Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter for Hourglass!

Heyyyyyyy, everybody! I'm sorry again for the late-ish upload, but in all honesty I've been do a ton more animating than I usually do. See, I've been connecting with lots of other small animators on YouTube, so it's really inspired me to keep working on my own animated project: Mario's Switch Calamity! Speaking of which, if you haven't already checked out my YouTube channel, I really recommend at least giving my videos a look. No need to subscribe if you don't want to see more, but every little view helps! ^^ Thanks for your patience, everybody!

Replies to Reviews...

Marshman101: Oh man, I've always ADORED the Gentlemobs! They've been so, so much fun to write for! ^^

Airas Slayer: Astrid is also one of my favorite characters! :D I liked Gabe, too, but he was never one of my best characters. Like, Darcy is a gentleman but in a more realistic, occasionally flawed, less formal, straight, stereotypical manner. And that's why I liked the way I portrayed his putting-first of women. And for Kenneth? ...yeah, I thought that everybody would dislike him because he was kind of fanboy-y and annoying, but then I killed him and you guys all freaked out. XD Whoopsie!

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 47: Fight, Flight, and Flirt

"…so now the Glitch has every single Minecraftian man, woman, and kid stored inside itself—including us! And if we don't figure out a way out of this place, we're all going to end up as a pawn in the Glitch's army! …well, except me, probably, because I think I might be able to teleport myself back out."

Raven gritted her teeth and swiped at him in anger, though was dodged quite easily thanks to Kenneth's enhanced code, which—thanks to the plasma—made evading attacks more natural. She whirled around in place to see him hovering up in the air behind her now and transformed her arm into a dark red spear—her aura had taken on the reddish hues of the Glitch in comparison to Mark, who was retaining all the black instead—and exclaimed,

"I said I don't want ANY of your guys' help!"

She jabbed at Kenneth's head in a blur, hoping to skewer it straight through, but she was evaded a second time. Not even a half a second later, a shoe embedded itself in her lower back and sent her flying with the world's most powerful kick. She screamed as she fell, grunting in pain when she hit the ground and skidding almost fifty feet across the blackness of the surface. She coughed painfully and got herself to a kneeling position with shuddering arms, glaring into the distance at the three other individuals standing together. One pink, one black, and one with no glow at all.

"I'm gonna fucking end him. If I can't get the Glitch's attention, I swear I'M gonna do it…"

Mark, who was still pretty winded from their earlier scuffle with the geek, cracked his neck with a wince and then turned back to Kenneth with a wide-eyed, urgent look on his face.

"Dude, you gotta get me out fast." he said, glancing upward as if he was worried the Glitch could actually hear him. "If what you're saying is true, then I…oh man, I just can't stay here. I remember when it was my turn to defeat the Glitch for good and I totally blew that mission! I can't make the same mistake again, I just CAN'T! I really, really don't want to end up killing Kelsey…I've been down that road before, but I'm never going back again."

All of a sudden, Kenneth gained a surprised expression and stared directly at Mark; Mark, however, mistook this for a look of confusion.

"Er…sorry. You wouldn't know her."

"No, no!" he interjected, grabbing one of Mark's shoulders. "I do know a Kelsey! Right before the Glitch got me, I met up with a group of people on a mission like the one you just mentioned! And one of them…"

He paused at the end of his sentence, slowly pointing at Mark with an expectant look on his face. There was a brief pause while he mentally digested Kenneth's words, but quickly enough he realized what he was saying and replied,

"…was named Kelsey? W-what did she look like?"

Kenneth scratched the inside of his nose with one finger, giving the illusion that he was picking it, but even this couldn't distract Mark from the topic at hand.

"Long blonde hair, erm, uhhhh…" he murmured, trying to picture the girl in his mind as clearly as he could. "…green eyes, super white teeth! Compared to you, you're probably three or four inches taller."

Mark's heart jumped before Kenneth was even finished talking; that was Kelsey alright!

"Yeah, that's my girlfriend Kelsey!" he declared, smile broad and eyes wide. "Kenneth, you NEED to get me back to her! I'm BEGGING YOU! This place is making me feel worse and worse every minute, man!"

Abruptly, he felt a presence behind him and jerked his head over his shoulder, startled by the sudden appearance of Raven.

"Talking about her again?! Jesus, you're so obsessed!" she spat, her lip curling up to make a nasty sneer. "That bitch is the whole reason I ended up here!"

The darkness inside of Mark expanded without warning, his eyes growing even larger as he lunged at her.

"TAKE THAT BACK!" he snarled, his voice distorting for a moment.

Both of them had very little energy left thanks to Kenneth and yet they continued to brawl off to the side, with Kenneth watching in dismay not very far from them.

"Ohmanohmanohmanohmanohman!" he groaned, rubbing his fingers together nervously. "Every dimension's so screwed right now! So, so screwed!"

A couple seconds later, Kenneth heard somebody clear his throat right in his ear, turning quickly to see the new prisoner standing there impatiently, teeth gnashed and alert.

"Kenny!" he said, raising his arms up in frustration. "I can't stay here either! My soul was ready to leave this bloody dimension, knock on the doors of Heaven and be free for all eternity! …but then, of COURSE, the Glitch takes me away from all that and plops me in here! If you've got a way out, I'm in! Ya read me, mate?"

Kenneth raised an eyebrow at the Australian as a probing question from earlier reentered his mind.

"Wait, so, how did you end up in the Plasma Realm? You said that one of the Unforgiveable Spawn—so frickin' insane you got to see on with your own eyes, honestly—killed you, right? Those mythological monsters are Satan's literal hellhounds, not the Glitch's! So…why are you here and not in the normal afterlife? Only people who were killed due to bugs, glitches, or by plasma itself could land in the Plasma Realm!"

"For some mysteries, Vanessa, you must look deep, deep into its origin to find the answers…"

Thanks to the Anima Contactus spell, Cantatis's mirror form had been allowing her to speak for Rexum for a few brief but sweet minutes. She'd been hoping to find a solution with his help, but the connection between the spirit and mortal worlds was a difficult one to make, giving Rexum basically no time to explain himself. Vanessa shook her head, her red hair bouncing around when she did so.

"But Rexum!" she said, a look of utmost concern on her face. "What do you mean by that? You're being too vague!"

Rexum sighed, his image flickering on the shimmery red surface of the magic mirror.

"I'm so, so sorry, my dear. You know well enough that the part of my soul infused in yours will grow weaker the longer we speak…I must again rest."

Vanessa rubbed her eyes, which were dry from her severe lack of sleep, and blinked hard, trying not to feel guilty about wearing him down; all she could do now was respect his request.

"Alright…goodnight, Rexum."

"Goodnight, Vanessa."

She flopped back on her bed with a great big groan, staring with big, red eyes up at the starless night sky. No matter how many times she stared at it, the lack of lights up above was always a little unsettling. Slowly, she felt her eyes start to close from sheer fatigue. They had just reached a far enough distance from the plasma waves to have the night off, and this was only possible because Vanessa thought it'd be a smart idea to use Miscere Potestatem—a spell she hadn't needed since that time she and Rexum fought that colossal squid together—as a method of propelling her, Salutem, and the Mastermind thousands upon thousands of blocks away from the waves. At this distance, she had a few hours to rest before they needed to get back on the move.

"BOOP!"

Something sticklike prodded her in the stomach unexpectedly, causing Vanessa to spaz out for a second and fall off her bed. She just barely stopped herself from hitting the hard, unforgiving stone floor thanks to a quick magic barrier, which slowly lowered itself until it was touching the ground before vanishing. Vanessa rolled onto her back, glaring up into the sun and moon eyes of the Mastermind, whose smile stretched all the way across his face.

"What the…?" she muttered, suddenly deeply confused. "How did I miss you? I didn't sense anything at all by my bed!"

The Mastermind tapped his snaking staff on the ground twice, poofing two mini tornadoes into existence that sidled in underneath his curly-toed boots and lifted him off the ground.

"More powerful magic individuals like Salutem and moi can completely mask our auras, leaving us entirely undetectable even by the Glitch! You already know about the whole color scheme deal: red equals valor, orange equals bravery, blue equals gentleness, beige equals—heh—ugliness, and so and so forth for all the colors in between! Well, this is a skill Salutem and I absolutely needed to learn considering how potent our magic is! Unfortunately for you, however…well, there's not nearly enough time to train you to use this skill, so if we ever need to evade Lord Black Licorice, I'll have to help you out a bit."

Vanessa pursed her lips, getting up off the ground and settling back into bed.

"Is that why those plasma waves were so actively trying to get us?"

The Mastermind's grin faded slightly as he turned his head to look across the flat top of their mountain; Salutem was at the other end, honing his combat skills with his signature bludgeon against imaginary enemies. After a few seconds of watching the skilled antivirus at work, he turned back to Vanessa and replied,

"Actually, the Glitch has been combing the entire Overworld at once trying to find Salutem! And even before that, he was driven out of Buenomalo, the End, and the Nether as well! At first, the Glitch tried sending its regular troops out to capture him, but…let's just say the its virus fleet has the collective brainpower of an Endermite. Once the Glitch knew that Salutem was hiding in the Overworld, it realized a different plan of action was needed, so that's essentially why we're now being chased by unyielding waves of black death! Heeheeheehee! …well, eventually, Salutem ended up leading the waves right to us at the temple, and…ah, right."

He sighed, raising his head to stare at the full moon: the only light left in the nighttime sky.

"I'm certainly going to miss the temple. I doubt she'll be able to hold up underneath all that plasma."

This was one of those few moments that Vanessa got to witness the Mastermind in a depressed state. It wasn't that she enjoyed said moments, but it was just too rare to turn away her eyes. Almost half a minute of sad silence went by before he popped right back into his usual cheery self and twirled around in place, his torso spinning around while his legs stayed in place.

"Well then!" he declared, jabbing a long forefinger at her as his body came settled back in place. "You've got to get some rest, missy! Unlike us dimensional-level magick'ers, you actually need to sleep!"

Vanessa let out a breath, falling against her pillow heavily as she let her exhaustion settle in. Luckily for her, she was plenty tired and was easily able to fall asleep within the minute. The only unpleasant thought keeping her from dreamland now was that she'd be waking up in four hours for more grueling, life-threatening activity.

If only the plasma's aura didn't stunt her own; it would be so much nicer to fly away from the waves for a change.

"Hng! Grk! C-c'mon, already! GAH! Alright, you win! You WIN! Uncle!"

After nearly five minutes of nonstop brawling, Adrian had finally managed to pin Astrid to the floor in a painful hold, her left arm bent back far enough where she couldn't move an inch. With her free fist, she pounded on the ground and repeated her "uncle" cry again, this time getting Adrian to let go of her. She stumbled forward into the grass, sweaty and still quite soaked from her dip in the pond, and couldn't help but start laughing. She spun around slowly from her spot and flopped back onto her butt, her fatigued arms barely propping her up from behind.

"And I thought I was the wrestling champion!" she gasped, grinning from ear to ear. "But man…there's definitely more to you than meets the eye!"

Her smile was contagious, quickly showing so when Adrian adopted one as well, his chest rising and falling just like hers. Astrid was quite the fighter, that was for certain.

"When ah was in high school, ah was the number one wrestler in the whole county!" he declared proudly, taking a second to wipe the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "Guess you could say the trainin' really paid off!"

Astrid snorted, almost like she didn't actually believe him, and replied,

"Yeah, well, you only won because you have a height advantage!"

The two of them continued to exchange jokes and lighthearted insults for a couple minutes before all their talking and laughing made them flop back into the grass to catch their breath. While they were lying there, both grinning stupidly and stifling the last of their laughs, Adrian turned over on his side to look at her and said,

"This might be a little weird, but I was just wondering…you know how we've been talkin' about love and reuniting and "power couples," and whatnot?"

Astrid nodded, but didn't move at all so she could see him; she just continued to stare up at the sky, her face unnaturally stiff all of a sudden.

"Well," Adrian continued, "out of all of the old group—Gabe, Kelsey, Lucas, and all them—you always seemed to be totally indifferent towards it."

Astrid shot a glance over at him for a split second before returning her gaze to the clouds.

"It?"

"LOVE, dummy!" Adrian laughed, shaking his head. "And this is just me being my curious self, but…heh. Did'ja ever have any feelings for anybody here? Even the tiniest little thing? Ah really won't judge, ah promise!"

Oddly enough, Astrid's cheeks had turned a bright crimson by the time Adrian was finished with his question. This was likely because she had never been asked a question like that before. Not at school, not at home, and not yet since she was put inside of Minecraftia. At least, not until now!

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…" she groaned, all her breath going into this one utterance.

Adrian snickered, quite aware of how much she was blushing at the moment, and decided to sidle down onto his back again, folding his arms behind his head and crossing one leg over the other.

"Alright, never mind! Ah won't push it if it makes you uncomf'terble."

They stayed silent for nearly a minute after that, with Adrian smiling and Astrid's face frozen in awkward fear. As was the norm with Astrid, she had no choice but to break the silence before it hit the sixty-second mark.

"Um…what about you…?"

Adrian chuckled, glancing over at her with the simple turn of his head.

"Well, you know that ah already had my life on Earth. What you may not know is that my family lived in a quaint little house far, far out in the middle of nowhere! There really wasn't much interaction with the outside world from where I was, and even then I decided I was content with my life at the home, which is why I stayed there for the entirety of my short life on Earth. Perhaps you learned this in one of your history classes, but back in 2402 there was a nationwide epidemic with the Pigskin Virus. Not quite as bad as that one Black Plague we'd all heard about from long ago, but it killed off a lot of folks…myself included. For twenty-two brief years, ah got to live in the 3rd Dimension. I never had a gal of my own thanks to how out of the way the rest of society was, so…well, to answer your question, I may have had a first experience with love here in Minecraftia…at some point!"

He again laughed at how vague he was being and ended it with a small sigh. This time, instead of hesitating to speak, Astrid piped up right away with,

"Well, well, well!" she said, putting her confident face back on. "And who's the lucky little lady, huh?

Adrian shot a glance over at her without moving from his position in the grass, replying with equal confidence to match hers.

"Sure ah'll tell you who! …but you gotta tell me who you're crushin' on first."

Astrid coughed awkwardly, propping herself up on her elbows to break eye contact with him, choosing to stare across the pond and at the distant forest instead.

"C'mon, Adrian! Like you said, I've never shown any interest in any of the guys before! I'm the neutral one, aren't I? With all the hormones that were flying back and forth during the last quest, somebody had to keep their head on straight…besides, maybe it's kinda inappropriate to be talking about this stuff because of all the, y'know, death and suffering that's been happening."

Adrian sat up next to her, turning his head to the skies the next moment and saying,

"First of all, that's an odd sentence comin' from you of all people." Astrid rolled her eyes at this. "And second, ah think in the end ah've got to agree with Kelsey. She always said that Mark was never actually dead because his Earth soul never got to Heaven—the 77th Dimension, right? So, wouldn't that mean that none of the folks taken away by the Glitch are really dead! AND, the Divination of Dimensions has correctly predicted every one of our adventures, even the one that none of us were ever a part of, so…shouldn't we trust that we're gonna succeed in the end? That we're gonna bring back everyone who's gone?"

Astrid huffed through her nose, falling heavily onto her back again with folded arms.

"Eh, I don't fully trust all the weird voodoo junk that the Spirits talk about. Sure, they created the cosmos and all, but not even Farixz—who friggin WROTE the book, mind you—always knows if things'll work out! He even explained to us how he writes every chapter, and it's not technically even him writing it! It's, like…the energy of the universe or something. Fate, I think?"

Adrian took his gaze away from the sky the next moment and looked at her. Another uncomfortable silence followed for about ten more seconds, either of their eyes darting to random patches of grass occasionally.

"Um…" Astrid murmured, blinking slowly. "What were we talking about?"

Adrian just grinned.

"Your crush?"

Astrid sat up in an instant, steadying herself on two hands and getting up off the ground.

"Nope. Nopenopenopenopenope, I'm out!"

She turned on her heel and speed-walked back towards the cabin before Adrian could stop her. He took the opportunity to cup his hands to his mouth and shout something extremely embarrassing at the top of his lungs.

"You can't hide it forever, Villson! You can't hide your juicy secrets!"

She broke into a jog halfway to the house, soon disappearing around the corner and allowing Adrian to burst out laughing. It took him at least thirty seconds to stop, and when he did he decided it was time to get off his lazy butt and find something else to do. Nothing productive, of course, but something else.

"Now then…" he muttered to himself. "What should ah do now? …hm! Wonder what the others are doing?"

Lots of interesting stuff going on, huh? :3 Now we know the reason for all these plasma waves spreading across the Overworld, at least! And what about Astrid, eh? That's a side she's never showed before!

Just to let y'all know, I'm probably (which means definitely) not going to be able to finish this series before the school year starts for me. That was my plan from the very beginning, but what I did NOT anticipate was the long, long visit from my cousins from France. I lost over two weeks of time that could've been for writing because of preparation, trips, dinners, and events in general with them. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but it did keep me away from the keyboard quite a bit...plus, of course, I mentioned the deal with animating and meeting other YouTube animators, so that also contributed to the matter.

HOWEVER! The promise I made multiple chapters ago was to make 10-15 more chapters before ending this story and, essentially, the trilogy itself. That means that I now have only ten-ish chapters left. This might not seem like a lot considering the point in the story, but...HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH! I've had the plot of Hourglass laid out from its conception! It'll all work out, trust me!

Will Kenneth be able to save all the ex-heroes from full corruption inside the Plasma Realm? Will he himself eventually give into the sheer power of the Glitch? Will the three magic-users Vanessa, the Mastermind, and Salutem be able to escape the wrath of the plasma waves? And will Adrian actually be able to crack Astrid's tough shell to get the details on her apparent crush? Find out NEXT time in Hourglass!

And as I said last time and the time before, if you have a favorite character then feel free to let me know in your review! I'm still 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 [~]