Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Once again, I apologize for the long wait. This was caused partly by procrastination and partly by the fact that I had no inspiration to begin with. Thankfully, just about two hours ago I got a sudden burst of inspiration from out of nowhere, and I was able to complete the chapter. Firstly, before we begin reading, how about some replies to reviews?
Replies to Reviews...
Volcanic the hedgehog: Oh, that's all explained in the beginning of the chapter.
Kyle McShade: Hey, that's okay, dude. I figured you hadn't given up on the story and that you were just taking a break or something along those lines.
Pixelized Pikale and Company: GAAAAAAHHHH! I REALLY wish that I had access to YouTube, because then I'd actually be able to watch the fourth and fifth seasons of Total Drama! Grrrr... I've just got the first season on DVD.
Enderdude: Astrid's a pottymouth, let's just say that.
Nwinds: 1. You don't know what writer's block is? Well, it's basically when an author can't think of anything to do with his/her story and is having immense trouble writing anything of good quality.
2. My parents blocked it because they want to "protect" me. Yeah, it's really annoying sometimes.
3. I'm trying, okay?! I just haven't had any inspiration lately.
4. He likes being optimistic, I guess. Kinda... Not really, but you know what I mean.
5. Whenever I think of duck hunting I think of that one dog in Duck Hunt that always laughs when you miss a duck. That's about as far as my knowledge of the sport goes, really.
6. Well, the Glitch is a pretty advanced virus, now isn't it? Besides, it's a viruses's main goal to destroy, corrupt and consume everything in its path, right?
7. What do you exactly mean by predictable?
8. No, its just their arms; that's how the Glitch sometimes does it, too.
9. Yeah, there's got to be some happy moments in this thing otherwise I'm turning into some kind of pessimistic guy who sits in the dark planning out people's deaths. *shudder*
10. He landed on Buenomalo, which is the planet beneath The Void where Salutem went to rest often. That was explained sometime after he got there, I believe.
11. There are multiple universities named after each other in the real world, so I guess that the duplicate in the story was probably Diamond University XII or something like that.
12. I am rather embarrassed about that losing streak, but football doesn't matter that much to me anyway.
13. (Answered in QAA)
Guest: You kidding? Frying pans can be DEADLY, dude! :D
Guest: Okay, so maybe I'm not as bad as that... Still, I wish I had gotten back to it sooner.
Nwinds: I think you mean "continuing from 13."
14. Alrighty then.
15. Thanks! Merry Christmas to you as well! ;D
16. I'M TRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
17. Okey dokey.
18. (Answered in QAA)
19. Look, I already said I'm trying. I just wish that inspiration would come to mind more often like when I was writing The Glitch for the first time.
Whew! Man, Nwinds, you've sure got a lot to ask. Anyway, I think that it's time for the summary again!
Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Last time on VOiD, we watched Mark, Vanessa, Kelsey, Adrian and Astrid finally use the Void Transport. With the help of their new disguises and powers, they were able to easily reach the Glitch's secret treasure room beneath its throne. Unfortunately for them, the Glitch reared its ugly head at the last second, and they were driven out. Experimenting with their virus powers, Mark's friends transformed their arms into weapons, which they used to distract the Glitch, more or less. In the end, they finally managed to all escape into the Aether with hardly any scratches, leaving the Glitch as frustrated as ever. Although, when they observed their surroundings, Mark got quite the surprise at the end of the chapter when he found Norman and Liz Cobweb up in the Aether as well, making it a pleasantly surprising reunion. Now we watch as the drama really unfolds; Mark has only a small amount of minutes before the Glitch launches its attack, and he must return the Balance Core before the Glitch is ready to infiltrate the Aether Palace.
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 30: The Cruel Twist
Mark rushed up to them and gave them a bear hug. For a moment, they just exchanged a silent and thankful intimacy, but then Mark made himself let go; he wiped his tears away and stepped back, letting Vanessa go forward for the same moment. Once they both pulled themselves together, Mark needed to know how they caught up to them.
"How did you find us?" he asked, his eyes wide with wonder.
Norman started to jog forward, and he said,
"I'll explain to you on the way, but as you said, we've got to find Notch and alert him of the Glitch's upcoming arrival."
They all ran alongside Mark's father, and as they were going over the beautiful landscape, Norman began to explain.
"Well, after we figured out that you were transported into the Minecraft Dimension, we quickly found old Professor Explotar. He reactivated the portal into Minecraft, and we used it to get ourselves back in the game. Once we were there, all we could do was wander around and hope that we found some kind of sign or got lucky; we did get lucky, because your mom and I came upon this temple made of black and white checkered wool. Inside of it, there was a floating yin-yang that, although it seemed reflective like a mirror, was actually showing a "reflection" of where you were. You and Vanessa were inside a school cafeteria at the time, and I noticed the sign in the corner immediately, so I knew you were at Diamond University—at least, a duplicate of the school.
"After that, we were going to go off and try to find you at the university, but before we could exit the room, I stumbled over something in the doorway that had just appeared there; it was an invisible chest, and when I opened it there were piles of black and white compasses inside. I took one of them, and it led us all the way to the university. It was demolished when we arrived, but the compass turned directions and led us back in a different direction, so we followed it with whatever sliver of hope we still had. We followed the needle on the compass for a long time, and eventually had to make our way through a snowy mountain range. We got attacked by some flying spiders, but thanks to this baby," he said, shouldering Shatter, the famous magnetic (thanks to the Magnomatic) diamond spade shovel, "we were able to keep fending them off until we came out the other end of the mountains."
"The compass was still pointing in another direction, so we continued to follow it all the way until the beach we were on became nasty wetlands. The swamp went on for a long while, and curiously enough, we met a gothic Minecraftian that looked very upset. She went on about how you supposedly ruined her life by dumping her, and when she was finished, I was at least able to ask where you might be, and she pointed in the exact same direction where the compass had been pointing. By the way, what did you do to her? She seemed pretty upset about it."
Mark explained the whole, long, almost forever situation he had been in with Lucas's dares, his breakups with Kelsey, and Raven's cries for love, and when he was finished, Norman seemed to understand perfectly.
"Can you finish the explanation?" piped up Kelsey.
"Oh, yes..." Norman muttered breathlessly; it had been a while since he ran full-sprint like that; he wasn't as young and healthy as he used to be. "Well, we followed the compass until we reached a desert border, and that's when your mom and I looked up to see a strange, massive, creepy corpse floating through the air in the opposite direction. Neither of us knew what it was, but we knew it must have been really horrible, so we hurried our pace and followed the compass until we found that Void Transport—neither of us could remember it being there last time we visited. Anyway, we climbed its slope, got on the platform, and rode our way into the Void Palace, or whatever it's called now.
"We were surprised at the lack of viruses everywhere, what with the rumors we heard about it being taken over by the Glitch. We snuck through the palace, eventually found the tower that held the throne room, and since the Glitch was still nowhere to be seen, we got into the back room and entered the Aether. A few minutes later, you all came through."
"Woah... That's quite a story!" said Mark.
Just thirty seconds later, Kelsey called out,
"Hey, there's a house built right over there! It's on the mountainside!"
They looked up and slightly to the right; there, sitting not too far away, was a grassy mountain. At the very top, they noticed a log cabin perched there. Mark looked back at his friends and parents, and they nodded together; he ran towards the mountain, and they followed suit. In full sprint, it took them a costly minute to make their way up the slope to the house. Once they were standing at the door, a breathless Mark rapped the door hastily with his knuckles.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them opened, and they fell into a pit. The hole above them closed up again, and they were submerged in darkness. A strange hissing sound filled the room, and Mark felt his ankles and wrists being bound by tendrils of some sort. A few confusing seconds later, light filled the room again, and they found themselves facing a massive Venus flytrap head that had sprouted in front of them from out of the ground.
"Lalita?" murmured Kelsey, staring widely at the mutant plant.
Lalita looked straight at Kelsey, its bristly teeth bared into what looked like a snarl.
"You lied... You lied..." it repeated in a slick voice.
"What?" she said, looking both anxious and confused.
"You lied! You promised you would come back and play with me! You PROMISED! You broke my heart, little girl! I loved you, but you never came back! I was lonely for so long; at first, I waited for you, and waited, thinking you were late... But I was wrong! You're a liar! You're a meanie! All I wanted was for someone to play with me in that scary forest, and you abandoned me!" she sniffled.
Lalita paused, but then moved forward on her main vine and leaned in close to Kelsey, the tip of her head touching Kelsey's nose.
"You hurt me... Now I'm going to hurt YOU!"
Mark watched in horror as the prickly barbs on Lalita's rising vines grew, forming blade-like thorns. The vines flew forward towards Kelsey's face, but before she could be touched, a high-pitched voice echoed through the small underground prison.
"Down, girl!"
The vines stopped in midair and then fell to the floor, slinking back to Lalita. Suddenly, a tall, limber figure appeared above Lalita, floating on a silver vortex. One look was all it took before Mark was able to recognize the person; the Mastermind had returned. The wickedly mischievous joker flipped on his side, propping himself up with his elbow to look at them.
"Ah, Mark! It is so wonderful to see you! Eeheehee! So, do you like my new pet?" he said, gesturing at Lalita, who snarled at Kelsey. "Speaking of which, I'd like it if you'd let our friends go, Lalita."
Lalita whimpered a bit, but she uncurled her vines, letting Mark, his friends, and his parents all free. After regaining his stance, Mark rushed forward and said to the Mastermind in a tone of urgency,
"Mastermind, have you seen Notch? We need to warn him about the Glitch! It's going to attack and—"
The Mastermind held up a hand to silence Mark and replied,
"Dear old Notch already knows of the Glitch's plans. He has gone back to the Aether Palace and is preparing his troops for the battle."
As soon as the Mastermind had mentioned the Aether Palace, the gears in his head clicked and he quickly reached back into his Blockpack, pulling out the Balance Core in its slightly-melted glass bottle.
"Take us there, then! We've got to grab Notch's Hammer and break open the case around this thing. I've already got the Gloves of Gloom and Glad with me, so I'll be able to pick it up without completely disintegrating myself." he said, nodding down at his hands; one covered in a white liquid solution and the other in a similar but black duplicate.
The Mastermind grinned with that usual semi-evil glee.
"Of course! Anything for the heroes of the prophecy!" he declared, snapping his fingers to create a black and white vortex between them. "Be prepared to witness the most insane display of checkered objects, though. It's not all rainbows and sunshine in the Televortex."
This brought out many skeptical or hesitant looks from the protagonists. Then again, they recognized that time was running short and decided that it was the best decision and possibly the only one. Mark stepped forward and found himself being sucked by a powerful force towards that swirling surface. The next moment, he fell unconscious and drifted through the floating whirlpool.
The Mastermind hadn't been lying when he said Mark would witness quite the scene. While our hero was traveling at the speed of light, it felt like time had actually slowed down instead. It was like being in a crazy dream while remaining totally aware.
Mark was riding on a cloud made of cubes, all of them colored black and white. He bent down, observing them for no apparent reason, when all of a sudden, one of the cubes turned into a little black and white kitten. It meowed at him and then jumped up onto his shoulder, pawing at his hair.
"Hello, Mr. Cat." he said simply, smiling at the peculiar feline.
Moments later, the rest of the cubes beneath him transformed into kittens, and he was floating along lazily on a soft platform of fur. Just as he was getting comfortable, one of the kittens jumped up onto his chest and scratched him.
"Ow... No..."
The others began doing the same, jumping him and scratching his chest with their tiny claws. Soon, all of the kittens were attacking him, now hissing in a sudden spout of fury. He thrashed at them, kicking away the kittens to defend himself, and finally launched his entire self off of the cloud, falling into the swirly space of black and white beneath. There was a current of wind beneath him, so he merely drifted along hazily, though his stomach felt sick now.
The wind quickly went from a comfortable breeze to a storm, and Mark was thrown around like a ragdoll, unable to control his own movements. While he was afraid of being blown away into infinite space, something like a hand came up and latched onto his leg. Then another, and another, and another, and within seconds he could feel ghost hands grasping his arms and legs tightly.
When he looked up, he saw a gigantic face covered by a black and white mask. The figure was smiling evilly at him in a familiar fashion, but with less mischievousness and more malice. He opened his mouth with an eerie creak, letting out a spray of many flashing shapes, all black and white, which surrounded Mark and circled him perpetually.
All of the flashing was like a constant strobe light, making Mark feel far more nauseated than before, his head spinning like a top. He just wanted it to be over and so he screamed out at the giant mask above him to stop. No such thing happened, but something else came out of the image's mouth instead. It was another one of those swirly black and white vortex things from before. It flew towards him like a rocket, and within seconds, he felt himself being consumed by it once more, and everything around him faded away.
Mark crawled out the other end with that same sick feeling in his gut and moaned as he collapsed onto the Holystone ground. He stood up and massaged his stomach, then stepped away from the Televortex as Kelsey popped out suddenly. He bent down and helped her up, because she seemed exhausted and was breathing heavily.
"That was really freaky in there." she murmured, looking fearfully back at the portal.
Vanessa followed, then came Adrian, and Astrid.
"Oh Lordy!" shouted Astrid, her eyes widened in pure shock. "I don't ever wanna go back in there!"
Norman and Lizzy came out soon after, and then the Mastermind was the last one through before he closed the connection. He was the only one who seemed unaffected by the Televortex's creepy inter-travel displays.
"Didn't I tell you?" he said, shaking his head at them all.
"There's no time to waste." reminded Norman, gesturing up towards the palace gates before them.
This in mind, the heroes rushed towards the gates. Mark lifted a fist and banged on the door five times as loud as he could. The door opened moments later.
"Unnnk?"
Mark looked down in response to the oddly strangled-sounding pig noise, noticing a wrinkly old pig just standing there, an iron helmet on its head.
"Er, hello?" he said, and the worn pig gave another feeble oink. "I'm Mark Cobweb and I'm here to see Notch."
The pig nodded slowly as if it understood, then turned around and headed in the other direction with surprising speed. Mark and the others followed closely behind; they ran down the corridor for another minute, guided by the interesting little pig. Mark hastily checked his watch and his stomach dropped like a stone. They literally had one minute and six seconds before the Glitch would launch the attack.
About thirty seconds later, they finally reached the main sanctuary. In the center of the monstrosity of a room was the magnificent pedestal where Mark knew the Balance Core had to be placed. It was absolute luck that Notch just happened to be standing there as well, just staring regretfully at the empty pedestal.
"Oh, what's the use of even defending against the attack? Without the Balance Core to restore everything, the Glitch will defeat us either way."
Upon hearing thing, Norman put on a burst of speed and approached Notch suddenly, grabbing his shoulders and shaking his mercilessly.
"Get it together, Notch! Stop focusing on the hopelessness and get your head on straight!"
Mark was baffled at his own father for disturbing a Minecraftian god, but felt he didn't even have time to think about anything except the returning of the Balance Core. They stopped at Notch and Mark said breathlessly,
"Notch! Give me the Hammer of Notch!"
Notch looked at him skeptically for a second and replied,
"Such an impudent way for an Ultra Hero to greet a god!"
Mark took a quick glance at his watch, saw that they had a mere nineteen seconds left, and then frantically waved his arms at the almighty ruler.
"JUST GIVE IT TO ME!"
Notch finally understood the severity of it all and hastily handed over the great Hammer of Notch; it went up to Mark's chest, its handle carved from especially sacred Holystone, a gem of emerald fused into the upper part of the shaft, the hammer head aglow with lavender light. Mark set the Balance Core down on the ground in front of him and lifted Notch's Hammer, which was almost too heavy for him to carry. He swung down with all his might and the half-melted casing around the Balance Core shattered entirely. Mark threw the godly hammer to the ground and lifted the Balance Core with both hands, protected by the Gloves of Gloom and Glad.
He placed the Balance Core itself atop its rightful pedestal, and there was a blinding flash of black and white...
...
...
And this was what made the Glitch smile...
...
...
Notch flung himself onto the Balance Core, grasping its edges obsessively, his knuckles white.
"No... No, this cannot be!" he cried, his eyes opened with fear.
Mark looked at Notch in confusion. What did he mean? Hadn't they done everything right? He had brought the Balance Core back to the Aether Palace just as Rexum, Salutem, and all the others had told him to do, hadn't he? He looked down at his watch and felt his throat tighten as the minute hand on the watch clicked into place with a strange echo that vibrated in his ear.
"TIME'S UP, NOTCH!"
The Glitch's horrible screech rocked the floating fortress, shattering all windows and even destroying the walls with its power. Swarms of flying viruses infiltrated the castle from the outside, eating away at any protective barriers there had been at the time. The dying screams of many filled the air, and all Notch did was lay there on top of the Balance Core, gripping it tightly.
The Glitch materialized through the wall of the sanctuary and approached them so fast that they only had to blink twice before it was already towering over them. They all cowered from the plasma monstrosity, though Notch stood up and faced the Glitch with no trace of fear left in his eyes.
"Ah, Lord Notch. How pleasant this is to finally be speaking with you in person." hissed the Glitch, its lolling, red, forked tongue slithering out of its mouth.
Notch stood firm in an unwavering position and said,
"Glitch, I know that you have come here for me, and I am perfectly aware that there is no longer anything in my power to stop you, so I am only going to do the one thing I can do: stand here and be the only thing standing between you and the thing you desire most."
The Glitch's wicked grin widened further as it muttered,
"And THAT, Notch, is where you are wrong once again. That crusty shell of a block is not what I have been after this entire time. You and the Spirits In Between have been mislead. It is too bad that the last thought you shall ever have will be shrouded in mystery..."
Before Notch could give his final reply, the Glitch lunged forward and chomped down on Notch, taking his entire body and swallowing it whole. Mark and the others stood in a horrified transfixion as they watched the Glitch lick its lips with satisfaction. Then the Glitch did something that was so shocking that is was just too unbelievable; rather than reaching out and finally obtaining the Balance Core, it lifted a wing and brought it down upon the incredible block in one swift motion, destroying it forever in a shower of black and white particles.
"But... No..."
The Glitch spun its head around to look directly at Mark, who jumped backwards at the suddenness of it all.
"The Balance Core is not what I have been looking for all this time, Markus Cobweb. I have been in pursuit of YOU."
Mark shook his head slowly, unable to understand, frustrated that nothing was ever clear to him anymore. The Glitch looked amused, and so it continued with a greater tone.
"I suppose I should explain all of this before I kill you. In that case, allow me to shed some light on the subject."
The surroundings around Mark faded away in an instant, leaving only him and the Glitch in the infinite empty space. Moments later, their surroundings came back, only now they were standing on a stretch of grassy planes. Nearby, Mark was startled to see himself, Vanessa, and Lucas walking off towards the mountains together. The Glitch gestured at Lucas and said,
"You see, Lucas was the perfect specimen to become my host—young and weak-minded—I would enter his body and follow you undetected. I was planning on killing you within minutes of joining you, but little did I know that your friend Gabe would turn out to be Salutem..."
Their surroundings shifted again, and they were now right behind Mark. Only this time, Rexum, Kelsey, Adrian and Gabe had joined him. The Glitch jabbed a wing at Salutem and continued.
"I was hesitant to kill you because of my goody-goody twin. In order to consume you properly, I would have had to use my virus power, which would be detected by Salutem in an instant; at that time, before I had regained very much of my power, Salutem could have alerted the Spirits In Between, and I would return to my prison down in The Void with much harsher restriction. My plans would become obsolete if any of this happened, so I remained patient and continued to follow."
They changed location a third time, and Mark watched himself as he was humiliating "Lucas" in front of the entire school on their last day of Blockbusting Week.
"I was patient all the way up until the final day at that duplicate of Diamond University. By this time, I had grown rather impatient, and I immediately decided that my power was high enough that I could handle Salutem on my own. It may have appeared that I was trying to go for the Balance Core, but in reality I was just using that as a way to secretly take over your soul without revealing myself. Unfortunately, Salutem jumped in at the last moment and saved you, and so I was forced to flee after my surprise attack had failed."
When the setting reset, they were now in the desert where Mark and the others had fought Jeragarizarg.
"I hadn't given up hope yet, though. In fact, I was rather glad to be able to see out those three cheeky servants of mine to kill you. It would be a nice and effective way of driving the power from the source..."
"What are you talking about?" said Mark.
The Glitch glared at him and he shut his mouth.
"You see, I was planning on having them retrieve "it" from you and bringing it to me considering I had lent them the power they needed to do so, but nevertheless they managed to fail me. Thankfully, I was able to still exterminate that nasty wizard of yours that was always protecting you from me. By this time I knew that it was all pointless to try and get "it" from you before you reached the Void Palace, so I waited just a little longer."
Their surroundings changed once again; now Mark stood in the demolished throne room of the Glitch, watching as he and his friends were fending off the Glitch outside of the tower.
"You may have thought that you were really beating me when you had arrived in the Void Palace, but that was merely an act of mine. I wanted to savor the looks on your faces when you reached the Aether Palace and realized that you had failed. After that moment, I would be able to consume Notch and take what was rightfully mine!"
Their surroundings shifted for the last time and they were back in the present moment. Mark just stared horrifically at the Glitch, still unable to comprehend anything.
"But what did you want me for?" he said desperately, begging for an answer. "I thought that you were after the Balance Core's power."
The Glitch smiled down at him and said,
"You are correct, Markus Cobweb. I was indeed after its power, but what you until most recently held in your hands was merely the shell of what I needed. Your wizard friend Rexum had not lied, boy; the power of the Balance Core is being contained inside of YOU!"
Mark was silent...
It couldn't be true...
That just...
It...
No...
"You're wrong!" he shouted, gritting his teeth as he stared at the Glitch in anger.
"I know, it is hard to comprehend, isn't it? Well, before I go ahead and kill you I might as well show you my true form now that I have consumed all three of the Souls: the Soul of Darkness, the Soul of Redness, and the Soul of Whiteness. BEHOLD!"
The Glitch let out a bloodcurdling scream, its body writhing and thrashing. It swelled up to an enourmous size ten times the original. The plasma that made its body began to take shape like never before. Legs came from the core, extending and sprouting thorns from all around. Claws extended from the ends of each leg, massive red blades growing from each extension. The torso formed in a matter of seconds, blood-red veins pulsing beneath the black skin. Two monstrous arms grew from off either shoulder, equally sharp claws forming at their ends, secreting red plasma. Next, a neck took its place in between the shoulders, the head coming moments later. The head itself was distorted and ugly, the horns curling inward and twisting. Two gleaming eyes and a mouth appeared at last, flashes of red light blasting from inside.
This was the Glitch's true form.
Not even the greatest heroes of the Divination of Dimensions could handle its intimidation, and so they ran—all but Mark. The Glitch lowered its newly-formed head and grinned that same evil smile at the Ultra Hero.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
There came no reply, for Mark's horror had overcome his ability to speak.
"Now that you have witnessed this true form of mine, it is time for YOUR time to come to an end!"
The Glitch opened its mouth wide, letting out the couple hundred meters of red tongue to fall out and wrap around Mark. At the time, Mark was unsure of what to even think. In fact, all he could do was let the Glitch take him. His mind was clouded, his body was numb, and his soul was trembling. He wanted to live a great life, but now all of his dreams seemed crushed. In a few seconds he would cease to exist, and there was nothing he could do to spare his own life.
Norman looked up at the Glitch in its true form and watched as his son was consumed by the Glitch, disappearing beneath the dark surface, never to be seen again.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
It was only the strong pull of his wife that kept him from returning; seconds later, they both entered the Televortex and the entire horrible scene before them vanished.
...
...
...
Well, I'd just like to say that I am greatly and deeply sorry...
...
Today I will not be doing any QAA...
...
I need to do a lot of thinking about this first...
...
Goodbye, everyone, and I hope that you still stick around for the upcoming final chapter...