Under The Helmet || Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 6

POV: Grian
Word Count: 1020
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Grian flew back to his base, wasting rockets, trying to fly as fast as possible. Tears stung his eyes, as the wind blew into his face. Honestly, he didn't know why he was overreacting, but all he knew was that this challenge was almost impossible. Almost impossible.

A plan, the G-Man thought, trying to pull himself together, a plan is what I need to execute this.

Flying back to his base on autopilot, Grian made to fly towards his mailing system but turned sharply in mid-air to glide rather gracefully into his bedroom, considering the state he was in. 

I'm busy enough, Grian thought, kicking the door shut, expanding my shop and building the exterior (and interior for that matter) of my base, let alone having to find out how to take of XIsuma's helmet!

He collapsed onto his bed, and not even bothering to pull off his armour, and fell asleep.

Grian spent almost the whole of the next day devising a plan for this challenge. He thought about loopholes, where things could fail, and the complexity and reliability of the plans, then scrapping them. It is quite boring, sitting in a hot, cramped Hobbit hole all day. At around 2 pm, his communicator buzzed. Pulling it out of his trouser pockets, he saw it was a chat message from Mumbo.

>MumboJumbo: Has anyone seen G today?

>Iskall85: No

>MumboJumbo: Ok lol

>MumboJumbo: Ready to go end busting?

Finally, after almost sixteen hours of sitting down in a small, sweaty Hobbit hole with no interaction with the outside world, he came up with what he thought was a relatively foolproof plan. The only thing he needed which he didn't currently have, was an extra two people.

Because he didn't feel much like interacting with Mumbo, he asked Stress and Scar for help.

"So what's going on?" Scar asked, his robes swaying in the slight breeze outside of Larry the snail. 

Grian explained Hermit Challenges to Scar, the plan for the two of them, and how it would work. 

"Okay, so you know Xisuma's Witch farm?," The duo nodded, "It has a switch to activate it \. We rig that up to nine dispensers in the roof. Four of the dispensers fire immediately, pouring lava all around him, but not on him. Then four more activate after that, doing the same action but with water, encasing him in cobblestone. Then the ninth dispenser fires, pouring water into the cobblestone cage, drowning him. Then I am waiting next to his bed for him to respawn, and I yank his helmet off!" Grian said, all in one breath.

Stress and Scar shared dubious looks.

"Grian, you're thinking a trap? I don't think-" Stress started but Grian cut her off.

"When will we execute this plan?" Grian asked.

"Straight away!" Said Scar, already pulling out his rockets.

So naturally, they set to work. They located Xisumavoid's Witch farm and found the switch. The two guys stood there, scratching their heads for a while, trying to find a way to conceal the Redstone, before finally (and reluctantly) asking Mumbo for assistance. The three decided to make a system where the Witches activate a tripwire when they are falling, powering the dispensers. That would be almost unnoticeable.

POV: Stress
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While the boys were toying and testing the Redstone, Stress was keeping a lookout for Xisuma in case he decided to come to visit. Now and then, a Witch would fall onto the magma blocks and drop a potion of healing. Stress would grab those.

While Stress was stuffing her shulker boxes full of potions, she heard the blast of a firework. She jumped and dropped a few potions, the glass bottles shattering all over the clean flooring. 

While Xisuma was still a reasonable distance away, she yelled to the others, "X is here guys! RETREAT!"

The others pocketed their items and propelled themselves to a safe distance while Stress stayed there to distract Xisumavoid, who placed a shulker box on the floor and emptied his inventory.

"Heyyyyy..." She said nervously, shielding the Redstone from view.

"Hey, Stressmonster," X replied looking curiously at her shulker boxes piled up behind her, "What are you doing at my Witch farm?"

"Oh yeah, I was just... um... AFKing for some more... potions!" She stuttered, trying to sound dismissive. She held out her violet shulker boxes, which were full of potions.

"Oh ok," X said. He stepped forward about to flick the lever because it was still running when there was a crunch under his boot. He lifted his foot to find a crushed shard of obsidian.

Stress was silently freaking out. She didn't want to dob on her friends if X found out about this plan, but she also didn't want to get on his bad side. He is the host of the server after all... She thought, putting her hands in her pockets.

"What's this doing here mate?" Xisuma asked, almost accusingly, shooting her an even more curious look from under his purple-stained visor.

Quickly coming up with an excuse, Stress replied, while also fumbling around with her shulkers, "Oh, that might have been... from my... Obsidian mining trip! I was uh... mining more obsidian to make more... nether portals... because mine wasn't... um... connected properly..." She said quickly and quietly, all in one breath.

Xisuma kicked the broken potion bottles off the ledge and said, "Well, I better be going now then." He waved at Stress and jumped off the side of the platform, activating his elytra and flying away.

Stress sighed and collapsed onto the floor for a moment. Remembering what she was here to do, she yelled out to Grian and Scar, "It's ok now! You can continue working!"

After almost another 2 hours of twiddling with pistons and repeaters, the trap was set and ready. Grian was to wait by Xisuma's bed, while Stress stood by the obsidian prison, making sure X couldn't escape, and Scar was to hide behind the Redstone in case something bad happened.

Now all the trio had to do was wait, wait until Xisuma next decided to AFK at his farm.