But you gotta try / Wherever you may go / Sometimes, you gotta be the hero
~~~
Welcome to a world slightly outside of the norm. This is where our little story starts. A peaceful area, with a cute little, unfinished house taking centre stage. With a variety of biomes from the extreme savanna to the cool jungles, this world is perfect for a small single player, a man trying to find his place. He's taking his break, with his dog by his side and a world he can keep to himself, where he can do his work without feeling stressed. A place he can lie down.
Thinknoodles, or Justin, is the inhabitant of this small world. He used to be a major admin and a founder of the server Shady Oaks, before he made his leave. He had to run away, he just had to. The court date was coming up soon, and he valued his freedom. Either way, he'd lose, and he didn't want to lose everything... Oh, and he didn't exactly want to get smited for blowing up Kraken's Hollow. Squid sent a hired hitman to kill him for goodness sake, why wouldn't he get revenge?
He is simply out on a walk, with nothing much to do. He's simply taking in the cool air and the sun shining down upon him. The occasional breeze flows through his hair, which he grew long before going to Shady Oaks, and didn't bother cutting when he left. (He's...unsure if he regrets it. The long hair at least makes his hair look healthier, especially since it's greying so badly.) The endless plains seem to stretch on for miles, with not a single hitch in the road other than a few cows he has to dodge and the few forests he can see along the edges.
The peaceful silence is interrupted by a loud ping from his pocket. A notification from his communicator. But who would be texting him at this time? Pulling his comm out of his hotbar, He flips to his messages and sees a text from Dan. But why would Dan be needing to DM him - he's in his hardcore world, no? That's singleplayer, he won't be needing any help from Justin. He knows that Dan's been quiet as of recent, but still.
He hesitates, thinking it might just be a misclick and that he would accidentally embarrass Dan. Still, out of curiosity and confusion, Think clicks to the text.
<DanTDM> xliziblezigsrxvsp.play.me 19145
Think scans over the strange text that is laid out on his communicator, flashing due to the extension. After making sure what he's reading is correct, he sends a text back.
<Thinknoodles> You want me to join?
But even after waiting a minute, Dan never responds. Odd, for someone who's constantly checking his communicator.
"Well, that's out of the ordinary." he thinks out loud. And he's not wrong. Not because Dan never responded, it's more what Dan actually sent. The context of the message. Because to any ordinary person, that may look like a random strip of numbers and letters Dan accidentally pasted into the chat bar. But to Think, whom I've stated was the admin, that wasn't any old set of numbers.
That was a server IP and port.
Dan was inviting him to a server, with no context as to why.
Now, there could be many forms of context. With an IP like that, it looks to be a throwaway server. So one likelihood is that Dan is sending him to this server as a prank. But why did he need to drag him to a whole other server just to prank him? He still has the IP to Shady Oaks, he could've just asked Justin to come back online. Then again, Dan would know that Justin didn't want to go back...No, that couldn't be the case. If Dan were pranking him, he would've sent something else, like a threatening smiley face or something. But no, he sent the IP and port alone, with no explanation. There must be something deeper in store here. This was a text to Thinknoodles, after all. He ran away to escape from a crime, and Dan was aware of that. If it was just a prank, he would've sent it to someone still at Shady Oaks. Dan sent it to the main admin and coder he knew, and there's only one reason for him to feel like that.
Perhaps, this is a cry for help.
Think knew that some comms had a feature which quickly allowed people to paste the server details into the chat and send it. This was considered an emergency feature when it was built in, but many also use it when they can't be bothered to type in the full address. And while Dan was one to take shortcuts..no, to Think, knowing his best friend well, this was obvious.
Dan was in danger.
Immediately, Think turned on his heels and began sprinting back to his little shack at spawn. While he didn't know what mess Dan had gotten himself into, he knew he had gotten into a mess, and for that, he needed to rescue him. And he didn't know how much time he had, or what the scale of the danger was.
For all he knew, Dan could have been kidnapped, or he could've just gotten stuck in a deep hole with no tools to get out, and a zombie trapping him into a death loop.
Oh, and for the record, he wasn't about to brave a danger he didn't know the details of without his friends. The squid with his recklessness and the ninja with his sneak, if he was to save someone he'd need their help.
As soon as Think made it back to his base, he grabbed a carrot and held it in his mouth to fill up his hunger bar while pulling out his communicator. Then, he switched to the extension he and his friends had installed a while ago to communicate with others easily and across worlds - previously, this had not been possible, but now he could contact his friends easily. Discord, he thinks it's called. He quickly creates a private group chat with James and Squid before sending in his IP to his world. He'll try and change it after.
<Thinknoodles> Hey, both of you.
<ThnxCya> woah, hey dude! how ya been?
<iBallistiicSquid> Ah, mr big blow up man, how are you
<Thinknoodles> Alright. Doesn't matter - can both of you transfer to my world? ASAP.
<ThnxCya> wait, wow okay hold on
<iBalliisticSquid> Giiive me a second i'm trying to build something here and I'm gonna finish it in 5
<ThnxCya> yeah can I have like 5 minutes
Think sighs. He should've expected this response. He grips the comm tighter and continues typing.
<Thinknoodles> Guys, this is urgent. Really urgent.
<ThnxCya> oh okay it's serious serious
<ThnxCya> be right there
<iBalliisticSquid> Justiiiin give me like 3 minutes I'll be done with thiss
<Thinknoodles> Squid, does a building matter more than the life of your friend?
<ThnxCya> excuse me what o-o
<iBalliisticSquid> OKAY OKAY I'M COMING GEEZ
Ah, yes, Squid, the tired one. He sits down, grabbing another carrot and eating it. While Think's house normally feels cosy and comfortable, with his racing emotions it feels barren and as if it is going to fall apart. He knows it's not, but it might as well be.
The messages announcing James and Squid's arrival comes quickly. He gives them a second, transferring worlds is not fun. They immediately knock on the door and Justin opens it, taking a look at the two. While James looks genuinely worried, Squid simply looks tired.
"Alright, Mr Boomer, what the hell do you want?" Yes, Squid is very tired. Justin rolls his eyes.
"Look...I think Dan's in danger. He sent me the server details to a server he must be on. Nothing else...it's so random and out of the blue that it concerns me."
He shows the two the screen of his communicator. They both look at the message and while James looks even more confused, Squid takes his turn to roll his eyes.
"He's probably pranking you, you know that right? I wouldn't put it past him." Squid sighs.
"Squid makes a point..." James responds.
"Yes, yes I know, I thought that at first, too." Justin speaks fast and with a tense aura. "But if he was pranking me he'd at least send me some context, he'd respond. I know it, I know Dan. I'm sorry, maybe I'm getting overworked about this, it doesn't really matter I-" His words spill out without him wanting them to.
"No, no." James says, louder than Think expected. "You both make a point. So let's all go anyways. If it's a prank, we can all have a good laugh about it later. If it's not, then we can save Dan. Sound okay?"
Think nods, if it's what it takes. Squid also agrees, with a condition.
"If I'm correct and it's nothing, Thinky here has to do me a favour."
Justin sighs. He doesn't want to joke about a possibly life threatening situation, but if it makes Squid go along with it...
"Fine. But if I'm correct, the same thing goes for you."
"Deal."
The two nod, before silently, Think sends the server details to the others and they all type it in, before waiting for the others to finish. They check and double check to make sure that they've got it right. To Squid, it feels like they're all acting like the heroes for nothing.
"I...guess we're going on the count of three?" James asks, breaking the silence.
"Yeah." Justin responds, before beginning the count. "One, two....three!"
<Thinknoodles left the world.>
<ThnxCya left the world.>
<iBalliisticSquid left the world.>
~~~
Took Wattpad 3 tries to process that I uploaded this, but whatever. Anyways, another long fic? Yep! Don't worry, this one's finished. I've been working on it for the past two weeks, so...anyways. Updates every Sunday and Thursday.
As for this chapter...Caesar was never fun with all his ciphers.