'SCAR!'

I wake at Impulse's yell, hitting the ground as I roll out of bed... 

'What is it? I'm tired!' I struggle to stand but manage, leaving the room, down the stairs...

Mumbo's here. 

In tears.

'No.'

'Scar, I know this may come as I shock...' Impulse, stepping closer, eyes wide and shining with tears. 

'No... no... this isn't happening...' 

'Scar... seriously... as... as far as we know it's not as bad as we think...'

'You don't know that.'

'Scar...'

'You don't KNOW that! You haven't seen him!'

'And for all we know, Grian's fine. I just called you down because Mumbo's here in tears and that normally means...'

'No... no Scar's right. He's been taken.'

'NO!'

I punch the wall magic flaring. Impulse yells my name, pulling me away.

'Scar, listen to me. Scar, calm down... I SAID CALM DOWN!' I shove him away, a vex knife flashing into my hands. Pix yells something, standing. Impulse hits the ground, but is quick to stand, running to stop me again. I won't stop. Grian's gone. Cub's gone. There's no way we're going to win.

There's no reason to keep trying.

I hit the wall. Impulse holds me there, still speaking, terror filling his voice.

'Scar drop the knife.' I struggle against him, screaming back. 'Drop it. Scar, drop it. DROP IT.' I let the knife disappear back into nothing, sink to the ground and sob. 'It's ok... it's going to be ok.'

'Why him?!'

'He was out alone.' Another voice, Tango. 'He went back to his base... oh crud, we could've stopped him going out...'

'That's not helpful, Tango.'

'It's the TRUTH! Do you want me to start lying and pretending everything is peachy?!'

'No! I want you to have some decency when Scar's over here sobbing, Mumbo's over there sobbing, and Grian's just been taken by the Skulk!'

'Would I get some sympathy if I start crying too? Because that would be nice!'

'Tango- I'm sorry just... Tango, come back. Tango... TANGO!' All I hear is the slam of the door as Tango leaves and Impulse loudly swearing, kicking the bookshelf and then apologising for both. I glance over, blinking away tears enough to see him sink to the ground, just staring down at it, not talking. Mumbo's still crying, Pix trying and failing to comfort him. At any thought of Grian or Cub the emotion rises again and I start sobbing. It feels like we're here forever, just being upset, until Pix starts pacing.

'We need more help.'

'Why is that the ONLY THING you can think of?!' I snap back. 'Why can't you come up with any other plans?!'

'Idid. And my other plan almost got me and Grian caught, and our last attempt to get help failed. If you're so unhappy about getting help, then gather everyone and tell them we're meeting to discuss any other next step.'

'Sure.' Impulse mumbles. 'Whatever.'

'Fine.'

We all look over at Mumbo, who hasn't spoken, but has stopped crying. All we get is a non-committal 'mmm'. 

'Then let's discuss.'

It appears that rumours faster than the Hermits themselves, so it's at least half an hour until everyone who wants to help arrives, all already possessing information about Grian being either taken by the skulk, dead, abandoning the server, hating me or having had trouble but now perfectly fine. Arguments and discussions fill the room until I stand, starting the meeting.

'Grian's been taken by the skulk. According to Mumbo, there was a fight with Cub and Grian lost. That's all we know, but Grian's been taken.'

'And, when we were going to be taken before.' Pix adds. 'The skulk said something about keeping him for questioning. So we can only assume...'

'He's not been turned skulky yet?' That's great, dude.' Ren perks up, but not for long as Pix continues

'That depends how they get the information they need. And so far it's got what it wants through... violence.'

'Goodness gracious...' Mumbles Mumbo. 'That's not... I don't like that.'

'None of us do. So... what's our next step?' I glance around the group of hermits. Jevin raises a hand.

'I mean, I don't know any anyone else, but I came here to kick some skulky butt and save our friends. We can do that.'

'How? We can't go into their home without being sensed and attacked from miles away. Skulk can spread signal for miles.'

'15 blocks isn't miles.' Interjects Tango. 'I had to look into that for Decked Out. Skulk signal spreads 15 blocks.'

'Normal skulk signal.' I dump a book on the table. 'This isn't normal skulk. This is Skulk capital S.'

'And I'm guess that capital S 'Skulk' is surrounding the capital C City of Skulk-land.' Figures Joe. 'Which means attacking is bad. Got it. Can't we dig in from the surface, drop in on top of them and attack them that way?'

'We don't know coordinates of their base. All we know is that it starts from Xisuma's base and spreads underground.' Pix is as ready as I am with the props, laying a map of spawn on the table with the start of the path he remembers drawn on. 'There's a lot of twists and turns in the tunnel. I don't even know how much is Xisuma's base and how much is a new area the skulk made for evil skulk operations.'

'We can track Grian,' False realises. 'Or message him asking where he's at. We dig in and get him, murder the skulk...'

'We can't murder it because Cub won't respawn.' I explain for the billionth time 'We need to think differently than just murder the skulk. And I don't think the skulk will just let Grian communicate with us.'

'Capture the skulk. Trap it down there, throw potions at Cub and Xisuma like we did last time to get them back...'

'Problem with that.' I flick to another page in the book. 'The thing with skulk is that it learns to defend itself quickly and builds defences against what it's been attacked by previously. So it's only defeated by powerful destructive magic - like watcher or vex magic fire - or something that's never been used to stop it before. And I imagine there's been a lot of stuff used against it over the centuries it's existed.'

'And we don't want to hurt our friends.'

'Cub's a vexling though.' False points out. 'Vex fire won't hurt him.'

'Skulk stifles other powers. He's no more resistant to vex fire than a normal player.'

'Can't we throw the most obscure blocks at them?' Suggests Jevin. 

'They won't damage the skulk... but we're not at that part of the plan yet. What we need is someone who knows a lot about skulk.'

'You know a lot about skulk.'

'As in, properly knows about the skulk. Has experience of it and similar- wait.'

'Wait?'

'I have someone who can help.'

'We've tried asking people for help before and you ran away screaming, Scar.' Pearl reminds us. 

'It's not the Vexlings or Watchers. But they're just as morally dubious.'

'Who?'

'It's time I introduced you to an old friend of mine by the name of BadTimesWithScar.'

Aha! I have managed to make MORE chapters by putting more in this one! 

I am a genius.

And the next few chapters are going to be very very good

:)