Holiday Season Oneshots

II - Teleportation

I was on a call with Lucas again. As I was packing for my vacation that I am one-hundred percent having, I told him about the Code Red three days ago.

I wish I hadn't.

"You WHAT?" Lucas shouted through the hologram. As per usual, my overprotective brother was being...well, overprotective. And also an over-worrier. "Rowan you shank! The ONE TIME I leave you to be responsible, you go about and blow yourself up! Why did you touch the thing?"

"Because it's my JOB to be the first line of defense, and to know what we're dealing with! It's in the job criteria to be curious!" I threw my stun baton over my shoulder, into the duffel bag behind me as I looked at the hologram with Lucas on it. "You read the paperwork word for word yourself!"

"Curious, not stupid."

I sighed.

Before I could retort back, a strange sound filled my office, and I froze. It was strange, but at the same time, familiar. It was a sound all personnels were trained to recognize before they could go on field.

It was also—cheers—right behind me.

The sound came again, and I whirled around. The creature was gone, but small purple dust particles were slowly spiraling towards the ground in its place where it had teleported out.

I breathed out a long breath in frustration while I did a quick check to see if I was missing anything.

I sincerely hoped not. But of course, I was. My stun baton AND my ID card, which had been in my duffle bag, and also my literal ticket out of the HQ gates.

"The little rascal nuisance son of a—"

"ROWAN WHAT THE BLOODY—"

"AN ENDERMAN, NOW I'M GONNA HAVE TO GO NOW BROTHER BYEEE!"

"ROWAN—!"

I slammed my hand on the End Call button a little harder than necessary. The hologram blinked out, and I promptly ran out of the room, grabbed a pair of sunglasses, cursing loudly in my head all the while.

Endermen were seriously nuisances. Those black, tall, blocky creatures with noodle arms always managed to break into the HQ from Minecraft, and steal a few bits of shiny weaponry or maybe a coffee cup as souvenirs before disappearing with them forever and never to be found again.

I had dealt with more than a dozen of them in the time I had been director. Never had one managed to steal something as important as an ID card, however.

...then again, that could be blamed on my own stupidity.

I put the sunglasses on, and tapped the sides. There was a sudden shift in the lens, and then I was seeing the world through a filter. A thin, barely traceable line of dark purple appeared in the middle of the hallway outside.

I started sprinting, following it through the compound. People quickly realized what was wrong as I passed, and ducked into rooms or brought out their own glasses, in case the enderman showed up.

At one point, the trail completely disappeared, and I skidded to a stop. Then look around frantically. When I fully turned around, I nearly fell over from shock at the appearance of the enderman right there.

Even with the glasses, I was careful to not look up. Instead, I looked down, and saw my stun baton and ID card, the green lanyard swinging from it, in its arms.

There was a long moment of silence.

...alright so maybe I didn't think this far.

I didn't know how to get my stuff back. I doubted it would just politely hand it over—

The enderman let out a soft noise, and its arms stretched forward towards me until my things were within my reach.

...or maybe not.

I nearly looked up, startled, but I forced myself not to. Instead, I gingerly, slowly, grabbed my things.

Then, with another noise—was there a hint of friendliness in it?—it teleported again, and disappeared into a cloud of purple, magic dust. Back into Minecraft, I presumed, as my glasses didn't show any trails.

"That," I murmured, "was odd."

Short but eh—
I'm enjoying Lucas and Rowan's sibling banter too much I'm gonna write more—
Fun fact: Rowan and Lucas and Alex were made up on the spot so ye—
Might be some inconsistencies with their personalities and stuff