Chapter 6 - Problems

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(This was started while Chapter 1 was being written because it was in my head for so damn long -Pleb)

Dream SMP

Skeppy was gonna confess. Bad was acting strange. He wasn't saying his signature "LANGUAGE" as much whenever someone cursed. In fact. Skeppy had gotten Tommy to say every curse word he could think of once and yet, Bad didn't say anything.

Bad had just left the house. Skeppy felt as if something was wrong. Very wrong...

Skeppy left the house and up a path only to hear Quackity's voice.

"Karl's prediction was fucking right..."

"What's going on Quackity?' Skeppy went up to Quackity, curious.

Quackity didn't respond so Skeppy just followed his eyes.

What he saw horrified him.

"What the fuck..." Now Skeppy had explanations. Explanations on why everyone was acting so weird. Those horribly familiar vines creeping up the builds. "Not again..."

"What are those things?!" Grian had asked when Skeppy had ran down the path to where the vines were.

Skeppy ignored Grian and rushed to the source of the vines.

"SKEPPY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Puffy called out. "DON'T YOU REMEMBERED WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME?!"

Skeppy felt her grab his arm. "LET GO OF ME PUFFY!!"

"Don't you remember?!" Puffy asked.

"I know! But Bad-" Skeppy started.

"I know you're worried about Bad, but there are other ways!!"

"What ways?"

"Safer ones."

"Fine," Skeppy said reluctantly.

"I know its hard," Puffy said softly.

"Hey!!" Iskall came up to Puffy and Skeppy, panting heavily.

"Do you know what those red vines are?" Iskall asked. "Doc and Ren have been acting different lately ever since they appeared."

"Yea, we do unfortunately," Puffy said.

"What are they then?" Iskall asked.

"They're vines from the Red Egg," Puffy said.

"What's the Red Egg?"

"An egg shaped thing that can brainwash you and make you do its bidding."

"Why does it remind me of the Mycelium Resistance..." Iskall said to himself.

"The what?" Puffy asked.

"Nevermind."

While Iskall and Puffy were talking, Skeppy had snuck away. He wasn't going to stop until he KNEW Bad was okay. Until he knew that Bad was fine. And no one was going to stop him. Nothing was going to stop Skeppy.

"SKEPPY!" Puffy called out once she found out Skeppy had gotten away. "SKEPPY!!" Puffy was worried. Worried that Skeppy might go under the influence of the egg again just for Bad again.

"Damn it!" Puffy muttered under her breath.

Skeppy found where the vines were coming from and made his way to the red egg. He tried his hardest to not give in to the egg.

When he found the egg he gritted his teeth and pulled out a pickaxe. As soon as he was about to hit it, he heard a familiar voice.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Bad?" Skeppy turned around to see that Bad had changed almost completely. Just like when the red egg appeared on the Dream SMP.

"Bad is gone," he chuckled. "He is fucking gone."

"Then who are you?" Skeppy asked.

"Goodboyhalo."

"What?" Skeppy asked confused.

"When the egg hatched on the Dream SMP," Good started.

"But it never-" Skeppy started.

"It hatched when no one was watching idiot," Good snapped. Good then chuckled to himself. "Nightmare really outdid himself this time."

"Nightmare?" Skeppy asked. "Who's that?"

Good stared at Skeppy for a moment. "What an idiot," he muttered under his breath. Good suddenly pulled out a sword and pointed it at Skeppy, gradually pushing him closer to the egg. It was getting harder for Skeppy to resist the egg.

"Now you're gonna surrender to the egg whether you like it or not."

"I am not going to surrender to the egg," Skeppy said firmly.

"Like Good said, you're going to surrender whether you like it or not," said another familiar voice. Dream's voice.

Skeppy looked up to see the Dream SMP admin sitting on top of the egg. The only difference was that instead of his signature white mask with a black smile, he was wearing a black mask with a white frown. And instead of his signature lime green hoodie, Dream was wearing a red one.

"Dream?" Skeppy said in shock.

"Nightmare," the admin corrected. "Its Nightmare." Nightmare stared at Skeppy for a moment. "Push him into the cage." Cage? Skeppy was suddenly pushed into a netherite cage. The opening was shut by a singular obsidian block and before he knew it, the cage was hanging above the egg.

This was too much for Skeppy. Things from the Dream SMP were repeating themselves here...In the new server...But this time...It was much more worse...

. . .

"Damn it!!" Puffy said.

"What?" Iskall asked.

"Skeppy left to go to the Red Egg!"

"What can we do?" Iskall asked.

"We need to get people who are immune to the Egg," Puffy responded.

"But who is immune?"

"Tommy and Wilbur...I'm actually not entirely sure about Wilbur but Ghostbur was immune."

"Ghostbur?" Iskall said, confused.

"A ghost version of Wilbur," Puffy said before running off. "C'mon!!"

Iskall ran after Puffy and they stopped in front of Tommy's house. Puffy began banging on the door.

"TOMMY!!"

"What?!" Tommy opened the door as soon as Puffy stopped.

"Skeppy went to the Red Egg," Puffy said between pants.

"WHAT?!" Tommy said. "Who was affected?!"'

"For all we know, Bad."

"We can't let this happen again!!" Tommy said.

"I know!" Puffy exclaimed.

Soon enough, Tommy, Iskall and Puffy were now decked out in Netherite gear. They followed the blood red vines to a staircase that led underground. They followed the staircase to the Red Egg. They weren't even halfway there when Puffy suddenly gripped her head in panic.

"The egg is stronger now," Puffy said.

"What do you mean, stronger?" Iskall asked.

"Puffy, I think you should leave,' Tommy said.

"I can't." Puffy shook her head, trying her hardest to resist the egg.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Tommy asked.

Puffy nodded. The three of them continued down the stairs to a room that was all too familiar to Tommy and Puffy.

"Holy shit," Tommy whispered.

"AGH!! SHUT UP!!" Puffy suddenly screamed.

"What-" Iskall began.

"The egg can speak to your mind," Puffy said. "It makes you doubt things that you know. That's how it makes you surrender yourself to it. It messes up your mind. Makes you lose your sanity. And that just makes it easier for the egg to take over your mind. Very few are immune to the Egg. Like Tommy." Puffy straightened up.

"You know," said a voice. "Normally, wearing armor would protect you but since the egg is stronger, armor won't work anymore." The voice laughed. "We were expecting some visitors," it said.

"Dream?" Tommy said who realized the familiarity in the voice, turned around. "You fucking prick...WHERE'S SKEPPY AND BAD?!"

Nightmare just laughed. "I'm not telling," he said, playfully, clearly not going to tell them that he wasn't Dream.

"TELL US YOU FUCKING PRICK!!"

"Shut the fuck up will you Tommy?" Said another familiar voice. A voice that belonged to the most innocent person on the Dream SMP.

"Bad?" Puffy gasped.

"Its Goodboyhalo idiot," Good said. "Not Badboyhalo."

"The fucking hell," Tommy whispered. Two more people had appeared behind Good. Two that were familiar to Iskall.

"Ren? Doc?" Iskall said.

Don't judge their opposite names. It isn't easy when they don't have any and we have to come up with them. We used Logic to come up with them...

"Brutecat and Patg23," Ren corrected.

"Don't forget me," said another voice.

"Xisuma?!" Iskall said in shock.

The Hermitcraft admin hummed. "Don't recognize me? I'm not just Xisuma."

"Evil X," Iskall breathed.

"Exactly."

"I thought you were gone," Iskall said.

"Guess you were wrong," Evil X laughed.

"Where's Xisuma?" Iskall commanded.

"Oh? My brother?" Evil X just gave an intimidating grin.

"WHERE'S SKEPPY?!" Tommy said.

"Skeppy?" Good pretended to look confused. "Ohhh...You mean Jef's opposite!"

"Jef?"

"Yes Jef," Good said. "You're so damn lucky that your opposite doesn't want to join us. No wonder you're immune. Too bad. He's missing out on all the fun."

"I thought the egg speaks to your mind," Puffy said.

"It does idiot," Good scoffed. "But to do that, he needs to convince your opposite."

"The Red Egg is basically our god," Nightmare said.

"Just push them in the cage," Evil X said.

And before they knew it, they were being hung in a cage over the red egg, not supported by anything. Not even a single strand of string. Not by a single stick or anything. It was just hovering in midair, above the egg. Iskall was starting to hear the voice now. Tommy was still immune though.

"Just simple redstone," Nightmare said.

"How did you-" Iskall started.

"I watched Mumbo make his redstone contraptions," Evil X said.

"Just surrender to the egg," Nightmare said.

"No," Puffy said firmly. "We will NEVER surrender!!"

"The longer you resist, the harder it will be."

"SHUT UP YOU PRICK AND LET US OUT!!" Tommy commanded.

"Not a chance Timothy," Nightmare said.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!!" Tommy said.

Nightmare just smiled. A menacing smile that made Tommy know. That made Tommy know that this wasn't going to end well...

— — —

Hermitcraft

A mostly empty room, with an electric chair in the center. Xisuma was chained up to it. His helmet was thrown to a corner of the room.

Evil X walked in.

"Ah- How's my favorite Hermit?"

"Really? You're gonna use sarcasm?"

"Miss me?"

"Not particularly. Last time I saw you, you were flying away from Season 8 with all my diamonds that you stole. Before that, you manipulated me. You tried to destroy my server, and my friends. You made me do evil things to them. Why would I miss you after all you've done?"

"Me? Evil things? You're the one who abandoned your own family!"

"You're my brother! You should care about my happiness too, not just yours. Have you ever thought about what I was going through? Dad had died a few years before and we were still greiving! I needed a break from everything going on! I needed time..."

Evil X took off his helmet and X stared into his eyes. His brother's eyes were full of anger, and hurt. His red eyes were also glowing for some reason...

"I planned on coming back, Xavier, but you hardly gave me the break I needed! You somehow came onto Season 3 and decided to mind control me into harming my friends."

Evil X turned away. "Most of them were harmless. Changing Zueljin's castle to different blocks like granite, andesite, prismarine, and quartz! Draining xBCrafted's base of it's water and filling that water into Biffa's base. Of course only xB remains on the server out of the three of them."

X winced at the name of his deceased friend. "Ok, what about the one where you made me give a 'present' to Sl1pg8r to make him blow up Crown Hall?"

"Xisuma, my dear brother, that was all in Season 3! Let's not dwell on the past."

"No excuse Xavier!"

"Just call me Evil X, after all, everyone seems to think I'm just you but evil. That's why everyone calls me Evil Xisuma!"

"You didn't have to build that reputation, or even come onto my server!"

"You keep calling it your server, but it was Generikb's server in the first place. God you're unbelievable."

"Generikb entrusted me with the server when he left! I'd do anything to protect the server and it's members!"

"Anything?"

Xavier injected Xisuma with a serum.

"Ow! What did you put in me?"

"Oh- Just a little something that ensures you have only one respawn left, or a respawn at all in case this server doesn't allow respawns."

Xavier placed down a bed.

"Go on, sit."

Xavier unchained Xisuma and threw him onto the bed. He then took out an enchanted bow.

"Xavier, what are you doing?!"

"Just sending the server a little message not to mess with me. You'll respawn, don't worry about that. I don't plan on killing my older brother! Not yet anyway..."

Before Xisuma could respond he felt an arrow hit his chest. It felt fiery, so he assumed the bow was enchanted with flame. Not long after, a message dinged through everyone's communicators.

Xisuma was shot by EvilXisuma using [Flaming Doom]

<GeminiTay> X...?

<Welsknight> What happened?!

Messages spammed the chat, mostly by Hermits, regarding the death of their admin.

<Grian> Is he...dead?

<EvilXisuma> Don't mess with me. Or things might get uglier.

<ZombieCleo> What did you do to him?!

<EvilXisuma> Geez, learn to pay attention Cleo. I killed him of course.

<MumboJumbo> What's wrong with you?! We already lost 8 of our friends and now you've gone ahead and killed our admin!

<EvilXisuma> Sucks to suck, I guess. Oh, and by the way, thanks for the redstone help. :)

<MumboJumbo> What help?

<Georgenotfound> Who is EvilXisuma?

<Welsknight> X's evil counterpart...

Evil X turned off his communicator. He looked at Xisuma, who had just respawned in the bed.

"You've gone mad!" Xisuma shouted.

"All I did was kill you to scare the other Hermits. They've already suffered the loss of 8 friends. How do you think they'll feel when they find out their admin is gone too?"

"That's cruel."

Oh, how Xisuma would've loved to go in chat and say "I'm not dead! I'm still alive guys! He didn't kill me for good!"

But it was no use. Just like how his helmet was thrown into a corner, Evil X had also broken his communicator. He had no way of contacting his friends, much less the other admin on the server. Without warning, Evil X pushed X back onto the electric chair and chained him up again.

"This will stop you from escaping."

He pressed a button to shock X with electricity. Maybe he had gone mad...He shook the thought from his head. No, I'm doing what's best.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some other things to take care of."

"Xavier wait!"

But it was too late. Evil X had already put his helmet back on and exited the room, and X heard the door lock behind him.

Evil X went to visit the cage above the red egg again.

"Where did you go?!" Iskall said almost immediately.

Evil X pleasantly smiled. "I just had some unfinished business to take care of."

"Now, you're going to surrender to the egg, or else!" Nightmare warned.

"Never!" Iskall yelled.

"Then you'll stay in that cage." Evil X said.

He then went back to his secret base, lair, whatever you wanted to call it.

He had not made it to his throne room before he collapsed to the ground on his knees. His eyes flashed green for a second and stopped glowing. Evil X lifted his head to face the figure that had just appeared. A shadowy figure with bright, glowing green eyes stood in front of him. His left one had a scar on it, dripping blood.

"Good to see you again, Evil X."

"Hello again, Jeff the Minion. It's been awhile. Well, not really. What are you doing this time?"

"Checking in." Jeff mentioned. "Manipulating you to my will is so easy."

"What are your intentions with me?!"

"I'm here to get revenge on the Hermits. Especially Xisuma, as HE WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE ME THIS SCAR. Now, sit still while I mind control you again."

Evil X's eyes flashed green yet again, then returned to glowing red. Jeff the Minion disappeared.

Xisuma was still locked in the dungeon, with no way of escape.

Tears streamed down his face as he fell asleep.

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This might be the longest chapter yet. (But the chapter I wrote with the messaging was so frickin long XD -Galactic) How we came up with Ren and Doc's opposite name...Ren means humane. The opposite of humane is cruelty and a synonym for that is Brute. The opposite of Dog is Cat. So BruteCat. Doc is an abbreviation for Doctor and the opposite of doctor is patient. Since D-O-C are the first three letters of Doctor, we used P-A-T which are the first three letters of Patient. M is the 13th letter of the English alphabet and 13 is known as an unlucky number. Seven is a lucky number and G is the 7th letter of the English alphabet. And 77 is the 77th number from 0 and 23 is the 77th number from 100. So Patg23. And we had to come up with a name for Evil X because who has a name called Evil X?

-Pleb

Lmao dog/cat and doctor/patient aren't opposites (technically) but like they make the most sense as opposites like c'mon. ✨THIS WAS IN MY HEAD FOR SO DAMN LONG✨ Ah yes, JEFF THE MINION. CarnEVIL! Evil's Fault! Hermitcraft theory video by Matpat on Game Theory! I know enough to kinda write about it but I still need to watch it in full XD (except the Theory video, I of course watched that the day it released)

-Galactic