Purple barely remembered the attack.
He sorta fazed out after King showed up, but was still partially conscious after his dad ambushed him.
He felt the blade pierce his skin before something flung him backwards and he hit a tree.
He lost memory from that moment forward.
And now here he was, blinking himself awake, with a splitting headache and a burning stomach. Gold was right next to him.
"Okay, good, your awake." Gold sighed in relief. Purple blinked around in confusion.
"W-wheres Red?!" Purple asked, shooting up, only to regret it when his head and stomach burned with pain.
"Woah woah-calm down! Red went with Sapphire to look for help! Your dad got ya pretty good. We're looking for someone to check your code to see how badly you actually got obliterated, and there's plenty of burns and scratches on your body from the blast and getting slammed into a tree, but your fine." Gold explained.
Purple sighed deeply, and laid back down on the leafy bed Gold had put together. It wasn't comfortable, but he quickly passed out anyway.
King cowered in the corner as clawed beasts attempted to get in. Dark had shot down both Chosen and Second using their powers, so fighting was almost hopeless.
Surviving these bots weren't his concern, however.
Purple was.
Chosen and Dark spent fifteen minutes arguing about the bracelet and the blades. Virabots were climbed onto the roof and onto the fastle secured windows as the others cowered in fear inside.
"Crap. We have to get rid of these." Yellow muttered.
"Hold up- Blue. Have you figured out splash potions yet?" Second asked.
"Yeah. Have a few on me too. Why?" Blue asked.
"Which ones?"
"Potion of Harming, Potion of Weakness, Potion of Leaping, Potion of Fire Resistance-"
"What were the first two?" King stopped him.
"Harming and Weakness." Blue answered
"Give em here. I got an idea. Green, how many note blocks do you have, and Yellow, what Redstone stuff do you have?" King asked.
"Depends. What do you need?" Yellow asked.
"We make a beat out of note blocks that is so loud and catchy, they won't hesitate to come near it. Then, me and Blue toss the potions at them. Second and Dark will then jump from the roof and finish the job." King explained. Green smiled at the sudden enthusiasm King had.
"Me and Yellow will start getting it ready. Can the rest of you guys get ready to attack?" Green asked. Everyone else nodded. Second and Dark climbed onto the roof.
There was silence for a while.
"Hey, Sec?"
"Yeah?"
"Sorry for killing your friends."
Second did a double take. Dark was apologizing?
Maybe this is what Chosen's been trying to get to the desktop for.
So he could apologize.
Alan was right.
"Well, I can forgive you, but it also kinda depends on my friends al-" Second got cut off by Chosen yelling.
"GUYS! GET OFF THE ROOF!" Dark and Second jumped back as Virabots began climbing up the wall towards the roof.
"BLUE AND KING, START THROWING THE POTIONS!" Yellow screamed. Blue tossed all the potions into a piston and aimed it at the roof.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" King asked in confusion.
Blue snatched the potion from his hand. "Making this plan easier." He muttered before slamming his fist on a newly placed button. Potions began firing out of the piston and towards the roof, where Virabots were pummeled with harming and weakness potions. Yellow and Blue high-fived.
When the potion particles cleared, Second staggered out from behind the shack, obviously under the weakness potion.
"Guess we over aimed some of the weakness potions." Green said, running over to catch Second, who quickly collapsed to the ground.
"Hold up-where's Dark?!" Chosen asked, the absence of the stick in question becoming clear to him.
"He...got grabbed by this...blue stick..." Second said before passing out.
"Blue stick. If our Blue is here, and Navy went in the opposite direction...who did he mean?" Green asked.
"Gold."
Everyone turned to King.
"Gold...he used to have a few friends. Sapphire, Copper, and Scarlet. Scarlet bared a few resemblances to Dark. Color, head shape, and size," King said to himself, but loud enough for the others to hear. His eyes lit up in realization. "I bet Sapphire grabbed Dark because she though Dark was Scarlet!"
"Well, only Second knows, but we'll need a reference drawing. Do you have a vague memory of what his friends look like?" Yellow asked. King glanced at the stick.
"In fact, I have quite a few memories of my son's friends."
All around Purple, there seemed to be heat. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, but he could feel it. When he was finally able to open his eyes, he saw Gold talking with an unfamiliar stick figure with a copper color.
His anxiety almost hit a peak until Red suddenly appeared.
"Gold! He's awake!" Gold snapped his attention towards Purple, who sat up in confusion.
"Okay. What the hell is going on?" Purple asked. Red and Gold took one glance.
"Well, we barely escaped the woods, for one. Then I found two of my old friends. First, there's Copper," The copper colored stick waved shyly. "And then, somewhere around here are Sapphire and Scarlet." Gold said, looking around.
"GUYS! I FOUND SCARLET!" Sapphire screamed from across the camp, running over with a reddish-orange colored stick. Purple and Red almost jumped to the conclusion they had stumbled upon Dark, but shot down the idea almost instantly.
"Okay. Lemme get this straight. Purple's dad ambushed you guys and now he's been infected with something that puts his life in danger bit by bit?" Sapphire recalled.
"Basically, yes." Gold sighed.
"Oh dear," Scarlet said. "And what can we do?"
"Sapphire is the more intelligent one between you guys," Gold explained. "So she could find a way to keep the virus at bay while we find a cure."
"I'll go," Red said. The others looked at him.
"What?! You almost got yourself killed coming after me in the first place!" Purple exclaimed, wincing at the sudden pain in his head.
"Doesn't matter. You're my friend, and if everyone else I know and love had this exact thing, I'd do the same thing," Red snapped. "King would go the extra mile to get the cure, but that's cause he's King."
"My dad would not do such a thing!" Gold countered.
"You realize he almost sucked the entire universe into a black hole just out of avenging your "death", right?" Red reminded. Gold silenced his sentence.
"Fair enough. But, be careful," Sapphire noted. "It was dangerous for us just to get here. Only we were a team. Your doing this solo. It's much more dangerous." Red nodded.
"If anything happens, call me," Red said, tossing a radio into a small bag. "If necessary, I will run right back here, cure or not." He walked out of the tent.
"Watch out for Navy!" Gold called back. Red sent a glance at the campsite before becoming just a dot in Gold's vision.
The first thing Second noticed was someone holding his hand. His head was pounding, and his arm more or less felt like it was on fire.
"Guys! He's waking up!" Blue.
Green and Yellow ran over, ignoring Chosen and King discussing the next move.
Second finally blinked his eyes open, and looked at each stick individually.
"What happened?"
"You fell off the roof during the ViraBot battle before you started speaking nonsense about Dark and some blue stick. You had a concussion and a badly messed up arm when we saw you, but now you seem fine." Blue said.
King walked over, shoving a picture in his face. "Do you recognize any of these sticks?" He asked.
Second stared at the photo for a few moments before pointing at the blue colored stick. "That one. They grabbed Dark." He said blankly.
"Sapphire?" King pressed. Second only nodded.
"King, calm down. We know who got Dark, but we don't know if they-" Yellow began.
"Sapphire won't hurt a fly! She probably realized she had the wrong person and let Dark go free!" King snapped.
"So your telling me...Dark's LOST out there?!" Chosen screamed.
"Well, I wouldn't say "lost". Just.....misdirected." Green said sheepishly. Second threw his head into his hands.
"We have to find him! If Navy's still out there, he could get snatched!" Chosen quickly began to hyperventilate.
"But if he finds Purple and the others, he could warn them! You heard Navy! Red and the others have less than a day to surrender Purple!" King said.
"But, Dark's out there. How can you care more about some stupid stick figure and not my best friend?!" Chosen yelled angrily.
"BECAUSE I CAN'T LOSE HIM!" King suddenly screamed.
The shack fell into silence. King silenced whatever else he wanted to say and ran out.
"Hey, King! Wait up!" Green called out, chasing after him.
Chosen stood as still as a statue, stunned at the sudden outburst.
God dammit.
Dark stumbled out of the woods, thankful to have escaped the ViraBots. Yes, he had left his friends, but now that he was out here, he could find Purple and the others and warn them of impending danger.
His whole body shook as he though of Navy's statement.
"Purple has been struck with something so powerful that I must have it. Think the Master Block, only much, MUCH stronger! I could rule the world with it!"
God damn, how did that sound so much like him?
Just as he sat down to rest and look for Chosen and the others, he heard something.
Footsteps.
He jumped up and looked whatever was coming towards him dead in the eye. Sure, he had no weapons, but he really didn't care.
"Scarlet? The hell are you doing out here?"
Dark turned to see Red, a small bag over his shoulder.
"Since when was my name Scarlet?" He snickered, a small hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Dark?" Red asked.
"We need to get back to camp," Dark warned. "Navy's trying to use Purple's virus to take over the world."
"Impossible-" Red started.
"It's true! You guys have less than 24 hours to surrender Purple to his dad. If not, I fear the consequences will be catastrophic."