Preface: Hello, again! Time for the second half of the Minecraft Maniacs' story!
THE FINAL FUSION
Previously...while out on a camping trip, Danny, Liam, Kevin, and their companions encountered their old allies the Lavieres and learned of a treasure that only they could retrieve. In the process, they got trapped in a mystic cave.
Now...they wait for outside help to arrive...
Roll Call
Danny - Alfred von Any: Hero with emotional issues. The leader.
Liam - Willy Blanq: Expert crafter. The maker.
Kevin - Nevile Napoleon: Part-gangerman player. The brains.
Pork Chop - Dee Bradley Baker: Danny's companion. The pet.
Spawny and Spawnette - Damien Laquet: The rabborg siblings. The heart.
Chapter 4:
4 Minutes Later…
[Main Party Selected: Danny, Liam, Kevin]
[Supporting Party Selected: Spawny, Spawnette, Pork Chop]
[Character Selected: Kevin]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Private World, Cave of Treasures]
[BGM: Antimo & Welles - Order of the Stone [Minecraft: Story Mode 101 OST]]
Four minutes pass after you make the call out to Dr. Jagmon. You pace the floor as you wait, anxiously, for his arrival. "So this is the guy that helped you make that weird virtual reality program we used to use sometimes, right?" Liam asks.
"Correct," you answer. "Last I heard from him, he was making some kind of custom enchantment that lets you go to some weird behind-the-curtain realm."
"And that's how we'll make our escape!" says Danny, understanding what you were getting at. "Genius!" He looks around and taps his foot. "I hope he shows up soon."
"Should be here any minute," you answer. A moment later, cracks start to appear in front of you. But these cracks are not coming from any block - they're floating in midair. "Right on cue," you say with a smile.
The cracks vanish, and a hole suddenly appears in the middle of the room, revealing a player with a scientist skin you know all too well. "Kevin! There you are!" says Dr. Jagmon, mining another block in the fabric of reality in front of you before jumping out.
"Thanks for coming on short notice, doc," you say, shaking his hand. "I didn't want to disturb you, but it was kind of an emergency."
"No problem at all!" Dr. Jagmon responds. "I'm just about done with my next project, so I've got time to spare." He turns to the others. "Your friends have been doing well, I presume?"
"Yeah, we're hanging in there," says Danny. "Recently we fought against some guy named the Manipulator, and then Doppel came back and merged with him somehow."
"Ooo, yikes," says Jagmon, surprised. "Well, feel free to tell me all about it when you get the chance."
"(Yeah, but can you please get us out of here?)" asks Spawny, rubbing his hands nervously. "(I hate it since we got rid of the spiders!)"
"Oh, right, right," says Jagmon. "Right this way!" He points towards the hole he made, and you all jump in. The sight is surely one to behold - the area around you is now a mere black void, and all the treasures in the cave have their colors inverted. Looking around, you can also see a monster spawner spawning zombies in a nearby dungeon, as well as a chest and posts from an abandoned mineshaft, and they all have inverted colors as well.
"Well, this is freaky," says Liam, taking in the sight. "But not much different than X-ray mods, I suppose." Jagmon jumps into the hole and places some oddly-styled blocks to cover it up. "So how do we get out of here?" asks Liam.
"Just jump!" answers Jagmon.
"Jump?" Liam repeats in confusion. Sure enough, Dr. Jagmon starts jumping, and everytime he does, he lands in a higher place than where he was before. "Huh," says Liam, and you all copy the doctor.
After a minute or two, you're back in the Laviere's jungle, right where the X platform once was. Jagmon takes out an enchanted netherite pickaxe and mines the air in front of him. Cracks appear, and before long, a hole emerges that you can walk out of back to reality. Night has fallen by then, and you can already hear zombies moaning. "So you managed to finish that enchantment!" you say, jumping back out of the hole.
"Oh, believe it or not, I finished it a long time ago!" explains Jagmon, covering up the hole. "I've been doing plenty of stuff since then."
You all walk back to the village and find Chief Laviere conversing with some villagers. "Oh! You succeeded in obtaining the All-Seeing Orb, I see," he says, pleased with your success.
"Well, not quite," says Danny. "See, we got it, then I accidentally tripped into some of the treasure we weren't supposed to touch, and then we got trapped."
Chief Laviere's pleased face quickly turns grim. "Oh, no," he says. "And yet you managed to escape anyway?"
"Yeah, thanks to Dr. Jagmon here," you explain, pointing to the doctor, who waves to the chief. "Why, is something wrong?"
Chief Laviere turns to the villagers he was conversing with. "Go, get the Nintendounases," he instructs them. The villagers nod and run to get the second half of their merged tribe, while the chief turns back to you to explain the predicament. "The legend of the cave states that if anyone escapes their punishment for taking anything other than the All-Seeing Orb, our village will face the wrath of Poisa, the spider queen."
You, Liam, Danny, and Dr. Jagmon all have grim looks on your faces. "Ohhhhhh…" you all say at once. "We oughta help you out, then," says Danny, pulling the Chicken Blade back out.
A second later, many members of the Nintendounas tribe, including your old ally Unora, have arrived, wielding their bows, while several of the Lavieres have gathered as well, wielding obsidian-tipped spears. Meanwhile, Spawny and Spawnette toss some of the grass into their amulets to acquire their Grass forms, obtaining grass skirts and crowns in the process, as well as a coconut top for Spawnette. Lastly, Dr. Jagmon takes out two enchanted iron swords, holding one in each hand. "Why the dual-wield?" you ask the doctor.
"You'll see!" Jagmon responds. You all look in the middle of the village, awaiting the arrival of the Poisa that Chief Laviere described. The tension fills the entire crowd. But a minute passes, and nothing happens.
"(Maybe she's not gonna come after all?)" Spawny suggests. But then the ground starts rumbling, and a gigantic cave spider leg bursts out, pulling the entire cave spider with gigantic fangs and a large purple crown out with it. Poisa gives a moud, mighty roar. "(Alright, that's a no…)"
[Character Selected: Liam]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Private World, Laviere's Village]
[BGM: Peter Hont - Evoker]
As soon as Poisa roared, Liam sprung into action, firing arrows from his dispenser at the spider's head. Unfettered, Poisa shoots string at the dispenser, tangling it up. "Rats!" said Liam.
"Hang on," said Danny, and with a single slice, the dispenser was cut free. "Spawny, Spawnette, try to send the webs away from the group."
"(Of course,)" said Spawnette, nodding. She and Spawny prepared to use their Grass powers to manipulate the wind and blow any webs away.
"Everyone, attack!" directed Chief Laviere. The Lavieres and Nintendounases all start to use their respective weapons against Poisa. The spider counterattacked by shooting more string and stomping her giant legs to create shockwaves. Thanks to Spawny and Spawnette, most of the string missed, and even the few villagers that got tangled up were cut free easily. The shockwaves, however, stunned the villagers in its way briefly, forcing Danny, Liam, Kevin, Pork Chop, Chief Laviere, and Dr. Jagmon to take action.
"Time to show what I had planned!" said the doctor. He started swinging his swords around, and thanks to the magic of the enchantment, his arms started rotating around his torso like helicopter blades, allowing him to fly. "Just another trick from my custom enchantment phase!" he shouted as he got closer and closer to Poisa's face.
"I'd like to try that sometime!" shouted Danny. He waved his sword around to create duplicates of himself, and the duplicates split up to attack Poisa's legs and prevent her from stomping the ground any longer.
By then, Dr. Jagmon had reached the top of Poisa's head and began to slash his swords in her face. Liam followed up by shooting arrows from his dispenser, and Kevin, still having the Archer ability, followed suit. Meanwhile, Pork Chop picked up Chief Laviere and threw him onto the head of Poisa to join Dr. Jagmon in attacking the spider queen from there.
It quickly became clear to Poisa that she was losing with all of the forces against her, so she decided to unleash her trump card. She opened her mouth and spewed out a large cloud of noxious gas. Instantly, everyone received the Poison and Weakness effects, taking damage without any way to fight back. Everyone, that is, except Jagmon and Chief Laviere.
"Alright…" said Danny, "I think it's Mega Piston time." He charged his sword to 40% power and swung it around. Magic sparkles began to fly around the area, stopping the effects of the poisonous gas temporarily. "That should buy us some time," Danny continued, turning to Kevin. "You do have a Mega Piston, right?"
"Of course I do," said Kevin, reaching into his inventory for the custom weapon he had used many times before. But just before he could place it down, another piece of string appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around him, causing him to drop the Mega Piston and fall to the ground.
The Mega Piston flew through the air, landing in Danny's open hand. But before he could place it down as well, an arrow hit him in the back. Once again, the Mega Piston flew through the air, landing in the hand of one of the Nintendounases. When Danny, Liam, and Kevin looked around, it became clear what the source of the disruption was - a new group of spider jockeys, this time consisting of skeletons riding cave spiders, welding enchanted bows with poison arrows. "And just when you thought it was safe to go back in the jungle," said Liam.
"Pork Chop, go grab the Mega Piston," said Danny. "Try to get it onto Poisa's head." Pork Chop nodded and ran to the villager who grabbed the Mega Piston. The pig jumped up, grabbed the piston out of the villager's hand while she was still pondering it, and ran past the spider jockeys towards the rabborgs.
The pig found the two in the middle of trying to dodge arrows and string. "(What is it, boy?)" asked Spawny, reaching down to see Pork Chop. "(A Mega Piston!)" Pork Chop tilted his head up. "(You wanna get this on Poisa's head?)"
"(So the scientist and chief can use it!)" Spawnette pointed out. "(Brilliant!)" The two punched the skeletons they were fighting in the face to briefly disable them, then they turned their attention towards the Mega Piston. Rhythmically moving their arms above their heads, they began to have the wind blow the Mega Piston into the air.
Kevin looked up from helping the Nintendounases shoot at the spider jockeys. "It's working!" he cried. "Dr. Jagmon! Chief Laviere! Look!"
The doctor and chief turned their attention away from Poisa's head and noticed the small block inching closer and closer towards them. "Is that…the weapon that was used to defeat that lava monster three years ago?" asked Chief Laviere.
"I dunno, but I'm grabbing it!" said Dr. Jagmon. He used his swords to fly over to the Mega Piston, but just as he grabbed it, Poisa looked over and shot another piece of string at him, tangling him up. "Oh, for the love of redstone!" shouted the doctor as he began to fall to the ground.
The Mega Piston flew through the air for the third time. Knowing what he had to do, Chief Laviere grabbed it and, without a second thought, placed it down in front of him. The piston grew to colossal size and pushed forward. Luckily, the small piece of Poisa's head it hit was enough to trigger its effects, and a hole in the fabric of reality appeared. Looking down, Chief Laviere noticed his people panicking as they were sucked into the hole. "Have no fear, everyone!" the chief called down. "This will be to our benefit!" Before long, everyone had been sucked into the tear, which closed as if it had never been there.
[World Change: Trio Attack Dimension]
[Location Change: Trio Tornado Chamber]
[BGM: Antimo & Welles - Training Montage [Minecraft: Story Mode 101 OST]]
The group found themselves in a chamber made of spruce planks, lined with brewing stands, cauldrons, and soul sand topped with netherrack. Poisa and her spider jockey minions were situated in an opening to the right of the group, turned into paper. "Oooo, new attack! Nice!" said Danny.
"I was sort of inspired by that fourth Code Challenge," explained Kevin He pointed to the three groupings of redstone lamps on the ceiling. One was purple, one was green, and the last was gray. "We'll all be divided into three groups, and when our respective lights come on, we'll all throw splash potions into the middle, and they'll create a tornado!"
The groups split into three - Danny, the Nintendounases, and Spawny took the purple side, Kevin, the Lavieres, and Spawnette took the gray side, and Liam, Pork Chop, and Dr. Jagmon took the green side. Everyone received an infinite supply of Splash Potions of Harming, Weakness, or Poison, depending on their grouping. The purple lamps went on first, so the players threw their potions into the middle. A tornado slowly began to build where the potions met. Then the green side had a turn, and the three there threw their potions. The gray area was last, and they threw their potions in. The cycle went around an additional time, and with each set of potions, the tornado grew bigger and bigger.
After the second batch of Weakness potions, all the lamps turned off and the potions disappeared. "Okay, now what?" asked Liam.
"Now me, you, and Danny jump in!" answered Kevin. "We'll be able to control the tornado that way!"
"Okay, but if this doesn't work," said Danny, "I call dibs on the orb!" The three ran into the tornado and put themselves into a stack. They then began to spin around, and sure enough, they were able to guide the tornado into the spiders and attack them with the negative potion effects. As soon as every last potion was splashed onto the group, white light came into the chamber, signifying the end of the attack.
[BGM: End]
[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Private World, Lavieres' Village]
When the white light faded, we were back in the Lavieres' village, and the rabborgs had reverted to their original forms. All of the spider jockeys were gone, and while Poisa was still there, she was unconscious. "Looks like we have an opening," I said. "Combo?"
"Yes, Danny," said Kevin. "Combo." To start things off, I pointed my sword at Pork Chop to give him the Strength effect, and then he ran to Poisa and tossed her into the air. Sensing an opportunity, the Lavieres all tossed their spears at her, while I slashed my sword to send a powerful shockwave her way. Liam then dove to the side and used her dispenser to send a barrage of arrows into her left side, while the Nintendounases fired their own arrows into her right side. Kevin finished us off by dropping his Archer ability, inhaling the Ability Star, and spitting it right in Poisa's face. That was the last thing we needed for the spider queen to fall on her side and vanish, finally down for the count.
[BGM: Peter Hont - What You Came For]
All of the Laviere-Nintendounas tribe members started cheering, jumping up and down in victory. Chief Laviere shook all of our hands. "Thank you again for helping us save our village!"
"Well, it was kinda our fault this time," I said, rubbing the back of my head, "so it was the least we could do."
"But hey, that should solve your spider problem!" added Liam. "I mean, if their queen is gone, the spiders can't gather around here anymore."
"Of course not," said Chief Laviere. He clapped his hands. "Now, everyone must be hungry and tired after that battle."
And so, we ate and spent the night at the Lavieres' village. I did some catching up with Unora, talking about how we were doing and the adventures we'd been on. Dr. Jagmon even stayed the night. The next morning, we bid Chief Laviere and his tribe a fine farewell and walked out of the jungle, as Dr. Jagmon followed us out.
"So, wanna head back to camp and log off for the day?" I asked, stretching.
"Actually, how about we ask Andy and Mark about the orb first?" said Liam. "Just get it out of the way first."
"Eh, sure, why not?" said Kevin. "Wanna come with, Doc?"
"Sure thing!" said Dr. Jagmon, rubbing his hands together. "I'm curious about this orb!"
"Alright, stand by!" said Kevin. He looked at his watch and tapped it. "At the party a couple of months ago, the two added a command that would take us right to their planet, so…" After a few button presses, we were teleported there.
[BGM: Peter Hont - To The Beginning]
Naturally, their planet looked a lot like the End. The ground was made of End stone, the buildings were made with End stone bricks and purpur blocks, and chorus fruit was growing everywhere. But the buildings looked more like traditional homes than the temples you'd find in an End city, and there was also a large fortress made of obsidian.
And, of course, there were gangermen walking around. But thankfully, since Andy and Mark have established peace between them and players, not a single one attacked us. In fact, it didn't seem like any of them noticed us. "Wow…so this is their planet!" I said, amazed. "I can't believe we haven't been here sooner!"
When we looked around a bit more, we saw a large temple made of End stone brick with a purpur door locking it shut. Instinctively, we started walking towards it, and when we came to the door, two familiar gangermen sporting blue and green scarves, were standing right there.
Andy turned around and saw us, mixed with surprise and delight. "Hey! Danny, Liam, Kevin, Dr. Jagmon!" he said, eagerly shaking our hands. "What brings you guys here?"
Liam reached into his inventory and pulled out the All-Seeing Orb. "We found this in a treasure cave and wondered if you two knew anything about it."
Mark walked over and looked at the orb in awe. "No way, we were just about to open up this temple and see if we could find it there," he explained. "What a coincidence!"
"See, according to one of Doppel's old resources," explained Andy, "this temple can only be unlocked with the Gadgets of Order, and then if we bring them to the orb, they'll show us a vision of a future event." They reached into their inventories and pulled out the five familiar glowing objects we had seen time and time again. "We decided to try the artificial set that Per and Don made to see if it would work."
"Well, go ahead, give it a try!" I said. The two gangermen turned around and held the gadgets in front of the door. They all spun and shifted around, making the same jingle that played whenever Buzzer activated one set of them on our adventure to defeat Doppel and Perinton Pig. When the jingle finished, the door slowly creaked open. "Huh. That was lucky…" I said as we all walked inside.
The interior was empty except for a purple altar in the back. "And that must be where the orb should go," said Liam, pointing toward the altar. He ran up to it and placed the orb onto it, being careful not to accidentally activate the orb again.
Andy and Mark then placed all five artificial gadgets around the orb. "According to the reference, the orb will only share the vision with one person," explained Mark. "So who wants to-" He was cut off by a laser shooting out from it, aimed towards my forehead. "Alright, guess it chose Danny!" said Mark.
"Mark Whotney, space psychic," I said, jokingly, and we all gave a brief laugh.
[BGM: End]
"I'd see that movie," Liam said, and a second later, my perspective changed to show the vision the orb had to share. But it was awful. I saw the world of Minecraft…dissolving, turning into purple bits. Then I saw the same thing happen to other worlds we've been to - the Unikingdom, Bluey's world, the Blue's Clues world…all dissolving into purple bits. And then I saw the entire multiverse imploding on itself, and then…nothing. Just blackness.
A second later, my perspective returned to normal. "So, what did you see?" asked Kevin, anxiously.
I tapped my hands together, nervously. How could I explain it to these guys without them freaking out? But then I decided it had to be done. So I took a deep breath and said, "The multiverse is in danger again!"
"Really?" said Liam. "What is it this time?"
"I dunno," I said, shrugging. "Something's causing it to…dissolve or something. But I don't know what we can-" But before I could finish my thought, we were cut off by another flash of white, and then we were gone…
End of Part 2. Next time: the Outcast Cherubs' turn!
Next chapter: "Racing for Power" The final simultaneous story begins as the Outcast Cherubs enjoy their first day of summer! Relaxing in their clubhouse, playing video games, finishing a project that could cause eternal peace across the Chaosverse...wait, what? Looks like things will be a bit more exciting than they planned...
Postface: Chapter complete! So Danny received the exact same vision that Sonic did! And they also vanished into a white light! What could it all mean?
Trivia time! I had always wanted to bring back Dr. Jagmon, one of the players' allies from my first set of stories. My original plan was for the players to lose control over their avatars, forcing Jagmon to use one of his own devices to have them control the rabborgs and Pork Chop to rescue the avatars. I decided not to go in that direction for the final story because I felt I wouldn't have been able to squeeze it in, but I'm glad I found a way to work in Dr. Jagmon anyway. For this chapter, I also wanted it to feel like a usual Minecraft Maniacs story, so I structured it similarly to a traditional battle in those stories - a giant mob (in this case, a spider, after the spider infestation last chapter), some hardship, the rabborgs using their elemental powers, and the Mega-Piston finishing the job. The Mega-Piston used here was actually inspired by the Max-Mix Vortex Bros. Attack in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and the combo the players use to fully finish off Poisa was reused from a couple of instances in Minecraft Maniacs RPG. Lastly, the chapter ends with the players finally seeing the planet of the gangermen for themselves! I knew I couldn't have them not go to it, so I figured, why not have the All-Seeing Orb be there?
That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you all next time for the Outcast Cherubs' story! Stay diamond, everyone!
-Alfred
~Minecraft and everything related to it are properties of Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~