The Sky is Not the Limit

Chapter 9

The trio were in hot pursuit of Derpollolus, chasing him across the deep ocean. Pepper shot out a flame, hitting the squid and causing him to crash-land on a small island below. They hopped off and walked over to him.

"Not so high and mighty now, huh?" Jason teased.

"...foolish...humans...our plan will still p-revail..." The squid managed to utter before trailing off. He remained still, not moving.

"Is he...dead?" Ty inched forward to check. The squid king suddenly rose up, laughing. “YOU CAN NEVER DEFEAT ME!”  Derpollolus whipped Ty with a tentacle, knocking him into the ocean.

"TY!" Sky yelled. Suddenly, his amulet began to glimmer brightly, and his body glowed as well. He hovered into the air, holding his butter sword high, and flew forward and stabbed Derpollolus, killing him for real. The spell ended, and Sky regained his senses. “oooooOOoooo...what the…oh no, Ty!” He dove into the water, pulling his limp friend out and setting him down. Ty’s headphones were broken, and Sky couldn't feel a pulse.

“Hey, wake up dude.” Ty made no response. "C'mon Ty, stop pretending..." Tears were welling up in his eyes. Sky turned, sobbing into Jason’s shoulder. Jason could hardly comfort himself, let alone Sky.

"...Hey...Are you crying? What's wrong?" A quiet voice asked. The two turned, and saw Ty, sitting up, and staring at them questioningly. "Did I miss something?"

Sky suddenly understood and frowned. "We thought you were dead, Deadlox you little son of a-"

"What he means to say," Jason interrupted, "is that we're not finished yet. We still need to go see if the guys shut off the rockets."

"Well then what are we just sitting here for? Let's hurry!" Ty whistled for Pepper. As they flew off towards the castle once more, they felt that things were finally looking up for a change.

……

"WHAT?" Ty gasped.

“Er, can you repeat that?” Jason asked.

Mitch groaned. "We blew up the control room, but the rockets are still preparing for launch, and we only have ten minutes before they will."

Quentin ran in circles, yelling, "We're all going to die!"

"So that's it then? Minecraft is doomed?" Jerome asked.

"Not quite." Jason put in, getting an idea. "If we destroy the portal..."

"Then the rockets would have nowhere to go..." Mitch added.

"And they would go here instead of there." Ian finished. "But wait...that would mean..."

"Yep. We'd have to flood this place and probably drown along with it." Sky determined. The weight of that decision really hit them. Even Quentin couldn’t hold his breath in a world completely submerged in water. To save their world, they’d have to sacrifice themselves.

"Well, if that is what it takes to save Minecraft, then I'm in." Jerome said. The others looked around, all of them in agreement.

"So that's it then." Jason nodded. “C’mon Quentin, let’s go blow up the thing." The mudkip hopped on Jason’s back, and the two headed to the portal. There was a long silence after that, letting the reality set in that they really weren’t coming back.

But there was one last thing that Sky wanted to know. “Hey Ian. I need to ask you something.”

“What’s up?”

“You’re into freaky stuff, right?”

“You know me. What is it?”

“Well, I’ve discovered that this butter amulet I’m wearing grants me this special power. I’ve only experienced it twice. The first time was when Einshine was attacked by Herobrine, and the other was earlier when Ty got punched by the squid. It was like I get super-powered for a moment, and I come back not knowing what happened. It would be nice if I could control it, but when I try to use its power, it doesn’t work. Why is that?”

Ian pondered this for a bit. “Hm...it seems to me that your amulet only responds to your strongest emotion: your friendship with others. Apparently this power of yours isn’t controllable; it only triggers when someone close to you is in danger. I read about this somewhere...I believe they called the sensation immemor amor.”

A boom was heard in the distance, and Jason and Quentin appeared soon after. “Alrighty. Portal’s gone. Time to start the apocalypse party!”

“Dang Jason, you seem to be handling impending death well.” Ty commented.

“It sure does, doesn’t it? In reality though, I’m still coming to terms with all this. I’m just glad you guys are with me when this time had to come.” The countdown clock ticked louder and louder.

“It looks like we didn’t win the Hunger Games after all, Bacca.” Mitch shook his head, disappointed.

“I know Benja...and I always thought we’d go out with an Order 66...” Jerome said..The group moved closer, fearing what was to come.

“Jason, I’m startled.” Sky said.

“I know. Me too.” They closed their eyes, bracing for impact. The countdown ended, sounding a screeching siren. The missiles exploded, and they knew no more.