Redstone Nightmares

Act IV - Chapter 20

Act IV – Chapter 20

Trigger Warning: This chapter contains swearing and graphic descriptions of character death. Reader discretion is advised.

(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)

Their legs ached as they finally concluded their mad dash to Romeoburg. Val and Soup, having seen the group approaching, opened the gates and allowed them to enter.

"Where's Romeo?!" Soren asked, breathless as they sprinted inside. Romeo, running out at the sound of his own name, reached out to catch the falling man as the others looked at him.

"You're back, good..." Romeo said, eyes widening as he saw the bandages on Jesse's hand. "Wh... what happened to your hand?!"

"Got shaken down by a few scavengers and they wounded her," explained Soren. "We did patch her up, so don't worry about it. We looked through Fred's Keep for the stick, bu-"

"Did you find it?"

"No," said Soren. "And we've got more bad news."

"What?"

"We found out what Xara was planning to do with the Redstone Heart," said Jesse. "She's rebuilt PAMA."

Romeo raised an eyebrow in confusion. "PAMA? What's that?"

Jesse nodded. Right, of course he wouldn't know about PAMA... She began to explain her adventure to Crown Mesa, about PAMA in particular - He was a supercomputer built from redstone, originally created to make mobs useful... before going rogue, and getting too good with his abilities. As she explained, Romeo began pacing, expression growing darker and darker. Jesse finished her story by relaying Ivor's message about how Xara had begun to "chip" people on the surface - and, as Jesse presumed, other worlds too.

Romeo's head began to shake, his eyes dark in a silent fury, before his body became completely still, hands grabbing at his hair as his breathing grew labored and heavy.

"DAMN HER, I DON'T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!" He roared explosively, pulling on his hair as his head tilted back. His body quaked as he fell to his knees. "We... he tried to warn... n-no..."

He got up to his feet, knuckles white as his fists rested at his sides. "Are you absolutely sure of this, Jesse?"

"Yes, she sent one of our chipped friends down here to try and kill us," said Jesse.

"Shit! Then we need to get to the cabin, now," Romeo turned to Val and Soup. "Lock down the gate, do not let anybody in."

Both nodded in understanding and raced to the gate, quickly shutting it down tight.

"Unfortunately I couldn't take the challenge room down," he said. "But I do know of a way that can easily get us past it."

"Oh, and what's that?" asked Soren.

"I programmed a manual override in the system that will skip it straight to stage six hundred. Once we're on that stage, we simply need to complete it, and that'll be it."

Romeo led the group towards the challenge room, the main doors opening as they approached it. Inside, they descended some stairs into what appeared to be an arena.

"The cabin is just past that door," said Romeo. "To open it, we need to beat stage six hundred. First, let me walk you through on how to get the challenge started."

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and saw three levers, each accompanied with blue, red and purple sets of wool behind them.

"To switch it on, we need to flip these three levers in a window of three seconds," explained Romeo. "I'll take Xara's lever, Jesse, you take my lever and Soren, you take Fred's. The rest of you, prepare yourselves."