'Hey, Tango!' Impulse swooped into his friend's base the day after his own burnt down. Barely avoiding Fifi, he landed by the storage area, to see his friend chatting concernedly with Keralis about something.

'Oh, hey Impy!' Tango greeted back with an awkward smile that he clearly pretended was genuine. 

'What's up?'

'We were just talking about Bubbles.' Keralis explained worriedly. 

'Oh... right... I guess no one's seen him still.'

'False said she might've seen him once, but he disappeared before she could confirm it was him.' Tango answered. 'Anyway, how are you doing Impulse?'

'Good... despite my starter base... luckily I moved into the factory the other day, so I didn't have much in there...' 

'I'm sorry it got burnt down. Guessing you still have no idea who it was.'

'No... anyway, Zedaph wanted to talk with me and you, Tango. So if you're finished talking with Keralis...'

'It's fine! See you around, sweet faces!'

The two ZIT members flew off again to find the third. It didn't take long for them to get there, landing outside Zedaph's base. They entered, seeing their friend there.

'Hey, guys!'

'Hey, Zedaph. What's up?'

'I... I wanted to show you something.' He explained sheepishly. 

'Some...thing?' 

'Yeah... something. You know how Gem gave several hermits animal stuff? Well... I went over to check on her and...' He pulled up the leg of his trousers, revealing fluffy animal legs. '...she kind of turned me into a sheep...' 

Tango laughed, despite the situation. 

'Why'd you do that, sheep-boy?' 

'I don't know! I was curious...' Zedaph bleated back. 

'There's still one important question.' Impulse began seriously. 'Have you got a tail?'

'...Yes'

'Ok, we need to see this.'

'No!' 

'Man... I thought you turned into a sheep, not a chicken...' Tango sighed. 'Etho's been showing off his tail...'

'Fine! I can't believe you two!' Tango and Impulse hi-fived, and there was a tearing sound as the wooly appendage was revealed. And although he was obviously worried about his transformation, Zedaph laughed as well. 'I've got the ears as well.' He parted his hair to show off a pair of sheep ears. 

'This is amazing... This is absolutely amazing.' Tango laughed back. 'Is that all you've got, sheep boy?'

'I think so? Now... I also wanted to talk about Scar.' The mood fell quickly. 'Have any of you seen him recently?'

'Not since he killed me... but I'm pretty sure he burnt down my house. I mean... he burnt down a lot of things in Third Life...' 

'He probably wanted you to think it was me.' Tango added 'Because I was there, definitely-not-stealing-your-items.' 

'Tango!'

'What! I said I definitely wasn't!' He protested back.

'And what about Bdubs? I know False said she saw him, but I don't think anyone's seen him since. Grian and Cub's disappearance is definitely to do with Scar, since the last anyone heard of them was Scar telling Grian to come to his base.' Zedaph paced the room, which would've seemed much more serious if it weren't for his tail bouncing behind him. Tango held back his laughter as he watched it. 

'And no one's seen him since?' Impulse asked. 

'And he hasn't put stuff in chat?' 

'No... I'm really worried about them. I did try to message Grian privately, but he hasn't replied.' 

'Try again?' Impulse suggested. 'Or we could ask Xisuma if he knows anything.' 

'He's probably still just selling DerpCoin with Mr Evilificator.' Tango shot down the idea quickly 'Or everyone else is sharing their worries with him.' 

'True... well, I'll see you guys around.' Zedaph sighed. 

'See you. Hey, Tango, do you wanna help me get some quartz and stuff from the nether?' Impulse asked.

'Sure! See ewe around, sheep boi!' Tango joked, before flying off with Impulse. 

The duo stepped into the nether, and with a glance at each other, broke their way out of the safety of the caves and into the main area. There was lava everywhere below them as they glided, chatting, laughing, trying to forget the chaos of the recent days. They mined a ton of quartz while they were at it, filling several shulker boxes, and they were about to head back, when Tango realised something.

'Crap, I didn't think my Elytra had lost that much durability...' 

'What?!' Impulse turned to his friend, just as his wings failed, and he fell down towards the lava. 'TANGO! NO!' 

With a yelp of terror, the half-blaze landed in the lava. But he didn't burn, and swam to the surface. 

Crap. Impy will know something's up. He began to swim towards the shore, before realising how far it was to go, took a deep breath, and dived into the lava.

'Tango?! TANGO! Where are you?! Why's there no death message?! And why didn't we bring fire resistance! TANGO! Are you here? Anywhere? Should I go? I don't want to abandon you!' Impulse's panic-filled voice reached him, even under the lava, and Tango paddled away, trying to blot out voice and the regret this came with it. If Impulse knew that he'd survived, he'd quickly figure out about the starter base incident.

'TANGO!'

The fire-resistant hermit reached the shore, crawling out and running into forest, watching as Impulse circled uncertainly, before flying away. 

He was safe. 

Impy didn't know. 

And then another thought came to him.

How would he get back?

'Cub?' Grian frowned as he woke up, trying to open his eyes even though they were open. 

'Grian? You're awake?'

'I... I think so... why's it so dark? What happenex?'

He tried to remember, and soon did. Herobrine... Scar... being trapped here... But he wasn't alone, he reasoned, as he sat against the wall. Cub was here too. They could keep each other company. And hopefully, they could find enough supplies to survive. 

'Do you have any torches? He asked, searching through his pockets and inventory. 

'Uhh... maybe? Ah, here we are!'

The room flooded with light as he lit the torch, holding it. Cub and Grian looked at each other. The space was quite small, but there was enough space to walk around a couple of blocks. 

'If we want to have light, one of us will have to hold that torch forever. Because we can't place blocks without them disappearing.' Grian explained. 'It looks like chat's broken, but we might still be able to private message?' 

'Maybe. What else can we do?'

'I don't know. I have food, so we won't starve to death for a while. And I might be able to spawn a chicken, because I've got eggs... blocks are useless... as are fireworks...'

'I've got an ender pearl?' Cub held up the turquoise orb. Grian shook his head. 

'There's no gaps for us to get out of... why did Herobrine trap us so well?!' 

'Scar trapped me...' Cub added sadly.

'No, it's Herobrine. Not Scar,'

'He turned back to Scar, and he was the one that trapped me here.' Cub held back his tears. 'And even if we do get out, I can't kill him.'

'Why?'

'Vex magic.' Cub explained simply. 'I don't want to talk about it right now.' 

'That's fine...' Grian sighed. His communicator buzzed as a message came into chat. 

Wait...

'Cub, I don't think we're completely doomed.' 

These chapters are getting much longer than they used to be... I'm consistently hitting 1100 words, when I sometimes struggled to get 1000.