Cursed (A hermitcraft and Evo fanfiction)

Chapter 6

Fire wasn't supposed to spread. 

It was the one thing that meant that Team ZIT could explore Tango's fire-making abilities inside his very flammable base. Because fire didn't spread. Fire tick was off. 

He set his hands on fire, attempting to juggle, while Zedaph whooped and Impulse stood back, slightly nervous but still entertained. No one thought anything of it when he 'dropped' some of it, and the floor was set on fire. Zedaph stamped it out anyway as Tango continued his show. 

'So... I have automatic fire resist, I can create it without flint and steel... can I do anything else with it?' Tango wondered aloud. 'Can I survive in lava?'

'We're not testing that out.' Impulse intervened quickly. 

'Unless I push him in...'

'NO!' Impulse burst out. Tango and Zedaph looked over at him

'What's up with you?'

'This world's on hardcore, and I don't want any of you to die!' 

'Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen.' Tango's hands lit on fire again, and Impulse stepped back.

'Stop doing that! I'm getting nervous!'

'The base isn't going to burn down, Impulse.' Zedaph added. 'Fire tick should be off.'

'Should be?!'

'Unless someone turned it off...'

'Did you notice that EX is now admin?' 

'What? No!' Tango burst out, letting loose a flare of fire. It spread back to the ground. The trio all checked chat. Tango let out a frustrated sigh. 'Why? Why did he do that?!' 

'Xisuma? Because EX deserves a second chance?' Impulse replied sheepishly.

'Uhh... guys? The... fire is... spreading?'

'What?!' Impulse backed away, trying to stamp out the quickly spreading flames. 'No, no, no, no, no, no... this isn't good!'

'WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!' Tango yelped, stumbling backwards, trying to shake the flames off his hands. The fire was quickly engulfing the floor. Impulse was next to the exit, and glanced outside at safety. He managed to get a couple of messages quickly into chat, not caring about them being full of typos or not. 

'Tango, we need to get out. There's no saving this place!'

'I'm not leaving my base to burn down in a mess of fiery sadness!' Zedaph was still trying to put out the fire. Impulse flew out, turning and looking back, trying to stay aloft.

'Tango, get out. Now. I'm not letting you burn to death.' 

'I can't burn to death! I'm literally resistant to fire! I can stop this,'

'Guys? A little... help?' Zedaph pleaded, surrounded by fire, watching the floor as it slowly fell away to nothing until-

Everything happened slow motion. The floor gave way, revealing the dark chasm below. Tango fell back, barely avoiding death. Impulse was still safe outside, watching in horror. 

Watching as Zedaph fell with it.

'ZEDAPH NO!' Tango howled his friend's name, leaping, trying to grab his hand before it was too late. Seeing what was going to happen, Impulse shot towards him, barrelling him backwards towards the safety of his storage area. He landed in safety, one hand still reached towards where his friend had fallen. The death message appeared in chat. Silence. The base continued burning around them. 

Impulse looked slowly over. Tango was unmoving, breathing ragged, a sob growing in his chest. Then another. 

'No... Zedaph...' He whispered hoarsely. Impulse stared at the fire. They needed to get out. 'ZEDAPH!' Tango screamed again. Impulse's head whipped towards his friend. 'NO!' 

'Tango... he's... he's already dead. We can't... we can't save... he can't be dead. He just can't be.'  

Smoke was filling the room, the fire spreading closer to them. In any moment they could be dying too. They needed to get out.

'We need to get out of here.' Impulse decided, getting up, taking Tango's hand to help him up. His friend didn't respond. He looked over.

'Tango, we need to get out of here a before we end up dead.' It was harsh, but true. 'Tango, come on!' 

'He's... he's gone...' 

'Tango!' Impulse dragged his friend to his feet. He finally returned to focus, fumbling for rockets, and joining his friend as they flew out. Xisuma had arrived and was pacing, and Impulse landed them next to him. Their (ex)-admin ran over.

'What happened?!' 

But instead of a normal explanation, all the emotion of it built up, and Impulse shoved Xisuma away.

'We didn't know you'd turned on fire-tick!' He snapped. 'It's not our fault you decided to mess around with stuff you didn't understand!' 

'Impulse, what happened?!' Grian had arrived, joined by Cub and Scar. 'Oh my goodness... how did that happen?!'

'SOMEONE caused fire tick to be on.'

'I didn't do anything!' Xisuma protested back. 'This isn't my fault. Maybe ya shouldn't have been messing around with fire in a very flammable base!'

'Did everyone get out alright? Was it just you two in there.'

'MAYBE YOU SHOULD CHECK CHAT AND SEE THAT ZEDAPH'S DEAD, CUB.' 

'What?! No!' Grian looked over at chat, 'Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry...'

Impulse looked back to Tango, who was looking dumbstruck with horror, staring dead silent as his base slowly burnt. No one knew what to say. Grian stared at the ground. EX and Jevin stood behind everyone else, unsure what to do. Wels had just arrived, saw the dark mood, and landed in silence. Jevin filled him in on the details. Cub was quietly arguing with Scar about putting out the fire. Slowly, as though standing was too much, Tango sat down, tears streaming down his soot-stained face. Impulse joined him, a hand on his shoulder that was promptly removed. There were several moments were someone was going to say something, but thought better of it. Someone put what had happened in chat. Soon it was filled with (rather wholesome) messages of condolence to Tango and Impulse. The fire slowly spread through toon towers and the Convex eventually excused themselves to put it out. Grian joined them, muttering something about wishing one of the hermits had water powers. 

Eventually, Tango stood up and walked off. Impulse ran after, but stopped when his friend told him to, and just watched as he flew away to cry. 

The previous version of this chapter wasn't angsty enough.

I hope I fixed that. 

:)