Story Tales of Terraria

Mystic Neon Rain

Skeletron Prime
TALES OF TERRARIA

Rated about PG/13+, as there is mild swearing (mainly later on) (h*ll, d**n, crap, etc.) and violence (sometimes bloody violence).

Notice: These stories are organized by episodes, not chapters.
Also, these used to be comics, but since I don't have a scanner and since my handwriting isn't that easy to read, I've decided to turn the comics into a book-like form. Since I'm translating the comics into text-form, some scenes might be a little odd, since they worked better as a scene in the comics. I also was pretty new to writing back when I first made the comics, so sometimes the early episodes will be slightly cheesy. Also, these are 1.1 stories, and as such I am keeping them 1.1.
I might write 1.2 stories later, if enough people like these.
That's it, hope you enjoy!
EDIT: Second notice: The pictures I've drawn for this story cannot and should not be used, put in another thread, or put on another website without my permission (or, if someone else has drawn something for this thread, then you'll need their permission). Obviously, don't claim any of these pictures as your own if they aren't yours.

CHARACTERS
The Warrior's Apprentice.
A fighter who uses swords and other melee weapons.
First appearance: Episode 1.
Age: 14
Interests: Sword-fighting, games like Capture-the-Flag
Ambition: to rid the world of all evil
Strengths: Brave, loyal, determined.
Weaknesses: Stubborn, can't hit enemies if they're too far away, not very fast
Affiliations: The Purity (AKA normal Forest)
"We have to stop the Corruption--before it seeps into more worlds!"
The Mage's Apprentice.
A magician who had to use shortswords when she lost her magical abilities.
First appearance: Episode 1.
Age: 14
Interests: Reading, sketching, learning more and more magic
Ambition: To find a way home, to her friends and family.
Strengths: smart, compassionate, fast. Can hit enemies that are far away, but only if she has magic.
Weaknesses: Somewhat frail (all magicians are, to an extent), not good with weapons other than magical ones, when she has to use shortswords she has very limited range
Affiliations: none so far.
"If we work together, everything will turn out all right!"
Picture (set in Hardmode): http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/thalia-pic-jpg.92005/
The Archer's Apprentice.
An archer who uses a bow with assorted arrows.
First appearance: Episode 1.
Age: 13
Interests: Making jokes, doing pranks
Ambition: To be the best archer.
Strengths: Speedy, can sneak, can hit enemies from afar. Can laugh off most insults.
Weaknesses: Those few insults that he can't laugh off deeply offend him and\or emotionally hurt him. Sometimes he jokes around too much when he should be serious.
Affiliations: The Purity (AKA normal forest)
"Want to help me do this prank? It'll be hilarious!"
Picture (from Chapter 6): http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/no-pancakes-jpg.92007/
A warrior who uses an assortment of weapons, mainly melee.
First appearance: Episode 2 (SPOILERS: Joins in Episode 5 SPOILERS END HERE.)
Age: Anywhere from 12 to 15. Hard to tell.
Interests: Sci-fi and fantasy stories, pranks, acting as the Guide when the actual Guide--Scott--isn't acting very Guidely (*cough* "IT'S A BUNNY RABBIT!!" *cough cough*), adventuring
Ambition: (SPOILERS: Making the Corruption pay for destroying her home, then destroying it outright so that no-one will have to go through what she did. She's also trying to regain her memories. SPOILERS END HERE.)
Strengths: Can use a wide variety of weapons--mainly melee--, has few fears, knows a lot about Terraria (well, actually....eh, spoilers, not going to say.)
Weaknesses: She's afraid of blood, (SPOILERS: she's lost some of her memory SPOILERS END HERE.)
Affiliations: Unknown.
Picture (NOTE: picture is not of Dawn when she is first seen in the story, this is actually what she will look like later
on :confused:):
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/dawn-pic-color-jpg.91281/
A spellblade who seems to have known or met Dawn, before they both became amnesiac.
First appearance: Chapter Thirteen (SPOILERS: Joins in Chapter Fifteen SPOILERS END HERE.)
Age: 14.
Interests: Currently unknown.
Ambition: (MILD SPOILERS) To regain his memories. (SPOILERS END HERE.)
Strengths: He's fast, he can use melee weapons and magic weapons
Weaknesses: (MILD SPOILERS) He's lost all of his memories from before he came to Terraria. (SPOILERS END HERE) Also, given how he prefers speed to defense, he wears light armor, instead of heavy armor.
Affiliations: Unknown.
Picture: Random realistic portrait, because one day I was inspired to draw one instead of a manga picture. :P
Dusk Realistic Portrait, smaller ver..jpg
The Guide.
He's been nicknamed "Captain Obvious" since he says obvious things.
First appearance: Episode 1.
Age: 18
Interests: He enjoys saying obvious things, and\or being weird. No-one knows why.
Ambition: To be the most annoying, useless, random Guide Terraria has ever seen.
Affiliations: Who knows.
"IT'S A BUNNY RABBIT!"
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/guide-pic-1-jpg.98598/

THE EPISODES:
It was a normal day for the three apprentices...
Dan, the Warrior's Apprentice, stabbed a training dummy.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," his master tutted. "Much too fast."
The heck? The faster I stab the enemy, the faster they die! And I hit the target right--so how is going fast bad? Dan thought, but he nonetheless tried the attack over again.
Meanwhile, Thalia, the Mage's Apprentice, was casting a Water Bolt spell, as her master watched on.
"Too much water in your water bolt," she sighed. "Try again, Thalia,"
Thalia sighed. "Again? It was perfect..."
And then of course, there was Michael, the Ranger's Apprentice, who was firing arrows at his master and pinning him to a wall.
"Okay, okay, nice archery! You can quit now, you're free!" his Master shouted. I should have never told him to practice on moving targets.... he thought to
himself.
The three Apprentices eventually got to rest, and Thalia went outside to sit underneath a tree, on the grass. A statue stood on a pedestal, spouting water into a fountain. Thalia was quiet, appreciating the silence for now. Later, there would be a Gathering, and all silence would be lost. Gatherings are annual meetings of Masters and their Apprentices. There, you could meet Apprentices of any of the main three Schools--the Warriors, the Mages, or the Rangers. Apprentices usually only saw Apprentices who went to their School, so meeting the other Apprentices was always a happy occasion.
Thalia remembered the sketchbook in her lap. I wonder if I should draw that statue over there. Then again, it looks like it's spitting at me...
What Thalia did not know was that this Gathering would not be remembered in history as an ordinary Gathering. In fact, far from that.

Later that day, Thalia sat beneath the same tree, reading as the Apprentices all talked together, laughing and telling various stories and jokes. She looked up from her book and gasped as a strange, flying creature suddenly started flying towards her. A flaming arrow whizzed out of nowhere, hitting the creature and burning it. Two boys ran towards shelter--the archer boy and another boy. However, there was no longer any shelter.
The grass had suddenly turned sickly purple, and the flying creatures were everywhere. The sky was yellowish. The world had completely transformed.
She didn't have much time to think, though, as magic-purple rings surrounded her, and the world turned fuzzy, then faded into black.

She woke up to see trees. Lots and lots of trees. She looked down to find that instead of wearing her wizard's robes, she wore a purple shirt and skirt. When her vision cleared more, she could see a boy sitting by a lake, holding a stone in his hand. She walked up to him, asking, "Where are we?"
"No clue. I haven't been able to explore much, since I can't go across this lake, and back that way there's a steep hill. So we can't go anywhere."
Behind Thalia, someone asked, "What happened to my Ranger's clothes? Why am I wearing these clothes?" The speaker was a blonde-haired boy who had ocean-blue eyes. He wore green commoner's clothes, instead of the Ranger's signature tunic and hood.
The other kid, who had brown hair and eyes, replied, "I've thought about that too. I'm no genius, but I think we've been taken to a different world, and our old clothes didn't qualify or something, so we were given a kind of default outfit, except with different colors for each of us." Then he said, "...If I'm going to live on a different planet with someone, I'd like to know they are. I'm Daniel, but you can call me Dan."
"I'm Thalia! Nice to meet you!"
The blonde-haired boy replied cheerfully, "I'm Michael! Oh, just don't call me Mike or I'll pin you to a wall with arrows. No pressure!"
Then there was a fourth voice. "That's all good and well, guys, but time is ticking and we don't have much time until--"
"Uh, dude, it's only morning," said Michael, looking at the sky. "What could possibly--"
Suddenly the fourth guy exclaimed, "PINKY!!! Quick, get out your Copper Shortswords out, quick!!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thalia smiled. What threat could this tiny, pink slimy creature pose? "Easy peasy!" she exclaimed. "All I've got to do is drown it with a Water Bolt spell!" she put her hand in front of her, her palm facing the Pinky. "Stand back!" she warned. She concentrated, but the spell never activated. She tried again, but still the Pinky wobbled like Jell-O, unscathed.
"The Mage's Apprentice can't cast a spell! HAH! I love it when that happens!" the fourth person exclaimed gleefully.
Thalia immediately knew she wouldn't like him. "I'm sick of all this mystery! We're going to get killed!" she burst out.
"You'll find out what's going on, all in good time," he replied darkly.
Then Dan's war cry, "COPPER SHORTSWORD ATTACK!" echoed through the forests. Sure enough, he took out a copper shortsword and started stabbing the Pinky. Thalia and Michael--"Aw, MAN, I don't have a bow either?!"--helped stab it, and eventually the Pinky disappeared, leaving behind some coins and blue gel.
"Hey, some money. This oughta come in handy," Dan remarked.
"Yes, yes, take the money! It's noon, start chopping down trees!" the mysterious young adult exclaimed.
Michael chopped down a tree, and after four or five hits, it disappeared, leaving behind acorns and logs of wood. "...I don't think that's how wood works," he said, grinning.
"Keep going!" the person shouted. "Make a house!"
After much hard work, Dan, Thalia, and Michael had built a lovely wooden house. On the outside, there were torches, and the inside was sparsely decorated, with only a wooden table, a few chairs, and a workbench, plus torches for light.
Thalia sat down on the workbench, taking in what they had built. "It may not be home, but it's home enough," she said.
Neither Dan or Michael replied, as Michael was pretending to be asleep--and was definitely fooling Thalia--and as Dan was trying not to laugh at how she thought Michael was asleep.
Thalia awkwardly tried making conversation. "I have to say, this is a pretty homey home."
Michael suddenly bolted up. "THIS IS BY FAR NOT THE HOMEY-EST HOME I'VE EVER SEEN!"
Thalia shrieked in surprise. "I thought you were asleep!"
Dan and Michael looked at each-other, and suddenly they could stop themselves no more. They burst out laughing, and then Thalia joined them, realizing they had been pranking her.

Meanwhile...
Dawn planted her Gold Sword into the ground, watching the sunset. "Times are changing, in ways far more complex than we can imagine. Part of it is for the better.
Most of it, I'm afraid...is for the worst. It is a time for heroes." she sighed. "If only we could find them."
TO BE CONTINUED...
As it turns out, the young adult who had been pestering them to build the house had been what he called himself "the Guide". He had messy reddish-brown hair, and he wore a bluish-silver jacket over a warm gray shirt, with light gray pants. He also wore a pumpkin-orange scarf that really didn't match with his other clothes.The Guide stepped into the house, remembering for once to close the door. "Hey guys, what's up?" he asked.
"We've got a ton of questions to ask you." Thalia announced cheerfully. "Like, why aren't we tired? What's for dinner? What do you do as the Guide?"
"Ah, you newbies, always so eager to talk. You aren't tired because--"
Michael raised his hand, looking angry. "You know, I'm tired. I'm tired of you always stalling to answer our questions. "
Now the Guide looked angry as well. "You newbies! You're always so impatient! As I was saying, you aren't tired because in Terraria, you don't need sleep. You also
don't get hungry, so all food does is heal your wounds. Some of the foods available are Mushrooms and Goldfish. My JOB is to help the newbies of this land--or possibly
OTHER important guests, known as NPCs."
"NPCs?" Dan asked.
"Several people whom I am SURE will help us!" the Guide replied, no longer angry. What he hid from the newbies was, was that there were only three people that he
knew of that would help them.
The talk continued as the four tried to pass the night away. When it was morning, they ventured outside.
Looking back, Thalia thought that they really didn't have to wait long. Outside, the zombies and demon eyes were all gone, and they hadn't destroyed anything. The
Guide told them that an easy way to get across the lake was to build a bridge out of wooden platforms. So they chopped down more trees, then made the bridge.
So then naturally, we had decided to explore beyond the lake, Thalia thought.
Michael had exclaimed, "Look, guys, a cave!"
"Should we go in?" Thalia asked nervously.
"Why not?" Michael replied.
So then we plunged into the cave, placing torches as we went.
"Hey, guys, look what I found!" Thalia exclaimed. "It looks like some ore!"
In the dirt walls, there was a vein of orangish metal ore. Dan took out his Copper Pickaxe, then once it was all mined, he exclaimed, "Look at all this copper ore!
Who wants to carry it in their backpack?"
As we explored more, we found more ores, pots with treasure, and once we even found a heart-shaped crystal.
"I'd say we'd hit it with a hammer just hard enough to knock it off the ground," Dan commented.
Another time, we found this strange, purple-blackish alter-like thing, that reminded me of a monster's mouth, with fangs jutting out of it.
"What is that thing?" Thalia whispered.
Should I touch it...? Michael had wondered, before Thalia stopped him.
The four mined for quite some time, fighting brightly colored slimes, blue bats, and fearsome skeletons, until their backpacks became stuffed. They quickly back-
tracked to start going home, following the torches, and running as the sun sunk through the sky.
"Quick! Run to the house, the sun is setting!" Dan shouted.
Twenty feet...eighteen feet...fifteen feet...twelve feet...ten feet...eight feet...five...four...three...two...one--
Dan slammed the door shut after Michael and Thalia. "Whew! Just in time,"
"I don't think I've ever been happier to be inside this house," Thalia agreed.

Meanwhile...
Dawn and the Guide stood together, looking off into the distance.
"So tell me..." Dawn began. "Did you see anybody who might be the heroes?"
"Yes, I did," The Guide smirked. "They're on this world, too."
TO BE CONTINUED...
"Oh-my-gosh look at all these metal bars!" Thalia exclaimed, looking at the jumble of colors, some bright, some dull, that she had gathered in her arms.
"How do you think I feel?" groaned Dan behind the mountain of metal he was carrying.
The Guide came in at just that moment. "Holy pixies?!!!? How'd you get all that ore?!"
"We mined..." Dan said, after setting down the metal. Duh... he thought. Wasn't that obvious?
"What are you waiting for?! Make some armor! Tools! Weapons! Don't just stand around!"
Among the things crafted were a Superior Silver Broadsword, Keen Silver Shortsword, a plain Silver Bow, two sets of Iron Chainmail, a Massive Iron Pickaxe,
Copper Chainmail, 3 Copper Helmets, and a ton of Flaming Arrows.
"What? I'm running out of arrows," Michael defended.
The Guide was the only one to notice when an eerie voice whispered, "The Blood Moon is rising...."
"This can't be happening...." he whispered. Legend says that Blood Moons are a cursed night! <:< We're DOOOOOOOOMED! he thought. "Quick, put on the new
armor, equip those weapons!"
"Bring it on!" Dan shouted at the zombies.
"Yeah! Go team!" Thalia shouted.
Michael said, muffled as the visor on his helmet came crashing over his face, "I can't see a thing!"
"Oh, joy. The heroes: -The guy who is recklessly brave -The Mage who can't cast a spell, and -The guy who CAN'T SEE. " The Guide grumbled.
They fought bravely, though, he had to admit: Dan was somehow dual-wielding a Copper Axe and his Silver Sword, Thalia was stabbing zombies with her Silver
Shortsword, shouting, "And STAY dead!", and Michael was firing Flaming Arrows at the demon eyes. Something told the Guide he should go help, but he shook his head
and stayed behind in the house, watching.
...With the door open.
However, Dan didn't even notice, as he was too concerned about the army of zombies approaching. "Oh, no...there's too many, fall back! FALL BACK!"
"Look!" Thalia exclaimed. A shooting star, colored sparks flying off it, came down towards the army and exploded, killing one of them.
Using the distraction, Dan, Thalia, and Michael ran back towards the house. Thalia grabbed the star as she ran...

Meanwhile...
It was only a few more minutes before it was daytime and Dawn arrived, astonished.
"They survived through legend's cursed day?! This PROVES they are the heroes!" She raised her sword in the air and cried, "The heroes' time has begun!"
She sheathed her sword, not wishing to scare them, and then she walked up to the door of their house and knocked. "What will I say to them, though...?"
Knock, knock, knock,
Thalia sighed angrily, walking up to the door. "Oh, no, not another zombie...!" She was about to open the door before Dan said,
"Hey, Thalia, what are you doing wasting your time by that door? It's probably just the Guide,"
She opened the door anyway, to find a tall girl wearing impressive gold armor. Her hair, which was literally bright red, was so long it was only a few inches above her knees. She had freckles and vivid green eyes. She said, "Uh, hi...my name is Dawn? And--"
"Come on in!" Thalia exclaimed happily, as though she knew they were good friends. Yaaaay, it's another girl! she thought.
"Um, I have very important news?" Dawn started.
"Okay!" Thalia said, still cheerfully.
Dawn suddenly lost her shyness and became serious. "This is very important! Go get the boys and tell them that somebody has very important news. Hurry!"
Thalia relayed the message to the two boys, who were sitting at the table. Michael was so shocked the visor of his helmet fell again, making Dan smirk.
That is such a ridiculous helmet... he thought. Then he forced himself to be serious and ask Thalia, "What's wrong?"
"Is everybody ready?" Dawn asked. "Good. All right now. I suppose I should start by saying that Terraria is changing--in the worst possible way. An evil biome, the Corruption, is consuming everything, and is even seeping outside of Terraria. Only YOU THREE can stop it. I can show you the way, I can help you find the answers. But only if you accept my help."
Thalia looked in the distance, thinking. Dan frowned in thought. Michael grinned. The three answered at the same time. "We accept."
Dawn smiled. "My name is Dawn. Scott already told me what your names were. Nice to finally meet you in person!"
"Nice to meet you too, but...who's Scott?" Michael asked.
"Scott didn't tell you his name? Scott's the Guide of this world," Dawn said, surprised.
"Oh."
"Anyways, every good fortress has a decent village! So grab your tools and let's go make one!" Dawn exclaimed. "Besides, I have the feeling that if we build a few houses something good will happen."
Before they could begin, they heard a knocking sound again. "What NOW?!" asked Thalia, irratated. She really didn't want to fight more monsters.
It was the Guide, grinning toothily and holding something white. "Hey, guys, come see what I found!"
"Huh?" Asked Dan, turning around in his chair as Michael's visor came crashing down again.
Thalia did a facepalm and muttered, "Oh brother..."
"What's going on? What is it?!" asked Dawn.
Guide showed them what was in his hands. "It's a BUNNY RABBIT!"
Dan sighed. "Seriously?"
"That's why I'm here." Dawn said.

"Whew, all finished. Now we can sit back and admire our work. That's the best part," Dawn added. "It's so rewarding..."
The houses were very well made: Dawn had a floating wood house, Thalia had a small wizard's tower made of mud with Glowing Mushroom Grass, Michael had a house
in the shadow of the hill to the left, and Dan had a house in the side of the hill. Lamposts replaced torches in the road.
However, the next thing they knew...
"Milton the Merchant has arrived!
Joy the Nurse has arrived!
Gimut the Demolitionist has arrived!"
...all their houses were taken up.
TO BE CONTINUED...
"Alright, kiddos, let's get breakfast started!" Dawn exclaimed, joking as she wasn't much older than the other three "heroes", and as she knew they didn't have to eat.
"Aw, come on, I was having a lovely time pretending I was dreaming," Michael groaned. His hair was messy, as though he had genuinely tried to sleep.
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Okay, then, what do you want to pretend to eat?"
"I think some PANCAKES are in order!"
Dawn raised her eyebrows. "And I assume you know where to find some wheat?"
"You mean--" Michael sniffed. "NO PANCAKES?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" he ran off, clearly distressed. Apparently he liked pancakes.
"Okay, okay, get a hold of yourself! We're the heroes, remember?" Thalia reminded them. Thalia was not much younger than Dawn, and she had short black hair with even bangs. There were stripes of purple in her hair. She had purple eyes, which was proof of the fact that she had once possessed magical powers.
"You know, somehow I find that hard to believe..." Dan trailed off.
"Come on, guys, be positive! I mean, it's not like we have to save the universe or anything!" she said.
Dan and Dawn blinked in disbelief, their mouths hanging open in shock.
"Wait, what are we talking about again?" Michael asked, confused.
"Are you crazy?! We have to save multiple worlds, in numerous dimensions..." Dan said.
Dawn shook her head in dismay. "We're doomed. Totally doomed."
Michael grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth. "DON'T SAY THAT. Whatever you do, DON'T SAY THAT!"
Dawn brushed his hands off crossly. "Okay, okay, I get it...just calm down. Geez..."
Suddenly the door slammed open. It was the Demolitionist, a dwarf with a brown beard and a mining helmet with mining clothes. He carried a lantern on a stick with him. "GOOOOD MORNIN', girls and boys! Come on, wake up!! We got a full day of mining and blowing up stuff, so HURRY UP and COME ON ALRE'DY! Rise n' SHINE, kiddos!"
"Now when did HE ever go mining with us?" Michael asked.
"Apparently he's going to start going with us now," Thalia said.
"Gimut's right, though, we need to get back to mining so that we'll be prepared to stop the Corruption."
"Okay, Dan...we suppose you're right..." Thalia said.
"But wait! Guys, I haven't even fixed my hair after pretending to be asleep--! And who said 'we'?" The door banged against the wall as Michael was the only one left in the house. "I hate it when they do that..." he grumbled.

Meanwhile...
Dawn was standing in front of the cave when Dan and Thalia caught up. "Come on, let's go. I'll lead." she said.
They then entered the cave, and thankfully Michael caught up within no-time. The Demolitionist was no-where to be seen, though. Thalia heard a voice whisper that Fiona and Elan had arrived, which she thought was strange. She didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing...

Meanwhile...
Fiona was a 15-year-old girl with sea-green hair in two super-long ponytails, and eyes the same color. She wore mint green Familiar Clothes. And she was one of the few people Elan could trust.
She smiled, looking at the birds flying around, and the rabbits hopping around happily--or at least, it was happy until a slime accidently hopped into it and killed it. "Heh. It's so peaceful, here, just like Gaia"--she pronounced it GAH-ee-uh--"was before the Hard War...I can't believe Cthulhu's Eye hasn't even visited this world yet! Must we destroy the peace and warn them?"
Elan frowned. "Yes...we must. Write down the world's code number--we're going to have to warn them, later when they'll remember it. They must not make the same mistake we did. We can't let this world be overrun by the Corruption like Gaia. We just can't..."

Later...
"Good job, people! We mined a lot of ore in that cave run! And boy, did we teach those bats a lesson!" Dawn exclaimed.
"Oh, yeah? And who was being taught the lesson? I nearly died twice! Twice, Dawn!" Michael exclaimed unhappily.
"NEARLY died! NEARLY! And besides, we got a lot of stuff!" Thalia pointed out.
A shout came from the back of the room. "HEY!! NEW STUFF TO HELP THEM WITH!"
"Carp. It's the Guide." she said.
"Now that you have some ore, you will need to turn it into a bar in order to make items with it. This requires a FURNACE!" The Guide shouted happily, now facing Dawn and Thalia.
"Well thanks, Captain Obvious, that's so helpful," Michael said sarcastically.
"GLAD YA THINK SO! I'M HERE TO HELP!"
"Michael! Be nice to Scott, he's the Guide!" scolded Thalia.
"Precisely. He's the Guide, and the Guide's annoying." Dawn said, deadpan.
"You're not Michael!"
"Whatever."
"...Wow. Wonder how long it'll take them to notice we've crafted new stuff," Michael commented to Dan.
"I don't know..."
"Uh, guys? You better stop arguing, it's nighttime and the zombies'll be coming soon!" the Guide warned, pointing to the window.
"See? Told ya the Guide was useful! Now--" Thalia was interrupted by a surprisingly loud whisper.
"You feel an evil presence watching you..."
Dawn turned white. "Oh my gosh...it's the Eye..." she whispered. Then she shook herself out of shock and started shouting out orders. "Quick, equip the new gear! Dan and Thalia, we'll attack the Eye! Michael, you go ask the Merchant for some shuriken!"
"What happens if I don't make it back in time?" he asked seriously.
"Then fire from a distance, in cover."
"But what if I run out of shuriken!"
"Just GO!"
(And yet again, equipment change!)
Outside...
"ROOOOOAAAAAAR!!"
Dawn knew that the Eye was bellowing because it wanted to inspire fear in its enemy, and even though deep down she was afraid, she didn't show it and she put on
a brave face. The other two didn't do so well. "Guys! If ya wanna live, hit that Eye!"
"BUT WE GONNA DIE!" they protested.
How on Terraria could she have ever thought that they were hero material...?

Meanwhile...
"Michael, is it? I've heard good things, friend!" the old, bearded merchant exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have any shuriken?"
"I wonder if the moon is made of cheese...huh, what?! Oh, yes, buy something."
"Shuriken. Please."
"I feel like an evil presence is watching me..."
"Yeah, me too. Shuriken."
"I hope a scrawny kid like you isn't all that's standing between us and Cthulhu's Eye."
"I AM NOT--THE OTHERS--BLARRGH."
Back on the Battlefield...
"Aw, carp! Servants of Cthulhu!"
At the Merchant's House, which ironically used to be Michael's...
"I'M BEGGING YOU! PLEASE LET ME BUY SOME SHURIKEN!"
Battlefield.
"Oh no!"
HP: 38\125
Merchant's House.
"Our dirt blocks are extra dirt-y!"
"Can I please buy the shuriken?!" *Shop screen opens up* "Oh."
Battlefield.
"Guys, I've only got two Lesser Healing Potions!" Dawn exclaimed. She was losing health, rapidly. She couldn't escape this time, could she...?
Merchant's House.
"Oh carp, I don't have enough money..."
Battlefield.
"He's lost 763 HP, keep on stabbing him!" Dan shouted.
"WE ARE!"
Merchant's House.
"Finally!" Michael pumped his fist through the air. "Dawn, Thalia, Dan, I now have shuriken and am coming to help\save you!"
He ran out the door and grabbed a shuriken. He aimed for the Eye and threw. FWOOSH! The Eye's health meter now read 1519/2800.
Michael flipped the visor of his helmet back up. "Huh. That's some decent damage."
He then preceeded to throw all the shuriken and throwing knives he had at the Eye.
"Keep on hitting it!!" Dawn exclaimed. A Servant of Cthulhu came too close and she sliced it cleanly in half.
"Oh, so you didn't miss me? Come on, Dawn, you know you need me here!" he teased.
"Just shush Michael."
The Eye bellowed again as its iris fell out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHH!!!"

! ERROR: YOUR SCREEN ON YOUR COMPUTOR HAS CRASHED. !
YOU NEED A NEW MONITOR.​
DARNIT, CTHULHU, YOU MADE A HUGE GLITCH CRASH THE COMPUTOR!

...Actually, no, I did that for suspense and to play a prank on you, the reader's, brain.
They can all see--they just freaked out at seeing the Eye's second form. I'm sure you did once, too.
Have I broken the fourth wall\confused you enough yet?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHH!!!" Dawn screamed, irratated that the Eye wasn't dead yet.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHH!!!" Michael screamed, freaking out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHH!!!" Thalia screamed, very scared.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHH!!!" For once, it was Dan's turn for his visor to fall over his face. He was then irratated, because if he couldn't see, then the
Eye might kill him, and he wouldn't be able to do anything.
Will the four teens kill the Eye? Will any of them die? And most importantly of all, WILL THEY STOP SCREAMING?! (Seriously, it's ear-splitting.) Find out in Episode Seven!
"You gotta be kidding me. A second form?!" Dawn exclaimed. "Gah, hack at it 'till it dies!"
The other three blinked in surprise. "You mean you don't have a...real plan?" Thalia asked, worried. "That's a first."
"I honestly don't know as much about Terraria as you think I do. I only know from experience and from what the Guide says. Now; attack the Eye while it's not attacking you!"
Dawn swung her sword at the Eye, while Thalia stabbed it. Then Dan slashed it, and Michael threw more shuriken and daggers.
After much throwing of knives and shuriken, of stabbing and slashing, the Eye of Cthulhu was no more. The boss was dead. Our very first boss--and we survived!
Dawn could hardly believe they had won as she picked up Corrupt Seeds, Lesser Healing Potions, and other spoils from the ground.

The next day...
"Celeste the Dryad has arrived!"
By now they were used to the whispering voice making announcements, but it was still eerie nonetheless.
"Oh, great...another NPC...wonderful..." Dawn said, deadpan.
"Oh, great, another NPC! Wonderful!" Thalia exclaimed happily.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't get too excited. I mean, we have to build a house--" Dawn started. She was interrupted by Michael.
"SERIOUSLY?! AWWWWWWWW MAAAAAAAAAN!"
"Just. Build."
As Dan hammered out a table on the workbench, the Guide gleefully handed out tons of obvious tips. "...Yup, so that's how ya build a workbench, but THEN you have to craft all the tables and chairs and torches, and once you get a furnace to make an Iron Anvil..."
"I know, Guide, we've been over this..."
The finished house was mainly wooden, although there was a grass "carpet" in one section of the house for a tree. Around the tree was glass, so that it made it look like the house was half house, half greenhouse or garden.
Dan looked around. "So where is this 'Dryad' person?"
Thalia pointed. "There. See?"
The Dryad was tall and thin. Her bright green eyes sparkled, and her similarly-colored hair was in a long, thick braid. She wore a shirt made of tree bark, and on top of that was a sort of a shawl made of vines. She wore a skirt made of leaves that was so long, it touched the ground.
"I'm Thalia, who are you?" Thalia asked. Dan thought it was an odd question to ask since she already knew the Dryad's name.
"I am Celeste...the last dryad."
"OH MY GOOD--that's horrible!" Thalia exclaimed.
"I'm going to go mining with Michael, good-bye," Dan muttered.
"Don't apologize, it's alright," the Dryad said, smiling. She must not've heard Dan.
"So what do you do?" asked Dawn, arriving all of a sudden.
"Dawn! Be polite!" Thalia scolded. After all, the Dryad was talking about how she was the last of her people! Dawn needed to be more respectful.
The Dryad didn't seem to mind Dawn's question, though. "I sell stuff and tell the percentage of Hallow and Corruption."
"Oh, okay! Welcome to whatever our village is called!"
"Dawn..." Thalia warned.
"It's okay. I'm just happy to see people." the Dryad said, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet and smiling.
Dawn took advantage of the Dryad's willingness to talk. "How many people are there, other than me, Thalia, Dan and Michael?"
Thalia sighed.
"Nine, not counting me." Celeste replied.
"Okay. So what do you sell--"
"Dawn! Let the Dryad rest!"
"What?" Dawn asked, grinning, clearly not comprehending what Thalia's problem was.
The Dryad launched into Itemize Mode. "I sell sunflowers, purification powder, grass seeds, the Dirt Rod--"
"It's okay Dryad, you didn't have to answer that." Thalia said, which made Dawn look miffed.
"Sooooooooooooo anyways, welcome to Whateverville, like I said. Go make yourself at home in that Greenhouse thing, that's where you'll live. NOW. If you'll excuse us, we have to go into the Corruption." Dawn said.
Behind her, Michael screamed, "AAAH no it's a bat! It's trying to eat meeeeeee!"
Noticing that no-one was gathering around so they could leave, Dawn turned around saying, "NOW. Right NOW. We're LEAVING. Hey, where is every--?! Oh, no, seriously?!"
"HELP it's a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"
"Hold on!" Thalia shouted, chasing Michael and the bat, her shortsword in hand.
Dawn drew her sword and waited until they ran near her. When the bat was close enough, she slashed at it and it disappeared, leaving behind some coins in its place.
She picked the coins up, then said, "Anyways, nice meeting you, Dryad, we'll be off to the Corruption!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
"Here we are..." Dawn announced. "The Corruption."
The sky was yellow. The grass was sickly purple. Even plants looked creepy. It was just like at the Gathering...Thalia shivered. Except for one thing.
"Where are the monsters?"
"Shh! The monsters will hear and think you want them over here!" Michael teased.
"Both of you, quiet!" Dan held up his sword to shush them. They weren't scared though, because they knew Dan didn't mean that as a threat.
"...Thank you, Dan," Dawn puffed. "Anyways. We have to go that way." She pointed with her sword.
"What's that w--oh." Thalia looked and saw a plain wooden house. The only things in it were a bed, a workbench and chair, torches for lighting, and three chests.
A wooden sign inside the house read, "Welcome to Dawn's house! Wooden chests hold armor, weapons, and ores, Gold chest holds money, herbs, and Corrupted items.
No NPC's! :p"
Thalia was shocked. "Dawn...you mean you've lived here all along?"
Dawn paused. "Yeah. This is my world, you know. Not that I mind you guys being here...I'm just really homesick."
The sword Dan had been holding up swung so that the point no longer pointed to the left, but pointed towards the ground. "Homesick? ...Where's home, then? If you
don't mind my asking," Dan added.
"I...I don't know...Come on, let's move. I don't want to think about home..."

In Dawn's house...
"Wow...you sure do have a lot of stuff here..." Thalia remarked uneasily as she stared into the contents of a wooden chest. How long had Dawn been here?
"As I said, my world, my house. I destroyed my former Terrarian house and moved it all here, but then I realized I couldn't do this on my own, so I looked
for heroes."
Dawn couldn't say much more that that though as suddenly Michael exclaimed, "OH MY GOSH GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD AAAAAAAARMOOOOOOOR!!! Must. Have. I-i-i-i-it..."
"Dude. What. Is. Your. Problem." Since Dawn was used to having Gold Armor, she didn't understand why Michael was freaking out over finding out she had crafted extra gold armor to give to the "heroes".
"THIS IS A WHOLE TWO TIERS BETTER THAN MY CURRENT ARMOR!" Michael, of course, still only had Iron Armor, so naturally he was kind of--okay, very--indignant.
"Then keep it." she replied. "I really don't need it..."
"Dawn, you are the awesomest. Person. Ever!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great Michael. Shoo. It's yours now. ...And stop yelling, while you're at it. Geez...Freaking out over everything..."
"Sorry Dawn." He said, blushing.
"Anyways!" Dawn was now speaking to Thalia and Dan. "Take anything you want except for my money and ores. Because after this, we're going EX-PLOR-ING!" Dawn pumped her fist as though she was happy to finally be able to go exploring through the Corruption.
"Oookay...going a little extreme, now, are we?" Thalia said.
"She's right, though; armor up and let's go." Dan replied, putting on a winged Gold Helmet.
Outside...
The four stood over a hole in the ground--a Corruption chasm. The hole was so large, you would've needed a Grappling Hook to get across it.
"Whoa...that's a deep chasm..." Michael said in awe.
"So...we jump in?" Dan asked.
"Yeah, just remember to use your Grappling Hook, don't go splat, and you'll be fine." Dawn advised.
"So I'm supposed to use the Grappling Hook on the ground...so that I fall faster?"
"Pretty much." Dawn nodded.
"That makes absolutely no sense."
"Agreed."
They then jumped into the chasm.
"Whoo~o!" Dawn shouted.
"AAH DUDE I'M FALLING!" screamed Michael, who was now playing the role of Captain Obvious.
"Aeeeeii! I'm falling too faaast!" Thalia shrieked.
"Stop shrieking like a little girl, Thalia!" Dan shouted, putting his hands over his ears to block the sound out (shrieking is not good for the ears).
Finally they landed, making a "ptoof" sound as their feet landed on the ground.
"I'm going right." Thalia announced.
"...There's Demonite Ore to the left." Dawn said. She sighed, then said, "Whatever, we'll split up." Dawn hadn't walked for long before a flying Corruption creature flew out of nowhere. "SCREE!" The sound was earsplitting.
"Oh my gosh. Wh--it's--" Michael was shocked to see the creatures from the Gathering...
"That's a Big Eater. They are the manifestations of the Corruption. They destroyed my home," Dawn added in a whisper. "And I'm getting revenge." She charged the Eater. "YOU SHALL PAY FOR THIS!" She drew her sword from the sheathe on her back and slashed. "...IYAAAH!"
FWOOSH! The Eater dodged her attack. "SCREE!"
"You gotta be kidding--" Suddenly Dawn couldn't help but think of a brown-haired lady sobbing with a caption saying, "Does critical hit and makes a reference to a meme; Eater dodges attack"
"It's okay!" Michael exclaimed, waving around a stick of dynamite. "That's what we brought THIS for!" he then threw the stick and it blew up, making the cliched mushroom-cloud explosion.
The ground sizzled as smoke from the explosion wafted from the ground. "I'm not sure if I made it blow up enough." he commented.
He looked into the hole the explosion had made and saw a purple orb. "Is...is that a glob of Jell-O?" (Answer: it is an orb. It is not at all Jell-O.)
"Oh, well! I'm going to break it with my hammer!" he said, grinning and rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Who knew what thingamajigers the Jell-O would give, when it disappeared?
Then the mysterious voice whispered, "Dawn was destroyed by Dynamite."
"No..." he fell to the ground in shock. "NO...NO!"

Meanwhile...
Dawn was sleeping in her bed, at her house. Blood trickled from a corner of her mouth, but otherwise, she was all right. She woke up with a jolt, breathing heavily.
"Wh--wha--I--I'm supposed to be dead!"

MEANWHILE!...Again.
Michael raised the hammer in the air, then struck the orb, cracks appearing like spiderwebs across its surface before it broke. The fragments of the orb disappeared, and left behind a blue flail. Michael instantly knew its name--the Ball O Hurt.
The voice whispered again. "A horrible chill runs down your spine..."
"Ohhh carp."
TO BE CONTINUED....
"Hello, Dawn," the Guide whispered. (Author's Note: there seems to be a lot of whispering, isn't there?)
"Where'd you come from?!" Dawn asked, jumpy, especially since she had just died.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Did I scare you?" Duh, Dawn thought. Wasn't that obvious? "I guess you were asleep, sorry for waking you up like that. I was just about to ask you how your journey to the Corruption was."
"Um...great...can I tell you something?"
"Of course you can! You can tell me anything!" the Guide smiled. Was he making fun of Shoujo manga (sappy girl's manga)? One thing was for certain: the Guide was weird.
Nonetheless, he was the Guide, so Dawn figured he might have a good explanation for what had happened. She started with, "I...I'm supposed to be dead."
"SUPPOSED to be dead? If you're not actually dead, then what are you waiting for? Go back and find the others! Go on, go!"
"O-okay..." Dawn said hesitantly. "...You know what, you're right. I'm lucky to be alive--I better be more careful next time! Thanks, Guide, I'll go find the others as soon as I craft some stuff with the Demonite Ore the Eye dropped!" She ran off, saying, "Bye!"
"You seriously hadn't crafted anything with that ore yet?" the Guide sighed.
In the Crafting Room of her house, Dawn thought of what she could make. "Hm...Demon Bow...Michael would like that but I don't think we want that right now...oh yeah, Light's Bane! That's better than my Gold Broadsword! But wait, War Axe of the Night? Hey, it's an axe AND a sword-like-weapon, AND it's better than my sword! I'll craft that!"

Somewhat earlier...
BOOOOM!!
"So...how much dynamite do you have left?" Dan asked.
"Three sticks. And you?" Thalia asked, looking up as though she expected Eaters to arrive at any moment.
"Two. That means we've used up five stick of dynamite," he said.
There was a short pause before Thalia asked, "Hey, Dan?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think--do you think Dawn and Michael are okay? I haven't heard them say anything--"
BOOOOOOOM!
"Dawn was destoyed by dynamite." The voice whispered, before a voice in the distance screamed, "No...NO...NO!"
"Dan, what was that? D--do you really think she's--that sounded like Michael shouting--are they okay?"
"Whatever it is, we won't find out by standing around talking! Come on, let's go!" he shouted, motioning for her to go. He then ran towards the way Dawn had gone.
"Hey--! Wait uuup!"

Meanwhile...
I have to hurry, I have to hurry...I can't let the others know I'm supposed to be dead... Dawn thought, running as fast as she could. She had her War Axe in her hand in case she had to fight an Eater--those things were everywhere.
She found Michael sitting on the floor, holding himself and rocking back and forth, sobbing to himself, "Dead...dead...all my fault..."
Dawn didn't say anything. She was too late--they knew she was supposed to be dead.
Michael looked up, wondering if someone was there. Then he saw her. "Dawn..." He immediately leaped to his feet. "Dawn, I'm so sorry! I-I threw the dynamite, and a voice said you died...SLIMES, DAWN, IT'S ALL MY FAULT, please, please forgive me!"
She sighed. "I forgive you. At the moment, I'm more concerned with 'how am I still alive'."
"Oh yeah...forgot about that..." he mumbled. "So...what was it like? Dying, I mean?"
Dawn shuddered. "Very...painful. And bloody. You really don't want to know."
Michael started to speak, but then Dan and Thalia arrived. "Thank goodness you're both all right!" Thalia exclaimed. "We were so worried--uh, are we interrupting?"
"No, Michael was just about to say something. Go on." Dawn said.
"No, that's fine...it can wait."
"Okay then..."
"Anyways, how many Shadow Orbs have you broken?" Dan asked. "We broke only one."
"We broke one too. I got a flail. What about you?"
"We got a Musket and some bullets." he replied.
"So what are we waiting for?" Dawn asked. "Let's go break some Shadow Orbs!"
And so, the four teenagers continued their quest, exploring the Corruption, hunting for Shadow Orbs. Will they survive, or will they face a slumbering monster's wrath?
...Only time will tell.

Thalia struck the Shadow Orb. When it had disappeared, it left behind a dull-green staff that was covered in small thorns. At the tip there were three large thorns. She knew its name: the Vilethorn. This one was damaged, though, so it was Sluggish.
The eerie voice whispered, "The Eater of Worlds has awoken!"
"What the--" Dawn was interrupted by a ginormous brown worm-like creature with many eyes bursting out of the ground. "SCREE!" the sound was even louder than the Big Eater's screeching.
"Whaa!" Thalia fell back as the ground she was standing on spiked up, as the creature--which must've been the Eater of Worlds--dug out of the ground feet away from her. She fell back, banging on the Corrupted stone and jarring her wrist. She screamed in pain. "My arm!" she forced herself to get up, holding her arm as she did so. "Owwww..."
"LOOK OUT YOU GONNA DIE!" Dawn shouted.
"AAH!"
Sure enough, though, there were the SHF SHF SHF sounds of the EoW digging through the ground. It came up, screeching again. The ground cracked where it came up.
"Come on! Run! We're going to dodge its attacks until we have a plan!" Dawn said.
Over in a corner, Dan and Michael were discussing what their plan should be. "We could shoot at it..." Dan suggested.
"Really? That musket fires too slowly. Maybe arrows?"
Dawn and Thalia reached where they were at that moment. "I really don't care WHAT you do--just KILL IT!" Dawn instructed. "I've found that strategy is pretty sound," she added in an undertone.
"VILETHORN ATTACK!" Thalia shouted, glad to finally be able to use magic attacks again. A stream of thorns shot towards the EoW.
"BALL O HURT ATTACK!" Dawn shouted, flicking her arm so that the flail hit the worm-like creature as it dove back into the ground.
"Gold Bow, Jester's Arrows attack!"
"SILVER SWORD ATTACK!"
The battle was quick, and soon the Eater of Worlds was slain.
"How is it the Eater of Worlds if it can't even begin to eat me?!"
"Gee, calm down Michael..." Thalia said. "Anyways, we better go back to our village, then go find that meteor!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Michael-- "Wierdest ending ever."
Thalia, of course, wanted to go to the meteor crash site. Since Fallen Stars gave mana, maybe she'd regain all her magic powers if she went to see a Meteorite. When she asked who was going with her, Dan and Dawn replied at the same time:
"I will."
"Oookay then..." Thalia said. "Dawn, you have a Magic Mirror, right?" Dawn said 'yes'. "Okay, then we can go together," Thalia said, looking at Dan to see if he would object. When he merely nodded, she looked in her Magic Mirror. Thalia saw her reflection for a brief instant before she felt herself turn cold, and her vision go black. When her vision came back a few seconds later, she saw she was at her house. Thalia ran outside to see Dawn.
"He have to hurry, since it could have landed anywhere. I think we should go left first." she said. Thalia nodded and they ran. They passed two deserts and three small forests and climbed a hill before they had to stop.
A large flaming object flew down from the sky, then hit the ground only a few feet ahead of them, on the far side of the hill Dawn and Thalia were standing on. They both had to cover their faces with their arms as the meteorite landed, causing dirt and stone to fly everywhere.
Dawn was the first to look up. She nudged Thalia and said, "Look."
She did. What she saw was a changed landscape; there was a huge crater where the meteorite had landed, and the ore looked like it had half-melted into the ground. Meteor Heads were everywhere.
Thalia's thoughts were interrupted when Dawn got out her flail and said, "You dig the meteorite, I'll protect you from the monsters. By the way, try not to touch the ore--it's still fiery from exploding and everything."
Thalia nodded and tried to start digging.

Meanwhile....
"So...what do we do now?" Michael asked.
The mysterious voice whispered, "A Goblin Army is approaching from the east!"
"...Did you just hear what I did?" asked Dan, drawing his sword.
"You mean that there's goblins in Terraria, and an army of them is coming to kill us?"
"This is not good..." Dan said.

Dan and Michael burst into the Guide's house.
"GUIDE...!" Dan shouted threateningly. Scott was at the table. He got up when he saw Dan and Michael, who were now walking towards him.
"You never told us there were goblins!" Dan accused.
The Guide put his arms up, palms forward as though he was trying to make a wall between himself and the fuming Dan. "I thought you knew!"
"Yeah, well, YOU haven't been completely honest with us, on a lot of things! I'm tired of your--"
A Goblin Mage appeared in the room and fired a Magic Bolt at Dan, who was hit. He stumbled back, breathing hard before he remembered to drink a potion.
While Dan was healing, Michael fired arrows at the Mage.
"...You know what, let's have this talk later," Scott said. Dan looked to where the Guide was, but he must've ran away since Dan saw only empty space.
"Coward." he mumbled. Then he drew his sword, and ran forwards. The Goblin Mage teleported behind Michael.
"Michael! Watch out!" Dan ran forwards to help Michael, but before he could help him, Michael stabbed the Goblin with an arrow and killed it.
"Since when did Goblins bleeping teleport?!" he exclaimed. "That wasn't in the stories!"
"There's no time to worry how accurate the stories are--we have to fight the army! We can't let them hurt the villagers!" Dan exclaimed, and he rushed out the door that he had banged open just a few minutes ago.

Meanwhile....
Dawn turned around and sliced a Meteor Head in two with her sword. She then whipped out her flail and smacked a Meteor Head that was about to attack Thalia.
"How's it going?" she shouted.
"I'm going to blow up the ore, see if I can speed this up. We have to help fight the army as soon as we can!" Thalia shouted back.
Dawn shuddered--she wasn't fond of explosives any more. Nevertheless, she forced herself to shout in reply, "Go ahead. I'll keep on fighting."
Thalia merely nodded as she took out a Bomb and threw it.

Meanwhile....
Warriors in heavy armor, archers in leather armor, short peons and mages with staffs were everywhere. Dan and Michael were just stunned for a minute before Dan asked, "Do you think it'd be a better idea if we stick together, or would it be better if we split up?"
"Dawn would know," Michael said. "I think what we should do though, is I should try attacking from the roof of a house to get the high ground while you attack the archers and mages."
"Okay then." Dan said. Then he sighed. "We're going to need a lot of potions, aren't we?"
"If you have to talk to the Merchant, tell him specifically that you want to shop. You can't just say what you want to buy--you actually have to walk up to him and specifically say 'shop'." Michael advised.
"Thanks," Dan said, and he ran to where the archers were standing. Michael, meanwhile, climbed the stairs leading to the roof of the Nurse's house (so that if he needed healing he could go talk to her quickly) and started firing arrows at the warriors.
Every time the arrow hit a Goblin, Michael winced. He knew they were evil--if you believed the stories, which Michael did--and had started the fight--for no apparent reason. And yet he still felt bad because the best way to kill them was to aim for the one part of them that wasn't covered with armor--their faces. What kind of death was that, "shot in the face by an arrow because it's hard to protect your face"?
He winced again as another warrior disappeared into thin air, dead.
"What if they had a good reason for attacking us?" he mumbled to himself. He shook his head. "What matters now is protecting the others."

Meanwhile...
"Why aren't more Meteor Heads appearing?" Dawn mused to herself.
"I think it's because..." Thalia suddenly jumped into Dawn's view again. "I've mined all the Meteorite!"
"Already?" Dawn raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Wow."
"Well, almost all of it any way." Thalia admitted.
"I'll help you mine." Dawn said.
As they mined, Thalia asked, "So...where are you from?"
Dawn looked at Thalia in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, where did you live before you came to Terraria?"
"...Oh." Dawn said thoughtfully. "Well...I've sort of forgotten, really. All I remember is waking up here."
"Let me guess. You woke up near a lake and a hill, and the Guide told you to build something before the sun set."
"Yeah. So that's how you got here then?" Dawn asked.
"Pretty much. Dan, Michael and me were teleported here when our school became Corrupted."
"Do you miss home?" Dawn asked.
Thalia thought for a moment. "All the time. And yet, I love it here too."
Dawn nodded. "I know what you mean. Even though I don't remember, I still miss my old home..."
By this point, all the Meteorite had been mined.
"Come on," Dawn said. "Let's go fight the Goblin Army."

Meanwhile...
Dan was fighting better than he ever had before, and yet he was still having a hard time staying alive. He really needed to drink another potion to heal, but if he did now, there was the risk he could get sick.
He started to back up, heading towards the Nurse's house. When he was close enough, he ran in. He slammed the door behind him and blurted out, "My arm is broken and my head is bleeding."
"Well, duh. Now, quit bleeding all over the wood floor, that's going to take me forever to clean up..." the Nurse, Joy, grumbled.
"But I can't drink any healing potions!"
"What do you want me to do?!"
"You're a nurse! You're supposed to be cast a spell for that or something!"
The Nurse sighed. "Fine. I'll cast Heal. That'll be about one silver. Magic potions aren't cheap these days..."
Dan gave her the coin, then she cast a Heal spell.
"Why do you NPCs have to be so difficult?" Dan mumbled, before he blocked a magic bolt that had phased through the wall. He then went back outside, slashing at Goblins and blocking magic attacks.
Then Michael shouted, "I've ran out of arrows!"
Well, great. There went that advantage. Then, all of a sudden, Thalia and Dawn came running out from the woods.
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/dawn-and-thalia-fighting-goblins-jpg.97468/
Michael ran down the stairs at the side of the roof, but before he could say anything, Dawn asked, looking somewhat amused, "Missed me?"
"Thank goodness you're back Dawn!" he exclaimed. Thalia glared at him angrily. He nervously added, "Uh, glad you're back too, Thalia." Then he turned back to Dawn. "Do you have any arrows?"
"When do we NOT have arrows? You find them everywhere..." Dawn dug around in her backpack for a few moments before she handed him a quiver with arrows. "Now, let's get back to the fight!"
Michael nodded. While he ran back up to the stairs to fire arrows, Dawn said, "The plan is that Michael fires from up there while we fight down here. Thalia, you attack the peons and archers. Dan and I will attack the rest of them. Got it?" The others nodded, so she shouted, "Attack!"
Dan slashed at a goblin warrior. He then turned around to stab a goblin behind him while Dawn swung her flail and hit several goblins. Michael fired flaming arrows. Thalia attacked a group of mages with several thorny vines that resembled rose's stems.
...And the Guide walked right into the middle of the battlefield.
"What in Terraria are you doing?!" exclaimed Dawn.
The Guide bent over, not saying a word. Then he straightened up and grinned crazily. Dan stabbed a goblin then looked and saw the Guide was holding a rabbit. "This bunny was about to get killed! I had to save it!"
A magic bolt hit him in the head, but all he did was slowly turn around and walk back to his house, shouting, "You guys need to set your priorities straight!"
"What the...?" Dan mumbled. "WE need to set OUR priorities straight?"
A flaming arrow whizzed from behind him. Something in front of his face then burst into flame.
"I think he's right; while you were thinking about his statement, you let a goblin get in front of you!" Michael shouted.
Dan forced himself not to shout back, 'I was stunned by the sheer stupidity of him telling us bunnies were more important than our lives!', and instead he continued fighting...

After a while, the army retreated as they had lost so many goblins.
Thalia was both relieved and excited--relieved because she didn't have to worry too much about anyone dying, excited because she could now craft something with the Meteorite.
Thalia ran straight to the furnace to craft meteorite bars, then she went to the anvil.
"What're you crafting?" Asked Dawn from behind her.
Thalia turned around to talk to her. "I've made Meteorite armor, and now I'm making a Space Gun. I'm so excited to get my magic powers back!"
Dawn said, "Are you sure it'll give you all your magic powers back? You can use the Vilethorn, which is a magic weapon, and yet you don't have your spells back,"
Thalia frowned. "I suppose you have a point...but at least I'll have magic armor!" she added cheerily.

The Meteorite Armor was bluish-purple, with fiery stripes of color in places. Thalia picked up the Space Gun. Having a full set of Meteorite armor was supposed to make it so that you didn't use up any mana...time to try it out!
She stepped outside and aimed at a slime. She fired the gun, and a laser beam shot the slime. Thalia put away the gun, then shouted, "Water Bolt spell!"
Nothing happened.
Thalia walked around the village gloomily, kicking at pebbles every now and then when a voice asked, "What's the matter?"
It was Michael.
"I still can't cast spells." she admitted. "What if I won't ever get my magic powers back? What kind of a mage would I be, not being able to cast any spells?"
"You can use the Vilethorn, right?"
"Yes," she said.
"That's a magic weapon, and yet you can use it. I can't use it, though--so that must mean that Terrarian magicians have to draw on the magic powers of something, like a staff or sword, to cast a spell."
"But I can't cast Water Bolt or Crystal Storm with a Vilethorn!"
"Certain spells require different weapons to cast, I guess."
Thalia thought about that for a minute. "Oh. That does make sense...thanks, Michael."
"You're welcome. Hey, do you want to go see the Guide?"
"Why?" Thalia asked warily.
"To see if he's okay!"
"Okay..." Thalia said. They walked up to the Guide's house.
"You can go first," Michael offered.
Thalia opened the door, and was met by water being dumped on her head. "Wh-whaaaa?!"
She heard laughing as she wiped the water off her face. When she could see, she saw Michael and Dawn laughing, Dawn holding an empty bucket.
"Did you guys just prank me?!" Thalia exclaimed furiously.
"It's was Dawn's idea," Michael managed. He was laughing so hard he looked like he could've been crying. "It was brilliant!"
"Thanks," wheezed Dawn.
When they both managed to stop laughing, Thalia commented, "So we came back from the Corruption, went to a meteorite landing site, then fought a goblin army, and you guys are busy pranking me,"
Dawn smiled. "What? When there's an opportunity for a prank, how could I just go and ignore it?"
"We have more in common than I thought!" Michael grinned.
Suddenly a voice whispered, "Xon the Goblin Tinkerer has arrived!"
"Carp! More goblins!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Dan was walking around talking to Xon, who he had found tied up underground. (Dan had gone Underground while Thalia was crafting, and while Michael and Dawn were setting up their prank.) He looked friendly enough, so Dan had untied the ropes.
Xon was a goblin who wore safety goggles, and a lab coat over a t-shirt and jeans. He constantly talked about his inventions--one of which he actually sold to Dan.
"So how did you make these Rocket Boots?" Dan asked.
"Do you want the long version or the short one?" Xon asked.
Dan hesitated. "What's the crafting recipe?"
"Iron, gunpowder, the like. Very complicated. If you ever want more Rocket Boots, just ask me and I'll sell you another pair. They're hard to make though, so it'll still be expensive."
Dan nodded--those really were expensive. Now that he had spent five whole gold coins on the boots, he didn't have any more money.
"DIIIIIIEEEEEE, GOBLIIIIIIINNN!!"
Xon just stared ahead at Michael, who was preparing to fire arrows at him.
"Michael, don't shoot him, he's on our side! The Goblin Army tied him up and left him underground, he's an outcast!" Dan shouted.
Michael cautiously lowered his bow and the arrow he had been about to fire. "Are you sure?"
"Positive! Otherwise, why would he sell me these awesome boots he invented?"
Michael stared at Dan's feet from afar, before he said, "I've never seen those before, what are they?"
"Rocket Boots," Xon said. "I invented them myself."

Dan, Thalia, Michael, Dawn, Xon, and the Guide all sat around a table.
"So, not all Goblins are bad?" Michael asked.
"No, they aren't. That would be like saying all humans are bad; it simply isn't true," the Guide said.
"Why did they attack us?" Thalia asked.
"They attacked you because they were afraid YOU would attack THEM. Goblins are afraid of humans--although I'm not, since I know most humans are actually quite friendly. You aren't the first humans I've met," he added.
"Who are the first humans you've met?" Dawn asked.
Xon and the Guide looked at each-other as if they weren't telling them something. Xon looked at Dan and the others before saying, "I've met the Guide before..."
"Ohhhhh...." Dan mouthed. "So that's why YOU know so much about goblins, and that's why YOU know so much about humans. I see."
"While we're all talking together, then can I ask how Dawn came back from the dead?" Thalia asked.
Dawn looked horrified. "How did you--what--but I didn't tell anyone!"
Michael looked at the table, ashamed. "I may have mentioned it to her...I'm sorry, the voice had whispered you died anyway and I didn't know you'd be upset," he said honestly.
Dawn sighed, but she didn't say anything so Dan asked, "What exactly happened?"
Michael once again looked down at the table, ashamed. Dawn looked like she felt bad, but then she looked at Dan and explained, "...There was...an accident, and I died. Next thing I knew, I woke up in my bed at the house, okay except my mouth was bleeding slightly. I still don't know how I'm alive."
The Guide leaned forward, put his elbows on the table, folded his fingers together and sat his chin on them. Then he said, unusually serious for him, "...I've never told you about the Creator of Terraria, have I? Well, the Creator of Terraria revives you. He has a lot of control over things, and he can keep you from dying, make the monsters disappear when you kill them, reward you with money or potions or weapons when you defeat an enemy, amongst other things. He also controls who comes--and even goes--from Terraria. He makes sure the different worlds of Terraria don't fall into too much chaos. Of course, he isn't perfect..."
Dawn looked shocked. "There are other Terrarian worlds?"
The Guide didn't move, except for his eyes. He looked at Dawn and said, "Of course. Surely you didn't think you were the only ones."
Dawn's face lit up and she asked, "Can the Creator of Terraria let us go to a different world? Maybe I'll see someone from my past, or maybe I'll get my memory back! Maybe even both!"
The Guide smiled, though it looked dry and humorless. "Not now. You're too weak--all of you are."
Dawn looked somewhat offended in a surprised sort of way. "W-we are? We defeated a Goblin Army! Just the four of us!"
The Guide laughed cruelly. "That means nothing. You think you've come so far? Well--"
Xon stopped him and said, "Don't be so harsh on them. They're still adapting to Terraria." The Guide closed his eyes as though using all the patience he had to not snap back at him. The goblin then turned to the others and said, "Please excuse him, he's... not quite like you are."
Michael scoffed. "Obviously. He values a rabbit's life more than ours."
Xon hesitated. "Yes. Of course. He loves rabbits. And not all humans are like that." he faked coughing. "Um, yes. That is what I meant. ...Anyway, things in Terraria are much different than they were back home--I mean, back at your homes--" Xon was interrupted by Thalia, who said,
"You aren't very good at explaining things, are you?" she smiled. "It's okay. The Guide made it clear--we aren't as far in Terraria as we thought we were."
The Guide then opened his eyes and grinned widely, putting his hands down. "Have I mentioned I absolutely LOVE rabbits? I'm gonna go outside and hug one right NOW!" still grinning, he ran outside and slammed the door shut behind him.
Dan blinked. "I think that was the wierdest thing I've ever seen in my life. Is he always this unpredictable?"
Xon nodded, then said, "Well, I'll be going now. I have inventions to work on."
Once Xon left, Dawn said, "We have to get stronger so we can go to the other worlds. I have to get my memories back!"
Dan nodded. "Of course--as soon as we're strong enough, we'll go."
Michael smiled mischievously. "More people to prank, am I right?"
Thalia smiled too. "You're our friend, and friends do stuff like that for each-other!"
Dawn smiled. "Thanks guys. ...It means the world to me."
After exploring their world, farming and grinding to get armors and weapons, Dan, Thalia, Michael and Dawn decided they should name themselves. Oh yeah, and talk to the Guide.
"We should call ourselves something. We need a name. Like 'the Pancake Team'!" Michael suggested.
"Or we could just ask the Guide if we could go to the other worlds yet." Thalia said.
"'The Pancake Team'? Really?" Dawn said. "No-no-no-no-no. We should be called 'Team Terra' or something, for Terraria. Not 'the Pancake Team'."
"Yeah, you're right," Michael said. "We should call ourselves 'the Pancake Club' instead."
"GUYS! Are you even listening?" Thalia asked, frustrated.
"No, we should be called 'Team--'" Dawn was interrupted by Dan, who said,
"Seriously, you guys. Thalia's right; we should talk to the Guide about
going to the other worlds."
"Hmph. I still think we should name ourselves the Pancake Club..."

The Guide was standing on a hill, looking at something on the other side. Dan couldn't see his face, but he knew he was probably listening, so he asked, "Do you think we're ready to go to the other worlds yet? We've explored our whole world--"
The Guide leaned back his head and laughed. Then he turned to face Dan, still laughing. ....He was still laughing...HYSTERICALLY. He was even wiping tears out of his eyes. Dan wished he never said anything--the Guide's laugh sounded slightly mad, like there was something wrong with him. It was unnerving.
In between laughs, the Guide said, "Y-you--you think you're ready? Ah-ha-HA-ha! Are you MAD?" Dan thought the last question was a little hypocritical. When he didn't answer, the Guide continued--not laughing as much anymore--saying, "You have to go to the Dungeon first, then the Underground Jungle. THEN you can talk to me about going to other worlds."
He wiped the last tear out of his eye before saying, "...Oh, and try to maximize your health. 300 HP? You'd die in seconds."
Dan wondered if the other worlds were seriously dangerous, or if the people just weren't friendly. He nodded, then asked, "Before I go, what's the maximum HP?"
"400. You four have a lot of Heart Crystals you're going to have to find."

"That dude is FREAKY," said Michael. "Weren't you talking to the Guide a lot back when you were trying to find heroes, Dawn?"
"Yeah, but he wasn't anything like this--just a crazy dude who was obsessed with bunnies, but who knew a lot about Terraria." Dawn replied.
"There's something going on. We should talk to the other people here."

"You want apples?" the Merchant asked.
"Here we go again..." Michael mumbled.
"You want carrots?"
"NO. I want to talk to you about--"
"DO. YOU. WANT PINEAPPLES?!"
"NO, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE DUNGEON--"
"WELL WE HAVE TORCHES!"
"...Never mind..."

"EWW...what happened to your face?!"
Thalia immediately put her hands to her face, making sure she wasn't missing her nose or a tooth or something. "There's nothing wrong with my face!" she cried. She looked at the Nurse. "Are you always this rude?!"
"Quit being such a baby. I've seen worse."
"I don't care if you know people ruder than you! And I'm not being a baby!"
"Would you like a lollypop?"
"No! I want to know where...well, actually, I miss lollypops, I'll have a grape-flavored one if you have some--"
The Nurse sighed. "Look, kid, I think all my lollypops are back at the hospital on my homeworld."
"Then why'd you ask if I wanted one?"
"I don't know...it just usually makes kids feel better, so I guess it's just habit? I'm not used to living away from home...of course, we can never go back, not now..."
"We can't go back?!"
The Nurse looked at Thalia as though she felt pity for her. "You didn't know? Ah, well. You probably would've figured that out eventually anyways. Better now than later, I guess. ...Now, what had you wanted to know about?"
"Do you know where the Dungeon is?"
"It's either at the left or the right. If you find the Jungle, you know you're on the wrong side of the world--the Jungle and Dungeon are never both on the right or left, so if you find your Dungeon you know the Jungle's on the opposite side of the world, et cetera. Speaking of which, have you seen that old man pacing around the dungeon? He looks troubled."
"Thanks, Nurse...I guess I'll be going now."
"If you ever have any questions, I may know the answer," the Nurse shouted as Thalia left to go find another NPC.

"I wonder what happens if I..." BOOM! "Oh, sorry, did you need that leg?" the Demolitionist asked.
"I hate explosives..." Dawn mumbled, hopping out of the room.

"I hear there is a doll that looks very similar to Scott somewhere in the Underworld. If there is, I'd like to shoot its head off."
"That's violent...."

"Have you seen the old man walking around the Dungeon? He doesn't look well at all..." The Dryad said. "I hope he's okay."
"Well, we are supposed to go to the Dungeon, I'm supposed to find the others soon so we can go..." said Michael, looking at his watch. "AW CARP I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THERE NOW!"
"...You have to meet the others at a certain time?"
"Yeah, otherwise we might have to wait forever for someone else to come if we just said 'we'll meet whenever'."
"Hm. I suppose that makes sense...we dryads don't have clocks, we just tell the time by the sun. So our times are always sort of vague. Anyways, be safe! Terraria needs you!"
"Yeah, no-one will let me forget..."

After talking about what the NPCs had said to each of them, the four started the long walk towards the Dungeon.
"...So I wonder what the Nurse meant when she said we could never go back home." Dan said.
"She's weird." Thalia commented. "I don't mean to be rude of course, but--"
"Dude, they're all weird. ALL OF THEM. Especially the GUIDE." Michael said.
"I wonder if the Guide has that multiple personality disorder thing. It'd explain a lot..." Thalia commented.
"I used to know someone with multiple personality disorder, and he...he's different than the Guide is." Dan said. "So I don't think that's what it is."
There was silence before Dawn said, "So...you guys remember your homeworld, right?"
"Yeah, we remember. I wonder why you're the only one that's amnesiac..." Thalia said.
Dawn shrugged. "Maybe I'll remember something if you tell me about your homes."
"Okay...well, first off, there are five main countries on our continent. We lived in the biggest country, in a large town. We all went to schools, which are divided into three categories--one for Warriors, one for Mages, and one for Rangers. Where we lived, you would meet all kinds of people--humans, dwarves, dryads..." Dan trailed off. He looked at Dawn, then asked, "Remember anything?"
She shook her head. "I must not have lived there."
"We can tell you about the other countries if you want," Thalia offered.
"No, that's fine. ...How are your families, since the last time you saw them?"
"I have five siblings, they sent letters all the time." Thalia said. "It turns out my oldest sister, who's a warrior, had finished her military training and was a part of the army. I only learned about it several months after she joined. She left the country and no-one even bothered to tell me..."
"Warrior? Are you the only mage in your family?" Dan asked.
"Yes. My parents and siblings were all warriors--however, while father was teaching my brothers how to throw boomerangs, and my mother taught my sisters to swordfight, I was always reading or drawing. I was always interested in magic--though it came a great shock to everyone when I chose to train as a mage."
"When do you choose your training?" Dawn asked.
"First you learn math, geography, science, and history, then once you turn 13 you can choose a class." Michael answered.
"So you recently chose your class then?"
"Yes, actually. I chose the same class as my father did. He...he died a few weeks before I turned thirteen." Michael said. "That was five months ago."
"How many siblings do you have?" Dan asked.
"I have a sister, she's 16. She's too busy to ever send letters though, so I don't really know her," he admitted.
"I guess I know how you feel. My mother and father were always travelling for their work--they were archaeologists. They sent letters randomly, and it was hard to reply since it was hard to tell if they were going to be going from place to place, so I didn't know if they'd even get my letters sometimes. I heard from my three siblings a decent amount though. I was
the oldest, so they generally had more time to write anyways since they were younger and generally didn't have as much homework."
"Hey, I think I see the dungeon!" Michael exclaimed.
"You're kidding." Dawn said. "PINK? REALLY? A pink DUNGEON?"
"I don't have anything against pink, but you have to admit it's a little odd," Thalia commented.
"It's more than a little odd...it's very odd." Dawn said. "Anyways, I see the Old Man. We should go talk to him, like they said."
They walked up to an old man. His skin was extremely wrinkled, and he was hunched over so he had to walk with a stick that looked almost as old as he was. He had a long, thinning white beard, and he was would've been bald if there weren't patches of wispy white hair on his head. He wore a torn-up red shirt, with jeans that had holes in the knees. The irises of
his eyes were disturbingly red.
"Have you come to free me of my curse?" he croaked. He sounded as though he hadn't talked in a long time.
"What curse?" Dawn said hesitantly. "No-one said anything about a curse."
"I cannot let you enter until you free me of my curse."
"Of course, we'll free you from your curse...whatever it is." Dan said. "What is your curse?"
"...I am doomed to stay here until my master is defeated in battle."
"Then let's kick its backside and free you from your curse! Where is he? Or she?" Dawn asked.
"My master cannot be summoned under the light of day."
"Then we'll wait." Dan said.

To pass the time, they turned the entrance of the Dungeon into an arena to prepare for the fight. After that, they explored the area around the dungeon.
When it was finally nighttime, Dan asked the Old Man, "Alright, where's your master?"
"Stranger, do you possess the strength to defeat my master?" he croaked.
"I sure hope so," Thalia answered. "Otherwise..." she shuddered.
The Old Man nodded. "I will summon him then." He walked backwards and disappeared into the shadows, then the eerie voice whispered,
"Skeletron has awoken!"
A huge skeleton head, with arms and hands that weren't attached to the head in any way, appeared.
Thalia's hands were shaking. "You think we can defeat that thing?!"
"Heck yeah!" Dawn answered. "Attack the hands and arms first! That's probably what it's going to attack with!"
"Right!"
Skeletron swung one arm at Dan, and the other at Dawn. Dan was sent flying back, but Dawn managed to dodge the attack. Thalia fired thorns at Skeletron's arms while Michael fired Jester's Arrows at it. Dan got up just as Skeletron swung an arm at Michael.
Michael jumped to the side, then got out the Minishark and fired at the arm, screaming over the sound of the firing gun, "This thing is insanely fast, it's awesome!"
Dawn swung her flail at one of the arms, which then disappeared just as Dan started attacking the other arm. Oddly enough, the hand that belonged to the destroyed arm was still there. The hand slammed into the side of her head, and she was sent flying.
Michael immediately stopped firing the Minishark. "Dawn!"
"Keep attacking!" she quickly drank a healing potion, dodged another attack. "I'm fine!" She was hit again and she shouted, "Never mind!"
Michael ran over to her, shooting at Skeletron's skull as he passed it.
Thalia followed, sending evil-looking thorns all across the room with the Vilethorn. The first hand disappeared, then so did the second. All that was left was the right arm and, of course, the skull.
"Attack the arm, then the skull!" Dawn shouted. She winced, then said, "Do as I say! I'll be fine."
"You need to heal," Thalia said.
"I can drink a potion and risk Potion Sickness! I'll be fine!"
Michael took out his bow and started firing flaming arrows at the arm. "We don't need you throwing up all over the floor!"
There was the sound of a horrified scream, then the eerie voice whispered, "Dan was murdered by Skeletron."
"NO!" Thalia exclaimed. "NOOO--"
"The Creator of Terraria will revive him, remember? He--he'll be fine," Michael said.
Skeletron's arm disappeared, then the skull flew at Thalia.
"Thalia, move your face out of the way!" he shouted, throwing a dagger at the skull.
Thalia ducked, and the huge skull flew over her head. She whipped out a shortsword and ducked again as the skull swung at her again, flying through the sword, which she was holding above her head.
The voice whispered, "Skeletron has been defeated!"

"Sir? Sir!" Thalia looked all over for the Old Man, but he was nowhere to be found. "Where did he go?"
"I don't know, but right now we should really go back to the village." Dawn said.
"Why?"
Dawn scoffed. "Dan just died, and I'm going to die soon too. Dying isn't fun. So we should make sure Dan's okay, and we should try and make sure I don't die."
"Well, you're hardly bleeding, so you probably won't bleed to death," Thalia said. "I just want to find the Old Man and see if he's okay,"
"What about Dan and I?!" Dawn exclaimed.
"What about that frail old man?! We have to help him too, and we're already here so why not help him now instead of going back here later?" Thalia asked. When no-one replied, she said, "I'm going into the Dungeon."
"I'm staying here. I don't want to die." Dawn repeated. She looked up at Michael. "So?"
"...So what?" he asked nervously, even though he thought he knew what she was going to say next.
"Are you staying or going?"
Both Dawn and Thalia were glaring at him. "Er...I think..."
"You think what?"
He wanted to say, "PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEEEEEEEEEE!" but he knew he shouldn't say that, so instead he said, "I'm-going-back-to-the-village-please-don't-kill-me!!"
"Why would we kill you?" Thalia asked. Then she said, "Oh well! Have a safe trip, Michael!" She then half-walked, half-ran down the stairs of the dungeon, until Michael couldn't even hear her footsteps against the brick anymore.
He opened his mouth to speak to Dawn, but she said, "I'll be fine--I'll just wait until she comes back before we both go back to the village."
Michael nodded hesitantly then ran back towards the village.

Dawn sighed and wished she had a watch so she could see what time it was--she couldn't even look at the sky to see where the moon was, because the night was cloudy.
"Hurry up, Thalia!" she shouted.
No response.
She sighed again and started randomly humming a tune she was reminded of whenever it was nighttime--a sort of eerie-sounding tune. She had no idea where the music came from--she must've heard it in her past or something. She raised her hands slightly to look at them--they weren't red with blood, but yet they stung so badly she could've sworn they were injured in some way.
Her thinking was interrupted by a scream. Dawn instinctively got to her feet as quickly as she could, wincing as she jerked her arm. Thalia came running back up the stairs. "There are SO MANY SKELETONS IN THERE!" she stopped for a minute to catch her breath before she continued, with a big smile on her face, "Look what I found!" she held up a red book that was edged with gold. The cover had a picture of a drop of water on it, and the gold lettering above it read "Water Bolt".
"You found a Water Bolt spell?! That's great,"
"I know, right? Finally, a spell I'm familiar with." Thalia's smile turned into a grin from ear to ear. "This is the awesomest thing that's happened this whole time we've been here!"
Dawn smiled too. "I'm happy for you. ...Seriously though, we need to go back to the village."
"Right," Thalia said. They then began to walk back towards the village--and for once, with good news.
NEXT CHAPTERS IN NEXT POST
 
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CHAPTERS CONT'.
"...Dead again?" The Guide asked.
Dusk smirked arrogantly. "Yes, I died again. Skeletron's dead though."
"You look scary with that smirk of yours. Don't you ever smile?" the Guide asked, stroking a rabbit's head absent-mindedly.
Dusk looked to the side. "You know, asking more won't make me know the answer. I just don't smile. Smirking is more fun, I guess,"
"You look like an arrogant idiot." The Guide said.
"Shut up," Dusk mumbled. The Guide grumbled something about him being rude, then he left the room carrying the rabbit with him.

Meanwhile....
"Dead again?" The Guide asked.
"What do you mean, 'dead again'?" Dan asked. "This is the first time I've ever died."
The Guide shrugged. "Your deaths all blend together after a while."
"That's a horrible thing to say,"
"It's true though." the Guide left the room, shouting, "I'm off to find a rabbit, you can join me if you want."
"No thanks!" Dan immediately shouted back. Spending time with the Guide AND looking for rabbits? How much worse could it get than that?

Meanwhile...
"I got a Water Bolt spell! Iiiiiiii got the Water Bolt speeeeeeeell--"
"Thalia, I know you're happy, but for the love of all things good, PLEASE. STOP. SINGING." Dawn said.
"I can't help it! I'm just so happy! It's like...it's like a piece of home has been given to me." Thalia said. "It's hard to describe, but I think you understand,"
"A piece of home..." Dawn mused. "How would I even know if I found something from my home?"
"It might bring back your memory, or it just might seem familiar. I think you'd know," Thalia said. She was trying her best to comfort Dawn, but she still looked uneasy.
"...You know how I want to go to the other worlds, to see if I'd find anyone from my past?" She asked eventually. Thalia nodded, then Dawn continued, "I've been wondering if I'd even know who they were."
"You mean you're wondering if you'd remember who they were, or if they'd just seem familiar, or if you wouldn't know at all?"
"Exactly. I have no idea what would happen when--and IF--I met someone from my past. Would I even know? How would I know?"
Thalia sighed. "You worry too much." she then interrupted herself, exclaiming, "Finally! There's the lake, and the village! Come on, we're almost there!"
Dawn reluctantly followed her.

"Lloyd the Clothier has arrived!"
Dan groaned. "Ugh...More NPCs...?"
Just then Michael walked in. "Hey dude. So, uh...are you okay?"
"I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"Why?" Michael asked as he walked over to the wall where a bucket was.
"...I'm supposed to be dead." Dan said. "I felt pain--great pain, and then...and then there was darkness. Or was it light?" Dan frowned. "I can't remember. Then I woke up here...it makes me sick thinking I'm...I'm a ghost or a zombie now--dead, yet not dead."
Michael sighed and sat the bucket down next to Dan. He then pulled a chair up to where Dan was sitting on the bed, and he sat down. "How do you think Dawn feels?" he asked. "She was the first to die, and that was when we thought we'd stay dead. At least you knew you'd be revived."
"That doesn't mean it wasn't painful!" Dan shouted. Then he looked at the floor, subconsciously putting his hands on his head. He shook his head slowly, saying, "I... I'm sorry, it's just...I'm not supposed to be here...it's not right. When you die, you die. That's it. There's no coming back to life, remembering what happened..."
Michael stared off into the distance. "You remember the War?"
Dan looked up and nodded. "Of course. Lots of people died. That was..." he frowned. "Four years ago?"
"Yeah, something like that. Wouldn't it have been nice if we could have revived those on our side? Then so many people wouldn't be gone, and so many people would have never lost their friends and family...their loved ones." Michael smiled absent-mindedly. "My dad wouldn't have died..."
Dan tried to find something to say, but the words wouldn't come. Of course Michael didn't have anything against reviving--he had lost his father, and he would've lost Dawn too if she hadn't been revived. And me, Dan reminded himself. I would be dead too...
"So maybe reviving isn't bad then," Dan said eventually. "I just wish I didn't have to remember as much as I do..."
After a few minutes of silence, there was a knock on the door. It turned out to be Dawn and Thalia.
"You okay?" Dawn looked unusually grim--of course, she had died too...
Dan nodded. "Yeah. Let's go see the Clothier, he's going to need a house."

After they had built the Clothier a house, they started talking to him.
"...Thank you for freeing me from my curse," he said, smiling warmly. "It was like something jumped up and bit me..." he shuddered. "Anyways! Is there anything I can do for you?"
"What do you sell?" Thalia asked.
"...Clothes." Dawn said, deadpan. "Why did you think he was called the Clothier?"
"I meant what kinds of clothes did he sell," Thalia looked like she was trying very hard not to get impatient. She turned to the Clothier. "Do you sell any hats? I'm tired of wearing this helmet all the time,"
"Well, you could wear a Familiar Wig..."

After spending hours trying to find the money for all the clothes Thalia had wanted to buy--"Do you really need those shoes?" "What kind of a question is that?!"--they finally stopped buying things. Once they had finished taking turns getting dressed in the bathroom, they sat back down in the Clothier's house's living room.
"I thought that you said the Meteorite Armor looked cool," Dawn said, confused. Thalia had decided to buy the Familiar Wig and Skirt, so the only Meteorite Armor you could see was the chestplate.
"I thought you said the Shadow Armor looked cool," Thalia countered.
"Yes, but now I look like a character from Men in Black! Well, minus the sunglasses anyway," Dawn said.
"I thought you were trying to look like a butler," Thalia said, looking confused. "And how did you remember what Men in Black was? In fact, what's Men in Black?"
Dawn blinked. "Uhh...I think the fourth wall broke,"
Michael yawned. "This is boring, I've never understood how girls can talk about clothes without falling asleep."
Thalia suddenly realized the Clothier was snoring. "Mr. Lloyd? Hello? Sir?"
"Huh, whaa? Oh, yes, that's right, I was talking to you four...and then I dozed off...sorry, kids,"
"It's okay," Thalia said. "So we were going to ask you more about your Curse and the Dungeon."
"I've told you pretty much everything about my curse--I was walking along, then Skeletron cursed me and I had to stay at the Dungeon until someone killed Skeletron and freed me from my Curse." the Clothier said. "The thing is, I'm afraid I couldn't control myself--I tied up some poor girl and threw her in the Dungeon, and I let some goblins tie up a scientist..."
"You mean the Goblin Tinkerer, Xon?" Dan asked. "We already found him, he has his own house in the village now,"
The Clothier nodded. "That's good," he croaked. "Maybe you've found the girl then--she has red hair, pigtails, yellow clothes..."
The four looked at each-other, then Dan shook his head and said, "No, we've never seen her before."
"Oh...well then, you should go find her before the Skeletons kill her."
"Skeletons?!" Michael sputtered. "You threw a little girl into a dungeon when there were SKELETONS in there?! Are you INSANE?!"
"I said I was partly mind-controlled!" the Clothier said defensively. "I would never throw someone in a dungeon!"
Dawn sighed as she stood up. "We're going to have to go, then. See you, Lloyd."
"Good-bye, kids," he croaked as they left. "Stay safe!"

As they walked down the stairs, it got colder and colder until they were all shivering.
"I w-wish I had a scarf l-like the G-Guide's," Thalia said. "It's s-so c-cold,"
"Why would you w-want the GUIDE'S s-scarf?" Michael asked.
"I don't know! He's the o-only one with a scarf s-so that's why I used h-his scarf as an e-example,"
"You know w-what's weird?" Dawn asked. "The fact that it's c-colder here than at the s-snow biome,"
"Huh...that is w-weird," Thalia said.
Suddenly a large, purple slime leaped into view.
"WHAA CARP!" Michael exclaimed, as Dawn flicked her wrist so that her flail hit the slime.
"You need to stop panicking!" she exclaimed as he aimed an arrow towards the slime and fired. Behind him, Thalia was sending Water Bolts towards the slime. After a few more hits, it disappeared, leaving behind a golden key.
As he picked up the key, he said, "I can't help it. It's just instict, or habit. Kind of like saying 'ow' if you drop something on your foot, even if it doesn't hurt."
"You drop things on your foot, then say 'ow' even if it's paper or something?" Dan repeated. "That's kind of--"
"Yeah, I know, it's stupid and ridiculous. Can we just change the subject?"
"--I was going to say 'odd'," Dan said.
"Oh." Michael said, then he shouted, "SKELETONS, THREE O'CLOCK!"
As Dan moved forward to attack a skeleton, he said, "There are so many skeletons, we're going to be lucky if that girl's still alive..."
No-one said anything.

Michael slammed the door behind him. "Whew, no more skeletons--AAAAAH!" He barely dodged a flail to the face. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
Across the room, Thalia dodged too. "It looks like...it looks like a flail trap,"
Michael looked at the room--there was the flail trap near the door, and there was a lantern hanging from the ceiling, which was at least ten feet above his head. There was a Gold Chest in the middle of the room, but it was covered in chains. When he walked over to the Chest to see if he could unlock it with the Golden Key, he noticed there was another door.
"Hey, guys, there's another door over there! Go see if anyone's in there while I try and open this chest," Dawn ran over to open the door while he put the key into the lock of the chains. He turned the key with a click, and he opened the chest.
"What is it?" Dan asked.
"It's a handgun," Michael answered. "Man, I knew I should've brought some ammo..."
"What else is in there?"
"Coins, potions...oh hey, a shield. I wonder why it's blue,"
"Can I have it?"
"Sure," Michael said, handing over the shield. "Do you know what it is?"
Dan's eyes widened. "This is a Cobalt Shield...do you know how few warriors have a shield like this?"
"A lot?" Michael guessed.
"No! There's only a handful of warriors alive with a shield like this!" Dan exclaimed.
"I was joking," Michael mumbled.
"AW CARP!"
Thalia, Dan and Michael ran into the other room, where Skeletons were running down stairs. A Cursed Skull had paralyzed Dawn, and there was something yellow in the corner--not a Golden Chest, so it had to be the girl that the Clothier had mentioned.
"Go see if the girl's alive, I'll help Dawn!" Michael exclaimed. He kept on firing arrow after arrow at the skeletons, but too many were appearing too fast, and too little were dying. Dawn stumbled forwards, unfrozen, just as Michael's health was almost gone. He drank a potion, then kept on fighting.
"What happened?" Dawn shouted over the sounds of the fighting, and shrieking skeletons.
"You were paralyzed,"
"I see." The skeletons were dying faster, but they just kept on coming and coming...
There was the sound of something breaking, then the skeletons started appearing slower. Michael looked back, but quickly regretted it as a Cursed Skull paralyzed him.
A few minutes later, he wasn't paralyzed anymore but his health was dangerously low.
He took a glance at Dawn, who was still fighting. He looked away, and quickly drank a potion, knowing it was too soon and he would get Potion Sickness.
He didn't care, though--better to be sick than to die.

There was another sound of something breaking, then the Skeletons were appearing less. However, then to Dawn's shock she heard the sounds of someone throwing up.
"Michael, what the heck--" she dodged a magic bolt cast by a Skeleton Mage. "You've got Potion Sickness, don't you."
Michael nodded, shuddering. "I don't want to di--" Dawn looked away as he vomited again.
"Michael, you're going to be throwing up for hours! Why did you think Potion Sickness is so avoided?!"
"Dawn, why don't you understand--"
Dawn killed another skeleton, then turned around so the flail would whip around and hit the skeletons entering through the other door.
"Thalia! Dan! I need some help, we're surrounded!"
"There's another door over here too, we're protecting Autumn!" Thalia shouted.
"Who?!"
"The girl!"
Dawn was hit again and reached for a potion before reminding herself that it was too soon--she'd get Potion Sickness too if she drank it.
She managed to kill most of the Skeletons, but when she had turned to block a blow that would've hit Michael--she was hit again, and the world faded away.

"Dawn was slain."
The words were like a stab--a stab he had felt before, when she had died the first time.
It was his fault again...again, he was responsible for her death...
"We have to go back to the Village!" Michael shouted, gagging on his words because of the Sickness.
I'm so stupid... he repeated the words over and over again in his head. Lord, I'm so stupid...I should've never drank the potion...
And yet, even though he knew that he would've been revived after he would've died, he was still afraid.
No! He thought, I can't die! Look what happened to Dan, he thinks he's a zombie now, and--
He gagged again, then he heard Dan ask, "Thalia, can you teleport us all back to the Village?"
"Yes, I think so,"
He heard running footsteps, then felt a hand on his shoulder. The world fizzed to black, and then he was back at the Village...

The first words Dawn heard were, "You're an idiot, you know that?"
She sat up and looked to her right. The door was open, so she could see Thalia and Dan sitting at the table, Michael sitting on the floor in the corner next to a bucket, and the Guide looming over Michael.
"I don't blame him," Thalia admitted. "Even if he knew he was going to be revived, no-one wants to die."
"He's still an idiot." It was the Guide speaking.
"For your information--" --there was a weird coughing sound-- "--I know it was stupid. I don't need you to remind me!"
"What do the words 'Potion Sickness' mean to you? A stomach ache? I don't know WHAT they taught you in school, but--"
"What the heck, Guide?! He nearly DIED, and Dawn died again!" Dan stood up so abruptly the chair he had been sitting in fell over. "I don't know WHERE you learned manners, but at least try not to be so rude!" Dan swore a few times at the Guide, until the Guide just walked off.
"What the he--?!"
"Dan!" Thalia exclaimed. "Stop it! Just--calm down! And stop swearing!"
Dan picked up his chair and sat back down. "He ticks me off. He treats people like crap half the time, it's like he has no sympathy at all. All he cares about are those rabbits!"
Dawn got up and walked into the living room, stumbling at the doorway. Thalia moved forward to help, but she put her hand up. "It's okay, I can walk myself."
Thalia sat back down, then asked quietly, "So I take it you heard all that?"
Dawn moved a chair back from the table and sat down. "Yeah."
"I'm sorry," Michael said pleadingly. "I know it was stupid, and I'm sorry for killing you again--"
"It's okay." She said. She wondered if she was lying--she certainly wasn't being completely honest, because it wasn't okay. She had died again, which isn't something to take lightly. And yet he didn't kill her either. "Just...don't do it again. Ever."
"Believe me, I won't..."
There was silence before Dawn asked, "Whatever happened to the girl?"
"Oh, Autumn? We built her a house. Do you want to go see her?" Thalia asked.
"Sure." she said, standing up at the same time as Thalia.
"I'll stay here," Dan offered, making a face as Michael gagged again.
"Are you sure?"
"It'll be fine, as long as the Guide doesn't come back."

Dawn opened the door to see a seventeen-year-old girl sitting on a chair at a table, fiddling with the wires in a timepiece.
"Who's she?"
"That's Autumn, the girl from the Dungeon."
"Hi!" Autumn said, smiling. "Nice to meet you, I'm the Mechanic!"
"B--but he said--" Dawn stuttered. "He said she was A LITTLE GIRL!"
"Actually," the Clothier said, appearing behind them, "I never said that. I just said she was a girl--you're all kids to me. Sorry for the confusion."
Looking at the Mechanic, she did match the Clothier's description--she had fiery orange hair, with two ponytails on each side of her head. She wore yellow overalls with a red shirt underneath, and she wore blue shoes that were the same color as her eyes. She had a ginormous wrench on her back--it looked like it'd be better as a weapon than an actual wrench.
"Hold on, I've almost got wi-fi going down here." she said.
"...But you're messing with a watch," Dawn pointed out.
"I didn't say I was working on it right now. Hey, you know what this room needs?" she asked suddenly. "More blinking lights." Then she said, "WAIT. DON'T MOVE. I JUST REALIZED I'M MISSING ONE OF MY EYE CONTACTS." She then dropped to the floor and felt the ground until she found the missing contact, wiped it off with her sleeve, then popped it back in her eye. "Okay, never mind. You can all move again." She sat down and began taking apart the timepiece again.
"Gee, you act like you've been drinking tons of coffee," Dawn commented.
"That's odd, lots of people say that." she said, looking up from the timepiece and frowning slightly. "I guess I'm just naturally hyperactive."
"...So what all is in the Dungeon?" Dawn asked cautiously. She wanted to know if there was any reason to go back, but she didn't want to upset the Mechanic either.
The Mechanic frowned. "I don't know. Several good weapons, but other than that not much. You might want to kill a lot of Skeletons so you can get enough bones to build some Necro Armor though--you'll need cobwebs too, so don't make any silk if you want the armor."
"What class is the armor for?"
"Rangers."
Dawn and Thalia looked at each-other before Dawn said, "Michael's not going to be happy..."

"Really? There's more stuff in the Dungeon?" Michael asked, dismayed.
"Hey, look on the bright side! We'll have to fight less skeletons now that we've taken these!" Thalia held up two blue candles cheerily.
"What are those?" Michael asked.
"Water Candles. They attract monsters, and since there were TWO of them, it was making a ton of skeletons arrive. Now that we've taken them though, it won't be nearly as bad!"
Michael sighed. "Fine then. I suppose we can go back one more time..."

"See? It wasn't so bad! And no-one died this time!" Thalia exclaimed on the walk back to the Village. "And we got all kinds of stuff--the Blue Moon, a Magic Missile ...we even got another Magic Mirror!"
"I guess..." Michael shuddered. "Still though, I don't want to go back there ever again."
"Traumatized?" Dawn guessed.
"Yeah...traumatized..."
"You've finished exploring in the Dungeon already?" the Guide asked.
"Of course. I got the Muramasa; now I need the Blade of Grass." Dusk answered.
"Sooooo....remind me why you need the Blade of Grass? You said you didn't want the Night's Edge," the Guide said.
"I'm a completionist. Now that I have everything from the Dungeon, I just have to move on to the Jungle."
The Guide stood up, sighing. "Please don't smirk again after you've died and come back. It's creepy."

"You've finished exploring in the Dungeon already?" the Guide asked.
"Yeah, Michael's been...traumatized, so that's why we tried to hurry." Dan answered.
"So where do we go next?" Thalia asked.
"The Underground Jungle." The Guide answered. "Be careful, there are some pretty deadly bugs there."
"Right, we will." Thalia answered. Everyone started to walk off, but before Dawn could go Thalia tapped her shoulder.
"What is it?"
"I'm worried," Thalia admitted. "You guys are becoming so...so gloomy. And it's not good. You and Michael should be making jokes and setting up pranks, and even Dan looks grimmer than usual. You can't keep this up--we can't fall into despair, or we'll have problems later on."
Dawn nodded. "Good point. So what should we do?"
Thalia smiled. "I've got an idea..."

"Dryyyyyyyaaaaaaad!" Thalia called. "Dryyyyyyyaaaaaaaad!" Suddenly she remembered the Dryad's name. "Celeste?!"
A head suddenly popped out from behind a door--it was the Dryad. "Hello! 'Sup?"
"'Sup...?" Thalia had a hard time imagining a dryad saying that. "Um, never mind. Where were you?"
"Autumn, Holly and I were talking."
"Hey guys, I thought you were at the Jungle!" someone shouted. It sounded like Autumn. "Come on, there's like a billion chairs, sit wherever you like!"
Dawn, Thalia, and Celeste walked into the house and Celeste sat down at the table, which, as it turned out, did not have a billion chairs--it was more like four.
"You said there were a billion chairs..." Dawn trailed off.
"Oh, yeah...!" the Mechanic looked thoughtful for a minute before she exclaimed very loudly, "AAAAAAAH, I DROPPED MY CONTACTS AGAIN! DON'T MOVE!"
"AGAIN?" Holly asked. "I don't know what's wrong with your eye contacts that they're always falling out...I should get you some better ones."
Autumn stopped her search for the eye contact, looking sentimental and kind of sad. "I was supposed to see a mage who would cast a spell to improve my eyesight," she said. Magic was sometimes used to heal things, bad eyesight included. You had to be a certain age though, for numerous reasons, one being that if the spell was cast wrong, then it wouldn't be as bad and it would be easier to fix. "Just a few days before we got here, in Terraria. But...now those people are dead...the mages, everyone at the hospitals, everyone..."
Dawn's eyes widened. "...A hospital...? With mages? I...I think...that sounds familiar...they died...?"
"It does?!" Thalia exclaimed. "Tell her more, tell her more!"
At Autumn's dejected look, Thalia added more gently, "...If that's okay with you. If you don't want to say anything, then that's fine."
Autumn nodded, then went back to looking for the eye contact. She picked something up from the ground, cleaned it with her sleeve, then put it back in her eye. "The past is the past. Dawn, you're amnesiac, right?" Dawn nodded. "Maybe it's best if you don't remember. A lot of people have died because of the War, and...maybe you'd only find pain in your past."
There was a sad silence before Thalia remembered why they had came. "We wanted to cheer up everyone. So, do you think we can make a surprise?"
"What kind of surprise?"
Thalia thought for a moment before replying. "One with confetti."
"And pancakes," Dawn added.
"Ooh! And Milkshakes!"
"Yeah! ...What the heck are milkshakes?" Dawn asked.

"Where were you?" asked Dan as Thalia and Dawn finally reached the Jungle.
"Yeah, you were gone for ages," Michael said.
"We were talking to the NPCs," Dawn said.
"And guess what! Dawn said something sounded familiar!" Thalia exclaimed.
"That's great!" Michael exclaimed. "Was it pancake-related?! Did you learn how to cook pancakes?!"
Dawn looked deadpan. "No and no."
"Awww...."
"So anyway, what did she think sounded familiar?" Dan asked as the four looked for a cave.
"A hospital with mages." Thalia replied.
"Why were you talking about hospitals?" Michael asked.
"Holly was saying Autumn needed new contacts."
Michael looked disturbed. "So Holly was giving out phone numbers to Autumn, without their permission?"
"EYE CONTACTS."
"Oh. That would make a lot more sense. They keep falling out of her face."
"You put eye contacts in your eyes, not in your face." Dawn teased.
"But what does that have to do with a hospital?"
Thalia explained what had happened, but before she could say anything else she was interrupted by Michael.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH IT'S A JUNGLE BAT! IT WANTS TO EAT MEEEEEEEEEE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP--"
Dawn grabbed one of the bat's wings, then said, "You can open your eyes now, Michael."
He did as she said, but then he exclaimed "AAAAH IT'S IN MY FACE HELP! HEEEEEEEEEEEE--"
"Look at the bat!" Dawn commanded. "Tiny little Jungle Bat, right?!" Michael nodded. "It's not going to kill you!"
"Actually..." Dan said.
"Not a word." she said between clenched teeth. She turned back to Michael. "You have to get over your fears. You can't be afraid your whole life. Right, guys?"
"Uh, yeah!"
"Of course, Dawn!!"
"So. Look at the bat. Will it kill you?"
"Technically, it COULD," Michael said slowly.
"Yeah, but you could kill it first. So, why are you afraid of bats?"
"Why does the Guide like rabbits so much?" Michael countered. "I've hated bats for as long as I can remember."
"I take it you don't like Batman then..." Dan guessed.
"...Er, yeah. Anyways, I've hated them for so long I don't even remember why. They just freak me out."
"So you can't find a valid reason why you'd be afraid of them? No traumatizing things from your childhood or anything?"
"No..."
"So then, look at the bat and tell me: is it REALLY THAT scary?"
Michael stared at it for a while before he commented, "I think you're scaring the crap out of the bat."
"AAAAUGH, WHY DID NO-ONE SAY ANYTHING?!" Dawn exclaimed, dropping the bat, which flew off.
"I didn't mean literally..."
"Oh. Okay then. Neeeeeveeeeer mind. Anyway, continue."
"...No, I guess bats really aren't that scary." Michael admitted.
"See, I told you, Michael. Now come on, let's go before you decide you're scared of something else."
"...Octopuses, on the other hand..."
"I SAID, let's GO!"

It wasn't long before the bugs--Little Stingers and Big Stingers--started appearing.
"They're EVERYWHERE!" Dawn exclaimed, swinging the Blue Moon at the swarms near her head.
"That explains why the Guide would want us to go here before--" Dan was hit by a Stinger and poisoned before he sliced its head off. "--going to the other worlds. He wants to train us before we go."
"How could anything be worse than THIS?!" Michael exclaimed. "Oh, shoot this!" he whipped out the Minishark and started firing at any enemy he saw.
"Whew," Thalia said, "I think that's it. WHAAAAAAA NEVER MIIIIIIIND!!" a strange creature that looked like two pincers attached to a long vine was trying to eat Thalia's foot, and it was dragging her across the ground. She took out the Water Bolt and started firing at the creature's head, making it shriek in a high-pitched, wailing voice. It let go and "stood" up--it loomed over all of them, and it looked at least 15 feet tall.
"Slimes!" Michael exclaimed.
"Slimes?! Where?" Dan exclaimed.
"No, not literally. I was just exclaiming the first Terraria-themed "curse" I could think of."
"Oh." The creature shrieked again, then dived towards Dan, who stuck his sword out so that the creature impaled itself and died. "So what is this thing?"
Dawn squinted at it, her hand rubbing her chin like she was thinking. Then, looking like she had remembered its name, she smiled and said, "No idea."
"So we get to name it ourselves?!" Michael exclaimed. "Awesome!"
"Er, no, we have to ask the Guide."
"Awww," Michael then grumbled, "First the pancakes, then the naming...it's just one disappointment after the other."

Thalia kept on casting Water Bolt at the hornets until her mana had ran out. "Uh, guys?! I don't have any Mana Potio--" she turned around, but there was no-one there. "Where'd everyone go? Dawn! Dan! Michael! Anyone there?!" She gave up and ran away from the Hornets, before she could get poisoned.
When faced with a choice--go up, down, or right, she chose the path that would lead further underground--if Dawn and the others were to look for her, they'd probably go down, because they'd have gone that path normally anyway.
Thalia ran down, nearly slipping on the mossy mud at least three times. She heard buzzing behind her and ducked, covering her head as a large stinger hit the ceiling near where her head had been. She saw glowing in the corner of her eye and took out her pickaxe, digging through the walls. Before the hornet could follow her--or hornets, as there was now a swarm--she quickly placed the blocks of mud where they had been before. She turned around and saw a small building made of gold brick. It looked like a Jungle Shrine. There were no doors, just a hole shaped like an entrance.
She walked in and saw a plain Wooden Chest. She wondered if she dared to take the contents--Jungle Shrines were made by the Dryads, and gifts were placed in Wooden Chests. The shrines weren't for worshiping anyone, so the word "shrine" didn't fit so well. No, the shrines were for "giving back" to the Jungle, though how placing weapons in a box helped the Jungle, she didn't know. Maybe it was a message--"don't fight, try and help the planet"?
Thalia wished there were Dryads in the Jungles of Terraria so she could ask them if it was okay. Then a light-bulb went off in her head--there WAS a Dryad, just not in the Jungle! She could take the contents of the Chest, ask Celeste if it was okay to use them, and if not she could put them back.
Satisfied, she opened the Chest and saw there were Feral Claws, 5 Gold Coins, and some Lesser Healing Potions. She put them all in her backpack--which seemed bottomless--then dug through the walls again to go back to the path.
She kept on running down before she almost ran into the others.
"Where were you?" Dan asked.
"I found a Jungle Shrine," Thalia explained. "And some Feral Claws. You might like them, Dawn--they increase your melee speed."
"Cool," Dawn commented. "Where are they?"
"I don't want to give them to you just to find out the Dryad doesn't want us to have them."
At the other three's looks of confusion, she explained what she was going to do.
"...Okay then, that makes sense," Dawn admitted. "By the way, we also found something--it's called the Staff of Regrowth. It looks useless. What should we do with it?" she asked as she handed Thalia the staff.
"Hm...Staff of Regrowth..." Thalia pondered. "Sounds familiar, I must've heard about it at school. I think it makes grass grow."
"Then it would make sense that the Dryad created it, then they put it here, in the Terrarian Jungle." Dawn said.
"Right." Thalia heard more buzzing. "Come on, let's hurry before we're swarmed by Hornets!"

The small path opened up into a huge cavern, with "islands" of moss and ivy-covered mud floating above the ground. Hornets were everywhere.
"Thalia! Michael! You cast Water Bolt and shoot them with the Minishark! Dan and I will attack the closest ones!" Dawn shouted.
"Right!" they shouted.
The Hornets died quickly, though more started to appear.
"See anything of value?" Dawn asked as she hit a Hornet in the face.
Thalia scanned the cavern. "I see...oh! A blue rose!" She ran and jumped onto one of the islands, then she fell onto another. She kneeled by the flower, and looked at it for a while before she decided it had to be magic.
"What is it, Thalia?!"
"A blue rose, like I said!" she shouted back. "It looks magical!" She carefully picked the flower, then realized that this must be the legendary Nature's Gift--back at home, they were very rare, so rare that most people didn't know blue roses existed. Nature's Gifts made the spells of its wielder cost less mana, though the reduced cost was small compared to the rarity of the rose. They were really only useful when turned into a Mana Flower.
Thalia returned to the others, explained what the rose was, then asked, "Is there anything else we need?"
"I don't know..." Dan replied. "We have found these glowy green spikes, Jungle Spores. Maybe they're useful."
"How many of them do we have?" Michael asked. "I know I found seven..."
After counting how many they each had and adding, they decided that thirty-three should be enough.
"Let's teleport home then." Thalia agreed. "Somebody needs to hold my hand, and then somebody should hold their hand and so on."
"Can we teleport WITHOUT looking like a bunch of hippies?" Dawn asked.
"I don't want to look like a hippie..." Michael agreed.
"Nope. You either hold hands and go home or you walk home." Thalia said.
Michael sighed. "Fine..." he then made a face and stuck out his tongue.
"What are you doing? You look like a constipated zombie...who is sticking its tongue out..." Dan commented.
Michael tried to speak, but he couldn't while making that face, so he stopped making the face and said, "I'm making a face so that I don't look like a hippie. At least then I look funny too." He resumed making the Constipated Zombie Face.
"Good idea!" Dawn said, grinning. "I'll make a face too."
"...You look like a screaming, dying goat."
Dawn stopped making the face, looking like she didn't believe what she was hearing. "It's supposed to be an angel statue."
"Angel statues don't sceam silently. In fact, they don't scream at all!"
Dawn rolled her eyes. "I thought we were teleporting home, not complaining about the faces we're making..." She made the Screaming Statue face again.
Thalia sighed. "Fine..." she stared into the mirror, then the world fizzed to black.

Dan, Thalia and Michael all met up at the Guide's house.
"Why aren't we going inside?" Dan asked.
"We're waiting for Dawn." Thalia answered.
"Why?"
Dawn ran up just then. "Okay, I'm back! I crafted all the Jungle Armor, it's for magic users, so you should have it." She handed Thalia the armor. "Also, the Dryad said it's okay for us to take stuff from the Jungle, as long as we don't harm it. So I equipped the Feral Claws."
"Good. Can we go talk to the Guide now?"
"Sure."
Dan opened the door to hear the word, "SURPRISE!" as all the NPCs jumped out from behind various pieces of furniture.
"What the heck?!" he exclaimed.
"Happy birthday, Dan!" Thalia and Dawn exclaimed.
"...But it's not my birthday..." Dan said slowly.
"It isn't?!" Thalia exclaimed, looking dismayed. "Then whose birthday is it?"
No reply.
"...Oh." Thalia looked very disappointed.
"We can celebrate being able to go to the other worlds!" Michael exclaimed.
"But the pancakes say 'Happy Birthday'," Autumn said, walking up to them.
"Pancakes?! You got pancakes?!" Michael exclaimed. "Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you--"
"Wait, they say 'happy birthday'?" Dawn asked. "How?"
"Frosting!" the Guide exclaimed, walking up to them.
"Gross! Frosting on pancakes, really?" Dawn asked.
"I don't care, it's pancakes!" Michael exclaimed. He pushed the Guide and Autumn out of the way, saying, "Excuse me, pancakes calling my name! Like this: 'Michael, EEEEEAAAAT UUUUUUUUS!'" he said in a funny voice.
"...So how did you get pancakes?" asked Dan as he, Thalia, Dawn, the Guide and Autumn walked into the house.
The Guide turned around and smiled. "Magic."

"So...can we go to the other worlds now?" Dawn asked, before eating a pancake.
The Guide smiled and thought for a moment before replying, "No. Absolutely not."
"WHY NOT?!" Dawn, Thalia, and Dan exclaimed in unison. Michael looked up from his stack of pancakes, realizing they were talking about something important. Then he shrugged and went back to eating.
"You don't have any weapons from the Jungle. You'll need the Blade of Grass and the Thorn Chakram."
Dan sighed. "Let's go back to the Jungle."
"Sure, I'll stay here and eat pancakes--er, guard the houses." Michael said through a mouthful of pancakes.

"So...how do you feel about being able to go to the other worlds, soon?" Thalia asked as the three walked to the Jungle.
"I've never been so excited," Dawn admitted. "But I'm also kind of worried. I don't want to get my hopes up, then be disappointed. I'm also wondering if what Autumn said was right--what if it's best if I don't regain my memories?"
"You can't know whether it'd be better or not to regain your memories." Dan said, joining in the conversation. "We could learn something important, you might remember something painful, like the loss of a family member, and wish you had never remembered, or maybe you'll just be happy to finally have your memories back. But we can't know."
"That's true," Dawn said as they started going down the path to the Underground. "So," she said, changing the subject, "Do you want the Blade of Grass, and I'll take the Thorn Chakram?"
"Okay, sounds good. I still have the Light's Bane," Dan said. "I could use a new sword."

After getting enough Jungle Spores to craft the Blade of Grass and the Thorn Chakram, they teleported home, crafted the weapons (and the Mana Flower), then talked to the Guide.
"We have everything you said we needed, plus the Mana Flower." Dan said.
The Guide stood up, lacing his fingers together then pushing his hands forward, cracking his knuckles. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Dan said, unsheathing the Blade of Grass.
"Ready!" Thalia exclaimed, getting out the Water Bolt and finding the page she needed.
"One more pancake!" Michael said. He grabbed a pancake from the table, then said, with two thumbs up, "Ready!"
"Of course!" Dawn said.
The Guide placed his hands on the table and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were glowing neon purple from magic. He outstretched his hand towards the four and shouted a string of numbers. Magic purple rings appeared around each of them. Thalia realized why they were familiar--these were the rings that had teleported them to Terraria in the first place.
"Wait--!"
It was too late, and the world fizzed to black.
Dawn stumbled as she couldn't see again yet. She stuck her hand out and heard the words,
"OW! What was that?!"
She then realized she must've smacked Michael in the face.
"Sorry Michael, I stumbled." She blinked, then she saw that they had all stumbled--and Thalia and Michael had fallen, the latter probably because she had accidentally hit him in the face.
"Where are we...?" Thalia asked.
"Dan, Thalia, Michael and Dawn have arrived!" the eerie voice whispered--even in another world, it was still there.
Dawn looked around. To her right was a tall building--a fortress made of Blue Dungeon Brick with flags and lanterns. To her left, there was just grass--not even trees--for a long while before there was a fortress made of clay brick that looked almost identical to the one on her right.
Suddenly, a voice asked, "Which team are you on?"
"WHAA!" Dawn turned around to see an extremely tall man looming over her. He had brown eyes and shoulder-length hair the same color. The top half of his hair was roughly gathered into a warrior's ponytail. He wore fiery armor, and carried a large sword made of the same material as his armor.
"I'm Leonidas. I'm on the Blue Team. Over there" --he pointed to the red fortress in the distance-- "is the Red Team. Again, which team will you be joining? The next match will be starting soon,"
"The next match of what?" Michael asked.
"Capture the Gem," Leonidas explained. "It's basically Capture the Flag, except with a ruby for the Red Team and a sapphire for the Blue Team."
The four looked at each-other, then said in unison, "Blue Team."
Leonidas grinned widely. "I knew you'd pick the right side." Suddenly someone walked onto the grass, between the blue and red fortresses.
"NEXT MATCH STARTING IN THREE..."
"Hey look, the next match is starting," Leonidas commented. "I knew I was indubitably correct. Dan, guard the fortress door while Michael and Thalia fire from the top of the fortress! Dawn, you go get the Ruby, and I'll protect the Sapphire!"
"How do you know our names?" Dan asked as he ran to the door of the fortress, which was really only about twenty feet away from him.
"TWO..."
"The eerie voice whispered them, remember? I just guessed who was who! I mean, a girl named Dawn wouldn't have purple and black hair, would she?" he asked sarcastically. "And you called the one you smacked in the face Michael. Now come on, let's go!" The other three ran to listen to what she said, and she ran into the fortress.
"ONE..."
Dawn took out the Thorn Chakram and covered her eyes with her hand to protect them from the sun.
"GO!"
So she had to get the Ruby from the Red Fortress? Simple enough.
She ran torwards the Fortress, but she once she was close enough, Jester's Arrows started raining from the sky. Dawn dodged most of them, but one hit her shoulder. Next thing she knew, she saw a teenaged girl with white feathered wings and red armor jump off the fortress. Dawn winced as she knew the girl was going to die.
However, she flew somehow--apparently the wings were real. So what was she then? Dawn didn't know of a winged people...
The girl flew high in the air, then a rainbow-colored beam of energy was fired onto the ground. Dawn dodged just in time and ran.
What was she...?

Dawn ran up the stairs as fast as she could. Suddenly the girl's face appeared by a window.
"There you are!" she shouted, then she disappeared.
Dawn forced herself to run faster, knowing that the girl was going to start chasing her. She turned around a corner and saw a hall--and at the end was a short person wearing blue armor.
"Stop!"
Dawn didn't reply and charged the person. Once she got close enough, she saw it was a twelve-year-old with short purple hair. That explains why he's short, she thought.
"I said stop!" He shouted again, and he took out a blue spear.
"Says who?" she stopped to ask, seeing what he would tell her.
"Says Vi of the Red Team!"
"Vi...? Your name is Violet?" Dawn tried not to laugh.
His face turned redder than the bricks of the fortress. "It's short for Vivian!" he shouted angrily. "And I'm in HARDMODE! Unlike you, you're just in easymode!"
"Hardmode?" Dawn asked.
He rolled his eyes and put his hand up to his forehead in annoyance. "'What's Hardmode?' she asks...oh my lord...you really haven't been in Terraria for very long, have you?"
"No, I haven't."
"Your world enters Hardmode once you've killed the Wall of Flesh. I have Hardmode armor--this is cobalt." He tapped his blue spear as an example. Suddenly he frowned. "Remind me why I'm telling you this?"
"I asked what Hardmode was."
"Oh, right. So yeah, you have to go to Hell to kill it." he said.
"...Hell?" Dawn asked. Was he swearing or was he serious?
"Yeah, Hell. It was created to keep people from killing the Wall of Flesh." Vi scoffed. "Not that it's ever stopped anyone."
"How do you summon the Wall of Flesh?"
"With the Guide Voodoo doll, you drop it in lava." she couldn't read his face when he said it--he looked neutral, almost emotionless.
"So you kill the Guide, so that you can kill the Wall of Flesh?" asked Dawn. "What were your feelings when you dropped the doll into the lava?"
Vi shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't really care, come to think of it. The Guide is crazy, and he values a rabbit's life above others. I guess it's kind of ironic like that then--he doesn't care for people, then people don't care when he dies."
"That's kind of sad," commented Dawn.
"I guess so. He comes back though, so it doesn't really matter anyway."
"So the Creator of Terraria revives NPCs when they die too?"
Vi looked at her and smiled. "You could say that. But they always come back a little different each time, with a new name, pretending it never happened. It's creepy, to be honest. So that's why I play PvP--Player versus Player," he explained before she could ask. "I try to stay as far away from the NPCs as possible. There's something wrong with them..." suddenly his eyes grew wider. "PvP! Oh my gosh, I was supposed to be guarding the Ruby, then I started talking to you...crap!" he stomped his foot in irritation.
Suddenly the teen in red armor appeared in the hall--with the Sapphire in her hands. She threw it, shouting, "Catch!"
Dawn and Vi both reached for the gem but both of them missed. It hit one of the walls, then flew out the window.
The teen looked out the window. "Mythril scrap!" she shouted angrily. She whipped her head to look at Vi. "That was the Sapphire, you idiot! We're going to lose the game!"
She took out a rainbow-colored rod and fired it at Dawn's head.
Dawn froze, knowing she was going to die again--even if she dodged, the girl would just cast the spell again.
However, she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist and yank her out of the way.
"What the heck?!" Dawn and the girl exclaimed in unison.
"She's a newbie!" Vi exclaimed. "And you've got the Rainbow Rod, you can't expect her to live!"
Dawn thought fast and opened the door Vi had been guarding a few minutes earlier. She grabbed the Ruby sitting on the table, ran out the room, threw the Ruby out the window as well, and jumped after it. She twisted her ankle when she landed, but she grabbed the Ruby and ran back torwards the Blue Fortress.
"Hey!" she heard Vi shout. "I just saved your life!"
Dawn made a mental note to apologize later--though she didn't think she had broken any rules. Once she was close enough to the Fortress, she heard Dan shout, "You have the Ruby?!"
"Yeah! Where's the Sapphire?" she asked. She was almost to the door...
"I don't know!" he said, opening the door.
Dawn ran as fast as she could, but she was too tired from running so far, and her ankle screamed in pain every time her foot landed on the ground. She drank a potion then continued running.
"Leonidas! The Ruby!" she shouted.
Leonidas ran from the end of the hall. When he was close enough Dawn tossed it to him. He caught it and turned around, but before he could move to the door, someone shouted,
"AND THE WINNER IS...THE RED TEAM!"
Leonidas groaned. "Man, really? So close! If you hadn't spent so much time talking to Vi-Vi over there, we might've won..." he added sarcastically.
"Vi-Vi?" Dawn asked, amused.
"His name is incredibly easy to make fun of," Leonidas grinned.
"...So how did you know I was talking to Vi?"
"Chat box. Records what everyone says, and it also enables long-distance communication." Leonidas explained.
"Like a phone?" Dawn asked. Suddenly the thought hit her--what the heck was a phone, and where had she heard of it?
Leonidas looked confused, but then he grinned. "Oh, a phony! No, the chat box isn't a fake, it's actually pretty useful. You can be in the depths of Hell and be talking to a friend in space. Indubitably, it is not a phony." He joked.
"So it's simply one hell of a Chat Box, huh?" asked Dawn, grinning.
Leonidas laughed and ruffled her hair, like an older brother might. "Exactly! See, you're learning!" Leonidas then whipped out a pair of glasses from out of nowhere, put them on, and started waving around a thin stick. "You see, if you are to survive here," he said, trying to appear like a teacher or professor, "You must learn the art of making jokes about Hell."
"There's an art...?"
"Indubitably! What else would it be? It certainly isn't science." He joked. Suddenly he saw something in the sky and looked serious. "Ah, that's right!"
"What is it?" asked Thalia, who had come down from the stairs.
"I was going to leave after a few rounds." Leonidas explained. He grinned and flicked his hand to make a finger gun torwards them, saying, "Stay safe, kiddos! And tell Vi-Vi I said hi!" The magic-purple rings surrounded him, then he faded away until he and the rings were gone.
"So...what now?" Dan asked.
"We could join the Red Team," Dawn suggested.
"Why, because they're winning? Isn't that cheating?" Thalia asked. "Besides, we're the only Blue Team members left."
"Really?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, Leonidas said that just before we came, most of the Blue Team had to leave," Michael said. "So we have to stay on the Blue Team."
"Why did you want to switch teams?" Dan asked.
"I met someone on the other team. His name's Vi, and he told me about Hardmode." Dawn said.
"Hardmode?"
After Dawn explained what had happened, Dan said, "We should thank Vi then, and ask him what else he knows about Terraria."
Michael looked suspicious. "Are you sure? From what the Guide said, the other Terrarians are barbarians that'll rip our faces off..."
"Because Leonidas tried to rip our faces off...yeeeeaaaaah...riiiiiight..." Dawn said in a deadpan voice. "Besides, do we really want to trust the Guide?"
Before Michael could reply, the voice whispered, "Dusk has arrived!" then, "Elan and Fiona have arrived!"
Dawn looked out the window and saw a crowd was gathering in the fields between the Red and Blue Fortresses. "Hey, haven't Elan and Fiona come to our world before?"
"It does sound familiar..." Thalia said. "Come on, let's go see who they are."

"Hey! YOU!" Vi shouted, while running up to Dawn and the other three.
"He looks...very...angry," Thalia commented nervously.
"I told you people would rip our faces off!" Michael exclaimed. "Man, I can see it now--'Thalia, Dan and Dawn had their faces ripped off by Violet'..."
"Michael, stop being so ridiculous--" Thalia interrupted herself, shouting, "HEY WAIT A MINUTE WHY DON'T YOU DIE TOO?!"
"The power of pancakes save me," Michael said, grinning.
Finally Vi caught up. "My. Name. Is NOT. VIOLET!"
"WHAA WHERE'D YOU COME FROM?!" Michael exclaimed.
"It's short for VIVIAN!" he added.
"Okay, okay, please don't rip my face off!" Michael exclaimed, stepping back then suddenly grabbing Thalia's shoulders and pushing her in front of him. "Rip her face off first!"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Thalia shrieked.
"AAAAAAH I DON'T WANT TO DIIIIIEEE!"
"Michael, Thalia won't kill you..." Dawn said, but then she saw Thalia's face and said, "Well, then again..."
"Not helping, Dawn!!"
"Anyway, so you're Vio--er, Vivian?" Dan asked. Vi nodded, then they shook hands, Dan commenting, "You're pretty short, aren't you...?"
Vi looked like he was about to rant again, so Dan put his hands up as though surrendering, saying, "I'm joking. I'm joking."
While Vi and Dan talked, Dawn scanned the small crowd for the three new people. Suddenly she saw someone with spiky hair--dark blue, spiky hair. Hadn't she seen someone with hair like that before...?
"Dan, look over there. See the person with the spiky blue hair?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah...why?"
"He looks...familiar. We should go talk to him." Dawn said.
"Careful," Vi warned. "I know who he is, and he can be difficult to talk to sometimes. I played Capture the Gem with him once and he wouldn't listen to a word I said."
Dawn nodded. "Thanks, Vi. Michael? Thalia! Come on, someone looks familiar!"
Dan and Thalia followed her as she walked off, while Michael grumbled, "Oh, he looks FAMILIAR, does he? YEAH, let's go WALK UP TO THE STRANGER and TALK TO HIM, HE LOOKS FAMILIAR!"
"Hurry up Michael, you'll be left behind!" Thalia shouted.
Michael sighed and hurried to catch up.

He definitely looked familiar, Dawn thought.
His hair was dark blue and was spiky in the back, and his eyes were the same color. He wore a zip-up, gray-blue vest that looked vaguely like a military vest, with a light blue shirt underneath, though all you could see of the shirt was the slightly-poofy 3/4-length sleeves. He wore dark blue pants and shiny black boots.
"...Hi, my name's Dawn, this is T--"
"You're joking," the teen said.
"No, I'm not. Why would I joke about my name?" Dawn asked. "...Unless if I was in Psych, but other than that."
"My name's Dusk," he said, ignoring the Psych reference.
"...Oh. Huh, what a coincidence." Dawn figured lots of people were named after strange things--she'd heard of a warrior named Cloud, even--so someone being named "Dusk" really wasn't that absurd. "Anyway, these are my friends Thalia, Michael, and Dan."
"Huh," Michael commented, walking up and trying to look scholarly. "I see why you said he looked familiar, Dawn. With a face so ugly, how could anyone forget HIM?"
"Wow, your friend has spectacular manners," Dusk said sarcastically.
"Thanks, dude. Glad you think so."
"Sarcasm."
"...I knew that." Michael said, trying to look smug, though he looked more miffed than anything. "I was trying to confuse you."
"You're definitely confusing me..." Dan said, trailing off.
"Anyway! So, do you know anybody who can cook pancakes?" Michael asked.
Dusk raised an eyebrow. "Why pancakes?"
"Because pancakes are DELICIOUS and AWESOME,"
"Everyone knows waffles are better," Dusk said, raising a finger and closing his eyes, trying to look wise.
"What're you talking about?! Waffles being better than pancakes!? That's ridiculous! Madness! Outrageous! Absurd!"
"Oh really?" Dusk smirked, folding his arms. "Tell you what. I'll join your team, and whoever gets the Gem and wins a point for our team is right."
"So you'll join the Blue Team then?" Michael asked. He thought for a moment as though trying to decide whether or not he could tolerate Dusk being on the same team long enough for him to win and prove pancakes were better. "...Challenge accepted." They shook hands, then ran towards the Blue Fortress.
Thalia sighed. "Don't they realized that the next match starts in twenty minutes?"
"Nah, they probably don't know that," Vi commented.
"Should we tell them?"
Dawn thought for a moment before she and Vi said in unison, "Nope!"
"Watching them argue is probably going to be hilarious anyway," Dawn said.
Vi smirked. "It probably will be." Then he took a GPS out of his pocket and said, "Well, I have to help set up the next match. See you,"

Waffles being better than pancakes? Better than PANCAKES?! Madness! It's just not right! Michael thought as he stood, ready to run to the Red Fortress when the game began. He had been standing there for what felt like an eternity already, but he couldn't quit--pancakes everywhere were counting on him to restore their rightful place of honor as the Best Breakfast Ever!
Thalia jogged over to the door. "Are you sure you want to do this? We're going to lose without enough people defending the fortress,"
"I don't care!" Michael and Dusk exclaimed in unison, before they turned to glare at each-other.
"Pancakes are the best! It's my job to restore their honor!"
"You sound like the Prince Zuko of pancakes," Dawn commented.
"Stop breaking the Fourth Wall!" Thalia exclaimed.
"Hey, what about when Dan mentioned Batman? Batman isn't in our universe, so he broke the Fourth Wall!" Dawn argued.
Thalia sighed. "Fine, I give up. Break the Fourth Wall. I'll just be defending the fortress." Thalia walked into the Fortress, shutting the door behind her.
"So why do you guys care about which breakfast food you think is better?" asked Dawn.
"It matters a lot!" Michael exclaimed.
"But...why?"
"The honor of pancakes must be restooooooooored!"
"Waffles conquer all, because Secretly Waffles Are the Greatest!"
"...I can't wait until it turns out someone is obsessed with toast," Dawn joked as she walked over to the door of the fortress. "Anyway, I'll protect the Sapphire, you guys can try and capture the Ruby."
"LAST MATCH STARTING IN 3..."
"Wait, this is the last match?" Dusk sighed. "What with my luck, I guess that isn't surprising..."
"2..."
"What do you mean, 'with my luck'?" Michael asked.
"1..."
Dusk smirked. "They say I'm unlucky."
"GO!"
"Fortunately for me, I don't believe in luck!" he shouted, bursting into a run.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Michael shouted, following after him. "You got a head start!"
"What do you want me to do, turn around and start over?!"
"No, but SLOW DOWN or something!!"
Dusk stopped and turned around. "Sure, 'cause that's fair, too."
"You had a head start!" Michael repeated.
"Then hurry up, I don't have all day!"
Finally Michael caught up.
"Three two one go!" Dusk shouted, speeding forwards again.
"Dude, I wasn't ready!" Michael shouted.
Poor pancakes... Michael thought. Maybe I won't be able to restore their honor...

Thalia put her hand over her eyes to prtoect them from the sun. "Hey...hey, Dawn, come look!"
Dawn ran up the stairs, then Thalia said, "Look over there. See them?"
"Yeah...Why are they stopping?"
"More importantly, why is Vi standing at the door laughing? Shouldn't he be defending the door?" Thalia asked.
"Pfft. If he laughs any harder, his head'll fall off," Dawn said sarcastically. "I wonder what they're saying...If only I knew how to use the darn Chat Box."

"...Okay, so I can't outrun you!" Michael said, panting. "Seriously, wait up!"
Dusk didn't stop and he kicked the door open, while Vi just stood by.
"Hey, Vi,"
"Good luck, Dusk,"
"Aren't you going to stop him?!" Michael exclaimed.
"Nope," Vi said, grinning from ear to ear. "This'll be so funny, I can afford to let my team lose,"
Michael felt a little offended, but nonetheless he shouted, "I said, wait up!"
"Why?" Dusk asked.
Finally Michael reached the Fortress door. "Because I challenge you to a KARAOKE BATTLE!"
"Krak-a-thoom," Vi said sarcastically, imitating a thunder effect in the background.
Dusk looked amused. "A karaoke battle?" Michael nodded, then Dusk asked, "What would we sing anyway?"
"A song called 'The Battle Between Pancakes and Waffles'."
"Don't tell me singing is your talent. That'd be unfair," Dusk said.
"Are you using reverse psychology and you're doing the opposite of bluffing so that I think you're not a good singer but you really are and then you win the karaoke battle?" Michael asked suspiciously.
Vi and Dusk looked speechless. "Uh...no," they both said in unison. Then Vi said, "Trust me, he's not a good singer."
"How do you know?"
"It's weird--he often outruns people, so they challenge him to karaoke battles. I don't know why, but it's hilarious so I really don't care," Vi said.
"So then, how does the song go...?"
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/pancakes-vs-waffles-karaoke-pg-1-jpg.127204/
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/pancakes-vs-waffles-karaoke-pg-2-jpg.127205/
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/pancakes-vs-waffles-karaoke-pg-3-jpg.127206/
http://www.terrariaonline.com/attachments/pancakes-vs-waffles-karaoke-pg-4-jpg.127209/
"I DEMAND A REMATCH!" Michael shouted.
"Too bad. You don't get one." Dusk said. "I won, and that's final. Besides, Vi might die if he laughs any harder."
"Hey, that rhymes," Michael commented.
"HEY! VI! GET OFF YOUR BIG BUTT AND STOP THEM! THEY'RE FROM THE BLUE TEAM!" the winged girl shouted.
"Why don't you stop them?" he asked between laughs. "I'm too busy enjoying their bickering."
"You're going to make us lose like we almost did last time!"
"It's just a game, Candice. Stop freaking out,"
"Hello, Candice," Dusk piped in. "Were you wanting a karaoke battle, too? Fine, let's start. Sekaaaaaaaiiii deeeee...."
"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!" she demanded, practically shrieking by this point.
"...ichiban ohime-samaaa! What, we aren't doing World is Mine karaoke?" he teased.
Candice shouted a war cry as she fired a rainbow-colored laser beam at Dusk.
Dusk smirked. "I'll take that as a 'no', then."
To Michael, what happened next was in slow-motion: Dusk stepped back with one foot, leaning back slightly to narrowly evade being hit. The beam of color streaked past him and then the world sped back up as though fast-forwarding to the present. The beam sped torwards a tree, hitting it and making it explode with a blinding amount of color. Some part of Michael's head thought this seemed very familiar--then he realized Dawn dodged a snowball in a snowball fight one time, dodging just like Dusk just had. Why on Terraria would they dodge the same reckless way? Were they taught by the same person? Had Dawn trained Dusk how to fight, or vise versa? Either way, Michael had the feeling that Dawn was right--they had to know each-other, or be connected in some way. He'd never seen anyone dodge like that--it was just too risky, if you didn't step back far enough.
Candice looked as shocked as Michael felt. Then she shook her head and fired again. This time Dusk flipped backwards in a perfectly timed way so that he landed just as the beam was past him. Then his hand moved so fast Michael couldn't tell what he did until he heard Candice gasp in pain. He looked and saw that Dusk must've thrown a blue katana at her.
Dusk then grabbed the katana's hilt and yanked the sword out of her stomach.
Looking deadly serious, he said, "I would hate to have to kill you over a game. Of course, since you seemed willing to kill me..."
Candice fired the Rainbow Rod again, twice. Then she drew a large red sword and brought it up in an arc above her head, shouting again.
Dusk stepped to one side then the other to dodge the beams, then he blocked the sword with his katana. He then spun around, bringing the sword around to hit her in the back. She spun around too, slashing her sword. Dusk jumped up and he hit the ground, bending his knees and slashing at her knees at the same time. He then lept back again before she could hit him. He brought out a book which a part of Michael's head vaguely recognized as the Water Bolt. Dusk outstretched his hand, tens or hundreds of spheres of water appearing in front of his palm and shooting out torwards Candice. They did barely any damage considering how much health she had, but given the look on Dusk's face, it looked like it didn't matter. She fired a beam at him from the Rainbow Rod again, but he jumped high into the air, raised a large pink sword above his head--where in Terraria did the sword come from?--then pointed the blade at her, and hundreds of stars started falling from the sky, all aimed torwards Candice. By this point Candice was injured enough that she took out a Healing Potion, but before she could drink it Dusk kicked it out of her hand as he landed. She lept back and reached for another one, but Dusk put a palm up as if to say, "stop".
He smirked as though he knew something she didn't and he said, "Any minute now..."
From the left and the right, all the hundreds of Water Bolts that he had cast came back again, and she stumbled from being attacked so many times in a row. He slashed the katana but she was fast enough to block, and she jabbed the Rod into his throat. The smirk on his face disappeared.
"You're dead, Shorty," she hissed.
Suddenly Michael decided to do something, and he loaded the Minishark and aimed it at Candice's head. "Shoot him and I'll put several hundred bullets in your head!" he shouted.
"Put the staff down, Candice!" he heard Vi shout.
Candice puffed away several strands of hair in her face. Looking back and forth--from Dusk to Michael to Vi, then repeated--she obviously decided she didn't want to bother fighting them all and she dropped the Rainbow Rod and shoved Dusk away, only to punch him in the chest so hard he was sent flying several feet.
She opened her mouth as though she was going to rant, but then she closed her mouth angrily and folded her arms, then the purple rings surrounded her and she disappeared.
There was silence until Michael asked, "So...why'd you help him?"
"We 'short'"--he made finger quotes in the air--"people have to stick together." He said, with a genuine smile on his face. Michael had the feeling smiles like those were rare for Vi.
Michael grinned, then teased him, saying, "Well, the thing is you're the only short person here..." Michael dodged a half-hearted punch.
Before either of them could say anything else, they heard groaning behind them. They both turned to see Dusk pushing himself up into a sitting position.
"Good lord, that hurt." He grumbled, smoothing out the spikes in his hair. He drank a Health Potion then stood up. "I'm glad you guys forgot about me once I was punched about ten feet through the air."
"Hey, I don't trust you THAT much," Michael said. "Besides, Health Potions." Then he changed the subject, saying, "So...what are we going to do about Capture the Gem?"
"Eh, go ahead and take the Ruby." Vi said. "Here, it's up through this door, then through that hallway..."

"Dude, dude, dude," Dawn said, tapping Thalia's shoulder every time she said "dude". "Look. Now Vi's leading them to the Ruby."
"What on Terraria is going on down there?" Thalia asked.
"Whatever it is, we're winning," Dawn said.

"Hey, Dusk, Vi. Let's see who can get to the Blue Fortress first," Michael suggested cheerfully.
"Sure. On-your-mark-get-set-go!" Dusk shouted, easily running at least fifteen feet ahead of them in seconds.
"Wait up! Dude, I can't run that fast!"
"Then why'd you challenge him to run?!" Vi demanded angrily.

"And now they're running..." Dawn suddenly laughed. "Oh my lord, they're having a race again!"
"Look how far ahead Dusk is!" Thalia exclaimed.
"Better exclamation: look how far behind Vi is!" Dawn exclaimed gleefully. "This is hilarious! He's even slower than MICHAEL!"
"Well, he is pretty short for his age..." Thalia reasoned.
Dawn absent-mindedly flicked her hand at Thalia's shoulder. "Stop it, you're ruining the hilarity. Shush."

Finally Michael reached the Fortress, to see a very sarcastic-looking Dawn and Dusk, who were each leaning on the wall of the Fortress and making quips he couldn't hear, and Thalia, who was rolling her eyes.
"Where's Dan?" he asked when he got close enough.
"He's crafting armor inside," Thalia answered.
"Oh, okay." Michael answered. "Did Dusk put the Ruby on the table?" he asked. You have to put the Gem on the same table as the Team's Gem should be before you can officially win.
"No, he didn't. He wanted to make sarcastic comments about how slow you and Vi were, so he never got to it." Thalia said, rolling her eyes.
"Speaking of Vi..." Michael said, trailing off as he looked behind him to see Vi was still at least forty feet away. "Good lord, he's slow!" He exclaimed, dumbfounded.
"He IS short for his age," Thalia pointed out, sounding mildly irritated as though she's already said this more than she thought she thought she should have.
"How old is he, anyway?" Michael asked.
"Twelve..."
"Wow. He IS short. I thought he was eleven or something!"
"Eleven?" Thalia asked, confused.
"Yeah, eleven. That's what I said. Why, are you half-deaf or something?" Michael suddenly gasped. "OH MY GOSH! YOU'VE BEEN DEAF ALL THIS TIME AND YOU'RE REALLY JUST A REALLY REALLY GOOD LIP READER! YOU LIAR!! YOU LIED TO US!"
"Shut up!" She hissed. "I'm not deaf!"
"Oh, whew. Good. I was worried for a minute there," he teased.
"But why would one year make such a big difference in height?"
"One year is a lot," Michael said. "Of course it makes sense."
Thalia rolled her eyes again--was she exercising her eyes or was she just that baffled by everyone else?--and said, "Yes. One year really can make such a difference in height, can't it? People aren't short, they're just lying about their age,"
"I really hope that's sarcasm," Michael said. "That's about as ridiculous as someone lying about being deaf," he said without any hint of irony or sarcasm in his voice.
"Who's lying about being deaf?" Vi asked.
"Oh hey, you finally caught up!" Michael exclaimed.
"Shuddup." Vi said, looking extremely deadpan and annoyed. "So, you planning on winning any time this year?"
Dusk made one last sarcastic comment, then he walked into the Fortress. A few minutes later, it was announced that the Blue Team had won the match and the game, and there would be a few minutes before the owner of that world would be forcing everyone out of his world.
"Who's the owner of this world? Have we seen him?" Dan asked.
Vi smirked, and for an instance he heavily resembled Dusk (if Dusk had purple hair and a reasonable hairstyle). "You're looking at him."
"You own this world?" Dawn asked, looking surprised. "You changed your world just for a game?"
"Yes...it appears the World is Mine," Vi said in an almost cheery way. "Well, I have more than one world, but still."
"You really like that song, don't you?" Dawn asked. "You and Dusk keep on making references to it."
"No, it's just easy to make references to it. It's not a bad song, though," Vi said.
"Oh, okay. Who's the announcer, then?"
"A friend. He also likes games like Capture the Flag--except he prefers to watch and announce instead of actually play the game."
There was a brief sentence before Dawn commented, "You weren't kidding when you said you liked playing games to avoid the NPCs, were you?"
"...No." Vi said quietly. "I can't stand them. They remind me of how I'm away from my family. They remind me of how different my life is now. And they remind me of how WRONG this place is. I HATE THIS PLACE!" he suddenly shouted. "I WANT TO GO HOME!" he shouted as he swung his fist out stiffly, punching the brick wall, before he winced in pain.
"We'll find a way back home," Thalia swore.
"And we'll slay all the Corruption." Dan added.
"So what?" Dusk asked darkly, finally joining the conversation. "You'll just kill the Corruption, end a whole biome, and you think that'll bring your family, friends, and homes back?"
"IT'S BETTER THAN LIVING IN THIS TWISTED WORLD, WITH THESE FREAKS, IN A FREAK'S WORLD, WHERE IF YOU DIE, THEY BRING YOU BACK!" Vi shouted. "I HAVE TO TRY!"
"But you're not trying," Dusk replied coolly, facing down slightly but looking up. "You're playing games."
That obviously hit Vi hard, as he still looked enraged, but his eyes went wide as though he was now in conflict with himself.
"You should think before you start insulting people," Dusk said coldly, then he turned to the others and announced, "I'm leaving. Maybe I'll see you later."
"WAIT!" Dawn shouted.
Dusk looked up, curious, while everyone else stared at Dawn for suddenly shouting.
Dawn looked from side to side, trying to think of something to say. She couldn't exactly say, "I'm amnesiac, but you look familiar, so do you think you could travel with us in the hopes that I'd regain my memories?". So she said, "Uh...Michael was wondering if you wanted to join our group?"
"NO I WASN'T!"
"Sure you were." Dawn teased. "Okay, so fine, that was a joke. Anyway, would you like to join our group?" she repeated.
"Are you sure you could handle the sarcasm?" Dusk asked, smirking. Before anyone could answer, he said, "Fine, I'll join your group. ...So long as I get to eat waffles whenever I want them."
Dawn was hesitant. "Uh...sure...I guess..."
"I'm in!" he exclaimed.
"Hey, do I get pancakes whenever I want?" Michael asked, whispering in Dawn's ear.
"No. Uhm, I mean, we'll discuss this later."
Michael sighed sadly. "So basically, no pancakes?"
"You can have pancakes if you want them!" Dawn hastily exclaimed in order to prevent Michael dramatically running around shouting a very big, very prolonged "NO!".
"Oh, okay, good." Michael said. "So, can we leave now?"
"Sure, I don't see why not," Dusk said.
The purple rings appeared around Dawn, Thalia, Michael, Dan and Dusk, and the world began to fade away. The last thing Dawn saw was Vi, still looking conflicted and angry. Dawn realized they were leaving him behind, but it was too late to say anything--the world turned black.

To be continued...
Chapter Sixteen: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/tales-of-terraria.8588/#post-245304

Chapter Seventeen: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/tales-of-terraria.8588/#post-480423
Chapter Eighteen: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/tales-of-terraria.8588/page-2#post-536951
Chapter Nineteen: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/tales-of-terraria.8588/page-3#post-564772
 
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CHAPTERS CONT'.
Dawn made sure not to stick her hand out this time when she stumbled, but then she lost her balance and stepped on a rock, then she swung her hand out again and hit someone in the face.
"OW! What the crap?!" two people exclaimed.
Dawn blinked and saw she had stepped on Thalia's foot--the so-called "rock"--and she had slapped Michael in the face again.
"You have the grace of a hippo," Dusk commented, somehow sarcastic and cheery at the same time.
Dawn wondered what kind of people she used to know before she became amnesiac. Then she thought, "Apparently sarcastic people."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAY NEW PEOPLE!!"
Dawn looked over to see another short person running torwards them. Dawn slowly turned her head around again and decided to pretend the person wasn't there and she had never said anything. "SO...do you have any idea what game they're playing?"
Dusk looked one way, then the other. "There are towers, forts, and smaller buildings. I'd guess this is a world built for Player verses Player fights."
"We...we have to knock people out for a game, then?" Thalia asked hesitantly.
Dusk paused, looking at her facial expression as though trying to tell what her reaction would be.
Finally, he said, "No, you have to kill--"
"THAT'S WRONG!" Dan exclaimed. "THAT IS WRONG! I'M NOT KILLING FOR
FUN! THIS IS A GAME for goodness sakes!"
"I wasn't finished," Dusk said irritably. "Don't interrupt. Anyway, what I was going to say before your outburst was, whenever you enter a world that's playing the Arena-type games, they make it so that wounds and death don't hurt you, you don't even lose blood. You just lose health, and die, then come back. It's a lot like a stimulation game, where you feel like
you're there, but you don't feel pain, and you're not there. Except obviously, the difference is we are here and this isn't a stimulation."
"STOP BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL WE DON'T HAVE STIMULATION GAMES! WE COMEFROM A FANTASY UNIVERSE, NOT A SCI-FI ONE!!" Thalia yelled.
"I'm using it as an example most people will understand. If it breaks the Fourth Wall, so be it. I will smash the Fourth Wall into dust if I have to. Die, Fourth Wall, die," Dusk added sarcastically.
"You aren't even using the term 'Fourth Wall' entirely correctly--" Dawn started, but then Thalia interrupted.
"You guys are insane!"
"HELLO~!" someone with a British accent exclaimed suddenly.
Dawn then remembered that someone had seen them and was running over to greet them, so the person greeting them now must be the same person from before. She turned around to see a tall boy who looked roughly eleven years old.
"Hello, I'm Earnest! Call me Earnest-chan!" He exclaimed, fixing the brightly-colored but otherwise-plain hair clips in his peach-orange hair.
"Your eyes are a really bright orange," Thalia commented. "Do you wear eye contacts?"
"Nope!" he exclaimed cheerily.
"What's up with that outfit? Isn't it hard to fight in that?" Michael asked suddenly.
Come to think of it, his outfit was a bit ridiculous. He wore a bright blue, knitted hat that had cat ears on it; a very, very light blue button-up shirt with short, poofy sleeves; and short white gloves. He also wore jean shorts, tall white socks, and plain black slip-on shoes. He made
two fists--the fighter in Dawn couldn't help but notice his thumbs were over his knuckles, which would be a disadvantage in a real fight--and said, "Nope! I can fight just fine!" To demonstrate, he punched a tree, shouting, "HIYAA!". He froze, then slowly brought his fist away from the tree, looking at it. "Um...I think I punched the tree wrong..."
"Which is why you're a mage instead of a fist-fighter, Earnest-chan!" another British person exclaimed, suddenly appearing and surprising Earnest.
"Aah! Olive-chan, you can't sneak up on me like thaaaaat!"
The second person--Olive...chan?--looked a lot like Earnest, so they must have been siblings. He--or was it a she?--was tall, roughly sixteen, and had hair and eyes the same color as Earnest's. His hair was pulled back into a long, thin ponytail, with bangs framing his face. He also wore a bright-blue cathat like Earnest's, though he wore a long-sleeved white button-up shirt, a black tie, black pants, and black boots instead of a weird outfit like Earnest's.
"It's your fault for not paying attention." Olive said, smiling. Then he turned to the others and asked, "What are your names? I'm Olive-kun, and you already met Earnest-chan, I think."
Dawn listed all their names, then Olive asked, "So...Dan-san, Thalia-chan, Michael-kun, Dawn-kun, and Dusk-kun, then?"
"Um, we don't have anything at the ends of our names...it's just Dan, Thalia, Michael, Dawn, and Dusk..." Thalia said, while Michael was laughing, "Dan-san...it rhymes! ...Kind of! Ha ha...!"
Earnest and Olive looked dumbfounded. "No...honorifics?" the former asked, while the latter finished, "We have to use honorifics. It'd be rude not to."
"Why?" Dan asked.
"We're huge fans of anything Japanese!" Earnest exclaimed. "So we use the Japanese honorifics!"
"The English version would be like 'mister' or 'miss', except there are also honorifics for friends, family, royalty, etc. Not just for 'mister' or 'miss'." Olive explained. "In Japan, it's rude not to use honorifics, so we have to give everyone honorifics. We're sorry if it bothers you."
"So if Earnest...chan, you said?" Dawn asked. They both nodded, so she continued, "So if he's a mage, what are you, Olive-kun?"
He smiled. "I'm a chainsaw-user."
"WHOA!" Michael exclaimed in horror. "ARE YOU GOING TO BEHEAD US?! DON'T BEHEAD ME, BEHEAD THALIA OR DUSK!"
"Good lord, Michael! He's not a psychopath or a barbarian! He's not going to behead us!" Dawn said, but then she added, "Well, unless we're on the other team. But other than that."
"And you wouldn't feel any pain anyway..." Dusk added. Then he noticed Earnest-chan laughing and he asked, "Why are you laughing?"
"Olive-chan isn't a boy! She's my onee-chan!"
"Your what?"
"Older sister." Olive-kun explained. At the looks of the others, she added, "Don't worry, people say I look and sound boyish all the time."
"That explains the hair..." Dawn joked.
There was an awkward silence before Dusk said, "Shouldn't we be starting PvP soon...?"
"As soon as you join our team--" at a glare from Olive, Earnest changed what he said to "As soon as you join a team, we'll start!"
"What's your team called?" Thalia asked.
Olive and Earnest then stood back-to-back, quickly making V-signs with their hands, exclaiming: "The Fire Neko Aura Twins! Group!"
"...Thingamajigger!" Earnest added.
"...Oookaaaay then. We're going to another world." Dusk said, saying the last part quickly.
"Why?" Dan asked.
"I don't like people like these. They tend to have weird problems or something from their past, or they're actually freaky murderers, or they're just plain weird." Dusk whispered.
"How could Earnest be a freaky murderer?" Michael asked, doing a terrible job at trying to whisper. "He couldn't even punch the tree properly...THE TREE! Trees can't move or anything, yet he still couldn't--"
"Okay, okay, we get the point," Thalia whispered. "But really, they don't look like they're like those people. I mean, yes, they're weird..." Dawn looked over to see Earnest and Olive exclaiming random things in Japanese, like "Shieru wa, hitobito o pishari teishi!" and "Daisuki eggplants!"
"...Um, pretty weird...but still, they don't look like freaky murderers."
"Fine then, do whatever you want. When they try to kill you, don't start complaining to me, though." Dusk said, deadpan.
"We'll join!"
"Yay!" Earnest exclaimed. "Okay, second things first."
"It's first things first, Earnest-chan," Olive corrected.
"First things third!" He exclaimed again, which made Olive facepalm in exasperation. "There's four other people in our team, Jax, Sam, Odin, and Damion."
"Can we meet them before the next match?" Dan asked.
"You're Dan-san, right?" When Dan nodded, Earnest said, "Of course you can, Dan-san-chan! Dan-chan-san? Dan-kun-chan-san??" Earnest looked at Olive in increasing confusion.
"Dan-san-kun maybe? No? Hm."
"Are you guys saying my name for any particular reason, or...?"
"He can't decide what Honoriffic to give you. He dislikes calling people '-san', he practically thinks he's friends with anyone and thus can call them '-kun' or '-chan' if he wants." She sighed, and Earnest looked visibly uncomfortable.
"Um, I'm going to go get the others!" he exclaimed, trying to sound cheery but failing.
When Earnest was out of sight, Olive continued, "In Akatsuki, he couldn't dare to assume anyone was our friend. This sounds terrible, but...being teleported to Terraria is the best thing that's ever happened to us."
"Why?" Thalia asked, shocked.
"We were rejected, where we came from. Especially Earnest-chan." she said, a sad look in her eyes as she remembered.
"Oh..." Thalia said, looking as though she had realized something.
"Earnest-chan is a mage...and Akatsuki banned magic a few years ago..."
"He couldn't stop using magic. He refused to. He believed magic could help people. So we had to run."
"What...what exactly happened for a country to ban magic?" Dusk asked slowly.
"There was a serial killer. You'd think one serial killer couldn't scare a country enough to ban magic, but it was serious. He killed thousands of people with Disease Magic."
"So they banned Black Magic," Thalia assumed. "That's not so bad." Olive looked offended. "You hadn't read the news, had you? They banned ALL magic."
"Even White Magic?!"
Olive nodded solemnly. "They were pretty serious about it. Anyone who didn't quit using magic was sent off to special Anti-Magic prisons until they were sure the person would never use magic again. And the non-Magic-users were pretty scared, so if they found a mage, they'd turn
them in to the police. We ran until we were suddenly teleported to Terraria. Now we don't have to run anymore. ...Gah, why am I telling you all this?"
"...Dusk? Are you okay?" Dawn asked.
Dusk was standing there, looking frozen as his eyes were wide.
"Dusk?"
"...That sounds familiar," he whispered. "I think...I recognize the name. Akatsuki. And I'm a Mage..."
"What are the main five countries' names again?" Dawn asked.
"The Haven, the biggest country; Akatsuki, the Anti-Mages; Faelin, where the Dryads live; The Caves of the Dwarves, speaks for itself; and Darekka, where the Goblins live." Thalia listed.
"I don't recognize any of the names..." Dawn said, trailing off.
"Maybe you lived in one of the smaller countries," Thalia suggested.
"Anyway, please don't worry about that now."
Dawn nodded silently. "So...you think you might've been to an Anti-Mage Prison?"
"I...I don't know. That sounds familiar though," he said.
"Dansan-chan! Thalia-chan! Michael-kun! Dawn-kun, Dusk-kun~! This is Jax-kun, the blonde one is Odin-kun, the fiery one is Damion-kun, and the creepy one is Sam-kun."
Jax looked roughly 23--Dawn was guessing from his height--and he had short black hair with straight bangs parted in the middle that were cut above the ears. He wore the clothes and fedora of an Adventurer, and a bandolier. He had a musket on his back and two handguns in his hands, like he was ready to fight at any time.
Odin looked about 18--even though he was slightly taller than Jax, she guessed 18 because his face just looked 5 years younger. He had short, chaotic blonde hair and gold eyes, and he wore all black clothes. There were two sheathes on his back--judging from the hilts, it was the Muramasa and the Starfury.
Standing next to Odin was Damion, who was taller than Odin by several inches, yet looked more like 15. (Apparently all the tall people decided to join the Fire Neko Aura Twin Group Thingamajigger.) He had black hair with bangs that partially covered his left eye, and eyes that were as red as a demon's. He wore Molten armor, and carried numerous flaming weapons.
Sam on the other hand looked 12. He had oily black hair that was a little too long and spiked at the bottom, and black eyes that looked red in the light. His skin was a very light gray--Dawn wondered if he was actually human. He wore all Necro armor, and he was holding a weapon Dawn somehow recognized as the Clockwork Assault Rifle--a rare but powerful rifle.
"Hey look, new people! We haven't seen new people since...when was it, Sam?" Jax asked.
"Since that one man eaten by that tarantula."
"Yeah, since then!" Jax grinned. "He died pretty quickly...then he left this world...So, what are your skills?" he asked suddenly.
"Dan's a fighter, Thalia's a mage, Michael's a ranger, I use random weapons, mainly melee, and Dusk..." Dawn paused. "We have no idea what he does."
"I'm a Spellblade,"
"...Sure. Spellblade."
"Hey, a ranger? Michael, was it? You and I should have a contest to see who's got the best aim." Jax suddenly whipped around and fired one of the handguns, shouting, "Headshot!" as a dead bird fell from the sky.
"Wow. That was a pretty good shot..." Michael commented, seeing that the bird's head had been shot clean off.
Jax grinned. "Yup, that's why I'm here. I know they can take care of themselves, but I ALSO know that if some assassin decides he or she wants to put a few bullets in their heads, they won't stand a chance unless I'm here!"
"HA! We all know that if an assassin tried putting bullets in anyone's heads, I'D be the one saving your butts!" Olive declared, pointing to herself with her thumb. She sounded tough, but she was smiling, so she must've been joking.
"YAY ONEE-CHAAAN!" Earnest exclaimed cheerily.
"What, are you saying I couldn't kick the assassin's backsides, too?" Damion joked.
"You'd try, but knowing you, you might wind up burning down a forest, instead..." Earnest commented.
"WHADDAYA MEAN, 'I'D BURN DOWN A FREAKIN' FOREST'?! I LOVE FORESTS!" he
exclaimed, suddenly angry.
"That's why, you get so mad and then you do things by accident...!"
"I DON'T GET MAD, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"
"Damion. Calm down. Seriously," Odin said. "He was just joking."
"Oh...okay..." he said, calming down. "Sorry, Earnest-chan."
"It's okay, I forgive you!" Earnest said cheerily as though nothing had happened, as Jax began to talk.
"Hey, Sam? Wouldn't you do anything to save us if there were assassins?" Jax asked teasingly, changing the subject back to their joke.
Sam looked bored, picking at his ear with his pinky finger. "Yeah, I'm too lazy for that."
"You wouldn't care what happened to your friends?!" Thalia exclaimed.
"How DARE you!!" Damion shouted angrily.
"Damion!" Odin snapped. "Chill."
"I didn't say I wouldn't care. I just said I was lazy." He replied, still looking bored.
"HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?! WE'VE BEEN TRAVELLING TOGETHER FOR MONTHS!! YOU LITTLE TRAITOR!"
"Damion...!" Odin said his name as though it was a threat.
Thalia stood there in disbelief, and there was an awkward silence before Jax asked, "So...what about you, Odin? What would you do if I was killed and there were tons of assassins?"
"Does that have anything to do with me?" he asked emotionlessly.
"It has everything to do with you, Odin-kun!" Olive exclaimed. "If I was dead so I couldn't save you guys from a ton of assassins, what would you do?"
"Do I look like I care?" he asked, still looking calm but otherwise emotionless.
"You never look like you care," Olive joked. "So how would we know if you did?"
"Obviously you aren't dead and there are no assassins in sight. Thus, I don't care."
"Pfft, I told you. If I died, so would you guys," she joked.
"Isn't that a terrible thing to joke about?" Thalia asked. "You're joking about dying and leaving your friends defenseless."
"For one, we can all take care of ourselves, but we also take care of each-other. We know that if assassins ever tried killing us, we'd be fine. For two, If anyone died, we'd be revived anyway." Olive replied.
"How do you know that you're going to be revived every single time you die? What if the Creator of Terraria forgets to revive you, or he revives you wrong?" Thalia asked. "As a Mage, I know how magic works. It can't heal some wounds."
"You think we don't know that?"
Dawn was surprised to see it was Earnest talking. "Magic can't cure everything! Magic can destroy, magic can create, magic can twist reality, or it can heal it. As powerful as magic is...it can't do everything! People think magic is so great...'oh, it's like magic!'...but in reality--"
"--Magic has its limits, too," Dusk said at the same time as Earnest. "I know. It's a lesson every Mage has to learn eventually, though sometimes I think we forget."
"I don't think all Mages forget..." Damion said. "I think sometimes, Mages see how powerful they are, and they think they can do anything. It's a flaw, not just in Mages, but in people--we see that we can create powerful weapons and great technology, and we can use magic, and we get full of ourselves--then we might do something we regret forever."
"It's like a vicious cycle, if you think about it..." Odin commented. "We learn, some people get arrogant, then eventually something happens--whether it's a mistake we made, or because of events we can't control--and we have to restart, and learn all over."
"What is this, The Earnest, Dusk, Damion, and Odin Philosophy Talk Show?" Sam asked. "The next match starts in a few seconds. Didn't you hear them count down?"
"8..."
"Speaking of which...how many people are on the other team?" Dan asked.
"Ooh, I'd say aboooouuuut..." Jax thought for a second. "Twenty people."
"TWENTY PEOPLE?!" Michael exclaimed. "WE GONNA DIIIIIIEEEE!"
"7..."
"If you keep screaming like that, you will." Odin said sarcastically. "6..."
"So I take it this is one of the more popular PvP servers?" Dawn asked.
Earnest nodded. "Lots of people come here every Thursday to play PvP--and then you see those buildings in the sky?"
Dawn looked up, and sure enough, there were several buildings floating up in the sky.
"5..."
"Those buildings are for people who want to watch the games--including the NPCs, since there's nowhere else for them to really go."
"Why would people want to watch PvP?" Thalia asked.
"4..."
"You can see some really epic fights here," Olive said. "And since no-one's actually dying, it's kind of fun for some people to be able to come here and see fights like this. Some people can even learn better fighting techniques by watching how people fight."
"3..."
"So how often do you guys come here?"
"Fairly often. We've visited lots of worlds, but for some odd reason we like this one." Jax said. Then he changed the subject, saying, "Hey, Michael, what do you bet I can get ten headshots in a row?"
"TEN? In a ROW?" he asked, looking surprised. "How would you...?"
"2..."
"I bet I can do it pretty easily," he continued. "What about you?"
"...So this is a challenge?" Michael asked.
Jax smirked. "Yup! I bet I can get ten headshots in a row before you,"
"I don't even have a sniper rifle, I have a Minishark!"
"1..."
"There aren't any sniper rifles in Terraria, so I don't have one either. Speaking of which, I need to have a talk with the Guide about that..." Jax remarked. "We really need sniper rifles. So, challenge accepted or not?"
"What? Stop changing subjects like that!"
"GO!"
"I'll take that as a yes." Jax said as two flying warriors swooped in from the sky. He whipped out his handguns, and before Michael could do anything, he fired at each of them. "Headshot!"
Michael ran towards the forest on his left, making sure to stay quiet. He ran until he saw the other team's fortress--then he aimed at a guard's head, about to fire, when all of a sudden, Jax's voice exclaimed,
"HEADSHOT!" out of nowhere.
"WHAT THE--?!"
"Some-body for-got about the chaaaaat booooox!" Jax said in a sing-songy voice. "Ha HA I got you!"
"Wh--how do I turn it off?!"
"Dude, aren't you going to say anything funny?"
Michael opened his mouth to talk before the word "HEADSHOT!" burst out.
"Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!"
"...Dude, are you dancing?"
"WHOOOO! You are SO gonna lose!"
"...He's dancing, isn't he?" Michael muttered, discouraged.
"Seriously though, dude, why aren't you saying anything? ...Oh, you probably don't know how to use the chatbox. Okay, so first, there should be some weird headpiece thing in your backpack."
Michael checked, and sure enough there was a headpiece thing that looked like a headband with metal earmuffs on the sides. Out of one of the earmuffs there was a black, metal mouthpiece thing. He figured that Dawn would probably recognize the headpiece as some weird alien device--she was pretty weird like that.
"Now, put it on like you would earmuffs."
It took him a few tries, but finally Michael succeeded. Or at least, he thought he did. He probably looked ridiculous...
"Then plug it into either your XBOX Controller or a USB Port. If you have a Playstation, then I can't help you," Jax joked.
"WHAT?!"
"Never mind, I'm just trolling you. Everyone knows there's no such thing as XBOX."
Michael was starting to get ticked off at Jax, so he suddenly decided to imagine Jax with an ugly, grinning troll's face, dancing around singing "TROLOLOLOLOL" over and over again.
"Anyway, you should be able to talk now."
"How come I couldn't see your headset?"
"It's kind of like the armor under a Vanity set. You just can't see it."
"Oh, okay. Do the others have headsets?"
"Yup~!"
"WHYYYYYY!" Why did it have to be Earnest?!
"'Ello, Michael-kun! Why do you sound so upset?" Suddenly he sounded
panicky. "You're not dying, are you?! I'M COMING TO SAVE CHUUUUUU--"
"Ow, my ears!" Michael complained. "Man, why can't you be quiet like Olive?"
"He can't be quiet..." Olive said, joining the conversation. "I've already tried."
"I have to be loud to make up for how quiet Olive-chan is!"
"No...you don't..." Sam said. "...You really don't..."
"Hey, the NEET finally speaks up!" Jax exclaimed sarcastically. "So, how useless have you been?" He joked.
"Oh, pretty useless." Sam said sarcastically. "I KO'd ten guys a few seconds ago, and they're taking forever to come back, so now I'm bored."
"Wait, what's a NEET?" Michael asked.
"Not in Education, Employment, or Training."
"Sam's a NEET? ...We have NEETs in Terraria?" Dawn suddenly asked. It honestly didn't surprise Michael that she had already figured out how to use the chatbox--he wondered why she hadn't said anything before, though.
"Dude, NEETs are EVERYWHERE." Olive said.
"Wherever there are some form of schools or jobs, there are NEETs." Dusk said.
Michael sighed, irritated. Of COURSE he had figured out how to use the chatbox. Michael was sick of him--it didn't help that pancakes had lost their honor thanks to him...
"I HATE leeks!!"
"Damion!" Odin snapped. "He said NEETs, not leeks."
"I HATE NEETS TOO!"
Odin sighed. "Since when?"
"IT SOUNDS EVIL!"
"NEETs aren't evil, Damion." Odin said, as though he had to do this every day and he was tired of it.
"Really lazy, most of the time, according to TV and whatnot...but not evil," Jax said.
"If I was a NEET, I'd be a Keet NEET!" Earnest exclaimed happily. "Ooh, ooh! And then I could get Chinese food and be a Keet NEET eating leeks!!" He babbled, clearly happy with himself.
"RAAAAAAAAH LEEKS I HATE LEEKS!!"
"DAMION! They're just leeks, stop freaking out--"
After that, Michael couldn't hear anything Odin said as Damion started screaming things like "ALL LEEKS SHOULD ROT IN THE DEPTHS OF THE RESIDENT TRASH CAN, BEFORE THEY DIE A TERRIBLE, STINKY DEATH! RAAAAH, I HATE LEEKS!! RAAAAH!"
Suddenly, Odin's voice was clear again. "Damion, if you keep on screaming I will start playing Friday."
"...You mean the one sung by Rebecca Black...?" Damion asked in horror, suddenly calming down.
"Yes, the one sung by Rebecca Black. I have Youtube up as we're speaking. Am I clear?" Odin asked coolly.
Damion didn't say anything.
"Dude, how did you do that?" Michael asked, in awe.
"If you have ever heard Friday, you'll understand." Odin said.
"That bad, huh?" Dusk asked.
"Yup. That bad," Olive said. Apparently Damion had kept on yelling before, so she must've had to hear the song then. Or at least, that's what Michael figured.
"HEADSHOT!" Jax shouted suddenly. "HAH! I told you I'd win!"
After getting a headset, Michael had completely forgotten about Jax's challenge.
"So how many headshots did you get?"
"...None," Michael admitted.
There was an awkward silence before Jax blurted out, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!! Absolutely NO headshots?!"
"You are really bad at compititions, aren't you?" Dusk asked slyly. "First the race, then the karaoke...now thiiiis..."
"Shut up!" Michael exclaimed. "Just...shut up, okay!"
"...I was just joking..."
"I'm sick of you! You just say every snarky thing that pops into your head!"
"When I joined your group, I asked if you guys would be able to live with my sarcasm, and you said yes!"
"Dawn said that! I didn't! And just because you probably knew each-other before you both lost your memories doesn't give you the right to act like a jerk!" Michael shouted. "I'M LEAVING!"
He ripped the headphones off of his head, shoved them into his backpack, and charged forwards into the fortress.

"Is Michael really this bothered by Dusk?" Dawn asked, concerned. "I thought they had stopped arguing."
"Surely the waffles thing can't bother him THIS much..." Thalia said, joining the conversation. She sighed. "I'm going to go find him."
"No." Dan said. "...I have a feeling that that isn't a good idea." "Well then, what should we do?"
"Maybe he just needs to vent his frustration. I'll try and find him and ask what's bothering him,"

Michael was randomly firing at everything he saw, until he saw someone shout, "WAIT! DON'T SHOOT ME! Just...let me finish eating first!!"
Jolted out of his own thoughts, he looked--actually paid attention, instead of vaguely looking to make sure he wouldn't run into a tree or something--and he saw a 15-year-old kid with literally red skin, with a black mohawk and sunglasses that obscured his eyes. He wore heavy, dark, burgundy-red armor that looked like armor you'd see in a video game, simply because it was
too awesome (albeit unpractical) for real life. (After all, not many people could so much as walk wearing armor like that.) He also had demonic-looking bat wings. The kid was sitting at a table, his arms raised in an "I did not rob that guy, I'm totally innocent, please don't send me to jail" gesture.
"...We can eat?"
"Of course we can eat!"
"Really?! Dawn told me I couldn't! This is wonderful! ...Uh, what is that?"
"Cookies. You want some?"
Frankly, Michael thought they looked like balls of flattened coal, but the guy looked so happy he'd feel bad to say "no". So he took one of the coal cookies and bit into it.
"Well? What do you think?"
"They taste like...pancakes!" Michael said, suddenly cheering up immensely.
"Really?" the guy ate a cookie himself then said, "Oh yeah...! I used pancake mix! So...I guess these aren't cookies then...oh well." he shrugged, popping another pancake-cookie-coal-thing into his mouth.
"So, dude," Michael said, while chewing. He suddenly realized that Thalia would've flipped out if she could've seen him, but then he remembered she wasn't there so he kept on talking. "What's your name? I'm Michael."
"Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you before. Sorry, man. The name's Xorathor." They both shook hands, then Xorathor continued, "So I take it you like pancakes?"
"Are you KIDDING ME? I don't like pancakes AT ALL! I FLIPPING LOVE PANCAKES!!"
"REALLY?! ME TOO!" Xorathor exclaimed.
"THAT'S SO COOL! AND YOU HAVE PANCAKE MIX?!"
"YEAH! CAN YOU REMIND ME WHY WE'RE SHOUTING?"
"No reason, I'm just really happy I've FINALLY met someone who loves pancakes as much as I do! Aw, man, it's been really rough for the last day or so. I met some guy who loves waffles--"
"OH! OHHHHH!" Xorathor said, as though his favorite football team had just lost. "Lord, that sounds terrible! Just...WOW!"
"Yeah, tell me about it! And so he's all like," --Michael suddenly started talking in a funny voice that sounded nothing like Dusk did-- "'waffles are the best, broooo! You should TOTALLY start eating waffles instead of lame-o pancakes, man!'" Michael couldn't help smiling as Xorathor started laughing. He continued, "'Oh, I'm so cool! I'm the coolest dude ever! Oh, look at me, I can flip like a little ballerina! WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!'"
Xorathor was laughing so hard, he looked like he was going to fall out of his chair. "Oh my lord! A BALLERINA! Do ballerinas even flip?!"
Michael honestly didn't think he did, but he didn't like ballet anyway so he didn't bother to correct himself. "'Oh, I'm SOOOOOOO flipping funny! I'm so sarcastic, your brains will turn to MUSH! And I can tell lame jokes, too!'" Michael started speaking in an even more bizarre, mocking voice. "'Hey, is your face hurting? 'Cause it's KILLING ME! AHA HA HA I'm
just so funny! Oh oh oh, and I'm a FABULOUS singer too! Look at me!'" Michael then began singing the word "waffles" over and over again in the same mocking voice.
By this point, Xorathor was laughing so hard tears were in his eyes. "That's so freaking funny!" he gasped. "I can't stop laughing!"
"'And I'm REEEEEALLY ARROGANT, too! I like to think I'm good at fighting, but I can't fight if my pwecious wittle spikey hair gets messed up. OH NO! 'Cause my hair matters SOOOOOO much! And--and I'm going to make your friend think I'm from her past! And I'm gonna make her forget AAAAAAALL about the poor guy who likes her, because waffles rule and I'm Mr. Awesome Guy and--'"
Xorathor suddenly stopped laughing. "Wait, what about the friend's past and liking her?"
Michael stopped and realized he had said a lot more than he had meant to. "Uhhh...."
"So you're having problems with this guy because he likes a food you don't and you're jealous?"
He decided he had no choice but to be honest. "...Yeah. Just--just don't tell anyone I said that, okay?" He grabbed a handful of the pancake cookies and started eating them. He sighed. "You probably think I'm acting like an idiot, don't you?"
"I don't get why you think anyone cares if you like her." Seeing that he was only making Michael feel worse, he said, "...Hey, I have a flamethrower, you know. We could go set his hair and some waffles on fire..."

"WHOOOOOOOOOO DIE WAFFLES DIE!"
"Uh...Xorathor...that's a tree."
"Oh. WHOOOOOOOOOOO DIE TREE DIE!"
"OBJECTION!"
"What?! Earnest, what are you doing here?!" Michael exclaimed. "Better question, how'd you get here?!"
"That tree is awesome and you're burning it down! STOP THIS INSTANCE!"
"You mean instant."
"Really?" Earnest asked, thinking. "Oh, yeah. That's right." He posed again. "Ahem, I mean, STOP THIS INSTANT!"
"Or what?!" Xorathor shouted.
"Or we'll attack you!"
"Pfft, a little girly British weeaboo boy like you?! Bring it!"
"GIRLY BOY?!" Earnest shrieked, which really wasn't helping himself.
"WEEABOO?! Olive-kun, he's left us NO CHOICE! ...THROW THE CHEEEEEESE!!"
There was a delay, then Earnest stopped pointing at them dramatically and he asked, "...Olive-kun? What's going on?"
"Earnest-chan, we don't have any cheese!" she announced from a distance.
"Aww, come on! He has cookies, why don't we have chee--wait, you guys have cookies?" he asked, turning around and looking at Xorathor and Michael expectantly.
Michael looked at Xorathor, and replied hesitantly, "Uhh...yeah...well, pancake cookies."
"Ooh ooh ooh! Can I have some?!"
"Uhh--"
"PLEASE?"
Xorathor looked at Michael. "It's a little kid, I can't say no."
"He's flipping twelve! He's not little!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause he's awwwwwwfully short from where I'm standing."
"You're standing right next to him." Michael said bluntly. "Well, in front of him."
"That's my point."
"But pancakes are too delicious to share with the public, and three is a crowd, and a crowd is public, which means he can't have pancakes. Sorry kid," he added.
"Oh. ...Okay then." the boy said, looking disappointed, like he had just burnt the last piece of pizza in the house. "I guess I'll just have to ask Dusk-kun for some blueberry waffles, then."
"WHOA WHOA WHOA, THAT FREAK HAS BLUEBERRY WAFFLES?!" Xorathor demanded.
"THAT'S JUST PLAIN FLIPPING CHEATING!" He turned and roared, "MICHAEL! WE NEED TO GET STRAWBERRIES, THE BLUEBERRY'S NATURAL NEMESIS!!"
Michael instictively stood straight and saluted. "Sir, yes, sir, Xorathor!!"
Xorathor smirked, shadows--where had those come from?--making his face look sinister. "We..." he announced darkly, "...are going to have a COOKING COMPETITION. AHA HA HA HA HA!"

Crowds of people--NPCs and PCs alike--gathered in a circle, all watching one thing: three tables, one with a blonde boy and a red-skinned teen, one with a spikey-haired teen and...was that a dude with a ponytail? ...And then at the third table, which faced both of the other tables, there were four people sitting there. Anyway, both were cooking furiously, each trying to best the other in the most serious and deadly of competitions...A BAKE OFF.
Dawn pushed her way through the crowd. "What the Underworld is going on?! Wh--" she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "MICHAEL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Michael looked over, grinned, and waved, clearly not understanding a word of what she said. Then he went back to cooking.
"DAWN! DAAAWWWWWN!"
Hearing her name, she turned around and saw Dan and Thalia pushing towards her.
"Hey, Thalia! Dan! Do you have any idea what's going on?!" Even though they were now right next to her, she still had to shout. "And where did all these people come from!? It's like a flipping Christmas sale at the mall!!"
"NO IDEA!" Dan answered. "All we know is that Michael and Dusk are having a bake off!! And what's a mall?!"
She ignored his question and asked, "And why the heck is THAT happening?!"
Dan and Thalia shrugged in unison, then Dawn sighed.
"This is getting absurd..."

"So, Xorathor...remind me why you're wearing a maid apron?" Michael asked.
"They only had four aprons and one was a maid apron," he grumbled in reply. "Pass the strawberries."
"Here." he said, handing the fruit over. "But why did you have to grab THAT one?"
"Remember? You took an apron, then Dusk took an apron, and I felt bad for the ponytail guy so I took the maid apron! Here's the flour, by the way." he added as an afterthought.
"Thanks. You realize the ponytail guy is a girl, though, right?"
"DARN YOU JAPANESE AND YOUR ANDROGYNOUS PEOPLE!"
"Dude, I think that's racist. Plus, she isn't even Japanese."
"Yeah, but I thought she was one of those androgynous guys you see from Japan all the time, and so I felt bad for 'him' because I didn't want to make him look girlier than he already was. Now I'm ticked off 'cause I have to wear a maid apron AND IT WASN'T EVEN A GUY!" he roared, clenching the bottle of vanilla extract so hard it exploded everywhere.
"Xorathor...CALM DOWN. Beating them and showing them the truth--that pancakes are the best--will make up for the fact that you have to wear that. Now seriously, we need a secret ingredient."
"Hmm...we need a secret ingredient that's original...NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE! We can't use cinnamon or extra brown sugar, or anything like that! It has to be something that MAKES OUR PANCAKES STAND OUT FROM THE REST!!"
Michael nodded. "Right. Maybe we should try catering to the likes of the judges--then we'll have a better chance of earning their approval. Let's see...Earnest is easy. He probably likes anything sweet."
Xorathor nodded and made a face as though thinking, 'not a bad idea'. "Shota stereotype." he agreed.
"...And Sam probably likes dark stuff. So we could add some kind of Halloween-type touch to it."
Xorathor made the Not Bad face again. "The Dark One stereotype." he agreed.
"But I don't know what Damion and Odin would like..."
Xorathor snapped his fingers. "We could put in white-chocolate-and-peppermint-chip-covered pretzels!"
"Ooh, that sounds delicious! Do we have any?"
"No." he answered bluntly.
"Oh." Michael said, crestfallen. (Wait, he dropped some toothpaste? What does Crest toothpaste have to do with being disappointed? English is weird. Maybe that's why Earnest and Olive like Japanese so much...) "Well, then, what else do we have?"
"We have Pocky," he said, holding up a box.
"What in Terraria is Pocky?"
"It's Japanese! Caters to the Shota right away! We can crumble it up and stick it into the pancake mix."
"Ohhhh, good idea! But what about The Dark One?"
"We can add Spider Gummies on top." he said, holding up another box.
"Which is also sweet, so we're still catering to the Shota."
"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Finally, good ideas! But wait, gummy candy on pancakes? Wouldn't that be kinda gross?"
"Great, 'cause I also have Halloween-themed sprinkles!" he said, holding up a small container. "And apparently also three arms..."
Michael stared. "Is that normal?"
"Uh, I dunno. I think the extra arm is just there for comedic purposes."
"Oh, okay." he paused. "Still though...what about Damion and Odin...?"
"You know what?" Xorathor asked rhetorically. "I bet he secretly likes sweet food, also. Tsundere stereotype," he added. "So we're good."
"That's a relief, then. I wonder what that jerk Dusk is doing right now...'CAUSE HE BETTER BE PREPARING TO GET HIS BUTT KICKED!"
"...That was kind of cheesy," Xorathor commented.
"Eh, it works." he said, shrugging.

Dusk sighed. "I seriously don't know what it is, but people are always challenging me to these competitions. I have to race people...then they want me to do KARAOKE...then they want to see how flipping many times I can flipping say 'flipping' in a flipping sentence..." at a questioning look from the girl next to him, he said, "yes, that was an actual flipping competition once. I still flipping sometimes say 'flipping' way too many times in a sentence, thanks to that one time..." he changed the subject.
"So why are you helping me?"
"Two people cooking against one isn't fair." she said obstensibly. "I cook better on my own."
"That's what they all say. It's a seriously overused cliche, so I don't want to ever hear those words out of your mouth ever again. EVER. Please. ...Please pass the egg beater."
"Hold on. Why are you helping me?"
"I already answered that," she answered, trying to sound polite.
"You're not fooling me. There's another reason."
"...You said you remembered Akatsuki. What if you were in an Anti-Mage prison?"
Dusk was silent, before he opened his mouth to speak. "I--"
"My brother could've ended up there," she whispered. "I can't imagine what that would've been like. If that had actually happened to you...I have to either help you, or make sure I keep my brother far away from you. There's a risk that--if you HAD been there--that you would have deserved to be there. I know that sounds terrible, but I can't automatically assume you were innocent. And I'm not prepared to dismiss the fact that there's a chance--however small--that you were the original murderer. You may have changed since then, or forgotten, but...they never found the culprit. So, I'm watching you, innocent or not. I have to be safe. If you are
innocent...well, like I said. I have to help you, then."
"...You really love your brother, don't you?"
She nodded, looking at what she was cooking but barely paying attention. "Like I said, I have to keep him safe, especially given the danger we were in before. I can't let that happen ever again."
Dusk smiled half-heartedly. "I understand. If...if I WAS a bad person...I want to change. I'm bad enough as I am. Like Michael said...I act like a jerk half of the time. If I want to change now--heh, no, since I ALREADY want to change--then...well..."
Olive nodded sympathetically. "I suppose we all need to change."
"But we're always changing, aren't we? It might be too slow to see...or maybe it just speeds up at certain points...but...as an example, can you always say you were the same person as when you were a kid? I...may not remember what I was like...but I still feel like I know. 'No'--I'm not, am I?"
"Change is natural."
"But do we even stay the same? It's like that one theory--I don't remember whose it was, or where I found it--about the river. The atoms in the water and mud and ground change over time--in a thousand years, all the original atoms will likely be gone. Is it still the same river if nothing is the same as when it was first there?"
She looked up and stared at him. "You realize we're cooking waffles, correct? And here you are being all psychological again. ...You need to cheer up, Dusk-kun."
"Easier said than done."
"Hm. Well, what do you think would be a good finishing touch?"
"What?"
"You're the one who likes waffles. What should the secret ingredient be?"
"Wait, so you don't like waffles? What do you like, then?"
She smiled. "Doughnuts."
Dusk groaned. "Please don't tell me you're going to fight me, now, too."
"Of course not. Just because my favorite breakfast is doughnuts and yours isn't doesn't mean I should start fighting with you about it. It really doesn't matter,"
He sighed. "Finally, someone understands! ...Anyway, I think blueberries would be best. What do you think?"
She nodded again. "That sounds fine. We have a half hour left though, so we should hurry."

"AAAAAAALRIGHT NOW! LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND LADIES WHO LOOK LIKE MEN, WE ARE NOW GOING TO JUDGE THE FOOD!" Earnest announced, sitting down once he
was finished speaking.
The judges whispered amongst themselves before Odin said, "Michael and Xorathor, we'd like to try your entry first."
Michael gulped and he and Xorathor stepped forward, setting four plates onto the Judge's Table.
They all ate the pancakes, before Odin said, "I'll go first so I can get this over with. First of all, why the hell is it crunchy?"
Michael looked at Xorathor, who nodded. Michael whispered in Odin's ear, "It's the special ingrediants: Pocky and sprinkles."
Odin looked appalled. "And why on Earth would you put that in PANCAKES of all things?"
"We were trying to appeal to what you might like," he admitted, standing normally again.
"Well, you failed. Miserably. The actual pancakes aren't bad, though. 3/10."
Michael forced himself to stop panicking. It was only one person, right?! He could still win!
"I guess you were wrong about the Tsundere thing," he mumbled to Xorathor.
"Well, the Emo thing is definitely going to be right. I'm sure we got that perfectly."
"I'll go next," Damion said. "Okay, so these are actually really, really good! Do you have any more?"
"Yeah, we have some leftover..."
"Awesome! 10/10, I want more. Now. Please."
While Xorathor went to go prepare more pancakes, Earnest said, "Okay, okay, okay, I want to go next~! These are reeeeeaaally good. However, it's a little bit too sweet. The Pocky thing was...ORIGINAL...but I don't really think it fits pancakes very well. 9/10 for originality and awesome pancakes, though!"
When he saw everyone looking at him, Sam jumped and said: "Huh?! Wait, you mean I have to actually EAT THIS?!" He sighed. "Fine..." he ate a bite, then said, in a deadpan voice, "It's great. Whoo-hooooo. 7/10.
Just...please don't EVER make me eat that EVER again."
"Well, you're doing great so far!" Damion exclaimed. "Dusk, Olive, can we eat the waffles now?"
Said people stepped up and set out the plates of waffles. Michael frowned, for numerous reasons--one of them being that it looked like there were wrinkled chocolate chips in them. It looked disgusting, to be honest.
"Ugh...do I really have to eat this?" Sam asked, disgusted and bored at the same time.
"It looks odd..." Earnest complained, moving the waffles around the plate with his fork. "Like there are chocolate chips that withered up and died,"
Even Odin looked taken off-guard. He forced himself to answer grimly, "Yes...both of you have to eat it...wait. Those are raisins, aren't they?"
Something he said enraged Xorathor. "DID YOU SAY...RAISINS?!"
Odin seemed to recognize that face, as his eyes widened very slightly and he hesitated by a second before saying, "Yes. I said raisins."
"I....HATE...RAAAAAAAISIIIIIIINS!! RAAAAAAAAAUUUGH!!" Xorathor started running around flipping tables and stomping on plates in rage.
Normally Michael would have taken that very seriously--heck, he probably would've been terrified, normally--but given what he looked like--red skin, wicked-awesome armor and a frilly lace apron--it took all of his control to stop himself from bursting out laughing.
"Should we eat now?" Damion asked, clearly ignoring him.
Odin shrugged. "I don't see why not."
They all started eating--except for Sam, who had to be "reminded" first--before they spoke again.
"Needs more cheese," Earnest said. "And the raisins are weird. 3/10!"
"Cheese? On WAFFLES? And he's the one saying Pocky in pancakes is weird..." Dusk grumbled, Olive elbowing him in the ribs.
Odin spoke next. "Raisins and blueberries together are...interesting, I suppose is the word...but frankly, it's a terrible idea and I wish I hadn't eaten that. 2/10. Sam, you go next so we can get this over with."
"It tastes like crap. 7/10. Is that good enough?"
Odin didn't say anything, then Damion exclaimed, "You put raisins in waffles!"
"Yes," Dusk said, unamused. "I know."
Xorathor turned around and walked up to the table again, asking in a chillingly demonic voice, "WHY, DO YOU LIKE RAISINS?"
"Why, yes! I LOVE raisins! In fact, I'd say these waffles are 10/10!"
"You mean you like these...RAISIN," --he spat the word-- "...waffles better than MY PANCAKES?!"
"Hey, I cooked them, too!" Michael exclaimed indignantly.
Damion thought for a moment, then laughed. "Yup, I do! These are EPIC! Can I have more? Please? Now. These are just AWESOME." The other three immediately shoved their half-eaten plates towards him, in unison.
"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU SAY THEY'RE BETTER!!" he roared again. "YOU
DESERVE TO BE BEAT WITH...WITH...WITH ROTTING LEEKS!!"
"LEEKS?! HOW DARE YOU!!" Damion bellowed, now enraged himself.
The two then began making threats at each-other and swearing like sailors, prompting Odin to cover Earnest's ears and snap, "Damion! Calm down, or I'll--"
"HE ******* BROUGHT LEEKS IN TO THIS!! ************* LEEEEEEEEEEKS!! HE
DESERVES TO DIIIIIEEE!!"
"OH YEAH?! YOUR GLORIFICATION OF RAISINS IS DISGUSTING AND I REFUSE TO TOLERATE IT!!"
"DIE, *********!!"
"YEAH, WELL, YOU DIE TOO, YOU ************!!"
They both flew forwards each-other, before their weapons connected with a clang. Xorathor took numerous steps backwards rapidly, then pulled the trigger, flames bathing the clearing.
"HEY! WATCH WHAT YOU'RE SETTING ON FIRE, IDIOT!" Dusk shouted, stepping
back barely in time. He ran forwards, but Olive shoved him back.
"This is their fight, just wait,"
Damion whipped out a small, flame-colored pistol and fired it quickly at him, then dodged and threw a flaming boomerang. Xorathor was hit in the arm with several bullets, then he dodged the boomerang, holding his arm. He then lifted up his flamethrower again and tried to set Damion on fire, though the latter kept running. Damion hid behind a table, before firing
several more bullets. Xorathor dodged several of the bullets, though one hit him in the other shoulder. He ran forwards and kicked the table Damion was hiding behind, causing him to fall over. Xorathor lifted his foot but Damion rolled over and shot him in the foot. Then he tried stabbing him in the back, but Xorathor whipped around and set his head on fire in response. Damion swore, then he threw the Flamarang again. This time Xorathor was prepared though, and he grabbed the boomerang in mid-air. He threw the boomerang back, and Damion
was hit in the face, stunned. Xorathor kept on throwing and catching the boomerang. Damion quickly drank a Health Potion, then he tried slicing his head off. Xorathor dodged, then kicked. He dodged, then fired more bullets, several of which ricocheted off of Xorathor's armor and hit him instead. He staggered back, then Xorathor set him on fire. He fell to the ground, and for a moment Michael worried that he might not get back up.
Xorathor obviously believed the same, because at that moment, Sam had managed to sneak up behind him.
He smirked before saying, "Boo."
Xorathor jumped, but Sam was no-where to be seen. Damion kicked out, knocking Xorathor's legs out from under him. His eyes glowed eerie red, then the fire disappeared --or had his skin absorbed it? He then slashed down with his sword, but Xorathor had dodged and got up. Damion ran into him, leading with his shoulder football-style, knocking him over. Damion
kicked out again, but he aimed wrong and instead hit his foot on the adamantine armor. He grabbed his foot, and Xorathor threw the Flamarang again. Somehow, Damion managed to catch it. He rolled over again, behind a table, and Xorathor set the table on fire. Damion kicked the table aside and fired several more bullets, each hitting Xorathor in the head and causing him to crash over.
"How is he not dead yet?!" Olive exclaimed in awe. At the stares from the others, she added, "I'm on Damion's side, obviously, but he's pre-Hardmode! Xorathor's hardmode, the fight should be over!"
"ARE YOU SAYING I'M A LAME FIGHTER?!" Xorathor bellowed, suddenly noticing them.
"No, I'm just saying Damion's a pretty awesome fighter!!" she shouted back. Then Damion got set on fire again. "Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said anything!!"
The fight went on for a few more moments before Damion stood dramatically and said, pointing, "PIKA-ODIN, I CHOOSE YOU!"
"I'm not a Pokemon,"
"ODIN, I SUMMON THEE!!"
"Close enough..." Odin stood and grabbed two swords from his sheathe. With the Starfury, he summoned hundreds of stars to rain from the sky onto Xorathor. He rushed forwards and attacked him at an unhumanly fast speed. Xorathor fell to the ground, and tried to get up but Damion fired more bullets at his head. He drank a Health Potion, then kicked out. Damion
stepped back, but Odin fell. Damion threw the Flamarang. Xorathor ducked and blindly burned anything in front of him. Odin's hair was on singed, but he ignored that and jumped to the side, stabbing Xorathor in the back. Damion leapt over the flames and kicked him in the face. Xorathor fell over, but he quickly got up and swung the flamethrower like a mace. Odin
stepped back and once again unleashed a rain of mini-comets upon Xorathor, hitting Damion as a side effect. Xorathor leapt for Damion's throat, and was choking him. Damion slowly struggled to lift up his hands, and in a few moments they were both choking each-other.
"First one...to blink...loses," Xorathor gasped.
"You're wearing...flipping...sunglasses...you *******! I...can't even see...!"
Odin kicked upwards, forcing their hands to jerk upwards. Both of them sat their gasping unevenly for breath, as Odin said, "This is incredibly stupid! So he likes raisins, and he mentioned leeks. J--"
"I FLIPPING HATE LEEEEEEE--"
Odin slapped Damion. "Do I have to do that again, or are you going to think reasonably now?" he sounded threatening, but his eyes were what really enforced his point--they looked like shards of ice. He turned to Xorathor. "And you! Don't think that because I didn't say anything,
I'm not talking to you as well!" Seeing them both nod, he continued, "When I was younger, I would've said that I couldn't be the only person to notice how similar you two are. However, my faith in the people's intelligence is practically nonexistant by this point, so...seriously. You guys are practically twins." he said bluntly.
Damion blinked. "We are?"
Odin sighed. "And that's why I have no faith. Do I really have to spell it out? From what I've gathered, you're both good people until you're ticked off. Then you go into a berserk state. I'd go on, but from this point I'm hoping you'll be able to figure out the rest."
There was silence as Xorathor and Damion were thinking, then they just stared at each-other as they caught on to the fact that he was right.
"It's like looking into a red-skinned version of me..." Damion said in awe.
"Hey, that's racist!!"
"Wait, what are you?"
"A demon. I'm from the Underworld," Xorathor proclaimed.
Dusk stepped forwards. "I had a feeling that's what you were." Then he turned around and snatched Olive's hat off, revealing cat ears the same color as her hair. Michael heard a loud gasp, then he realized that had been him.
"So then...please tell me, because I can't figure it out. What happened to you?"
Earnest stood up and walked over to Dusk, then took off his hat, baring cat ears like Olive's, which flattened as his face turned bright red from shame. "I did it," he confessed. "I...I didn't mean to, but I...I accidentally cast a spell, and...and then this happened! We're freaks now,
because of me!" he said, bursting into tears.
"Why are you so upset? Cats are adorable, and now you have ears like a cat!" Thalia said, trying to cheer him up. "I mean, what kid doesn't want to look like that? Kids wear cat headbands just to have cat ears, so the fact that those are your actual ears is cool!" She tried hugging him, but he pushed her away.
"You don't understand! We--we were running away from the police, and then I cast the wrong spell and this happened! It was like painting on our foreheads...'Don't trust us. Report us to the police. We're the fugitives everyone's looking for,'" he whispered gloomily. "Even the other fugitives tried reporting us to the officials, hoping that they'd be spared or have less prison time if they helped them! I made our lives so much harder and--and..." by this point he completely broke down. "And then Olive-kun--she's always been strong for me and all I've ever done is cause trouble! She--she'd have been so much better off in life if I'd never even been alive!"
"Earnest-chan, why didn't you tell me this?" Olive asked, concerned. "If you're feeling depressed, I want to know so I can help you! You aren't useless--"
"What do you mean, 'you aren't useless'? I--"
"LISTEN TO ME! I DON'T CARE if I have cat ears or if I'm a fugitive. What I DO care about is you. You're my little brother, and we have to stick together. And as your older sister, it's my job to protect you, and I don't mind. You aren't useless...and I don't want you to ever say those
words again."
"But--"
"No. No 'but's."
Michael suddenly couldn't help but snicker. "She said 'no butts,'"
"Michael. Stop it," Thalia glared. "You know that's not what she meant."
"Well, I mean that too. Seriously, I don't need to see your butt, Freaky Train Woman!" she shouted, making Earnest laugh.
"What is it?" Michael asked.
Olive smiled, looking half-amused and half-disturbed at the memory. "There was this one hobo woman we met on a train once. She randomly leaned over and mooned us...it was extremely gross,"
"And you flipped out because I wasn't looking and so you were trying to get her to put her pants back on before I saw her," Earnest recalled.
"...That really does sound disturbing," Dan commented.
"Oh, it was. I still have nightmares about it sometimes..." Olive said seriously.
"Can...can we please change the subject? This really wasn't the point of what I was saying," Dusk said, looking thoroughly appalled. When he saw everyone was waiting, he said, "And you --Sam. You're one of them, too, aren't you?"
Sam feigned ignorance, almost successfully. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes. Yes, you do. You know that there are the 'normal' people...and then there are the freaks. And you're one of the latter, aren't you? Just like Xorathor, Earnest, and Olive."
"Almost all of us are 'freaks' here," Sam said condescendingly. "Even
Damion and Odin. ...Especially Damion and Odin. The three of us were experimented on, for various reasons. Some maniac tried to give Damion demon powers. They only half succeeded--he can't shoot flames from his hands, but sometimes he can absorb fire instead of being harmed. Odin was experimented on to create a perfect soldier for the military."
"I guess I really did guess the wrong stereotype, then..." Xorathor mumbled.
"We're not stereotypes," Jax muttered angrily, appearing abruptly. "We're people."
"And, in my case, a spider-person, to be more specific." Sam stated, stifling a yawn. "Is that good enough for you? I'm bored already. Let's talk about something else."
"But...but how do you cope?" Thalia asked in awe. "Being fugitives, being someone's science experiment...that's terrible! What do you do?"
"What can we do?" Odin asked emotionlessly. "We just do the best we can." He put on sunglasses, then said, "We deal with it."
"Whoa, that was so awesome, Odin-sama! May I try?" Earnest asked, jumping up and down.
"No, you may not."
Earnest finally jumped high enough to take the sunglasses off of his face, but he was surprised to see another pair of glasses underneath them.
"...What?" He jumped up and took the next pair of glasses of, but again there were sunglasses underneath that, too. He repeated this process over and over, to the amusement of the others, before he exclaimed, "How many of them are there?!"
"It goes on and on for infinity. So stop trying," Odin said.
"So then how do you take your sunglasses off...?"
"Like this." he took the sunglasses off, and sure enough it worked for him.
"How do you do that?!" Earnest asked, excited.
Odin shrugged and put the glasses back on. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
As Earnest tried to get Odin to tell him, Dan called Thalia, Michael, Dawn, and Dusk over. "I think we should go now." he said under his breath.
"What? Why?" Thalia asked.
"I admit, I'd like to go back to our world again. We need to get back to trying to go home--and we've been here long enough as it is."
"Are you sure we should just leave now?" Thalia asked.
"We'll say bye, then we can leave. Dusk, have you made up your mind?"
"What?"
"Are you going to stay a part of our group?"
He nodded. "That was the plan."
"Okay then." he spoke normally, then they all started saying goodbye.
"What? You can't leave!" Earnest exclaimed. "Neither team has won yet!"
"Yeah, and I haven't gotten to say any great, philosophical quote yet, either!" Jax added.
Dusk sighed. "Hurry up, make it quick."
"Well...a man once told me that the darker the night is, the more beautiful the light of morning is. What I told him was that if you keep on heading west--depending on how fast you're going and time zones, of course, but that's not the point--that it will always be day, and night
will never have to come. You see, it's more of which path you choose to take rather than having to live in a world that's dark now and then. People have more choice than they realize,"
"That was more insightful than I was expecting..." Dusk commented. "Who were you talking to?"
Jax scratched his head. "You know, I honestly can't remember anymore..."
"Ooh, a goldfish!" Damion exclaimed, taking one out of his backpack. "I didn't know I had that!" he opened his mouth, but Jax fired a warning shot near his foot.
"Put...the goldfish...DOWN,"
He immediately dropped the goldfish and grabbed a rabbit that happened to be right next to him. "What? It wasn't me, please don't get mad! DIE RABBIT DIE!" he shouted as the rabbit tried biting his hand. Then he saw Michael standing there and he smiled. "Oh, hi, did you need me?"
"Uh, yeah, I was going to say b--"
"I WILL KILL YOU, YOU **** RABBIT--"
"Damion--"
"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!"
"....Okay, bye then."
"Hey, Odin...I have a headache, what now?"
"Did you really just give yourself a headache...?" Olive asked, amused.
After everyone had said good-bye, the purple rings appeared them and they disappeared.
The last thing Michael saw was Earnest and Odin wearing sunglasses, Xorathor eating pancakes, and Jax saving the goldfish from Damion. And he had to admit...it was a pretty cool sight.
"We'll see you later!" he shouted, but no-one heard his garbled speech as he was now travelling between worlds.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Sorry I had to put the chapters in three different posts, apparently I've written over a 100,000 words for this...
Anyway, given that I've just copied and pasted the story over from the old thread (here: http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/tales-of-terraria.125795/ ) there might be some grammar mistakes. If there are, please tell me so I can fix it.
Also, please tell me if the picture links don't work.
Leonidas, Jax, Sam, Odin, Damion, and Xorathor are all fanmade characters, created by Nike Lion, Bure, Sam.I.Am, GlitchCo, BLUESWORDSMAN, and Pixelsplitter552. (If the names are wrong/have changed (in the switch from the old forum to the new forum) or if I have forgotten a character, please tell me so I can correct the list.

NOTES/COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
--"Shieru wa, hitobito o pishari teishi" is Japanese for "Ciel, stop slapping people" (according to Google Translate) (This is a reference to Black Butler, Ciel is not one of my characters)
--"Daisuki eggplants" is Japanese for "I love eggplants". I'm kind of learning Japanese (long story) and I wrote this (so I didn't use Google Translate for this phrase) so the grammar/translation may not be correct/100% accurate. (Not that Google Translate is 100% accurate, either, though...-_-)
--I was intending for there to be more fights, but I wound up having this chapter be mainly dialogue...(and I had wanted to have Olive fight with a chainsaw, too...) so I'm sorry if you were looking forward to seeing your/someone else's character in a fight and they weren't in a battle scene. :(
--Bure, I'm sorry Jax didn't appear very much in the story. At least I managed to fit the day and night quote into the story...kind of...:confused:
--About Michael's anger at Dusk, I'm not sure if it seems random or not justified, but I wanted to kind of expand on why Michael has such a strong dislike towards him, and I wanted to have Xorathor set stuff on fire so that's why he got angry then (from a writer's view, not the character's)
--Pixelsplitter, I tried making the adamantine armor sound awesome but I don't know how well I succeeded...
--Blueswordsman and Pixelsplitter, I tried to make the Damion VS Xorathor fight awesome and balanced so that neither character really had an advantage (other than the hardmode thing) but I don't know how well I succeeded. I hope you both like how the fight turned out though, because I remember you were both coming up with ideas for it.
--Explanation for the maid apron: I'm sorry, I just wanted to have a goofy apron somewhere in the story and...then the maid apron thing happened XD
--The Sam being emo joke: I wasn't trying to make Sam look emo, Xorathor was SUPPOSED to be bad at judging "stereotypes".
--Dusk being a jerk: I don't know how much of a jerk Dusk really comes off as, but I thought he was snarky/arrogant enough that he probably qualified as one--and if nothing else, Michael was mad enough that it makes sense he'd call him that.
--Earnest's favorite food is cheese, BTW :p Breakfast food c-c-c-combo breaker!
--I wanted to write about why someone might be upset about being a mutant, because when I watch X-Men, sometimes I wondered why they were so upset--what kid doesn't want superpowers?--so I wanted to give a good reason why they wouldn't be happy about that.
--EDIT: Also, a keet is a cheery kid who talks so much they remind you of a parakeet. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Keet
 
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I was laughing so hard because of the sunglasses thing, then Damion being part demon was pretty unique, but it makes sense with his red eyes. I saw the quotes(including Damion giving himself a headache). The leeks was so unpredictable and people using them to make him mad :p. The Pokemon reference seems like me IRL playing Pokemon when I'm bored. The fight scene was pretty epic, I could see that in a movie. The hair over the eye mention he had long hair(like a lot of people I know), the accuracy was better than expected, and the flamearang, that was like when me and my little brother were talking about a story. You see, I could go on for hours ranting, but I won't.
 
I was laughing so hard because of the sunglasses thing, then Damion being part demon was pretty unique, but it makes sense with his red eyes. I saw the quotes(including Damion giving himself a headache). The leeks was so unpredictable and people using them to make him mad :p. The Pokemon reference seems like me IRL playing Pokemon when I'm bored. The fight scene was pretty epic, I could see that in a movie. The hair over the eye mention he had long hair(like a lot of people I know), the accuracy was better than expected, and the flamearang, that was like when me and my little brother were talking about a story. You see, I could go on for hours ranting, but I won't.
I'm glad you liked it so much, thank you!! :happy:
About the long hair thing though, I don't know if you mean long hair as in actually long hair (shoulder-length or longer) or if you mean it's long for short hair standards (as in you have short hair, but it's long enough so that if you tried to join the military they'd make you cut it anyway). The thing is in anime and video games you see characters with short hair but they still have bangs (think Roy Mustang or Sebastian Michaelis) and so I'm trying to describe hair like that but I don't really know how to without mentioning that they have bangs. ._. //rant mode off
A fitting return for one of TO’s must revered fan fictions. Bravo
index.php
Really?! Wow, I'm so happy, I didn't know people liked this so much! Thank you!! :D
 
I can't get Chapters Two, Three, Six, and Fifteen to be in one spoiler. This has nothing to do with the length, since two and three are very short chapters. Does anyone know why it won't save as one spoiler? It's seriously bugging me, so any help would be greatly appreciated. (Also, is there anywhere I should post asking this instead of here? I don't want to create a thread for this or anything since I'm not sure how easy it would be to fix this)
 
UPDATE: I'm sorry, but the story is put on hold for a while. My laptop that had the document with the story on it has been broken (?) and until I can fix it or transfer the document over to a different computer, I won't be able to write.
 
I feel bad for not noticing your moving to here.
This chapter was awesome and incredibly funny, and you hit my own personality quite well :D
Can't wait for more!
 
UPDATE: The computer I was writing the story on is still broken... orz...
As for the format of the chapters: When adding the next chapter to this thread, I'll post the chapter separately then add a link to the post with the next chapter to the second post. IDK what I'll do once or if I reach the word limit for that post, though.

I feel bad for not noticing your moving to here.
That's ok, don't worry about it. :) I didn't know how many people would notice the move simply because they might not have seen the post on the old thread.
This chapter was awesome and incredibly funny, and you hit my own personality quite well :D
Can't wait for more!
Thank you! =D
I've done what I could to fix the BB coding issues. Let me know through PM if you need more help :) I look forward to new chapters!
Ah, thank you! It looks so much better now! =D
 
Well, R.I.P. my old laptop...I don't think I can get the memory back so I've lost a decent amount of my notes and ideas, plus what I had written of the Seventeenth Chapter is gone. I'm rewritting that chapter and trying to move on though.
Allowed myself to share this on my Facebook page.
Also bumping for the glory of sunglasses. :cool:
What, really?! Thank you!!
Also, about the sunglasses thing:
bPwt3.png

LIKE A BAWSS.
I agree, sunglasses are awesome XD As Odin and Earnest would gladly tell you. Well, Odin probably wouldn't care. But Earnest would be happy XD
 
NEW CHAPTER!
...I think the story is going to get serious again for a while...I swear, the original idea I had for this fic was action/adventure and comedy, but it seems like the story's always so serious
CHAPTERS CONT'.
The first thing Dusk saw was the Guide dancing around with a rabbit, singing, "LA LA LA LA LA~!"
"Well, it's good to know the Guide hasn't stopped acting like the idiot he is," Dawn commented sarcastically. "Who wants to go make sure none of the NPCs died?"
"I'll go!" Thalia and Michael exclaimed.
"Dusk, you should come too! Then we can show you around our village!" Thalia offered.
"It's called Whateverville. We're very posh around here," Dawn deadpanned, though she looked amused.
"No, thank-you...I want to talk to the Guide for a minute."
"Pfft, he's not very helpful, though...good luck," Dawn said, walking off.
As soon as they were all gone, Dusk walked up to the Guide and grabbed his arm.
"Dustin. What are you doing here?" he demanded.
The Guide turned around, suddenly serious. "I am not Dustin. You must be looking for someone else."
Dusk frowned, but tried to stay calm. "Who are you, then?"
"I am the Guide--Scott. How may I help you?"
"You're the exact same as the Guide from my world. Why?"
"Pfft....ha ha ha...AHA HA HA HA HA!!"
"What's so funny?!"
"You are!" he laughed again. "I feel like I know you!"
Faster than the blink of an eye, he was serious again.
"No, wait...Dusk, was it? Pleased to meet you."
He swallowed. "You just said you FELT LIKE you knew me...implying that you don't. And yet you knew my name..."
The Guide looked concerned. "Because you told me your name. Do you have memory issues?"
"I didn't tell you my name."
He snickered, then burst out laughing again. "You're hilarious! I like you. So what did you want again?"
"Who...who ARE you?"
"I am me. But they are also me. We are the Guide. I am called Scott." He smirked, sending shivers down Dusk's spine. "We have known each-other for a while."
"H--how long...is a while?" he asked, unnerved.
"I've lost track."
"What is up with you?"
"I am not up with anything...unless if you mean I'm up, above the Underworld. But everything's above the Underworld."
"You're insane..."
"The Underworld's real! You'd be insane to say it isn't! Have you seen the monsters there?" he whispered, grinning. "Firey beings. The bats are on fire...the slimes are made of lava gelatin...and there are imps who belong to their little imp cults. They're so funny...flying around, thinking they're so smart...with their own religions, believing in witches and evil magic...when even GOBLINS are smarter than they!" he laughed again. "What fools!"
His own feet moving before he could even think, he slowly stepped back from the Guide.
He ran.
"Why are you running?! Are you afraid you're a fool, too?! You can't run from the truth!"
He didn't stop running until he couldn't hear the Guide's laughter anymore.
He had no idea where he was, but he plopped down near what must've been a tree, and he drew his knees up to his chest, covering his ears with his
hands.

"Who am I?"
"Who are you?"
"Who did I used to know?"
"Where am I?"
"Where did I come from?"
"Why am I here?"
"Why can't I remember anything?"
"What's going on?"
"Why, why, why?!"
The questions were never answered.
He tried and tried, but he could never remember.
He replayed his own memories in his head, one more time.
There had to be something he was missing....

The first thing Dusk saw was the Guide, who had smiled pleasantly.
"Greetings, Dusk. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Wh--who's Dusk?" he asked, amazed at the sound of his own voice.
Then he thought, "How can I understand what he's saying? How am I speaking?"
The Guide laughed. "Your name is Dusk. It's a rather nice name, don't you think?"
"How do you know my name?"
He shrugged. "It's my job as the Guide to know stuff like this."
"What is your job...?"
"I am here to give you advice on what to do next. It is recommended you talk to me anytime you get stuck." he recited somewhat blandly, still smiling.
"A--anytime I get...stuck...? Stuck what?"
"Stuck in your adventures, of course! You're the Hero!"
"M--me? A hero? A hero of what?"
"The Hero of Terraria! Speaking of which, such a Hero doesn't deserve to be laying on the ground like that. Let me help you."
He held out his hand, and Dusk took it.
However, as soon as he stood, his legs fell out from underneath him.
"Why won't my legs work...?"
"Ah, you must be exhausted from the transfer. Fortunately, you should recover soon. Let's try that again."
This time, it worked and he was standing on his own two legs.
"Um...thanks. So...where am I again?"
"Terraria, of course! Wow, you really have forgotten everything!"
"Do you know who I am?"
The Guide stopped smiling and his eyes narrowed. He briefly seemed to consider his answer before he replied, "...Well, I may be the Guide, but I don't
know EVERYTHING...Besides, people change. Let's see who you are this time."
"...THIS time...?" he asked, puzzled.
"If you die, you come back. Try to stay alive this time."
"...Oh. Okay, then. So...what do I do first?"
"Use your head. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something."
He proceeded to turn around and walk away, picking up numerous rabbits off of the grass as he went.

No, that wasn't telling him anything.
What about Dawn? Yeah, Dawn.
She seemed familiar...

The red-haired girl had walked up to him with a mix of confidence and curiousity.
"Hi, my name's Dawn, this is T--"
He'd said the first thing that came to mind-- "You're joking,"
He felt like he'd seen her before, plus they had similar names--that couldn't be a coincidence...unless that Vi kid was pulling his leg, and had set it all
up...
"No, I'm not. I wouldn't do that unless if I was in Psych,"
He decided to ignore the reference--what the crap was Psych?--and he introduced himself, trying to see if she'd somehow recognize his name.
"Oh. What a coincidence," she commented carelessly.
Seriously? Did she seriously just shrug off something like that?
Calm down... he thought. ...There's a really good chance that she doesn't know you're amnesiac.
He tried breathing slower and putting on a poker face, but that was ruined as soon as her friend--Michael?--walked up and said,
"I see why you thought he looked familiar. His face is too ugly to forget..."
His hopes had soared up for a brief second--was she amnesiac too? Maybe they really did know each-other...--before they came crashing back down.
He didn't need some goofball coming around and screwing up his chance to finally answer his questions.
"Wow, your friend has spectacular manners," he commented, hoping she'd get the hint and tell him to go away.
"Thanks, dude."
So he was a goofball AND an idiot? Wow. This girl had some GREAT company. He sincerely hoped he wasn't connected in any way to that Michael guy.
"Sarcasm."
"...I knew that,"
Before he knew it, the conversation had spiraled downwards into a battle between pancakes and waffles--as though there was ever any contest at all.

No. There was nothing to see in that memory. Except...
Something she'd said was right on the tip of his tongue.
What was it?
Something about protection.
And suddenly, for the first time, he felt the joy of recognition--he'd finally remembered something.
He was elated to finally regained a memory--even though it was very short. He repeated it over and over to himself, forgetting all about his incident with
the Guide.

He and Dawn were sitting in a low-lit room filled with boxes--boxes that were metallic on all sides except one, which glowed.
Computers--they were called computers...
A man walked over them--he tried to remember his face, but he could only remember a conveniently shadowy face.
"Are you sure about this? There's no going back."
"I'm positive."
"Just out of curiousity...why are you doing this?"
She looked at him in the eyes boldly. "To protect everyone."

"Dusk. ...Dusk. Hey, you, Spiky! Yeah, you!"
He looked up and saw her again. He was embarassed--he wasn't used to being taken off-guard--before he forced his face to turn emotionless again.
"Hey, what are you doing here? The Guide didn't scare you or anything, did he?" she teased, though he had the feeling she was covering up genuine concern with a joke.
Apparently the Guide here was just as weird as the Guide on his world.
"It's fine," he snapped, wanting to move on.
"Are you sure? He's pretty unusual..." she grinned. "Alright, alright, just kidding. You can stop looking at me like that--you look like your eyeballs are trying to pop out of your head and strangle me to death."
One side of his mouth moved upwards into a sort of a half-smile.
Looking satisfied, she continued, "Anyway, we're going in a few seconds."
"Going where?"
"Well, I'm afraid we're all going to Hell. ...Man, I love Hell jokes."

"I know that we're going to the Underworld, and it's supposed to be all spooky and everything, but...I CAN'T TAKE THIS PLACE SERIOUSLY," Dawn admitted, trying not to laugh.
"What's our goal for today?" Thalia asked. "Well, not literally today, but you know what I mean."
"To make over 9000 Hell Jokes," Dawn said. "...Okay, the real answer is we need to get all Molten gear. Weapons, tools, armor, etc."
"And...then what? That's all the biomes, right?" Dan asked.
"We kill the Wall of Flesh."
"Remind me what we need to do to defeat the Corruption?"
"I think that if we kill all the bosses in Terraria, the Guide will have to tell us how we can do that. I don't know--I'm kind of just playing everything by ear," she confessed.
"...Oh. I guess that's kind of what we've been doing all along though, isn't it?"
"Hey, look! Lava!" she exclaimed suddenly, upon seeing it. "That's what I'm talking about! We're getting pretty close."
"We should try moving using only grappling hooks once we get to a certain point," Dusk advised.
"Why?" Michael asked.
"It's called 'hell'. There's probably lava everywhere. Think about it."
"I'm not an idiot," he grumbled. "I was just asking a question."
Dawn frowned but didn't say anything.

They travelled down further and further, and soon they were surrounded by ash and silt instead of stone.
"There--that tunnel probably leads to hell," Dan said.
With a vwoosh sound, a dark, fleshy reddish-pink batlike creature appeared in front of the tunnel.
Three fireballs flew torwards their faces.
Dusk stepped and leaned back, then brought out the Water Bolt, casting the spell until his mana had run out. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Thalia doing the same.
He brought out the Muramasa and ran torwards the creature--an imp, he decided. It teleported at the last second, firing more fireballs at his back. They hit him before he realized what was going on. He gritted his teeth but shut out the pain, saving his health potions for later. He took out the Starfury, making stars rain down from the roof, aimed at the Imp. Michael and Thalia fired at it from a distance, Dawn and Dan attacking it while it was stunned.
It disappeared, leaving behind 4 silver coins.
"...Is it dead?"
"Apparently so...come on, let's go."
"I'll go first," Dusk offered.
Dawn nodded.
Looking through the hole in the ground, he saw that there was silt--so he'd be able to land safely.
He jumped down, the others following him, and he looked at his surroundings--a ceiling so tall it disappeared into shadows; lava and ash everywhere; and abandoned, dark purple-obsidian buildings.
"Yeah, this place isn't creepy at all," Michael said. "So...what do we do?"
"Explore the buildings, then try and find a new kind of ore." Dan said.
"Should we split up again?" Dawn asked.
"There's five of us now, though, so we can't split up evenly."
"How about the Original Group and then the New People Group?" Thalia joked.
"The Original Group being...?"
"Dan, Michael, and I. We were the 'original group' before you two joined, remember?"
"Oh, yeah...that seems like forever ago..." Dawn mused. "I wonder how long we've actually known each-other..."
Dan cleared his throat. "What's the plan, again?"
"Dawn and I will look for--"
"I'm going too," Michael interrupted.
Dusk unsuccessfully tried to hide a scowl--it was like there was no way to get rid of him. "Why?"
"It seems like being outside the buildings is more dangerous, so it'd make sense if more people explored outside,"
Not knowing what else to say, he channeled his irritation at him, and said, in mock surprise, "OH, so you aren't a COMPLETE idiot after all!"
As Michael tightened his hands into fists, Dan picked up on what was going on. "Maybe you should be in two seperate groups."
"What, and possibly leave HIM with--"
He interrupted Michael. "It wasn't a suggestion." Before Dusk could talk, he added, "You're coming with me. Michael, Thalia, Dawn, explore outside."
The other four nodded, and they split up.
Once the other group was out of earshot, Dusk asked, "Why did you want me to go with you?"
"To be frank, you two have been arguing ever since you first met. Now you seem to be arguing over who goes with Dawn. If we're going to succeed as a team, we have to be on the same page. Seriously, what's going on?"
Figuring it would be best if he was honest, he briefly explained his side of the story.
"...You've found a piece of her past," Dan thought out loud in awe. "You've done it,"
"I want to talk to her, but Michael keeps getting in the way. That's all it is," he explained. "Do you get it now?"
"Yeah, okay. You have to understand that Michael really wants to protect her. I mean..." he lowered his voice. "He blames himself because she's died twice. First, she died in an explosion, then she died for him..."
"...Oh. I'm sorry," he said awkwardly. "...Why doesn't he think she can protect herself?"
"That's not it. He feels like he's indebted and has to repay that somehow."
"How do you know so much about him?"
Dan smiled, surprising him as he hadn't seen him smile before.
"We've been through a lot together. We're good friends,"
From what Dusk had seen, Dan didn't seem to talk very much, so he questioned his statement a little bit. He didn't say anything, though.
"Anyway...good luck on finding your memories,"
"Thanks."
The two continued walking, not saying much from that point on.

"So!" Thalia exclaimed, trying to sound upbeat. "Look over there! There's a patch of ore! I wonder what it is? Ha ha..."
"Are you okay?" Michael asked.
"Of course I'm okay! Umm...oh, look! It's called Hellstone...and it drops lava! Ha ha...aw, crap, I stepped in it..."
"What's the matter? You don't seem well,"
Thalia swore, shocking the other two. "I stepped in lava AGAIN...! Frick...!!" She stopped hopping around, and drank a health potion. Eventually, she sighed and said, "I'm sorry...it's just...lately things have seemed...different. More tense, I guess."
"...Well, it's not like this is a picnic...we're trying to kill a whole biome," Dawn said uncomfortably.
"Yeah, but something seems even more off than usual..."
"I thought maybe it was just me..." Michael admitted. "I kinda feel nervous, too."
"Hm...maybe it's just stress or something," Dawn guessed. "You guys have had a clear goal from the beginning. At first I just wanted to survive..."
"The whole time we've known you, you've talked about the Heroes slaying the Corruption. What do you mean, you didn't have a goal like that from the beginning...? How long have you really been here?"
"I've lost track of time. For all I know, I've been here for a month or two, or maybe I've been here for over a year. But I didn't really have a goal until I moved to the Corruption...once I found a goal, though, I didn't let anything stand in my way. And look where we are now: ...Hell,"
"Did you seriously just...?"
"I CAN'T STOP MAKING HELL JOKES, OKAY? No matter how bad they are. Gimme a break..." she smiled.
"So...come to think of it...I wonder why Dusk doesn't seem to care about the Corruption..." Thalia mused.
"I'll ask him later."

"Have you noticed that all of these buildings are nearly identical?" Dusk asked, stabbing a Lava Slime, which was half drying lava and half gelatin.
Dan sliced an Imp's head off before it could teleport. "Yeah, I have. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"They've been designed by someone and aren't random?"
"Exactly. And they're in pretty good condition, too, considering we're in Hell."
The bat Dusk was fighting screeched and died, leaving behind silver coins. "But what are they for...?"
"It's weirdly empty, too..."
"Except for the pots full of potions and arrows," Dusk noted.
"An old base or hideout?"
"Maybe an old town for survivors," he speculated. "A little bit ironic--'So where'd you go when you were trying to survive in an unknown world?' 'Oh, we went to Hell,'" he joked, stepping around a lava puddle and opening the door that lead to the next building.
"But there's no sign of people living here,"
"Of course, then again, you don't need food, water, or sleep here, anyway. So how would you know if people lived here?"
The two briefly looked at each-other as they both came to the same conclusion.
"Crafting stations."
They opened another door and walked down the stairs to find a furnace made of lava-hardened, orange-black metal.
"Bingo."

"Do you think we have enough o--OOH SHINY!" Thalia ran over to an obsidian chest only to see that it was covered with chains. "Crap, it's locked..."
"Captain Obvious alert!" Michael exclaimed.
"Hold on...Michael, didn't you find a purple key in the Dungeon?"
"Oh, yeah...here, let me see if it'll open."
When the key turned, there was a click and the chains fell off.
"What's inside, what's inside?!" Thalia asked excitedly.
"Gee, calm down...you're acting like a three year old getting a present," Dawn joked.
"Iiiiiiiiit's...drum roll...!"--Michael tried making the sound effect but failed--"...a bright orange flower. Well, that's a bummer. Who wants it?"
"Me!" Thalia exclaimed. "It looks like...ohmylordohmylordohmylord!"
"What is it?" Dawn and Michael asked in unison.
"It's the Flower of Fire! It's bouncing-fireball spell is legendaryyy! And now it's MIIIIIIINE! I'm so lucky~!" she practically sang.
"Oooh, and there's also a lot of potions!"
A hoarse roar echoed loudly.
SHF SHF SHF SHF SHF...
"The Eater of Worlds again?!"
"Nah, I doubt it. This is something else...Thalia, attack it with magic, and Michael, attack it from afar with the Minishark. I'll get closer to it and try to hit
numerous segments of it at once. Like the EoW. Got it?!"
The other two nodded.
An enormous serpentine dragon flew out of the ground, making ash spew everywhere. She was scared for a brief second, but she couldn't be, so she leapt forwards and hit it with her sword. It roared again, piercing her ears. She heard the machine-gun sound of the Minishark and tons of fireballs and water bolts hit it and she stabbed the spine over and over though it didn't do as much damage as she was hoping but she kept on stabbing it hoping it'd die quietly. Instead it swooped over into the lava.
"Wait..."
SHF SHF SHF SHF SHF--
It burst out of the ash, but before it could attack, a fireball hit it in the face and it died.
Dawn picked up the coins, commenting, "...Hey, I wonder if there are more Shadow Chests around here--they might have more legendary weapons,"

"Okay. So now the question is: if there were survivors, then where are they now?" Dan asked.
"I'm assuming they'd be dead...the only living beings in Terraria are the Hero, other Heroes, NPCs, the Goblins, and--wait."
"'Wait' what?"
"The imps," Dusk said, pacing. "The Guide hinted that the Imps were intelligent. Not as intelligent as goblins or humans, but still more intelligent than animals."
"So you think...?"
"These buildings are too big for imps, though. The imps are barely half the size of the walls."
"What about the zombies and skeletons?"
"They're the same size as humans. So maybe...maybe they're the Terrarians that didn't survive," he realized, stopping.
"Hold on. Doesn't the Creator of Terraria revive you?"
"What if they were revived too late?" he shuddered involuntarily.
"...Well, there aren't any zombies or skeletons down here, anyway. Only on the Surface, in caves, or Underground. What about that Imp Demon we saw?"
"They're very similar to Imps, so they probably aren't smart enough to build all this,"
"What about the actual Demons, like Xorathor?"
"That makes sense...but how come we're not seeing any of them?"
"We could ask the Guide..." Dan suggested grudgingly.
"I guess...let's take the Hell Forge, though--so he'll know we were definitely here."
"Right. We should also ask him why that Imp Demon was carrying a Guide plush as well..."

"Elan and Fiona have arrived." the Voice whispered.
"It's them again!" Thalia exclaimed. "We should hurry and go up to the Surface!"
"Do you want to go up and look for them yourself? I'm still looking for Shadow Chests,"
Thalia considered for a moment before deciding, "Yeah, that sounds good. Do you have a Magic Mirror, or...?"
"Yeah, I've got one. I'll be fine,"
"Okay. Bye!"
The other two said "bye" as well, then she looked into the mirror and vanished.

As soon as her vision cleared, Thalia ran outside and looked frantically for them.
No, they weren't near one of the houses. No, she didn't see them near the forest. They weren't visiting any of the stores, and they weren't near the pond.
Where on Earth were they...?
She ran past each NPC at least once before the Dryad asked, "Thalia, what are you looking for?"
"The people who just arrived--Elan and Fiona," she repeated, out of breath.
"Oh, they've been talking to Scott in his house."
"But I'd already checked there...!"
"First they were walking around town before they went to the Guide's house. Maybe you kept on just missing them,"
"Pfft. Stupid Guide," she grumbled. "What a troll." Out loud she said, "Okay, thank-you."

She didn't see anyone in the living room, so she went downstairs to see three people--including the Guide--sitting at a long, wooden table.
On the left was a girl with pastel-sea-green hair in a braided bun, wearing angelic silver-and-gold armor. On the right was a tall blonde guy who looked like a stereotypical martial artist from an 80s movie--if they wore mythril armor.
"--Wow, I've been spending too much time around Dawn," she thought, somewhat disturbed. "I just made a reference without knowing what I'm even talking about..."
"Thalia! Welcome! Join the party! The girl is Elan, and that's Fiona." the Guide beamed.
"I'M Elan, and SHE'S Fiona. WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS," 80s-Martial-Arts-Stereotype sighed.
"Hi," Fiona said sheepishly. "I'm sorry. The Guide is constantly making this mistake...on ALL of the worlds we visit...it gets old," she grimaced.
"Anyway, I'm glad you're here! We wanted to tell you something, actually."
"R--really? ...Is that why we keep seeing you?"
"...Huh?" Fiona asked, turning to look at Elan. "...We've only visited your world once. Maybe we happened to see each-other in a different world--we visit a lot of different places now that our world is gone."
"...Gone? What happened?"
"The Corruption happened. Or, to be more specific, the Hard War,"
The Guide sighed. "HARDMODE. I keep telling you, there is no Hard War."
"You mix up our names, I'll call it the Hard War," Elan said, as though striking a deal. "Anyway, it all happened because we decided to fight the Wall of Flesh."
"Isn't that the Boss you fight after Skeletron?"
"Yes. Don't--I repeat, DO NOT--even ATTEMPT to fight it. Even if you defeat it, there'll only be pain," Fiona said solemnly. "The Corruption and Hallow's Seal is broken, and Chaos ensues."
"It's a fight just trying to live." Elan said.
"What do you mean?"
"Even your house isn't safe. Nowhere is. It takes over EVERYTHING."
"So...the Corruption becomes...stronger?"
"Yes, and it introduces a new biome, the--"
"Whoa whoa whoa wait. Hold on. Why does it become stronger? Is this the case all the time?"
They hesitated. Fiona replied, "Well...not always...sometimes it's the other biome I mentioned."
"Is that biome good?"
"The Dryad claims it's Holy," Fiona practically spat, obviously trying to stay composed. "But I believe that's a matter of opinion."
"Can it defeat the Corruption?"
"The two biomes are natural enemies. BUT--and you shouldn't interrupt anymore--the fight is extremely hard. As soon as you kill the Wall of Flesh, EVERYTHING suddenly becomes much harder. And the Corruption will take over your whole world if you aren't prepared or strong enough."
"We've not come all this way for nothing," Thalia whispered firmly.
They were visibly taken aback. "...What?"
"We've been trying for so long to get rid of the Corruption. It's never been easy. I think we're as ready as we'll ever be. And from what I understand, we'll have a whole biome as an ally."
The Guide snickered but was silent.
"...It's...not exactly...an ally. It can be as dangerous as the Corruption if you aren't careful..."
Thalia stood up, announcing with a smile, "Then we'll be careful. I know we can do this. Thank you for the warning, though. I think we're more prepared now, just from hearing what you've said."
"That's not the point. The whole point was to stop you from even--"
"Shut up, Fiona. She's not going to listen." Elan interrupted. "Let's just go to another world."
Fiona stood and scoffed. "Well, this was a waste of time. Fine, then. I hope you and your friends survive the hell you're about to go through. Good day." she turned to Elan and said, "It looks like we'll just have to spread our message elsewhere...what world should we go to next?"
"How about that one with the blue spiky-haired guy?"
"Sounds fine. Enter the code in."
Elan recited a string of numbers, then they were teleported to another world.
The Guide leaned back in his chair. "So, then. Are you really ready to kill the Wall of Flesh?"
Thalia nodded. "Yes, I think so,"
"Good for you. Just be aware of the consequences..."
Thalia swallowed, remembering what Dawn had said: "However, he said there's...a sacrifice...when the Wall of Flesh is summoned. I'm not entirely sure how it works..."
"...Right. Hey, do you know who dies when the Wall of Flesh is summoned?"
"Who, me? I know I'm the Guide, but I don't know EVERYTHING..."
She sighed. "You're not helpful at all...anyway, see you."
"Going so soon? Gee, it's like no-one wants to spend time with me..." he complained. "Good luck on your adventures, then."
She nodded again and ran to get back to Hell.

"Finally! Another Shadow Chest!" Dawn exclaimed. She ran over, grabbed the key from Michael, and opened it, pulling out a dark purple lance that seemed to get longer as she pulled it out of its container. At its full size, it was about three feet taller than she was, and it seemed to glow with a shadowy power.The blade was complex, resembling a trident with more points, with a purple orb in the center. "Heyyy, a Dark Lance! Sweet!" she swung it to the side, testing the balance. "Preeetty bada**, don'tcha think?"
"Looks even more awesome since you're wearing the tuxedo," Michael admitted. "You look kind of like some kind of Demon Butler. In a cool way," he added awkwardly. "Not like you look evil or anything,"
"Really? Thanks."
She turned around and sliced a flaming bat in two, then there was an awkward silence.
"Sooo...now that I have this, we can probably go back home. What do you think?"
"That sounds fine..."
"Great." She put her headset on, then said, "Yo, Dan, Dusk, we're going to Whateverville. When are you coming?"
There was a brief pause before the reply, "...We'll come in a few seconds."
"Okay. See you there."
"...Wait, so you're going back?" Thalia asked, joining the conversation.
"Yeah,"
"Darnit, I just got to the Cavern layer." she sighed. "Anyway...meet you there."

As they crafted with the newfound Hellstone, they reported what they'd each found.
"...So the Corruption gets stronger?" Dusk asked.
"Possibly. It's that or the other biome."
"Interesting."
"Speaking of which...tell her what you found," Dan prompted.
"I didn't find anything. I remembered."
"Whatever, just tell her."
"Can Michael go?"
"You're being immature," Dan sighed before either of them could speak. "He's still a part of the team."
Dusk echoed Dan's sigh before he repeated the memory once more, ignoring Michael the whole time.
"...Wait. So...who was I protecting, though? Who is 'everyone'? My friends, my family, who? ...Literally....everyone...?" She started pacing, deep in thought.
"No, no, no. Wait...Yeah, you were there...and...I can't remember anyone. ...Because there never WAS anyone, was there...?"
"...What are you talking about?"
"...I've always been alone, haven't I? And that's why I don't remember anyone."
"Just because you haven't remembered anyone yet doesn't mean you were alone," Dusk said firmly. "I have to believe that, because if that WERE true, then my whole life, I'll have had no-one who matters."
"...We sound like emos."
"What did you just call me?" he glared.
"A freaking EMO. You know what, I'm tired of this. Tired of trying to remember. Screw this--I'm alive now, right? Great, I had a life before. Yeah, it'd be nice to know what it was. But you know what? I need to get my head out of the clouds and stop chasing the past, when I should be living now. One mistake from this Creator of Terraria guy, and I could permanently DIE. I have friends now, and I have a reason to live, and reasons to keep fighting. I want to live in the present from now on. Not the past."
Thalia's face kept changing, as though she was happy for her but didn't know how to express it. She settled for a hug instead.
"What the--why?! I didn't say 'hug me', I--oh, whatever. What the hell. There, you feel better?" Dawn deadpanned, allowing herself to be hugged.
Thalia stepped away, saying, "I'm glad you've finally taken our advice. Like Autumn said--"
"It's fine, I get it."
Thalia sighed but didn't say anything and decided to just be glad for her.
"But there's got to be some reason we're the only amnesiac people--something important." Dusk said. "If we remembered--"
"I didn't say that you couldn't try to remember. I just said that I'm not going to worry about it, and live in the present. If you want to regain your memories, I wish you luck. If you agree with me, then whoo-hoo, that's great, too. It's your decision. And besides, I can always try and ask the Guide. Not that he'll help at all, most likely..."
There was silence before Dan asked, "So...are we going to go kill the Wall of Flesh now?"
"Sure."
"Sounds like a good idea to me."

"Awww, we have to throw this into the lava? But it's so cuuute!" Thalia cooed, holding the Guide Voodoo Doll. "It's like a mini Guide! ...As a plushie!"
"How could you say that?!" Michael said, inching away from her. "How could ANYTHING related to the Guide be adorable?"
"You know what are adorable?" Dawn asked rhetorically. "Cats. Cats are adorable."
"I think that was the most repetitive thing I've ever heard you say..." he said.
"And she said 'adorable'! THREE TIMES! Is anyone writing this down?" Thalia asked. "This is a record!"
Dusk sighed. "You all get distracted so easily. Drop the doll and let's get this over with."
Thalia took one last look at it, then let go.
Nothing moved. No-one spoke. No-one dared to do anything.
"...Scott was slain."
Thalia shuddered. "Oh god, we just murdered someone!"
"Thalia, he'll come back! Focus!"
"Okay..." She fixed her battle stance but didn't look reassured.
Everything was silent, except for the bubbling of the lava.
Then a bellow of pain echoed through the entire Underworld.
"The Wall of Flesh has awoken!"
"Prepare yourselves!"
A disturbing mass of flesh with three enormous eyes appeared from the shadows.
"What the hell is that?!"
It was advancing at a steady rate.
"What do we do?! It's effing HUGE--"
It was getting closer, closer, closer--
"RUN! Fight from a distance--RUN!"
She blocked out what everyone else was doing. She had to focus. She ran backwards at the same speed as the Wall, trying not to look at it too closely, but it was too hard not to.
What the hell?
What the hell created THIS ABOMINATION?
The eyes stared at her and--OH GOD IT WAS REALLY WAS ALIVE. OH DEAR GOD, IT WAS INTELLIGENT.
She was disgusted, but she couldn't look away from it, she couldn't force herself to run, all she could do was stare and stare in horror as it came closer and the small creatures attached to it with bloody cords of flesh got closer, and she knew they would eat her face off if she didn't move but she was on her knees and she JUST COULDN'T MOVE--
"DAWN, NO! GET UP!"
She was jerked backwards.
She stumbled to her feet and was dragged forwards.
"Don't look at it," Michael said, gripping her wrist. "Just...just don't look at it, okay?!"
"It's so freaking disgusting...and the blood...there's blood everywhere..."
He let go of her hand so he could properly lift up the Minishark. He seemed to be firing at everything. She took his advice and didn't look back though.
"Are you...are you afraid?"
"...I'm afraid of blood. Specifically gore like that."
"Give me the Dark Lance."
"What?"
"Trade. You don't have to look, just shoot at everything. The Wall's enormous, you're bound to be able to do SOME damage."
She reloaded the Minishark. "Are you sure? You've always been a ranger."
"I'll be fine," he said. She could tell he was lying. He ran away and she took a deep breath.
She briefly looked behind her--DON'T STARE, DON'T STARE, DON'T STARE. It was far enough away that she would have time before she would have to run again.
She turned around. She squeezed her eyes shut, she turned around, she pulled the trigger.

"What the hell is she doing? She's going to get killed!" Dusk exclaimed. He sliced upwards. The leeches immediately died.
"Someone make her move!" Thalia shouted. Hundreds of spheres of fire bounced torwards the Wall.
"I can't! I'm busy!" He cast Water Bolt and Demon Scythe as fast as he could.
"DAWN, NO! GET UP!"
He saw Michael move torwards her. He knew she'd be fine.
Focus.
He ran torwards the Wall. He slashed and stabbed with the Muramasa, faster than he'd thought was possible. His arm screamed in exhaustion, but he couldn't stop. He ran backwards and unsheathed the Starfury. Thousands of Falling Stars rained from the ceiling, though they didn't seem to do much. Fire spheres kept bouncing at the Wall. The Water Bolts finally bounced back and shreaded through the Wall. But it didn't stop or even slow down.
No, no, NO, IT WAS SPEEDING UP.
"Sh**...!!"
It kept summoning lasers, and Dusk was forced to drink a Health Potion.
He turned and ran. He ran into an Obsidian watchtower. He left the door open for the others, hiding with his back to the wall.
He slid to the floor. As cliched as it sounded, his heart was pounding so hard he was afraid it might explode.
He tried breathing slowly. It didn't work.
The Wall bellowed again. He jumped and hit his head on the wall. He whipped his head to look outside, the Wall was right there--
He ran.
He ran and refused to look back.

Michael knew he had to be strong.
He owed it to her to be strong, but he couldn't.
He could barely lift up the Lance, much less fight with it.
He was being a burden again.
No matter how much he tried, he was always getting himself or others killed, wasn't he?
"--FOCUS, YOU IDIOT!" he thought.
He swung the Lance at the Wall. He staggered back from its weight, he saw he was getting too close--
He was grabbed by what looked like a large tongue. He hit what felt like bone--or tooth--but was tossed away.
He hit the ground.
He drank a Health Potion and forced himself to stand.
Was that...?
"I almost got eaten...!" he screamed in terror. "I ALMOST GOT EATEN BY A FREAKING MONSTER!"
"MOVE, IDIOT! You're going to die!" Dusk shouted.
He tossed the Lance to the ground. He drew the Phoenix Pistol. He fired at the Wall, reloading every five seconds, running backwards.
"Man, I wish this had Automatic Reload like the Minishark..." he commented.
"Dude, you need backup?" Dan asked.
"No. I'm fine!"
"No-one is going to die today," he mentally promised himself. "No-one."

Thalia was worried.
She had to stay at a distance from the Wall, so she was probably the safest right now. She wasn't worried about that.
She just couldn't stop thinking about the Guide and what Fiona and Elan had said.
Was this really right?
What if this really was going to ruin their lives, and this world?
...Had their entire mission been worthless from the start?
Even if the Guide came back, had it really been right to kill him, in the hopes that it'd help them go home?
...Why did she really want to go home, anyway?
As soon as she asked herself, she knew.
She missed her family, her friends...
...That life in general.
She was still homesick.

Dawn had no idea how long they'd been fighting the Wall.
It seemed like forever.
Run, don't look, shoot.
Run, don't look, shoot.
Run, don't look, shoot.
Over and over and over.
"IT'S ALMOST DEAD!"
She stopped. She heard the sound of more spells being cast.
One last roar echoed, so loudly that it felt like she was actually being hit with sound, and it felt like her ears were splitting.
Then the Voice said, "The Wall of Flesh has been defeated. ...The ancient spirits of light and dark had awoken."
NOTES/COMMENTARY:
--I didn't really reread this because I wanted to get it posted quickly, so if anything sounds odd or questionable or whatever, tell me and I'll try to fix it.
--About the Demon and Demon Imp thing, I forgot there were already Demons in Terraria when I said that Xorathor was a demon...so now I'm trying to fix that...
--If the fight scene with the Bone Dragon sounds weird, then it's because when I first wrote that scene I was experimenting with a new writing style (trying to use long sentences to make it seem more fast-paced) but I didn't like how it turned out so I tried changing it.
--When I first planned out Dusk's personality, I'd thought that he and Dan would always just kind of ignore each-other, but then while I was writing this Chapter they got along really well. This must be what authors talk about when they say their own characters surprised them and did what they wanted...
--I randomly wondered how the Dark Lance would fit into a Shadow Chest, so I decided it can change length, like Kyoko Sakura's spear.
--I'm sorry about the ending, it was kind of rushed...so that's why it's not that great...

Anyway, Hardmode! Ha ha, I have some plot twists planned...MWA HA HA HA!
 
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