ilbarker's POV

' The Day The Budder King Said the G-word? '

Yes. It's a 9 book series that's never been published. I've rewritten it...3 times now? I'm on my third rewriting of it. However, the characters remain the same.

' Then...Sky IS Skybrine?! ' Kit exclaimed.

"Yes, he is. He's been Skybrine for a couple weeks now. He's been trying to wipe out the Popstar army. It's why you didn't see the stars on our cheeks until now. We have other sorcerers along with Bren and Garrett. They were able to hide our marks of loyalty to the Popstar army. These stars are called Warp Stars. They're the main symbol of the character, Kirby. That's also the names of the followers of the Popstar army. We're called Kirbys."

spark seemed to laugh then barked a bit. "'Not surprised. She has a thing about Kirby.'"

"So, wait, if you're more or less based off Becca, why do you seem to recognize me but not her?"

That's a bit more complicated. That series is a reader-based series. I'm trying to wean off of using myself as a character since that seems...selfish, so I'm replacing it with the insert of Y/N. I'll still be able to write the story because, well, unless I feel like the person, I have a hard time writing a good story. Various other placeholders, too, but I won't spoil it. Anyways, all of the placeholders are like the name of the army and followers. Those are mine because I think of that as my thing. However, they see the Y/N as you. Or, uh, whoever is the POV of that specific chapter. Judging from what I've heard from you all, it's been ilbarker's POV.

' Yeah, it's been me. '

Hmm...can Candid hear me?

' Sort of. I'm translating to him what you're saying. ' Aura answered.

Ah, good. Candid, these people aren't bad. In fact, they're really good in many ways. As you can tell, they're a bit...mutated. They'll be able to help you in a variety of ways. You can trust them.

"But...I...um...I dunno if I can trust you...."

Becca chuckled a bit. Well, I did create you...in a way. You have a good sense of judgement. I think you can tell between lies and truths...to an extent.

"Well, I mean, I suppose you did seem to know every single one of ilbarker's guards, so...I guess. Yeah. I guess we can trust them."

Nice...uh...I gotta go, but...be careful, k?

' Yeah! '

We all tapped our right ears and shut off the connection.

Candid stood there, thinking for a moment. "Ok...we'll release you...but do anything...strange and we WILL put you right back in here. Got that?"

spark barked. "'Yus! Now plz let me out of this cage.'"

We all laughed a bit as the sorcerers made their magic disappear and started getting us freed.

Once we were finally free, the 3 led us up and out of the area we were in.

What we entered was AMAZING.

It was a freakishly huge carved-out room. And I mean FREAKISHLY. HUGE. I literally cannot describe how big it was.

It was more or less a giant underground city. Houses, hospitals, restaurants, shops, a park, a gateway at the far end, and a single house, the same size as the rest but almost entirely different shades of purple and somewhat elevated so it could be seen from around the area.

"Woah...." I said quietly.

"I've been here for 4 years and this sight is still amazing to see. It's amazing what Minecraftians can do together to stay hidden." Candid said.

"What do you mean?" Object asked.

"Well...I guess it's hard to explain since ilbarker doesn't seem to remember any of this. Her and her best friend, Brandon, worked together to create this. This and the Popstar army."

"Who's Brandon?" I asked.

"Oh, probably one of Becca's friends." Kit answered.

Candid shrugged as we walked along the roads.

Children were playing around here and there, though some stopped and stared at us a little scared but with...recognition?

"Oh, here in the Popstar army, there are no secrets between...the leader and the people. They saw you coming in." Garrett explained.

"Oh...."

I guess I shouldn't ask too many questions if this is a separate book in and of itself. Maybe she'll write it someday!

Anyway, we entered a house a little ways away to see Ashley again.

"Oh, hi!" She said cheerfully, though she seemed a bit on guard.

"We need to go ahead and explain what we need to do." Candid said.

Ashley nodded and ran out of the room, coming back in with a giant piece of rolled-up paper.

We then walked into what looked like a dining room with a large table.

Ashley rolled out the paper and I saw that it was divided into two halves.

One was some kind of ginormous floor plan and the other was a map of some kind.

"ilbarker escaped from the Nether here." Candid said, pointing at a grayish area on the map side. "This is the base." He pointed at a tiny dot in the middle of the forest area. "This is our destination." He pointed at the large city plan of the map side. But he pointed directly at the largest structure. A castle.

"The portal she used was destroyed by her. We have the obsidian she took from the portal to deactivate it, but to reactivate requires immense power. Power that even all our sorcerers combined couldn't do. So, that portal is no more."

"Wait, why are we trying to go back to the Nether if I ran from there?"

"To...redefeat Herobrine. Long story. Not going into it. Anyways, we've learned recently of a Nether portal in the Budder Castle. Skybrine made it to let his father through, along with the army following him. His father almost always stays in the Nether, however. We need to go there and beat him. Then...Sky will be freed from Herobrine's hold."

"So...we sneak in, beat Herobrine, and then...."

"Then that's it. Hopefully, that'll be the end.  Skybrine will go back to Sky and Herobrine will be gone."

Cassia looked skeptical.  "That ssssssoundssssss too eassssssy."

Kit nodded.  "Agreed.  There is no way it's gonna be easy."

"So, where's the portal?"  Aura asked, desperate to change the subject.

Candid bit his lip.  "The throne room.  Right in the view of the throne.  We've got spies in there, but it's difficult to move around because we can only hide our symbols.  We can't create any of the Team's symbols.  It's rare to see people in that kingdom for long without symbols.  We've already lost 6 people because they were there for too long."

"So, it's dangerous, hard, and there's the possibility of death."  I stated.

Bren let out a short breath, almost like a minute chuckle.  "Couldn't have said it better myself."

I looked around at everyone as they looked to me like a leader.  "Well...I'm really bad at doing encouraging speeches, so...let's hope we don't get caught and die!  Good luck to all of us!"