When Past and Present Collide

Chapter 2: Oddities

It was about a week later that the exploration party finally arrived home, and they immediately noticed something was off about their friends.

Doc seemed angrier than usual, Cleo had been rather clumsy lately, and Ren had become remarkably jumpy. But it wasn't just them.

Impulse was causing more mischief than usual. Bdubs was rather down. TFC had been really rough around the edges.

Everyone could feel the change.

But it appeared no one could see it in the mirror.

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Doc sat upon his throne before the button, glowering. It had been sniped from right under his nose three times in as many days.

First, False pushed it the moment it turned orange. Then, Keralis swung by on his way back from the shopping district, earning himself a yellow belt. Finally, just the day before, Cub had pressed it on blue. Blue! What infuriated Doc the most about that one wasn't even that he'd wasted a few extra hours of Doc's time. No - what had driven him insane was that Cub accepted such an embarrassingly low rank.

So here Doc was, still trapped at the life-consuming button.

Although, things had been pretty quiet today.

Things were never this quiet.

The button had finally reached yellow again. Just a few more hours and he'd finally have a red belt, securing his rightful place at the top.

But, with the lack of sleep catching up to him, coupled with the lack of adrenaline, Doc found himself growing drowsy.

He had nearly nodded off when he heard it.

Footsteps.

His hand was on his crossbow immediately, his eyes wide open.

Doc scanned the area.

No one in sight.

And then he caught a glimpse of dust being disturbed ever so slightly.

Dust doesn't move on its own.

Doc, without a second thought, shot at the invisible Hermit.

GoodTimesWithScar was shot by Docm77 using Doc Holiday's Colt

Doc glanced toward the items scattered by Scar's death and grunted to himself, but made no move to pick them up. If Scar wanted his items back, he could get them himself.

Doc grunted to himself once more and settled back into his seat, getting comfortable again.

It was time for some more waiting.

Yippee.

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Etho hummed to himself as he worked.

He'd invited Beef to come over to his ice farm so they could hang out while he harvested. They hadn't seen each other much this year yet, and he wanted to catch up with his old friend.

He paused in his work, however, once he noticed that Beef wasn't responding to his last question. He turned to face him, and caught a glazed-over look in his eye.

"Beef! You okay?" he called out.

Beef snapped out of his trance. "Uh, yeah, sorry." A confused expression overtook his face. "I dunno what happened. I was talking to you, and then it sort of...went blank." A distant look appeared in his eye. "I think I'm...I think I'm gonna head home. Sorry to cut this short, but I'm not sure I'm feeling too great."

Etho frowned, but nodded in understanding.

"Okay, man, well, I gotta finish collecting ice, so I'll see you later, I guess."

Beef hesitantly nodded. "Y-yeah - yeah. See ya."

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False's blade clashed harshly against Iskall's. The two were long overdue for a duel, as quite possibly the greatest combatants amongst the Hermits. They were each supplied with nothing but an iron chestplate, leather cap, leggings, and boots, and an iron sword.

The two had been going at it for a few minutes now, with neither side showing any sign of relenting, until, finally, Iskall left an opening that False took. Before he could react, her sword found its mark, striking Iskall's dominant arm.

But, to her surprise, the wound was barely noticeable.

"Hey!" She stabbed the ground and crossed her arms. "I thought we said no potions or golden apples!"

But Iskall was just as taken aback as she was. "I didn't - I didn't use any..." He stared at his arm in wonder. "What on earth...?"

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Days passed, and Xisuma still couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. Reports had been coming in one after another about strange occurrences ever since he and the others had gotten back from exploring.

At first, it was small things. Jevin had a bit of a hard time holding his shape. Tango's face was looking a bit grey. Hypno's vision was a bit iffy. But nothing was any real issue.

At first.

It wasn't long, though, until things started getting very serious very quickly.

Cub woke up one morning a few days ago and his left arm was covered in bandaging. When he tried to unwrap it, he found his arm decaying. Joe had lapses in memory spanning several minutes - sometimes hours. Mumbo found himself unable to stay in the sun without hissing in pain.

Xisuma didn't know how much longer he could handle this.

And what could he even do? He checked everyone's code for any glitches or alterations numerous times, but nothing came up. It was as if they'd always been like this, as far as X could tell.

Xisuma thought to himself. He went through everything in his head. But nothing made sense.

But then, as he pondered, he realized something: he hadn't heard from, or even about, Grian. In fact, he last time he heard from him was...

...That temple.

Xisuma could have slapped himself. It was so obvious! Of course he couldn't find any coding issues - magic didn't affect code!

Grian was right - that place was dangerous.

X just didn't understand until it was too late.

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A/N: Alright! What's up, guys! Lix here! Hope you guys are having an awesome day, and I hope you enjoyed the latest installment.

Let's play a game: Every chapter from here on out, try to guess what each of the Hermits are becoming. I'd love to see y'all's predictions!

Aaannnywaaaaaay, please comment down below, and maybe leave a vote? That'd be greatly appreciated.

See you guys soon!