The faint clashing of weapons and yelling could be heard in front of two houses, a jungle treehouse and log cabin, just down the street. Two people, well kinda people, were sword-fighting in the yard that connected their houses.
Jordan looked over towards the noise and smiled as he approached. "Hey Mitch! Jerome!" He called.
Jerome stopped in his tracks, swinging his axe over his shoulder. "Oh... heya Sparklez!" Suddenly Mitch ran over and tackled him, pinning him to the ground and holding his sword above him.
"I win."
"H-hey! That's not fair dude! I was just tryna say hi to someone."
"Doesn't matter Biggums, I win." Mitch stood up in triumph and stuck his sword into the dirt.
"I want a rematch!" Jerome sat up.
"Oh hey guys." Mitch said, pretending to ignore the bacca.
Jordan laughed at the two. "Practicing for hunger games, I see." He commented with a smile. "Well, if you guys have a minute, I have someone with me I think you'll want to see,"
"Really?" Mitch held his arm out to help Jerome up.
Tyler moved to the side, revealing Jason standing behind him.
Mitch gasped, and Jerome nearly fell back over.
"Jason?!" They both exclaimed in unison.
"Hey guys." Jason smiled.
Mitch and Jerome ran up to the group, wide grins on their faces as they stood in front of Jason.
Stampy had been thinking to himself when he heard Sparklez invite people over and looked up. He felt his whole body tense up.
Suddenly Stampy was lunging at them, ears laid back in agitation and claws extended, aiming to kill or at the very least injure.
Sqaishey gasped in surprise as Stampy bolted from her side and lunged at them with a hiss.
Due to his PvP skills, Mitch dodged the attack, suffering only a small scratch to the cheek. Jerome pushed Mitch behind him, holding out a paw to keep Stampy back.
"Woah, woah, woah... what the hell is your problem man?!" Jerome growled.
"STAMPY!" Jason ran behind Stampy and grabbed onto his jacket, pulling on it.
Stampy hissed at them, reaching out trying to attack Jerome, fangs bared and tail fluffed out in anger.
Jordan stared in shock and wasn't sure what to do here. If they weren't careful it looked like Stampy could just lunge at anyone of them.
Sqaishey quickly moved forward only for Jordan to stop her. "I don't want you to get hurt,"
"He's my husband! He won't hurt me!" Sqaishey argued but he hesitated watching as Stampy pulled against Jason and kept trying to get at Jerome.
Tyler panicked, making the not so good decision to grab onto Stampy as well, wrapping his arms around his waist and trying to pull him back.
Jerome stayed in front of Mitch, who had pulled his sword back out of the ground. The two stared in shock. While they had never met Stampy they did know of him, and this was nothing like they'd seen from him before.
"STAMPY STOP!" Jason cried.
Stampy felt someone grab him and turned towards them, swinging his claws with another hiss and trying to break free.
He was completely out of it.
Jordan pulled Sqaishey back as they watched in shock.
"Stampy! Please!" She called out, tears brimming her eyes. "You need to calm down!"
She had never seen him get this way before... sure hes gone into cat mode a couple of times around her but nothing like this.
"Gah...!" Tyler fell to the ground, covering his face With his hands. Stampy has stretched his square across the face, his sweatband fell beside him, having been ripped in half.
"T-Tyler!" Jason's grip slightly loosened as he turned to face his friend, his eyes lighting up in fear.
"CUT. IT. OUT!" Jason nearly screamed, using all of his strength to pull Stampy back so that he could put him in a hold. His arm wrapped around his upper torso while the other tried to pull Stampy's hands back.
Mitch and Jerome watched in fear, wanting to help but knowing that it would only anger Stampy more.
Stampy hissed and tried to get free from Jason but didn't scratch at him.
Sqaishey moved forward. "Stampy, please. You need to calm down. Its okay..." she tried to help Jason calm him down and moved in front of Stampy and drew his attention. She carefully reached up and starting petting his hair.
Stampy was starting to shake and was still hissing a bit but was calming down as Sqaishey pet him and she spoke calmly to him. "Hey, its okay... take deep breaths... it's okay... " she coaxed as he finally calmed down enough where he wasn't struggling against Jason and not long after, blacked out and went limp.
Sqaishey gasped and helped catch him and Jordan moved forward to help as well.
Jason stood back in terror, horrified at what he had just witnessed. He panicked and ran to Tyler, squatting down beside him. Mitch and Jerome joined him.
"T-Tyler...?" Jason held out a hand.
Tyler's whole body shook, his hands still covering his face. He didn't speak and only shook his head.
"Dude, what just happened?!" Jerome exclaimed.
"I don't know..." Jason frowned.
Mitch noticed the small bits of blood dripping from between Tyler's fingers. "I'm gonna go grab my med kit, I'll be right back!" He ran inside the log cabin.
Sqaishey looked over, tears in her eyes as she let Jordan help her lower Stampy to lay on the ground. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what got into him... I've never seen him go off like that before..." she explained to them all as she sat beside him.
"Captain, are you alright?" Stella's voice asked, laced with concern.
Jordan glanced over and started to answer before remembering she was talking to Jason and gave a small sigh and looked down at Stampy's unconscious form.
"Y-Yeah..." Jason stammered. "It's not me who's hurt..." He stayed sitting across from Tyler, hands trembling as he held the other's arms. Though he was unharmed he had a strange stinging on his face, as if he had been cut just as Tyler had.
Mitch ran back outside with a white shulker in his arms, he placed it down and rummaged around in it, pulling out some cloth and potions. Jason hesitated for a bit before pulling Tyler's hands away from his face.
Scared eyes looked up at him, the grey seeming duller than usual but were luckily unscratched. The cut wasn't too deep, but ran across his entire face, blood dripping down.
Sqaishey felt sick to her stomach when she saw the damage and quickly looked away.
Jordan let Mitch and Jerome handle the doctoring part and stayed near Stampy incase he woke up and lashed out again.
Mitch gently wiped the blood off of Tyler's face, him flinching with every move.
Jason kept exchanging nervous looks with Jordan, staring back down at Stampy's unconscious body.
Mitch continued to clean the wound while Jerome soaked another cloth with a healing potion.
Jordan was tense as he watched, glancing at Jason and Stampy.
Stampy stirred a little bit, making Jordan pull Sqaishey back, unsure if he was waking up or not.
Jason kept looking at Stampy, watching his every move. Jerome put the cloth on Tyler's face, Tyler wincing as he did so.
He moved a bit every now and then as if waking up but never really did completely.
Jason looked back at Stampy then at Jordan. "Is he okay?" He mouthed, still holding onto Tyler. The cut across his face was cleaned up now, but there was still a scar that stung.
"I... I don't know." He replied, tense and hesitant.
Jason sighed.
Jerome had finally cleaned Tyler up, his jacket still slightly stained with blood.
Tyler's eyes stared around at everyone, everything after the scratch was just a blur.
Jordan sighed in relief when he saw Tyler looking around. "You alright there, man?" He asked hesitantly.
"I...I think I am now." Tyler's voice shook, he wiped his bloody hands off on the grass.
"Good..." Jordan nodded and glanced at Stampy who stirred again. "I'm not sure how he's going to react when he wakes up..."
"I... I don't know..." Jason stammered.
"What even happened? Is he... Always like this?" Mitch asked.
Sqiashey turned to them. "No! I've never seen him like this before!" She defended.
Jordan nodded. "I've never seen him this way either. He's always came off as timid when there's violence involved to me..."
Jerome nodded. "It seemed like that in his videos..." He thought aloud.
Jason was still frowning, hand gently placed on Tyler's back. His face still stung, but he couldn't figure out why.
Stampy suddenly snapped awake and leapt to his feet making Jordan stand defensively in front of Sqaishey again as he looked around, tail fluffed up and looking around wildly.
Mitch and Jerome bolted up and stood back, Jerome holding the other back with his paw.
Tyler looked at Stampy frighteningly, while Jason frowned at him.
Stampy saw everyone watching and staring at him. He stayed on his hands and knees as he watched them, fur still bristled as he tried to calm down, his attention being caught by Sqiashey who pulled a cloth out and hesitantly tied it around his eyes. He hissed a bit but she hushed him and coaxed him until he relaxed again and she hugged him. He tensed but after a moment returned the hug.
"Sq-Sqaishey?" his voice wavered.
"I'm here... It's okay..." She told him.
The others watched in silence, scared of what could potentially happen.
Stampy was shaking. "Wh-what happened? Why am I blindfolded?" He asked, clinging to her.
"You... you went crazy. You just suddenly started attacking almost anyone who got close to you..."
"I- what?" His voice sounded heartbroken. "Is everyone alright?!"
Jason's brow furrowed. "Could be better." He muttered, looking back at Tyler.
Stampy frowned. "I-I hurt someone?"
"Y-yeah... You uh, kinda scratched both me and Tyler..." Mitch stammered. "His was... pretty bad..."
Stampy's ears twitched at Mitch's voice, tail starting to fluff up but Sqaishey stopped him.
"Hey, they aren't going to hurt you Stampy."
"I-I-" he was shaking and quickly stood up, tearing the blindfold from his eyes but kept them closed. "I-Im sorry- I have to go-" he moved past Sqaishey and Jordan before either could stop him and ran off.
"Stampy!" Sqaishey called after him.
Tyler stood up and watched as Stampy ran away, without thinking he ran after him.
"T-tyler?" Jason yelled. He turned to Mitch and Jerome. "S-sorry about this... I-I wish that our reunion could've gone better.
"It's okay." Jerome assured him. "We can hang out another time."
"Just um... text us later about what that was all about." Mitch added.
"Will do." Jason nodded.
Sqaishey ran after the boys.
Jordan sighed and waved goodbye to them before hurrying after everyone else.
Jason gave the two one last hug before following everyone else. Mitch and Jerome stood dumbfounded at what had just happened.
"So um... up for another round?" Mitch asked.
"I think I'm good for the day..."
(Zoe will be posting Mitch and Jerome's refs a bit later today so keep an eye out for those in our notebook!)