Chapter Text
The sky has melted down, the orange hue over casted the red sky, drizzling it over like caramel. The sky was filled with cracks that split the clouds open. The wind burst onto the world from the tears of the sky, thrashing the birds onto the floor as their wings weren’t able to support the heavy pressure, and the flocks of birds piled up with a sharp red tint. With blocks vanishing in front of their eyes, the outline of the blocks switching from pink to blue, a constant switch before the block fades away, as if It were scouring for any resources to take, to steal and to exploit.
Spoke had really done it.
The world was breaking down, and the sky could no longer be a wonderful blue, and the sun that they praised had vanished. All that was left was the golden sky that broke down into this destructive red, this hungry red that wanted to seize everything. The endless sky devoured any sort of sound that this world should naturally make; where the water flow stopped humming, and the caves were bitterly silent. The overworld lay in chaos, with hundreds of players shaking as they stayed close to their friends, their family, or to anyone they could find as they stared at the sky. What was happening? Was this their end? Was this where they pleaded goodbye?
Their leader that they looked up to had vanished, as they cowardly fled to anything they considered safe. Children cried, and for the first time, the adults didn’t mock their cries, but could only comfort them. But what comfort could they have offered if they couldn’t find the guts to stay calm? What comfort could they have offered if they themselves had no idea what was going on, or what would occur within the next few minutes?
Jamato stood before Wifies, his sword held tightly within his hand, as they stood opposed to each other. For the first time, Jamato had this hateful expression towards Wifies, an expression that yelled at him while Wifies grinned. Jamato’s eyebrows furrowed, as his eyes darted between the broken sky and Wifies. “How did Spoke find it.” Jamato demanded, as anger rose, as he held his ground while Wifies walked up to him, but instead of stopping before him, to face him, to inform him of the current events - he walked right past him. Jamato turned, only for him to find Wifies staring at the huge crack in the sky.
“Why’d you turn to me?”
But it was obvious what Wifies meant, Jamato wielded a blade of course. Holding a blade isn’t considered friendly, and was typically avoided between CORE members, due to the fact of high tensions between them anyway.
“Do you not see this happening? Spoke had found the core, somehow! Weren’t-“
“Weren’t you the one who was supposed to supervise Spoke?”
Wifies looked back at Jamato, as Jamato got reminded of his unaccomplished duty. From the very start, they knew Spoke would be a danger, so the CORE had sent Jamato to befriend him, to keep a close eye on him, just like how they sent Eggchan to keep an eye out for Wemmbu. The issue was, Jamato had shared the exploits with Spoke, something that only caused tensions to heighten and relationships to fall. Despite admitting his mistakes, what he shared with Spoke led to this, the end of their world. Even though their goal was to -------------, their goal wasn’t necessarily to destroy it, it was to keep it to themselves for them to silently control. Unfortunately, Ash hadn’t followed this rule, and had invaded practically every dimension, and had also violated the rules against other CORE members, such as Jamato, whom he tried to get the exploits from, which again, was very against the protocols of CORE. But then that begged for other questions, why was Clown allowed to keep the nether?
Jamato stumbled upon his words, as all the fingers of blame pointed towards his neck.
“The others should arrive soon, be patient Jamato and lower your sword.”
Jamato lowered his sword, before witnessing a block glitch, the blue-pink outline brightened around the block, before it disappeared. It was obvious that Wifies wasn’t pleased that this block glitch was affecting his factory as well, as Wifies had frowned. The factory was much quieter, probably due to the missing red stones that faded away like the blocks, or the sounds of any material within the game had been silenced. It was either one of them. Wifies had already packed all of his data, and hid his clones further into the void -where the escape rooms were hidden. From what Wifies has observed, the glitch doesn’t affect Bedrock, or any other unobtainable blocks such as a barrier block, so the clones were safe there, although Jamato knew that it would’ve been a pain to restart all of the clones, once the world becomes fixed – as Wifies despised the idea of restarting his clones, as it took hours to do.
It wasn’t soon until another CORE member joined the party, as Itz arrived. He took his elytra off however his silent entry was rather unusual -as he was only silent with his entries if he was planning an attack; although given the lack of sounds produced within this abnormality, they couldn’t really point fingers at him. They simply had to wait.
“I came as fast as I could. But where are the others? This started five minutes ago.”
Itz asked, his eyes scanned the scene before him, and figured it was best to stay silent as much as he could. Sure, he was the number 1 player on Minecraft, and could easily best the two of them. However, all of the CORE members have stasis’; where if they are attacked, they could use it to teleport to safety. And another key thing to mention is the fact that Wifies and Jamato were the two smartest players in CORE, and he wouldn’t really want to take that risk, especially against Wifies.
“That is true, but their lives are on this line.”
They were once again reminded about the situation they were in. The black abnormality within the sky had grown, and the cracks had only grown stronger, expanding over the sky, grasping for any clouds to break, to destroy its data. Devouring the server’s code at a rapid pace.
“But that’s insane. We all want to live here.”
“I am not able to answer that.”
Wifies turned to face Itz, however, before he could continue his speech, another CORE member had finally arrived. A pair of white, small wings flapped over to the scene, the wings were struggling to keep its balance, as it flopped from left to right before the wings morphed back into Eggchan. It was his way of travel, although he could never do that in front of Wemmbu which would explain why he was so rusty when he used his wings to travel. Obviously, Eggchan still had restrictions due to CORE about his methods of transportation, due to the fact he needed to keep suspicions down. Although, it was blatantly obvious that Eggchan would choose Wemmbu over the CORE if he were given a choice. But why weren’t the CORE doing anything about it?
Again, to repeat.
The server must stay alive, if it breaks, it serves them no purpose.
Again, to repeat.
The server is theirs to handle, so they would lose if it dies.
Again, to repeat.
The CORE still has goals to do with this server, until Spoke had-
“Greetings, CORE.”
Eggchan stood beside Jamato, he wasn’t fully on good terms with any of the people here, due to the fact he has only met most of the members like three times, but Jamato was the least dangerous person within this meeting as of right now. His greeting was left hanging in the air, as the words were slowly faded by the abnormality; another reason why Eggchan doesn’t really like the CORE, because they struggled with greetings. They were still waiting for ‘The Oracle’ to arrive, as the other two CORE members weren’t able to attend this, as they were both in the Nether. Jamato nodded as he acknowledged Egg, but the other two stayed silent. Eggchan was never a fan of the silence, he got too poetic with it.
The silence grew, as the tears ripped through the sky. The rift was hungry.
Squiddo arrived soon after, she had this nervous smile on her face, a smile that wanted to bring hope, but didn’t know how to. After all, the world was ending, who could blame her? Squiddo waved, but the silence overtook. Her bright smile faltered, as she stared at the sky, just like the rest of the members. After a brief moment of silence, Wifies turned around, his eyes wandered from person to person, examining their physical state, examining their behaviour, their breathing, or even the emotions within their eyes. Wifies cleared his throat, as the attention shifted towards him. Although, it was hard to solely focus on Wifies, when the sky was desperate to ruin, to break, or to destroy.
“Shall we proceed?”
The CORE nodded along, as Wifies continued to state his observations. “The source of this event was due to a player called Spoke. He had obtained information about the CORE, and revived his friend, Mapicc. Clown is dealing with them in the underworld as we speak. However, from gathered intel, to return this world back to normal, Mapicc must stay in the underworld, or the world will ‘cry’.”
Cry.
What a perfect word.
The sky cried again.
The silence grew, as it became the body of hunger themselves. It grew to an over bearing sound.
The CORE was used to seeing such unstable sights, but not on a grand scale like this. Egg wondered how Spoke had even found the CORE, wasn’t it protected by Clown? How did Spoke sneak in, find an entrance that led to the underworld without anyone noticing, and not only that, he activated. Where on earth did Spoke get his Intel from?
“The goal is not to kill Mapicc, as he may contain informative data that could help us understand the CORE better. The goal is to contain him, as my research with Clown is still ongoing. Once the research with Mapicc is done, we can dispose of him.”
“Dispose?”
What a funny word. Normally, the CORE doesn’t send anyone for assassinations, unless it’s a major priority, with high stakes. Itz’s previous assassination jobs were not commissioned for the CORE, the only one related to CORE was from #1108, one of Wifies’ beloved clones. Even then, it wasn’t truly an assassination, as he was tasked to keep Parrot alive. They send players like Manepear, or Sharpness for that matter.
“Yes Jamato, dispose. I trust you don’t have any issues with that?”
If the silence from the sky wasn’t enough to give the answer, then the silence from the rest of the members would. It wasn’t like they agreed to the idea of disposing Mapicc, for people like Egg and Squiddo; they weren’t fully interested in what the CORE planned to do, unless it affected them directly. Clown once used the term, ‘sheep’ for them, and Jamato couldn’t disagree. Itz had no issue with eliminating people; he used to be an assassin too, although he had taken a break from his hires. While Wifies was the brain of CORE, so it made sense for them to follow his plans – even if his strategies were ridiculous, they often exceeded their expectations. Jamato was never fond of Wifies; no one in CORE was fond of him, except Clown, but they still trusted his judgement.
Jamato had only met Mapicc once, but he knew more than enough that Mapicc wasn't in any harm. Mapicc just wanted to play the server alongside his friends, but if the CORE had influenced Mapicc, or had given him some sort of power that was unrecognised by the CORE, then Mapicc had to go. The CORE couldn’t risk that option, and Mapicc was already exposed to Spoke’s influence, and if Spoke were to hunt down the CORE, that’s another story. For example, it’s most likely that Spoke will only hunt the one who killed Mapicc, not the whole organisation due to the lack of information, but if the CORE were to accept Mapicc, then Spoke would understand that there is an organisation, which is a much higher risk, for someone who shares the same mentality as an ex-CORE member.
Wifies noticed the silence, and was quite pleased with it too. Despite the others' uneasy faces, they had all decided on an answer. That was to agree with his decision.
“Oracle, care to estimate the chances of The King of Hell taking care of Mapicc and Spoke all by himself?”
The attention shifted towards Squiddo and –
Pause.
“23%.”
Wifies wasn’t really an expressive man, but he did frown quite noticeably. It looked like his plans got interrupted, and he’d have to do adjustments. 23% was a low percentage, and the CORE always looked for a 90% or above when handling distressing missions.
“Chances with The Former Glory being sent?”
Itz looked over to Squiddo and,
Pause.
“56%.”
Itz looked over at Squiddo, could minecraft’s number 1 player not take down Spoke and Mapicc? Two players, with only one of them being an actual threat? Jamato looked at Wifies, as if he knew what Wifies was going to ask. Although, Wifies had his attention fixated on the Oracle.
“Chances with The Code Eater being sent as well?“
Pause.
“89%.“
The sky roared, its cry more deafening.
However, Wifies wasn’t exactly pleased. He looked irritated in fact, but why? Shouldn’t 89% be enough to please the Director, or did he seriously need above 90%? He walked past Jamato, past Itzrealme past Eggchan and Squiddo. He walked past all of them, leaving them confused, before stopping mid path. He turned around to face them, his attention diverted elsewhere.
But before Wifies could begin, a clown had shown up. An appearance that wasn’t expected, or welcomed. If Clown was here, then that meant that Spoke and his friends had escaped. The scowl on Wifies‘ face was prominent, although he wasn’t especially known for his ability to express emotions, his scowls and frowns were the most noticed ones. Clown looked around, realizing that the meeting had already started; despite his best attempts at arriving as soon as possible, he had missed the beginning of the meeting.
“I assume Spoke and Mapicc had escaped?“
“...They escaped.“
Wifies looked over at the Oracle, and she shrugged her shoulders. After all, she had predicted the chances of Clown succeeding, and Clown had failed. Wifies scanned the area, his eyes passing from one member to another, although he had ignored Egg’s stare, as if his eyes jumped to the person after Egg, but why?
“Does anyone have milk?“
It was an odd question, why would Wifies need milk? When the world was ending, when time was running out, when the code was being devoured, what importance does milk have? Jamaot observed Wifies, he wasn’t joking, he was serious. The tone in his eyes only suggested that he needed a quick and urgent reply. Wifies was interesting, he never explained unless when he was forced to, he only let actions define him. Unless, if a clone is present. Wifies‘ entire behaviour changes around his clones, Jamato had never seen Wifies talk on and on until time was given up on him. Eggchan searched his inventory, but his inventory was full of junk. Blocks from different biomes, stacks of sand and stacks of glazed terracotta. His books weren’t of use, and there were no buckets of milk seen. Itz had no intention of searching, why would he ever carry milk with him?
Squiddo walked up to Wifies, before dropping a bucket of milk. Wifies walked up to the pillar, he took his time as he threw the milk bucket at it. The milk bucket was picked up and – invis particles. Someone had infiltrated the meeting. And for some odd reason, Wifies turned back, to face the rest of the CORE with a self-satisfied smile. A smile that warned nothing but a future that dripped in misfortune.
“Oracle, what are the chances to contain Mapicc with the King of Unstable?“
Pause.
A long pause.
One pause was to understand what just happened, and another pause to determine the chances.
“99%.“
A percentage that was almost too perfect. But this also meant that Parrot was amongst them. Parrot had somehow found this meeting and had infiltrated it. Although, only Eggchan and Squiddo had reacted to this news. It took a while for Squiddo to react, but once she figured Parrot had infiltrated this meeting, she let out an audible gasp, as she covered her mouth with her hands. Eggchan had tensed, his wings kept close to him, as he looked at Itz and Jamato. They already knew that someone was here, it was hard to miss the invis particles, but they allowed Wifies to continue his speech. They figured Wifies had it all under control.
The milk was picked up by some invisible particles and drunk, though no sounds of it could be heard. The invis particles vanished, and colour wings appeared, a bright cyan colour, layered with a calm green, with sunset pallets on the first layer of feathers. Although, the injuries the bird had obtained are much more visible, with feathers missing, half ripped and are on the verge of falling out. A thick red scarf wrapped around his neck, as he held an empty bucket. A visible frown on his face, his eyebrows closed in, as his eyes narrowed. Though, his crown was missing.
“Bold of you to interrupt this meeting, King of Unstable.“
Parrot had pulled his wings closer in, observing the meeting. It was out in the open, but they all stood around like they were on a meeting table, but no table was seen. He saw familiar faces, Clown and Itzrealme, two players that hunted him down in the past. Unfamiliar faces too, JamatoP and Therealsquiddo. Jamato had looked at him, as if he knew everything there was about Parrot, and had expected him to arrive, while Squiddo seemed more frightened in a way. But, he hadn’t expected to see Eggchan here, Wemmbu’s closest friend and ally. Did... Wemmbu know about this? That Egg was working with dangerous people like Clown and Itzrealme?
“What is this place?“
“Why do you think you have any authority to ask questions?“
Wifies loomed over Parrot, he wasn’t pleased, in fact, neither side was pleased. Parrot has seen his face multiple times, the same dull expression, the same annoyed expression. Parrot pulled his wings in closer, as he dropped the metal bucket, and what should’ve been a loud, clanky sound, was silent. The sky had roared once more, as if it was the only sound the world could produce. Clown walked up to Wifies, as he wrapped his left arm around Wifies‘ shoulder, while Wifies‘ head moved slightly away, as his frown had deepened. Clown paid no attention to Wifies‘ recoil, as he was much more focused on Parrot presence. An uncomfortable scene, two faces that haunts him forever.
“Parrot, It’s been a while, hasn’t it?“
Parrot could hear his smile behind his mask, and it sickened him. Wifies grabbed Clown’s arm and pushed it down, shoving him off as he took his step back. Clown looked over to Wifies, a bit disheartened that Wifies would push him away, but Wifies‘ reaction was to be expected. It seemed like that was a normal interaction for them, as Wifies seemed to be used to this behaviour. Although, it was obvious that Wifies did not like the physical interaction whatsoever, however, he did not retaliate often.
“Look, Parrot. To keep the server alive, you must work with us.“
“To capture Spoke?“
Spoke used to be a dear ally to him. His close friend, that he fought so many battles with. To hunt Spoke, was something absurd. But if he heard the meeting correctly, Spoke wasn’t the main target, it was his best friend. Parrot didn’t have much of a connection with Mapicc, but that still didn’t feel right. Mapicc was Spoke’s closest ally, his best friend. If Mapicc was out of the picture, who knows what Spoke would do again? He was so close to blowing up Capital City, when he thought Mapicc died. However, after Mapicc had actually died, Spoke ruined the server.
He had burnt down multiple towns, villages, had exploded major cities and had killed anyone who had gotten in his way. Parrot had no choice but to send an order to contain him. It had failed, miserably. He had lost multiple men, due to Spoke’s unique traps, and explosives. He had done everything possible, just to get his revenge because Parrot had failed him, he promised him aid, but aid arrived too late.
Mapicc was smashed by --------
It was as if Pandora’s box had finally opened.
Slaughter, lots of them, occurred and no matter what Parrot had said, Spoke broke. Like a code that had malfunctioned, a virus that spread- a virus that consumed. And the alliance that they used to celebrate with, had deteriorated. Spoke had changed, and had done anything to receive information. Parrot had faced him multiple times, on the same front line, fighting against the wrong side – however, now Parrot was against Spoke. A face that was familiar, but a face he didn’t recognise. He knew that Spoke couldn’t handle this, the anger that hid so obviously within his voice, the bitter smiles that were left on his mouth. If anything, Spoke handled this like a child.
“Why, what else?“
Parrot had forgotten how much he disliked Wifies‘ presence, his tone was too playful for it to not belittle Parrot.
“But you’re wrong either way, it’s to contain Mapicc.“
And Wifies couldn’t have said that earlier? Seriously, how was he supposed to work with them, if Wifies‘ priority was to belittle Parrot? Clown backed up, as he headed back to his group, while they gave each other nervous stares. They all knew who Parrot was, it was hard to not know the King of Unstable, even if they haven’t ever met directly. If anything, they knew much more about Parrot than he knew about them.
“And remember, King, that everything here is confidential. The players must not be aware of what is happening.“
On one hand, Parrot finds this a reasonable request. This group of people contain some of the most dangerous faces, like Itzrealme or Clownpierce. The news that players like them are combining forces and working behind the scenes of the server, is a terrifying thought. People would cower in fear, and Parrot could not allow that. But the idea of Parrot keeping a secret this big from the server felt wrong. It was obvious that their influence changed the server, and people would want to know that. Faced with such a dilemma, Parrot wished to take his time, but the sky roared again, reminding all of them of the limited time they all have.
“Right. Everything will stay confidential.“
After Parrot’s confirmation, Wifies turned over as he faced Jamato directly. His stare lingered for a second longer, before he moved his attention on Squiddo. Squiddo looked around, as if she questioned whether Wifies was staring at her or not.
“You can return back to where you came. Egg, where are they?“
Squiddo nodded, but she wasn’t sure what to do now. You couldn't really blame her, the world was ending and she was just released from a top secret meeting that could potentially save the world. Wifies gave her no instructions either! Wifies, who noticed the lack of movement from Squiddo, moved on. Egg’s attention however, was off into the sky. His pupil was focused on the giant rift in the sky, how the colours absorbed life.. The red dark colour, strong enough to drench the last life on this server, bit onto the birds. The sky kept echoing and echoing, despite the lost silence. Egg quickly regained his focus, as he turned over to face Wifies, a guilty look on his face when he noticed the disappointment on Wifies‘ face.
“Right- Yeah I’ll just do it now.“
He walked over to the edge of the platform, as he stopped within his tracks. Looking down at the endless void beneath, from what should’ve been a clean blue sight was filled with rages of a dark red. His back turned to the CORE, as his wings grew larger around his eyeball. Shaping around his eyeball comfortably, making sure his feathers didn’t get in the way. White and pure feathers resting as still as they can, not moving an inch against the harsh current of wind. Slowly, but surely, the wings engulfed his eyesight, leaving only a small gap for his pupil to peek out of.
And silence, a deep exhale and a sharp inhale.
Bingo.
“They are in the nether. I don’t see them anywhere.“
“So they must’ve returned back to the Nether.“
Jamato concluded, followed by a sharp hiss by Clown, who clearly wasn’t happy about this situation. This was embarrassing on his part, as the guardian and protector of the nether. Despite his personal reasons for protecting the nether , he failed to do what CORE had expected him to do and that would surely lead to very negative consequences later on, but that wasn’t the focus of today.
“Wait so- how did he know?“
Parrot interrupted the conversation at hand, and the tension spiked. A thread pulled, and the fibre stretched to an impossible length. Parrot was not a CORE member, and this knowledge should not be shared with anyone.
“Some information are not meant to be shared.“
Egg took a step back, avoiding Parrot’s eye contact. Wifies looked over to Jamato, ignoring Parrot’s confusion.
“Take Parrot to the Nether, alongside Clown. We can also send Conexion and Manepear after those two, since sending Itz after those three would be a hassle to cover up.“
Itz’s presence always causes a commotion amongst players which is always a ruckus to deal with. People get way too intimidated by the fact that Itz is around their land, even though he stays friendly to a good extent due to strict rules. It’s intimidating, but that is what a title does to you, create fear.
Jamato nodded along, although the task they were about to be set is no easy feat.
“Spoke is not easy to trap, however, our Abdicated Star is alongside them. He would ‘lead‘ Spoke to Parrot, where Parrot brings Spoke to us. Meanwhile, the Abdicated Star would take Mapicc and hand him over to the Code Eater where he would take Mapicc to the underworld to stabilise the server, while the the King of Hell, alongside the two assassins would take care of Spoke.“
Abdicated Star? Who was that?
“Any objections?“
Underworld?
Those names were titles, he could guess that the King of Hell was Clown, surely the Code eater was Jamato, right? And the plan was complete bullcrap. He would have to use Spoke’s trust against him?
“Yes, I do.“
Wifies turned over to Parrot. Though he wasn’t as dissatisfied as Parrot believed he would be.
“What’s the issue now, King?“
“I don’t understand my role in this.“
“The code eater will tell you how to do it in due time, trust him. He knows Spoke very well.“
Jamato didn’t look too pleased when he heard that. But before anyone could reject, or accept, the sky let out a deafening cry.
“Well, standing here does nothing for us. Let’s get going.“
“Meeting dismissed.“
Wifies ended the meeting, as everyone went their separate ways. Wifies went back to the factory that loomed over the ground, which was neat for him if it wasn’t fully evacuated. Egg and Itz had flown off without much of a second word, while Squiddo went after Wifies, for whatever reason.
Parrot was alone with Clown, the same person that hunted him down for weeks and trapped him in a prison, and a stranger he had no idea of. What had Parrot gotten himself into? Of course he had to save the server, it was his duty as the King to do so, so he had no reason to complain. At the end of the day, he also gained a lot of knowledge about the organisation that Wifies works with, and-
Jamato and Clown were already heading off – Parrot had to chase after them .