Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with yet another chapter to my third Minecraft fanfic: Hourglass!

Thanks for being patient again, everyone! I've lately been putting a lot of time into Super Mario Maker (That's still relevant, right?) making a handful of super-complicated one-screen puzzle levels! It's hard work, but a TON of fun! Don't worry, though, because this story certainly hasn't gotten any less love because of this new hobby of mine. ;)

Replies to Reviews...

Marshman101: Dude, Sonic X was admittedly my FAVORITE show growing up! Right behind Dragon Ball Z, of course. XD Nothing could've topped that one! ...well, except maybe Yu-Gi-Oh!

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 46: What to Do?

"MASTERMIND, TO YOUR LEFT!"

The Mastermind leapt to the side with a grunt of effort and narrowly avoided the ridge of the murky tidal wave that crashed down next to him a second later. His legs moved in a rapid blur of flashes of dark and light, though he was still having a bit of trouble keeping his distance from the pitch black waves behind him. Salutem slithered with all his might, following the Mastermind's literal coattails extremely closely. Vanessa, whose legs moved in a similar fashion to her master's only with red and gold, was just behind him. The Glitch's plasma flood had finally caught up to them and was hungrily chasing the three, occasionally snapping at Vanessa's heels with massive sets of razor-sharp teeth.

"Don't mind me, Salutem! You're the main priority this time! If that coal-colored asshat gets its hands on you, EVERYBODY'S doomed!" he shouted, glancing back in one quick motion. "VANESSA! Holdin' up back there, sweetheart?"

Vanessa normally would've rolled her eyes at his comment, but the viruses trailing behind her were far too distracting. As their pursuer suddenly seemed to be getting closer again, she yelped and jabbed Rexum's staff behind her, shooting a beam of golden energy that exploded on the surface of the black substance, obscuring her vision of the waves for a moment. Considering how fast they were moving at the moment, the blast was absorbed effortlessly into the black masses, barely doing anything to help. She gritted her teeth and lifted Cantatis, sending out a flash of red light that encased the waves for just a few seconds before shattering into a million crimson shards.

"There's nothing you can do, Vanessa!" the Mastermind declared, looking out a couple thousand blocks in search for higher ground. "The Glitch's power is unbelievable now! There's barely any kind of magic left that can make a dent in its plasma! Especially not guardian-level magic!"

Salutem chimed in as well, speaking to her inside her mind in order to be heard more clearly.

"Surely, you've realized that we aren't just flying above the waves? The Glitch has stunted many abilities of other magic users, unfortunately, and we've been reduced to fleeing by land. Put every ounce of energy you have into escaping, alright?"

Vanessa took a deep breath, forcing the thundering, crackling, flowing sounds to go quiet in her ears and started to summon all the power from her and Rexum's fused soul, feeling a brand new surge of energy pass through her. Secretly, while she forced herself to concentrate, she couldn't help but inwardly giggle; magic was so amazing!

"Okay…" she replied, feeling a slight grin cross her cheeks when she pictured Rexum's proud smile in her mind.

Norman was woken up by the smell of baking bread. It gave their snug little home a more, well…homey atmosphere. He didn't bother to sit up in his moment of sleepiness, choosing instead to observe his surroundings with his other senses. A couple pairs of footsteps were moving across the room, with one making a tiny suction that he assumed belonged to a pair of bare soles. He heard somebody placing items on a crafting table not far from his bed, as well.

Finally, he'd had enough of lying and listening, so he sat up in bed and glanced around. Bailey was the one working at the crafting bench, with Astrid walking past and stretching her arms, and the girls Sabrina and Carol still asleep. Auconi was sitting on his bed, looking to be drifting off into space. Meanwhile, Adrian wasn't even in the house and was nowhere to be seen.

"Hmph." Norman grunted, cracking his neck and back before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "What an awful night…"

Since this was typically when they'd be getting back on the move, Norman clicked F3 and opened up the data display, checking the time; it was 9:55 in the morning. That meant they had about…

"…six days, nineteen hours, and two minutes." he glaring up at the digital clock. "Less than a week left, two days to get to the third Spirit, who knows how long to beat the last Unforgiven Spawn…and I feel fine now."

Norman lifted his head, pursing his lips for a moment, and then felt a random voice in his head repeat the message.

"Yeah! I feel fine now!"

He got to his feet in one second flat, though immediately regretted it when his vision blurred with blue and black speckles. He went all topsy-turvy for a few moments, swaying this way and that as he tried to find his balance. He groaned, falling back against the birch back wall so he wouldn't just fall right over. While he was still getting a hold of himself, Astrid slugged him lightly in the shoulder as she passed and said,

"Don't throw up, alright? I don't wanna have any part in cleaning it up!"

Norman sighed through his nose, watching her in slight annoyance as she crossed the room and walked right out the front door; she didn't even close it after she left! Now that he had gotten his bearings back, he speed-walked over the area and reached out with a pale arm to grab the handle with his equally pale fingers. Just before closing the door, he took a moment to appreciate the calm breeze wafting around outside, which just barely ruffled his shaggy black hair. He froze suddenly, furrowing his brow, and realized something for the first time. He lifted a hand to his head, shutting the door with the other, and dragged his fingers through his hair.

"Huh. I haven't had a haircut in a couple weeks."

Next, he ran his fingertips over his upper lip, playing with the peach fuzz he discovered growing there. Grimacing, he added,

"Ugh…I need to get rid of this, too."

For the following minute, Norman searched their three double chests carefully for a pair of shears. Too bad for him, because no such item was found and he realized that he'd have to deal with the ugly stubble until he got his hands on one. They needed to go get more iron, too, so he couldn't even craft a new one on the spot.

"Hnggggghhhhh…" he groaned, slamming the top of the last chest shut and turning on his heel. "That's unfortunate."

With Shatter dragging on the ground behind him in his loose grip, he exited the house in a split decision to get some fresh air; allowing himself to enjoy the beautiful outdoors was another of the products of being married to Liz for almost fourteen years. The second he caught sight of the still-smoldering ruins of New Pork City, he chose to go around back and look at something not so depressing, like…trees?

"Yeah, lots of trees!" he noted, looking into the distance at the infinite sea of trees ahead of them. "That looks like it'll be a ton of fun to trek through…"

He glanced to his right next, spotting a crystal blue pond not twenty blocks from where he was currently standing. Adrian was lying down on his back with a brand new cowboy hat—this one with a trim of gold along the brim, either sleeping or simply drifting off into space. Astrid was sitting on the opposite shore with her legs in the water, taking a makeshift bath with a random sponge she got from who-knows-where. Norman, who didn't feel like getting wet, strolled on up to the edge of the water and placed a block of wool on the ground, cushioning his butt when he flopped down onto it, sinking slightly thanks to the plushy structure. Adrian used his thumb to lift the ridge of his hat, peering out from its shade to see who was there.

"Ah, Norman!" he said, lifting the rest of his hat off his head and starting to pat down his messy brown hair. "Did'ja sleep at all last night?"

Norman rolled his eyes, trying still not to dwell on that awful, awful dream he had.

"Heh. Enough, I guess…did you?"

Adrian shook his head in reply, saying,

"Nah, partner. Ah woke up pretty early this mornin' to see that ah wasn't the only one having trouble staying asleep. Ah found Auconi outside, doing…eh, ah can't talk about it, actually. Anyway, we talked for a bit, Astrid showed up in just her undies, and then things ended pretty awkwardly and Auconi disappeared without me even noticing! …yeah, it was a pretty restless night."

Norman sighed through his nose and nodded in agreement. All he could say was,

"I know…"

They sat in silence for a moment, staring at each other until things got real uncomfortable and they turned back to watching the gentle ripples on the surface of the water in front of them. Of course, the peaceful silence could only last so long while Astrid was in the vicinity; seconds later, she let out a frustrate grunt that caught both their attention, causing them to glance up at her from across the pond. She chucked her one wet sponge into the water out of anger and stood up, declaring,

"Y'know what?! Screw the sponge, I'm going all the way!"

She jogged backwards for a couple blocks until she was five away, pausing for barely any time before bolting forward in a beeline for the pond. Norman fell backwards off his seat in a desperate scramble to get away while Adrian was doing the same, screaming,

"ASTRID! WAIT FOR—"

But it was too late; Astrid's muscular 5'7" figure broke the calm of the pond and erupted the surface in a massive splash of water, drenching both of them before they could get away. Norman panted, having swallowed a decent amount of it, and knelt down as he coughed his lungs out. Adrian managed to shield his face with his hat, but every other part of his body was soaked to the bone.

"Astrid!" spat Norman, turning around on the ground to stare at her from ten blocks away. "Didn't you hear me?!"

Bobbing up and down in the water, Astrid just shrugged in her response and put on a smug grin.

"Meh. You didn't quite finish your sentence, so I wasn't sure what exactly it was you wanted!"

She snickered and dunked down beneath the ripples, making a loud garbling sound before she disappeared from view. Norman grumbled something inaudible and stood up, pulling at his dripping clothing with extreme distaste.

"I just put on clean clothes, too…and there's no need for me to be reminded of Liz right now."

With that, he let go of his shirt and turned on his heel, heading back towards the house and leaving Adrian alone again. The southerner watched him go until he vanished around the corner of their home, then proceeding to get up off his hands and knees so a more comfortable position at the pond's edge. As he sat down heavily in the slippery grass, Astrid's head poked back up out of the water, all her dirty-blonde hair draped over her face. She parted it like a curtain, spotted Adrian, and started to drift towards him. Not a half a second later, she had a sudden thought and decided to voice it right there.

"Hey, Adri!" she shouted, startling him into attention. "You think Norman'll ever loosen up for good? I mean, you and I both saw that movie back in VOiD about the original eight heroes, so obviously it's a possibility!"

Adrian looked over his shoulder at the house for a moment, briefly imagining a frustrated Norman sulking around, changing into dry clothes and growling under his breath.

"Sure, maybe if Liz was still alive, it would be. But he only changed because she helped him, Astrid!" he said, turning back to his best friend. "Mark and his dad sure have had a lot of bad luck with their girls. Mark never quite got to tell us exactly what the story was between him and Kelsey, but either way it was reeeal sad. And Norman had to watch Liz die right in front of him, for cryin' out loud!"

Astrid sniffed, looking off into the distance at nothing in particular, and said,

"Yeah…I had no idea what I was getting into when I joined you guys, that's for sure. I didn't think I'd have to witness murder, fight demons, and watch my friends be possessed by the Glitch and its cronies multiple times! MAN, I hate the Glitch! And I'm gonna really miss…like, really, really miss Kelsey! …damn it. Just SCREW the Glitch! Somehow, someway, we're gonna get her back! We're gonna un-delete her! WE'RE GONNA REUNITE THE POWER COUPLE THAT WAS ONCE MARK AND KELSEY! YAHHHH!"

Adrian smiled at her spiteful enthusiasm towards the Glitch, pausing for a moment to let her cool down a bit; he wondered, if she got mad enough the entire pond would boil? After watching her seethe for about ten seconds, he cracked his neck habitually and said,

"So you think she's still alive, then?"

Astrid grinned widely, a contagious excitement filling her up, and then muttered,

"Hell yes…she's gotta be! I'm not gonna LET her stay dead! Same with Mark! And Gabe and Darcy, too! Lucas got a bad deal what with him being possessed and all, so even he deserves to be brought back! When we beat the Glitch for good, the Spirits In Between can use their magic to zap everybody back to life! And then we can all go back to the way things used to be!"

She started darting this way and that in the water, splashing in all directions as her passion gradually took her over. Adrian snickered, almost recoiling at the sight of her.

"Oh Lord, she's really gettin' into it…" he murmured, too quiet for her to pick up.

"We'll pull pranks on each other without a quest to worry about!" cried Astrid, flinging a hand into the air. "We'll all go out to a wings place on Fridays! We'll go to parties! We'll do every activity we've been robbed of since we all got tragically sucked into Minecraft!"

Adrian coughed lightly, raised a finger to get her attention, and piped,

"Er, ah actually came here the natural way. I died on Earth and jus' left mah Minecraftian spirit here! And Auconi and Bailey were born in this dimension to begin with!"

Astrid rolled her eyes, letting out a light-hearted groan before leaping forward suddenly and dousing Adrian with the crystal-clear liquid.

"Shut up, Adrian! You know what I mean!"

Adrian laughed, swiping his foot across the water below and splashing her back. Unfortunately for him, Astrid caught him by the ankle and tugged hard enough to trip him right off the edge and into the water. His bottom bonked the pond floor once before he resurfaced, gasping and spitting with his hat sagging over his eyes.

"Suckaaaahhhh!" she called, fleeing the scene before Adrian could react.

Adrian coughed, removing the remaining water from his lungs and simultaneously clearing his vision. After a few seconds, he could make out Astrid swimming furiously away from him, laughing in an over-the-top voice at his expense.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, pushing off the sand behind him to propel himself forward. "You ain't getting off that easy!"

While Astrid and Adrian were busy fooling around in the water, Auconi and the others were lying about inside. Sitting up against the wall to his back and clutching his pillow, Auconi continued to replay that same scene over and over in his head. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the image of Darcy stabbed twice through his middle by that awful, ugly monster. In several moments, he reminded himself that it was his idea to explore the inside of Baal Reincarnate rather than just cut their way out, making it his fault that Darcy ended up like he did.

"No, c'mon!" he told himself, glaring down at his sheets. "If we didn't go the direction we did, then every one of us would be demon food…"

He glanced around the room at the other members of the group. By now, Carol and Sabrina were finally waking up from their deep, snuggly, shared slumber together, groaning and yawning as they stretched their limbs. He looked away, not wanting to be reminded of the shorter of the two's actions from yesterday; anything that he could do to keep Darcy out of his mind, he'd definitely do. Instead, he watched Norman pat himself down with a half a stack of wool blocks, their leader grumbling softly to himself about whoever it was that soaked him a minute ago. He thought he'd be the only one to not enjoy their day of rest, but he was wrong; Norman had a similar mindset to his.

"What am I going to do all day…?" he wondered, his head thumping back up against the wood. "…maybe Norman and I could talk about how bored we are for the next twelve hours."

He chuckled sarcastically, turning his head to stare lazily at the ceiling.

"For once, I wish Darcy was actually here to make things less dull."

"You both have to STOP!"

Kenneth stood over both Mark and Raven, who had been reduced to tremoring messes on the pitch-black floor. An immensely powerful albeit oddly-colored pink aura swirled around Kenneth. His mix of good-natured code—backed up by his hacking prowess—with the nasty black plasma of the Glitch had transformed him into a warrior that was stronger than either of them. Despite their attempts to fight the geek, both Raven and Mark had been beat into the ground with very little effort from their opponent. While they lay shaking on the ground, Raven literally snarled at Kenneth before she snapped,

"Who...what the fuck are you, even? Why are you PINK?!"

"When did you get here?" muttered Mark, panting heavily to get his breath back. "…the Plasma Realm, I mean."

Kenneth raised a finger to shush them both, leaning forward in one hasty motion before he started to talk in a much more urgent tone.

"I know things are scary and super weird right now," he started, looking left and right like he was checking for eavesdroppers. "But you two gotta be quiet! Otherwise, the Glitch'll hear us!"

Mark groaned for a second, slamming his open hand down on the ground and pushing himself up onto his knees.

"Dude, the Glitch is probably listening right now, whatever it is you're talking about. If I were you, I'd be quiet, too!"

Kenneth shook his head feverishly and extended a hand to the two of them; Mark took the offer and got to his feet while a suspicious and heated Raven stayed down on the floor.

"No it can't! I've recoded isolated sections of this plane's plasma to fit inside my own encrypted data sets, which to less-versed people like you two is just, well…okay, so I mixed my code with the Glitch's code, so this /silence command I put over the three of us about, er, ten minutes ago should hold for a little while longer yet! I…I don't have a lot of time to explain, so we should really just get out'a here!"

Raven stood up a second later, suddenly full of energy again as a terrible idea filled her brain. She pointed straight at him, saying,

"What the hell do you have to say that matters right now?! The Glitch is making an army and I'm fucking PROUD to be a part of it! It's because of this jerk," she jabbed a finger at Mark, who sighed and rubbed his eyes with two fingers, clearly aggravated, "I'm here in the first place! It's exactly his type of person that I'll be able to get rid of from all those stupid, worthless, shit dimensions when the Glitch finishes charging all of us up with dee-licious plasma! It's far more satisfying than any boyfriend, best friend, or even FRIEND I could've had in my life! If I can't have somebody who loves me, then I think no one else should, either…"

The three of them stood there rather quietly, the two boys staring at her in mild shock. There was nothing to say after that, it seemed, that could change her mind. Pure spite fueled her now, with no one left to care for her but the dreaded monster Glitch. Perhaps she was right, though; not even Mark, who gave every human being a chance for redemption, a chance at a relationship, and third, fourth, fifth tries, could love her when she secretly needed it the most. And unfortunately, having been taken away from all of his loved ones, Mark sometimes feared he would eventually adopt the same train of thought that drove Raven mad beyond return.

Then, in the midst of their depressing silence, an unexpected voice echoed across the space behind them, causing each one of them to whirl around on their heels, ready to face whatever new danger had come upon them. Had the Glitch actually heard them? Had Ben come back into the Plasma Realm to find Kenneth again?! ...nope.

"OI! What the hell is going on right now?! I can't see a damn thing, it's so bloody dark in here!"

What on Earth?! How did he end up in the same cell as the rest of the ex-heroes of the Divination of Dimensions?! I mean, I already know why, but I'm not going to tell you! Heheheheheheheheheh... ;D

Will Norman and Auconi be able to actually rest up and recover before they continue their journey? Will Adrian get sweet, sweet revenge on Astrid after being dragged into the pond? And how will Vanessa and the Mastermind be able to keep protecting Salutem in the middle of their unbelievably fast-paced race against the black tides of the Glitch? Find out NEXT chapter in Hourglass!

ALSO! As mentioned last time, if you have a favorite character then feel free to let me know in your review! I'm legitimately curious. :3

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 [~]