Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1:

Contact

7 months.

7 months since the season 8 finale of Hermitcraft and nothing. Not one word, not a peep. Rumors spread of season 8 being the last season, but no one could explain the silence from the Hermits. Even those close to the large group had no clue what was going on. The most anyone knew was that the moon had crashed down destroying everything. Could it be possible that it also destroyed the group?

For 7 months, people slowly started to believe that was the truth until Minecraft Championship 23, when the players and those watching the players all saw it. It popped up in everyone’s chat who was playing and running the event’s chat. Just a single word.

“Help.”

The event was put on pause, as the event organizers tried to figure out who hacked into their chats when the next word appeared.

“Please.”

Noxite searched through page after page of players to find the one who was sending the messages, trying to match the id code. A sentence appeared.

“I, Xisuma, Hermit, Help.”

The event ended early to be rescheduled after they figured out if this truly was Xisuma, admin to the missing group, or not.

The Noxcrew spent hours figuring it out and in the end, they confirmed it was Xisuma. However hidden within the code of the message was a video. Opening it showed the admin in the nether, his visor broken, showing one of his deep purple eyes, his voice sounded so broken. 

“Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?” 

“If anyone can hear me, my name is Xisuma V. Walker, username; Xisuma. I’m the admin of the Hermitcraft server. We’ve been stuck here for roughly 7 months now.” 

“I don’t know who is alive. I’m with Wels, Gem, and Cleo.” 

“If anyone can hear me, help us please.”

“Please.”

“We need help.” 

The video cut off for a few seconds, only for the next scene to have Welsknight in the background, his armor missing. 

“X, the nether portals are working again!”

Xisuma visibly sat up straighter, before turning back to the camera.

Then the video cut out completely.

But at least there was hope that the Hermits were alive. At least four of them.

This is Moon Crash, an au, 6 months in the making. From Chapter 2 onward, it will be from the perspective of the hermits right after the video cut out. 

Chapter Text

7 months.

7 months of being trapped in the nether. Right before the moon hit the ground, the portals were disabled from all sides. Comiucators went down right after. X was barely able to stop Cleo from heading to the end portal. 

7 months of slowly figuring out that only 4 hermits went into the nether.
7 months of slowly figuring out that no one had flint and steel on them.

7 months of trying to get a ghast to hit the portal frame. 

7 months to get a signal out to the outside world.

Then when the portal opened X was able to get out a weak signal to the outside world. Furthermore, the group trapped in the nether were able to leave to the overworld. The group had been pretty beaten up, and couldn’t wait to leave the nether. However one step out of the portal put a slight damper on things. For one it was night, with no sign of the sun coming up.

The portal came out on what was once the Octogon, however the beautiful builds that once made up the build were in many pieces, legs sticking out of the water missing the bodies on the different robots, looking over that Boatem, the only thing that was still there was the mountain range and the pipes of Impulse’s base. But a low howl distracted the group from looking around more. X looked that the main part of the Octogon(the shop part), where something caught his eye. Something shiny and sharp. 

X started to move toward the object, when Wels pulled him back sharply. “Ack! Wels why?” “X look up.” 

As X looked up the shiny object he saw moved up with him. It was a scythe connected to a tail, a tail covered in robotics. That tail was connected to a half cybernetic body of a mutant creeper, each of the legs having some kind of robotics, and paws had sharp metal claws. Further up the body, the torso had far more robots than the resident mad doctor ever had. As for the face, it was clearly Doc’s human eye, and creeper skin tone, but robotic and cyber cables covered 3/4s of his face. His robotic arm was missing a hand and replaced by a longer and sharper scythe. His other arm that was once at least looked human-ish was now fully robotic. He hadn’t noticed the group yet, surprisingly. 

“Is it too late to return back to the nether, instead of facing whoever that is.” Cleo asked, louder than she meant to. Doc’s head shot up, and his human eye narrowed, and the hair covering over the other eye flipped back with how fast Doc moved, his once glowing red robotic eye was now grey. No life could be seen in it. Doc launched down and in front of the small group, letting out a hiss as his back arched much like a cat. Weapons were drawn. Doc moved first, tossing all 4 hermits into the Octogon, and blocking the exit. Wels and Gem began to fire off arrows at Doc, while X pulled out an axe. Doc rushed forward and sent Cleo through a wall, while his tail tried to hit Wels, it missed. (A/N: If it’s not clear, I dont understand how to write fight scenes)

As the fight countied outside, Cleo explored the room she was drawn to a potion on the ground with the label torn off, it was a glowing orange. She glanced around for any sign of a brewing stand, to which there was none. She grumbled, before taking out an arrow and dipping into the potion.

Back in the fight, Doc was winning. He had X pinned down by his tail, blade to X’s neck. The look in Doc’s eyes were empty like there were no thoughts just mob instincts.

“HEY!” Doc’s head snapped over to the noise, as he let out a hiss at Cleo, who in response fired off an arrow, hitting Doc square in the knee. He stumbled back a bit, he shook his head and hissed loudly. He then collapsed into a pile.  

Doc was out of a good 2 hours, but when he came to, he was in a box, yet his body remanded the same it was during the fight, his mind however was back. The only person he saw was Gem. 

“Gem? What’s going on?”

Gem jumped at her name. The voice calling her name was Doc’s but it sounded very dry and his s’s hissed(A/N: think Pythor from Ninjago mixed with General Grievous).  However when looking in his eyes, all human thought was back. “That’s what I would like to know as well mister 4 legs and full robotic body.” Gem sassed back. 

Doc looked down at his body and seemed to freeze up. “How?” he whispered. At that moment X and Wels came back. “Hey X, Doc is at least back mindwise.” Gem said. X looked at Doc. “So that potion didn’t turn you back to normal. Any idea what caused this?” “Well, I have a theory forming.” Doc said as Wels let him out. “Give me an hour to gather my thoughts,” Doc said heading into his lab, or what was left of it. 

“Alright, it was the moon.” “What?” Wels asked, as Doc walked out, with a lab coat on. “I mean, I was underground when the moon hit, and was trapped there for a few weeks possibly months and when I finally came to the surface, radioactivity was everywhere, I was in the process of developing a cure to it when I guess finally became this.” he said gessuring to himself. “Wait why a cure?” X asked. “Well, because I’m not the only one who was changed into a freak.”

Chapter 2 everyone! The upload schedule for this whenever I can.

Chapter Text

“What do you mean; you’re not the only one who was changed into a freak!?” X asked eye widening. Doc looked at the scythe on his arm. “Ren was with me when I came up. Ren turned first. Within a week, he turned into this zombie wolf thing and attacked me. I have only seen him maybe twice since then. That potion,” Doc said gesturing to the potion in the newly crafted brewing stand, “Is the only chance to at least bring back their minds.” “Okay back up, you said earlier that this happened to radioactivity? Will that happen to us?” Gem asked. “My sensor is telling me so long as you are careful, the radioactivity should do nothing.” Doc said. 

X sighed as he leaned against the wall behind him. “So there is still a possibility, great. And with no real strong connection outside the server, we are on our own,” X said “so game plan.” All the hermits looked at X. “Doc, you and I need to create a way to track the hermits in anyway shape, or form, whether it be by communicators or by radiation. Wels, Cleo, and Gem, you turn the Octagon into a liveable base, with a brewing room. Doc make sure that they have the list of ingredients you used in that potion, I have a feeling we will need it sooner rather than later.”

About an hour later, they had a thrown-together tracking device created. It didn’t look like it would work but it's not like they had a choice in the matter. It had to work or they would never be able to find anyone. “Turn it on Doc.” X called watching the screen. Doc placed the last bit of redstone and the screen flickered to life, and nothing appeared on the map. X punched the ground in anger, causing the lever currently set to tracking radiation to switch to communicators, and 7 dots appeared, flickering, but they were there. “Nice use of anger X, made some starting points appear that could be our missing hermits,” Doc said walking up and sitting next to X, “But to be sure we should check out the closest one to us. Which would be TFC’s area.” “Right. Suit up guys, we’ve got a lead!” X called out to the other 3. 

Heading over to what was once TFC’s area really showed how damaged at least Boatem’s area was. The Boatem Hole had become a Boatem Mountian with an entrance that looked like a mouth that no one wanted to go near. But besides the Boatem Mountain, the entirety of Scar’s Swagon looked like it had been torn to pieces, Pearl’s base had sunken completely in with parts of her mountain falling on top of the base itself, Grian’s alley was completely gone under the weight of Scar’s fallen mountain, and Mumbo’s base had basically fallen backward to the bay behind it. While it made getting to TFC’s base without elytra easy, it did not make it any less uncomfortable. 

Getting to TFC’s base, the first place they went was to the mines. They all knew TFC pretty well and he should have been in the mine when the moon hit. They traveled down the well-decorated mine, checking every tunnel until they reached a large open space, with columns holding up the roof, and the creepy part wasn’t the fact that there was a bed and chest nearby, oh no no. The creepy part was all the statues of angels covering their eyes. And there was over 100 them. 

“Okay, so any ideas on what the hell he was building?” Wels asked turning to look at the rest of the group. But as he did that the angel he was looking at moved their hands away showing off their blood-red eyes. Doc hissed. “X, that thing moved!” False said, pointing at the angel. “Cleo you know creepy things like this, any ideas?” X asked to Cleo, looking away from another angel, it also moving until Doc growled at it. “These must be Weeping Angels, you can’t stop looking at it or it will attack you,” Cleo said, “TFC must be one of these.”  “Well, how do we tell which one is him?” “Maybe we watch the eyes? That one has red eyes and green, so if we find one with bright blue eyes and hit that one with a potion, it should return TFC’s state of mind, and if it doesn’t have bright blue eyes, we throw them at Doc.” Cleo said. “Why me?” “Cause of your hand and tail Doc. Perfect for breaking stone statues.” Cleo said with a smirk. 

And thus began the long process of looking for TFC. They probably broke close to 50 statues before they finally found a blue-eyed angel, with a large pickaxe in its right hand. So Wels dumped the potion on the statue and it fell to the floor in pain. The scream it let out was one of bloody murder fading to a soft whimper. 

7 months ago...

It had been a normal day for TFC, setting about the day’s plan. Unlike the rest of the server, TFC never had the effects of the moon deep in his cave. And then the impact shook his cave. He fell to the ground hard, every inch of his body began to feel stiff. He slowly pushed up off the group as he made his way down the tunnel. Rocky feathers began to form on his arms and back, but he ignored them to keep moving further and further. Until the weight of what felt like boulders on his back made him black out. The next time he awoke he felt the urge to make a cave, and copies of himself.

Back to the present

Making their way back to the Octagon, TFC on Doc’s back, Wels could have sworn he saw a zombie watching them from the nearby shipwreck. But when he looked again it was gone, so he figured it was nothing. When TFC woke up, he was in the same state as Doc when he first woke up. Confused about his body. “Do you remember anything?” X asked as Cleo made sure TFC was okay to move and fight. “I remember seeing XB a lot, but he looked off. Pale skin, grey dead eyes, and a large amount of zombies following him.” TFC said. Wels looked back at the shipwreck again. The zombie was back with a second zombie, however the second zombie was wearing something he recongized.

 A black and blue hoodie. 

Chapter Text

Wels couldn’t shake the feeling that he saw something he probably shouldn’t have seen. So despite his better judgment, he threw on armor and grabbed a couple of weapons and potions. He slowly and quietly snuck out of the base. 

Reaching the shipwreck, he first glanced around, double-checking for any mobs. Seeing nothing he sighed, before stepping onto the boat, and checking the cabin. 

Empty.

And as he turned around, he saw a flash of orange. Then he screamed. 

“Wow, didn’t know I was that scary.” Wels opened his eyes to see Gem standing there, trying to hide her laugh as she talked. “What are you doing here?” Wels asked. “I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Sneak Out,” Gem said. Wels rolled his eyes, and said, “Well if you have to know, yesterday I could have sworn I saw a zombie wearing XB’s jacket. So I figured I come to check out.” “Without telling anyone of what you saw or that you were leaving?” Gem retorted. “Is that why you’re out here?” “Nope, I’m just out exploring the world.” Gem said sarcastically.

The pair continued to bicker as they explored the wreck before something caught Gem’s eye. It was where the spawn egg once stood but as far as Gem remembered, the egg was not on top of a tower, with zombies and skeletons guarding it. 

“Wels, I think I’ve found where our XB zombie came from.”

Wels and Gem had snuck up to the tower, and were watching for anything when the gate flew open, and out walked what looked like a gargoyle and… “Is that an alien cow?” Gem asked with an eyebrow raised. “Maybe?” Wels said. But the figure behind them is what caught his eye. It looked like XB but last they checked he didn’t have stitches on his arms, neck, and face. He looked like a doll that had been taken apart and put back together again more than once, and his clothes didn’t help that look. His clothes were covered in patches and ripped at the sleeve holes and foot holes on his pants. And his face, with stitches surrounding his left eye, the corners of his mouth had stitches, and looked like he had eye shadow under each eye. “So which one do we want to deal with first?” Gem asked.

Wels was about to answer, when they watched the other 2 leave and XB point toward the camp. A large group of armored zombies and skeletons started to move toward it. “We take out XB, now.” Gem nodded before loading an tipped arrow. “Make a distraction Wels.” Wels nodded. 

Gem aimed at XB, as Wels did the Dress in Drag and Do the Hula routine, which worked every time, somehow. She took a breath and…

Headshot.

XB let out a scream before Wels hit him with regen. 

7 months ago...

It was just a supply run. Hypno and he discovered they didn’t have all the seeds they needed to grow crops in the bunker. So XB raced back to the spawn egg. Unfortunately, he was still digging in the chest when the moon hit. The egg collapsed on top of him, and he was lucky that the only part of him that was harmed was his right hand. He had hoped for who knows how long for someone, anyone to come and get him out. But as time went on his hope like his life faded. Eventually, he screamed out hoping someone was close. But his voice came out broken and scratchy. A group of zombies pulled him out and to his surprise, he could understand them, and even more so, control them. A dark and twisted thought came to his mind.

Back to the present…

XB woke up to Gem and Wels standing over him. The sight of Wels in a hula skirt threw him off. “Welcome to the waking world Zombie man, we need you to call off your army.” “What army?”

They had been fighting for 6 hours. Wave after wave. The mobs would not stop coming and all of them were feeling it to the point that not just Doc and TFC were starting to lose it. Then they froze. Doc poked one with his tail and it just fell over. “Okay, what just happened?” X asked. “Sorry about that X…” The group glanced over to see XB standing next to Gem and Wels. “You could say I lost my mind.”

Chapter Text

Downtime was needed even when you are fighting your friends to save them from themselves, and thats what the Hermits were doing. Taking time to let the changed hermits get used to their new body because as Doc explained it, “We have new abilities and mobility now, its better to practice than to go in unprepared.” But throughout the week, the Hermits were still tracking the missing Hermits. 5 dots, 5 Hermits, and yet they saw none of them. Until the cows that they caught disappeared with no trace. And despite the enhanced senses of Doc and XB, nothing was being noticed. So Doc and X choose to do a stakeout around the cow pen. New cows had once again been put into the pen. 

As the sun set over the world, X slept on Doc’s back while Doc watched the pit. Soft purring came from the pair mostly from Doc. And then Doc saw something confusing, a UFO. “X wake up, we’ve got work to do.” 

The next morning after a good nap, Doc and X began to work on a tnt cannon to knock the UFO down, while the rest of the group went hunting for more cows. By nightfall both Doc and X were ready for the UFO. They had separated the cows so that they wouldn’t lose them all and only lose maybe 4. Doc had the cannon aimed just above the cows, while X had an arrow at the ready. The UFO appeared above the cow pen, and Doc fired. A man or cow or alien, whatever it was fell to the ground and X shot him in the back.

8 months ago...

Dealing with the alien virus all season left Beef affected by the moon way earlier than the rest of the survivors. The last thing he remembered before the moon hit was feeling his body burning. When he woke up next, he had the body of a cow instead of his legs, and his arms were more alien tentacle-like. And he had the urge to collect cows.

Present day

 “Wha-?” Beef said looking around only to see a modified Doc with X on his back. “Hey Beef, mind telling me where you took the cows?” X asked as Doc helped Beef up. 

The next morning the rest of the group noticed that there was more cows than the pen could fit, and that Doc and Beef were laughing at said pen that was making X noises.

Chapter Text

XB and Beef where staring at the map of hermits, with Doc and X right behind them. “I don’t want to sound rude, but the swamp has expanded. It now goes right up to Bdub’s Horse track and right up to the water, and there’s something over there.” “Any ideas what’s out there?” XB and Beef shook their heads. “Every time I sent a mob over there, they never came back.” XB said. 

Gem, Doc, and Wels set out for the swamp the next day, with X and XB joining them later with extra Mem Potions, as they chose to call them. 

The swamp felt darker than normal, as Gem and Wels climbed on Doc’s back, mostly cause Doc was able to jump from tree to tree easily. The trio talked softly amongst themselves, and then Doc stopped and started to hiss. “Doc? You okay?” Wels asked. “Something in the water.” Doc snarled. Gem and Wels pulled out their bows loaded with Mem Potion-tipped arrows. A large shape moved under the water, seeming almost fish-like, but as far as the hermits knew fish could not be bigger than 2 blocks long, this was close to 15 blocks long. Deepslate spines rose up from out of the water. Doc’s hisses got more violent toward whatever it was. The thing shot straight out of the water, a look of pure terror grew on Gem’s and Wels’ faces. It was a leviathan, with deepslate claws on its front legs, while its back end was just a tail with a very sharp tip with deepslate spines running down from it’s head to it’s tail tip. It’s eye was a orange gradient that seemed to glow. The only off thing about it was the vines wrapping around it’s arms, neck, tail, horns, and head. 

Gem fired an arrow off at it and it just bounced off the scales that dazzled of different shades of purple and indigo.  “I’m gonna call X and tell him to find another way to use the potion.” Wels said. “While you do that… DOC HIGH TAIL IT!” Gem said. “You don’t have to tell me twice!” Doc said as he took off running with the pair hanging on for dear life as the sea serpent chased after them in the water. 

Meanwhile X and XB had reached the swamp. XB’s eyes glowed as zombies dawned with armor arose from the ground. “Nice.” X said. XB shrugged and said, “Might as well have extra backup, who knows what’s in the swamp.” “How about a screaming set of hermits?” XB rose an eyebrow at X’s response as X pointed out on the swamp, where XB saw Doc running and jumping from tree to tree, with Gem and Wels shooting into the water. “I think they found whatever was eating the mobs.” At that moment, the thing, jumped out of the water. Unlike the 3 fleeing for their life, the duo where able to get a very good look at it, and quickly decided that the normal arrow method would not work. X pulled out a brewing stand and a potion. “What- Where?” “Don’t.” X said as he turned the drinkable potion into a throwable potion. “So we are going to somehow get this into that’s mouth.” X said. 

Gem had noticed X at this point and was very confused on what on earth he was doing with XB. The thing chasing them had also gotten a lot closer. “Doc, go faster!” Wels shouted. “I’m trying! However it’s hard to move fast when I’m trying to keep you two from falling off!” Doc snapped back. At that moment a large hand lifted them up into the air. A large drowned hand. Which of course scares the trio. The giant drowned rises completely out of the water, letting out a roar. The thing’s head rose out of the water, roaring back. X and XB, who using ender pearls, were now on the giant’s shoulder. X threw the potion at the thing, and thanks to it roaring, it flew in just fine. 

The day of the crash...

Stress woke up during the crash. She was still in the swamp. She woke up to water filling the hole she was in. She woke up to a intense pain in her body, to a lack of oxygen in her lungs. Her body felt like it was ripping apart,  her hair slowly falling out of her head, and she could see scales forming on her hands.  As the water rose, her body grew and morphed into a much longer and monster form. Due to her size, she got wrapped up in plenty of water based plants, which once wrapped around her, they blossomed into flowers. The last memory and the last time she had her humanity, she remember letting out a roar. 

The thing fell back into the water, sinking into the swamp. Only to rise back up, with the form of the thing slowly shifting back to a more human like form however the creature still had a longer neck, a tail, flippers for hands, and the spines running down their back, while dark brown hair had grown in, short and in a boyish style, with the flowers wrapped around their body. “Stress?” 

Back at camp, Stress rested into a pool of water. As far as the rest of the group knew Stress was okay, but they couldn’t figure out why she was that huge when they found her, and now in this form. And as the group rested up, they were being watched. 

By a cold hard stare.

Chapter Text

The camp was quiet. Doc and XB were keeping watch over everyone. The pair had noticed that they really couldn’t sleep anymore, and with the lack of phantoms that spawned with them not sleeping, they didn’t feel like letting anyone in on that secret. But that led to some pretty deep conversation between the pair. Talks if they could return back to how they used to be.  The moonless night was still strange to the pair, but at the same time given how all of this happened with the moon, they were happy without it. With bats flying over head under the light of the stars, the pair fell into silence. Until a noise brought them out of their quiet. 

 The noise was one of stone scraping, a low groan, and wings flapping. XB and Doc were on guard, with weapons drawn. The sky was empty, nothing insight. And then XB got grabbed from behind. 

It was a creature made entirely of stone, with a pair of deepslate wing, horns and claws made from deepslate, and their eyes. Their eyes. Dark, deep blue, with yellow hypno rings in them. The creature let out a roar as it’s claws dug into XB’s skin and as it wings opened, Doc’s sythced arm came down hard on the creature. XB let out a screech and out came a hoard of zombies and skeletons, all racing to pull XB away from the Gargoyle. Doc smacked the creature back, hissing wildly, eye glowing bright red. XB sent a member of his army to retreave a potion, while others shot at the Gargoyle. 

The battle was long and never ending. At least it felt that way. A zombie returned to XB’s side giving him the potion. XB grabbed the lingering potion and raced forward toward the battling pair. With the help of his army, XB leaped into the air and splashed the potion down on to the Gargoyle. 

Months ago…

“XB!” Hypno screamed out. It was supposed to be a simple supply run. XB had left his gas mask behind, leaving Hypno to run after him. After Beef chose to not hide out with them, Hypno had been more protective of the younger. Both had been very interconnected this season, so when XB had reached out, Hypno was quick to say yes. However when XB had left for the supply run, Hypno had felt the moon hit. Worry grew quickly as he left the base. He saw the collapsed Spawn Egg, with a dead still hand poking out the bottom. Tears streamed down his face, screaming out in pain. His own gas mask slipping off in the process. Hypno felt his hands get harder. And when he looked down and saw that his hands where slowly turning to stone, he ran. If XB survived, he didn’t want him to see him like this. But as he ran, his body’s transformation only quicken, until he was cocooned in stone. And he stayed there for who knows how long. He didn’t know. But when he did come out to see hoards apon hoards of zombies wandering the land, and a flying saucer, as well as XB’s scent, he set out on his own quest. 

When the group woke up early the next morning they found XB being held by a gargoyle, Doc laughing at XB, and XB having the most grumpy face.

Chapter Text

The warm light from a campfire, the only light to be seen for miles. The group slept while Hypno and XB kept guard. From a cliff top far off, a creature watches, it’s purple and red eyes stare down at the group, before teleporting away. 

The next day, the group woke to a huge mess, blocks all over the place, chest knocked over, and potions missing. Doc sighed. “Nicht schon wieder die verdammten Endermen.” Doc grumbled. “You okay Doc?” Wels asked, picking up the chest with the ingredients to make the potion that cured the group. “Yea, the stupid endermen have been acting off since the moon crashed down to the overworld.” Doc said, “I have a working theory that they were also effected by the moon’s radiation.” “That would make sense.” X said, taking note of the blocks. “Endermen don’t normally pick up deepslate.” “Do they move redstone components around?” Gem asked. “No.” X said. “Well one did.” Gem said. On the ground written in redstone dust was the words, GET OUT! 

“That’s not threatening.” Cleo said. Doc and X glanced at each other. “You don’t think that-” “That it’s possible that a hermit maybe controlling the endermen?” Doc finished X’s question.  Cleo glanced at the mutation hermits. “Any of you guys have any ideas?” “Maybe. One of the zombies, they reported to me that they saw an enderman with headband over an eye.” XB said. “Where?” Doc asked. “Where Etho based.” XB pointed towards the mountainous savanna biome, or what was left of it. 

The once towering mountains were gone, leaving spikes of rock and dirt, the remains of Etho’s base lay all over the place. The weird thing was endermen stood guard all over the place. Wels stepped on a broken robotic eye. “This place is as bad as Boatem currently.” Wels said, shaking his foot. Doc nodded. “Be ready in case anything attacks.” X said, boat in hand. The endermen watched the small group of 4, all armed with boats. But the endermen didn’t attack, and instead seemed to be making a path leading to what was once the heart of the base, the lake at the base. The lake was drained, and there were several pillars made of obsidian that the endermen were stacking up. It reminded the group of the main end island, and in the center on the pillars was a endermen-like creature, however this was no ordinary enderman. It’s elongated dark purple body was over 6 blocks tall, with 2 sets of arms, one being 3 blocks long, and the other 3.5 blocks long, the 4 block tall legs. And that wasn’t counting the long tail covered in spikes, or the spikes running up the creatures back and up it’s neck, or even the skeletal elytran wings spread on it’s back. The neck was half the size of it’s body with it’s head being covered with the skull of a dragon. Skeletal horns were spread out like a crown. It’s eyes opened, and a pair of purple and red eyes looked at the group, making Doc fully freeze. “Etho?” He whispered, making X, Wels, and Gem look closer at the creature in front of them. 

Months ago…

Etho was freaking out. He was flying back to his base after the meeting with the rest of the hermits. He didn’t plan on having the moon crashing into his base and truthfully, escape wasn’t something he had ever thought he had to worry about anymore. And that’s when the moon hit the ground, sending Etho flying into the mountain, his head smacking into the mountain. But before he hit the ground, he teleported into the water. He let out scream as his skin burned, teleporting him out of the water. The burning didn’t stop as he tried to dry off the water, and more pain erupted from his back as he felt the metal beams of his elytra melting through his skin, leaving Etho shaking in pain, as he felt his arms and legs snapping and growing. He started coughing, blood flying from his mouth. Etho ripped his mask off, his headband falling to the ground, the metal clinking as it hit the ground. Etho blacked out from pain.

When Etho woke up his head was ringing, and endermen surrounded him.

Back to present…

Doc was fully frozen, but the creature that Doc had thought was Etho was sending endermen after the group. “Doc! Snap out of it!” Gem called, swing a sword at an approaching enderman, it teleporting away before she hit it. Doc got smacked by a enderman, as the enderman-dragon creature let out a roar. Doc growled, as his eyes faded back to how they were when they first came across him, his human eye small and unfocused and his robot eye powering off. Doc roared angrily at the enderman-dragon creature, rushing toward it. “Doc!” X yelled. Doc’s arm scythe swung at the creature, and when it tried to teleported away it got smacked by Doc’s tail’s scythe. The creature roared back, the headband that was wrapped around one of it’s horns was now falling to the ground, making a clinking sound when the metal hit, making the creature snarl and snap at Doc who was hissing like a cat. “Doc, stop!” Wels yelled, blocking an attack with a shield and throwing down a boat, trapping a pair of endermen. 

Doc wasn’t listening, all of his focus was on getting Etho back, not the creature in front of him. Doc’s anger was boiling to the surface, the metal turning red with heat. Doc slammed into the creature grabbing on to it, with his working hand and bite force. The creature smacked Doc off, causing Doc to rip it’s flesh on it’s higher right arm. Dark blood of purple color spilled slowly from the wound. Doc pouched on creature as it teleported.

“X!” A wave of water hit the ground as backup arrived. A single purple flipper could been seen, as Hypno and XB tackled down endermen, Beef in his spaceship sucking up endermen and launching them who knows where, Cleo rushed up to the group, the healing arrows in a quiver on their hip. “Where did Doc go?” Cleo asked. A series of explosions could be heard as Doc and the creature fell from the sky, Doc had knocked the creature out. The pair crashed into the ground hard, which knocked out Doc. Cleo fired an arrow at both, and as soon as the arrow’s affect start to effect the creature, the endermen all teleported away, as the creature shrank in size by about 2 blocks, and the skull slipped off it’s head, revealing white fluffy hair and a pair of artic fox ears, the left one pierced with 3 rings. “That’s Etho.” X muttered, coughing softly. 

2 months ago…

Etho’s control over the endermen was stronger than even the dragon’s used to be. The endermen gave reported of many monsters that ran over the ground, air and deep in the earth. Etho’s endermen constantly had run ins with a half creeper cyborg, who they had seen coughing, which seemed to get worst daily, but still trying to develop potions with a determination they had never seen before. They had run ins with a mad scientist who tried to turn them into experiments, with a orange dragon who tried to burn them with magma and obsidian, and those who went into the cave at what once was Boatem, never came back out again. Etho watched silently as the endermen reported their findings all over the world.

A week ago… 

The endermen had seen a nether portal light up and 4 players step out and defeat what was left of one of Etho’s closest friends. Etho sat up in his throne when he heard that. He spent the rest of the week prepare for these players arrival.

Present day…

Doc was completely out. “The explosions took a lot out of him.” Cleo said, “It might be a while till he’s back up again. But at least we know that his armor regenerates after a time.” Cleo pointed to the slowly growing metal plating on Doc’s back. A soft groan could be heard from across the hall. In a glass box, similar to Doc’s, Etho was sitting up. “Where am I?” He groaned. “You’re in the newer base of operations.” X said. “What’s the last thing you remember clearly?” “Throwing up blood. It was purple.” Etho said shaking out his head. “Easy.” Cleo said. “You’ve been through a beating in the last 3 hours.” “What do you-” Etho’s eyes went wide as he saw his doubled up arms. “Do we have an explanation for this?” “Not yet.” X said, “Doc and I were trying to figure that out but right now, he’s out for a nap.” “Maybe I can help?” Etho said, as an enderman let him out of the box. “I guess you still have powers over them?” Cleo said. “I guess.” 

X got quiet. “Do you think that they could track down some people?”