Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the thirteenth chapter for Hourglass! Most of you think of thirteen as the unlucky number, but I like to look at it in a different light. It's the baker's dozen! Buy twelve pastries and you get one free! It's also my favorite number—just a little fun fact for you. Anyhow, now for the replies.
Replies to Reviews
badgerman: Ohhhh, puns. XD
badgerman: Normally, I love paradoxes, but when I've accidently created one that I have a difficult time explaining so that it'll fit with the story, it's not nearly as fun to think about.
Mmtunlight: That's alright, it's really a minor thing, so it's not a big deal if you don't get it. Also, what do you mean by advertise? I just make an announcement in either the chapter before or I put up an announcement in the form of a chapter to tell everyone about it.
Volcanic the hedgehog: So, where've you been?
Nwinds: 1. If I remember, I'll check it out later.
2. Well, you certainly know what you're talking about rather than just spewing political nonsense to make yourself sound smarter than those who have no knowledge of politics whatsoever.
3. The other one was yours. I haven't ever seen somebody use Rail for a last name. It's a rare treat, I guess you could say.
4. Oh, okay. I fixed it earlier.
5. This was explained in The Glitch, but I'll say it again. The first chapter of the Divination of Dimensions takes place in the past when the Glitch first came into existence on Earth and terrorized the planet; Notch, Herobrine and Queen Enderdragon are the heroes of the first chapter because they were the ones to banish it. In other words, The Glitch takes place in the second chapter, Void in the third, and Hourglass in the fourth since the first chapter was already finished.
6. (Answered in QAA)
Aaaaaaaalright then! Reviews replied to, we can begin chapter thirteen! This is the lucky chapter, in my opinion! I can feel it...
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 13: When Worlds Collide
When Norman awoke from his forced sleep, he found himself lying in a comfortable Minecraftian bed—red sheets, white pillow, a half a block from the ground. Instantly, he thought of that day twenty years ago when he'd woken up inside Joe Camera's house scared out of his wits. He sat up in the bed and looked around. To his relief, he saw Liz, Adrian, Kelsey and Astrid in other beds around the bedroom they were in. He stood up quietly and walked to the nearby window, gazing out at the ocean beyond.
"BIKKIES ARE READY!"
Everyone around him woke up with a start. Kelsey fell right out of bed and landed on her front, bruising her chin. She stood up too, rubbing it and suddenly realizing where she was standing.
"What in the Overworld? How'd we get here?"
Adrian stood up and bent back, cracking his back painfully.
"Ooh...yer guess is as good as mine, Kelse."
Astrid grumbled, rubbing her eyes slowly. Once her vision had been cleared of drowsiness, she said,
"Crap, I thought we were dead; we could've been done with this quest like that."
She snapped her fingers on her last word. Her words reminded Norman of their huge task. Somehow, they'd fallen out of the Aether and landed inside a house. Additionally, there was somebody just downstairs who sounded Australian and was probably inviting them to breakfast. The way things were going recently, Norman just decided he wouldn't even question logic. Logic was screwing with him every day now, so he figured it was about time he accepted it and just went along with it.
Suddenly, Norman felt a hand intertwine with his; Liz was now standing next to him, looking apprehensive.
"Norman? Do you have any clue where we are, exactly?"
Norman shrugged and replied,
"Eh, none. I'm pretty sure whoever took us in here is friendly, otherwise we would be dead or tied up or something along those lines."
All of a sudden, they heard Astrid shouting from downstairs.
"Dude, these biscuits are freakin awesome!"
The four of them exchanged confused glances.
"Wait, when did she...?"
"Ah, let's not question Astrid. Astrid is Astrid." said Kelsey, rolling her eyes.
They filed out the door and down the hall, gazing in awe at all the paintings covering the walls. It looked like they were inside of a Minecraftian millionaire's house. As they were coming down the stairs, someone came into view from the kitchen. He looked about fifteen and had bright green hair for some reason. He paused, looking at them, then glanced to his left and said,
"Darcy, the rest of them are coming down."
The four heroes descended the rest of the staircase, walking out into a massive kitchen. It was absolutely beautiful—wooden plank floors, prismarine brick countertops, a dozen furnaces against the walls. Many tables were set in the center of the room, put together to make one big table. At first, Norman wondered how the people who lived here had gotten a hold of unimplemented blocks, but his attention was taken by Astrid's incessant chewing. Sitting next to her was another boy of fifteen, looking almost sixteen, with a cocky face, light brown hair and a white smile.
"Morning, beauties! ...and bloke. My name's Darcy! My mate here's Auconi." he said, nodding at the green-haired kid.
Auconi gave a mildly awkward but friendly smile and sat down as far away from Darcy as possible. Darcy waved at the four of them, inviting them to sit down. Norman and Liz sat across from Darcy and Astrid, Kelsey sat next to Auconi, and Adrian sat across from her. Once they were all situated, Darcy stood up and stopped in front of one of the furnaces and pulled out some homemade bread. He took a couple from his full stack and gave them to everyone.
"It's an old True Blue recipe!"
At the other end of the table, Auconi thought to himself,
"Go ahead, Darcy, build up your image. It's just toasted loaves anyway."
He didn't know why he was so jealous, but he hated it. Kelsey noticed him looking sour and raised her eyebrows, turning away; she didn't want to get involved in this guy's business if he hardly knew him. The seven individuals at the table sat quietly for a few seconds, but Darcy was brave enough to break the silence all by himself. He definitely had a neverending pit of confidence.
"So, whadda they call all you?" asked Darcy, looking at all except Auconi.
Norman cleared his throat and then reached out with a hand, shaking Darcy's; the boy had a very strong grip.
"My name's Norman and this is Liz." he said, letting Liz shake hands with Darcy.
Darcy, being the oblivious idiot he was, immediately checked Liz out and then kissed her hand.
"It's nice to meetcha." he said with a wink.
Norman furrowed his eyebrows at Darcy. Did he just check out his wife?! Liz could see Norman tensing up and she rubbed his back, trying to get him to relax. Kelsey and Adrian were too far away to shake hands, but they both gave a little wave as they introduced themselves. Darcy took a bite of his biscuit and swallowed, tossing it from hand to hand as he asked his next question.
"Any of you chickies single?"
Auconi slapped his forehead at Darcy's stupidity. Really? He goes from asking everyone's name to asking them out? Typical of Darcy. The question actually made Astrid laugh so hard that she choked on her bread, coughing heavily. She gulped it down painfully and then cleared her throat, grinning widely.
"I like this guy already! Good food and a sense of humor!"
Kelsey looked down at her folded hands on the table. She was doing her best to ignore the Australian guy; his question had made her super uncomfortable what with its suddenness. After Mark, she hadn't planned on getting into another relationship for a while. When no one answered Darcy's question, he looked straight at Liz and cocked an eyebrow, grinning cockily. Auconi suspected he was about to make an even bigger fool of himself, so he quickly interjected before Darcy could get a word out.
"If I could just be serious for a moment, I'd just like to know how you got here. Yesterday, you fell from the sky and landed right near our house; you would've drowned if we hadn't fished you out of there."
On the inside, Norman felt a strange connection to Auconi. He reminded Norman of himself back when he first came into Minecraftia: down to business, serious tone, annoyed when rambunctious people got in the way. He could relate very well with how Auconi was feeling, and this helped him to just talk to the guy.
"Well, you see," began Norman.
It took him a lot longer than he expected to explain what was going on. He gave a ten-minute explanation of everything that'd happened since he first arrived inside the Minecraft Dimension; nowadays, when he explained his journeys, he didn't even bother trying to be secretive about his epic quest. There really was no point in hiding it.
When he was finished, Darcy looked like he was glad to be where he was. He leaned back and crossed his arms, saying,
"Mate, you sure have gone Back of Bourke to end up here; you just kinda rocked up in the water out back. I'm gobsmacked you even survived this long, what with a computer virus hoon on your trail."
Norman and Liz exchanged looks. They hardly understood Australian slang, so this was a factor that made it hard for them to fully know what he was saying.
"Er, so, could you tell us where we are, exactly?"
Darcy gestured around at the room, declaring,
"This is Darcy Lava's home away from home."
Auconi leaned forward on the table and pointed at him with his burnt finger.
"Your home? Have you forgotten that you share at least ONE thing in this world?"
Liz caught sight of the blackened skin of his forefinger and cringed.
"Ooh, what happened to your finger?"
Auconi looked down at it and remembered his strange encounter in the cave.
Alexander quickly caught up with Bailey and joined her in staring at the empty portal frame. A few seconds later, he looked at her and said,
"You do this?"
Bailey shook her head slowly and replied,
"I don't think so. When I came through, I slammed right into you and landed down there. I couldn't have done anything."
Alexander rolled his eyes and gave a grunt of disbelief.
"Sure, whatever, just get out of my way."
Bailey grumbled and walked off in another direction, steamed at the kid. What was his deal, honestly? While she was trying to push his ugly face out of her mind, she noticed something odd. Up ahead, she could see a glowing light. It wasn't like any lava glow or that of Glowstone, but more like a torch or something along those lines. She continued up the slope until she reached the top of the mountain she was on.
To her surprise, there, formed into the wall, was stone. Regular Minecraftian stone—the floor around it as well. It was as though the Overworld was beginning to leak into the Nether by accident. She could now see right through the hole in the wall; she peered through it and got an eyeful of the cave inside. It was a cave of stone with some iron lining the walls and a couple torches on the floor. She was about to break away the blocks of Netherrack to get through to the other end, but the blocks burned her hand badly the moment she made contact. She retracted her hand and winced, staring at the red rocks.
"What the Nether?"
There was only one block of space to get through to the other side, but Bailey's curiosity overcame her apprehension. She walked back about ten blocks, took a deep breath, and clenched her fists, ignoring her burned knuckles. With a yell, she sprinted right at the wall with a battle cry, putting away all thoughts in her mind. She was only a few blocks away from the wall when she leapt forward and formed her body into something like a rocket. Her slim body allowed her to just barely fly through the space; she landed on the stone with a thud, her clothes smoking, but otherwise unharmed. She stood up and coughed, panting a little from the ordeal, and then looked around.
It was a very small passageway, like the end of a tunnel. Up ahead of her it continued on and then took a sharp curve upward, leading somewhere unknown.
"Yo, lady in the green!"
She turned around and glared through the hole at Alexander, who'd apparently followed her again. He was looking at her through the small space, both curious, confused, and for some reason still irritated.
"What's up with this mixture? Shouldn't the Overworld and Nether be two separate things?"
Bailey straightened up and put her hands on her hips.
"I don't know, but maybe if you were nice to me back there, I wouldn't be denying you of help right now. It looks like you'll have to find a way through on—"
She suddenly froze and stared out of shock; Alexander was using his string bean body to slide through the one-block space, backbending his way across dimensions. In a matter of seconds, the suddenly-skillful shmuck had crossed. He then towered over her and looked at her smugly.
"Nobody tells me what's what. Especially adults."
He walked off down the tunnel, whistling. Bailey gritted her teeth and followed a good distance behind him, goose-stepping her way over.
"Keep it together, keep it together..." she repeated.
She clenched her fists together a second time and felt her knuckles burning again. She sighed and looked down at her blackened knuckles, wondering why she'd been burned in the first place.
At the same time, Auconi stared at his forefinger while wondering the same thing. A few seconds passed before he put his hands under the table and looked back at Liz.
"Er, just a too-close-for-comfort lava encounter, that's all."
Liz pursed her lips at his answer, detecting a bit of lie underneath his voice, but decided to leave it alone. She looked to her side at Norman, who was staring aimlessly, deep in thought. She squeezed his hand to get his attention and then asked,
"So, what's our next move, Norman?"
"We've got to find the first—well, technically the fourth—Spirit In Between. Farixz said he would be in Blocks Vegas, so that's our goal." he explained, then looked up at both Auconi and Darcy. "Guys, we're all really thankful that you saved our lives, but we need directions to get to Blocks Vegas. Know where it is?"
Darcy leaned over on the table and nodded. Then he gave a little wink.
"Only been there five million times! I built my own minecart system underground just to get there quicker!"
Norman gave his best "not bad Obama" face and replied,
"Wow. That's oddly convenient. How long does it take to get there with the minecarts?"
"One day, as the dingo runs."
Norman immediately took off his Blockpack and set it on the table. After a momentary search of his inventory, he pulled out the Magic Hourglass and held it in his hands. At its crest was the official timer, which helped him gauge their time left for the quest. At the moment, they had ten days, sixteen hours and two minutes left.
"Oh wow..." he muttered, staring at the slowly-draining sand behind the glass. "We're almost down to ten days! Guys, we have got to get moving or we'll never succeed!"
Liz stood up out of her chair, taking Norman up with her, then raised a fist in the air and shouted,
"Who's ready to eventually, sorta kick some virus butt!"
Astrid was the only one who protested.
"Aw, but I didn't even finish eating!"
Bailey and Alexander walked side by side down the tunnel, occasionally turning left or right when the path split. Gradually, they made their up further and further upward, getting closer to the surface, soon entering an abandoned mineshaft. After an awkward silence lasting ten minutes, Bailey finally looked up at Mr. Rebel and said,
"Alright, I know you don't like me, but at least tell me a little bit about yourself as long as we're here."
Alexander sighed, looked down at her, and then spoke in the most apathetic voice he could muster.
"I'm an only child who ran away from home because my parents were crap and now I live a regular Minecraftian life just hoping to someday defeat the Enderdragon like everyone else. That's about all you need to know."
He looked back up the path, leading to Bailey's irritation. She just kept walking for a minute, then looked back at him and asked another question.
"You could tell me why you're so sour, at least. Was it something I said?"
Suddenly, a bunch of people in minecarts came riding down the shaft, passing in between them.
"WHAT?" shouted Alexander. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF THESE PEOPLE'S MINECARTS!"
When the group passed, Bailey shook her head and just muttered,
"Never mind..."
They kept walking as though nothing had happened. About three seconds later, Bailey realized what just happened and whirled around to see the minecarts in the distance rounding a corner. She sprinted after them, screaming,
"HEY, WAIT! WAIT UP!"
Alexander groaned and followed after her.
"What are you doing?!" he called after her, both confused and annoyed.
"THAT WAS NORMAN AND LIZ AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE!"
"What?!"
Bailey knew it was all up to what you've got left in the tank, so she gave her all into pushing herself forward. She rounded the corner and continued to tear down the path towards the group of people speeding away from her.
"NORMAN! LIZ! WAAAAAAAIIIIIIIT!"
Up ahead, nobody could hear Bailey shouting at them. The screeching of the minecart wheels was too loud. Although, Auconi, who was the caboose of their little train, was just barely able to pick up her voice and so he raised his head, looking around. Finally, he turned around completely and noticed two people running towards them at full speed. He tapped Norman's shoulder in front of him, getting the boy's attention, then pointed behind them.
"What the...? Is that Bailey?" muttered Norman, not believing what he was seeing.
He straightened up over the heads of the rest of his group and cupped his hands to his mouth, shouting to Darcy in the very front,
"DARCY! COULD YOU PLEASE STOP THE CARTS?! SOMEONE'S FOLLOWING US FROM BEHIND!"
Darcy turned around to look at him and shouted back,
"WHAT?!"
"I SAID STOP THE CARTS!"
"SHOPPING CARTS?!"
"NO! STOP THE...oh, for crying out loud!"
Norman jumped right out of his cart and ran towards Bailey and that other guy; now this, this caught Darcy's attention. He stopped his own minecart, thus leading to everyone halting with him, and hopped out of it to see what Norman was doing. Bailey ran up to her best friend and hugged him tight, crushing his bones.
"Norman, no way! I thought I was just seeing things when I saw you, but no one else could look exactly like you! Why are you a teenager again?"
Norman grabbed her by the wrist and took her back to the minecarts.
"You know what, I'll explain on the way, but we don't have much time."
Norman stopped when he reached Darcy, who was impatiently tapping his foot on the ground.
"Ya done, mate?"
"Darcy, this is Bailey Creeper, a very good friend of mine."
"She's probably twenty years older than you, ya fruit loop! That's pedophilia if I ever sawr it."
Ignoring his little comment, Norman just continued with this,
"Anyway, do you have any extra minecarts? I can't explain now, but we need to bring her along with us to Blocks Vegas."
Darcy sighed and dropped one in front of him. Norman handed it to Bailey, and she dropped it at the back of the line. Suddenly, Alexander came up to them finally and said,
"Hey, what about me? If there's anywhere in the Overworld I'd like to go to, it'd be Blocks Vegas. There's parties, girls, gambling..."
"Aren't you a little young for—"
"Everyone be quiet!" exclaimed Norman; once they had shut up, Norman looked at Darcy and added, "Okay, one more for...this guy." he then turned to him and asked, "What's your name?"
"I'm Alexander Farmland." he said simply, crossing his arms.
In about thirty seconds, they were on the move again. Auconi had been bumped to the very back of the line so that Bailey and Norman could be next to each other, plus Alexander was a very persuasive individual, so it wasn't like he could move up another if he wanted to. Auconi felt that out of all of them, he was the most ignored.
He absolutely hated it.
Meanwhile, in the dark depths of the Glitch's new dimension, the Plasma Realm, Mark Cobweb lay asleep on the invisible ground. It was the sound of footsteps that made him open his eyes. He hadn't heard anything but his own breathing for two weeks; this was a very startling turn of events. Being in imprisoned inside the Glitch had taught him something important, though. It was that anything could be one of the Glitch's tricks. This in mind, Mark kept completely still on the ground, pretending he was asleep.
"You're in my world now, Markus Cobweb. You can't pretend anymore!"
Mark gritted his teeth and stood up, locking eyes with the Glitch's piercing red ones in the darkness.
"Thanks for the tip, Glitch." he retorted. "Now what's your plan here? Why are you keeping all these innocent people inside of absorbing them like everyone thought you did?"
The Glitch squinted at him before continuing.
"Why would I tell you that when you'll be playing a part in the master plan later on? You only have to wait ten days, fifteen hours and thirty-two minutes for an answer. In the meantime, however, you have to start training."
Mark glared at the abomination and said,
"What do you mean, training? There's nothing in this entire prison except empty space and your stench."
For a moment, the Glitch growled angrily at Mark. It absolutely hated it when fear was not present in its prisoners. This particular one was tough to scare, that was for sure.
"I suppose you think that was terribly clever." it muttered. "Now, I'm not about to tell you any of my plans, but there is a reason for this visit. I'm just dropping off an old friend of yours so that you won't be training alone. They will be very recognizable once you see..."
The Glitch's eyes to looked its side and it called out into the darkness,
"Come on out to play, little one!"
Mark's stomach began to turn as he thought of who the Glitch could've possibly brought back to torture him. He clasped his hands together and prayed to God that it wasn't Lalita.
"Anybody but Lalita, anybody but that plant freak Lalita!" he murmured.
There was a pause. Neither he nor the Glitch made a single sound.
"Oh, Mark!" said the figure in the dark.
Norman looked up to see a pair of richly violet eyes peering at him, right next to the Glitch. They came closer and closer to Mark, who's muscles tensed up instinctively at the sound of their footsteps.
"Okay, so if you're not Lalita, then who are you?" he questioned, afraid to hear the answer.
Finally, they came close enough so that the single red lamp suspended above him illuminated her. It was a girl, probably fifteen years old and extremely gothic. She wore a dark hoodie, had draping pitch-black hair with blue highlights, and her lips were painted black. Her skin was terrifyingly pale, and there were deep purple shadows under her eyes of the same color.
"Raven..." whispered Mark.
Every drop of blood in his body turned to ice as Raven stepped forward a few more steps. As she was approaching him, the Glitch's eyes disappeared into the darkness beyond.
"You two play nice, now!" it laughed, its cruel tone echoing in the air.
"I take it back," murmured Mark, paralyzed with fear, "I want to see Lalita."
Raven stopped when she was just a block from Mark and gave him a smile that most certainly didn't reach her icy-cold eyes.
"So," she said maliciously, "where did we leave off?"
NO. WAY. Of all the people that Mark could be forced to spend ten days in solitary confinement with, the Glitch picks her?! How much crueler can the monster get?! I mean, technically I'm the one who's being a jerk here, but technicalities aside; it's time for QAA!
To Liz: What was your name before you became a Cake and then a Cobweb?
Liz: My name was Liz Quincer. Yup. Quincer.
To Phil: Are you the only fwrm or are you the one for this particular dimension?
Phil: Unfortunately, I'm the only one in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. You couldn't possibly imagine what kind of workload I've got. Actually, the workload I had! I just quit, remember? RETIREMENT RULES!
To Glitchy: So, Satan is weaker than you. This is why you make him do your dirty work and then betray him and kill him. It's called being evil.
Glitchy: First of all, NEVER call me by the nickname of Glitchy! You shall only ever refer to me as Lord Glitch! Secondly, of course Satan is weaker than I am! How many times do I have to explain this?!
To Notch: Sorry to interrupt your alone time but I'm just writing to ask, what was it like when Minecraftians discovered alcohol? I expect it was hilarious!
Notch: Actually, no one knows what happened because no one remembers.
To the Glitch: Missed me? *starts raising power level*
To Jeff: After Reading the other QAA, I don't believe that it is possible to restore your wife. You would need to hope that a restore file existed or that the "deleted" file hasn't been overwritten. Either way after nearly two decades chances and slim on both counts. Sorry mate.
Jeff: *sighs* Yeah, I get it, I get it. I didn't think that Matilda could bring her back anyway. Maybe when she was younger and her magic was stronger, but now she takes forever to make somebody a replacement leg. And when she does it, she gives them the wrong one.
Here's the thirteenth snippet from the sugarcoated side-story of Sugar Lords!
Nwinds turned to Pastrinator64 after he was done cheering along with everyone else and asked,
"I downloaded their base location into my memory, so I'll act as a GPS until we get there."
Kyle raised a fist and grinned.
"Piece of cake! We'll be able to find that witch creep and take her down! There's no hiding from the Knights of the Blocky Table!"
Pastrinator64 sighed and glanced over at him.
"It's not that simple, dude. We can't just barge in there and blast them to pieces. We've got to strategize! Obviously, there's no way we can fight them by ourselves, but if we could assemble a new team of Minecraftian knights, we might have a chance!"
Volcanic hovered over to him and threw up his hands.
"How are we supposed to get ninety-one more members before they launch the attack for universal domination?"
Pastrinator64 grinned at his question. Everyone started staring at him curiously. Enderdude suddenly became slightly nervous and eyed Pastrinator64 with an odd expression on his face.
"Uh...Pasty? That grin means you've got a plan that won't possibly end in us facing certain death, right?"
Pastrinator64 shook his head and continued to grin. Enderdude lowered his head and kept quiet, waiting for the answer. Their leader looked at each of them individually before saying,
"Well, I know of one army that may join forces with us, but it'll be hard to do. They aren't exactly the smart or cooperative."
They all looked confused.
"Have you guys heard of the Squid Army?"
Is he actually going to resort to persuading the Squid Army?! Are the Knights of the Blocky Table really that desperate?! Why am I using so many question marks and exclamation points?! I DON'T KNOW!
Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter lucky number thirteen, and I'll see you all LATER!
This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!
*throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar*
...Goodbye for now...
~Pastrinator64 [~]