HELLO, HELLO, HELLOOOOOOO! I've waited for so long to be able to speak with you all again! It's been months since I posted the last chapter of VOiD and promised to bring you a bonus chapter. The reason I've been taking so long is because, in reality, I've just had so many great ideas for the coming triquel that my heart hasn't been set on the bonus chapter. Finally, though, I was able to finish it so that I can get on with the real action.
First, I would like to thank you all who've been waiting so very patiently for the bonus chapter. I've had a lot of things to deal with in these past few months, so I've never really gotten a good chance to just go out on solid writing.
Secondly, I would like to announce that I have decided to change the name of the triquel! I figured that Last Stand was way too mainstream, so instead I changed it to Hourglass. You'll probably understand the new title as you read the triquel, so I need not explain any further about the name.
Now then! Now that I've FINALLY gotten this laborious chapter finished, I'd like to present it to YOU! Please enjoy!
Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the uber-delicious bonus chapter for VOiD! As you may remember, back in The Glitch I would have a little mini scene for every chapter, which eventually finished into an extra little story by the end. Afterwards, I also posted a bonus chapter that took place right after the bakery visit with Pastrinator64 and his friends.
Last time, Pastrinator64 flew into the Gooey Galaxy to defeat the horrible Olivicious before the galaxy could be destroyed. Unfortunately, it ended with him having to flee as his own home planet crumbled into crumbs, and so he continued his search for a new planet to reside in with Nyan Cat at his side.
Now we shall fast forward just a few weeks. Pastrinator64 has found a quaint little planet called Malloward to stay on with some nice townsfolk, but his life gets turned around quicker than he could have ever imagined.
Please take pleasure in this exclusive bonus chapter, and I will see you at the end! :D
BONUS CHAPTER: Sugar Lords
Pastrinator64 had just been sipping at his Coke when he realized that he left his eggplant in the freezer.
"Goshdangit!" he shouted, jumping up and running into the garage.
He rushed up to the freezer in the garage and thrust it open, seeing that his eggplant was now encased in a block of ice. He groaned a little as he was taking it out, examining it.
"Aw man! This eggplant bomb I stole from Olivicious is totally ruined!"
After looking at it mournfully for a few seconds, he sighed and walked over to his Infinite Backpack, shoving it down inside its neverending depths. He returned to his Coke and sat there for a moment, staring out the window into the sunlit street, just thinking.
Then, without any warning, there came a round of thunder, and his eyes widened at the sudden downpour. The only thing was, this was no ordinary thunderstorm; the torrent of droplets was colored a milk-chocolate brown. The chair creaked as he stood up, pushing it back and running to the door.
He stepped onto his porch and was met with a smell that made his nose curl up. It was the smell of spoiled chocolate milk. Using his fantastic sweet-sensory vision, he scanned the droplets and a single one was magnified as an image in front of him, many sets of data placed around it as he observed. A computer voice sounded.
"Edible matter identified. Name: chocolate milk. Condition: spoiled."
He squinted up into the sky, but was astonished to see that the clouds had turned a muddy color. He looked down the street both ways, watching as the Marshmallian citizens ran about, screaming in terror and disgust as the ruined chocolate liquid started to soak into their fluffy bodies.
"Okay, whoever or whatever's doing this has got to be seriously messed up!" said Pastrinator64, looking angrily at the browning sky.
He unearthed the Powertart from his pocket and concentrated hard, letting the power surge through him. Within seconds, he transformed in a flash of pink and white mist, turning into Super Pasty. He then lifted his hands and put them together, then pulled apart to create a magic film of bubble gum, with he used to stretch all the way around himself, encasing his body in the protective layer. This would deflect the pouring chocolate rain and the stench it brought along with it.
He rushed back outside and leapt into the air, flying off into the darkened sky. As he flew, he thought to himself,
"Dang! Whatever or whoever's causing all this is seriously messed up. This is, like, one of the jerkiest things I've ever seen! What could be worse than being trapped in a thunderstorm of spoiled chocolate milk?"
Pastrinator64 was met with an answer right on cue; a particularly sour-smelling bolt of lightning came down and struck him. Thanks to his protective bubblegum barrier, he was saved from painful electrocution. The only downside was that the burning stink enveloped him in its cloud.
He rocketed upwards, surpassing the violent storm clouds and managing not to get hit again. Once he was above the clouds, he looked in all directions to see where the clouds were coming from. They came from the east, so he peered far into the distance sugar-level x-ray vision; if he saw a single black splotch in his sight he'd know that Olivicious was back for more trouble.
Still, he wasn't very surprised to see that all levels looked normal.
"Yeah, Olivicious wouldn't be able to conjure up something like this, anyway."
He was about to return his eyes to normal when he was met with a blinding flash of red. Far, far, FAR off in the distance, he detected an entity that held dangerous levels of sugar. Using one of Master Mapley's techniques, he read the figure's power level and almost fainted when he saw what it was. He himself could go up to level 530,090, but whatever this thing was had levels that were spiking up to as high as 2,000,000 and they weren't showing any signs of stopping.
Not expecting this at all, Pastrinator64 froze in midair and contemplated what to do. He could attempt to sneak up on whatever this thing was, or he could call a meeting with the Knights of the Blocky Table so that they could team up against it. Normally, he would take on the enemy by himself, but considering the situation he had no other safe choice but to bring everyone together again. It had been only a few weeks, but that didn't mean that they were all still nearby. It would take a while to find them all, which was for sure.
He turned his body to face in the opposite direction and scanned the area, focusing hard on his castle. A few seconds later he was able to locate it, picturing the main courtyard in his mind. He put two fingers to the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, concentrating hard enough to teleport; he disappeared moments later.
At the same time, Pastrinator64 materialized in the courtyard. It was vast and spacious, but the plant life had long since died off. Dead trees dotted the lot, standing bent and broken upon the yellowing grass. The once green and luscious trimmed hedge statues that lined the walkways were disfigured and shedding their layers, revealing the paling branches.
This sad scene made Pastrinator64 sigh in grief. It had been twenty-five years since the Chaos Necklace had fallen into the hands of Prophetess Axel, the evil sorceress that terrorized the entire universe from 2483-2505 before the Knights of the Blocky Table could stop her reign.
During the last year of her existence, the castle in which the Knights dwelled was ripped of all life but not destroyed; it was by choice of Axel, for she knew that her days would soon end and desired to cast an everlasting gloom over the palace. She could not bear letting it stay standing in all its glory when she passed on.
Standing there in its ruins, Pastrinator64 had a difficult time remembering the days when it was prospering with life. They had members of large quantities, all working together as a near-invincible league of great people. Much like the Justice League, they all had special attributes, and every single one was used at war. Not one person was alike, and Pastrinator64 had the privilege of leading them all.
And then the unsuspecting Knights of the Blocky Table were ambushed suddenly by Prophetess Axel and her ungodly slaves; their location was hidden before then, but someone from their numbers betrayed the entire faction and leaked the information, letting the witch know of their position and leading to its destruction.
92% of them were killed in the fight, leaving just eight left. One left alive was put into a coma that would last for time without end, another had fled, their whereabouts still unknown, and the other eight managed to find each other and escape before being killed. Among them was Pastrinator64.
For a brief moment, Pastrinator64 could almost picture the place around him as it used to be, but the flashing eyes of Axel shattered that image to pieces. He could feel a tug on his heart as he walked down the cracked walkway towards the building, resenting the sorceress with every fiber in his being. A grimace formed on his face as he tormented himself with his own thoughts.
"Looking around at this place...it's sickening. If only I had gotten here on time, then maybe we would have stood a chance! If I had just arrived ten minutes earlier from my mission then we would have been all safe from Prophetess Axel! This is still all my fault!"
His anger boiled up inside of him, making his head pulse. He let out a great yell and turned around, facing the lengthy walkway behind him, and threw a volatile and dangerously concentrated sphere of sugar, which blasted the entire stretch of stone upon impact. The air was filled with blinding white light and large chunks of debris. When the air was clear again Pastrinator64 stood there, looking balefully at the ongoing crater he had created. Whirling around on his heel, he started back towards the once magnificent front gate.
"Whatever. It's demolished anyway, so who cares if I let off some steam?" he thought to himself.
This temporarily eased his conscience, though he knew that it'd come back to bite him at a later date. He walked past the gates and into the biggest room of them all: the center square, which was a spacious inner sanctuary connecting twenty different corridors. In the center was the grand statue display of himself throughout the years. The first sculpture was of him when he was twelve, then himself as a teenager, and finally his most recent sculpture—his progression as a Minecraft fanatic and resident. He smiled as he looked at each of the statues, remembering the old days when he and his friends would climb up and play "king of the hill." Honestly, he sucked buckets at the game, but it was still fun.
This nostalgic feeling was replaced with regret only moments later as he remembered the fact that his closest friends were either dead, captured, or had fled to whereabouts unknown.
"Dang! Enough of the remembrance stuff, dude! Focus!" Pastrinator64 finally reminded himself, shaking his head a little.
He sped up down the north hall, which was the broadest of them all. He speed-walked his way all the way to its end where he was met with another set of gates that were about half the size of the main ones. He stepped inside of the oncoming room and looked around, just letting tiny bits of memories flow into his mind. This was the Knights of the Blocky Table table. Just as its name implies, it was a perfectly square table tipped on its side to look like a diamond. This, similar to the Round Table, still allowed equality for each of the twelve leaders when they sat together. This was also the site for the summoning of each leader, which was exactly what Pastrinator64 needed to do.
He walked around the table to the west corner and sat down in the seat just above it. In front of him was a panel full of buttons, each with a leader's name including his own. He looked at them all, sighing and saying them aloud before he was going to attempt to bring them together.
"LuvrO'Pokémon, Enderdude, Spark n' Jetz, Striker Hutassa, Iliketoreviewthegoodstries, Pixelized Pikale and Company, Gin Ketsueki, Kyle McShade, Volcanic the Hedgehog, Nwinds, YoshiEmblem..."
These were the greatest people that Pastrinator64 had ever known—his biggest supporters, critiques, and fans, whom had been favored by him enough to be leaders of the Knights of the Blocky Table. He felt a burst of excitement just thinking about contacting them again. Unfortunately, he knew that Striker, Gin and Sparky had all died for sure in the attack, so contacting them would be, well, pointless. He first pressed Luvr's button and the ringing of a phone filled the room. He waited for a few seconds, but thankfully she picked up.
"Herro?" she said.
"Luvr, it's Pastrinator64."
"Hey! How's it going?"
"Pretty good, but I was wondering if you could come to the Knights of the Blocky Table Headquarters. I've got something very important to discuss with you and the other remaining members."
"I think I can make it, but can it wait until I'm done eating? When I ran away while being chased by Axel I found a nice little island just chock-full of these quaint natives. I'm their queen now and they're serving me a five-course meal! Anyway, I'll be over in a bit."
She turned off her phone and slid it back in her pocket, taking a makeshift fork and knife to dig into a delicious roasted turkey that had been brought before her. Meanwhile, Pastrinator64 had already pressed down on Enderdude's button. Enderdude took a little while to pick up, but when he did it sounded like he was trying to multitask by answering his cell and fighting off monsters as well.
"Yeah?!" he shouted as the sound of a searing ball of flame was heard.
"Hey! It's me, Pastrinator64."
"I'm sorta busy right now, dude! Half of our Enderman fleet is down and we're trying to keep a storm of Ghasts out of the End! Can it wait?"
"Sure, but can you just see if you can make it back to the old HQ when you're free? I've got something pretty crazy to show you all!"
"Okay! Bye!" Enderdude said quickly, shutting off his cell and deflecting another fireball from the forwarding trio of Ghasts coming right in his direction.
Pastrinator64 contacted Iliketoreviewthegoodstries next. A few moments of ringing later, that familiar Netherland-accented voice filled his ears.
"Hello?"
"ILTRTGS, this is Pastrinator64. If you can make it, I need you to come down to the Knights of the Blocky Table headquarters for a very, very, VERY important announcement. We've got some danger on our hands."
ILTRTGS paused for a moment before saying in a delighted tone,
"Great! I'll be there in a short while. Goodbye."
The moment that Pastrinator64 was about to press the next button, ILTRTGS popped up out of nowhere and made him jump right up onto the table, his diamond shovel, Shatter, drawn to defend. He took a deep breath once he realized it was her and stepped off of the table, wiping his sweaty brow.
"Dang! You scared me, ILTRTGS."
She looked down at him and pushed the black hair from her garnet eyes before speaking.
"Sorry, I couldn't wait to hear about the danger. Anything with Herobrine?"
Pastrinator64 rolled his eyes and replied,
"No, there's no Herobrine this time. It's something far worse, trust me."
He continued to call each and every one of the members. Kyle McShade responded by saying that he could come, Pixelized said that he would be honored to come back and meet with the others while Pikale decided that he had, apparently, moved on to a better life; Pixelized had to persuade him to come, Nwinds said he'd be a bit late to the reunion, and YoshiEmblem did not pick up his cell. He was at least lucky to have contacted this many people at all, especially since they all said they'd be coming.
Thirty-six minutes later, Pixelized and Pikale appeared; Pixelized was struggling to keep his clone from wrenching out of his grip to get away.
"I told you that I'm not doing any more work! The Knights are already separated, so what's the use?"
"Pikale, you just don't like the idea of work. We are helping and that's that."
Pikale grumbled a little, but decided that he would stay—reluctantly, though. Pixelized approached Pastrinator64 and said,
"So, what's the big news? Is Herobrine bothering you again?"
Pastrinator64 shook his head as the thought of that thing with the 2,000,000 power level, then making him shiver a little.
"I'd tell you now, but I want everyone to hear this when we're together. It's just, I don't know, the right thing to do in my opinion, I guess."
Moments later, Kyle McShade teleported into the room. Pastrinator64 was mildly startled this time, what with the metallic monster skin of his, and at first he thought he was looking at another enemy. Then he noticed the nametag above his head and smiled with relief.
"Hey, dude. Nice to see you again after these three whole years."
"Yeah, sure has been a while!" he replied, then looked over at ILTRTGS and Pixelized Pikale and Company.
Kyle high-fived Pixelized, hugged ILTRTGS, and made to greet Pikale, who just turned his head, still reluctant to be back at the headquarters; the idea of work just made him positively sour.
"We're still waiting for Luvr, Enderdude, Volcanic and Nwinds, but Nwinds is coming late."
Kyle took a look around the room, his robotic eye twitching this way and that, almost giving him somewhat of a Mad-Eye Moody appearance.
"It brings back memories, doesn't it?" he said, turning to Pastrinator64. "Hey, let's take a walk around the castle for a bit, huh? It'll be a great trip down memory lane."
Pastrinator64 liked that idea! He convinced the others, even Pikale, to join them in a stroll through HQ. They started off down the corridor leading to the main sanctuary. After passing the statues, Pastrinator64 looked around at the faded direction signs, each of which were pointing down one of the twenty grand hallways.
"Where should we go first?" he wondered. "To the armory? What about the enemy display room? Enchanter's shop?"
ILTRTGS raised a hand and declared,
"Enchanter's shop! I want to update this old blade of mine."
She gestured to the diamond sword that stayed secure in its sheath, the hilt obviously cracked and chipped. As they moseyed on down the hallway, people talked and talked without end about past remembrances, both good and bad.
"Remember the time I set Zombiesorbust's hair on fire while trying to feed that prototype Enderdragon? Man, was he mad!"
That got a laugh out of everybody; they could distinctly remember his scream as he chucked himself out the window into the lake.
"What about when Jeffskiller124 and The Rhymer had that milk drinking contest and The Rhymer ended up falling face-first into his last bucket and lost the match?"
They continued to reminisce all their past moments until they reached the enchanter's shop. ILTRTGS headed over to one of the first enchantment tables her eyes set on and got to work, improving her blade. Pastrinator64 walked up to the front counter and looked up at the portrait that hung there. YoshiEmblem, the master of all enchantments, smiled back at him from the picture. He grinned, remembering that crazy kid and his obsession with Yoshi's. The only problem in his mind was this: was he still alive, and if he was, then where was he? His grin disappeared almost as suddenly.
Somebody's hand set on his shoulder and he turned around to see Luvr standing there.
"I'm sure he's fine, Pasty."
Pastrinator64's grin reappeared when he caught sight of his very first fan.
"Looking good, Luvr! How goes it in the Kalos region?"
Luvr shrugged, looking rather indifferent.
"It's okay, I guess. I'd rather be here with the Knights, though!"
She turned around and greeted everybody, high-fiving her fellow leaders. Pastrinator64 watched her for a moment before turning back to the photo.
"YoshiEmblem, where are you?"
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I have sworn not to tell the boy anything yet. It would kill him to know. He must come to me first."
"But sir, we only have so much time before—"
"Quiet, you! If you speak so loud, she may hear us!"
"What is going on?! Number 3, what have you done?! HE mustn't know of this!"
"Mistress! I thought you were meditating..."
"One more word on the subject of the Fallen Child and I will have you and the boy brutally slaughtered. Return to your chambers immediately!"
"Yes, Mistress, I understand."
"..."
"You heard the Mistress; we must return to our chambers or it'll be MY head on her dinner plate!"
"Hello, hello! Gather around, everyone!"
They stood inside the main sanctuary as Pastrinator64 climbed atop his most recent statue, giving a small announcement to the group. Volcanic the Hedgehog and Enderdude had arrived, so he was able to begin explaining. He would have waited for Nwinds, but they were already over three hours behind schedule and he didn't want those powerful figures to go away before he got there with his team. Luvr, Enderdude, Volcanic, Kyle, ILTRTGS, and Pixelized Pikale and Company surrounded the statue, waiting intently for the big news.
"You see, while I was on the planet of Malloward, a horrible storm of spoiled chocolate milk showed up and started ruining the wonderful little town I had been staying in. Naturally, I flew upward and past the clouds, searching for the source of the storm clouds. Suddenly, I detected an unidentified figure far off in the distance, the power level of it beyond comprehension—2,000,000 exactly, nearly four times what my power level reaches!"
This got a highly startled reaction out of every single one of them. Volcanic raised his hand and shouted,
"What the heck could that thing be?! What if it's evil?!"
"Yeah! I've only got a power level of 3,404,230! I'd be useless against THAT thing!" chimed in Pikale.
"Don't hold your breath, Pikale, you're only 3,100,050." muttered Pixelized.
Luvr stepped to the front of the group and crossed her arms, looking up at Pastrinator64 with a mildly skeptical look on her face.
"So, what exactly are you proposing we do?"
Still, despite the fact that he was probably millions of miles away, Pastrinator64 could somehow still sense that figure. It was incredible and scary at the same time considering he had no idea whatsoever of what they'd actually do when they found this thing.
"I say we all fly up there and find this thing, identify it, and figure out what to do with it then."
Pikale's outburst immediately followed after the response.
"WHAT?! You mean, you don't even know what we're going to do with it?!"
Pastrinator64 held out his hands to Pikale and replied,
"Calm down, man! I promise, we'll all be perfectly fine as long as we stay hidden. You all know Master Mapley's techniques, don't you? We'll be able to hide our energy just fine."
All of a sudden, there was a quiet burst of wind and Nwinds teleported on top of him, knocking both of them to the earthy ground with a painful thud.
"NWINDS!" shouted Pastrinator64.
Nwinds turned a little red and jumped off of Pastrinator64, brushing dirt off his front.
"Sorry about that. Anyhow, what did I miss?"
Aha! I've decided to end the story here! Since I discovered that my mind really wasn't set on writing a lengthy bonus chapter, I've decided to stretch this side story on throughout the triquel. I will add a snippet of the story at the end of each chapter, just like I did in The Glitch.
As one final announcement, everyone, Hourglass will be coming onto Fanfiction on March 29th, 2014! Stay tuned and I'll see you all in a few weeks with the final book of the series!
~Pastrinator64