~Chapter 8: The Calm Before the Storm~

Sky narrowed his yellow eyes behind his ebony sunglasses. Some people had no manners whatsoever. Just fly onto the ship, would ya! His recruits he didn't mind nor did he mind Ridgedog, for he was the owner of the Tekkit Territories. Everyone else would get a tongue lashing for despite being on his ship they didn't behave. Without restraint he yelled at the newcomers, "Can you guys PLEASE act like you're on someone else's ship. You...well, I can't really blame you because I don't know what you did!", directing the last sentence at Duncan.

"And you dwarf, stop trying to harvest my ship! Your spaceman friend is good for telling you not to!"

Honeydew scowled at his friend, Lewis who grinned in victory. The next one who received a tongue lashing was Martyn who was currently chasing Toby around with a sapling, threatening him that he would beat him with it. Sky yelled at him, "Hey! I don't want blood on the deck!"

Martyn wittingly replied, "Can I go below deck to beat him with it?"

Sky yelped, "No! Just don't beat him with ANYTHING. Or stab! Just don't harm him!"

Martyn scowled at the commander and retreated by one of the butter golems which looked at him curiously. Ridge asked, "Did you get that out of your system?" Sky nodded.

Duncan commented loudly, "What now, Ridge?"

Suddenly, a black blur rushed up in front of him, knocking him onto the ground. He looked around wildly. trying to find his attacker. His attacker revealed himself, kicking him across the deck and slamming into the watchtower and screaming, "What now?! What do you think, Duncan!"

The attacker drifted onto the ship, black cape whipping around in the wind and purple eyes glowing. Duncan tried to not betray his fear but he left everything at his castle. He had believed he was dead. The attacker held a wonderful red weapon at his side, beginning to raise it in a killing blow. Sky sprinted across the deck like a speeding bullet deflecting the blow with his own butter sword, which shone purple from enchantment. The attacker growled, a frightening sound. His red weapon ground down upon Sky's sword bending it in a horrifying way until half of the weapon snapped off and clanged across the ship. Sky gapped at it for none had succeeded in destroying his weapon until now. The purple-eyed man stalked up to Duncan who was frozen in place. A single word, a name, spoken from Ridge stopped him though, "Rythian."

The mage stopped and became rigid. Rythian collapsed upon the deck of the ship, obviously defeated. He muttered as Ridge came to his side. Ridge spoke, a tone half-concerned and half-sly, "Rythian...I'm the only one allowed to kill anyone and yet I keep you psychos safe! I'm doing what I must when I say I won't allow you to kill Duncan."

Rythian muttered, "He'd respawn anyway."

Ridge's reply was blunt, "You did and see what happened to you."

Rythian's head lowered, his brown hair obscuring his face as he whispered, "It wouldn't bring her back anyway. She was at the center of a nuke...there's no way she would be able to come back. Duncan did it...out of his obsession to keep us all in line...so he'd be the top man. Did you EVER stop to THINK."

An unexpected volunteer tore himself from the crowd, that one being Reece. Reece stopped and opened his mouth, making a distorted warble, one that sounded suspiciously like an Enderman. Rythian stopped and asked in a low voice, "Reece?"

Reece nodded and Rythian, in response gave a shorted warble. Darren whispered to Flame, "I believe they're speaking Enderman language!"

Flame whispered, "Cool. Isn't that cool, Night?"

Night stammered, "Y-yeah."

Night didn't think it cool that they spoke Ender-language but more that these human-like creatures spoke it. She dismissed them as humans before, except Reece who was obviously part Enderman but he got it for others believed he had a skin condition. She understood everything the two had spoken. Reece had said Rythian's name and Rythian had replied, "Brother?"

Reece had helped Rythian up and the two already disappeared into a hidden corner of the ship in order to speak. Sky, with a flying leap, scaled the watchtower and once inside, yelled, "Recruits! We've seem to lost track so how about we get back on track with a few...wargames."

The recruits started to cheer and yell while Lewis commented, "That sounds dangerous."

Sky, already descended from the ladder replied, "Not at all! In fact, wargame is just a fancy word for practice fighting. It sounds cooler though."

Lewis nodded as he said, "Oh, okay! Do you want to go somewhere particular for these wargames?"

Sky exclaimed, "Somewhere flat...or maybe a forest...or both."

Lewis grinned as he said, "I got just the place. As long as you don't harm any of the wildlife. I'll direct you to Martyn's forest."

Martyn's forest was dark and deep yet lush and lively. The recruits had paired off, like they usually would, with people of their specific class. Their weapons were cushioned so they wouldn't kill each other. They also fanned about either out in the open plain or in the forest. Darren and Annie had paired off for they were both skilled in the use of swords and fled into the forest for their own practice match. Martyn and Toby had taken to sitting in the trees, occasionally jumping to other ones to keep an eye on the recruits. Martyn was very protective of his forest.

Darren and Annie had picked an area deep in the forest, a cool clearing with a mossy ground. They faced off, butter swords at ready...and began! Darren started with a charge which Annie easily dodged. She then, swung her own sword at him, hoping to catch him off-guard. This failed for he blocked it. In an agonizing moment their swords clashed and stayed that way, both trying to outlast the other. Darren hopped back, causing Annie to stumble. He slid close, trying to give the ritual tap on the neck. She jumped back and thus her back was to a tree. Darren crept toward her, his sword extended. Annie rolled to the side and stood but Darren was waiting. In a last-minute thought, she somersaulted backwards, her sword knocking Darren's out of his hands. The sword landed on the ground and Darren reached for it but he was stopped by Annie's tentative tap on his neck. She whispered, "I win."

Suddenly a shrill shriek split the forest. Annie and Darren looked at each other then sprinted back towards the Butterfly.

Meanwhile Miki was making her way back to the ship herself for her partner had bested her. She rubbed her face, an ink blotch where she was shot. When in archery battles, the arrows were tipped with ink sacs so that no one would be wounded and no one could get off with not being hit. She contemplated her battle when out of the blue Ryan ran up to her. He panted, "Get back to the Butterfly! It's urgent!"

Miki asked, "What?!"

Ryan answered "I have no clue! Sky just told me to go get recruits! I assume its bad so you tell anyone to come if you see them!"

Miki nodded, her eyes furrowed with determination. Ryan returned the nod and the two ran in opposite directions.

Just five minutes before all of this, Sky had contacted Deadlox with the hologram component of the communicator so they could actually see each other. Deadlox was the same as ever, calm and happy, laughing at a story of Sky's.

Sky asked him, "So where are you now?"

Deadlox replied with a grin, "Coming into the Tekkit Territories! I wanted to..."

"Get upgrades for my ship!" said the two in sync, finishing Deadlox's sentence.

Deadlox laughed, "No way!"

Sky answered, also laughing, "Guess where I am!"

The two laughed until a shrill scream of an alarm sounded from Deadlox's line. His face fell, "That's the alarm!"

Sky was about to ask why when suddenly a blue-grey tentacle coiled around Deadlox's face, muffling his yells. The hologram fizzled and gave out. Sky stared at it dumbstruck for a second then shrieked, "RECRUITS!"

Ryan, who had been lurking about, came to Sky and asked, "What is it?"

Sky looked at him and gasped, "I'll tell you on the ship! Get as many recruits back as you can! We have to move out! NOW!"

Ryan stared as the commander sprinted away. With a burst of purple particles, his apprentice Reece was at his side. Reece asked, "What is it?"

Ryan replied, "That's what I asked! Just help me bring back recruits!"

Reece's reply was him teleporting away, presumingly to find his peers."

His destination was in front of Annie and Darren, but Darren slammed into him. After a second of recollecting themselves, Reece exclaimed, "Grab my hands and I'll take you to the ship!"

The two complied without a word. Reece teleported them on the ship and teleported away. He came back with a dazed Miki and was off again. Darren wondered, "What was that about?"

Annie shrugged. Miki, still a bit dazed, responded, "We'll be hearing about it soon!"

Reece sprinted through the forest when his brother, with a Void Ring, teleported to him and asked, "What's going on?"

Reece stopped and replied to the mage, "Something's wrong! I think it's the squids again!"

Rythian held back a snort. Squids...really Reece? Isn't too early for April Fool's Day? He held his tongue as he answered, "So you're rounding up recruits to fly off somewhere?"

Reece nodded and Rythian grinned, "I'll come too."

In less than ten minutes, the recruits were on the ship, flying away at top speed. Duncan had tagged along as well, much to Rythian's disgust. The others agreed to hold down the fort. Yet, still the recruits had no idea what was going on!

Sky told them once they were a good distance from Martyn's forest. Apparently, Deadlox and his ship were being attacked by squids! The Dead Army was trying to fight them back but there were so many. Cue the Sky Army coming to the obsidian ship to rescue them.

A/N: As always drop a review and don't hesitate to tell me what you thought. This is the officially the beginning of an exciting new arc that I'm sure you'll love! I'll still be bringing in OCS for in fact a few are appearing next chapter. Let's kick this off now!

*TNT explodes*