The Sky is Not the Limit

Chapter 9

“Alright, calm down. We can talk about this.” Sky said, hands up in defeat.

“This is new. What happened to your usual bravado?” Derpollolus laughed. “Clearly you must now recognize that the Squid Army is superior to your puny team of recruits.”

“Don’t give up Sky; if we can't find a way, we'll make one!” Nicki encouraged.

A squeak and an oink caught their attention. Turning, they saw a bat and a pig come up the stairs. Derpollolus, true to his word, signaled the squids to drop the two friends.

“NO!” The group was helpless as they watched the two disappear from their view.

Seconds later, Jason rocketed back up, carrying Ty on his back. "You squids are so easy to fool. We were awake this whole time!"

"Where's my Oscar?" Ty laughed.

Jason fist-bumped the two animals. "What's up Dillon, Jeffrey? Thanks for the diversion."

"THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH!" Derpollolus was enraged now. Their delay was severely altering his plans. "IT IS TIME TO BEGIN OPERATION 'SQUIDS RULE'!" At his words, the ground began to shake, and the rocket engines began to fire up. "Do you hear that? That, is the sound of the ruin of your world! Bon voyage Team Crafted!" He took off in an instant.

"Oh no you don't!" Sky hopped onto Pepper, followed by Ty. "You guys stay here and try to shut down those rockets; we'll go after the squid." Ty flicked the reins and took off in a flash, Jason leading the way.

Likewise, Nicki took Ian's Charizard and flew down to support the army below, leaving Quentin, Mitch, Jerome, and Ian there on the roof.

The four ran down the stairs and began to search, scanning every room on every floor, searching for the room that controlled the rockets. It just didn't seem to be there. When they finally reached the first floor, they found a room marked in huge letters: 'CONTROL ROOM'.

"Are you serious..." Mitch facepalmed. "We could've just started on the first floor!"

"Whatever, let's go!" Jerome opened the door to find a huge space, filled with machines of all kinds.

"These dang squids must be smarter than we thought..." Ian muttered. A timer hung on the wall, labeled: ‘Totally Awesome Countdown to the End of  Minecraft’.

“Uh-oh.” Mitch gulped. “According to this, those rockets are set to launch in thirty minutes.”

“What?” Quentin panicked.

"Don't worry, one of these machines must turn off the rockets." Mitch determined. "But it will take forever to check each one."

"Does that mean we start hitting buttons randomly?" Jerome suggested.

"No, not quite. We'll need something a little more...destructive."

Quentin's eyes lit up. "You really mean...?"

"Yep. Go for it little dude."

“Do-dodo!” Quentin cheered, pulling out his TNT and scattering it everywhere. When they were at a safe distance from the room, the Mudkip took out his torch and lit the redstone trail. It snaked its way into the room, and seconds later, lit and exploded all of the TNT. When they went in the investigate, everything was completely demolished. But looking outside, the rockets were still smoking away and the countdown clock still ticked down.

"...but how...?" Quentin muttered.

Mitch shook his head. "We'll need to try something else."

......