Minecraft: Stonesword Saga/CrackCode2CHP
Chapter 7: "Metamorphosis" Is a Big Word That Means "Change." Let’s Just Hope It’s for the Better….
After school, Jodi makes her way to the buttterfly sanctuary, being greeted by none other than Baron Sweetcheeks, Ms. Minerva’s class pet hamster. Harper mentions that she brought Baron here for some exercise. Morgan wonders as to what happened to the air conditioning, and Harper says that there is none due to the caterpillars escaping the terrarium that was set up in here. The three then start taking measurements on the plants. Morgan begins to question as to why the caterpillars are turning into butterflies, and Harper mentions that they are going through metamorphosis (a scientific word for "change"). Morgan feels like that everyone is going through metamorphosis, and Jodi mentions to him that change is a constant thing that happens all the time. Just then, Harper’s phone rings, and she starts a video call with Ash. Jodi asks as to how everything is going, and Ash says that its going good despite herself missing her friends from Woodsword. She also mentions that her class pet is a snake, which creeps her out.
Ash then asks if they’ll be able to play Minecraft, and Harper mentions that they are busy working with Doc on a project along with Po being at drama club. Morgan then says that playing Minecraft isn’t the same without her, and starts going off about Theo. Morgan says that Theo is annoying, that Theo acts like he is in charge, and also takes a jab at Theo’s skills as a hacker. Unfortunately, Theo hears about the whole thing as he stands in the doorway, holding a box of pineapple pizza, and then runs off. Jodi feels worried about a fractured friendship between Morgan and Theo, mentioning to Morgan about what she told him about being nice. Ash asks about what is going on, and the three decide to tell her about it, hoping to solve the problem.
Chapter 8: Let’s Be Honest: Pineapple on Pizza Is Just Weird, Even If It Provides a Balance Between Sweet and Savory.
Theo arrives at the Stonesword Library across the street with the box of pineapple pizza in hand. He had a whole mix of emotions after Morgan’s spiel, ranging from anger to worry to guilt. Mr. Mallory then notices the box of pizza and mentions to Theo that food isn’t allowed. Mr. Mallory decides to put it in the break room for the high school students, however, and then asks Theo as to where the other students are. Theo says that they do join him sometimes, but on some days, they treat him like he isn’t part of their group. Mr. Mallory gives him a pep talk, saying that fitting in could sometimes be the wrong thing to do and that his friends should just like him for who he is. Theo thanks Mr. Mallory for that and asks if the computers are free, to which Mr. Mallory says that they are and that he should forget about his problems for a while. Theo heads over to the computers, not to forget the problems that he had supposedly made, but to fix them instead.
Theo uses the VR goggles to enter the world of Minecraft alone. He raids one of the storage chests in The Shack, selecting diamond armor, a diamond sword, and some potions of healing. Theo then retraces his steps back to where he and his friends last left off in the forest and continued to follow the footprints. They would disappear occasionally, making him realize that the mob was teleporting. Theo uses a torch to follow the path of footprints as the sun sets. As the night gets dark, Theo comes face to face with the Endermonster, spotting its red eyes off in the distance, followed by screaming. Theo lifts his sword to defend himself, but the Endermonster teleports it away and starts to attack him. Although Theo has armor that could take several hits, the Endermonster soon teleports away his diamond chestplate as well. Theo ends up backing into a tree, now looking directly at the face of the Endermonster. He asks for any sign of compassion, and it was then that the Endermonster told Theo to not look at him.
Theo gasps as he realizes that the voice that spoke to him was that of the Evoker King, albeit much lower than usual. This also made Theo realize that the Evoker King wasn’t gone, but instead, its code was changed. Just then, a splash potion hits the Endermonster from behind, making it teleport away. Theo is surprised to see that it was Ash, who mentions that it was just water. The two then head back to The Shack, keeping their eyes open for any sign of the Endermonster to no avail. Ash then mentions about Morgan, saying that although he is kind, he is also picky about who he considers a friend. She also says that Morgan needs to be reminded that he isn’t the boss of everything going on in Minecraft, and that Theo needs to show Morgan that he cares about the others and trusts them, which could also include telling the truth. Just then, Theo notices a glimmer of light out of the corner of his eye, and he and Ash climb a hill to get a better look at it. It is only then when they notice that it was a tear in the sky. Ash reminds Theo to focus on talking with Morgan and the others tomorrow, but Theo himself isn’t looking forward to that at all.
Chapter 9: A Revelation! A Eureka Moment! A Change of Heart! All Like Butterflies Taking Flight!
The next day, at school in the real world, everyone is eating lunch as they go over their plan to to save the friendship of Ms. Minerva and Doc. Jodi says that she got a head start when she ended up removing the beetles from Ms. Minerva’s vehicle, while Harper says that she was able to get the coffee machine back up and running after getting permission to enter the faculty lounge, mentioning that it was just unplugged. Jodi then says that the next part of their plan is to make a photo album of all of the photos of Doc and Ms. Minerva with help from the yearbook club. It was after that was mentioned that Theo starts to speak, and confesses to tinkering with some of Doc’s mods on their version of Minecraft. He also says, however, that he didn’t mean to cause problems, instead trying to figure out what had happened to the Evoker King, mentioning that it had transformed into the Endermonster. Harper wonders if it’ll be able to be fixed, and Theo says that he’ll try to fix it.
Just then, Doc bursts into the cafetorium and informs the five that the cocoons are hatching. They all rush over to the butterfly sanctuary, where they find that some of the butterflies had emerged, but a majority of the cocoons were beginning to hatch. The butterflies are in a variety of colors, and it is then when Theo confesses to installing a mod that added butterflies to their version of Minecraft, also saying that the mod is uninstalled for now, meaning that the code is there but isn’t active. Jodi then lights up, and says that the Evoker King was trying to use the butterfly code to inform the others of what was going on with it, believing that the stone statue was used as some sort of a cocoon to protect it while it was changing its code. Theo realizes that maybe it wasn’t his fault that the Evoker King had changed, but acknowledges that messing with the code created the Endermonster. Just then, Doc, Ms. Minerva, and Baron Sweetcheeks enter the butterfly sanctuary, with Ms. Minerva herself marveled at the sight of the butterflies. Morgan then says to Theo that the situation in Minecraft wasn’t his fault, realizing that he was trying to help and that they could try to fix it. Harper, Morgan, Jodi, Po, and Theo then decide to use a trick that Morgan had learned to look at the Endermonster without angering it, as well as try to teleport it into a trap.
Chapter 10: Pumpkins! They’re What All the Monster Hunters Are Wearing This Season.
In Minecraft, the group (Harper, Morgan, Jodi, Po, and Theo) all are wearing pumpkins on their heads, with Morgan mentioning that endermen generally don’t attack people who have one on their head. They all then dig a pit with soul sand lining the bottom, with Jodi mentioning that Morgan had said that endermen can’t teleport on soul sand during the day. They decide to use Theo as bait and drink potions of swiftness, soon noticing the Endermonster in a nearby forest, shuffling blocks around. Theo then looks and shouts at the Endermonster, who starts coming after him. Theo dashes toward the pit as the others follow close behind. He falls into the pit as the Endermonster teleports into it, and then starts climbing up a ladder as Morgan breaks it from underneath, capturing the Endermonster. Just then, Ash shows up, and the group toss around ideas for what to do with the Endermonster. Ash looks down at it as it screams to not look at it, and she asks if anyone had tried talking to it. Theo says that he will, but only if everyone agrees, saying that he won’t make decisions that affect everyone unless he discusses it first. Morgan asks as to what Theo wants to do exactly, and Theo says that he wants to talk to the Endermonster alone.
Chapter 11: The Endermonster Is What? You’re Pulling My Stone Leg!
Theo heads down into the pit of soul sand to talk with the Endermonster, who says that it is not the Evoker King, but its emotion of fear, and also says that the Evoker King was six emotions, making Theo realize that the Evoker King had transformed into six different mobs. Theo says to the Endermonster that he knows how it feels to be afraid, and that although it’s safer to be invisible to others, it would feel lonely as well. The Endermonster takes a step forward as Theo says to it that he’s going to look at it because he wants it to be brave. The Endermonster then whispers something into Theo’s ear before it becomes engulfed in a light shaped like butterflies. As they fade away, one of the Evoker King’s legs stands in the Endermonster’s place. Theo says to the others that he’ll explain everything that happened.
Chapter 12: Aside from the Strands of Twisted Code and an Ominous Warning of Impending Doom, This Is a Totally Happy Ending!
The next day, in the real world, Theo is over at Stonesword Library during lunch period (with Doc’s permission). He decides to uninstall all of the mods that he had installed and let everyone else vote in which ones would be useful, but also notices that some of Doc’s code was missing, along with some files. Theo realizes that it could spell trouble for later, as the game had basically been changed, not just the Evoker King. As Theo leaves the library, he notices Ms. Minerva, Mr. Mallory, and Doc all having their lunch break beside the statue. Mr. Mallory asks Theo if he had solved the problem with his friends, and he says that he did, noting that he took his advice and advice from Ash and that he wants his friends to see and accept him. Doc then says that some friendships take more work to make as Theo says that he thought she and Ms. Minerva hated each other. Ms. Minerva then says that friends can disagree on numerous things, which is OK as long as they can respect one another and agree on big things, such as herself and Doc believing that education is important.
Doc adds that they both agree that the butterfly sanctuary is a great addition to Woodsword Middle School, and also mentions that she plans to update some of the systems there. Mr. Mallory then says to Theo that they can’t have the VR goggles around, saying that they need to get checked into Stonesword’s system. This makes Theo realize that maybe having the goggles in a public place wouldn’t be a good idea, but he brushes that aside for later. As he walks back to Woodsword, he notices that his friends are wearing the shirts that he made, as well as showing him a pizza with half of it being pineapple. Morgan apologizes to Theo for making him feel unwelcome, noting that he himself could act intense. Theo then says that he too could act intense, and apologizes for making decisions without checking with everyone first. Morgan says that they’ll work it out as they all eat pizza. Most of Theo's worries had floated away, except for two. One is the mod code that he saw, and the other is what the Endermonster whispered to him before disappearing, saying that he should beware the fault that intends to destroy the Overworld.