Across Time and Worlds

Chapter Four

I glanced at the puny figures below me, watching with a smile as they all looked up with wide eyes. Well, except for the weak purple one. He still seemed pissed from when I pushed him earlier. And maybe the orange one might have some sort of power, like me. I wasn't sure though, because I had beaten him down to the ground pretty quickly.

Chosen blasted over to me and we both floated in the sky, thrusting our power fire at the ground to levitate. "How did they get in?" he asked gruffly.

"They must have fell into the portal after us," I explained, snickering. "They're dumb."

Chosen stayed strangely quiet, looking around.

Ignoring him for the moment, I lowered myself down by lessening the force of flame from my hands and my boots soon touched the floor. Chosen flew off and landed somewhere else, further away into the distance. I watched him for a moment before turning to the stick figures in front of me.

Second's fists were balled up and glowing bright green. His eyes, too, radiated with the same green glow. I frowned and took a step back.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked him.

Chosen suddenly dropped in front of me, holding something in his hands. I glanced at it, but it was only a staff with an earth block on it. Nothing interesting. "What is it?" I asked him while keeping my eye and distance from the bright orange one.

"I don't know. I just found it laying on the floor," Chosen replied.

"Oh, it does nothing," King spoke up. "In Minecraft, it just gives unlimited trees. Handy, if you want a log castle, but nothing else."

Chosen looked around the dry plain and held out the staff to the ground. When nothing happened, he frowned. "How do you use it?"

I laughed and strode forward, yanking the staff out of his hands. "Huh. The dirt. Makes sense." I tossed it to King. "Here you go. Might as well have this, useless as it is in stopping us."

King smiled secretly and kneeled to pick it up.

"And are you guys having a costume party right now?" I asked, looking from King to the purple guy. "Why are you both wearing crowns? What are you, a bird king?"

Purple reached up to touch his crown and slowly brought his hand back down. "No. I just like wearing it."

"Well, it fits you," I acknowledged.

"Why are you standing there, having a little chit-chat with us?" Second demanded, his arms flexed.

"Ooh, here is where the fun part comes in." I gave them all a wide grin. "Since you can't go back home without a portal that only my spiders can make, we challenge you to a game."

SC snorted. "This is the web. We don't have to use your portals specifically to get back."

I smirked. "So you think. Remember, I am a wizard at tech. Which means I can make one computer blocked off from the rest of the world. That means no emails can come in, the news never changes, and most importantly, nothing can get out."

-----

Okay, I was a bit worried. Before, I was annoyed, but even though I have my precious staff back, not even it will be able to get this computer back on the web. Even so, I was glad that neither of these sticks had ever played Minecraft, because if they had, they would have known better than to hand me the Ultimate Weapon.

And surprisingly, Second and Purple stayed quiet about it. Maybe they knew what a greater chance we had with it. The good thing about Minecraft was that we could use all the features even out of the game. With this, I could call up mobs to help defend us.

I smiled. Yep, with this 'useless' stick, we had ourselves an armada.

"So, I propose a game," Dark went on. "If you win it, you can go home. If you lose, well."

"Well what?" SC demanded, stepping forward.

Dark looked at him. "Then I guess you can just stay in this world. I obviously have no need for you."

"Is that a threat?!"

"Second, calm down," Purple pleaded. "Do you really want to fight with them right now?"

He continued to glare at the red and black. "Yes."

"And what is this game?" I asked smoothly, my hesitation disappearing like water through a siv.

Dark puffed out his chest. "It is simple, really. In this world there are six chests containing letters inside and something valuable and unique in each. You will need to find them and bring them to the Shallow Sea, where we will be waiting in the only building by the edge."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Purple look snuggly at Second and the latter stick rolled his eyes. I guess he had been correct when he said that Dark had a base by water.

"Why should we play some stupid game?" SC asked. I noticed that the green glow he was covered with had not gone away, but it also had not brightened. It just seemed stabilized.

Dark grinned and stepped up to Purple who flinched and took a few back. "I know I asked this already, but do you want to know what happens to him when one of my spiders bites him?"

Second paused. "What . . . does happen?"

Purple answered for him in a hoarse voice. "We disintegrate."

Dark whirled around. Orange's eyes widened and he relaxed himself a little. "Oh."

"How do you know that?" Dark demanded.

Purple took a few more steps back. The red guy marched over, grabbed his shoulders, and started to shake him. "How. Do. You. Know. That?"

My right hand clamped down on the staff hard. But before I could even think of raising it, Second flared up again and thrust his hands at them. A bright light shot from them and I shut my eyes, twisting my head away.

Somebody screamed, short but loudly. I opened my eyes just as Second stopped spewing the light from his hands.

 
Dark stood looking at Second with a mixture of awe and fear. A little away from him lay Purple, writhing on the ground. " SC, YOU IDIOT!" I thundered, running to Purple. I ignored Dark as I kneeled next to him. Black burn marks crawled over his chest and arms and I watched helplessly as he struggled to breathe evenly through the pain.

Somebody laughed. Before I even knew what I was doing, I flew at Red and gripped him by the neck, glowering down at him. I raised the staff so it was pointing at his chest.

"Do you want burn marks too?" I threatened.

He relaxed in my grip and raised an eyebrow. "Coming out of a tree populator?"

"Oh, this is not--"

"He means I would give you the burn marks," SC cut in. I glared at him, making sure he felt the contempt towards him that I brewed inside me. He was back to normal without the green glow on him at all, but I still did not trust him.

The black stick figure, who had been silent until this moment, stepped forward. "Before this gets out of hand, will you guys play, or not?"

Risking a glance at Purple, I sighed. "Fine."

-----

Woo, Alan Becker's newest animation is out!!! I literally love Purple, he is my favorite. I feel so bad for him! Everything he did was to get to his father, who probably left because of him. I really want to give him a hug!

I hope you like this chapter and you definitely need to watch Note Block Universe!