AvA: Domination

Chapter 5: The Ambush

Second felt something knock into his forehead. He stumbled, clutching the edge of the couch.

He heard scuffling, and tiny spurts of fire that must've come from either Chosen or one of the newcomers.

His theory was proved wrong, however, when a fireball materialized out of the darkness, illuminating a black arm. It hurtled towards him.

Second quickly lit himself with a green aura and blocked the oncoming flame. His vision adjusted to the dim green light and saw, to his astonishment, Chosen.

"Chosen?!" he cried.

"What?" Chosen grunted, but not the one in front of him.

The unidentified stick lunged at Second again. Second caught it by the throat and hurled it out of the open window.

He looked around for Chosen and found him lying next to the door, punching a black version of who looked like Second.

"Wait..." Something clicked in the back of Second's mind. Something like this had happened before.

But when, where, and how had it happened?

Three years ago.

In the Nether.

At the bastion.

No... could it be...

"King."

"What?"

"King did this."

Evil laughter burst to life outside the window. "You got that right, Second."

Chosen kicked dupe Second off of him. As dupe Second disintegrated into black smoke, Chosen got up. He and Second looked around the room.

The others were all out of breath but were otherwise unscathed. All the shadow clones were gone- assuming that there were more than two, of course.

They all gathered around the window to see... that King had gone.

"Where is he?" Second turned his head, trying to find the missing criminal.

Out of nowhere, shot two lines of code, which wrapped around the necks of Second and Chosen.

"Second!" Green launched himself over to Second and grabbed his leg. Cobalt thrust out his hand and arcs of Void magic surrounded Chosen, pulling him back. Chosen quickly summoned his sword and sliced through the code, which caused him to fly backward into Cobalt. They toppled over the couch and came to a stop next to the table.

King made his appearance by swooping out of the sky like an eagle... and being blown off course by Green. The thread of code snapped, and Second fell to the floor, pushing Green along with him.

That left Metale, Hex, Azalae, Warm, Stal, and Spartan still standing- all the newcomers- to face King.

King approached, grinning wickedly. "Whoever you guys are, step aside. All I want is Second, Purple, and the dark green stick."

The sticks looked at each other.

"Should we obey him?" Azalae asked uncertainly.

"Why should we?" Spartan said, "We don't even know who this guy is! Besides, Cobalt was arguing with him, which makes him our enemy."

"That makes sense," said Warm, nodding.

"I agree," said Stal.

Hex raised a hand. "So... does that mean we're gonna fight him?"

"It doesn't mean anything else, does it?" Metale stared at him.

"Uhh... I guess not."

They all looked back at King, who was idly tossing random items from hand to hand.

"Well?" he asked, seeing that the sticks were looking up at him, "What's your answer?"

"You're not getting past us," Spartan replied calmly.

King smiled. "A wise decision."

And he dived at the window.

Spartan swiftly leaped out of the window right at King, foot-first. The kick landed on King's neck. Before King could recover, Spartan quickly came up behind him and punched him in the back.

Down below, Stal unwrapped his scarf from around his neck. Pulling it backward, he gathered electricity to it before throwing it out of the window.

King saw the scarf coming and attempted to block it using Netherite blocks, but Spartan came up from behind and once again punched him in the back. King flew forward and slammed into the wall he'd constructed, breaking a portion of it. The scarf shot through the debris and wrapped around King's neck. Arcs of electricity sparked all around King's body. Stal pulled the scarf back as Warm summoned fire to his hands. As King approached, Warm thrust both hands into King's chest. A miniature explosion rocked the building as King flew back out of the window, toward a tree.

Azalae rushed past Warm and took her place at the window. "My turn."

King crashed into the tree and hurriedly built a wall in front of him in case any of the sticks decided to take their chances and attack him.

What he didn't know was that there was a plant grower among the sticks.

A branch shot out of the leaves, jabbing King in the neck. King, startled, quickly conjured an axe and snapped the branch in two. Thinking that there might be more branches coming to stab him, he torched the tree, only to find several blades of overgrown grass waiting for him. They wrapped around his legs, snaking up his torso. King lit himself on fire, incinerating the grass, and broke his wall to face the sticks down below.

Azalae stepped back nervously. Hex stepped in front of her.

"H-Hex?"

"Don't worry. I got you covered."

"Th-thanks." Azalae relaxed her shoulders.

King loomed in front of Hex. Then, without warning, he shot multiple strands of code at the window. Most of them missed the sticks, but one caught Hex by the throat. Azalae caught sight of what was happening and reached for Hex's hand, but King pulled Hex over to him, and she missed.

King glared down at the other sticks. "I'll be back."

And with that, he zoomed away, Hex hanging at his side.