A Book of One-Shots

Changing Realities: Pt 2

~

Sjin and Minty hadn't gone far from the cliff. The grey clouds hadn't bothered them, they simply enjoyed their time together. When the first echo of thunder reached them, though, they started back towards the Captive Creeper. 

They were too late.

The earth buckled and heaved beneath them, and the couple cried out as they fell to the ground. Sjin tried to get to his hands and knees but the ground just wouldn't stop shaking. Minty clung to him, crying out in shock, but he couldn't hear her over the loud groaning of the oak tree. It was uprooted, and tumbled off of the cliff.

Sjin grabbed Minty's hand, and crawled forward. Minty followed, her mind filled with random thoughts and fears. Suddenly, she felt she was slipping backwards. Minty grabbed Sjin's hand and held on tightly. He pulled her close, but felt he was slipping as well. That was when he noticed the quickly enlarging gap between the cliff and solid ground.

Lightning flashed in the clouds and thunder cracked. Sjin wobbled to his feet and pulled Minty along.  He had to make it to solid ground with her. The ground kept shaking, and Sjin began to wonder if it would ever stop. 

His feet came out from under him and he heard Minty scream. He held her hand in a death grip, and with his other hand grabbed at the grass. One last time, he got to his feet. This time, Sjin got Minty into his arms. He held her for a very brief moment before throwing her to the solid ground. She hit the ground with a thud.

Sjin tumbled backwards, and pinwheeled his arms as he desperately tried to keep his balance. Minty got up, and reached out over the gap. Sjin leaned forward, reaching for her hand.

The ground fell out from under him.

~

Sips hit his face against the wooden floor as he fell. Everything was shaking, and he could hear the pipes rattling. He scrambled to his feet and managed to get upstairs to the sorting facility. He wavered back and forth like a drunk as the world moved beneath him.

There was a bright flash of lightning and Sips fell against the door. The alarm began to sound and he clapped his hands over his ears. It was all too much.

Then there was a low rumble that wasn't thunder. The sound was coming from behind Sips. He turned to look at the facility, and stood slack-jawed. All the pipes were turning to sand. He glanced up as a mountain of it fell towards him.

Sips stumbled backwards, narrowly missing being smothered by the heaps of sand. As the thunder rumbled, Sips began to wonder if he was going mad. No, he had fallen asleep, right? Surely this was all a dream.

A gear from one of the overloading machines flew past him. A spring landed at his feet. He stood and turned to run. Another gear flew past him and cut his cheek. This definitely wasn't a dream.

~

Lomadia tripped and stumbled before regaining her footing. Honeydew Inc. loomed in the distance, and she ran towards it. The massive marble building seemed to sway back and forth as the earth rocked. One of the lights in Honeydew Inc.'s logo blew out and sparks showered down over the main entrance. Her eyes widened and she nearly tripped again. 

She glanced at the giant Christmas tree with its power flower star on top. Before her eyes, the energy collectors vanished, leaving glowstone particles floating around it. The condenser turned to sand. A minecart fell into the fountain in the middle of the shop area.

Lomadia turned back to the factory and could hear the machines exploding inside. She rushed over to the door to find it blocked up by sand.

"Xehpos!"

~

Lalna dropped his mug of ale as the cellar began to shake. The kegs began to fall over, and he quickly jumped off of the one he had been sitting on. The mug shattered on the floor, scattering small chunks of stone about, and a keg smashed open against a wall, spilling ale across the floor. 

Lalna grabbed onto the vines clinging to the wall, for once thankful they were there. He used them to make his way up the staircase and out of the cellar. Once he had gotten into the courtyard, Lalna took out his flying ring and jumped.

Nothing happened. He checked his pocket to see if he had any Mobius fuel on him, but his hand came away with red mush. He swallowed, turning a bit pale, and tossed the ring aside. Wiping the residue of the fuel on his lab coat, he carefully made his way to the main tower.

Inside, the machines were going berserk. Lalna stepped on the teleporter and entered his EMC generating room. Blaze rods were flying everywhere, diamonds lay scattered about and sand covered the wooden floor. The chests that had contained massive amounts of Red and Dark matter were now full of red and purple mush. Lalna ran his fingers through his hair and backed up, wondering what had happened.

He tripped on a stray blaze rod and fell back, hitting his head on a chest and blacking out.

~

"Honeydew!" Xephos leaped over a pile of sand and ducked as a fan from some machine flew over his head. The entire area was filled with noise and the whole place was shaking.

"Here!" The sand was up to the dwarf's chest. "A little help, friend?"

Xephos smiled a little despite the situation. He held out his hand, which Honeydew gratefully accepted. With a grunt, he pulled the dwarf out of the sand. They ran underneath the green ring of lamps and jumped down. The two quickly activated their flying rings, only to discover that they didn't work.

The two looked at each other with sudden fear as they dropped down the many floors of the Jaffa Factory.

~

Rythian fell against the tree and Teep fell to the ground. The leaves began to rip off of the branches and whip past the two. A foul smell reached them as the earth heaved. A large crack opened up but ten feet away.

"Teep!" Rythian clung to the tree they had been under as the earth continued to shake. He watched as a plume of black smoke laced with fire rose over the now barren trees. Something had gone horribly wrong. He didn't want to believe it, but it was obvious the nuke had gone off.

Ryhian ran forward and jumped, activating his flying ring. He landed face first on the ground. Blinking in suprise, he twisted the gem on the ring back and forth. It wouldn't work.

Teep stumbled forward, slamming into trees as the ground continued to shake. Rythian pushed himself up and ran with Teep. As they got closer to Blackrock, the trees began to lean away from them. All the trees were bare and as they got closer, black. When they reached the edge of the forest, there were only black stumps scattered about.

Where Blackrock once stood was a massive crater.

~