The End of MindCrack

Chapter 6: Interesting Developments

 The fans were never completely gone, Zisteau thought, but the crowd was as sparse as it'd been since the panel, the tables were folded and put away, and the MindCrackers were getting ready to head out.

 Well, Zisteau was, anyway. Pyro still had a group of people around him and was alternately listening intently and chattering animatedly by turns. Pause and Baj were going toe-to-toe over something while Guude, Jsano and a group of other Minecon attendees laughed at them. It was, in Zisteau's opinion, the only good option to take with those two. Doc and Seth were talking redstone something or other. And Beef was - gone. Beef was just not anywhere in sight.

  "Dang it, where did he go?" He'd known Beef wasn't thrilled by his friends' slightly over-protective behavior, but he hadn't thought Beef wouldn't at least tell them he was taking off. Maybe he'd told someone else. "Pause, have you seen Beef?"

 The other Canadian had been about to deliver some biting comment to the Brit when Zisteau called him. Pause frowned and shook his head. "Nah. He went off to talk to one of his fans, but I haven't seen him since. Why?"

 "No reason," Zisteau said, forcing a smile. "I'm gonna go check out a couple of the booths. Meet you guys at the front door in fifteen?"

 Pause nodded and Guude added, "Let Beef know if you see him, Z."

 "Sure will," Zisteau replied and headed off.

~~~

 "Daniel?"

 The Canadian spun at the sound of his name, scanning the crowd of people. A tall man with orangey red hair was watching him intently. In hindsight, in might not have prudent answer to his real name, but there was no hiding it now.

 "Yeah?" Beef asked walking over. Any thought of finding Xavier was forgotten.

 "Dan, can we talk?" the redhead asked. His eyes flicked around the hall nervously. "Alone?"

 Beef reluctantly agreed and followed the redhead out of the convention center. The street wasn't exactly deserted, but the passersby didn't seem to care that inside the building, Beef was a celebrity. In never ceased to amaze him that even with over nine hundred thousand subscribers, he could still feel like a nobody.

 "You're not going to believe me, but you're all in danger. You MindCrackers. Maybe famous youtubers period, I'm not sure. They've already got Kurt and Vechs and- others. You have to warn Guude and the others, but I was never here, okay?" the man blurted after glancing around hastily. His eyes were wide and wild. Beef wondered for a second if the man could be crazy.

 And then, staring into unfamiliar gray-green eyes glinting under spiky red, Beef made the connection. Not a stranger's face at all.

 "Etho?" But the voice wasn't Beef's. Zisteau rushed over from where he had been standing, listening silently.

 "Zisteau?" Beef was startled. "Did you follow me?"

 "Sort of. We were getting ready to go and I came to find you," Zisteau said shortly. He abruptly turned his attention to Etho and he didn't seem happy to see him. "You have some nerve. Think you're mister hot-shot to just dump your friends? And then to have the gall to come to Minecon anyway and not tell any of us? Get talking, buddy." The last word was said with such acid that Etho visibly recoiled.

 "Zed, it's not like that. It's- it's complicated," the Canadian stammered, something not far from terror glinting in his eyes. "Please. Promise me you'll never tell anyone I was here. Please."

 "Or," said Beef in a quavering voice, "you could tell us why you are here and let your friends help you out of whatever trouble you're in."

~~~

 Xavier had met up with Austin. Since the pair had skipped lunch to get to a panel, they both hungrily agreed that they had time to go and find something to eat. As they left the center, Xavier happened to glance to his left and saw Beef and Zisteau talking to his mysterious redhead. Neither man seemed terribly happy about whatever they were talking about.

 Ignoring Austin's frustrated protests, Xavier crept closer, simultaneously disgusted with himself for eavesdropping and glad he had. He heard the end of Zed's harangue and the other man's pleading.

 So it was Etho after all. But what was he doing here?

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A/N: I know I don't usually put author's notes in my stories, but I wanted to thank you guys. My first single story book, MindSwap, hit 1,000 reads today. I was totally floored. Thank you all so much! I can't say how glad I am that you all are enjoying this stuff.