The Red Moon Always Shines

Chapter 2: A startling discovery

As Grian went to bed in his new world, both Iskall and Mumbo awoke feeling that something was missing but they had no clue what. So they just went about their normal morning routines as always. At least until Xisuma sent out a server wide message that changed the days plans.

<Xisumavoid> Server wide meeting everyone, meet up at the Stock exchange

As they both got there (they had first meet up Sahara hoping to meet Grian there, but their boyfriend wasn't there so they thought he was already at the exchange) they saw that there was a group of strangers to the side that neither recognized.

At least not at first, but when they had landed Mumbo took a good look at the group recognized two of them, "Taurtis? Pearl? What are you two doing here? And who's with you?"

Taurtis turned to the mustached man, "Mumbo! It's good to a familiar face! These are the Evolutionists! But where are we?"

"Your in Hermitcraft" answered X, trying to gain some sort of basis of what was going on, "And how do you know Mumbo?"

"Oh! We meet through Grian! Speaking of which, is he here? I haven't seen him since I left Evo.

"He is!-" here Mumbo looked around the gathered people. Trying, and failing, to find the dirty blonde, "-But I haven't seen him all day. Has anyone seen him?"

The Hermits all looked to one another hoping that at least one of them has seen the newest Hermit recently, but judging by the head shakes no one had.

"Maybe he's at his base? He did say he had planned to work on it last night" said Iskall, hoping that the smaller was just sleeping.

"How about we go check? Let's take the Nether portal so we can all go" suggested Xisuma, motioning to the Nether portal near iTrade.

The two groups agreed that that was the best idea and as they walked small chatter broke out, it was mostly just talking about how the hope Grian was ok, how it was on EVO/Hermitcraft.

Taurtis and Mumbo, and by extent Iskall, were talking about how different the two serves were, "-and that building in front of the portal, was that also stripped wood?"

"It is, its birch to be more exact" answered Mumbo, "But I thought you left EVO? Shouldn't you have been seeing these kinds of things when you left?"

"Well, probably" started Taurtis, "But I wasn't properly sent off so technically I was stuck in the same update as them"

"Wow, that sucks" commented Iskall, even thinking about being in a past update by force made him shiver.

"Eh, you get used to it. Plus I was asleep for most of it anyway, and maybe staying here for a bit will help me!

As they all entered the Nether and walked to the main hub area the Evolutionists were amazed, they had never seen anything like this before. They quickly moved to Grian's portal, the Hermits entering first and the Evo crew going in after.

And at first glance, everything looked normal, but as the looked closer it became apparent that something was wrong. First of all, since when Iskall took a closer look he noticed something odd, "Hey, when did Grian organize his stuff?"

"What? Iskall are you pulling on our legs or something?" Questioned Doc, "Everyone knows Grian doesn't organize his stuff."

"No, I think he's actually right. Look! All these chests are perfectly organized and labeled!" Exclaimed Mumbo, a bit more relieved now. Maybe Grian had been distracted when organizing and didn't see the messages? Yeah, that must be it!

Impulse's face screwed up in confusion, "But why would he organize his chests now? He has shown no interest in doing it before so why now?"

Before anyone could reply a robotic voice interrupted them, "Intruders, identity yourselves!"

Turning to one of the pillars they saw a robotic Grian lookalike, the only difference being that this Grian was taller, had black hair and robotic gray skin.

"I'm Xisuma, and these are the Hermits and the Evolutionists. Might I ask who you are?" Answered X, coming to stand in front of the rest of the gathered people.

"I am Robot Grian" answered the robot, stepping fully out of the pillar.

"And how and why are you here?" Questioned Iskall, narrowing his eyes at the Grian look alike.

"I am here because NPC Grian was here, and I was told to watch him at all times if he was out of his closet. I got here by following the portal NPG, that is NPC Grian if you haven't caught on yet, and he was here." Robot Grian answered in a robotic tone.

"Oh! I remember Grian talking about you! And he did mention a NPC Grian once or twice." said Pearl, speaking up for the first time, "But he said NPG was a bit failed?"

The robot stood still for a moment, "Yes, NPG is a bit... broken you could say. You see my creator tried to make a robot that could feel and express all the emotions any normal person can. But he didn't code NPG right the first time and NPG started acting all sorts of weird, so Grian decided to lock him in a closet since NPG can't open doors. At least not yet."

"Then how did he get out?" Asked Mumbo, "If he can't open doors then how did he get out?"

"I don't know, all I know is that he's now here and broken. Unfortunately I can't access any of NPG's files, so I'll have to ask Grian to do that." answered Robot Grian, expression turning to a slightly annoyed one, he obviously didn't like the idea.

"Wait, you haven't seen him? Like, not even once?" Asked Taurtis, stepping up to stand next to Xisuma.

"No, I thought he was somewhere else so I decided to clean his storage while he was gone, I guess he isn't here after all."

A silence spread among the group, what now?

TFC looked over to X, a look in his eyes. And when the admin caught the elders eyes he shook his head and said, "No way."

"It's our only option" argued the graying man, now turning to fully face the admin.

Xisuma opened his mouth to argue, but closed it, "Fine, I'll go tell him we're coming. But for the record, I don't like this."

"You don't have to," huffed TFC, "Just as long as we find Grian everything will be fine."

Mumbo decided to cut into their mini-argument, "Uh, who are you calling?"

This is a bit shorter then I would like for it to be but I'll try to make 4 and up longer, promise! Anyway, the layout will be like this: A chapter of Grian and then a chapter of the group, rinse and repeat. I have nothing else to add, so I hope to see y'all in the next chapter!