Behind the Legends

Twisted Quest

          It had been about a month since Light Steve and his wolf Bally had left. To say that they had left a lasting impression on their universe was the understatement of the century, in all honesty. Light had undone the corruptions of both Void Steve and Twisted Rainbow Steve, both reverting to the kindhearted Steve's they had been before, Seer and Colle. It had all gone down in the course in just under three days, ending a conflict that most believed would never end. Since then, despite some caution when interacting with the two reverted Steve's, most things seemed to have begun to get better. The Desert Steves allowed both of them to stay in their village, seeing as both the Red Kingdom and a mass of the Blue Steves had been destroyed during the Darkness VS Twisted conflict. Most of the Chromatic Steves seemed to have gone into hiding, with the Green and Violet Steve's seeming to be the exceptions. Of course, this wasn't to say there were no Chromatics around. There were even rumors of a small group of Red Steves going around. That had caught Colle's attention, as he hoped it was his old group he used to explore with, being Red Elite, Beef, and Sharp. There was another Red Steve called Spark that had been about to join the group, but Colle had become Twisted before it had been made official. 

          As for Seer, he had gained an interest in what Light has told him about, which were the existence of other Universes. He wasn't really sure if he was up for going to new ones himself, but he did think it be cool to at least figure out how that worked. Of course, trying to learn about it was near impossible, seeing as no one around knew anything about it. He still had some memories from being Void Steve, and it didn't even seem as if the Darkness knew about it, which wasn't a good sign for him being able to figure it out. Colle had been aiding him, though, as well as one of the Desert Steves, who's name turned out to be Dune. On top of that, they had met an Indigo Steve named Mager, who had been out on a resource run. Mager had asked his Leader, and he had been allowed to come to and from the desert village to help the other three on the project, which at this stage, was really only research. Seeing as he was an Indigo Steve, it was no big surprise he was interested to discover this grander level of connections. 

          One day, the four were working in their lab, which was a branch built off of the Trap Light had designed to help defeated and cure Colle while he had been Twisted Rainbow. So far, it was another day of just reading through books, of which they had been collecting from everywhere they could, seeing as they had started a few days after Light had left. They had begun within the village, and then spread out, with Mager giving great additions to their library, and Colle being able to obtain even more from the abandoned Red Kingdom. But even with access to so much knowledge, there was not a single mention of universes. They had discovered a single reference to some sort of portal in a pretty worn-down book Colle had brought, but it seemed to be talking about just another dimension, like The Middle World, not actually a new world. 

          Seer was flipping through a book that was speaking of a race of Steves that were apparently called "Diamond Steves" when a large explosion rocked the whole room, a few books from shelves. Dune let out a scream, falling off the chairs where he had been sitting upside down, and landed on the floor face first. The shaking only lasted about a second, and everything was still once more.

          "What the heck was that!" Mager exclaimed, getting up onto his feet, a orange book still in his hand, grasping it by the spine.

          "I don't know, but we need to go find out." Colle replied, and began to run from the room, heading to the stair well that would lead up to the deserts surface. Seer, Mager, and Dune weren't far behind, the sound of the four Steve's feet cladding against the ground echoing across the mud brick walls. As they reached the stairs, they used flight bursts of flight to simply leap straight up the center of the spiral staircase. After a few moments, they were on the sandy ground, just a bit aways from the village. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, and a rare soft breeze was blowing across the dry, hot land. The four made their way to the village as fast as they could, and when they arrived, it didn't take long to find where the explosion had come from. The local blacksmiths were on fire, although much of it seemed to have been put out, though, with only a small few whisps of flames being left. They made their way over, staying out of the way of the last few Desert Steves that were carrying over buckets of water. 

          "What happened here?" Seer asked, reaching over and running his hand over the now partially charred sandstone, bits of ash being left on his blue hand. He heard the blacksmith begin to explain, saying something about turning away from the blast furnaces for just a moment, and then the explosion going off. Seer was a bit distracted though, as he squinted into the debris of the now destroyed smelters. Was that... some sort of vines? His train of thought was cut off when he realized that everyone around him had gone silent. He turned, standing next to Colle and the others. He looked where their gazes were pointed and froze as well. There was a lone Red Steve standing a few dozen blocks away, although something was off. His head was lowered, so that they couldn't see any of his face. Across the whole right side of his body, however, was some sort of vine, it is twining around his limbs, and sprawled along his chest, torso, and head. They were a dark green color, with hints of red here and there, and the occasional leaf... and a good amount of wicked looking spikes. 

          "So, this is where you've been hiding, Colle." The Steve spoke, letting out a short, hardly chuckle. Despite his stance, this stranger didn't sound hostile. Infact, he had an oddly friendly tone. He did know Colle... maybe he was one of those explorers that survived, and was just weird?

          "Spark? Is that you?" Colle replied, sounding as if he was trying to hold back hope of his friend being alive after everything. It was a good sign that they knew one another, maybe they really had just come to find Colle...

          "Yeah, it's me. I'm glad I found you, and Seer." He replied, lifting his head. As he did, the new hopeful feel in the air was turned right back to fear. Sparks left eye was black, and a trace of darkness scar was stretched out from it. "Once we're together again, we can go find the others. All you gotta do is hold still." As he spoke, he had lifted an arm, pointing right for Seer and Colle. The vines on his arm shifted for a moment, before suddenly growing at an impossible rate, targeting the two Steves. Mager rammed into the two of them, all three collapsing on the ground, the vines missing the Indigo Steve's shoulder by a hair and hitting some of the other Desert Steves. The three leaped up, and Dune appeared at their side, as they drew their weapons, watching the vines do their work in horror. The vines wrapped around the Desert Steves, like they had wound around Spark. After a moment, the Vines snapped, fully latching to the Steves. Seer took a quick glace at Spark, seeing that he still had the same amount of vines on him. "Darn, missed. Well, at least there are more of us to look now." They looked back to the Desert Steve's, who had now raised their heads, each having a softly glowing eye that was tinted red. They moved forward, vines shooting out to the other Steves around them. 

          "We need to go!" Mager hollered, lifting his hands. The four of them vanished, leaving the Deserts and the vines. And Spark, who simply smiled, turning away and beginning to exit the village, as the Crimson Ivy spread to the rest of the inhabitants.

          "Don't worry, Colle." He said to himself, his expression calm and happy. "I'll find you and your friends again. And together? We'll make sure there will never be another war again."