HIATUS|| Schooled- a Hermitcraft high school AU(with watchers and stuff)

Night Vision? Since when?

T/W: small dark space ig(I'm not good with these)

POV: Mumbo

I start wondering around Phoenix Phire, looking for anything out of the ordinary. A crack in the wall where a piston door might be, a suspicious button or a stray redstone line. As I'm mindlessly looking around the surprisingly large HQ, I start to think. 

'Grian doesn't swear, so why did he when the portal guard wasn't letting us through? And this whole 'oh I just disappeared for ten years and came back the king of the Nerhreans with possible PTSD and amnesia,' only for that weird golden portal thing to happen in OND that no one else seems to remember, so I was possibly hallucinating, and the fact that in OND and the Admin HQ he was a terrible PVPer, but the other day when we were fighting the Watchers outside the Crossing he took down more Watchers than False, who only a week ago could beet him without breaking a sweat, and he seems more sassy than normal as well. Normally he hates attention being drawn to him, but here he is effectively leading this quest even though that's usually Xisuma's job. Plus he not only knows Xanthus and Hels, he also apparently made a robot clone of himself despite the fact he can't make a repeater clock and-'

My mental interrogation is cut short by my hand brushing an almost unnoticeable crack in the wall in a suspiciously straight line. Following the line down, I can tell it reaches all the way to the floor, and up exactly two blocks, over one block and then back down to the floor. The perfect size for a door. 

"Guys, I found something!" I call, trying to suppress my excitement at being the one to find something first. A few minutes later, the others have found me and are standing around, looking expectantly at me. 

I gulp a little at the attention, but blunder onward. "So there's a crack in this wall that's perfectly lined up with the blocks in a straight line, making a rectangle just the right size for a door." The others find the crack for themselves and nod their approval. "So, any ideas on how to open it?" Xisuma asks.

"Well, we could check for a block that's powered by redstone." I say, pulling out a redstone torch.  I place the torch on a block, wait a tick, remove it, and try again on a different block. "What are you doing?" Scar asks. "If you place a redstone torch on a block that's powered, the torch turns off. I'm waiting for this torch to turn off when I place it on a block." I answer. 

And just as I say this, I place the torch and it turns off. "Yes!" I hiss, pumping my fist.

###

About two hours later, we had tried everything we could think of. Buttons, levers, torches, item frames, and even shoving the door out of the way. In case you were wondering, reader, no it did not work. 

I had just flopped down to rest with the others when Grian apparently got an idea. 

"Ash! Put your hand on the block!" Ash did so, but nothing happened. "Tango, Hels! You two try!" Tango went first, and again nothing happened. However when Hels rested his palm on the block, there was a barley audible click and the block glowed red, the same shade as the netherrack. And with that, the door opens. 

###

We all rush inside, the door closing behind us, leaving us in pitch darkness. We all stand around blinking for a few moments before Xisuma, Xanthus, Scar, Hels, and Tango all simultaneously send small balls of magic fire, or in Scar's case, a crystal that he had to hold up but admitted light. 

We were in a narrow corridor, with a low ceiling. A 1x2 mineshaft-like tunnel, as if the miner had a bad pickaxe, or was in a rush, mining the minimal blocks to be able to fit. It didn't look particularly long, but who knew what traps lay in the still dim lighting, despite the magic. What I was learning about magic was that not everyone had equal abilities. Part of me even wants to research magic after this mess. If I survive, that is. 

Shaking away that last thought, I take a step forward, only to be nearly strangled by someone pulling me back by my tie. "There's a pressure plate there spoon." Grian whispered in a not unkind way. I harrumph, but carefully step backwards. 

It's only now that I realize all but Scar's light crystal had gone out. And his crystal was about as bright as an ancient city. That is to say, not bright at all. "Sorry guys. I made it a few weeks ago at the Admin HQ. I don't have to concisely feed it power, but after a little while it becomes just a shard of glass, not even a crystal anymore." Scar explains. "It's ok." Grian says. "I can see to warn you guys of traps." 

As Grian steps in front of me, I once again wonder 'since when can he see in the dark?'

 851 words. It's sort bc I lost some motivation when I had to rewrite about half of it bc it didn't save. 

Song of the chapter: Teenagers by my chemical romance(swearing and mentions of killing/violence)