Minecraft: Ironsword Academy/EyesEndermen1CHP
Prologue
Eek notices a flash of light despite his vision being blurry as he can’t remember where he was or what he was doing. A soft figure covered in fuzzy tendrils wiggled in front of him, followed by a "strange wet orb with a blue circle in the middle" sliding into view. Every so often, a pale curtain with thin hairs would slide over the orb and back. Eek doesn’t recognize any of this as a "fleshy appendage with five oddly bent digits" moves Eek’s head around and makes him focus on a rack of "squishy, colorful, noisy things". A voice then booms into Eek’s ears, asking what time it is, and exclaiming that it could use a snack. Just then, a beep is heard, followed by darkness, and then Eek wakes up with a sudden jolt, back in Minecraft at the giant village he built in the snowy plains biome with his snowy wolf. He then attempts to memorize everything he saw in "the place without cubes", coming to the conclusion that he would want to see it again.
Chapter 1: You Don’t Need a Special Occasion to Dress up as an Astronaut Dinosaur Wrangler!
Po gets off the morning bus at the sidewalk outside Ironsword Academy, waiting to talk to Will, the head of the student council at Ironsword. Normally, Will would be here way before Po, but on this particular day, Will hadn’t yet shown up. Po had wanted to talk to Will about why someone would log into the Minecraft server with the administrator password, as only him and Principal Ferris know the password. Po then notices a big van on the side of the walkway, owned by "a very short man with a big jacket". The van contained a rack of costumes, a white cloth backdrop, and a big camera on the tripod. Upon a closer look, Po recognizes the man immediately as Wes Lionsdale, the owner of the Lionsdale Costume Company that made costumes for TV shows, movies, and even musicals on Broadway, making him a celebrity of sorts in the town. Po rolls past and heads inside just as the first bell rings, and in homeroom, Ms. Minerva announces that Wes is opening a costume shop in town, and that he is also looking for a student to star in a TV commercial. Ms. Minerva adds that auditions for the commercial will begin after class. Po’s friends (Theo, Harper, Morgan, and Jodi) encourage for him to audition, and he happily agrees after some hesitation, hoping he can nab the part. Morgan adds that Po would likely need to do his audition first, as he speculates that there could be a long line as Po would need to head back to the computer lab as quickly as possible.
Chapter 2: In Minecraft, Holes Can Be Very Useful! On the Road, They Make Playing Minecraft Almost Impossible!
Meanwhile, Ash and her family have already loaded the moving van, making it their third time moving in less than three years. Despite this, Ash was determined to join her friends in Minecraft no matter what, so she borrowed her mom’s laptop, plugged in the device that Doctor Culpepper had given her to access the server, and then connected both to a mobile hotspot on her dad’s phone. All of it was piled up in Ash’s lap, and she was buckled in the front of the moving van between her parents. As the moving van goes through bumps on the highway, Ash logs into Minecraft and joins the server, having slept in a hollow statue of herself created by Eek, and asks if anyone else is on. Harper’s voice comes through right away, adding that they are running a bit behind because of the stuff that occurred earlier in the week with the AC, but she is hopeful that they can make it to the End today. After some connection issues, Ash says that the group would need sixteen ender pearls to have enough to craft eyes of ender to find the stronghold and have some left over for the end portal. Harper then disconnects as a bell rings to signal the end of lunch break, and Ash slips back into the back seats to take a quick break. Ash’s parents then quip about playing Minecraft in its Alpha versions before she was born, noting that the ender dragon didn’t exist yet. Ash then gets back into action, noticing a symmetrical pit dug in the dirt just outside the village, and then more pits were seen away from the mountain. Acting on curiosity, she decided to follow them, finding Eek around fifty pits later in a desert biome. He explains to Ash that he was attempting to look for a stronghold, and says to her that he had left the emeralds and the gold in the sculptures he made around the village the other day. Eek stops himself from mentioning the person that he had talked to in his dream, and mentions Nameless instead, his name for his snowy wolf. Ash feels like Eek is hiding something, but she decides to play along and starts heading back to the village, with Eek and Nameless already doing so.
Chapter 3: To Buy or Not to Buy? That Is the Commercial’s Question.
Meanwhile, as the final bell rings for the day at Ironsword Academy, Po rushes out of class, with Jodi and Theo clearing a path for him by banging textbooks together. Po then heads outside, and although he wasn’t the first in line, he was one of the first ten, and Wes picks out the first ten to grab a costume, adding that they should choose something that they can embody with, and that they should be ready with their costume, script, and lines in two minutes tops. As the first few go up and read their lines, Po picks out a vampire costume and practices his lines quietly, but when it’s his turn to talk into the camera, he freezes and stammers out his lines. Wes then waves his hand to call up the next person, and Po’s heart sinks in defeat, asking Wes if he could have another chance. Wes then says to Po that although he has a great look for the camera and speaks well when talking to him directly, he appears to be afraid of the camera. Wes then adds that he has many more people to see today, telling Po that he should go to the back of the line to have another chance. Not wanting to argue, Po leaves, but he then bumps into Will in the middle of the line, and asks him as to where he was that morning.
Chapter 4: Fun Fact #1: Endermen Drop Pearls Because They’re a Kind of Oyster! (This Fact Is Fun, but It Isn’t True at All.)
Meanwhile, Morgan checks the clock nervously as it hits 3:50PM, as Po hadn’t come back yet from his audition. Jodi logs into the computer and starts up Minecraft, joining Ash and Eek. Ash explains to the two that the cleric in town had twelve Ender pearls, and the piglins didn’t have any, adding that she bartered away most of the gold the group got in the bastion remnant before Eek told her to stop, saying that he could see what the piglins were carrying. Harper then suggests that the group look for a stronghold, while Theo suggests that they continue looking for more piglins. Ash quips about her connection being unstable, warning the others that she could be logged out if she loses connection. Morgan then suggests that they leave the Nether, adding that every minute spent there is risky, and that they could hunt a few endermen if they are careful enough in the Overworld. Jodi grimaces at that suggestion, adding that she had never fought an enderman on purpose before, and Morgan says that she would need help from Eek, but Eek sheepishly admits that he doesn’t know if he can fight. Morgan points out that Eek had used snowballs yesterday to fight the blazes, and Eek says it was only to defend his friends, adding that there is a feeling inside of him that says that he shouldn’t start a fight on purpose.
Theo gasps in surprise, wondering if the Evoker King put in safety measures to prevent Eek from conquering the game, as the Evoker King was originally set up to control a bunch of different systems at Woodsword. Harper asks if it means that Eek is not programmed to fight, and Theo concurs, believing that if he learned bad things from the group, then he’d be much worse than the Evoker King and be all alone. Morgan and Jodi concur with Theo, who explain further that Eek can’t get out of the game without their help. Harper adds that the Evoker King wanted them to decide whether his experiment was successful and if Eek should go out into the world unknown. The group then decide to find a way to get him out of the server, and Eek agrees on the notion that fighting endermen is for helping and protecting his friends. Morgan then has the group prepare to head to the desert biome to find some.
Chapter 5: Endermen Love Sweets, Which Is Why—Wait, What? Desert? Not Dessert? Oh…
Back outside, Will winces when Po asks him as to where he had been that morning, stating that he had to help Principal Ferris get Wes ready by running errands for him all morning. Po then begins to ask Will about yesterday before Principal Ferris interrupts them, saying to Will that he found a costume for him to try on, before asking Po as to what he is doing here and telling him to "move along" to let other students from Ironsword have a chance at the audition. Po attempts to talk back, but he shuts his mouth mid-sentence and decides to leave, not wanting to anger him as Will says to Po that they can talk later. When Po arrives at the lab, his friends ask him as to how the audition went. At first, Po fibs that it went great as he logs into the computer and launches Minecraft, joining the others in the server as they prepare to go after some endermen. Eventually, Po admits that the audition went bad, saying that he froze up when it was his turn to talk into the camera. The others comfort him as best they can, saying to Po that he didn’t let them down, before Ash says that something is wrong with Eek, who is now frozen in place.
Chapter 6: Waiting in Line to Read Lines, Huh? Acting Has a Lot More Geometry than Expected!
Po and the others wonder as to what happened to Eek, with Theo believing that it was a glitch. Morgan considers turning the server off and on again, but they ultimately decide to wait. Po decides to use this time to attempt the audition again, and Morgan tells him to be quick and come right back when he is done. Po then sees Will auditioning in the knight costume as he heads outside. Wes then says that something is missing, and Will attempts to apologize before Wes clarifies that it might’ve been something in the script. Principal Ferris then shoves his way onto the set, saying loudly to Wes that Will will continue to practice and rehearse until his audition is perfect, and brings Will to the back of the line. As Principal Ferris leaves, Po says to Will that he did a good job, and he thanks him despite feeling tired, saying that Principal Ferris expects him to get the role and nobody else. Will then says to Po that Principal Ferris is his father, much to Po’s shock and bewilderment, and Will adds that it is the reason why he is the president of the student council, as well as having the administrator password. Po then attempts to ask Will about logging into the Minecraft server, but Po is then called up by Wes, who says to him to say his lines without the camera rolling as it is rebooting. Po reads his lines perfectly before attempting to read them with the camera on, and again, he starts to freeze up. Wes then says that he wishes that he can help him, but he needs a camera actor for the part. Po apologizes, but Wes says there is nothing to be sorry for as Will is called up. Po tells Will to "break a leg", giving him a wave and a half-hearted smile as he leaves.
Chapter 7: The opposite of a Nightmare Is a Daystallion! (This, Sadly, Isn’t True, Either.)
Back in the computer lab, Harper watches over Jodi’s shoulder as she guards the avatars of Eek and Po. Just then, a screeching noise comes over their headsets, and when it stops, Eek starts moving and talking again. Harper wonders as to what happened to him, and Eek says that he feels like he was in another place, and saw some things that he hadn’t seen before, particularly items such as armor, stars, cloths, and a person. Harper asks Eek as to what the voices said, and Eek reads a statement about Wes Lionsdale in an entirely different voice, with Theo believing that the voice belonged to none other than Will. Harper believes that Eek can see into the real world, but Eek says that he doesn’t want to, adding that he doesn’t want to lie again. Theo says for Eek to tell the truth, believing that Will had already logged into the game, and Eek says that he made a promise not to say anything so that Will could tell them himself. Po then arrives and quips that Principal Ferris is Will’s dad, much to everyone’s shock. Just then, an endermen appears, and the group prepare to fight it.