Freeze or Fall

Chapter 29: Ideas

Joe took a deep, steady breath. He'd gathered everyone in the bunker to address what he'd discovered.

He cleared his throat and began leading everyone through his thought process. The pieces came together for everyone else, realizations dawning over the group.

Finally, he got to his last point, the one that tied everything together.

"Grian might actually be alive."

And just like that, the spark of hope he had grew into a fire as it spread through everyone else.

Mumbo spoke up, asking what everyone was wondering.

"If he is alive, how do we find him? Do we look at all?"

Joe pondered that for a moment, not sure how to respond. Luckily, Scar was there to take charge.

"Well he'd either back in YHS, or he moved to one of his old worlds to recover. The latter is the most likely option." Scar paused for a second. "Even so, none of us have access to his private worlds. Even so, we still don't know for sure if he's alive."

"ACTUALLY, UM..." Grumbot hesitated, looking nervous.

Mumbo gave him a worried look. "You feeling okay?"

"YEAH IT'S JUST... UM..." Grumbot shook his head. "REMEMBER THAT ROBOT I MENTIONED EARLIER? WHO'S WITH EX?"

Nods rippled through the group as Grumbot continued. "HE TOLD ME SOMETHING, AND THEN MADE ME KEEP IT A SECRET. I THINK I'M ALOWED TO SAY IT NOW THOUGH."

...

"GRIAN ACTUALLY IS ALIVE. A LOT OF WHAT JOE SPECULATED IS ACCURATE. HE IS ALIVE, AND HE IS SAFE AND WELL. I DON'T KNOW MUCH MORE THAN THAT THOUGH."

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"Sorry, I'm a what?"

"A faerie. Like me." Grian went on to explain what he'd learned from Sam.

Ex hummed. "That does explain a few things. Though, should we activate Taurtis' DNA then? Or..."

Grian nodded. "Better sooner than never. We'll have to whip up an XP farm though."

"Do we have enough time?" Taurtis asked.

"Hopefully we do." Ex spoke, standing up. "We should get to work immediately. I'm gonna go back to Npg's mindscape, he'll be happy to help, I'm sure."

And just like that, Ex - well Npg - stumbled a few feet. Then Npg straightened, looking around.

"Building? Are we building a rustic house?"

Grian hopped to his feet. "Not quite, but it's a build nonetheless. Wanna help?"

_________________

Ren paced, trying to figure out a plan. Wels had consoled Xisuma and the three had exchanged information.

But what to do now? The easiest option would be to try and get the vex to help with Badtimes, but unfortunately Badtimes had informed them that the vex were having trouble due to too much magic concentration, whatever that meant.

At least he was helping brainstorm ideas.

Xisuma was adding his own bits of advice and whatnot, but they weren't getting anywhere.

Then Xisuma brought up something interesting.

"Wait, we summoned Impulse to Hermitcraft, remember? Where did we summon him from?"

That grabbed Badtimes attention. "You think he might be from the Nether?"

Xisuma nodded. "The Nether has a connection to Hels, right?"

"Yes, which means we might be able to communicate with him from Hels. Then we can figure stuff out from there."

Wels stood up. "Off to Hels again, then?"

Ren sighed, glancing behind all them.

ET hadn't contributed to the conversation, simply taking to sitting a fair distance from everyone else. Honestly, Ren could understand why. He couldn't imagine the mental battles going on in the Alter's head, but they sure must've been difficult.

"I'll go get him."

Ren walked over to ET and quickly explained the plan. Soon the group was all gathered together, and they once again, began their trek to Hels.