Ultimate Minecraft Epic (Aftermath Minecraftia)

Chapter 1. Arrival.

Steve sighed with relief. He had managed to get away from Earth as it was attacked by the Herons, strange birdlike creatures bent on destroying humanity. Only through sheer luck had he managed to rescue his friends, Lewis and Mary. That, and he managed to break into a secret facility, sneak past the guards with his friends, and steal one of the only 4 operational spaceships on Earth. The ship was well stocked with food and water, and now Steve faced a decision. What to do? He had no idea how to manually pilot the ship, and unfortunately it did not have very much fuel for the flight.

However, it did have a set of points locked into its navigation system, and an experimental warp drive. Steve judged that he could use the systems to warp to that point in space, but he had no idea what those points actually represented. But, as he knew that as he waited, the Herons might locate his ship. He made the choice. As he pressed the blue button and pulled the throttle, the ship began to vibrate.

The vibrations built up in power until the space in front of the ship began to fold into itself. The ship immediately shot forward, entering the warp flux. Steve immediately lost all thought. After what seemed like eternity, the ship faded into existence at the coordinates. Steve immediately awoke, and looked through the viewpoint. What he saw was a section of space that seemed to pull....

Suddenly, the ship shot forward again, continuing towards the vortex. Steve heard screams of dismay from Mary  and Lewis, and he though he heard someone else too. But that was most likely his imagination. As he closed his eyes, he thought that this would be an awkward way to die, sucked into a black hole. As he felt a tug on his body, he wished he had stayed on Earth. But then, Steve opened his eyes, seeing... A planet! A lush green and blue planet. It seemed oddly cubic however.. As was Steve. Steve looked at himself in wonder, for he appeared to be made of pixels! Along with the rest of his spaceship, and Lewis and Mary.

But, he had more pressing problems. Given that his ship was heading straight for the cubic world, he thought best to scream. " AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! " He then concentrated on how what to do....

"Eject supply pods? Yes or no." Steve replied yes to the electronic voice. The whole ship shuddered, then released a few hundred metallic pixilated pods towards the planet. As the pods dispersed through the atmosphere, the electronic voice spoke again to Steve. Lewis and Mary looked on as Steve gave the order to the ship ( perhaps a colony ship of some sort) to activate the escape pods.

Metal mechanisms grinned and twisted throughout the ship as Lewis and Mary were sprayed with a cleansing gas, then grabbed with massive metal arms from the ceiling and shoved into two identical pods. As the metal doors slammed behind them, the pods were ejected towards the planet. Steve then closed his eyes as he was sprayed with the gas and shoved into an escape pod. As Steve was ejected to the planet, he wondered what would become of him and his friends.

Chapter 2. Minecraftia.

Steve was shaken to the core as his pod smashed against the surface of the planet. The front of the pod fell off and Steve stepped out. He saw an amazing world... It was all cubic! Also, unfortunately, he only saw one other escape pod. Mary stepped out of the other escape pod, looked around in wonder, and asked Steve, " Where is Lewis?" Steve had no idea.

As Steve looked around, he realized that this world was completely different than Earth. It was not smooth and curved, it was all pixelated and solid, much like the whole world was made of blocks. In fact, the world was made of blocks. 

His first clue to the fact that this world was dangerous was a strange 2-block-tall creature. It was wrinkled green, and its face was scary looking. It had no arms, but four miniature legs sent it along. As soon as it spotted Steve, it crept forward quickly towards him. As it began to hiss, Steve dashed away just before the thing exploded, leaving a sizable crater in the terrain.

Steve backed away slowly, then spoke, "We need to find shelter, if there are more of those things." Steve grabbed the supply box from his pod, and then walked towards a nearby forest, with Mary holding her bag at his tail. As the duo walked over the grassy plains, Steve heard something slam into the ground with the force of an earthquake. As he turned closer to look, he saw a large metal pod labeled in big yellow letters, SUPPLIES.

As the duo approached the pod, the front of the pod fell off, revealing a large pile of canned food and water. "We can't just carry all that as we continue onwards." Mary stated. As Steve decided to take only some of the canned goods with him, he made a major discovery. As he took a few cans, they disappeared, except for 1 in Steve's hand. As he continued to take more cans, he seemed to reach within himself as a special storage space, like an inventory...

Bob was irritated. He had been waiting years and years for the Chosen Ones to fall out of the sky. Even though Notch himself had told Bob that a Chosen One would fall right to his doorstep, it had been several years since then. As he prepared to thresh some wheat from his garden for his lunch bread, he opened the door to see that many strange metal things... Pods?... Were falling right from the sky. In fact, one was right above Bob. Bob ran back inside just as a large metal pod fell on his doorstep, almost crushing him.  As the front of the pod fell open, a strange teenage boy stepped out. The boy looked at Bob, then asked, "Where am I?"

Lewis had not fallen with the others. His pod was blown off course, and landed somewhere else. As the pod's front door opened, Lewis looked forward, right at a strange bald man. Lewis asked the first question that crossed his mind, "Where am I?"

Chapter 3. Cake, Milk, and the Quest.

Bob answered the young man, "You are at my house, in the Larian Forest, in the continent of Mineu, on the world of Minecraftia. And perhaps, you should come inside for cake and milk, to talk about what you are doing here." Bob knew that this boy was a Chosen One, destined to end Herobrine's reign of terror, and that he (Bob) should summon Notch immediate. Bob fished the red diamond infused with Notch's power out of his pocket, and threw it into the sky, where it burst into powder, sure to draw Notch's essence.

As Steve and Mary continued to trek onward at the forest, Mary noticed a wooden house amongst the trees. Steve noticed the house too, and decided, "Perhaps we could find someone there to tell us where we are." Mary agreed, and the duo trekked onward towards the house. After a few minutes, they arrived at the house, noticing the large metal pod at the front door. As the duo approached, a bald man with a long nose walked out the front door and, "Ah. You must be Mary and Steve. Please do come inside for cake and milk." 

As Steve walked inside, he was greeted by Lewis, sitting at a table and eating a slice of cherry topped cake. "Mmmmm, this pixilated cake is delicious!" Lewis washed the last bite of his cake down with a swig of milk from a bucket. As Steve and Mary sat down, Bob began to speak, "Finally, you are all here. I have been expecting you for years, you should know. Notch was right. He almost always is, but maybe he shouldn't have given his brother Herobrine the Auric Essence."

As Steve took a bite of the cake, Mary asked, "Who is this ' Notch ' ?" Bob replied, "Perhaps you should let him answer that..." Thunder boomed in the sky as a mist of red dust swooped through the air, into the chimney, and down onto the floor. The red dust shaped itself into a human figure with a green aura. He spoke, " Finally, the heroes have come! Perhaps you would like to know what your quest shall be." Lewis replied, "What quest?! We did not sign up for a quest!" But Notch replied, " Actually, you did the moment you ate the cake. Bob baked an Arcane Contract into the cake. All three of you are bound by it until I release you from it. Sneaky, I know, but I had no guarantee that you would help us." 

"Arcane Contract? What Arcane Contract!" Lewis was outraged. " Powerful auric magic. Essentially, the words of the contract are bounded into your very being. Now, prepare to become immune to death." "Wha-" Lewis's word was cut short as he was enveloped in a green crystal that sprouted from the wood floor underneath him. As Steve stared in shock, out from Lewis's skin came a strange yellow energy, which soaked into the crystal around him. The crystal shattered and disappeared, except for one small fragment which glowed strongly.  The fragment vibrated, then leaped into Notch's hand. " And now for you." Notch gestured, and a crystal erupted around Mary. Her essence was drawn out into the crystal, then as it shattered, one small shard remained, colored purple. And finally, Notch drew Steve's essence out into another crystal, then colored red. 

The three crystals in Notch's hand leaped up and disappeared. "What did you just do to us!?" Notch replied, " I drew out  your mortal essence. Now, you do not age, and when you die, you are shortly resurrected on this spot, unless you sleep in a bed. Now then, you might want to duck."

An arrow leaped through the air, shattered a window, and almost skewered Lewis, but he jumped out of the way. As Steve's gaze swept through the air, he noticed a walking skeleton with an iron helmet. It advanced and fired another arrow, which Bob simply grabbed out of the air. Mary stared in amazement as Bob then threw the arrow, embedding it in the skeleton's head. "He must have found us. Let us flee." Notch spoke to the group. He then opened the door with a wave of his hand, dashed through, and smashed a hole in the air. The space in the air where Notch punched it shimmered, then formed into a portal. As a portion of the nearby ground began to shift up and down, Notch used his power to grab Steve, Lewis, and Mary, and launch them through the gateway. Bob leaped through as the gate closed...

Chapter 4. One Disk to Rule them All.

The group found themselves on a hill. Bob then explained, "To defeat Herobrine, you must tap into the code of our world, Java. Notch prepared for a worst case scenario by creating a disk, the Java Disk, which allows the user to control the world. However, he split the disk into several lesser disks with less power, the Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Space, Time, and Aura disks. He then scattered the disks throughout the dimensions, and sealed them into well trapped and defended vaults, with a barrier so strong that naught short of a special key for each vault can allow access inside. Not even Herobrine could break through the vaults. However, that is what we must do."

"For starters, Notch left me the Water Key, allowing us to access the vault at Lake Oromacki. Judging by my map, the lake is several days away from our current location, giving me time to train you in sword and sorcery."  Bob then lifted his hand and spoke. "Baur ohft wetchen stranth!"

As Bob spoke the final word, the space in front of the group flared up into a wall made of fire, burning greatly. "What did you do!?" Mary asked. Bob replied, "Fire to wall strong. That is the translation of the ark magic I used to create the blazing wall.  Now, I must begin to train you in swordplay. Bob reached within himself, then took out three wooden swords. He then tossed them to Steve, Mary, and Lewis. " Now, attack me." Lewis replied, " But you are unarmed!" " Just do it." So Lewis charged towards Bob, who simply sprung over Lewis's head. As Steve struck at Bob, Bob leaned away slightly,  the sword swung past with no effect. Mary then chopped with her  blade, but Bob sprang into the air, and swung his foot around. The foot struck Mary's sword, launching it out of her grasp. Bob then proceeded to kick Mary in the stomach, taking her down. Lewis swung his blade towards Bob, but it flew over his head. Bob smashed Lewis with his fist, taking Lewis down. Finally, Bob turned towards Steve... But he was not there.

Steve saw his friends being taken down one after the other. He decided to do only what he could, which was to take the chance for a sneak attack. As this thought flowed through his veins, he decided that the sword was not needed. As Bob turned to look, Steve was right behind him. Steve then leapt through the air, striking with his bare rock-solid fist.

Bob was completely taken by surprise by this unexpected assault. The strike from Steve's fist was much stronger than the wood sword lying nearby. In fact, it was arcane. Upon impact, the air shifted at such high speed, that it created a small Shockwave. Bob flew through the air, then hit the bare earth headfirst.  " Ouch."

Mary looked up just in time to see that Steve flew through the air at warp speed. The impact of his fist was the equal to a sledgehammer blow. And of course, Bob seemed to move in slow motion during the impact. As Bob stood up, he waved around unsteady on his feet. " You... flowdanced.."

Chapter 5. The 1st Journey.

Bob pulled himself up, then explained, " Flowdancing is how we can defeat foes who are normally too strong for us. Essentially, it allows us to feel the flow of all around us and manipulate it. Steve, you used Mark 1 flowdancing, allowing you to feel and manipulate your own flow. This allows you to move at high speed, or to speed up your mind to enable comprehension of the combat. You could slow yourself down to avoid falling into a trap also. Mark 2 is sensing the flow of the objects and life around you, and manipulating it. Mark 3 is sensing the flow of the planet itself, then shifting it in tiny movements.  I was using Mark 2 flowdancing to dance around your attacks. I was trying to train those other 2 to flowdance also, but right now, only you and I can do it. Now, again!"

Bob attacked with his fists, taking Lewis and Mary down before they knew what hit them. Bob then slammed his fist at Steve, but it was in vain, as Steve shifted slightly backwards, causing Bob to overextend his reach. Then Steve smashed Bob down with a rock-solid fist, smashing him down into the dirt. 

As the four journeyed onward, they continued to train. Slash and bash, punch and kick, they gradually gained skill. Lewis gradually became able to flowdance, not as strongly as Steve, but still powerful, however Mary just was incapable. The journey ended at Lake Oromacki after 4 days. " All right, now we are here. Now what do we do?" Mary asked Bob. In reply Bob spoke, " We must submerge into the depths and walk down to the vault door against the sea floor. I will then insert the key, and we will then enter. " All for one and one for All!"

Chapter 6. The Water Vault, Part 1.

" Aquan morisa stranth! Otherwise known as Water Breath Strong!" Bob spoke, causing a blue dust to swirl around the group. As the dust stuck to their skin, they began to breath through their skin. " Come." Bob led the group into the waves. They continued onward under the lake. Eventually they came to a large slab of rock, glowing under the lake, easily apparent.  In the center of the slab was a small five-pointed star, at the center of which there was a keyhole colored blue. Bob reached through the air, grabbed the Water Key, then inserted it into the lock, then turned it. The lock and a small area of surrounding rock vanished, along with the key. Water began to gush into the hole, and the group was drawn in.

As they swirled down into the vault, they landed in a small room partially flooded with water. The room glowed with a soft light, pointing to a passageway onward. Steve walked onward, but stepped on something on the floor. His foot sunk into the ground slightly, pressing a pressure plate downwards. A small tube in the wall appeared, and a noxious gas was released. The gas clung to Steve's skin, and he froze solid with ice on his skin. Bob spoke, " Baur smalm foci!" " Fire small focused!" A small flame shot from Bob's palm, and the ice slowly melted off Steve. 

The group continued, into a large room with water up to their waist. "Skreee! Skreeee! Skrake!" "Duck!" Mary pointed and exclaimed. A large swarm of creeper heads colored slightly blue splashed out of the water and flew towards the group. The heads swarmed through the air, and then charged!  "Aquan ohft wetchen!" Mary shouted instinctively. Her words crackled with energy, then the water in front of them rose and formed into a wall, which the creeper heads impacted against, causing them to explode. "Mary, how?" Steve asked. "I just don't know!" She replied.

"Not much longer..." The group continued through the water, and then walked up a stairway into another room flooded with water... Skraaahhee! A giant creeper head shot down from the sky, and opened its mouth. It then released another swarm of creeper heads...

Chapter 7. The Water Vault, Part 2.

The swarm of creeper heads flew through the air towards the 4 heroes. As they approached, Bob  chopped with his sword and spoke words of power, " Wetchen stranth morisa! Otherwise known as Wall Strong Breath!" As Bob's sword sliced through the air, it pushed the air in front of it into a wall deflecting the creeper heads back towards the giant creeper head. Boom Boom Boom!! As the heads detonated, the giant head was knocked back onto the wall. It bounced back, then began to breath gunpowder...

The gunpowder breath smashed into Mary and Lewis, but Steve and Bob flow danced out of the way. Mary and Lewis fell into the drink, but did not begin to drown because of Bob's spell. " So, this is the guardian of the Water Vault, the legendary Creeper Overmind. It will continue to form minions and shoot gunpowder at us until we are dead. Hopefully not, though." Bob stated. Steve charged through the air, smashed the Creeper Overmind back against the wall with his fists, then proceeded to crack the dry skin of the Overmind with a strong kick. As water drained into the Overmind, Steve slammed it under the water's surface.

The Overmind launched itself into the air, knocking Steve under in the process, then released another wave of creeper heads to attack. Mary had managed to pull herself up, and pointed weakly at the heads. "Morisa wetchen!" She blew lightly into the air, releasing a wall of air which deflected the heads. The heads flew back towards the Overmind, causing yet more damage. 

The Overmind began to drift one way and another, as it began to prepare for a final attack... It folded into a block of TNT! The TNT smashed into helpless Lewis and began to glow. "Nooooo!!!" Bob leaped towards the TNT and knocked it out of the way, into the wall. But he paid the price... BOOMMM! It exploded, causing critical damage to Bob. He barely managed to pull himself up. Lewis finally climbed out of the water, "What did I miss?" Bob responded, "You missed my death... Unlike you, I never became immortal... I saved you with my life... You must finish the quest... Destroy... Herobrine... You must... Destroy Herobrine... Take my sword... It is of more use to you... Bob handed Lewis his iron sword... Farewell... You... Must... Finish... Quest."  "It is not this one time to die. I shall heal him. You shall see him again... Eventually." Notch appeared atop the waves, and pointed his hand at Bob. A field of green energy surrounded him, then he disappeared. Notch spoke, "Bob is correct. You must finish the quest. I will provide you with a lead to the Earth and Air disks: Earth lies Nowhere , Air is Aetherial. Farewell." Notch disappeared. Steve noticed something shining in the water. 

He swam over and picked it up. What it was was a small, thick, carved disk made of a dark blue stone... Perhaps Lapis Lazuli? It was carved with many strange symbols. "We receive... This? For Bob's near death?" Mary remarked. "We still need to get out of here, though..." The disk glowed, and began to twist space... The trio were pulled into the water, and then emerged at the top of the lake.

Chapter 8. AMBUSH!!! 

Steve swam towards the shore, followed by Lewis and Mary. As he swam, he wondered, "Is this real? Perhaps I had a skateboarding accident and hit my head. In that case, quite a hallucination this must be." The trio reached the shore, and Lewis complained, "I'm hungry!" Steve reached within himself, grabbing a can of food, tossing it towards Lewis, who caught it. "Mmmm, beef stew." Lewis murmured as he ate. "Now what do we do?" Mary wondered out loud. "DIE!!!" Steve quickly glanced up the hill, realizing that he was surrounded. 

It was utter midnight, with a full moon in the air. Surrounding the lake, standing on the hills, were several hundred skeletons, holding bows. Leading them was a shadowy figure with a Minecraftian body. His eyes glowed red, and his body glowed with power. "So, these are the so-called heroes who stand against me. Ha! None of you even stand a chance against me!" Lewis mocked the shadowy figure, "Is this possibly Herobrine? Not so scary now." In reply he got these words, "No, I am not Herobrine. I am one of his Ghouls. Quite simply, I was a player before Herobrine infused me with his own essence. Now he sees through my eyes, and controls me as one of his greatest servants. We have come for the Water Disk!" "Thanks, but no thanks!" Steve replied. "Attack!!!" The Ghoul shouted.

A swarm of arrows shot towards the trio, but they missed. "Consider that your warning shot!" The Ghoul shouted. Another swarm shot forward, but somehow they... stopped? Steve saw something amazing, water from the lake had formed into a shield around them! "Do you mind?" Steve took Lewis's iron sword, then charged. The Ghoul merely pointed his hand at Steve, and a bolt of blue energy shot from the Ghoul's hand. The energy hit the iron sword, but Steve bounced the energy back towards the Ghoul, blasting him back. "I am Thomas, the greatest Ghoul! I shall not be denied the pleasure of killing you!" Another swarm of arrows shot towards Steve, but he slowed down time with his flow dancing abilities, twisting the flow of the arrows, deflecting them towards Thomas.

But somehow... nothing happened. The arrows shot into Thomas's hand, disappearing. "Face your doom!" Thomas screeched. Pointing his other hand at Steve, the arrows shot at Thomas all were released at once! The arrows all struck Steve before he could dodge, sending him back several blocks. "Ha, Ha." Steve croaked. "How are you possibly still alive?!" Thomas raged. "Ha, Ha." Steve croaked again. He held out the Water Disk...

Water from the lake erupted, formed into a sphere, froze into ice, then flew directly at Thomas. However, Thomas simply pointed his hand, and the sphere twisted into Thomas's hand, disappearing. Thomas then pointed his other hand, and the sphere shot at Lewis. The sphere flew, straight and true, and suddenly stopped. Mary was holding one of her hands out towards the sphere, and it was spinning in circles in midair. "AHHHH! Excellia Mortis Spleena!" Her eyes glowing red, her hand shaking like mad, she chanted the words several times , spinning the orb of ice yet faster. "What is she DOING?!" screamed Thomas. 

His question was immediately answered, as the orb shattered into fragments which shot at high velocity towards him. Thomas simply sucked the fragments into his hand and shot them back into the ground. "Fire!" Thomas waited for a response from the skeletons, who, seemed to be burning in place. At the moment, it was sunrise, and Thomas looked surprised that the group was still alive. "Grrrr."

Chapter 9. Legendary Combat!

The skeletons collapsed into bones and arrows as Thomas spoke, "Perhaps you are somewhat worthy opponents after all. I shall take pleasure in destroying you and taking the Water Disk. Here is my ace in the hole!" Thomas sucked a massive amount of air into his hand, twisting it into a tiny sphere. As the air sucked into Thomas' sphere, Steve and Lewis were pulled off their feet. But not Mary. She stood strong at the edge of the lake, spinning essence into her hands, then speaking, "Excellia Aquan Spleena! Wetchen Catamuaon!" 

Thomas raged, "You dare to stand against me? I shall have your essence put to the lava! I shall encase you in obsidian! I shall-" His words were cut short as several large balls of water erupted from the lake, spinning at high speed, slammed into Thomas, exploding upon each impact. He was slammed several times away from Lewis and Steve. "That all you got?" He then realized the air from his hand, blasting Mary into the lake. That was enough of a distraction for Lewis and Steve to get back up, and sneak behind Thomas. But before they could do anything, Thomas stomped his foot on the ground, sending out a shock wave which knocked Steve and Lewis off their feet for the second time that day. "Ha! I shall be victorious! The Water Disk shall be mine!" Thomas triumphantly said.

That gave Steve an idea. He took the Water Disk from his inventory and called its power against Thomas. From deep pools of water within the earth, ancient water flows, and the earth itself, came a geyser of water which struck the Ghoul, sending him flying away. Steve got up, and walked towards Thomas. He knew what he had to do in order to win. "Ha! You shall perish by my prowess, for I shall draw your essence!" Thomas got up, and charged towards Steve. Steve withdrew deep into the flow, twisting the fabric of Minecraftia itself. "Die!" Thomas' fist flew towards Steve, only to be twisted through the flow, striking Thomas' own chest. 

"Aggggghhhh!" Thomas' own power drew Herobrine's essence out from him in the form of a black mist. Thomas' body collapsed as the mist formed into a shadowy figure. "So... You somehow managed to turn Thomas' powers against him to draw me out. Good job! However, you still have to deal with me for a short while longer before my essence is drawn back to my prime body. But before that, you might want to know what I am fighting. I am fighting you, Steve, in all your different incarnations. A simple fact is that your spirit is present in many people. I must fight the massive, overall fight, although some other Steves are more problematic. Having said that, prepare to die!" Herobrine thrust out his hand towards Lewis, launching him through the air. As Lewis landed in the lake, Herobrine then shot a bolt of fire, engulfing Steve, causing much damage. As Steve's vision faded in and out, he thought, "This would be a painful way to die, even if I just respawn at Bob's old house." But as he almost perished,  he saw... someone. A red-haired woman with a robotic arm, holding a red mushroom and a strange wand. She spoke, "Steve, wake up!" "Who are you?" Steve vaguely spoke. "I am Zoeya... My spirit dwells within you... Wake up!" 

Steve awoke to see Mary dodging magic bolts sent rapidly by Herobrine, and Lewis struggling not to drown in the lake. He stood up, then yelled, "Enough! Herobrine, I have had enough of you! You shall face the wrath of Zoeya, mushroom doctor of the Yogscast! Off with your head!" Steve leaped into the air, kicking Herobrine onto the ground. "Face my explosive mushrooms!" A pair of golden mushrooms appeared in Steve's hands, which he promptly threw at Herobrine, blasting his essence further away. "Eat Fishton!" A flopping fish appeared in Steve's hand, which he tossed at Herobrine, at which point the fish exploded into acidic fish oil. "Go away or something!" Steve blasted a ball of plasma at Herobrine, causing his essence to begin to fade. "Take this as a little... parting gift." Herobrine threw a sphere of black smoke at Mary, who spoke lightly, "Roses go bye-bye, bye-bye." Mary collapsed onto the ground, sound asleep. Herobrine then disspeared into the air.

Chapter 10. Thomas' Awakening.

"Mary!" Steve dashed over towards her, feeling her heartbeat. It was slow, but steady, feeling weak. Steve also felt something else in Mary... a twisted, perverted, evil essence slowly killing her from the inside. He thought, "So that's what Herobrine did. He poisoned Mary's essence." Mary coughed lightly, hacking up black smoke. "Where do we go now?" 

"Looks pretty bad." Steve turned to face... Thomas? Thomas spoke again, "I know a friend. He's an alchemist who might be able to help her. So, what exactly am I doing here? Last thing I remember Herobrine was submerging me in a vat of black powder and sprinkling redstone and glowstone dust into the vat." 

"You were trying to kill my friends and I with blasts of air and arrows. Apparently, Herobrine infused you with his essence, converting you into a Ghoul." Steve explained. In reply, Thomas said, "Oh. That would explain quite a bit, and the memory loss. My mind is quite fuzzy right now. I can give her something to stabilize her essence, but it won't last very long. Perhaps long enough to travel to the Spire Mountains, eh?"

"Alright... you can use your potion to help Mary, but I'm going to be needing your story." Steve replied. Thomas stumbled over to Mary, then trickled a red liquid into her mouth. "Alright. I was a member of the Hannason royal family on a moderately sized island in the ocean. I was next in line to be king, as I was Prince Thomas... before Herobrine came. He knew about our abilities, and came to enslave our kingdom and capture me and my brother, John. Only due to my quick thinking, I managed to get John on a ferry to the mainland before Herobrine arrived."

"What abilities?" Lewis said as he climbed out of the lake. "Ah, due to a closely guarded secret of my family, each person in the Hannason royal family is born with a magical gift. Mine was my ability to capture just about anything in a pocket dimension using my hands, then release the stuff back out at high velocity. More recently I have been learning to shift air into blasts. John could control sand in many ways. Anyway, when Herobrine came to our island, he changed my father and I into Ghouls, but given that my mother had the gift of flight, she managed to escape."

"I presume the Spire Mountains are where your alchemist friend dwells?" Steve asked. "Yes, he dwells there. But, there are a few problems. First of all, when we get to the mountains, we still have to climb them. Second, my friend Jason will probably need a few special ingredients to make his brew. Third, he is... somewhat insane as a result of an experiment gone wrong. We might have to search the library in his underground stronghold for a recipe for a potion to clear his mind. Lastly, we have an unknown deadline as a result of the poison Herobrine used on your young friend."

"Fortunately, Jason devised a way to anchor a bit of redstone dust with some iron and a gold nugget to create a special compass that points to where it was created. He gave me one, which points to his stronghold entrance. The compass also gives an indication of distance to the location it was created." Thomas held up the compass to the mid-day sun. The compass needle adjusted itself, pointing past the lake, and through the jungle beyond, then glowed a light red. "That means the Spire Mountains are off that way, and the journey should be about 2 days."

Chapter 11. The Second Journey, An Irritating Surprise, A Pod.

Transporting Mary was easier than Steve thought it would be. Very, much easier. Thomas shaped 2 blocks of dirt into a stretcher, then hardened the stretcher by flash-drying the dirt, by sending an accelerated blast of air at it. Lewis and Steve hefted Mary's still body onto the stretcher, hoisted it up, then began to walk towards the lake. Due to the Water Disk, the water underneath their feet turned to ice, so the group could cross the lake. Steve insisted that Thomas stay 10 blocks behind him, still having distrust. 

Halfway across the lake, Steve began to hear strange noises. He stopped, then exclaimed, "What was that?" His question was immediately answered when several blue-tinted creeper heads with spine tails leaped out of the water at him. The things were about to explode when Thomas blasted them away, back into the water. "Creeparannahs!" Thomas almost screamed. "We need to get to the other side of the lake, fast! I can hold them off, but I'm going to need a weapon!" Lewis somehow managed to draw his sword from his inventory, then hesitated. He thought, "Do I really want to give a sharp sword to Thomas? Will I get stabbed in the back?" Just as the Creeparannahs leaped out of the water, Lewis tossed Bob's sword to Thomas. 

Thomas recognized the legendary swordsmaster Bob's sword immediately. "How? How does this boy possess Bob's sword? Did he steal it? Was it given to him? Bob would never give away his sword unless... he was at the brink of death. As soon as we're in a safer place, I'm going to have a talk with these two. I also intend to learn their names. Hopefully, they have no idea of the power a name can hold. On the plus side, I can use the sword's unique magic to defend against the Creeparannahs."

Thomas deflected air at the little explosive chaos bringers by swinging the sword. It took until sunset to reach the edge of the lake, and by that time, all four of them were completely exhausted. Thomas had a wound on his right leg, and Steve was suffering from a minor concussion. Lewis and Mary, were miraculously unharmed, other than Mary being poisoned. 

They made the jump to the solid ground leading off towards the jungle. Then, they continued several blocks onwards before Steve began to relax slightly. "Shall we eat?" "Certainly." Thomas replied.

Steve and Lewis put Mary's stretcher down, then sat down. Thomas sat down, then asked, "Where did you get that sword?" "Oh. When we were working towards obtaining the Water Disk, we fought a strange thing, like a giant creeper head, and it almost killed me. Bob saved my life... at the price of almost dieing. Bob gave me his sword before Notch took him away to heal." Lewis spoke, then in reply, Thomas said, "The Water Disk? Also, I did not catch your name." 

"It's Lewis, and this is Steve beside me. My poisoned friend is Mary. The Water Disk... well, its a powerful artifact which is one in a set of 7. My friends and I intend to collect all 7 in order to break Herobrine's reign of terror." Steve passed around canned food. "This is food?" Thomas said, surprised. Steve reached over and opened the can of soup which Thomas was holding. "No, Thomas, this is food." "Oh. That is an odd container indeed." As they were about to eat, a metallic voice sounded, "Human heat signature detected. Pod release initiated." A hiss of air escaped from a nearby crater, and as Steve jumped over to the crater, a large metal supply pod opened, showing off a large, golden metal, staff with a large socket at the end where a strange canister rested. 6 more canisters were attached to the door of the pod, and another 6 were inside. The metallic voice sounded again, "Teslon Staff operational. This is an Experimental Plasma Discharge Projectile Weapon Staff, or EPDPWS. This is one of only 3 models of the EPDPWS. Shutting down now..."

Chapter 12. Another Irritating Surprise, Revelations.

"Experimental Plasma Discharge Staff?" Thomas spoke as he ran over to the staff. Steve replied, "Ehhhhhh... Don't worry about it. It's a sort of... side effect from how we got to this world." "Oh. You mean, your spawning happened in another dimension?" Thomas asked. In reply, "No. I mean, we were on another planet entirely before we came here. What with our planet being under attack from an alien invasion, we stole a starship and basically... folded through space. And now here we are."

Before Thomas could react to that almost impossible statement, another irritating surprise occurred. Something moved at high speed around Lewis' ankles. An amazingly strong twine was wrapped around his ankles several times, and then tied. The twine was pulled at extremely high speed, into the jungle, and Steve noticed several of the things... mushrooms?

Lewis was pulled by his feet, into the jungle, skidding on his chest. It hurt. "We have to go after him!" Thomas exclaimed. "But what about Mary?" Steve asked in a hurry. He got no reply, given that Thomas was already sprinting after Lewis. Steve sighed, and dashed after Thomas. It was a very fast chase, around bends, over rocks, and past trees the duo chased the mushrooms. At last, they came to a clearing, where several hundred mushrooms, red, brown, and a few golden ones, were hopping around a massive fire. Lewis was suspended several feet above the fire, by some threads of the twine that bound him to a large log, floating in the air. The log was supported by millions of lighter than air spores, holding it up as Lewis roasted. 

As the mushrooms noticed Thomas, he laughed and said, "Hah! You may be quick, but you are weak, and are no match for me." Naturally, as soon as he said that, out of a nearby large cave crept, slowly, a huge red mushroom with a crown on its head. It was followed by 2 giant brown mushrooms. "Oh. Those might be a little more than a match for me." The mushrooms quickly surrounded Thomas and Steve, and the giant mushrooms approached, slowly. Small bits of purple dust, possibly spores, floated up from all the small mushrooms surrounding the duo. But before they could attack, Steve suddenly found his tongue bouncing around his mouth in a strange rhythmic way. Amazingly, the mushrooms stopped. Steve found himself following these motions in his mouth, as it began to come into focus for him- he was speaking a language!

The king mushroom replied, and Steve threw up a conversation with him... somehow. Thomas listened on in disbelief as Steve spoke in perfect Mushroomese, "So, will you spare us, King Barry III? Allow us to pass through your jungle in peace?" The king replied, "Of course. Always happy to help a kinsfriend of mushrooms. In fact, we have been excavating tunnels around here for decades... Even before the event. These tunnels might allow you to reach the spire mountains in a few minutes, with our rail transportation system designed by Zoeya herself."

A chirpy voice sang out inside Steve's head, "That's me! Don't forget about your friend Mary, by the way." "Excuse me for a moment, but I need to go and get my poisoned friend from outside the jungle." Steve spoke to KIng Barry III. He focused, and proceeded to accelerate his flow, moving at super-speed to outside the jungle, grabbing the Teslon Staff, and its ammunition also. He was about to go get Mary, when he noticed a small cylinder  in the bottom of the pod. He scooped it up, and placed it into his inventory. "Meh. Might come in handy one of these days." He then proceeded to scoop up Mary's stretcher, and ran back to the clearing in the jungle. As he ran, he wondered, "Do I have somebody else inside my head?" 

He unexpectedly received a reply, "Of course you do! Can you hear me? Of course you can! You can speak Mushroomese! How else could you that?" That settled it. This woman... Zoeya... was inside Steve's head. Ugh.

Chapter 13. Ambush in the Underground, Enough With the Surprises!

When Steve returned from his trip, bearing Mary's stretcher, the mushrooms led them down into the cave from which the giant mushrooms emerged. They came to a railway, with several minecarts on it. "One more thing..." King Barry spoke. He released a blast of purple spores onto Thomas and Lewis, causing them to collapse into sleep. "Outsiders are not allowed to see our railway systems. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. They'll wake up a few hours later, with a minor headache. By then, you should be at your destination. Happy travels!"

A few minutes later, Thomas and Lewis slumped in the minecarts, Mary's stretcher lying on another, Steve sitting in a minecart, furnace minecart primed to go, King Barry had several of his servants activate the furnace minecart, fueling it with coal. The furnace cart pushed Steve and Co. along the track, through multiple tunnels, shifting onto side tracks occasionally, when all of a sudden, Crack! The carts were suddenly shifted into a tunnel, and flew into a pit. The minecarts deconstructed at the bottom of the pit, leaving Mary, Lewis, and Thomas slumped on the ground, and Steve quite dizzy. A wall in the pit opened, and several strange... zombie pigmen? walked out towards him. Steve managed to clear his mind, focusing his willpower. 

"Is this really fair? I have to protect my sleeping comrades, against a large amount of zombie pigmen, and I'm outnumbered 120 to 1." A chirpy voice in his head sounded, "Actually, we're outnumbered 120 to 2." "120 to 1 and 1/2." "Really? I am a real person, you know." Steve replied to Zoeya, "Yeah, but you cannot exactly fight."

"Just watch me. Mind giving me permission to Manifest?" Steve replied again, "Manifest? What do you mean by that?" In return he got, "I mean, allow me to connect with you completely. It might feel a bit awkward, but you'll be fighting off these pigmen with plasma balls from my Power Arm." "Uck. I give you permission to Manifest."

The very pixels that Steve's body was made of began to change. Steve began to feel connected to Zoeya in a way unlike any other, fusing body to spirit, changing form... becoming Zoeya! He felt his right arm change, sprouting metal and circuitry, charging with electricity. Zoeya connected with Steve, drawing their essence together. With two spirits powering one body, naturally, the strength and speed of the person affected would be doubled. Steve/Zoeya smiled. This was going to be fun...

He leaped through the air, slamming pigmen aside with the Power Arm, firing plasma orbs at particularly angry pigmen. It was an elaborate dance, of combat and kick, slice and blast. They acted as one, a force to be reckoned with. A few minutes later, the pigmen lay about the floor, dead for the second and hopefully final time. The Manifest ended, and Steve in his normal form collapsed to the stony ground, exhausted.

Chapter 14. Two Spirits, One Body, One Mind. 

Thomas awoke. He jolted to his feet, fueled by adrenaline. The last thing he remembered, a blast of strange spores had knocked him into sleep. And now where was he? Obviously not at the Spire Mountains, that was for sure. Had the mushrooms betrayed them? No, Thomas knew enough Mushroomese to know that he was most likely within the cave systems where the railway tracks were. Then Thomas noticed what was troubling him, a massive number of dead zombie pigmen lining around the cave floor. Thomas gagged, looking upwards in an effort to avoid looking at the pigmen. He saw that the tracks had been diverted to send the adventurers into this pit, where they were most likely ambushed by the pigmen. "How could Steve possibly fight off all these pigmen? He must be more powerful than I thought." Thomas continued thinking, "Alright, who sent these pigmen at us?"

That was when he noticed the passageway out from the wall from which the pigmen came. Thomas decided to see if Steve, Mary, and Lewis needed medical attention because of the fall, before he would enter the passageway. Checking Lewis' pulse, he figured that he had a mild concussion, but would probably be fine. He examined Mary's essence, finding that the corruption was spreading, getting to very dangerous levels. Finally, he felt Steve's head, feeling shaky motion beneath him. Then a voice spoke in Thomas' head, "Hello there! I don't suppose you have a cup of english tea or chocolate milk?" 

"Ahhh!" Thomas threw himself backwards, hitting the cave wall. He thought to himself, "And naturally Steve has another spirit inside his head than just his own. That could explain how he fought off the pigmen. But what sort of spirit is it?" Thomas placed his hand back upon Steve's head. The voice spoke again, "Do you have English tea or chocolate milk?" Thomas thought in reply, "No. Now, what exactly are you doing inside Steve's head?" The spirit answered him, "I was drawn to him the moment he entered this world. He's a perfect fit for me!" Thomas attempted to draw the spirit out of Steve, but somehow it seemed that the spirit and Steve were completely inter-meshed. Removing the spirit seemed nearly impossible, and if somehow Thomas managed it, Steve would at the very least fall into an endless coma. Most likely, if the spirit was separated from Steve, Steve would perish.

"How are you so connected to Steve, spirit?" Thomas asked in surprise. "This spirit has a name, you know. Call me Zoeya. Anyway, as soon as my friend Steve entered the world, I entered him, for I was drawn by the eternal flow itself. The longer I stayed, the more myself and Steve joined, to the point where we could communicate mentally. I was so connected, that I could even look through his memories, good and bad. Did you know Steve slept with a teddy bear in bed at night all the way up until he was 11?" Thomas pressed on, "That's not the point. You and Steve seem to be connected in such a way, that to remove you would kill him. How?" Zoeya answered defensively, "Well, he gave me permission to Manifest to help him to defeat the zombie pigmen. That sealed it, we were practically one and the same at that point. I could not separate from Steve even if I wanted to now."

"I need to investigate that passageway outwards. Can you help me?" Thomas spoke to Zoeya. "No, but I can tell you that you will need to take something from Mary's pocket to survive." Zoeya prompted Thomas to search Mary's pockets. Thomas did so, and found a strange device called an... ipod touch? Odd. Thomas proceeded to eat a can of food, and ran down the passageway.

Chapter 15. The Art of... Using 70's Swedish Pop Music as a Weapon!

Thomas almost perished twice running through the passageway. First, there was the lava pitfall trap. Thomas was quite grateful for the Parkour training that his father made him endure then. Then, there was the arrow machine gun that popped down from the ceiling. Stop suddenly, Duck quickly, and Roll past, worked well there. Eventually, after several lesser pit traps, Thomas came to a chamber, some sort of throne room. Sitting on the golden throne, there was a strange man. His skin was white, and his face was that of a creeper, but with red eyes and white skin. He wore a strange tuxedo, and he spoke, "Welcome, welcome, to my second throne room, Thomas... I am Israphel, and I have been sent as Herobrine's second in command to deal with you blabbering fools." Thomas replied, "We are not fools!" 

Thomas charged towards Israphel's throne, but slammed into a wall of solid air. "Airwall Generator. Very useful invention of Herobrine's. How about this, you defeat my greatest servant, the 3rd colonel, and I let you actually attack me!" A slot in the ceiling opened, and powder fell out. The powder slowly formed into a strange figure with a fiery red aura. "I am Arenial, cousin to the Little Mermaid, Flaming Merman of the Lava Ocean!" The merman tail was burning bright in the torchlight of the chamber. Literally, burning. 

Arenial huffed, and breathed a blast of flame, which Thomas dodged. "Oh dear. I should have brought the sword, at least. Instead I have this ipod touch, which is useless." Thomas facepalmed himself. Pressing the button on the device, turned on a strange screen, with a bar titled slide to unlock. While dodging another burst of flame, Thomas slid the bar, and started pressing random buttons on the screen. "Now playing, 70's Swedish Pop Music of Doom!"

The device played a strange noise that was supposedly music. Arenial shrieked, and collapsed into ashes, upon hearing it. "Oh. That was unexpected. Very well, you have aroused my wrath." The wall of air collapsed, and Israphel stepped off his throne. "Did I mention that I'm a cyborg? Another thing, I'm actually a prototype. The balance of good and evil required an evil counterpart to the Yogscast, so I was born. Herobrine is version 1.0, while I am version 0.5.6 of evil. I am still quite stronger than you!" Israphel's shoulder popped upwards, revealing three small barrels. Each one fired a small, rapidly moving projectile 12 times, forcing Thomas to dodge quickly or get ripped apart. 

Israphel then opened his mouth wide, and breathed a blast of a strange, freezing substance. Luckily, Thomas managed to capture it within his hands. Thomas sent the substance back at Israphel, freezing one of his arms solid. "You have irritated me." Israphel spoke, as Thomas thought, "I thought the Legend of the Yogscast was only a legend, but that must mean that Zoeya... That would explain it." Thomas dodged another salvo of bullets, dancing to the rhythm of the Swedish Pop Music.

"Come on, just die already!" Israphel's frozen arm defrosted, and his hand then popped of the forearm. The hand then flew off, and slammed Thomas against the wall, holding him in place. Several large gun barrels popped out of Israphel's arm, in a helicopter machine gun style. Rotating at extremely high speed, the barrels fired a massive salvo of metal slugs. Thomas managed to free one of his arms, and captured the salvo. Thomas blasted Israphel's hand off his chest, and blasted Israphel onto the ground. Thomas approached, and prepared to finish Isprahel off. But something happened. Israphel's eyes glowed a slightly lighter red, and Thomas stopped, hypnotized. His mind slowed to a crawl, and Israphel prepared a powerful weapon...

Chapter 16. Manifest, Manifesto of Combat, The Tardis.

As Israphel prepared to incinerate Thomas with flame breath, Zoeya came running through the passageway and punched him in the face. Literally, Zoeya came running, because she was controlling Steve's body at that time, while Steve was unconscious. While Steve's body was like this, Zoeya had complete control, and his body even looked exactly like Zoeya. Israphel went flying through the air, and crashed into the wall. Before Zoeya could Manifest her Power Arm, Israphel's other shoulder popped upwards, revealing three more small barrels. Both of Israphel's shoulders then fired several massive salvos of bullets, blasting Zoeya and Thomas against the wall, knocking Thomas unconscious for the second time that day. 

Zoeya struggled to her feet, and that was when Steve awoke. Instantly judging the situation, he joined with Zoeya, and together they Manifested the Power Arm. They then proceeded to fire a salvo of plasma bullets at Israphel, but he dodged them. Israphel stood up, and raged, "How are you possibly still alive at this point??? Just die and let me have the Water Disk!" Israphel drew a diamond sword from a compartment in his leg, and charged at Steve/Zoeya. Just in time, they remembered the Teslon Staff. Quickly, they loaded it with one of the plasma canisters, and fired a massive sphere of superheated, burning, gas, deflecting Israphel away from them. "Aggghhh! Why won't you just die?" 

Israphel pressed a button on his sword, and it extended to full length, and burst into flame. Israphel then sent a blade of burning gas at Steve/Zoeya, blasting them onto the ground. A metal device rolled out onto the ground from Steve's pockets, and popped open. It projected a holographic globe into the air, with 4 major continents and several large clusters of islands in the ocean. Each continent was labeled, there was Mineu, Sarageth, Laaos, and Marvel. "What in the blazes?" Zoeya remarked. Israphel fired another salvo from his shoulders, but Thomas finally awoke and caught the bullets. "Enough!" Thomas exclaimed those words, then fired the bullets back at Israphel, knocking his head off of his body. Thomas then took Israphel's own sword, and chopped his body into scrap. However, Israphel's head flew off into the air, and faded away, teleported.

"Well, that was irritating." Zoeya spoke in Steve's mind as he DeManifested. Steve then walked over to Thomas, and twisted his flow with Mark 2 flowdancing. Thomas awoke immediately, and kicked as a reflex, knocking Steve onto the ground, yet again. "Whoops. Oh well. So, how exactly are we going to get to the Spire Mountains now?" Thomas apologized. This triggered something in Zoeya's mind. She Manifested a device called a Sonic Screwdriver, and a small key. This drained Steve greatly, but he managed to stick the key in the air, and turn it. The air there began to solidify into an antique police box from the old London. Steve spoke, "Hello, and welcome to the Tardis! Zoeya is a Doctor, by the way. She is only one of two doctors in this world, in fact!" Steve opened the police box, and it was bigger on the inside. 

"Go on, after you!" Steve pushed Thomas inside. He then used flowdancing to transport Mary and Lewis into the Tardis. Shutting the door behind him, he then proceeded to use the Sonic Screwdriver to activate the Tardis. "I wish the time travel module was fully working right now, and that the space travel module was able to transport us further. Well, here we are!" Zoeya spoke through Steve. The antique police box faded into existence at the base of the Spire Mountain where Thomas' friend dwelt.

Chapter 17. Mountain Climbing While Dodging Potions... Is Dangerous.

Steve opened the door of the Tardis. He walked outside, finding himself at the base of one of the Mountains. "That would definitely be it, the Mountain where John dwells. At its peak, John has carved a stronghold into the rock. That is where we shall find him. On the other hand, how are we supposed to bring Mary with us?" Thomas explained to Steve. "We cannot. Only Lewis can come with. Mary will be safer that way." Steve talked to Thomas, showing how the journey up the Mountain would work.

Thomas carved a nearby tree into several small pitons, used for climbing mountains. Together with Steve and Lewis, they began to climb. A few minutes upwards, Thomas' foot slipped on a loose stone, and he almost fell. Steve and Lewis were having similar luck. 

Steve was getting quite tired. Lewis was not much better. All of a sudden, Steve stuck his piton into rock, and it passed right through. Intrigued, Steve pulled himself up, and walked right through the stone... an illusion! As Lewis and Thomas climbed upwards, Steve walked to the end of the passageway, and saw a pedestal. Mounted there, was a crystal rod, shining with every color of the rainbow. As though sensing his presence, it vibrated with a high frequency. Steve took the rod, and slid it into his inventory. The pedestal then sank into the ground, and the rocks above his head shook, then fell down towards him...

Steve managed to dodge the rubble, watching it fall where he stood a moment before. Steve walked outside the cave, and resumed climbing the mountain. Trailing behind Thomas and Lewis, Steve was not hit by the attack.

Thomas continued climbing up the mountain, seeing Steve and Lewis climb behind him, when a curved flask full of an alchemic solution smashed against his chest. The fumes from the bottle spread all about and made Thomas' muscles sluggish. Slowly, he continued climbing, but barely managed to dodge another potion. "He... isss... throw..ing... potions... at us!" The slowness affected Thomas' voice as well. Thomas saw Jason, at the top of the mountain, drop a vial full of purple fluid down the mountainside. It smashed, releasing a potent acid, melting away the stone on the mountain. Thomas barely managed to dodge the acid, and almost slipped on a loose rock.

Steve, Lewis, and Thomas continued climbing up the mountain, despite many more potions being dropped towards them. They were getting quite close to the top, when Jason crackled with laughter, and yelled, "Do you really think you can climb to my fortress, ya foolish undeaaad?" He then dropped an extremely small vial with strange gel inside of it, and upon impact, the gel expanded in size, exponentially. The gel formed into many cubic slime creatures. Slightly purple, the slimes hopped down the mountain, attempting to impact against Steve and Co.

The slowness potion's effect wore off on Thomas, and he exclaimed, "Moutain Slimes! Those things are adapted, from the normal killer slimecube, to kill Minecraftians climbing mountains, or hills. This is not going to go well." One large slime almost fell on Lewis, but he managed to shove it away using one of his pitons. The slime fell to its doom, down the moutainside, gone splat. Zoeya gave Steve mental encouragement the whole time, "Go on, you can do it! Just a bit more! Oh. Side! Side! Other side!" 

And so they continued. Jason dropped another potion, but the group easily dodged it. When they were almost to the entrance of the fortress, Jason dropped one last potion, a curved flask containing liquid that was shining with dark light. The liquid was black, white, and everything in between. It was illusion incarnate... 

Shadows. They... were everywhere, but nowhere in between. They existed, but did not, twisting throughout time and space. Steve stopped. He was alone... the shadows surrounded him, they would not go... Zoeya was nowhere to be found... fear, fear, rage, anger, hatred... the emotions battered him from every direction, and from no direction. "Enough!" Steve had it. This was the final straw. He opened his eyes!

Chapter 18. Labyrinth of Shadow and Stone.

He climbed to the top, but Jason was nowhere to be seen. A passage through the stone, leading off into the stronghold, beaconed. "Mother!" Thomas was shouting, trapped in the illusion. Steve had to do something about this. Energy. That was what Thomas needed. "Oh, allow me." Zoeya then charged Steve's hand with spirit energy, and focused it to a sharp point. Focusing the energy, Steve shot power into Thomas' mind. "Ahhhh!" Thomas awoke, and nearly fell. He climbed up to the entrance, and with Steve, they pulled Lewis up.

"Shadows... everywhere!" Lewis murmured. Steve shot power into Lewis, stimulating his mind. Lewis awoke. "What? Just happened?" "Some sort of illusion potion. Jason used it to delay us." Thomas replied. Steve walked up to the entrance to the fortress, and sent energy through the iron door. With a click, the door opened. The group then walked inside...

Scccwingg! Another axe blade fell upon them from the ceiling. Steve ducked, and was quite irritated. "That's the 5th blade trap so far. How many more?" No more, in fact. The group walked into a lobby, with 3 tunnels leading off elsewhere.  A pillar stood in the middle of the room, carved with runes. "Huh. Anti-undead wards. They won't effect us, though. Should we split up?" Thomas spoke. In reply from Steve, "We can cover more ground that way. Hopefully we can find his laboratory and find a formula for a insanity-curing potion." And so the group parted, a quite hazardous decision.

Lewis walked down the corridor,  opened a door at random, and walked down a staircase, ducking to avoid a dart trap. He continued down, only to trigger a trip-wire, and get dropped into a pit. He fell deep down, and into a cave system, fortunately he fell into a lake.

Thomas continued down a corridor, using his mindsense to seek out where he needed to go. Continuing down several passages, he came to a room with a locked door. Unlocking it with his energy, he stepped into a storage room where John must have kept his ingredients. Projecting his thoughts towards Steve, he thought, "I found Jason's storage room. Have you found his laboratory?" Silence in return. Thomas thought, "Strange..."

Steve had somehow wandered right into Jason's bedroom, and was tied, gagged, and drugged, wreathed in chains and attached to the wall. "MuahHaHaMa!" Jason crackled with laughter as Steve fell unconscious. Thomas felt the energy of Steve decrease, slowly, slowly. "No! Somehow Steve must have run right into Jason!" Thomas marked the storage room with energy, and then ran after Steve.

It was a long and hard swim and climb, but Lewis managed to get back to the stronghold, and up the stairway. He was utterly soaked. Back in the stronghold, he heard an unusual sound, "Ssssssauaaghhhh...." Lewis, driven by a gut instinct, ran in the direction of the noise. 

"Ommmphhh!" Thomas and Lewis ran into each other at the door. "What are you doing here? Why, me? But, you? Never mind." Speaking at the same time, they decided to smash down the door. Somehow, it held. Blue runes embedded in the wood of the door flared with light and blocked their advance. Thomas, calling upon his gift, siphoned the energy from the runes, and slammed down the door with ease. Walking into the room, they saw Jason waiting and Steve hung against the wall. "Welcome, intruders! MuahhHaHaMa!"

Chapter 19. Alchemy Wars, Potion Fiasco, Whatever you want to call it.

Jason drew a phial of purple liquid from his jacket, and tossed it at Thomas and Lewis. When Thomas tried to capture the strange potion, it burst open, and the liquid contained within exploded with color... like a sort of firework. Thomas stepped back, blinded, and Lewis was knocked back, and into the stone wall. Jason then took another curved flask from his jacket, and tossed it, creating a small explosion, striking Thomas, smashing him to the floor.

"Enough, old friend. My turn..." Thomas got up, and discharged some of the kinetic energy which he managed to catch. His intention was not to attack Jason, but to wake up Steve.

Steve woke up with a groan. Assessing the situation, he saw Lewis knocked out, Thomas weakened, Jason standing strong with many more potions hidden inside his coat, and himself chained up. "Not for long." He thought such, and used flowdancing to accelerate the muscles in his arms, snapping the chains. "Yawn... wha I miss?" Zoeya spoke in his mind, and screamed. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Apparently Zoeya was scared of Jason for some reason. "Aggh. That human... he's cursed just as badly as Mary is. Except here, the dark essence is changing his essence instead of killing it, turning him evil. I think I remember a recipe for a cleansing solution which would rinse the evil out of him." "You could have mentioned this when Mary got sick in the first place, you know." Steve spoke, then got in reply, "Oh, the cleansing formula only works with boys for some reason. When used on a girl, it simply accelerates any tainted essence."

After ducking a punch from Jason, Steve focused, and Manifested. What he needed was a way to delay Jason so he could get Thomas and Lewis to the laboratory. "Oh, that is just plain easy!" Zoeya spoke to Steve's mind, and then discharged a chunk of energy into the ground. "I know he's here somewhere.... Bumbbbb. Bumbbbb. Bumbbbb. Smash! A metal fist smashed out of the floor. Smashing to the surface, a massive golem of iron appeared. "Way to go, Red Five!" Zoeya cheered. "Op-er-a-tion Al-ch-em-y G-uar-di-an" Red Five spoke in a metallic voice. "That should last a few minutes, given that golems are immune to many potion effects. Let's move!" Steve spoke, grabbed Lewis, slung him over his shoulder, and with Thomas' direction, they ran off... hearing Red Five battle Jason to keep him from escaping. Zoeya informed Steve, "Don't worry, he'll just regenerate in a week or so if he's destroyed, you should know." 

Thomas yanked open the door to the alchemy lab, then dashed inside. "1 Nether Wart, 3 units of Daemon Dust, a gold nugget, 1 unit of gunpowder, and finally a dash of Torchwood." Steve recounted the ingredients for the brew, then sent Thomas off to the storage room. Crash!! "And that would be Red Five falling. Not much longer... Thomas arrived, depositing the ingredients on the table. He then yelled, "Get to work, I'll hold him off!" He then dashed out, leaving Steve to brew the Insanity Curing Compound...

"Heh, Heh, Heh. You shall feel my wrath." Jason took two potions from his jacket pockets, and tossed them at Thomas. He managed to catch the potions, however. Then he tossed the potions back, but Jason dodged them. Jason then took a small pouch of white powder, and tossed it to the ground, creating a burst of powder which surrounded Thomas quickly. Taking a breath, Thomas fell asleep. Jason walked onwards, trying to open the door, which Steve had locked, and jammed with an iron bar. Taking a vial of acid from his pocket, he poured a little onto the lock. The acid ate away the mechanism, unlocking the door. Jason ducked under the bar, and confronted Steve.

"Hello... I disposed of your lackey already, and now I will take you- Steve grabbed Jason, and trickled the formula down his throat. "Uh... What exactly was I saying? And why- Thomas!" Jason quickly knelt beside Thomas, and examined him. "This is the work of my Whisleep dust. Exactly what have I been doing over the past years? Because I cannot remember any of it after my attempt to create a Philospher's Stone."

Zoeya informed Steve, "Wow. The Philospher's Stone is serious alchemy and magic combined into a red stone glowing with flame. It could be used to transmute so many items into other items, and could be used to manipulate the environment in other ways.. and it was a stepping stone to advanced stuff involving a device known as a Transmutation Tablet, which would lead to so much more... magic rings, Dark Matter and Red Matter... you can see how John would want to create one. Sadly, the Philospher's Stone was brought here by Tekkit, and without Tekkit, only wisps of energy linking to the Stone still exist, and Jason's experiment could not capture enough of them, so naturally it backfired and drove him insane. Stepping stone. Heh. No pun intended."

Steve spoke to Jason, "You have been doing things I have no idea about, and trying to kill us." "Oh. Anyway, I'm sure you cured me for a reason." Steve replied, "Oh, yes, Herobrine poisoned my friend Mary, damaging her life essence. At the moment, she is at the base of the mountain." "Well then, we had better get to work!" Jason took a pinch of purple dust, and scattered it onto Thomas. "Un le wha?" Thomas spoke, and threw himself upwards. Jason spoke," We need to get down the mountain, and we should bring your other friend with us, also." Jason walked into the alchemy lab, and trickled a bit of red liquid down Lewis' throat. "I'm awake!!" He spoke.  

After guiding Steve, Thomas, and Lewis to the entrance to the stronghold, Jason cast a green dust outwards, summoning a crystal platform floating in mid-air. Jason leaped across to it, after which it started descending. In a burst of utter madness, Steve jumped after him. Zoeya chastised him, "Are you insane? Oh. Of course you are, that's one of the reasons I chose you."  Steve shrieked, "MANIFEST!" Focusing the Tekkit energy throughout him, drawing knowledge from Zoeya, he summoned a Jetpack, which he slung onto his back and used it to slowly drift downwards, towards the Tardis.

Chapter 20. What do you call an evil scarecrow? Strawfingers!

"What is this?" Jason stared at the Tardis. Landing, Steve DeManifested, then said, "A rather unconventional method of travel. My friend is inside." Jason chuckled, then spoke, "She must be a bit cramped, then." Steve took out the Sonic Screwdriver, and unlocked the door. He opened it wide, then dragged Jason in. To Jason's disbelief, it had more space in the inside! Mary lay slumped on the couch of sorts, muttering in her pain. Her hair had streaks of dark black hair, unlike her normal maple color. "We do not have much time." Jason took a syringe from his coat, and drew a bit of Mary's essence, which was tainted black. Only a few bits of her normal purple essence existed. "All right then, we have to extract her normal essence from this vial, and use it in our solution to purge the dark essence." Jason then took a flat sheet of metal paper from his coat, and smacked it. It expanded into a cauldron!

Thunking the cauldron on the Tardis' floor, he removed a clay vial from his coat, and poured water from it until the cauldron was nearly full. "These items were gifts from my alchemy master, upon my graduation from Alchemy Academy." Jason poured the vial containing Mary's essence, normal and tainted, into the cauldron. A little dash of green dust extracted the dark essence, forming it into crystal. "You might want to dispose of that carefully." Handing the crystal to Steve, he then took a pouch from his coat, and opened it. It contained a large number of tiny capsules, sorted in various packets. Each one contained a very potent extract, which could only be contained in the crystal capsules. Taking a capsule of a small purple gel made from diamond dust and a small bit of glowstone dust, plus a bit of milk, he dropped it into the cauldron. The cauldron bubbled, and bubbled, and most of the substance within evaporated, leaving only a small amount of Mary's pure essence, infused with a power unlike any other.

Steve returned, seeing Jason scoop up a vial of a purple substance. Jason then drizzled the formula down Mary's throat...

"Ahhhh! Exactly what happened to make my body hurt so?" Mary awoke. "Normal side effect of the essence curing solution, amnesia. She'll remember who she is and where she is in a few minutes. Thomas opened the door of the Tardis, Lewis following behind. "Took us a while to get down the mountain." Lewis then glanced around, "Mary!" "Is that my name?" She replied. "Oh. Great job healing me, by the way." Steve informed Lewis, "For the first few minutes back to life, she had a bit of amnesia."

And that was when the Tardis shook. And shook. And shook some more. In a blast of air, the Manifest that brought it and the Sonic Screwdriver into existence ended, expelling the group from the Tardis, and then the Manifested items vanished. "Strange. Should have lasted a few more days, minus some external factor- "Mwahhahahaha! Die!" From behind a nearby oak tree walked a very strange man. No. Not man, scarecrow...

"Um... Steve? Exactly how did you dispose of the crystal which I focused the dark essence into?" Jason asked in terror. "Oh. I buried it. Was I supposed to do something else?" Jason spoke again, "Oh no. You were supposed to drop it into running water. Otherwise, the dark energies would be released...

"Indeed! I am Strawfingers, finally back after that farmer Sijn imprisoned me for the second time! Your crystal broke the bindings that bound me as a scarecrow, releasing me!" And he really did look like a scarecrow. Sort of. The straw that he was made of was tainted purple, and his pumpkin head was dark purple, with glowing red eyes... 

Zoeya shrieked. "Ahhhh! Strawfingers! That scarecrow... when Sijn built his amazing farm, dark energies from a nearby stone circle infused his scarecrow with animating power, and when a creeper got into Sijn's wheat farm, Strawfingers was released by the explosion! They got into quite a cold war. At one point, Strawfingers stole Sijn's textures, and almost killed him if not for another creeper. Strawfingers... at one time he almost destroyed the entire Yogscast with a nuke, but Sijn put a stop to that." 

"Heh heh heh... Strawfingers fired a blast of purple energy which impacted against Lewis, locking his essence, preventing him from moving. "You shall perish, and I shall have the Water Disk!!!"

Chapter 21. The Utter Power of Strawfinger's Wrath! And Magic Chains.

Strawfingers fired another blast of purple energy at Thomas, but Thomas managed to catch it. "Aghhhh! I've never caught anything this powerful before!" Thomas could not hold on, and the essence lock detonated, locking Thomas' essence. "Did I mention I can summon straw golems?" Strawfingers clapped his hands, and straw grew out of the earth. Tainted purple, it grew into the shape of a golem, then some of the straw wrapped into an orb, becoming the golem's head. "A straw golem! That is not good. They are invulnerable to many attacks because upon being cut, the straw just regrows!" Jason spoke, then grabbed a vial of acid from his coat.

Before Jason could throw the acid, Strawfingers locked Jason's essence. "Hah! This is very, very easy..." Strawfingers then sent the straw golem charging at Steve, and Mary. That was the final straw. No pun intended. Mary finally figured out what she needed to do, and she charged arcane energy through her body. Opening her mouth, she fired several, magical, golden chains out of it. The chains shot outwards, and wrapped around the straw golem, immobilizing it. Mary released the chains, leaving them wrapped around the golem. Then she fainted.

Steve stared at the situation. Mary was unconscious, Lewis, Thomas, and Jason had their essence locked, and on the other hand... Strawfingers was at full power, and the straw golem was wrapped in some sort of magic chains. Strawfingers jabbered, "Hah-Muah-Haha! This was almost too easy!" He fired an essence lock, but Steve knew what he had to do, thanks to Zoeya. Steve withdrew deep into the flow as the essence lock shot towards him, and he unraveled the twisted energy of the lock. While Strawfingers was off guard, he Manifested. Taking Zoeya's form, and summoning the Power Arm, Steve/Zoeya charged.

Unfortunately, Strawfingers recovered quickly. He chuckled, and summoned a wall of dark straw in Steve/Zoeya's path. The wall was hit with enough force to fell a golden golem, but it held. The straw shot needles at Steve, but he dodged. Activating the Power Arm, he sent a ball of super-heated plasma at the wall, burning it away. "Might this interest you, Zoeya, feisty one?" Strawfingers exhaled, sending a wave of poison gas at Steve/Zoeya. 

Zoeya connected with Steve, and did an acrobatic backflip, thinking, "Strawfingers... We cannot defeat him without taking our Manifest to a higher level. "Manifest! Power Armor!" The same power that created the Power Arm came in the form of a high-tech suit of electrically charged armor, with all sorts of gadgets built in. "Right... A visor popped down to cover Steve/Zoeya's eyes, targeting Strawfingers in red light.

A small launcher popped out of the armor's shoulder, firing a tiny torpedo, which exploded, knocking Strawfingers back, but not off his feet. "Agghh!" Strawfingers roared, and the chains on the straw golem broke. It charged at Steve/Zoeya! "Act-iv-at-ing Bla-st Jets!" The armor spoke in an electronic voice, activating several jets which gave Steve/Zoeya the ability to fly. The golem could not reach, and it could not attack. 

Unfortunately, Strawfingers was not quite so hampered. "Heh.. Heh.. Heh..." Luckily, Steve/Zoeya were able to dodge the purple death blasts. Each one could have vaporized them instantly, but they continued dodging. But the blasts were only a distraction. Straw from the ground wrapped around their feet, and pulled them down...

"Gilbertius!" Zoeya shrieked, and Bump-Bump-Bump happened. A stick punched through the ground, and then a snow golem erupted out! "A snow golem? How is that going to help against this massive straw golem?" Steve raged to Zoeya. "I made a few upgrades to Gilbert." She replied, and snapped her fingers. Gilbert fired a massive salvo of snowballs, embedding them inside the straw golem. The straw froze, and the straw golem disintegrated. "Really?" Strawfingers summoned a strange device, and pointed it at Steve/Zoeya. "Shoot. That's a Mining Laser, a quite powerful weapon." Zoeya explained to Steve, "But we can stop it." Strawfingers fired the laser, but Zoeya was faster.

The laser impacted against a beam of plasma in mid-air. "Do you think you can deflect all my attacks?" Strawfingers asked, but he got a rude reply. "No. I just have to distract you." Gilbert fired a blast of pressurized nitrogen, freezing Strawfingers solid.

Chapter 22. The Earth Key, and The Portal to Nowhere!

Strawfingers smirked, and vanished. Zoeya thought, "He'll be back." Then she DeManifested. Immediately, Steve fell asleep as a result of using too much Manifest energy.

"Uhhhhh..." He awoke, lying in a bed, and his pixelated muscles ached. Jason was standing in front of him, and he called, "He's awake!" Thomas dashed over, and Lewis hobbled out of bed, and they approached Steve. Steve asked, "Where's Mary?" Thomas replied, "Doing research. She wants to know how she created those magic chains." 

Steve leaped out of bed, and asked, "Our main goal is to obtain a set of artifacts known as Disks. Each Disk is locked in a vault, which each needs a special key. Can you help with that? Notch told us about the Earth Disk, and said that it was located Nowhere. Do you know anything about that?"

Jason cracked up, and replied, "What? Nowhere! Not many people know that Nowhere is actually a dimension. And, well, it so happens that I have a strange, earthen key in my vault! Wait. Notch told you? Really?" "Really. Right after our friend Bob was hit with Tnt." Lewis spoke again, "Exactly how can we get to this Nowhere?" Jason replied, "Lapis Lazuli. It can be used to create a portal frame which bends space and time to transport whoever uses it into the Nowhere dimension. Anyway, I have plenty of Lapis Lazuli, so let's fetch the Earth Key from my vault! I'm quite happy to help."

John lead them onwards, to his vault, where he waved his hand, opening a strong iron door. "Here we go... The vault was littered with gold coins and ingots, along with potion bottles, and many other items of note. John unlocked a second door, and explained, "I keep my most valuable and powerful items in here." Inside the second vault, only an earthen key, a golden apple, and a few glowing arrows rested on the floor.

John picked up the key, and handed it to Steve. "I can create a portal frame from the lapis in my vault, but it will take time. How about you do research about Nowhere in my library?" Steve replied, "Great idea. I'll see you later." 

In the library, Steve found Mary reading a scroll labeled 'Arcane Disciplines'. "Hello?" He spoke. She turned, and laughed, "Great to see you! I've finally figured out what I can do. I cannot flowdance, but I can do this!" She waved her hand, and a small golden chain shot out, and bound Steve's hands together. "Ha! I knew it. I've been reading about Arcane Disciplines, and I've found a little something that is quite interesting." Lewis inquired, "That's great, but could you remove the chains from Steve's hands?" She spoke again, in annoyance, "Are you kidding me? This is the most fun I've had in quite a while." She bound Lewis' legs together, then laughed as he toppled to the ground. 

"Okay. This has gone a little to- Thomas tried to finish, but chains had bound his lips together, and wrapped around his torso. "Ha! I am so more powerful than you all. I shall lead this quest-" Mary fainted. The chains dissolved. 

"Uhhhggg.." Mary awoke in a bed in Jason's infirmary. "Sigh... You used too much power. With time and training, the amount of chains you can summon should increase, but for now, refrain from summoning chains except in an emergency. All right?" Jason chastised Mary. "Anyway, the portal to Nowhere is ready, shall you go?"

Jason led the group into a mostly empty room, except for a dominating frame of Lapis Lazuli. Jason spoke, "Shall you go?" He used a flint and steel, and ignited the portal. The space in the portal frame became a dark void, a tunnel into another dimension. "I shall wait for you to return, after the Earth Disk is yours. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor. I have no idea where that came from." Thomas leaped through, and Lewis followed. Steve whispered to Mary, "Shall we go?" They clenched their hands together, and jumped through.

Chapter 23. One-Way Trip = Chaos + Army - Heroes.

There was one problem. There was a Ghoul standing in the center of the huge bedrock room, staring at the heroes with rage and pain. "Minions, arise!" Space and Time cracked, and a zombie punched through into reality. The cracks shattered reality, opening a doorway through which many zombies walked through. A second doorway cracked open into existence, and even more zombies poured through. The odds were not looking too good.

"I don't think we could have anticipated this," spoke Steve, "But let's get to work." Lewis drew Bob's sword, and waved it at the zombies. Thomas chuckled, speaking, "Do you have any idea of that sword's power? It can draw the essence of whoever uses it and adapts it's powers accordingly. In other words, the stronger the user, the stronger the sword." Lewis shook with fear, and with fear he spoke, "So the strongest person in our group should use the sword."

The zombies approached, some bearing armor and swords. Lewis was about to hand the sword to Steve when Thomas objected, "Hold it! I'm the strongest one here." Steve, angered, spoke, "You know I'm stronger." Thomas slapped Steve, and yanked the sword out of his hands. Mistake. It is not very well known that bearing a Yogscast Spirit tends to leak some of the Spirit's essence, mixing it with the host's essence. Not just weaving the essences together, like when Manifesting, but actually combining the essences. If the subject in question lives a few hundred years, the spirit and the host might actually combine completely, with only one mind and one body. But since most Minecraftians only live on average 96 years, this hardly ever happens. None the less, Zoeya was part enough of Steve to grant him certain abilities even when not Manifested. These abilities included speaking with mushrooms, recognizing other Spirit bearers, and the ability to fire lasers from his eyes.

Steve fired lasers from his eyes with instinct, blasting Thomas onto the bedrock floor of Nowhere. "How did I just do that?" Steve wondered to himself. Picking up the sword, something somewhat strange happened. Because there were two spirits in Steve's body, the sword took both of them, and did something not normally possible. It duplicated itself, and there were two copies of itself, one with Steve's essence, and one with Zoeya's essence. Thomas staggered up, and enraged he spoke, "AGGGHH! Why did you have to do that? You know I am stronger than you!"

That was when the zombies arrived. They flooded around the small group of heroes, preparing to charge. Thomas got the message. He realized that now was not the time for small talk, now was the time for action. Then an anvil hit him on the head and knocked him unconscious. 

The Ghoul bellowed, "Ha! My liege Herobrine has granted my Dues Ex Machina spell request!" The Ghoul waved his hand, and it rained anvils which knocked Lewis unconscious, then Mary, but Steve was not interested in the anvils. He took the twin swords in hand, and cut a hole in reality, sculpting his own. He cut a wormhole in the universe, trapping the anvils in an eternal vortex. Steve cut again, and the zombies lost the will to be undead. The zombies turned to ash, which swirled into the vortex. Converting mass into energy with e = mc2 was easy. Steve focused the energy into the swords, and cut for a final time. The cut in reality disrupted the normal flow of time and space, dropping the Ghoul out of time, leaving him stranded at the moment Steve made the cut, and unable to move throughout normal space.

Steve, however, was not going to be using the powers of the sword again. Tapping two spirits at once made the sword charge with a strange energy, dropping it out of reality, causing it to seek its master, Bob, throughout space and time. That was how Bob obtained the sword in the first place, creating a bit of a time paradox. Thankfully, this one was not able to disrupt the reality of the world, because it occurred in Nowhere.

Chapter 24. The Earth Vault, Pt. One.

Steve fainted from the strain of using the sword. Mary was not as unconscious as she seemed. Though commanded to not do so, she had used her ability to summon chains to wrap her head in chains, lessening the impact of the anvil. When Steve started to cut reality, that was enough to start waking her up. She arose, and took in her surroundings. She certainly wished it was a dream, but here she was. In the middle of Nowhere. 

Mary, remembering what she read in the book, focused, and created a different kind of chain. This chain reached into Steve's very mind, and would have awoken him. If he was normal. Instead, the chain stimulated Zoeya like she had drunk a bottle of warm chocolate milk. She awoke, and fell into Steve's body, taking control. When she arose in Steve's body, Mary knew something was weird. The book had said that after the spell was cast, it would stimulate the consciousness, and the person in question would immediately start speaking random words in random languages, but Steve was not doing so. "I don't suppose you have any chocolate milk on ya?" Steve spoke. Odd. "Because I could really use a drink."

Mary stammered, "No. Exact--ly why are you asking for choco-lat-lat milk?" "Because it would help get Steve's mind up and running." Mary thought that Steve was going through some identity crisis, so she asked, "Exactly what is your name?" Steve answered, "Zoeya. But you can call me Zoey." Mary slapped Steve. "Wake up!" Steve replied, "But I am awake already!" Mary thought there was something wrong with Steve's mind, so she attempted to send another chain into his mind to knock him unconcious. But when the chain reached into Steve's mind, somehow Steve sent out a mental energy which traveled back along the chain, and then Zoeya spoke into Mary's mind, "I am Zoeya! The fact is, that Steve and I have been sharing this body for a while now. Shouldn't be too much longer before Steve wakes up." And Zoeya proved it. She sent her mind into Mary's mind and shoved the truth right in there.

"So... you and Steve share your body?" And that was the moment when Steve awoke. "Uh.. why am I standing up, and staring at you?" He chuckled and spoke again, "Oh. That's how. Zoey took my body when I was unconscious, right?" Mary slapped Steve. "That was not a funny prank. And you should think before making me think that-" Steve Manifested. Steve/Zoeya, proving what they meant, spoke, "Now do you believe me?" Mary looked up and down Steve/Zoeya's body. Seeing the change, Zoeya's skin, the Power Arm, and the furious red, female, feisty, hair, she stammered, "You just- you just- how?"

Zoeya explained, "Steve and I have been joined since he arrived on this planet, though I awoke only when he was in a life or death situation, when Thomas was a Ghoul." Steve DeManifested. He continued Zoeya's train of thought, "And the more I joined with her, the more I could tap her power. Like so." He Manifested slightly, summoning a Sonic Screwdriver. Activating it, he located the entrance to the Earth Vault. A slight setting change of the Screwdriver unveiled the illusion protecting the Lock. Taking the Earth Key, Steve twisted the Key in the lock, then removed it. The key dissolved, and the bedrock floor rumbled. A door smashed out of the floor, and stood. Connecting to nothing, but when Steve opened it, it led down into a stairway.

Mary looked around the doorway, and the stairs only seemed to exist through it. As though the door led to a pocket dimension...

Lewis stammered up, and groaned, "Ouch... I took an anvil to the head there... are we getting to the Earth Vault or not?" Mary replied, "As soon as Thomas is awake. Judging by how the Water Vault was so hard to defeat, the Earth Vault will probably be just as hard... or worse."

Chapter 25. The Earth Vault, Pt. Two.

Thomas' mind stopped flaring up, and burst. He awoke. Dashing to his feet, as a reflex move he punched Steve in the face. "Uh... Sorry about that." Steve leaped up, and clarified the objective, "All right. First of all, ouch. Second of all, now that we are all awake, it's about time we enter the Earth Vault. We need to be ready for just about anything while we are down there, but most importantly, we must not split up. At the end, there will be a guardian holding the Earth Disk. Let's get to work, shall we?"

The group walked down the stairs, and then the first booby trap happened. A small section of the stairs shot off to the side, and Steve, leading the group, fell into a pit. The stairs popped back into place, and the trap was defective. 

"Steve!" Mary shouted in anguish, and punched at the stairs that dropped him away. Thomas calmed Mary, "He'll survive. I've seen him do a lot of things, and he will definitely survive a fall like that. He probably will get a bit of a headache, though." As the group continued, the stairs led to a passageway forwards, blocked by a large mossy stone boulder. That took a while to get past...

Steve groaned. He had a headache the size of a walrus. He staggered to his feet anyway, and saw a passageway leading off into the distance. Walking down this passageway, he dodged several swinging axes from the ceiling, and an arrow shooting right out the wall.

He came to a stairway, leading upwards. Taking cautious steps, he arrived at the top, a dead end. But when he pushed against the wall, it turned, and Steve found himself on the other side. In a large chamber. Where a massive golem of sandstone stared at him. 

Lewis managed to flowdance to increase his strength, and with the help of Thomas' air blast, he was able to smash the boulder, just in time for Mary to notice a strange sound. A scream, it was. "AHHHHHH!" She spoke up, "That's Steve! We have to hurry!" Unfortunately, hurrying just helped trigger the trap. As soon as the group entered a circular chamber, a massive number of rocks began falling from the ceiling, as Mary ran right into an invisible wall. Thomas theorized, "An invisible maze! We have to get through this without being crushed by the stones!"

And so they did. They truly tried. But not being able to see the walls, combined with the falling rocks, made it almost impossible to reach the exit. Until Mary cast a spell... "Chairion Excellia Sonusi!" Using the power of her chains, she created a snake formed of silver chains which easily led the group to the exit. They entered the large chamber, seeing the massive sandstone golem staring down at Steve...

Steve was about to attack, when something happened. A Glitch happened. Far away, in another realm where people collected magic Scrolls and used them in battles against each other, the Glitch connected. It connected to the realm of Scrolls. And back at Minecraftia, the boss shifted. In the middle of one such duel at Scrolls, one of the duelists vanished, slowly. The Glitch tied the duelist to the golem, and they swapped places. The other duelist was left facing a massive, aggressive, sandstone golem... but that's another story.

Eric was in the middle of using his powerful Energy Scrolls to batter against the defenses of his evil father Darth Lexis, when he felt a tug in his gut. Fading away, he was pulled. Then his eyes opened. He was somewhere else... in a underground chamber, facing a group of 3 men and a woman, staring him down. Whatever insane spell Darth Lexis cast on him, it would end. Starting with the death of these people. One other thing bothered him... why was he holding a strange rune-carved disk carved of solid brown rock?

Chapter 26. The Earth Vault, Pt. Three: The Caller!

Putting the disk out of his mind, Eric drew one of his favorite Scrolls out of his bag and read it, releasing the magic. "Thunder Surge!" The Scroll shimmered and dissapeared, and a bolt of lightning struck the group of people staring at him. It jumped from flesh to flesh, and electrocuted them all. But they managed to survive, though one of them fainted.

As Lewis fainted, Mary prepared her chains, and Steve channeled energy from Zoeya, but then the strange man took another Scroll and read it: "Iron Ogre!" The Scroll dissapeared, and a massive ogre formed from iron pulsed into existence, and bellowed with rage. The Ogre charged, but Mary was faster, her chains wrapped around the Ogre's legs and tripped it. Then she fainted in exhaustion. For the third time that day, for that matter. 

Eric watched in amazement as the woman summoned chains which prevented his most powerful Scroll from having any effect on the group. He knew what he could do, however. He drew another Scroll and read it: "Cannon Automaton!" summoning a rather large automaton with a powerful cannon within. Then one of the men leaped up, and kicked the Cannon Automaton flying into the wall, destroying it. 

This was almost impossible. These people were easily defeating the result of year's of accumulation of powerful Scrolls. Eric read another one, "Ember Bonds!" Magic chains bound the charging human and if he would pull against the chains, they would ignite in flame. 

Steve took stock of the situation. Mary and Lewis unconscious, Thomas bound, and himself annoyed. He was facing this very strange... wizard? And the Iron Ogre was still pulling against Mary's summoned chains. Now was the time to Manifest. And he did so gladly. He bound himself with Zoeya, and took her form, loading the Power Arm, and preparing to go all out...

Eric watched as the human not bound by the chains transformed into a red-haired, green-eyed woman. With an iron arm. She charged at such a high speed that Eric barely managed to dodge. Then she fired a burst of some sort of energy, fading all to black...

Chapter 27. The Return from Nowhere, Team Steve vs. Builder's League United.

The Iron Ogre smashed free of the chains, but Steve/Zoeya used the Power Arm and punched its head off. After watching the Ogre dissolving into iron ingots, Steve DeManifested. A quick wave with the Sonic Screwdriver freed Thomas from the Ember Bonds. Thomas walked over to the wizard and grabbed the Earth Disk. "Two down, five to go. Anyway, how are we supposed to escape Nowhere?" Steve replied, "Like this." He waved the Sonic Screwdriver and a rune on the wall flashed red. It exploded into a oval-shaped portal which led back out of Nowhere. 

Steve called Zoeya's strength and grabbed Lewis and Mary, tossing them through the portal. Thomas leaped through, and Steve was about to... But the strange wizard still was unconscious, lying on the rock floor. Making a decision, Steve slung the wizard over his shoulder, and leaped through the portal. 

Steve shot through the portal through which he came into Nowhere! Landing, he noticed immediately that Mary, Lewis, and Thomas were nowhere in the immediate vicinity. Odd. He continued sprinting while carrying the wizard, and came to John's laboratory. There were many signs of a struggle. Alchemic liquids were splattered on the floor, and books and equipment where scattered around. Then Steve realized... Thomas was carrying the Earth Disk, and no doubt whoever captured him had the disk. 

"Well, this is quite grim." Zoeya contributed, "Our first step is to figure out where the kidnappers went off to." Steve complained, "Well, they could just be dead." Zoeya rebuked him, "No way. Those friends of yours would not have given up without a fight."

Steve walked back to the laboratory, and picked up a few useful seeming labeled potions. The wizard began to stir, and Steve dumped him on the ground.

"Uggghh..." The wizard stirred, then his eyes opened in a flash! "Who is you? Where is I? Oh. You. Die!" He took out a Scroll, but Steve used his laser eyes, and zapped the wizard, causing him to drop the Scroll. Steve used flowdancing, and snatched the Scroll and the wizard's leather pouch. "Wha.. How?" Steve roared at the wizard, "My friends have been kidnapped, along with the Earth Disk, and I'm stuck here with a crazy wizard! You can say I'm quite mad!"

He timidly replied, "You should probably look at the floor right there," pointing at a stretch of floor next to a bookcase, "And that slip of paper looks an awful lot like a calling card." Steve walked over, keeping one eye on the wizard, and picked up the paper card. It read, "Builder's League United! The best prices for the best team of mercenaries. If you happen to be reading this somehow, meet us in the underground railway systems carved by mushrooms." 

Zoeya thought to Steve, "Well, that's a start. The only problem is how to get down the mountain without him killing us?" Steve used her power and fired lasers from his eyes, knocking the wizard unconscious. 

Chapter 28. Nine + Ghoul vs. Two and a Half vs. Strawfingers.

"Ugghhh.." The wizard stirred. He opened his eyes. "Uggh? What? What happened?" Steve was standing over the wizard at the base of the mountain, and spoke, "I zapped you. Now stand up, and walk slowly. You are going to help me rescue my friends." The wizard chuckled, "And why should I do that?" Steve Manifested the Power Arm. "You probably know why."

The wizard stood up, and Steve pushed him onwards, to the entrance into the railway tunnels hidden in a small forest. Down they descended, coming to the tracks leading off into the tunnels. "Might I be of service?" Zoeya spoke in Steve's mind, "I can sense the essence of your friends, and with a small Manifest, I can enable you to see the trail they left." Zoeya Manifested, and a pair of Goggles appeared on Steve's head. He pulled them down, and he could see... several glowing trails leading down the stairs and into the tunnels. The trails were faint where Steve was standing, except for a black one. Zoeya warned Steve, "That would be Strawfinger's essence. We should be very careful down here. It seems that Strawfingers went in pursuit of whoever kidnapped your friends. This could turn into a 3-way battle!"

Eric chose that moment to make his move. He spun back, and grabbed the man in a choke hold. "Now how ya like it?" Not the best idea. One moment he was there, the next he was being smashed against the cave wall. Eric groaned, "Arggghh..."  "By the way, my name's Steve. Don't try anything like that again. And I'm quite serious." 

Steve pushed... Eric? onwards, down the halls, following the essence trails. Zoeya spoke to Steve, "Good job! Being connected with me has allowed you to do a bit of basic mind reading!" As they walked, Steve spoke, "So, Eric, you mind telling me why you are trying to kill me?" Eric replied, "My father cast a strange spell on me, sending me to this strange illusion. That's why I have been trying to kill you, to escape the illusion! Wait, how do you know my name??" 

Steve chuckled. "Lucky guess." Steve continued to push Eric onwards, till they came to a large chamber, carved from stone, lit by torchlight. 9 very strange people were walking about the floor. Mary, Lewis, and Thomas were tied up next to the wall, and Mary and Lewis were unconscious. Thomas, however, was stirring. Then suddenly, in a puff of black smoke, a Ghoul appeared! He stood tall, with grey hair, wielding a large broadsword made of a strange black metal. "I see you have captured most of the insurgents against Herobrine's great reign. Bravo, Builder's League United. Bravo indeed."

A rather large, almost bald man walked up to the Ghoul, and bellowed, "And a little something else too! Sasha and I report a very strange... disk? was found in the one called Thomas' possession!" The Ghoul rasped, "Excellent... Herobrine will be most pleased.." Then the wall cracked. And again. And again. The Ghoul turned quickly and spoke in caution, "What was that? Get ready for an ambush!" The bald man took the Earth Disk out of his shirt, and was about to hand it to the Ghoul, when Steve realized he had to make his move. Using flowdancing, he sped into the chamber and snatched the disk out of the bald man's hand! And kicked him in the face for good measure. 

The wall shattered. Strawfingers stepped out, and raged, "Enough! I will have the Earth Disk!" Zoeya mumbled, "Uh... Steve? This might be a good time..." He got the message. Steve Manifested completely, changing form, becoming Zoeya! He summoned the Power Arm, and charged it with utter power. Eric blinked. And blinked again. He could not believe his own eyes. Steve/Zoeya then punched the Ghoul with the Power Arm and dashed back next to Eric.

Then chaos incarnate began. Builder's League United drew guns of various sizes out from their extremely large pockets, and the Ghoul drew a pair of swords. Strawfingers charged himself with dark energy, and summoned dark crystal knifes, wielding them with rage. And Eric watched as Zoeya and Steve Manifested the Power Armor. This was going to be a large fight.

Chapter 29. Intense Chaos and The Stowaway...

"Open FIRE!!!" The Ghoul yelled, and Builder's League United fired many salvos of bullets, only to have them bounce off Strawfingers' dark straw wall, and ricochet off a stone wall created by the Earth Disk. The Ghoul charged Strawfingers, but his swords deflected off the straw wall. Steve/Zoeya dropped a targeter down over their eye, and targeted the dueling Strawfingers and the Ghoul. The Power Armor's shoulder popped open, and fired a torpedo, smashing Strawfinger's dark straw wall, and blasting both Strawfingers and the Ghoul back. 

"Ugghhh..." Thomas awoke. "What? Father!!" The Ghoul turned towards Thomas' voice, and got a fist to the face from Strawfingers for his trouble. Zoeya informed Steve, "Our main priority: protect your friends. That may be best accomplished by taking out Builder's League United." Activating the Power Arm, Steve fired a plasma burst which then slammed into the large, bald, man with the massive mini-gun. 

Strawfingers was about to attack when someone spoke: "What is vis madness? What is vis crazy world?" Standing upon a large rock was a male teen, with chocolate hair and green eyes. He was wearing a badge, and Steve targeted it. "Russian Secret Service Agent, Vladimer Torchwood. Age 17, rank Vergund." the badge read. "What is vis utterly insane madness??!! I break into American base, and intend to sabotage spaceship. But crazy people already on board! Travel to black hole, and all of sudden, poof! At strange planet, and everything made of pixels! Land in escape pod, strange exploding creatures everywhere. WHAT IS VIS MADNESS??!! I will shoot every one of you in here with my tranq pistol if NOBODY TELLS ME!" The Russian continued yelling, "YOU TELL ME RIGHT NOW, CRAZY AMERICAN PRANKSTERS!!!" He raised his hand, only to find no tranqilizer pistol at all. His hands were empty.

Steve held up the tranq pistol. He taunted Vladimer, "Good luck with that." Steve had of course disarmed Vladimer a few seconds after he started talking, thanks to the ability to flowdance... "HOW YOU TAKE MY PISTOL?!? I SHALL- Steve shot Vladimer with the pistol, knocking him unconscious. 

Strawfingers charged at Vladimer, only to be tripped by a golden chain. Mary was awake, and her magic was powerful. She suspended Strawfingers, hanging him by his feet, and attached the chain to the cave ceiling. Due to the Earth Disk, several sharp rocks shot from the floor and broke the chains binding Mary, Thomas, and Lewis to the wall. Thomas and Lewis collapsed to the floor, but Mary was quick on her feet, and she rolled upright. She cast, "Charion Excellia Mortis Blaspha!" She shot a burst of black chains, entangling Builder's League United and turning them to stone. Then she fainted. Thomas chuckled, "Really? Again?" 

Steve debated, "Would it really be a good idea to stay here? It may be better to retreat." Thomas quickly slung Mary and Lewis over his shoulders, and managed to dash next to Steve. Steve was about to leave with his friends and Eric when he remembered Vladimer. He was thinking about what to do when a flash of blinding light starred from nowhere. A strange man with ginger hair and a green aura walked into existence. "I am Jeb. Leave, evildoers..." He waved his hand, and Strawfingers, the Ghoul, and what was left of Builder's League United winked out of existence. 

"As for Vlad here, he will... stay with you. He has a part to play in this epic, yes indeed." Steve spoke, "No offense, but I have no idea who you even are, you know?" Jeb replied, "I am a friend of Notch, one of the 3 Minecraftian Overlords. Anyway, it seems you have collected 2 of the 7 Disks. I can aid you here, indeed so. The Air Key is within a travel of your TARDIS, you should know. Off with you!" 

Chapter 30. The Dream World Believers, Guarding the Air Key!

Jeb dropped a small piece of paper onto the ground, then he flashed away. Steve picked it up, and read it, "Kulnev Manor? Doesn't sound too bad." Steve DeManifested, then together with Zoeya, he summoned the TARDIS, and opened the door with a snap of his fingers. He beconed, "Come along now, we should get going!" Eric laughed, "How are we all supposed to fit inside that thing?" Steve snapped at him, "Just pick up Vladimer and carry him inside!" Eric did so, grudgingly, finding a scene unlike any other! The strange blue box was bigger on the inside! Eric rested Vlad onto the couch, and as Steve shut the door, he wondered what he had gotten into...

Thomas slung Mary and Lewis, still unconcious, over his shoulders, and took them into the TARDIS, right before Steve shut the door. Steve then fed the slip of paper into the nav computer, and the TARDIS began to fade in and out of reality. . . Then it hummed into existence. Steve opened the door, and found himself facing a mob of swordsmen and swordswomen in a wooden room. "All who dare breach the scanicty of Kulnev Manor shall be ELIMINATED!" They chanted. It was very hard to enjoy the stained glass windows and paintings on the wall while a bunch of enemies faced Steve down.

Steve charged out. He flowdanced, taking himself to the door into the rest of the Manor. He taunted them, "Good day, yes? Wonderful weather we're having, hmm? See you later!" He slammed the door and locked it, leaving the swordsmen and women to deal with a certain very powerful Minecraftian...

Lewis charged. He flowdanced, disarming all the swordsmen and women at once. A few dozen swords rested at the foot of the TARDIS, and then Lewis proceeded to engage the enemies in combat. A few hundred punches and kicks later, the fighters were completely knocked out. Lewis then kicked down the door leading outside. "Bravo.." Steve praised Lewis, and then felt a click next to his head. Vladimer had managed to sneak up on him, and he was carrying the tranq pistol again. "Crazy American tell me WHAT IS GOING ON!!??!!" 

Vladimer had enough. He managed to sneak past the swordsmen while the blonde human was fighting them, and then used his secret SHADOW cloaking device to hide next to the door, invisible. When the blonde kicked down the door, Vladimer snuck past, reclaimed his tranq pistol, and pointed it against the other man's head. But when he was about to fire the pistol, he found his hand empty.

"WHAT CRAZY AMERICAN DO???" Vlad raged. Steve watched as he pulled a strange looking grenade out of a secret pocket. "I will use this sonic grenade if not CRAZY AMERICAN TELL ME WHAT GOING ON!!" Vladimer looked at his hand. It was empty. The human who was holding the tranq pistol was somehow also holding the sonic grenade! Vlad proceeded to pull several more hi-tech weapons from various pockets, but each time the weapon appeared in the American's hands. Vlad pulled one more weapon, and yelled, "THIS IS ELECTRON ACCELERATOR! BLOW UP WHOLE BUILDING YOU NO TELL ME WHAT GOING ON!!!???!!!" Vlad looked at his hand, holding the rod. One moment it was there, the next- right in the American's hand. The American spoke, "How many more weapons do you have? I'm getting tired of disarming you." 

Vladimer charged Steve, but Steve used his laser eyes and knocked Vlad unconcious. 

"Ugghhh..." Vlad awoke. The American spoke to him, "Are you still going to try to kill me, or should I tie you down?" Vladimer raged, "HOW CRAZY AMERICAN DO THIS TO ME!!!" He tried to pull himself up, but he was bound by some strange golden chains. The American taunted him, "What? No more weapons? Stay there, we'll come get you in a while. By the way, my name is Steve."

Chapter 31. Baron Erik Kulnev.

Steve left, leaving Vlad tied in the chains. He mentally raged, "AS SOON AS I GET MY HANDS ON HIM!!!"

Steve left the room with the TARDIS inside. Thomas, Lewis, Mary, and Eric were waiting for him, and together they marched on. Steve spoke, "We need to find the Air Key! We would accompish this task best by splitting up." Eric yelled at Steve, "No offense, crazy guy, but I have absolutely NO IDEA what an Air Key even is?" Steve replied in exasperation, "Just follow Thomas."  Lewis put his view on the table, "Erik is a bit... treacherous. I think I should go with Mary, but Thomas may have his hands full." Steve tossed Eric's leather pouch to Thomas. Steve explained, "If Eric misbehaves, threaten to destroy one of his Scrolls. That should keep him in line." Eric looked at Steve, and complained, "Is that really fair? Like you going out on your own?" Steve winked, and spoke, "I'm not exactly alone, if you know what I mean." The groups split up, heading in many directions through Kulnev Manor.

Steve charged through the corridors, and down a stairway, hurdling over a tripwire. He continued down onto the first floor, and ran straight into the main lobby from the main entrance to the Manor, which was guarded by several soldiers with bo-staffs. This was going to be fun...

Lewis and Mary crept slowly, away from Steve, narrowly avoiding a pressure plate. They opened a door, leading into some sort of storage room, full of shelves with loaves of bread on them. Mary took one step forward. That was all it took. She triggered a tripwire, and a blast of green gas sent her unconcious.

Thomas led Eric onwards, down another stairway, and down and down a spiral stairway. They came to something rather unexpected. A portal, to be precise. A portal made of a frame of a strange blueish crystal, glowing in the torchlight. Standing in front of it was one man. He was kneeling in front of the portal, and chanting a strange mantra. "Dream come, Dream flow... Dream come, Dream more so..." 

Thomas spoke, "Hello?" The man arose and turned, faster than a snake. He waved his hand, and a burst of black energy shot out. Thomas and Eric stopped, unable to move... 

The bo-staff soldiers were taken out easy as cake. But then Steve turned and saw a strange man, wearing cyan robes, and pointing a small wand of birch wood at him. With a wave of the wand, Steve was frozen into a block of ice...

Lewis continued on, carrying Mary, walking back to the TARDIS. However, waitng there was a man wearing cyan robes. He waved his hand, and Lewis was pulled into a deep sleep...

Steve awoke with a gripping headache. He was in some sort of prison cell, with the colors tinged light. The iron door in front of him looked extremely durable, and he knew that it would take a very long time to destroy. Zoeya yawned, and spoke in his mind, "I can sense something very intresting about this area... We seem to be in another dimension! And your friends are close by, in more prison cells. I sense several guards around here, also, I feel... oh. Yes." Steve thought, "What?" He got a stunning reply, "Two things. One, I would believe that there is another man imprisoned in these jail cells other than me and you and your friends, and two, there's a colony of brown mushrooms nearby!"

It was Mr. Burgenson's turn, along with a few others, to guard the prisoners. He walked from cell to cell, looking through the tiny bars at the top of each door, checking to make sure they were in their cells. When he got to the last one, he noticed something. The male prisoner was speaking a very strange linguage. "Hey you! Stop that!" And then chaos broke loose.

Mr. Burgenson turned and saw the wall behind him crack. A small purple spore shot out, and into his mouth. He felt the spore spread through his body, and then his body was dominated by one thought: I must let the prisoners out... I must let the prisoners out... I must let the prisoners out. Mr. Burgenson's conciousness watched as his body took the keys, and proceeded to unlock the doors...

Chapter 32. Dues Ex TARDIS...

Steve leaped out of the door, and spoke Mushroomese, "Thank you for releasing us from our cells, Viceory Madesca." For she was the leader of the brown mushroom colony. She replied with telepathy, "Allways happy to help a kinsfriend.. hmm.." 

Steve noticed, that in additon to his friends, there was a man, a woman, and a young child imprisoned. The guard moved to let them out, and the man approached him, and said, "I am Hein, exiled diplomat.. My brother, the Baron Erik Kulnev banished me... for aiding his enemies. I will be happy to aid you against him. This is my wife, Anna, and my son, Helmut." Helmut and Anna approached, and thanked Steve, "Indeed, we are quite grateful.." Anna spoke, then Helmut gratefully spoke, "We were trapped in that prison for years. You are the subject of much gratitude from me and my family..." Helmut looked about 11, though tall for his age. 

Mary approached Steve, "Well, now what?" A guard came rushing down the stone brick stairs, and drew his gladius. In one fluid motion Anna leaped over and kicked him in the head. She explained, "We are in the Dream Dimension. This is Erik's realm, and it is filled with the dreams and nightmares of the world, controlled in motion by the clouds. He also managed to construct a prison inside one of the dream-clouds, anchoring it to prevent it from changing. Somewhere in the world, a person with that particular dream-cloud is having a very large number of repeated dreams of this jail. Anyway, soon more guards will be down to check on us. Let's get moving!" 

The large group marched up the stairs, with the guard controlled by the spore acting as a rear guard. Up they went, and they came up, standing upon a cloud. 5 more guards blocked their way, but before the guards could attack, a very large blue police box came shooting down, and knocked them all into the dream-Void. "Good boy, TARDIS!" Steve shouted with amazement. A fingersnap, and the doors opened. Steve hurried inside, and his friends walked inside easily. But Hein and his family were still unsure. Steve poked his head out, and yelled, "Come on! It's bigger on the inside!" Hein walked inside reluctantly, and found that the teenager who rescued him was right... It was bigger!

Hein's family and the guard entered, and Steve closed the doors. A little manipulation of the controls, and the TARDIS faded away... As it traveled, the group had plenty of time to chat. Everybody learned the other's name, and Steve found that since their goals traveled along a common pathway, they might as well travel to the Baron's Dream Fortress! 

The TARDIS faded in, in a dark space. Steve stepped out, and opened the TARDIS door. He saw a bit of light, and he pushed. A door folded out, and he saw the Baron. In his bedroom. Zoeya shrieked, "WORST LUCK EVER!" For the TARDIS had faded into the Baron's clothes closet.

The Baron turned to look at Steve. He yelled, "Guards!" The door to his bedroom burst open, and several guards stepped in. They twirled bo-staffs, and prepared to charge Steve. Steve ran back into the TARDIS and used the Sonic Screwdriver to lock the closet door. He then noticed something. The TARDIS was gone! It must have DeManifested...

Mary had followed after Steve, then seeing the Baron, she ran back. She crashed into everyone on the TARDIS, for it had DeManifested. Hein informed her, "The Baron hides a secret way in his closet." Hein then snapped his fingers, and a door opened in the back of the closet. Mary scooped up the Disks, and Thomas hoisted Vlad over his shoulder, and they all stepped through the door. It shut behind them, and they began descending the staircase. 

The closet door shattered. Two guards stepped through, only to be thrown back out by Steve, using flowdancing. "Ya and may, yes?" Steve spoke, and charged the Baron...

Chapter 33. Ultimate Combat, taken a bit too far. 

That was the hardest fight Steve had ever fought. Or at least the third hardest. The Baron threw his minions aside, and thrust out his palm, sending Steve flying to the ceiling. That hurt. Steve fell to the floor, and the Baron then grabbed him with such speed, and threw him against the wall. The Baron backed off, and spoke to his minions, "Take him back to the prison."

That was a good idea, but there was one problem. Steve was no longer there. The Baron felt a tap on his back. He twirled round, rapidly, but ate a flowdancing-accelerated punch delivered by Steve. The Baron backflipped away, and taunted Steve, "You can do better than that. Though I prefer you do not." The Baron thrust out his palms, and conjured a blast of green flame, which Steve narrowly avoided. 

Erik drew his sword out of a pocket in his robes. Zoeya informed him, "Looks like the Baron's pockets are bigger on the inside!" Erik charged, but Steve flipped over the Baron's head, and kicked him flying. The Baron rolled, and spoke a word, "Auris Inflamis!" The sword burst into flame, and the Baron cut the air, sending a crescent of flame flying at Steve. Steve ducked, and decided that "NOW IS THE TIME!" He Manifested. Taking Zoeya's form, and summoning the Power Arm, he fired a blast of plasma, which the Baron caught on his sword. 

"Enough... whoever you are, let me show you a little something..." The Baron spoke, then thrust out his palms...

Steve saw an invasion. Baron Erik Kulnev and his soldiers defending the Manor against Herobrine's forces. There were so many... The undead continued coming, and the Ghasts attacked from afar... When all seemed lost, Erik summoned the Dream Dragon, a soldier of unbreakable power... Herobrine's forces were turned back, and leading the undead forces was... Hein?

Steve saw the Baron in front of him once more. "So, you withstood the Dream Shock... So now you know the truth. Who do you want to side with, me or Hein?"

"To be honest, at this time, neither of you." Steve, still in Zoeya's form, sent another plasma blast flying at the Baron, but the Baron easily dodged. "Oh well. I tried." The Baron thrust out his palm, and Steve/Zoeya were smashed through the wall, and out of the fortress. The Baron leaped out, following his lead. Steve/Zoeya was struck by the Baron in mid-air, and was slammed into a Dream Cloud. The Baron leaped down, and landed on the cloud. The Baron was about to strike, but Zoeya had a flash of intuition. She charged Steve's body with energy, and sunk into the cloud. Cursing, the Baron had no choice but to follow Steve/Zoeya into the dream...

Steve/Zoeya and the Baron fell out of the sky. It was the middle of the day, and they were above a plainsland, and falling down, towards a large village. Somehow, they managed to crash into the well, creating a massive SPLASH!!

"Hello? Is someone actually around here?" Steve/Zoeya leaped out of the well before the Baron could recover from the shock of hitting the water. A tall Testificate... Steve wondered how he knew that... came charging towards him. "Ya mind telling me what happened to everybody in my village?" The Testificate yelled at him. Whilst Steve/Zoeya were distracted, the Baron climbed out of the well, and used his sword to launch Steve/Zoeya flying. Steve/Zoeya crashed into a wall of a large house, and decided that enough was enough. "Manifest Power Armor!"

Within a few seconds, a full set of Power Armor had formed around Steve/Zoeya. He then activated the Power Arm, and sent a burst of plasma orbs at the Baron. The Baron ducked, and sent a crescent of flame flying at Steve/Zoeya. With a thought, Zoeya activated the Power Armor's Mark IV Energy Shielding. A bubble of blueish plasma charged with electricity formed around Steve/Zoeya, and the flame burnt harmlessly around it. The Baron was about to attack again, when the Testificate breathed fire at him...

Chapter 34. An Elaborate Dance of Sword and Sorcery...

The Baron was not expecting an attack from that direction. Nonetheless, he still managed to duck. The fire shot over his head, and the Baron bellowed at the Testificate: "How! HOW! The last remaining Half-Dragons went extinct a few decades ago! Unless... say a very powerful being decided to put a few into Stasis Beds, and as a result... this must be his dream!" 

That speech gave Steve/Zoeya time to activate another feature of the Power Armor: Sonic Disruptors! Steve/Zoeya fired a massive pulse of sonic energy which briefly stunned the Baron. Giving Steve/Zoeya the time needed to punch a hole in the Dream Cloud, leading back into the Dream Dimension. Steve/Zoeya threw the Baron through the rip, then jumped through himself. 

Young Roberto was stunned. How was this possible! The only reasonable explaination was what the woman had said... that he was dreaming. What then, would happen if he traveled back through the portal. Taking a deep breath, Roberto walked through...

Out the cloud, Steve/Zoeya and the Baron flew, followed by Roberto. The rip closed, leaving the trio in the Dream Dimension. The Baron took a look, and scowled. He waved his hand, and Steve/Zoeya were enveloped in a web of golden strands. The Baron turned towards Roberto. "Join me, young Half-Dragon. Together we shall rule the worlds!" Zoeya laughed, then spoke, chuckling, "That is so cliche. I mean, ruling the world? That is the goal of every villain, it seems."

Steve followed the train of thought, "And of course, in nearly every book, television show, or video game, the good guy always wins." The Baron spoke in return, "What is television?" "Oh, never mind." Steve/Zoeya charged the Power Armor with energy, and burst the golden strands away. Steve/Zoeya spoke as one, "Enough, Baron!" They thrust out their hands. The Power Arm charged with energy, they fired a blast of a special energy, sending wisps of plasma bursting through the air. The ripples of plasma folded in on themselves, and then exploded. The Baron was enveloped in flame, and was forced to devote his energy to sheilding himself from the heat.

An amplified voice spoke, "Now then! You will release the Baron from your flame and surrender yourselves to us, or we will kill your friends!" Steve looked at the Dream Fortress. Activating Zoom Lenses in the Power Armor, he zoomed in on the Fortress, looking throughout every window. There! He saw in the large tower above the fortress, through the window, a guard wearing lapis colored robes, and holding a dagger to Mary's head. She yelled at Steve, and he was barely able to hear, but he did, "Don't do what he says, Steve! You too, Zoey! You can threaten to kill the Baron to make Claudius let us go!"

That was a reasonable suggestion, but it was not needed. Claudius twitched, then collapsed. Vladimer walked to the window, punched through the glass, and yelled at Steve/Zoeya, "CRAZY AMERICAN TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON!" Steve cracked up. "So he actually used that tranqilizer pistol." Behind him, Roberto yelled, "Duck!" The Baron's punch flew right over Steve/Zoeya's head. 

Steve/Zoeya turned in flowdancing, and puched the Baron with the Power Arm. Remember, this was a cyborg arm made of a strong steel-like alloy. That hurt. In fact, it hurt enough to knock him unconcious. 

Chapter 35. Apparently that rod Steve grabbed in Chapter 17 is a very powerful weapon called a Dimensional Rip Generator! Oh, and Pain.

The Baron awoke. He sent his mind-sense out, and found he was in his own clothing closet! When he tried to move, he found he was bound by a set of golden chains. When he struggled, the chains only seemed to get tighter. All the Baron could do was scream for his guards... "GUARDS! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" 

Steve and Co. were trying to find the vault where the Dream World Believers kept their artifacts. With luck, the Air Key would be in there. Vladimer was retied, and gagged by chains. Steve had gotten really tired of hearing Vladimer scream at him. He had also DeManifested after getting to the Dream Fortress, for it was draining his energy really quickly. So they continued on. Down stairways, beating guardsmen out of the way. Eventually they came to an iron door. Steve waved the Sonic Screwdriver at it, and it opened. But when the group walked inside, a small click got their attention. 

Everything went from great to absolutely horrible in the space of a few seconds. The iron door shut behind them, and several statues in the room turned their heads around...

"Welcome to my Decoy Vault! Prepare to be ELIMINATED!" The Baron's voice sounded. The room was lit by torchlight only, which flickered as the Baron fell into existence in front of Steve and Co. "Bravo for getting this far, yes? But Hein, you shall perish now... Along with your newfound friends." 

Two things happened at once. Vladimer exploded into light, and the statues charged. The chains binding Vladimer shattered. Steve turned to look at Vlad. His eye color had changed from brown to light blue, and Vlad was wearing a labcoat. "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS UTTER MADNESS! You all shall face the wrath of Duncan, master mechanic and thaumaturge of the Yogscast!" Steve moaned, "Not again."

Vladimer/Duncan waved their hand, and summoned a device of some sort. Steve recognized the device from his fight with Strawfingers- a Mining Laser! Vladimer/Duncan pointed the Mining Laser in the Baron's direction, and fired. PEW PEW PEW! Three laser bolts shot out of the Mining Laser, slamming into the statues. One by one, each statue hit by the Mining Laser collapsed into rubble, leaving only one statue left. That was when Steve made a disecion. If Vladimer/Duncan decided to attack Steve and Co, he could deal a lot of damage. He snatched Eric's Scroll pouch from Thomas, and slung it towards Eric. Eric caught the pouch, and withdrew a Scroll. He read, "Iron Ogre!!" 

The Scroll released it's magic, and summoned a massive soldier of iron, ready to engage in combat. "Oh, my. Someone has taken conjuring lessons..." The Baron chuckled. He waved his hand, and sent a curve of flame towards the Ogre, but it had no effect whatsoever.

"SMASH!!!" The Ogre charged the Baron, with it's arms high. This time the Baron was choosier about his attack. He sent out a gas which rapidly eroded the Ogre, leaving only ashes. Then the Baron ate a laser bolt to the chest. "Ughh..." He was sent flying backwards, and knocked against the wall. 

"CRAZY AMERICANS TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON NOW!!!" Vladimer/Duncan turned rapidly to face Steve and Co, and pointed the Mining Laser directly at them. Mistake. He was punched from behind by the Baron's last golem minion. 

This provided all the time Steve needed to Manifest. Taking Zoeya's form, he summoned the Power Arm and Armor, and proceeded to vaporize the golem in a few seconds. "Heh... That explains it.." The Baron coughed. "CRAZY AMERICANS TELL ME-" Vladimer/Duncan spoke, but Steve discharged a bolt of energy which knocked Vladimer/Duncan unconcious. "HAHAHA!" The Baron leaped up, and charged Steve/Zoeya. Out of pure inscinct he drew the rod from his inventory, and cast it at the Baron. The rod twisted through time, and engulfed the Baron in a vortex...

Chapter 35 Epilogue: The Beginning of Something... Oh, and Amnesia.

The vortex engulfed Eric Kulnev, and sent him flying into the folds that made up the fabric of reality. Time passed, and time passed. More time passed, and more time passed. Or passed in reverse. The Baron was thrown through space and time, casting randomly about in every direction. He took in so much information and reality that his mind stretched into 4 dimensions. He was twisted about, until he had no need for memory... mainly. Casting about, at a certain time, he felt a pocket of reality. An anchor, it was. Eric Kulnev... was that his name? decided to grab for it. The Void did not let him go easily. Something was ripped away. Time ejected him. Space ejected him...

"Ughh.... Who? What? Where?" I arrived. My name was.. Eric? My memory was completely befuddled. I could not remember anything.. but a man named Steve who was joined to a girl named Zoeya. I just knew for the most uncanny reason that I had to kill them. I just had to. I had no idea why, but my mind was telling me to do so. I had no idea why, though. I searched through my mind, searching for a clue of why I was here. A flash of light, and a battle of some sort. That was all I could feel in my mind, and even that was slowly slipping away. 

"You all right?" I heard a woman speaking. I opened my eyes, to see a blonde woman staring down at me. She had blue eyes, and she was holding a rune-carved knife in her hand. For the first time, I wondered how I knew what those runes were. "I'm fine... I think." I heard myself answer. I pulled myself up. "Where exactly are we?" I asked. "Ha. Ha ha. No way you don't know where you are." I spoke again, "Just tell me." with a little bit of irritation. She replied, "In the Twilight Forest. I will take you back to my small wooden fort, where my few friends are waiting. I am one of the few surviving colonists sent to the Forest. Mainly because the rest died in one way or another. Come on. My friends will want to hear your story." I spoke to her again, inquiring, "I didn't catch your name there." She snorted. "Very well, if you must know, my name is Sarah. Come along now..."

To be continued in a new story which will be collaborative.

Chapter 36. The Path to the Air Vault is Revealed...

Steve was being treated with amazing respect by the guards who let him and his friends pass to the actual vault, holding the Air Key. While walking, he spoke to Hein, "So. The Baron told me something about you working with Herobrine to attempt to destroy his portal to the Dream Dimension. Mind telling me about that?" Hein turned rapidly and kicked Steve back. He murmured something, then a gate opened in the fabric of reality, leading somewhere Steve had no idea. "Come along, son!" Hein dashed through, and was followed by his wife. Almost. Anna spoke to Helmut, "Come on son! Son?" Helmut spoke, "How could you ally with Herobrine! I would prefer to stay with these people then go with you!" Anna hissed, then leaped through the portal. The gate closed, and Helmut spoke, "I hope I made the right choice." The large group continued into the vault, and took the Air Key. Helmut inquired, "Now what?"

"Perhaps I could assist with that." Steve turned rapidly, and saw Notch leaning against the wall. "Bravo, Steve. The Air Vault is located in the Aether, my realm. Presuming you can get past the Voice's forces, you can enter my palace and go to the Air Vault. Happy huntings! Oh, Roberto, I am sorry. You cannot aid Steve here. For you are dreaming, and it is time to awake." Notch waved his hand, and Roberto was not there. "Anyway, come along now!" Notch summoned a gate, and the group of heroes were sucked into it...

Steve awoke. Lying on a floating island in the middle of the sky. "Ughh..." Zoeya was quite happy to cheer him on, "Ahh, come on Steve! It's not too hard to stand up!" "Ugcck.." Steve pulled himself upwards. Then he noticed that all his friends were gone. Just gone. He noticed a few splatters of pixelated blood, and thought, "Oh dear. Either Vladimer/Duncan made a bit of a fuss here, or the Voice... whatever that is... kidnapped my friends. At least I still have the Disks and the Air Key."

A sign materialized in front of him. Pointing to the left, it read: "The Voice in the Darkness' Fortress of Darkness" and pointing to the right, "Air Vault right this way!" Zoeya commented, "Tricky. Either get the Disk or save your friends." Steve reasoned, "They'll be okay. The Voice is going to have a lot more than he bargained for..." He ran off to the left, dashing through a forest, munching a can of food as he ran across a plainsland, and over a bridge onto a smaller island which glittered with purple sparks. He passed by a few spruce trees, and came to a sign. "Entrance to the Air Vault. Pass touched by Notch or pass not at all." Steve held out the Air Key, and stuck it into the O in Notch. He turned the key, and the sign exploded into light. It expanded into an arch, glowing with light in between. 

Steve stepped through. He was standing on a cloud. In the middle of nowhere. This time at least, not actually Nowhere, the dimension. Further away, another cloud formed a platform. And another platform. And yet another. Zoeya commented, "Parkour. Just activate the Leg Boosting Servos in the Power Armor and we should make it easily. That was a fact. Steve leaped from cloud to cloud, eventually stepping onto a long path of cloud, with razor blades spinning through, side to side.

Steve sprinted through, easily hurdling the razors. He smashed aside several stone statues to walk onto a larger, circular, arena. Spikes lined the edge, and in the middle sat a pedastel. On the pedastel lay a disk, carved of what looked like rock solid cloud. Steve charged through, and grabbed the Disk. Then it exploded, becoming a vortex of a strange sort, spinning through the air. Steve heard Zoeya mumbling... "Cloud Whale.. no. Aechor Plant.. no. Ah! Zephyr! Giant spinning wind creatures of mass destruction! Oh, that doesn't help much."

Chapter 36 Epilogue.

Roberto awoke. Rushing out of a blue painted bed, he faced a strange man with a green cloak. "Um.. Hello? Who might you be?" The man turned to face Roberto. "I am Hypixel... a major player in this game of thrones and magic. Since you somehow managed to escape the magic of my Stasis Bed, you must be sent into the world early. Oh well. Another thing: I will be a bane of Herobrine. But in the world, you would let slip the knowledge from your mind." Roberto chocked, "What?" Hypixel spoke again, "I must bind your Half-Dragon powers and erase your memory to keep this from happening. I shall then send you into the world, and you shall only seem like a normal Spawning. You will awake when I need you. Farewell, brave one. Farewell... Wait, what? What is breaking my power? Herobrine! How-How-How!" Roberto spun away to nothingness, to the Nether... memories falling away, and power bound... his last thought was "Oh dearie my."

Chapter 37. Giant Spinning Wind Creature of Mass Destruction. Understatement.

Steve backflipped away from the Zephyr, Manifesting as he did so. Taking Zoeya's form, he summoned the Power Arm and Armor. He/She sprinted back, and fired a blast of plasma at the Zephyr. It did nothing. Steve/Zoeya fired the Sonic Disruptors. Nothing. Torpedo! Nothing. All Zoeya's tech was useless. Seemingly. As Steve/Zoeya turned and ran, he thought to Zoeya, "A little help here? I have no idea what to use against that thing!" Zoeya replied, "It says in the book that... oh dear. Apparently they are almost invincible, for they are a form of wind elemental." Then Steve had an idea. This thing could not be fought with technology. It had to be fought with magic. The Zephyr spun round, and came straight at him/her. At once, Steve/Zoeya shouted, "Manifest! Swiftwolf's Rending Gale!" The magic ring of wind and lightling appeared in Steve/Zoeya's hand. He/She immediately rose into the air, and the Zephyr followed.

"Hope this works..." He thought. Pointing the ring at the Zephyr, he shot lightning at it. Mistake. The lightning only seemed to energize the Zephyr, and it rose even faster. It began to spin, and shot a bolt of lightning at Steve/Zoeya. Steve was rather irritated. "What can we do to stop that thing!" Zoeya replied, "Many things. Though we cannot do most of them. That Dimensional Rip Generator would have worked, or maybe some of John's potions. I think Rythian would have been of help here. Or maybe Martyn. I never was as powerful as they were with magic." The Zephyr shot again, and this time it hit. Lightning actually charged the Power Armor, and Steve had an idea. "Is it possible to project the energy shields outwards to entrap the Zephyr?"

He/She tried it. Projecting the shield outwards, the Zephyr was trapped withing a sphere of energy. Steve/Zoeya contracted the sphere, and it drained the Zephyr's energy... slowly. The Zephyr spun, and shrunk... down... down... down... the Zephyr was gone. Then the Power Armor short-circuted. Steve/Zoeya was ejected from the Armor and the Arm. Luckily, he/she managed to land safely on the cloud arena. "What in the world?" Zoeya yelled. The suit of Armor turned to face him/her. "Oh. The Zephyr is controling the Armor." A plasma ball shot at Steve/Zoeya, and they managed to dodge.

The Armor flew around, and sent barrage after barrage at Steve/Zoeya. They still managed to dodge, but they were tiring. The Armor swooped in for the kill, but then Steve/Zoeya had an idea. Zoeya's reasoning was, "Now that the Zephyr has a physical form, we can attack with flowdancing!" Steve wrapped the flow around the magic ring. Channeling lightning through his/her body, he leaped. Into the air, and slammed the Armor with his electricuted fist. Using the ring, he absorbed all the energy into it. The Armor fell into the Void, devoid of charge. Steve drew a deep breath, and DeManifested. The ring went with Zoeya's form. The ring was gone, and it discharged the energy. Steve was sent flying back, landing on his back. Steve pulled himself up, and walked over. He saw the Air Disk, formed of solid clouds lying down. He picked it up, and thought, "Three down, four to go..."

Then he was gone. He stood in front of the sign. Now it only read, "This way to the Voice's fortress." Steve turned, and ran off...

The Voice was irritated. There were several incursors onto his realm. He had captured them, but they had put up a fight. Many of his troops had fallen. Now he was more irritated, because he had missed one incusor, and he was charging towards his fortess. No matter. This man would be captured, just like the others...

Chapter 38. Darkness, Madness, both the same in the Voice...

Steve was walking towards the fortress when he was ambushed by a bunch of enemies. He had absolutely not idea what they were, but they looked like zombies riding strange feathered birds. They moved so quickly that Steve couldn't dodge without flowdancing. He had to Manifest, yet again. But he couldn't. He was utterly exhausted from Manifesting so many times that day, that he couldn't do so. The riders charged him. He barely dodged, panting with exhaustion. Zoeya was not responding. She must have been similarly exhausted. Steve punched one rider in the face, but was tripped by another. He landed bottom down. The riders approached...

The Voice was pleased. The Moa Riders were surrounding, and preparing to capture the insurgent human. Any second now... wait? What is that? Exactly how he was doing it was a mystery, but Steve was flying. Flying above the birds, and towards the fortress. Steve theorized, "Possibly the power of the Air Disk is the result of this." Steve looked down. And saw the bird riders were readying bows and arrows. "Shooting me down, eh." He chuckled. He willed a gust of wind to float him further towards the fortress.

The Moa Riders were giving pursuit, but their arrows were missing. The Voice saw that he would have to dispatch an Airwhale Rider to capture this human... Steve saw a massive flying blueish whale flying towards him. Its eyes glowed purple, and a zombie in black metal armor was riding. Steve floated into a standing position, and tried to reach Zoeya once more. Steve's only response was a distant "Ughh...". Steve had no choice but to engage this strange whale rider in combat.

For the first time, Steve wished he had a sword. Previously, he could just rely on Zoeya's Manifests and flowdancing to save him, but in this exhausted state, he could not use either. Some knowledge of swordplay would be of much use here, but all Steve had were his fists and the Disks. He mentally ran through his resources. "Tesla Staff... easily dodged... potions... short range... Air Disk... keeping me flying... Earth Disk... of no use... Water Disk... hmmm... " Steve drew the Water Disk, and summoned a large cloud of mist against the Rider. 

The Rider was lost in the mist. Unable to locate Steve, he flailed around aimlessly. Then Steve hjacked his ride. Literally. Steve kicked the Rider off the Aerwhale and used the magic of the Air Disk to calm the creature. He then flew off towards the Fortress...

Steve had fought off exploding bats, evil sharks, another Aerwhale Rider, and for good measure, a flying creeper before he reached the Voice's fortress. A castle on a small floating island, unconnected to the mainland. It was constructed of a black cobblestone, and many arrows flew towards Steve. Then he Manifested. "Ughh... I miss somethin?" Zoeya commented. He flowdanced out of the way, and summoned the Sonic Screwdriver. Steve heard Zoeya speak, "We can use the Sonic Screwdriver to locate your friends by tracking Duncan's power enimating from Vlad." He flew the Whale around more arrows, and came to the main entrance. A wave of the Screwdriver opened the large gate.

"Aaaa.... He approaches. This one is more powerful than I thought..." Steve dismounted the Airwhale, and it flew off. He ran on the dark brick tiles, punching a skeleton aside, and followed the Screwdriver's lead...

Chapter 39. Weakened Reality, Crazed Ninja Skeletons, and a ParadoX. Good luck.

Down several flights of stairs. Kick skeleton. Point the Screwdriver. Rinse and repeat. So Steve was tired by the time he came to the Voice's jail cells. Helmut turned to him. "Ah! Glad to see you here. Lewis was taken somewhere else, but we can assist you with him!" Steve waved the Sonic Screwdriver, and the jail cells popped open, allowing his friends out. Vladimer punched him in the face. Steve spoke in anger, "That's how you treat the guy who rescued you? Shame!" "You took your sveet time getting here, American." Vlad stared Steve down. 

Then the Crazed Ninja Skeletons arrived. Five of them, flipping down the stairs. They had swords forged of black metal, and seemingly enchanted chainmail. This was going to be an easy? hard? fight. Hard apparently. No matter how hard and how fast Steve attacked, the Skeletons dodged easily. Steve was forced to back away, as the Skeletons advanced. Then Vladimer pulled his ace. "Manifest! Mark I: Mining Laser!" Joining with Duncan, summoning the labcoat and goggles, Vlad pulled a large Mining Laser from his coat and proceeded to blast away. 

Easily dodged, apparently. The Skeletons even seemed amused. Vladimer/Duncan continued firing, but the Skeletons were much to fast. "Outa my way!" Steve pushed Vlad/Duncan out of the way, and fired the Tesla Staff. That was rather hard to dodge. In fact, it utterly destroyed four of the five Skeletons. Gauging it's odds, the last one turned and ran. 

"Do you mind? I could have handled those myself!" Vladimer/Duncan raged at Steve. "Again, you should be grateful." Steve carefully judged his response. He got a kick to the face for his efforts, which was easily dodged using flowdancing. Steve yelled, "Try that again. I dare you." Vladimer/Duncan was about to do so, when a golden chain wrapped itself around his arms. Mary approached, and reasoned, "I don't know exactly what is going on with you and the Yogscast, but I think we ought to cooperate right now. We still have no idea where Lewis has gone to, and we should for now, let Steve and his little friend lead here." Vlad sighed, and DeManifested. 

Steve led on. Using the Screwdriver, he led the group up several stairways, turning on a corrodor, coming to a large, circular, torchlight room. Lewis was chained in a chair in the middle of the room. The chair was surrounded by redstone dust in a circle, with several runes written in quartz around it. Steve spoke, "Lewis?" Lewis lifted his head up, and screamed, "RUN, STEVE!!! RUN!!!" Lewis' head began to shake, and his eyes started turning red... 

The Voice was pleased. He had found the ideal host to reside inside, giving him an avatar in the world. Soon, the teenager named Lewis would be converted, and the Voice would dwell inside him...

Steve took Lewis' advice. Mostly. He doused Lewis with a potion of healing which he had taken from Jason's lab, then he ran. Steve was followed, by the rest of his group, and down the stairway they went. Then the torches went out...

Steve was alone. Utterly alone. In the middle of Nowhere. What? He searched his mind for Zoeya, and to his relief he found that he was not entirely alone after all. "Ughh... that hurt." Zoeya told him about how the Voice had wrenched Steve out of Minecraftia because of the threat he posed. Steve enquired, "Now what? How can we escape Nowhere?" Zoey replied, "I'm not sure we can. But there's one way. It may kill us by draining our energy, or it may not work inside Nowhere." Steve stretched his arms out. "Lets try it." 

When the torchlight flickered back on, Steve was gone. Mary panicked. "Steve? STEVE???" Vlad grabbed her arm. "Ve need to get moving now!" Vladimer lead on, running quickly down the stairway.

Chapter 40! Manifest Mk. V: Portal to the Twilight Forest.

This was the most powerful and hardest Manifest Steve and Zoeya had done together thus far. It was a portal. A portal to the Twilight Forest. Manifesting, they created a 2x2 pool of water surrounded by flowers. Zoeya spoke in Steve's mind, "We will focus the nature energy generated by the flowers, and focus it into a diamond. When the diamond falls into the water, it will generate enough power to rip a hole leading to the Twilight Forest..."

Power is relative. Even though Vladimer was only at the beginning of his Manifesting abilities with Duncan, he was already much stronger than the Voice's zombies. Vladimer Manifested, joining with Duncan, summoning the labcoat and goggles, and a Mining Laser. That Laser was enough to devistate whatever stood in their way.

"Die! Die! Die!" Zombies fell before the power of the Laser. Duncan remembered a quote by some famous person: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity." The zombies had no comprehension of that rule. Off in the distance, Vlad/Duncan heard a cry of rage, and then thundering. Whatever vis vas, it was better to run faster. Then the man called Eric shoved Vlad/Duncan away. Eric turned and drew a scroll from his pouch. Vlad was about to yell at him when Eric read the scroll: "Proximity Charge!!!" The scroll vanished, and the stairs shimmered. Vlad/Duncan yelled at Eric anyway, "What vas that? You tell me now!" Eric smiled. "You would call it a set of magic land mines." The stairway finally ended. It was a dead end. They were standing in front of a rune-carved iron door...

Lewis smiled. The Voice filled him with rigor and might, leading him onwards. The land mines were slightly irritating, but he made them turn to smoke with a thought. He cornered his enemies. With a smirk on his face, channeling the Voice's energy, he prepared to enslave the minds of the intruders. Then someone whispered in his ear... "A little Dues Ex Machina..." Lewis turned, but there was nobody there. Then the portal exploded into existence. 

Steve had created a portal to the Twilight Forest, and from there, sought out Erik Kulnev. He knew thanks to Zoeya's tracking device which she had planted on the Baron during their fight, that the Baron was somewhere in this dimension. Of course, he had to appear in the middle of the Baron's stronghold. That would have been a much larger problem if he was still alive. Instead, he had to contend with a few dozen of the Baron's descendants. Zoey informed him, "That rod cast the Baron out into the void between dimensions. Naturally, that caused him to travel back a few hundred years in time. In turn, he probably would have a lot of descendants by then. Descendants who would have heard the story of how Steve and Zoeya defeated the Baron. Descendants who would have wanted revenge. " Steve/Zoeya barely had time to tune the portal which he entered into the Baron's fortress with to take him to the Aether. 

The Portal exploded into existence, and Steve charged out. Followed by a few dozen guys and women with swords and potion bottles. Three of them were waving magic wands in the air. Lewis turned to face Steve. Lewis yelled, "Ha! For even if you did manage to bring your own private army out of the Twilight Forest, that will not suffice to defeat me!" Then the army turned to face Lewis, who was possessed by the Voice. "AHHHHHH!!!" The army charged Lewis. Lewis waved his hand, and frozen darkness enveloped the army of the Baron's descendants. The darkness was gone, and the army was frozen in time.

Chapter 41. Manifest Mark IV: Poke'ball.

Steve Manifested, joining with Zoeya and taking her form. He spoke instinctively, "Here's a little somethin special! Eat this!" He/She threw a small round grey ball, which exploded into a creeper. The creeper hissed, but Lewis just waved his hand. The creeper vanished, and a small puff of smoke flew away. Steve/Zoeya spoke again, "This is called a PokeBall. Eat this!" He/She threw two more, and they became iron golems. The golems charged Lewis, but he leaped into the air, and sent a wave of dark energy flying at the golems. The golems rusted, and fell into the void. 

Lewis spoke, channeling the Voice, "Bravo. But your so called PokeBalls are no match for my power. I shall-" Helmut had thrown a net made of red crystal fiber over Lewis. Steve/Zoeya turned in amazement. "How?" Helmut replied to Steve/Zoeya, "I think I just channeled my father's power as a Dream Sorcerer. Now if I could just..." The net tightened around Lewis, and began to change color, slowly. The net turned purple, dark purple, and evaporated. Helmut spoke, "Quick now! I have siphoned the Voice's power, and that might be enough to free Lewis from his influence!" Mary moved quickly. A set of golden chains wrapped themselves around Lewis' chest. Thomas then approached Lewis, and pressed his hand against Lewis' chest.

Thomas yelled, "I'm going to need something to keep the Voice's power in!" Vladimer Manifested a small glass jar. He spoke, "This is a Warded Jar! Use it!" Vladimer tossed the jar to Thomas, and it was caught. Thomas punched Lewis in the chest, and siphoned the Voice's power, imprisoning it in the Warded Jar. Thomas closed the Jar's lid, and tossed it to Eric. "Hold on to this!" Lewis was panting heavily. Zoeya informed Steve, "Now a catylist is needed to free Lewis completely from the Voice's power." Steve thought, joined with Zoeya, and they Manifested a bottle of chocolate milk and the Sonic Screwdriver. He trickled the chocolate milk down Lewis' throat, and a quick pass with the Sonic Screwdriver triggered an expulsion of the Voice's power from Lewis. A few seconds later, Lewis fainted, murmuring, "They're coming..." And so forth, for several zombies wearing golden armor were walking down the stairway. 

The golden zombies approached. The lead zombie had a diamond chestplate, and it spoke in a gurgling voice, "Ah.. you shall perish in agony and-" Vladimer/Duncan had shot the lead zombie with the Mining Laser. The lead zombie survived somehow, and bellowed fiercely, "Ha! You shall never defeat me, leader of the Zombie Vanguard!" Then Vladimer/Duncan did something a little more powerful. "Manifest Mk. III! Nano Sabre!" A black sword enhanced with powerful electronics, capable of amazing power, appeared in Vlad/Duncan's hand. He charged, and chopped the Vanguard leader's head off. And the Vanguard leader picked up his head, and put it right back on. "Mwah ha... You think that could possibly defeat me?" 

Vladimer/Duncan bellowed in rage, and flicked a switch on the Nano Saber. The sword glowed with yellow energy, and he chopped the Vanguard leader into salami. Or tried to. The Vanguard leader drew a sword of rune-carved iron, and blocked the Nano Saber. Locked in a deady embrace, the two swords continued pressing against each other. Vladimer/Duncan continued parrying the Vanguard leader's attacks, and the Vanguard approached. Then Steve Manifested further, summoning the Power Arm and Armor. Joined with Zoeya, he charged. And fired a salvo of plasma orbs which knocked back the Vanguard, and their leader. Steve/Zoeya leaped into the air, and threw a PokeBall at one of the Vanguard. The ball opened, and imprisoned the Vanguard zombie within.

"Ya mind?" Steve/Zoeya yelled, then captured two more Vanguards within PokeBalls. Then the leader stopped, and spoke in a dark voice, "So... you managed to break my grip on your little friend Lewis, yes? I will command the Vanguard leader Siri to extirminate you! Channeling my power, none of you can stop him..." Steve/Zoeya fired the Tesla Staff at Siri, blasting Siri's chestplate off. 

Chapter 42. Through the Rune-Carved Door, and into Darkness...

Steve/Zoeya waved the Sonic Screwdriver, and the rune-carved iron door behind the group popped open. He/She then spoke loudly, "We should retreat! This Vanguard leader Siri is much more powerful than I thought!" Exactly so. For Siri had joined with the Voice, and summoned a wreath of crystal, enveloping his body. The crystal was impervious to the attacks these sort of people could make. A mask of crystal enveloped his head, with eyeholes made out of a bluish crystal compared to the normal purple stuff. The puny human with the Nano Saber struck, but when the Saber hit the crystal armor, the Saber evaporated and fused with the armor, making it even stronger. 

Siri bellowed, "Hargg! Whatever touches my armor gets absorbed into it, increasing it's power!" Steve/Zoeya fired plasma balls at Siri. True to Siri's word, the plasma balls were absorbed, and the armor glowed blue. "Retreat!" Steve opened the rune-carved door, and ran inside. Followed by his friends, he waved the Sonic Screwdriver, and slammed the door shut. He/She locked the rune-carved iron door, then fortified it with sonic energy. "That probably won't hold long!" Steve turned. He saw exactly what everybody else was staring at. He/She had walked into the Voice's vault. A vault of amazing things and treasure. Vladimer/Duncan had picked up an strange amulet. He spoke, "Huh. This is strange. It is an Elemental Amulet of some kind. But what?" A fireball shot out of the amulet and almost knocked Steve/Zoeya's head off.

"Okay. Fire Amulet!" Steve/Zoeya replied to Vladimer/Duncan, "But what will that do against Siri's crystal armor?" Vladimer/Duncan smiled and slipped it into one of the labcoat's many pockets. Vladimer/Duncan smirked, with a fiendish grin. Helmut had summoned a crystal shield to block the door. "This might buy us a few extra minutes." Steve/Zoeya joined their minds, at that moment. They had a major idea. And it started with one item in the Voice's vault. He/She walked over to a pile of gold ingots and dark emeralds, and picked up a sword. The sword was carved out of a strange green diamond. "Now we're getting somewhere! This is an Unfidium sword, and it is completely immune to entropy. Now we just need to find a something else to fortify the sword..." Vladimer/Duncan turned with a wild look. Tossing the Fire Amulet to Steve/Zoeya, he spoke, "The Fire Amulet is powered by a living creature, which the crystal armor cannot absorb. We can use this to power the sword by flames!" 

Steve/Zoeya heard a thunk, then a ripping noise. "That would most likely be the door going bust. I don't think we have much longer!" Fortunately, there was an anvil in the vault. Vladimer/Duncan immediately took the sword and amulet and hammered them together, along with a few gold nuggets. The crystal sheild began to crack...

Vladimer/Duncan tossed the completed Ignisfidium Sword to Steve/Zoeya. "Use this!" Steve/Zoeya brandished the Sword at the door. The crystal shield cracked more, and was about to shatter. Then Steve/Zoeya had another idea. Basking in the silence, he/she Manifested, enveloping the Sword in plaasma. The Fire Amulet within the Sword fed on the plasma, twisting, churning, becoming a force of nature. 

The shield shattered. A large number of fragments would have struck Steve/Zoeya, but he/she blocked with the Sword and created a shield of fire, destroying the crystal fragments. "Here it comes!" Siri burst through the passage, charging Steve/Zoeya, but he/she used the Ignisfidium Sword to shatter some of the crystal on Siri's armor. "What? Hoarrgh?" Siri bellowed, then Steve/Zoeya smirked. "You haven't seen the half of it!" The Sword burst into flame, and several slices later, the crystal armor was completely and utterly gone...

Chapter 43. The Ignisfidium Sword, and an Intervention by Notch...

A few more chops, then Siri fell. With Siri dead, the rest of the Vanguard fled. "Now what?" Vladimer DeManifested as he spoke. Steve/Zoeya DeManifested, and was about to speak. Then a voice spoke out, "Perhaps I may be of assistance. You are now in possession of the Water, Air, and Earth Disks. I would suggest you next go for the Space Disk. This Disk contains the fabric of Minecraftian reality, chunks. It's power will enable you to teleport occasionally with a power source, and to sense the direction of anything on Minecraftia." The group turned in shock. There was Notch, standing against the wall, munching on a chocolate cookie. 

Helmut was awestruck. "Oh, Notch... How?" Notch continued as though he had not heard. "So. I have hid the Space Disk in the fabric of reality itself, which can only be accessed by dropping through the Void. To do that, you will have to destroy bedrock. So, you would need an Ether Drill. Unfortunately, that is one of Herobrine's inventions, and it is currently being held at Mineu City. Good luck..." A portal opened in mid-air...

Helmut spoke again, "Oh, the curse has taken effect, hasn't it..." Notch continued speaking, "Oh, you may notice that Mineu City is ruled by a queen and king controlled by Herobrine, and their subjects are completely under their command. Good luck. Now get to it!" 

Steve and Co. had passed through the portal, and once on the other side, Steve asked Helmut, "What do you mean about this curse?" Helmut replied in sorrow, "My parents... they had a pair of witches known as Muriel and Euriel cast a curse on me... They bound me up, and afterwards my parents explained that when I left my parent's company for more than 3 hours, I would fade out of reality and be no more. But I managed to bend it a little bit. The curse did not specify how long it would take for me to fade, so I managed to find in 3 hours, while my parents had traveled to Laaos, the port city, a sorcerer by the name of Dr. Dray was able to bend it, so that it would take time of one week for me to fade. That is why Notch could not see me, because I do no longer exist at that level of reality..." 

Steve encouraged Helmut, "Cheer up! You should be invisible to Herobrine then!" Helmut grinned. The group got their bearings. They were standing on a cobblestone paved path leading to a palace away from a large city of many buildings. "I suppose the palace has the Ether Drill, yes?" Vladimer had spoken. 

So the group walked towards the palace. Forwards they went, till they came to a large iron gate. "Shhh..." Steve waved the Sonic Screwdriver, and the gate popped open. The group walked forwards, sneakily. There were a few guards wearing iron armor on the grounds, throughout the many hedges, but they were easily dodged.

They came to the main door. Steve was going to wave the Sonic Screwdriver again. Then he noticed something. The large double doors were carved out of a reddish wood, and there were many magic runes carved into them. "This might be a problem. The Sonic Screwdriver doesn't do wood!"

Chapter 44. Within the Palace, Herobrine Reigns...

That was a problem. But Steve had an idea. He looked atop the door frame. Naturally, a spare key was kept atop there. He reached up, grabbed it, and opened the door. But when he walked inside, he almost stepped on a pressure pad. This place was most likely rigged to the point of madness.

"Be careful. This place is rigged." Vladimer had noticed the pressure pads. Steve almost laughed, for that was obvious.

Steve led on, dodging pressure pads and tripwires, but he noticed a rune-carved obsidian door. This was right in the middle of the hallway. Waving the Sonic Screwdriver, the door popped open. Steve led on inside, and stared at a bedroom. A large double bed, with a woman wearing an obsidian crown lying on it. She turned in astonishment, leaped up, and her eyes flashed pure white. "I AM QUEEN MAY, SERVANT OF HEROBRINE!!!" She waved her hand, and a burst of energy enveloped Steve and sent him flying out of the bedroom along with his crew. Steve flipped to his feet, and found Queen May right in front of him, along with a pair of guards wearing obsidian armor.

The guards charged him, but Steve flowdanced and sent them flying against the wall. But Queen May was not so easily defeated, for she had drawn an obsidian sword glowing with red energy. Steve drew the Ignisfidium Sword, and engaged Queen May in swordfight, not noticing his friends fighting the many guards and golems approaching...

Vladimer had Manifested, joining with Duncan. He had to in order to defeat the iron golem attacking him. A Mining Laser is quite a powerful weapon, and Vladimer/Duncan was using that to ward off the many obsidian soldiers. Mary had formed a blunt sword out of flaming chains, and she was swinging this around, striking guards. But then Eric choose that moment to make his move. He had been drawn into this adventure unwillingly, and now he wanted out. He used a Scroll, "Thunder Surge!" This shot lightning which cleared an iron golem, allowing Eric to escape by running away.

Sadly, none of the group noticed Eric had chickened out. Steve was still swordfighting May, and the rest of the group was fighting guards and golems. Except Thomas. Somehow. He was not the only one known as Thomas in the wide universe. Somehow, his gift was taken to another level and he had drained the mind of one such other into himself. That other was known as Thomas, and he was a little red rectangle in a 2-dimensional world. Thomas the rectangle had sacrificed himself to save the other A.I.s, but now his mind was somewhere else. In a 3-dimensional world.

Thomas was alone. His mind was cut off from his senses as Thomas the rectangle had taken over his body. He had to find a way to cast that rectangle out. He did so with ridiculous efficency, sending Thomas 2 flying into Helmut's mind. Thomas 1 was not alone. But Helmut was. 

For Thomas 2 had taken over Helmut's body. And this was getting out of hand.

Chapter 45. Thomas Was Alone.

Helmut was irritated. This being called Thomas 2 had taken over his body, and now Helmut wanted his body back. In a burst of green flame he shot Thomas 2 into the sky. The sphere of flame containing Thomas 2 flew into the sky. And impacted against a metal pod floating in the sky. This pod contained an experimental set of nanomachines which could join together to create a swarm intellengence of sorts. And now Thomas 2 had control over every one. But Thomas 2 was alone. But Thomas was alone and he had no strength to control the nanomachines. It would take a catylist to get Thomas 2 to control these machines.

Said pod was now in the process of flying down towards the palace.

The relentless flow of guards stopped. Queen May looked a little suprised. She slammed Steve back against the wall, then yelled with Herobrine, "HA! Just because you have defeated the Obsidian Vanguard doesn't mean you have won against MEEEEEEE!!!" Steve decided that now was the time to Manifest. And he did so with speed. Joining with Zoeya, he soon had a suit of hyperpowered armor and a gauntlet made with the same tech. This suprised Queen May long enough to get a hit in edgewise. A metal gauntlet... makes for a serious punch.

"OMMMPPHHH!!" Steve/Zoeya had sent Queen May flying right through a window. He/She jumped out after her, only to get hit with a metal pod in mid-air. Steve/Zoeya was sent flying to the side, and the pod landed. It dissolved into a swarm of metal particles, which began to assemble themselves with origami...

Steve/Zoeya took stock of the situation. The mystery cloud was getting larger, Queen May was preparing an essence lock... what? Steve/Zoeya flowdanced out of the way, almost getting hit by the essence lock. And he/she decided enough was enough. "Come on out, Johnny Iron!" Another iron golem emerged from the earth, ready to serve Steve/Zoeya. "Come, Red Five!" Red Five had regenerated, and he now erupted from the earth ready to serve Steve/Zoeya. 

The golems charged, and Queen May conjured a wall of crystal in the way of the golems. Then she got hit by a gatling gun. Thomas 2 had finally got the hang of using these nanobots.

The golems smashed through the wall of crystal, easily as pumpkin pie. They charged at the downed Queen, followed by Thomas 2 in the form of a humanoid being made of nanobots. Unfortunately, Queen May was a little too powerful to be smashed by all three of those. She channeled the power of Herobrine, and leaped into the air, kicking Red Five in the pumpkin face. She backflipped over Thomas 2, just as Thomas 1 and Mary leaped out of the window, following Steve. May kicked at Thomas 2's body, but her kick passed through the nanobots, and the nanos ate her boot. That was enough to put her off balance. Giving Mary time to wreath May in chains. The chains pulled May to the ground, where she was promptly sat on by both golems, and Thomas 1 began his spell. Herobrine's essence was tightly intermeshed with Queen May's, so Thomas 1 had to draw it out carefully. 

Steve/Zoeya understood exactly what Thomas 1 was going to do. As Thomas 1 called for items of various sorts, Steve/Zoeya Manifested them. 

Creating a circle of redstone round May, Thomas 1 siphoned Herobrine's essence away, into several Warded Jars created by Vladimer/Duncan. The golems vanished, then Mary removed the chains binding May. A short wave of the Sonic Screwdriver finished the job.

"Ugh...." Queen May was awakening. Steve/Zoeya hoisted May over his shoulder, then began to run with his friends, away from the palace. 

Thomas 2 was confused. Alone. Adjitated. Annoyed. Aggrivated. Aerial. Aerial? He was floating in the air, hovering in his many nanobots above several guards wearing obsidian armor. Thomas 2 had no idea what this mad world was about, but he did know that the nice people had taken away the evil from the woman called May. He decided to follow them stealthily, out of curiosity... 

Chapter 46. The Awakening of Queen May, Return of the Dark King, The Ether Drill.

The Ender Sage known as Chive watched the small group. Two of the men had dual presences... which could mean either one could fuffil the prophecy. Either one... he would wait and see which one was stronger. The stronger one, he would take to the End, where he would use him to fuffil the prophecy, destroying the Eye of Ender and bringing back the Ender Dragon, marvelous queen of the End. Then, the man chosen would be given the Artifact, that Notch had given the Ender Sages, so the chosen man could access the Time Vault. This brought slight trembles of anticipation to Chive's mind. Waiting was no problem, for all Endermen are immortal. Waiting now...

Steve led on. He thought maybe an inn or something would be the best place to rest with Queen May. When the Queen was ready, she would take back the throne from Herobrine.

Queen May awoke. "ugh...... ugh....  where?" She opened her eyes, to see a number of people staring down at her. She was most likely lying in a bed. But why? It came back to her slowly. Herobrine had used his essence to turn her into a puppet of his will! And now... she was free of that. Whoever these people were, they ought to have at least some power. She could, with their help, free King Jordan of Herobrine's influence and undo the curse of submission!

Queen May bolted to her feet. "And who do I have the honor of meeting?"

Steve replied, "Only one of us is royalty. The rest of us were drawn in because of varius curcumstances. Thomas?" Thomas followed up Steve's speach, "Yes. I am a prince of an island in the ocean, but Herobrine booted me off my own island. In all the times I have walked with these friends of mine, they have not dissapointed. You may trust us." Queen May relaxed her inner magic of flight, which she thought she would need. Thomas had certainly changed, tested in real battle. "My son!" Queen May tackled Thomas in a hug. "My memory is clearing. After I escaped, I was brought down to earth after 4 days by a salvo of gravity amplifying arrows! Herobrine captured me, and... I forget. Herobrine must have thought to use me to rule this city!" Thomas replied, "Not now, mother. We need to get moving. The reason we came here in the first place was to obtain a certain item known as an Ether Drill."

The queen stretched her muscles. "Well, son, I believe we are holding that in our royal vault. Come now. I am certain the guards will let us pas-" The roof of the inn smashed through. A man wearing a silver crown dropped through. "Come, my love. Let these commoners be and-" Thomas interjected, "Hey! I'm a prince!" The man spoke, "And I'm a king. King Jordan, to be prescice." 

King Jordan stuck out his hand, and a blast of frost enveloped the small group. They were all frozen solid, except Queen May. "Now then, my love." Then King Jordan was tackled by a swarm of nanobots. Thomas 2 had decided that Jordan was a bad man. The nanobots swarmed, and after a few seconds King Jordan's crown lifted off and flew away. 

"Not a king anymore." Queen May laughed. She then flew into the air, and kicked Jordan in the chest, twice. 

Jordan was completely unable to defend himself against so many blows. Then Vladimer, still frozen, managed to turn the gears in his mind and Manifest. Merging with Duncan, he then Manifested a flock. A flock of chocobos. "Wokky woo!" Vladimer/Duncan spoke, "A little history lesson: when I was fighting against Hexxit, I tamed a trio of yellow chocobos. I was able to breed them until I had a flock of yellows and a few other colors. Now then..." Vladimer/Duncan had melted the frost on himself, and more and more chocobos started appearing. Mostly yellow chocobos, but a few green and blue ones. "And you should know that they are incredibly loyal to me." Vladimer/Duncan pointed at Jordan. "Attack!" If you can imagine a flock of giant chickens of various colors, you can imagine what the chocobos were going to do to Jordan. "Wokky woo woo wok!!!" The chocobos charged Jordan. Still he was off balance from Queen May's relentless assault, and he was quickly smothered under the flock. 

Queen May laughed. As the chocobos DeManifested, and Vladimer/Duncan did so as well, she spoke, "Now then. Let us get your friends defrosted, and then we can go to the vault to obtain... the Ether Drill."

And then Chive made his move. Already he knew that the ones called Steve and Vladimer had dual presences. But he had been watching from some time before, gauging their powers. And he now knew that Steve's powers were more developed, but Vlad's energy... was much more powerful, but not fully developed into full power. Chive made his choice. 

Queen May saw Vladimer vanish from thin air, surrounded by a cloud of purple sparks. 

Chapter 37. What Chive didn't know. Vladimer's own Power Armor Incoming..!

"What?" Queen May stared at the space where Vladimer had been a split second ago. Turning, she walked over to the humanoid construct assembled of many tiny machines. "Can you hear me? Thank you. But could you try to unfreeze the rest of us?" Thomas 2 could hear, but could not figure out a way to respond. So Thomas 2 decided to use a burst of flame, and release Steve from the ice. "Who what when where why how?" Steve spoke rapidly, looking around. He saw his friends frozen, Queen May standing in front of him, and Vladimer not in proximity at all. 

Vladimer blinked. One moment he was with his friends, the next... somewhere else. He was standing in a room carved out of a strange yellowish-white stone, with a tall black man standing in front of him. Duncan spoke to him, "Enderman. Whatever you do, don't look into its eyes, or you will aggrivate it." The enderman stared directly at Vlad, then spoke in a raspy voice, "Ah.... hello Duncan and Vladimer... I am not like most others of my kin... while they slave under the mind of the Eye of Ender, me and my few Ender Sage friends are all that exist of the resistance...

Vladimer was scared. He began backing away, but he bumped into another Ender Sage. "I am Oregano, Ender Sage. You will fuffil the prophecy. You will bring an end to the Eye of Ender!" Vladimer took intrest in his situation. Around he looked, seeing the two Ender Sages blocking the exits from this room. So be it. He Manifested, joining with Duncan, and fired a Mining Laser at Oregano. Oregano simply vanished for a split-second, and the laser bolt shot right through. Chive spoke loudly, "Do you not realize how weak you are compared to us? Yet only you can bring an end to the Eye of Ender!" Duncan spoke in Vladimer's mind, "Oh. This is getting bad. If I am correct, Chive has brought us to the End, an alternate dimension which is much harder to reach than the Nether. We should hear their propisition." Vladimer was getting scared. Oregano seemed to read Vladimer/Duncan's mind. "No need to be afraid, young Russian. We will not hurt you if we do not have to. Perhaps you should get a grip on the situation..." Purple sparks enveloped Vladimer/Duncan, and he had a vision.

He saw the endermen and the Ender Dragon, living free in the End. They were mostly happy, but then they arrived. Led by a boy named Steve, the Cyan Shirt League was there in a flash, and they utterly killed the ruler of the End, the Ender Dragon. Steve took the legacy of the Ender Dragon, the Egg, and left. The Endermen did not know what to do. They were rulerless, and their eyes became grey. For a split second. For at that time, the Eye of Ender, minion of the Voice in the Darkness, choose that time to act. He sent his mind-waves out, and controlled most every enderman. He commanded one to give Steve a hug, and then the Cyan Shirt League left. The endermen had green eyes, under the spell of the Eye of Ender. Except for a group of twelve endermen known as the Ender Sages. A tiny fragment of the Ender Dragon's mind still lived in each of them, and the Ender Sages still had purple eyes. Said Ender Sages had enough connection to the Ender Dragon to hatch a plan. They broke into the Cyan Shirt League's vault, and left, leaving a duplicate egg made of cardboard in its place. With the Ender Egg in their control, they knew that they had to destroy the Eye of Ender in order to ressurect the Ender Dragon else the Eye would control the Ender Dragon, but the Sages combined were not powerful enough to wage war with the Eye.. So they tapped into the Ender Dragon's growing mind, and spun a weave into reality, a prophecy which would come true...

Oregano mind-spoke to Vladimer/Duncan, "If we were to rebirth our Queen now, the Eye of Ender would simply take control of her. We must rebuild the Ender Crystals, and in order to do that, we need you to attack the Eye of Ender. Now then, you should take this. It will disrupt the Eye's teleportation ability." Oregano handed Vladimer/Duncan a Blaze Rod with purple dust embedded within. "This will chanel the fabric of reality around it in such a way that teleportation cannot be done in a wide radius around you. Go." Oregano stepped aside, and Vladimer/Duncan chose to step up the stairway. Looking around, he found he was on the top of an obsidian pillar, no crystal atop.

He saw a bedrock throne on another pillar, a large space away. Duncan mind-spoke, "Vlad? We can create a Jetpack." Vlad took that suggestion. Flying towards the throne, Vladimer/Duncan saw an enderman wearing a golden crown sitting there. He landed on the pillar with the throne. Vladimer/Duncan was immediately knocked away, falling into the Void...

Chapter *#**#**#**#**#: Timeless Spaceless Combatfull --__-- 

Falling. No. Rising. Duncan had joined with Vladimer, and they had used their Jetpack to rise into the air. Or whatever passed for air in this dimension of madness. He flew over to the pillar where the Eye sat. The Eye turned to look at Vlad/Duncan. "Oh my. Someone's took flying lessons. I don't know how a Minecraftian got to this dimension, but you will be repulsed." The Eye of Ender stood up, and there was a flash of dark light. Vladimer/Duncan saw nothing but purple sparks and flashes. "Wha is vis madness?" Vladimer thought-spoke. Duncan replied, "An illusion." Vladimer/Duncan stepped forward, through space, standing on the pillar. Then the Eye struck. Vladimer/Duncan was surrounded by a wind made of frost, causing their Jetpack to fail.

He fell off the pillar, almost dead on landing. But Duncan, sparked by the moment, reached back into his memories and summoned a suit of Nano Armor. Said Armor, black and green and charged with power, protected Vladimer/Duncan from the fall, allowing them to survive. Mostly. The Eye of Ender leaped from the pillar, floating down swiftly. "I don't know how you are jamming my teleportation, but it won't do you any good!"

The Eye unleashed a wave of green fire which harmlessly bent past the Nano Armor. The Eye of Ender narrowed his eyes. The Eye continued unleashing green fire, green blasts of sparks, and green knives of energy, but each one of those reflected away from the Nano Armor. "You use the essentia of Tekkit, hmmmmm? Well. One or two or... three or possibly four can play at that game." The Eye of Ender began to glow, then unleashed a twisted version of a Manifest. The energy which cut the End off from space and time twisted, and a stone of golden red flame appeared in the Eye's hand. "Philosphy of DOOOMMM!!!" The Eye of Ender unleashed a curve of golden red energy, which shimmered and developed into a whirlwind of flame.

That was a little pointless. Vladimer/Duncan had Manifested a device which developed a sphere made of blue energy around him, deflecting the fire. It was called a force field. "Now then. Let's get this into high gear! NANO SAVER!" Vladimer/Duncan shouted with rage, and summoned the Nano Saber, drawing it and preparing to attack...

The force field lowered. Vladimer/Duncan leaped into ve air, and brought the Nano Saber down upon the Eye of Ender. But the Eye blocked, using a large obsidian sword. "My Ender Giant Sword is much stronger than your puny Nano Saber!!" The Eye continued, "And your other abilities are pointless compared to my Ender Power!" It so happened that Duncan also used an Ender Giant Sword during his time in the universe of Hexxit. The Nano Saber shimmered, and formed into another Ender Giant Sword. "Oh? Is that so?" Vladimer/Duncan taunted the Eye as they swordfought. Strike after strike, chop after chop, parry after slice, block after downstrike, the fight went on. Then Vladimer/Duncan had another idea. He had seen Steve and Zoeya joined together, using the Power Armor. Duncan remembered. Duncan knew that he could use Power Armor, but he worried that using it may drain their Manifest energy too quickly. But as it seemed, there was no other way to gain an edge. "Manifest II Power Armor!" The Nano Armor was quickly replaced with a suit of Power Armor, powered with green and blue!

"And you think a suit of armor can give you an advantage?" The Eye of Ender unleashed a flash of purple, and suddenly Vladimer was covered with green slime. The slime worked quickly, hardening, pratically turning Vladimer/Duncan into a statue. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The Eye laughed, then sent another burst of green sparks, and the statue of green hardened slime began to move. The slime was drawing upon Vladimer/Duncan's life energy. After a time, the Eye knew that the statue would have drained all of the Russian's energy, turning him into the Eye's slave forever!

But Vladimer/Duncan's attack had served its purpose. The Eye was struck. The Ender Dragon, but a hatchling, was still powerful enough to utterly send the Eye of Ender flying. The Ender Dragon turned to face Vladimer/Duncan. He raised his sword, then was hit by a blast of purple shards which melted all the slime away. "What? How did the Eye...?" The Dragon turned away from Vladimer/Duncan. A flash of light, then the Eye was standing in front of the Ender Dragon, bound in purple chains. The Eye yelled, "Curse you! How you Dragon do this!" The Eye unleashed a power of green energy, but it had no effect. "How do you resist my control? How? HOW???" Then the Eye saw the 3 Ender Crystals which had been recreated. "That Russian was a distraction.... wasn't he." The Ender Dragon snorted. The Eye of Ender began to shimmer, then exploded. The Ender Dragon turned to face Vladimer/Duncan. The Dragon looked into Vladimer/Duncan's eyes, then telepathically spoke to him, "Youuu have provenn yourselff worthyyy.... Vladimerrrr.... Duncannn... you have proven yourselvess worthy indeedddd..." The Ender Dragon was growing as more and more Ender Crystals were created, then the Ender Dragon began to cough. The Ender Dragon choked up a Key made of obsidian. "This is the Time Key. You must now access the Time Vault, I will bring you there..."

Chapter (#(#(#((##((: The Time Vault, and the Return of Strawfingers!

Vladimer was standing atop an obsidian pillar. The Ender Dragon was hovering beside him. "Thissss isss the entranceeee to the Time Vaultttt..." Vladimer got the message. He took the Time Key, and stuck it in the obsidan. He turned it, and the pillar shimmered, then twisted. A ladder leading down appeared. "Ahhh.... good luckkkkk...." Vladimer turned, then spoke, "Why don't you send your endermen to take the Key then?" The Ender Dragon replied in her rapsy voice, "When Notch hid the Time Disk, he programmmmeddd the Time Vault that no ender beings may enterrrrr it..."

So Vladimer descended. Eventually he fell. He was in an obsidian room. There were no exits. Then a section of the obsidian slid aside, revealing a passage. Joining himself with Duncan, to prepare for whatever came ahead, Vladimer/Duncan dashed forward...

Vladimer/Duncan was hit by a rapid series of arrows from an illusion wall. He died. And he was back at the obsidian room. Then the passage opened again. But he still remembered being shot. This was confusing. So he ran ahead, and stopped just before the arrow trap tried to kill him. The arrows shot past, and Vladimer/Duncan continued. Then he sprinted some more, turning left three times, running straight through another corridor... then was struck by a swinging axe from the ceiling. Vladimer/Duncan died. And woke up at the entrance room again. Duncan commented, annoyingly, "The Vault is forcing you to go through it again each time you die. This is unatural."

He made it back to the swinging axe, and ducked it. Running past, stopping to eat a can of soup, he then leaped over a pit and came to a circular room with a number of obsidian pillars in it. "Parkour?" Vladimer/Duncan was suprised. A quick burst of the jetpack made the parkour pointless. They were unstoppable. Though the joined pair died twice more, to projectile traps of various sorts, they finally made it to a very strange room. A bowl was resting on a short obsidian pillar, with an inscription. Vladimer read, in Russian, "Face your greatest fear and win to recieve your prize." The bowl was full of a purple liquid. On an impulse, the pair took the bowl, and drunk. Your is realitive, of course. Vladimer's greatest fear was failing his superiors in his mission, and Duncan's greatest fear was... it made him teary thinking about it. He was afraid of stopping. He had so much to do, but he was afraid of stopping his work. The creamy liquid flowed down Vladimer/Duncan's throat, and they choaked. Then coughed up a huge cloud of purple smoke, which condensed itself into... what exactly? The purple-man-thing... scarecrow spoke, "What? Where am I...." Then the thing realized that it was holding a strange black disk. "Oh. I've heard of the Fear Drought, but I never thought... well, I'm Strawfingers, and I need to kill you so I can get on with my evil plot to terraform Minecraftia!" He dropped the disk, then tossed a burst of purple sparks at Vlad/Duncan! That was easily dodged. 

Vladimer/Duncan Manifested a suit of Nano Armor, then drew his Nano Saber. Strawfingers seemed to grin as he drew a sword made of a purple crystal from within himself. The pair of swordsmen sparred, chopping, sliceing, stabbing, and dodging. Then it happened. A spark of memory from Duncan was all it took. "Manifest! III Portal Gun!" Strawfingers was quickly disoriented. Vladimer/Duncan portaled behind Strawfingers, snatched up the Time Disk, and used it. He threw himself back a few seconds in time, when Vladimer/Duncan and Strawfingers were still swordfighting. Vladimer/Duncan reapeared, then stabbed Strawfingers in the back. The previous Vladimer/Duncan grabbed the Time Disk, then went back in time a few seconds ago, when Vladimer/Duncan and Strawfingers were still swordfighting. Vladimer/Duncan saw they still had the Time Disk.

"Pah! You cheat!" Strawfingers vanished into purple smoke. Then Vladimer/Duncan was gone... and was sitting in front of Queen May in the Overworld. "What?" Vladimer DeManifested. She continued staring. "Vat? Vat is it?" She continued staring, then fainted. "Good riddance." Vladimer looked around to see where he was.

Chapter 50. Witchy Wokky Wammy Woo, Kippidy Koppity Wippity Moo, What?

"Oh."  Vladimer saw that his friends were all unconcious, except for Helmut, who was swirling round and collasping to the ground reapeatedly. He looked around again. He was in the middle of a grassland, and what? He saw a pair of broomsticks zooming through the sky, ridden by a pair of witches. "Your wake we will take, your mind we will bake!" They repeated this chant in unison, flying in circles above the group. Helmut finally collapsed. Well, if the witches wanted to play magic... wait what? Oh. Vladimer Manifested. Vladimer/Duncan knew what to do. The witches continued their chant, but suddenly they were brought down to earth, in a crash landing.

"Muriel, he has brought us down!" The witch with purple hair spoke. The witch with green hair yelled, "Euriel, look at that frown!" Vladimer/Duncan spoke loudly and by inscinct, "I am Vladimer, channeler of Duncan, Thaumaturge of the Torchwood Castle. I order you to surrender at once!" The witches cackled. "A spirit bearer, a Thaumaturge no less!" The purple one spoke. The green one followed, "Your wounds shall fester!" The witch tossed a blast of green dust towards Vladimer/Duncan, but he waved his hand and pushed the dust aside. A Thaumaturge, he knew, was no ordinary wizard. A Thaumaturge was like an alchemist, but much more powerful. Thaumaturge meant 'Miracle Worker' for by the Thaumaturge's power, miracles not ordinarly possible were possible, at the price of distorting reality. He manipulated the fabric of reality, then twisted time with the aid of the Time Disk. This was sufficient to feed the witchs' timelines back into themselves, thus making them immortal but incapable of doing anything at all. Then the timeline feed ended, leaving Vladimer/Duncan drained of energy. "Ugh. Our bond is not yet powerful enough to keep a timeline feed in effect." Duncan commented, only to get shushed by Vladimer, who was thinking.

"What has he done, Muriel?" The other replied, "What indeed, Euriel?"

The two witches held hands, then chanted, "Supremis Wallum Gordon Extrarui! Mages Unaite Flovear Waok!" Vladimer/Duncan was struck by the magic, draining him of his energy. He realized that he was sleepy, but could not seem to collapse. No. He would not sleep. He began to use his remaining powerful to work transmutation, transforming the grass underneath the witches' feet into mycelium, starting a minuiture mushroom colony. This would have no effect. Or so the witches belived, but the presense of mushrooms was enough to start the trembles of conciousness in Steve's mind...

Vladimer/Duncan watched as the witches cackled another spell. He was being drawn into sleep faster and faster. No. Sleep? Vladimer/Duncan understood. He DeManifested, and let sleep take him. For what the witches could not have known, was that Helmut was a Dream Sorcerer. Ha... ha... ha...

Helmut knew a sleep spell when he heard it, that was one of the first things his father had taught him. As he sank into sleep, he focused his mind and spread it amongst the dreams of the group. When Vladimer slept, he made his move. He thrust himself into conciousness. The witches were suddenly struck by a blast of Dreamflame that he drew from the combined dreams of the group, then he channeled the power of all asleep. "Muriel, what have you done?" "Euriel, you must be by the idea that I have done something, won." Helmut could use the abilities of all the group while they slept. To start with... magic chains, wrapping round the witches. The chains spiraled round fiercely, binding the two witches together. The Dreamflame continued burning, enveloping the witches in a bubble of flame, keeping them in. The two witches cursed and struggled, blasting outwards with purple blasts that did nothing.

Then everything went wrong.

Chapter 51. Shadow Master Muriel, Spirit Channeler Euriel...

Helmut fainted when a blast of energy of a strange sort hit him. The Dreamflame faded, and the pair of witches stepped outwards. "Muriel, my bond hast prevailed." Euriel nodded, saying, "We now take these fools to our dark mastere." Steve twitched, then sat up. "Excuse me... am I interrupting?" He spoke. The witches exchanged glances, then something strange happened. Euriel shimmered, then changed as a wave of energy enveloped her. "Manifest! Let us ice this joker!" She shimmered in and out, taking a male form. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit, holding a Mining Laser in one hand, a Nano Saber in the other. Steve stared. Zoeya commented, suprised, "Sips? What?" Euriel/Sips blasted the Mining Laser at Steve, but he flowdanced round and rapidly punched them in the back. Muriel started flinging blasts of dark energy at him, but he was much too fast. "Manifest Mark III Power Armor!" Steve took Zoey's form, summoning the Power Armor and Arm. A flurry of lasers shot at them, but Steve/Zoeya leaped into the air, and returned fire with plasma orbs. Muriel and Euriel/Sips flanked Steve/Zoeya on both sides, each attacking with their own powers.

Good thing Steve/Zoeya had the power of mushrooms on their side. Muriel tripped as mycelium wrapped round her ankle. As for Euriel/Sips... they were hit by a lightning bolt from Swiftwolf's Rending Gale and stricken down. Then Muriel vanished, while Euriel/Sips... started launching explosive laser bolts. Vanished? Suddenly Muriel appeared behind Steve/Zoeya, and grabbed them, forcing them into a laser. Steve/Zoeya went down, but focused their energy. Then Thomas II made his move. A swarm of nanobots swarmed from the sky and battered Muriel aside. Then Eric suddenly woke, and spoke, "Iron Ogre!" The massive iron ogre smashed into Euriel/Sips suddenly, knocking them aside. Eric murmured... "Exactly what happened? Sleep spell?" Muriel was gone. She was behind Steve/Zoeya, and trying to carve at them with a sword that seemed to be made of pure shadow. Steve/Zoeya drew the Ignisfidium Sword, while Thomas II and Eric unleashed their power against Euriel/Sips. 

Slice, chop, parry, uppercut. The sword fight with Muriel was not going well, for Muriel seemed to flowdance. In fact, she was as fast as a shadow. Eric stared at Thomas II, suprised. Then Thomas II tackled him and formed into a suit of black armor. The iron ogre was destroyed, then Euriel/Sips stared at Eric. "Oh no, let us go, what so?" Then Eric moved faster than he ever thought he could, and battered Euriel/Sips. Steve/Zoeya unleashed a slice of plasma, which missed Muriel, who then blasted Steve/Zoeya with a shadow, wrapping round them and pulling them down...

Euriel/Sips was sent flying into the air... and before the shadow spell could be completed by Muriel, Eric smashed her aside. Steve/Zoeya stood back to back, then spoke: Steve/Zoeya: "I'll take Euriel, you take Muriel!" Eric responded, "Okay then... when did I become so good at this chaotic form of combat?"

Euriel/Sips charged towards Steve/Zoeya, but they dodged, and channeled the power of Swifwolf's Rending Gale.