts to the many visions he receives under his trance.

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 13: Just One Week (Days 5-6)

Day 5-7: Back For More (Vanessa's POV)

Vanessa woke up the next morning to the sizzling of meat in a frying pan. She sat up in bed and looked around, seeing Adrian walking around, offering sausages to people. When he approached her, he asked,

"Hungry, cowgirl?"

Vanessa shook her head, not saying anything. She was still bitter towards Kelsey, but then she wondered why she was being bitter towards Mark's best friend. Before Adrian walked away she blurted out,

"Is Kelsey sorry?"

Adrian turned to look at her.

"Kelsey? About slapping ya?"

Vanessa nodded, the ghost pain of Kelsey's hand coming back to her cheek suddenly.

"Oh yeah! Kelsey's been eager ter apologize Mark AND you! She's had enough o' yer silence, she wants ya to forgive 'er!"

Vanessa looked around, seeing Kelsey sitting on her bed, pulling on her sandals. Then she caught her gaze, and to her surprise, Kelsey smiled at her in a sort of compassionate way. Vanessa looked up at Adrian, who was looking from one to the other.

"Can you tell her... Um, can you say that I forgive her?"

Adrian grinned, tipping his cowboy hat as his head nodded.

"Why sho' nuff, little lady!"

Adrian walked another few steps to see if Lucas wanted sausages, but Vanessa spoke again.

"Does she like Gabe?"

Adrian turned back and put his smile back on. Then he walked over and sat down next to Vanessa, looked around to make sure no one was watching to closely, and said in a hushed voice,

"No, she doesn't. Actually, she likes Mark, we know that for sure, we jus' don' know why she won't admit it. So if yer having an emotional warfare over that there Gabe, don' worry, he's totally open. You might jus' have trouble convincin' him that Kelsey has another guy in mind."

Adrian winked and stood up, walking away. A little party went off inside Vanessa's head. Gabe was free! Plus, Kelsey had asked for her forgiveness! Now she had nothing to worry about! Vanessa found herself looking down at her book. Now that all those things were out of her mind, she kind of wanted to try out the powers of her magic book. She'd stopped calling it "Moby Dick", just because it didn't fit, and used her knowledge of Latin to call it Cantatis, which meant "enchanted".

She stood up, and almost everyone looked at her. She hadn't moved much ever since the incident with that plant creature Lalita, so they were surprised to see her up and about with a smile across her face. Mark was especially surprised. He was so surprised that he had to get up and approach her.

"Vanessa, are you ok? You're... Smiling."

Vanessa rolled her eyes and was about to say something, but Mark beat her to the punch.

"Aha! You're trying to sneak out and have fun! I knew it!"

Vanessa's cheeks went red and she walked back to her bed.

"No, I was just stretching." she flipped open Cantatis to somewhere random, putting on a very sophisticated look. "And now, I am going to read "Moby Dick" like I always do."

Vanessa opened up her book and began to read. Mark kept an eye on her as she read, making it hard for her to really sneak away. She spent a whole two hours reading, even though she knew the book by heart. Finally, Mark got bored and stood up to grab some lunch. As soon as his back was turned, Vanessa stood up, creeping to the other side of the room. Then she opened the door, and unfortunately for her, she forgot that it squeaked, and it let out a particularly LOUD on as she moved through it.

"Oh no, please don't see me!"

Thankfully, Mark had sneezed at that exact moment, and she ran out, closing it under the cover of his "achoo!" to hide the squeak. Vanessa grinned and ran out into the forest to hide. Once she was deep enough, she lifted Cantatis. She wanted to see all of what it could do. Vanessa imagined again that she was holding a shield, and the next moment Cantatis transformed entirely into red energy, expanding until it was ten times its size as a lightweight, glowing red knight's shield. She grinned, excitement forming in her stomach.

Then she imagined she had a large double-edged sword, and once again the solid red energy shifted in her hand to form a huge blade, which she still had no problem holding. Her grin widened and she started to slice her blade, pretending that she was fighting off invisible enemies. The blade sliced through trees like butter, and she laughed aloud. Then she whirled around in a circle to slice the trees behind him, immediately coming face-to-face with Mark.

"EEK!" she shrieked, falling backwards onto her hindquarters.

Mark leaned over her with a grin and said,

"Ahhhhhhhh, I knew it! You're having FUN! Vanessa, Queen Crumby, Miss Mulish, the Willful Woman, having FUN! Hahahahaha! I'm so proud!"

Vanessa grumbled, standing up immediately to brush herself off.

"So what?! So what if I'm having fun?! What does it matter?!" she yelled angrily, turning around to face the forest, her face getting hotter than ever.

She felt Mark give a playful punch to the shoulder.

"It does matter! You used to be stiff as a board! You're actually loosening up!"

"I WAS NOT... I'M NOT STIFF!"

Then all of a sudden, someone else spoke from nearby.

"Aha! I've FINALLY found you!"

Someone came through the trees into the open patch of grass. It was the person Vanessa expected the least: Eragariss! He'd been following them for days upon DAYS just to find Vanessa. He pointed a clammy finger at her through his cloak and shouted,

"You're the one who absorbed my Dark magic and turned it into Light energy! You're the one who shoved many of the Grief Squad around with that shield! I've been looking everywhere for you! And now that I'm here, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd give me that book of yours!"

Vanessa stood there for a moment, running the situation through her head. She had a Cantatis, but this Eragariss creep had his own magic. But then she remembered her mother's words: 'No matter what, in every situation the light will overcome dark, while the dark cannot completely swallow the light.'. Then she grimaced with a serious look, and took a step towards Eragariss. She tried to sound brave as she said,

"No. I can take you."

"Vanessa, what the heck are you doing?! He's got Dark magic!"

"I've got Light magic, Mark, I'll be fine."

Eragariss let out a high pitched fit of laughter, and then straightened up, extending both his clammy hands.

"Oh good! I was hoping you'd say that!"

Then he cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, saying,

"Oi! Brizarg! Jenx! We've got ourselves a fight!"

The next moment, a tall figure and a medium one came through the trees. The tall figure was recognized as Brizarg. He still had that blood-soaked foot-long dagger in his hand. Jenx was the medium one, and he had his diamond sword as well. Jenx's dark hood was pulled up to hide his Trollface-face. It made him look cooler, anyway. Brizarg came and whapped Eragariss on the back of the head.

"Idiot, you missed your signal! Jenx was supposed to come out first, raise his arms to signal us and have us come out! You totally ruined the formation!"

Eragariss hung his head and muttered,

"You know, you could stop hitting me so often, maybe then I'd cooperate..."

He just got another slap on the back of the head from Brizarg. Then Brizarg looked up and away from Eragariss, staring past Vanessa to look at Mark.

"It doesn't matter now, though. I just want to avenge my hand..."

Vanessa looked down and noticed that Brizarg's right hand was missing. Mark must've cut it off in their first battle with those goons. Mark walked forward and stood next to her.

"You're going to have to fight both of us, then."

Jenx laughed and walked forward, standing in between Brizarg and Eragariss.

"Yes, well, even with missing body parts, we've trained for this day. Now you don't have the rest of your friends to help you, so you're outnumbered, AND we have improved since last time!" each of them got into a fighting position. "Prepare to die, Mark and Vanessa Cobweb!"

Just then, "Creeping Death" by Metallica began to play all around them, and the battle began. Mark ran forward at Brizarg and Jenx with his blade in the air. Vanessa began to make her way towards Eragariss instead. Eragariss jerked his hands forward, shooting beams of Dark magic at her. Vanessa quickly pictured a shield in her mind, transforming her red sword into the red shield just in time to deflect the beams. When she positioned it right, she could make the beams bounce back at Eragariss.

But Eragariss fought this by shooting a long stream of black energy at Vanessa, which knocked her back a little. As the stream went from his hands to her shuddering shield, he began to walk slowly towards her.

The stream began to concentrate into Vanessa's shield harder and harder, and she was having a hard time holding onto it because of how much it was vibrating. She knew she'd have to break the Dark stream somehow, but just a shield wasn't enough to deflect it. Eragariss was only five blocks away now, and though he advanced slowly, the stream just got more and more violent.

"Think! Think! Use that huge brain of yours, Vanessa!" she thought to herself.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to her mind at the last second, and Vanessa imagined herself carrying a gigantic mirror. It did the trick, because when she transformed the shield into a huge red mirror the Dark stream was instantly repelled, and it blasted Eragariss straight-on. He went flying and screaming into a tree twenty blocks away and landed in a smoking pile of robes in the grass. But he stood up the next moment, cracking his neck from side to side. Vanessa even caught sight of two gleaming red eyes underneath the darkness of the hood, and she shivered. He started towards Vanessa, declaring,

"Alright! Enough defensive fighting!"

He raised his hands, both of them close together, gripping something invisible. Then the hidden object materialized in his hands. It was a huge black katana. It had the Chinese symbols 死亡 written in what looked like glowing blood, positioned near the tip of the black blade. Being the intellectual dweeb she was, Vanessa understood that they meant "death" in Chinese. She shivered a little, but then focused on swords, and transformed Cantatis the shield into that giant, red, double-edged sword.

Eragariss zoomed forward with lots of speed, twirling his long katana over his head. At the same time, Vanessa felt some energy from her sword flow into her, and she felt her legs moving forward with incredible speed. Then their two swords met, showering both owners with a torrent of red and black sparks. Vanessa wasn't sure how she pulled it off, but it was some kind of new muscle-memory that made her arms swing this way and that with amazing speed similar to Eragariss's. At one point they both jumped back. Vanessa was very pleased to see that Eragariss was panting.

"Oho! I see I've got a challenge, here! I should have been able to spread you like the butter of defeat on my roll of evil, but... I guess I haven't been trying hard enough!" he muttered.

Vanessa watched as Eragariss gripped his sword with both hands tightly. Then, from out of the bottom of the dark handle came another long black blade with the same Chinese symbol at the end. Now he was holding a double-bladed katana. In her head, Vanessa realized that Eragariss could imagine whatever he wanted, but so could she. So, what if she imagined something that would defeat him before he could do anything else?

So instead of cowering, Vanessa just smiled. In her head she imagined a gigantic mallet. Once it formed in her hand, she brought it down, landing it smack on Eragariss's head. When she brought it back up, she was pleased to see that Eragariss was flattened into the ground, his Dark magic katana in many black pieces nearby. All Eragariss could do was give a couple of pained noises.

"Urk... Ow... Darn... It... Curse... You..."

Vanessa heard a shout to her left and turned, seeing that Mark was having trouble fending off both Jenx and Brizarg at the same time. Jenx had just raised his diamond sword to stab Mark from above when Vanessa swung sideways with her gigantic red mallet, which collided with both of the cloaked figures, sending them flying away and into the trees. Vanessa ran over to Mark, who was crouched on the ground, catching his breath.

"Took you long enough... Whew!" he muttered.

Then he looked around and said,

"What happened to Eragariss?"

She helped Mark up and led him to the hole in the ground that Eragariss was embedded in.

"I flattened him with a mallet."

Mark grinned, and then shook his head.

"Ah man, that's great." he clapped her on the back, nearly knocking her over. "You've got some spirit deep in there, kid."

Suddenly, they heard a shout from ten or so blocks away and looked that way to see Jenx and Brizarg coming back through the trees. They shouted out,

"We will report back to Lord Glitch about this!"

Vanessa and Mark exchanged looks, but then Vanessa shut her eyes and imagined a huge crossbow. It formed in her hands the next moment, and she aimed a large arrow at the two cloaked figures nearby, shooting an arrow tied to a long string at Jenx. Jenx moved out of the way easily, though, and the giant arrow with its trail of string lodged into the tree behind them. Jenx turned and shouted,

"Ha! You missed!"

Then Vanessa pulled back, and the tree with the arrow in it fell over, landing right on top of Jenx and Brizarg. She ran forward and formed a huge red crowbar, which she bent around the tree, lodging both ends into the dirt, magicking it to stick that way no matter what. Then she turned to Mark and said,

"Let's go get Rexum; he can take care of them."

So they both ran back to their house—Vanessa was panting by the time they reached the door, because now that she no longer was holding Cantatis all that new energy had gone from her. They burst through the door with a bang, and Rexum jerked away next to them.

"What is all the noise?!" he demanded, turning on them a scowl.

"Rexum! There are three Grief Squad Members out in the forest that attacked us, and Vanessa beat them up and stuff, and we need you to go and deal with them!"

Rexum stood up immediately rushing out the door towards the woods. He darted through the trees like no regular old man could manage, his staff held at his side. The he stopped in the open patch of grass. Vanessa grabbed his wizened hand and led him to where she'd flattened Eragariss.

"Quick! He's over... Here?"

But in the hole where Eragariss used to be was empty space with just his outline.

"But... He was just here! I flattened him into this hole!"

Then they lead him over to the spot where they'd pinned the tree to the ground with Cantatis in crowbar form. The huge crowbar was gone, just leaving the tree fallen on the ground. Rexum twirled his staff to lift it up from the ground. Underneath were two imprints of Jenx and Brizarg. All three of the cloaked men were gone, vanished, completely fled from the scene. Suddenly, Vanessa slapped her forehead and said,

"Oh no! I never thought about Eragariss! He probably used his Dark magic to get rid of the crowbar! They've gone to report to that Glitch thing, and now Cantatis is stolen, probably gone forever!"

"So... Once again you have failed me..."

At that moment, Jenx, Brizarg and Eragariss were standing with their heads lowered in front of the Glitch, who sat upon its black throne. It still had complete control of the Void Palace and its numbers. Even so, the Glitch was still extremely angered when it found out that the three of the cloaked men had failed to kill or at least capture Mark and his friends, much less steal the Balance Core. Jenx stepped forward and bowed, saying,

"Our deepest apologies, Lord Glitch. We would have been able to ambush them if it were not for Eragariss's mistake, for he blew our cover quite immediately to bring himself attention."

Brizarg smacked the back of Eragariss's head for the millionth time, and Eragariss just sniffled.

"I... Didn't mean to blow our cover." he murmured.

The Glitch folded its gigantic black wings and muttered,

"Your personal intentions do not matter, all that is of importance is that you do the job RIGHT! And what did you do?! I am certain that what you did isn't what I call RIGHT!"

Eragariss backed up and said,

"Yes... Yes Lord Glitch, I shall not fail you again."

"See that your promise doesn't go unfulfilled..." then the Glitch looked from Jenx to Brizarg to Eragariss and then back again. "I expect that you three do not fail me again. The consequences will be severe if you do."

All three of them bowed, chiming in with "yes Lord Glitch". Then Brizarg remembered something and reached into his sleeve, pulling out a thick leather-bound book glowing with red light. It was Cantatis.

"Oh yes, we also found this."

The Glitch looked at the book for a moment, observing it closely.

"We know it has a lot of power, but we don't know exactly what the source is. We think that it absorbed some of Eragariss's Dark magic and turned it into Light magic."

But just then, right before their eyes, Cantatis became shrouded in a thick red mist, and it cleared the moment later, only the book had disappeared from Brizarg's hand. The Glitch looked dumbfounded—it was actually kind of hard to tell since the Glitch only had eyes and a mouth.

"What happened?! Where did the book go?!"

Vanessa sat on the bed with Mark, who had a comforting arm around her.

"Don't worry, when we find the Glitch I swear I'll get the book back."

Just then, Vanessa grunted in pain as something heavy dropped on her head. It fell onto the bedspread in front of her, bouncing slightly on the springy mattress. It was Cantatis! She grabbed the book and said,

"How did this get here?"

She was overcome by joy, and she almost missed Mark saying,

"I guess that book of yours has the magic ability to teleport to its owner. It probably didn't want to be held by those clammy fingers anymore, so it disappeared."

At that moment, everyone else in the house—except Rexum, who stayed standing in the corner, just watching. They all wanted to know what exactly happened. So Vanessa repeated the whole story, starting with her going into the woods to test Cantatis's abilities all the way to them coming back with Rexum to find them all gone.

When she was talking about flattening Eragariss with a mallet, Adrian burst out laughing, slapping his knee a couple times. It could've possibly been Vanessa's best night ever—or at least apart from the one where she went to a national spelling bee and won first place. She went to bed that night wondering about her life, thinking that maybe she'd been wasting her whole life sitting alone in her comfort zone. In fact, she fell asleep thinking that maybe she didn't want to live the rest of her life with her nose buried in the pages of a book. Maybe she'd follow Mark for a change.

Day 6: Whirlpool Alley (Rexum's POV)

Morning came, and Rexum was already troubled. He'd been sensing something dangerous all night, ruining his nightly meditation sequence. He decided that he would meditate for the entire day, just in case there were things he would have to prepare for tomorrow on their last day of rest. Visions could come at any moment, so Rexum positioned himself comfortably on top of his ice-cold Eyestone—the cold didn't bother him, actually—and closed his eyes, allowing himself to fall asleep instantly. He had five visions.

The First Vision...

He was standing in a strange dark castle of some sort. Everything was moving, the floors, the ceiling, the walls, and it was hard to navigate his way through. He could see something glowing at the other end, and he was determined to reach it, but every time he looked down he could only see the gaping holes that would send him plummeting to his death.

He continued to jump from shifting black platform to the next, but he had to move quickly, because he started to sink through. Finally, though, he made it to the other side and started to run towards the white glow in the distance. But then, the floor in front of him rose up and formed a gigantic shifting blob of that black matter. Before Mark could react, it opened its great red eyes and mouth and screeched. Then, it extended two massive black wings and launched forward, consuming him in an agonizing blast of cold and dark.

The Second Vision

He found himself standing in that dark room with shifting floors again, only he was on the other side. He ran towards the light at the other end, but then the light turned red and two silhouettes appeared floating in front of the light. Both silhouettes were human bodies, one smaller than the other. Both were suspended like puppets, and then the smaller one twitched and opened its eyes. It had glowing red eyes.

But then, the silhouette puppet-like body went limp and fell to the ground in front of him with an echoing crack, turning into Lucas. But now, Lucas's figure was bent and twisted and bloody, and Rexum saw Mark standing over the body nearby, and he was watching in horror as it disintegrated into many black particles of plasma, which swirled around, fading away into the cold air.

The second silhouette opened its eyes, revealing glowing red eyes again. Then it fell to the ground and turned into the broken figure of Gabe, broken and scarred and bloody. That body also disintegrated into plasma, but this time it was glowing white, also swirling up and fading into the cold air.

Then all of a sudden, he heard an unearthly buzz come from the red light in front of him and the light changed, swirling from red to instead black and white. From out of the black light appeared two evil red eyes, and then two glowing blue from the other. Rexum watched as the two pairs of eyes glared down at Mark, who still stood in fear nearby. They both looked at the figure that was Mark for only a second, and then he heard a voice in his head say,

"CHOOSE!"

The Third Vision

Rexum could in front of him that Mark was standing in a dark room, and the only light was from a fountain of lava in the very center. Mark could hear something moving in the dark that lay ahead, and his curiosity overcame him, so he moved towards the noise, and Rexum followed. Soon it was too dark to see anything, so he placed a torch that was in his hand. As the light flared up he watched Mark scream and back up, for staring angrily at him were three larger-than-life cave spiders, all three of them pitch black with blood-gushing red eyes. Clearly they were mutated, because the blood that oozed from their eyes was eating away at the floor, creating a gap between Mark and the spiders.

But the worst part was that Rexum could see Mark's expression, since could see Vanessa, Lucas and Bonbon all tied to the stone wall with sticky cobwebs. Their eyes were gouged out and bites were all over their faces, all of them oozing black gunk. Suddenly, the dead bodies of his friends all turned to look at Mark, and he wanted to scream out for help, but the cold of the room clouded his lungs, and all he could do was keep his mouth in a horrible gape. In his shock he fell backwards, but instead of falling onto stone he found himself being burned away by the black blood oozing from the cave spiders' eyes. While he was in pain and immobilized on the ground, the middle cave spider launched forward towards him with its great fanged mouth open and...

The Fourth Vision

Rexum walked down a dark hallway. There was absolutely nothing in it, except he knew he was walking on stone. The hood of his green robes was pulled over his head, hiding his eyes, but he didn't need to see to know what he was doing. He heard pounding at the other end of the hallway, but he ignored it casually. Then he came into a room, very small with only one redstone torch placed next to the doorway. In the center of the room was a glass tank. Mark was pounding from the inside, trying to break the glass, but Rexum knew it was enchanted.

He looked to the side at a lever sitting on a block of stone, next to it sat a circuit of redstone the stretched into the wall. He had to do this... He had to, it would save the universe from utter destruction... Then he flipped the lever into the "off" position, extinguishing the redstone's glow, and watched as water flowed down over Mark in the tank. Mark struggled, pounding harder until he ran out of breath, drowning. Rexum walked out of the room once Mark had lost his life, exiting into the dark hallway, knowing that what he did was for the best...

The Fifth Vision

Rexum found himself staring into something like a pane of glass. Then the glass turned reflective and a live-action scene appeared before him. He saw a colossal squid the size of a tall jungle tree poking its many tentacles—he counted twenty—out of the water, swirling them into a circle to create a raging vortex in the foamy water. He watched as several figures were sucked into waters, but he couldn't tell who they were. Then the image zoomed in on one of them.

It showed Mark, drenched from head to toe, holding tight onto Mr. Pig, both of them swirling around and around until finally, they were sucked down through the hole. Then the rest of the figures fell in the next few moments, and the colossal squid brought its many tentacles down into the water with a splash, destroying the balance of the vortex.

Then Rexum awoke. He looked around frantically, and only saw Vanessa, who was sitting on her bed, flipping through Cantatis. He stood up immediately and said,

"Where are the others?!"

Vanessa jumped and looked up at Rexum. She was always a bit jittery when he addressed her directly.

"They went to the beach, it was Mark's idea, and... Well..." she hesitated for a bit. "He said that he was going into Whirlpool Alley!"

Rexum quickly grabbed his golden oak staff and said,

"We need to go."

"We?" asked Vanessa, standing up.

As Rexum was heading out the door he said,

"Oh yes, you have your own bit of magic, do you not?"

Vanessa was now nodding her head up and down excitedly, a nervous smile spread across her face.

"Y-yes sir!"

"Then follow me..." aid Rexum.

As Rexum walked through the door he heard Vanessa give an excited little squeal. He just hoped that she and that book of hers would be of some use. Then again, with their daily meditating exercises, she hasn't failed to impress him.

They ran across the grass, and then they found themselves running into the sand. Without even stopping, Rexum twirled his staff in midair, creating a golden cloud, which he leapt onto, soaring on it over the surface of the water. He heard a splashing noise behind him and turned to see Vanessa hollering as she zoomed along, riding the foamy waves on a glowing red surfing board. They only had to travel for a few seconds—considering their speed—until they reached it: Whirlpool Alley. Really, it was just an empty space of water surrounded by lots of small whirlpools. But Rexum knew exactly what was going to happen. He turned to Vanessa, who just sat there on her glowing red surfboard.

"Vanessa, stand up. Don't lower your guard, any moment now, a colossal squid with twenty tentacles will come out of the water, so get ready to battle!"

Vanessa turned in time to shout,

"Wait, what?!"

As if on cue, there was a loud squelching sound, and twenty gigantic tentacles shot out of the water, one from each of the twenty mini-whirlpools surrounding the patch of water. Then they swirled around and around, and that was Rexum's cue. He flew up on his golden cloud towards the middle of the space in between the gigantic circle of swirling tentacles, right above the hole of the largest whirlpool. Vanessa transformed Cantatis into a flying catapult and rose up out of the force of the vortex. Rexum turned and shouted,

"You realize that I have far greater magic power than you, Vanessa! So what I need you to do is find the weakest tentacle! It has a large yellow suction cup, the only yellow one here! You must find it and blast it with everything you have while I destroy the other nineteen tentacles!"

She turned to looked at him and said,

"You sure you can handle nineteen of these things?!"

"Yes! Just do as I say! Here they come!"

Rexum looked up at the wave of tentacles surrounding him, each of them easily twenty blocks long. He swirled his staff in a circle, letting a whip of gold glitter flow from out of it until it was over sixty blocks long. As tentacles came at him, he snapped his whip, keeping them at a good distance. He took a glance over his shoulder to see four tentacles going after Vanessa, so he whipped those as well, making sure to keep them off her.

A few more minutes of brutal brawling later, Vanessa shouted,

"Rexum! I got it! I shot the yellow suction cup!"

Rexum turned around and saw a tentacle in front of Kelsey with a smoldering hole burned right through one of its suction cups, which was indeed yellow. Or at least, was yellow before it was completely annihilated. Rexum grabbed Vanessa's hand and pulled her onto his cloud, so she turned Cantatis into its normal book form.

"Let's go, we've got to get into the whirlpool before it closes."

The next moment they were dropping like a stone through air, plummeting towards the hole of the massive soon-to-disappeared whirlpool below them. Then they entered the hole, and after a few seconds the water above them caught up and fell over them, submerging them in the ocean. Then it was quiet. Rexum focused his mind, and a bubble of gold liquid appeared around them, allowing them to breath. Vanessa landed on the slippery surface a moment later, saying,

"So, where's the colossal squid?"

Rexum looked around at the dark waters, and suddenly spotted a dull glow beneath them. He stepped off of his golden catapult onto the bubble and said,

"Below us is the monster's cave. I deeply hope that Mark and the others haven't been eaten."

Vanessa made a little noise behind him.

"Eaten?!"

"Yes, the colossal squid was probably quite pleased when it came across what it thought was a nice meal..."

Rexum lifted his staff up and thrust it downward, and the bubble began to sink deeper into the dark ocean. The dull glow beneath them began to get closer and closer, until finally they could see a large cave sitting on the ocean floor, a light similar to Glowstone coming from its mouth. Rexum steered their protective bubble up to the mouth of the cave and peered inside.

It was basically just a gigantic room made of stone, only there was a HUGE fountain in the middle, and it was just overflowed with squids, which were packed together like sardines in the water. Rexum kept them hovering at the mouth of the cave and muttered,

"Where is that squid..."

As if on cue, a gigantic tentacle came hurtling at them from behind, which collided with the bubble, sending them flying inside of it into the wall at the back of them room. The bubble popped at it hit the wall, sending Rexum and Vanessa onto the floor in a soapy mess. Rexum held up his staff just in time to blast another tentacle away. More tentacles appeared from behind the fountain, and so Vanessa helped Rexum in destroying them. Then the yellow tentacle appeared, and when it got blasted, yet another one of the suction cups was burned through entirely, leaving it with only three more giant suction cups. The tentacles retreated behind the fountain. Then, silence.

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Then there was a rumble that cut through the silence. Out from behind the fountain came a gigantic pair of milky-white squid eyes, followed by a gigantic red body. The colossal squid rose up until it touched the ceiling, giving it a height of twenty whole blocks, and that wasn't including the tentacles.

There was a strange squeaking/gurgling sound that came from the fountain of squids, and the next moment they all jumped from the water of the fountain, falling in a shower onto Rexum and Vanessa. Rexum raised his staff to create a golden tornado, which magically tossed the squids towards their master. But the colossal squid formed a shield with its tentacles, and the cloud of flying squids was scattered across the cave floor.

Then the colossal squid raised its tentacles, and curled inside of them... It was Mark, Kelsey, Gabe, Lucas and Adrian! All of them were shouting for help, but being the ravenous creature it was, the colossal squid didn't take pleas lightly.

Vanessa transformed Cantatis into her huge double-edged sword and ran forward, energy surging through her whole body.

"LET GO OF MY BROTHER!"

She jumped into the air and swung her blade, completely slicing two tentacles in half, and the colossal squid let out a strange noise, lunging forward with its other tentacles. Rexum thrust his staff, forming a golden shield around her for protection. The tentacles smashed furiously, but they did only enough to make the barrier shudder. Vanessa sliced two more tentacles in half. The next moment, when the colossal squid lunged forward Rexum saw that the tentacle with the yellow suction cups was coming at her from the left.

"Vanessa! Yellow sucker to your left!" he shouted.

Vanessa turned and saw it coming just in time, and she stabbed forward through another one of the yellow suction cups. Now there was only one more left for them to hit. But the colossal squid must've learned its lesson, because immediately it retracted, and its tentacles curled around it until that was all you could see. It was obviously going on the defensive side. Then the squid mess flopping around on the floor began to take action, because the next moment all the tentacle creatures flew up from the floor and surrounded their master, forming something like a gigantic shell.

Rexum called up to Vanessa, saying,

"Vanessa!"

She looked down at him from inside her golden box.

"Yes?"

"In order to defeat this thing before it eats the others, we'll have to combine our powers and perform the Miscere Potestatem spell!"

Vanessa, being very strong in Latin, said,

"Doesn't that mean "combine power"? How would we do that?"

Rexum raised his golden oak staff, creating that glittering trail, which plucked Cantatis the double-edged sword from Vanessa's hands. It turned back into a book, and then opened, pressing itself over the knotted top of the staff. There was a bolt of red and gold that bounced from the book to the staff, and a bond seemed to have been created. When Rexum brought the staff to the floor, Cantatis was hovering around it, that little lightning bolt of color connecting them. He raised the staff and brought Vanessa back down to the ground, eliminating the barriers around her. Then he held out the staff sideways, saying,

"Grip one end." he said.

Vanessa did as she was told and took the top end of the staff while Rexum took the knotted end. Then he began to mutter the Miscere Potestatem incantation.

"Mogrue berghka jendu iksam..."

Then there was another flash of light, and the staff exploded with a blast of energy, knocking them both onto the ground. The energy ball of gold and red zoomed at the colossal squid covered with the squid horde, creating a MASSIVE explosion. The monster squealed as its squid shield disintegrated, and it flailed its many burned tentacles. Rexum quickly got to his feet and pulled Vanessa up with him, and they both gripped onto the staff with Cantatis still twirling around it, and blasted another ball of red/gold energy. This one zoomed at the yellow tentacle hidden amongst the other flailing limbs of the creature, and landed spot-on the last yellow sucker.

The colossal squid froze in place behind the giant fountain, light streaming from out of its two eyes. Then, with a massive rumble, it exploded into a gigantic blob of guts and tentacles, flopping onto the floor in a messy mountain. Cantatis disconnected from Rexum's golden oak staff and landed back in Vanessa's hands. Rexum watched as she ran forward, shouting out,

"Mark! Hello?! You in there?!"

She slipped her way through the pile of tentacles and guts and blood, lifting things to try and find her brother. Then he appeared, lifting his head out from under another tentacle next to the fountain. Vanessa ran to him and caught him off-guard in a hug, wet and splashed with tentacle slime.

"Mark, what the heck were you thinking?! Why'd you come into Whirlpool Alley even after Rexum said it wasn't safe?!"

Mark blinked and wiped his face off with his sleeve—which really only made him dirtier. Then he looked around and said,

"I didn't ask to come here! It was all Lucas's idea!"

At this, Rexum walked forward and raised his staff, sending out a trail of golden glitter. The trail weaved in and out of the remains of the colossal squid, when finally they pulled something out of the pile—it was Lucas, who was hanging by the seat of his pants from the magic trail.

"Heyheyheyheyhey! Let me down!" he protested, swinging uselessly at the stream of gold.

Lucas was plopped down in front of Rexum, who crossed his arms and stared at Lucas with anger, his icy eyes absolutely piercing.

"What have you done?! I believe I prohibited you all from accessing Whirlpool Alley! After all I have done to protect you, you have gone out and nearly gotten yourself and everyone else killed! I am so disappointed in you!"

A few moments later, Kelsey, Gabe and Adrian began to pop up in a dizzied state from under the tentacle pile, slipping down its slope to the stone floor. As Kelsey came down the slope, she tripped and landed on her back on the stone floor, knocking the wind from her. Mark rushed forward and reached out a long arm, lifting her to her feet. She blushed and said,

"Er... Thanks."

Then their eyes met, and it was obvious that Mark's lips were forming words. Then they came out quietly the next moment...

"You're... You've..."

"Yeah?" murmured Kelsey, her green eyes shining.

He pointed to her hair and said,

"Y-you've got a squid eye in your hair..."

There was a silence, and somewhere next to their group Adrian muttered,

"Awkward..."

Kelsey flipped her slimy hair and flung the squid eye from her head. The silence continued for another few seconds, but then Rexum stepped in and said in an angered voice,

"Everyone, we're going back to the house; I require a word with all of you."

Nobody spoke as they floated away from the cave and up to the surface of the water inside the golden bubble. When they landed at the front door, Rexum took one more look at them, sighed, and then turned back to open up the squeaking door. They filed in and sat down on their heads—the thoughts of ruining clean bedspreads didn't seem to occur.

Rexum lectured them for another two hours. Yes, two hours of him talking sent mostly everyone to a sleepy state. Finally, near the end he said something that snapped them awake.

"Despite how mad I am, I know that tomorrow is our last day," they all looked up at him with surprised looks. The week had gone by way too fast for everyone. "So I expect that you all have a satisfying party before we are required to leave."

Their eyes widened, and then Mark stood up and said,

"But aren't you, like, gonna punish us or something?"

Rexum nodded slowly and said quietly,

"If this were not a special occasion, I would surely punish you all. But, I know that depriving you of pleasure right before we leave on our long journey would be nothing less than cruel and unusual punishment, which I cannot force myself to do..."

They all whooped with excitement and exchanged high-fives, fist bumps and even some chest bumps. It was only when Gabe nearly crushed Mark after attempting to chest-bump him did Rexum stop them from going any crazier with excitement.

"But, I still must take into account that it is no longer safe for you to go out tonight. You must stay in the house for the rest of the day; may that be enough of a punishment."

It was only a bit after noon, and they still had a lot of daylight to cover, but everyone was so pumped for the next morning that nobody cared. They basically just made plans for the rest of the day while Rexum walked back to his Eyestone near the door. He would not be partying, not when there were so many things troubling him...

Woah! I'd totally be annoyed if I were in Rexum's position. After ALL he's done to keep them safe, they still go out and do things dangerous? How dare they... Heheheheheh, it's definitely my fault. X33333

Anyway, now I introduce to you: QAA!"

To the Glitch: You a brony? I bet you like the character Discord. Yep, your guilty face proves it. You are a brony. :3 I no ur secret.

The Glitch: How dare you say such a ridiculous accusation! I am a supreme being of death, I have no time to invest time in such idiotic activities such as the My Little Pony franchise! And a message to Discord: SUCK EGGS, DINGALING! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

To the Fourth Wall Repairman: Sorry. :( */give f_w_r_m forcefield, new fourth wall, new hammer*

Fourth Wall Repairman: Thanks! *takes hammer in hand and says,* Break the fourth wall for just a moment. *you break the fourth wall without even trying, and the fourth wall repairman walks over, tapping the remains, sending them flying together to create a brand-new wall* It works like a charm! Let me know if I can help you anytime! :D

To Kelsey: Mark wants your virginity. He wants to rape you, so here is a Minecraft condom. :0

Kelsey: You are such a jerk! *stomps away, burning with anger, and chucks the condom at your face*

To Vanessa: When was the last time you had fun?

Vanessa: Oh right! Probably when I was facing that colossal squid with Rexum.

To Da Glitch: ME AN OLD CODGER! I'M 22! Since when is that old?! Don't make me put my diamond boomerang through your mass!

Da Glitch: FO SHO FOOL! 'SHOO DOIN GOIN 'ROUND CALLIN PEOPLE CODGERS?! YOU SO DA FILTY OLE CODGER! YOU DA FILTIEST OLE CODGER I EVER MET, FOOL! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

To the Fourth Wall Repairman: How do you fix the fourth wall with only glue?

The Fourth Wall Repairman: It's magic glue, obviously, and it's called Wall Glue, so... It usually does the job, but lately it's been almost nothing to me.

To Everyone: Everyone, you are all cool, but not you Glitch, you my friend suck.

Mark: Aww yeah! *brofist*

Vanessa: I... I'm c-cool? Y-you mean it? *cups hands to her mouth and shouts,* Hey Mark! Here that?! I'm cool!

Kelsey: Oh good, I... I was always the odd one out at school. You know, I got lots of dumb nicknames and jerks were everywhere, just always pushing me around. It means a lot for me to be called cool, so thank you. :)

Gabe: Oh, no need to call me such things. I prefer to think of myself as more of a gentleman, if you will.

Adrian: Well, sho' 'nuff, partner! ;D

Lucas: Oh stop it, you! ^-^

Rexum: I am not cool, I am just psychic.

The Glitch: HOW DARE YOU?! HOW DAAAAAAARE YOOOOOOUUUUUU?! I SHALL FIND YOU AND CONSUME YOUR FAMILY LIKE RAISINS! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! RAAAAISINS! MWAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Salutem: I appreciate the support, I really am in a tight spot; those viruses are getting closer to my hiding place as we speak. *glances around nervously*

The Mastermind: Eeheehee! Well, I do hope that you continue with, mmhmmhmmhmm, those feelings. I always enjoy company! Eeheeheeheeheehee!

The Spherical Specter: COOL, YOU SAY? HMMM, I WAS HAVING THOUGHTS OF CURSING YOU, BUT NOW I THINK DIFFERENTLY... HMMMMMMM...

Mickey: You like me I'm cool? I love you now because you are nice and you are cool too. :3

Bonbon: Oh yes! Oh yes! I am so happy being cool! I love you! I love you and my Master Lucas! You are both cool and I love you both!

Ridere: Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. ..

Clamatis: Hisssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhsssssssssss hhhhhhhhhhh...

Felix: Cool? I am nothing more than a man's steed, I live to serve, not to be... Cool, is it?

Lalita: I am glad I am cool, I guess. I still wish Kelsey had kept her promise and came back every day... *sniffles* I want to go see her right now.

Squid Horde: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEORK!

Colossal Squid: SQUEEGLESQUEORKSQUORKLESQUUUUUEEEEEEK!

Matilda: Aha! So the Spherical Specter is wrong again! He says I'm nothing more than a witch, but that is SO not true.

Amelia: I wanna be cool! Thank you so much! Is Missus Kelsey cool too? Can we be cool together? Pleeeeeeaaaaase?

Notch: Thank you; everyone has always thought that I was the stiff brother and that Herobrine was the cool one. :/

Norman: Yeah, well, after saving the universe, it's pretty much impossible to NOT be cool.

Lizzy: I agree with Norman; we probably have our own fan club in Minecraftia by now. :3

Danny: Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm pretty cool. I mean, EVERYBODY knows that; I'm way cooler than that Noobman ever was.

Quinn: Dude, I was, like, born to be cool, man. I strive for coolness and stuff. Yeahhhh...

Bailey: That's sweet of you! :D

Fourth Wall Repairman: Cool... Yeah right, you're just buttering me up so you can break the fourth wall again and expect mercy. I'm not fooled! :(

To the Fourth Wall Repairman: 1. What is your name? 2. Since we are talking to you wouldn't we (by that I mean all of us and you) be breaking the fourth wall of the fourth wall? Or would it be the fifth wall of the fourth wall?

Fourth Wall Repairman: My real name is Phil Drake. And also, I'd love to explain the theoretical physics of the different walls separating reality and everything else in the universe, but honestly, I still have work to do. Sorry, kid. :/

To Mark: Use the horse, Mark! Use the hoooorseeeeee!

Mark: That's an awesome idea1 Maybe then she'll tell me about her true feelings. I feel a lot better about it now that I've realized that thing with her intentions. *goes off into the woods to find Elmer*

To Kelsey: On a scale of pig to master chief how cute do you find Mark?

Kelsey: Oh, easily master chief! He's tall and handsome... And... *sniffles a little* I can't talk anymore. *walks off quietly*

To the Glitch: Mark is so annoying. I shall destroy him. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Alright, but for next time, how will our heroes spend their last day? What on Minecraftia was Mark thinking when he set off with his friends for Whirlpool Alley? Also, what the Poptart is going on between Lucas and Gabe, for crying out loud?! But for now, this is Pastrinator64, and I'll see you later with chapter numbah fourteen!

*throws sugar bomb, disappears in a cloud of fine white sugar*

Byyyyyeeeeee...

~Pastrinator64 [~]