Chromatober 2023

Day 6 - Improvise

Series: Unnamed AU (Part Two of Day 2)

--- Rainbow Red P.O.V. ---

"Oh... why did I agree to come here?"

I wasn't sure why the young steve was out here, but I wasn't complaining.  I needed another shot after my first three horrible attempts.  I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.

"What was that?"  he took out a large aqua-blue trident and held it threateningly.  The noise was from a cow, a few blocks off, but at least I knew he came with a weapon.  He couldn't take me by surprise.  "Oh... I guess I'm being silly, aren't I?  The stories the others tell are just myths to scare us.  There's not really a monster in the woods."  I smiled.

As the Green Steve continued, I followed at a distance.  I needed to wrestle that trident away from him before I could do anything else.  Either take it by force, or make him throw it.  I'd felt the prongs of those things during my first attempt.  Not an experience I wanted to repeat.

Carefully, I picked up a loose cobblestone from the ground.  Taking aim, I threw it as hard as I could away from me, hitting the branches of a tree with an audible rustle.  It worked.  The alarmed Green Steve threw the trident straight into the oak, and its points stuck fast in the bark, holding it up there.  The steve groaned.

"Oh come on.  Now I have to climb all the way up there!"  Yes.  That was the plan.

Before he could retrieve his weapon, I emerged from the foliage and jumped him.  He shrieked and tried to attack me with plants, causing a few vines to wrap around my ankles and attempt to drag me off.  It didn't do much.  His powers weren't very strong, and I was determined to keep a hold of him.  Calling on the Yellow Steve energy I had absorbed earlier, I tried to access his own powers.

I could see them draining as his hair lost some of its natural green hue, turning more of a mint color.  However, the spare energy didn't infuse with me, just like it hadn't on the first attempts.  I scowled, shutting off the powers abruptly.  This was pointless.

Please don't tell me I had to make a machine in order to take energy properly.  No.  That was such a hassle.  Plus, there was too much that could be hijacked, especially when I worked up the courage to attack on Orange Steve.  I didn't want someone messing with the machine I used to drain people, nor the one I used to infuse that energy into myself.  I just needed some way to do this efficiently, without all the bulky equipment.

With a cry of frustration, I darted away into the undergrowth, sparing one glance for the Green Steve I had left behind.  He had started running for the Green Village, leaving his trident forgotten in the oak tree.  I rolled my eyes.  How much harder would it be to find a Green Steve next time?  The more I failed, the fewer Green Steves came out of the village.  It was a good thing they were isolated, or the other kingdoms might have the same caution.

I silently teleported away, to land on a rampart of the Yellow Kingdom's outer wall.  I stared sullenly down at the swarm of Yellow Steves.  Why wouldn't their powers work for me?  Was the energy I had taken not strong enough?  I scowled.  Did I have to take more?

Well, if that was what it took, right?

I teleported far away from the kingdom walls and began to build the proper machine.

As I placed the redstone, I wondered if this would actually work.  Surely, the other Yellow Steves had heard about the one I drained earlier.  They wouldn't be willing to just walk through a super-enclosed area, right?  They knew that there might be a machine in disguise, waiting to trap them.

Frustration bubbled up inside me, causing little fires to burn in my palms.  I quickly stifled the flames.  Was that the sound of footsteps?  I ducked behind a nearby tree.