I do not own Minecraft Story Mode or any of the characters.

Trouble

Jesse stepped through the portal and looked around. He was finally healed, though he wasn't excessively well rested. He sighed as he turned to the others.

"Alright, so, what's next on our more-than-likely horrible adventure?" Jesse asked.

"Let's go somewhere with a ton of dungeons to explore, but not as many mobs," Axel suggested. "Just a nice easy dungeon diving trip."

"You heard him atlas," Jesse said, holding it up. "Tons of caves and dungeons, few mobs."

The light shot out of the atlas and they all ran after it, skidding to a stop as the light entered a portal that looked like a castle. All of them grinned.

"Oh now this aught to be good," Petra grinned.

They sprinted through, then fell. They weren't high, maybe four blocks, but as soon as they were all through and on the ground, the portal vanished.

"Oh great," Jesse groaned. "Stuck again. Where are we?"

They looked around, seeing trees all around them and a cliff where the portal had opened. Jesse glanced at Petra who shrugged, turning and beginning to walk away from the cliff. Jesse and the others followed, Jesse catching up quickly. Soon, they stepped out of the forest and stopped, watching as a group of a few dozen soldiers wearing armor with iron plating and red leather straps hanging from it rode across a field on horses, each armed with an iron sword and a weapon that looked like an iron sword's blade on the tip of a stick. Suddenly, the horses began to turn, racing toward them. Jesse and his friends all drew their weapons, backing into the trees as the horses formed up before them, leveling their spear-like weapons.

"Identify yourselves!" one shouted, this one wearing a helmet, unlike the rest.

"My name's Jesse. These are my friends, Petra, Olivia, Axel, Em, Ivor, and Lukas. We come in peace."

"You come in peace, yet you wield enchanted diamond weapons?" the leader asked. "Men, stand down. We're not at war with humans."

"War?" Jesse blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Where are you from Jesse?" the leader asked.

"Another world," Jesse said. "We came here through a portal."

"Well, I'm Commander Scott, and you've got a lot to learn about our world," the leader said. "Bring the horses!"

Several horses were brought over, Em and Axel each getting their own, and Lukas and Olivia shared one. The other three, Jesse, Petra, and Ivor all climbed onto. Then, the soldiers turned, riding off, Jesse and the others following. After about twenty minutes, they arrived at a massive stone wall with an equally massive gilded iron gate. From there, they were led through the streets until they reached a castle. The entire trip, people lined the streets to see the outsiders with the strange armor. but inside the castle, it was a different story. Soldiers lined the halls inside, weapons leveled at the strangers, all of them ready to kill them in an instant. Finally, just as Jesse thought he might lose his cool, they were led into a throne room, a massive, almost completely empty chamber with the only decoration besides the pillars being the golden chair opposite the door. They walked over to it and were pushed to their knees.

"My King, these people were spotted in the forest, they claim to come from a portal," Commander Scott said.

"I see," the king, and older man with a long, greying beard and equally long hair, mused, his decorative golden armor clinking as he shifted. "You there, stand." He pointed at Jesse.

Jesse stood and the King examined him in silence.

"Tell me your name, and why you have come here," the King said.

"My name is Jesse. My friends and I came through the portal to this world in search of treasure. What we found instead, was a forest and your men, who said something about a war before bringing us here under the pretense of explaining about the war. If there's trouble, we want to help."

"That's very altruistic of you," the King said. "Especially since I've offered no reward or pay, nor do I intend to. If you're capable fighters, and you wish to aid us against the Skeleton King and his forces, then by all means, help. You won't be payed for it, you won't be considered a part of the army, no one in the army will have any responsibility to listen to you or even acknowledge your existence, and if you hinder us in any way, I'll have you executed. But by all means, help out."

"I...um...okay?" Jesse said, not really sure what to do.

"You may all leave now," the King said, waving his hand. "Commander, test them and put them to work."

Commander Scott bowed before turning, motioning for them to follow and striding out of the room, Jesse and his friends following. After a few minutes, they reached a courtyard somewhere in the castle and Commander Scott walked to a weapon rack, pulling a pair of blunted iron swords from it, tossing one to Jesse, who caught it and spun it a couple of times, testing the balance. Once he had a feel for it, he readied himself.

Scott sprinted forward, slashing at Jesse rapidly, Jesse backing away as he deflected the blows. Then, after the eleventh, he spun, getting behind Scott and slamming the iron sword into Scott's armor, making him stagger forward. Scott spun to continue fighting, but froze as he found Jesse's sword to his throat.

"You're not exceptionally skilled," Jesse said. "If this Skeleton King you mentioned is as good as you, me and my friends will mop the floor with him and anything, probably skeletons, that he throws at us."

"You have skill," Scott said. "For a civilian. Since you're so anxious to face the Skeleton King, I'll give you a chance. We need a small team to recon the forest to the south, where there have been rumors of the Skelton King's forces building for an assault on this city."

"Sure," Jesse said. "Petra, Olivia, and Lukas, you're with me. The rest of you stay here. Try not to cause any trouble."

"They'll be guarding the walls," Scott said.

Jesse nodded and left the city with Petra and the others. They headed south outside of the gate, reaching the forest quickly. They walked into it in silence, all looking around for any sign of the Skeleton King or his troops. The forest was beautiful, flowers covered everything, including the tree trunks using vines wrapped around them, and birds chirped merrily in the branches above them.

"This place is so beautiful," Petra said. "It's hard to imagine a mob army living here."

"Agreed," Jesse nodded. "Olivia, Lukas, you guys see anything?"

"Nothing," Olivia said.

"Same," Lukas said.

Jesse nodded then slowed to a stop. they had reached a steep embankment of loose gravel, and the bottom was obscured by a thick fog.

"We might not be able to come back up this way," Petra said. "But I'm getting a bad feeling about that fog, so we definitely need to go that way."

"I think she's right," Lukas nodded.

Jesse sighed, drawing his sword and starting down the embankment, sliding down it quickly but fairly quietly. The others followed suit, and after a few minutes, they reached the bottom, stopping and looking around. The forest was entirely different here. Before, it had been warm and bright. Not, the fog blocked the sun, leaving a chill in the air, and it was darker, more like twilight than midday. They also couldn't see more than a few meters.

"Come on," Jesse said in a hushed voice.

The others followed him silently as they made their way through the forest. The trees were smaller here, and looked to be on the verge of dying due to lack of sunlight, however, as they got further, they found trees that were blackened with rot, a few having fallen over already. They went around them carefully, Jesse glancing down and seeing that they were walking on dead grass now, though that, too, soon disappeared.

"I don't like this," Olivia whispered, all four feeling like it would be a mistake to talk loudly.

"Me neither," Jesse said.

Suddenly, they reached a decrepit, collapsing stone structure and silently made their way inside. As they moved through the ruin, they carefully checked any corners they came to, making sure to remain completely silent. Finally, they reached a window overlooking what appeared to be a large courtyard. They stopped, all peeking out it. There, in the courtyard, was a skeleton dressed in armor made of bones, with a bone crown that had a single, teardrop-shaped purple gem in the front, and holding a bone sword. Around him, all bowing on one knee and filling half the courtyard, were dozens of skeletons, all with an iron sword stabbed into the ground beside them. And in the center of the courtyard was a Nether portal. As they watched, wither skeletons began to pour out of the portal, all filling the other half of the courtyard and kneeling as the normal skeletons were. Then, a skeleton dressed in the same kind of armor as the Skeleton King, but black bones and a red jewel stepped out. Jesse looked to Petra, who nodded back toward the exit. Jesse nodded and they all turned, hurrying back the way they had come. However, before they made it far, skeletons began to march out of a side passage, filling the hallway in front of them, all holding their swords at the ready.

"Shit," Jesse growled. "Let's find another way."

The others nodded and they turned, running back toward the window. They turned left at the window, running through the passageways of the castle rapidly. However, this time, skeletons began to appear from side passages in groups of two or three. They weren't exceptionally dangerous, however, and Jesse and Petra were able to kill them all within a few seconds of meeting each group. Finally, they found an exit, a long, very, very long, bridge over a seemingly bottomless trench. They sprinted out onto the bridge, a dozen or so skeletons sprinting at them from the far side. Jesse pulled ahead of the others, speeding forward to meet the skeletons. As he reached the first, it slashed at him, only for him to sidestep the slash, catching the skeleton's hand and spinning, hurling it off the bridge. He deflected the next skeleton's slash and split it up the front with the back edge of his sword, killing it. Then, he leapt forward, kicking the next one backward, making it drop its sword and crash into the next skeleton. Jesse grabbed the fallen sword instantly, leaping to the fallen skeletons and stabbing both. Instantly, Petra stepped off of his shoulder, falling at the next pair and slashing both, sending one sailing over the edge before decapitating the fallen one with her sword in reverse grip then blocking the next one's sword with her own, shoving the sword aside and flipping her sword around, slashing it. As soon as she did, an archer ahead of her raised a bow, only for Lukas to plant an arrow into the skeleton's skull, along with another archer behind it. Both burst into smoke and Olivia flipped into the air, hurling a wooden, lined block at the remaining group. It hit hard, bouncing once before expanding into a TNT tower with a wooden frame to hold them. Then, it exploded, blasting a portion of the bridge and hurling the skeletons, killing them all.

"Easy on the bridge Olivia!" Jesse shouted as they all leapt over the broken section.

Lukas, Olivia, and Jesse all landed fine, but as Petra landed, the blocks below her gave way. Jesse spun, throwing himself back to the edge and driving his sword into the bridge, catching her hand. He grunted as his shoulder was nearly yanked out of socket, then looked up, seeing dozens of skeletons and wither skeletons running toward them from the other end of the bridge. Lukas fired several arrows, killing a group of archers as they tried to shoot Jesse, then Olivia slammed both fists into the bridge, a wall of arrow launchers rising on the far side.

"Hurry!" Olivia shouted.

Jesse grit his teeth, pulling for all he was worth, slowly bringing Petra back up onto the bridge. Once she was all the way on, she hugged him, then pulled him to his feet. Jesse retrieved his sword and they all turned, running again as the arrow launchers burst into smoke, skeleton archers beginning to fire after them. After a few minutes, they reached the safety of the far side and turned north, running along a thin trail until it disappeared, then forcing their way through bushes and brambles, cutting it away as quickly as they could. Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, they reached the embankment they had slid own before, climbing it rapidly. Jesse slipped once, starting to go down hard, only to begin climbing faster, scrambling back up the embankment and reaching the top just after the rest of them.

"Everyone okay?" Jesse asked.

"We're fine," Petra said. "We need to get back to the King."

Jesse nodded, all of them turning and sprinting back to the city, gasping and panting for breath by the time they reached it but hurrying to the castle all the same. Scott met them at the door, demanding to know what happened, but Jesse shoved him aside, all four shouldering their way to the throne room, dropping to a knee before the King as soon as they arrived.

"What is the meaning of this?" the king demanded.

"Your majesty, the skeleton king has summoned his Nether counterpart," Jesse said.

"The Wither Lord?" the king scoffed. "Preposterous. He couldn't possibly possess enough obsidian to form a portal."

"My lord, we saw him," Jesse said. "We were chased out of the ruin they were in by wither skeletons."

"And what ruin is that?" the king asked.

"South of here," Jesse said. "In the forest."

The king stared at him, then at Scott. "Commander, is there any chance that they have everything they need?"

Scott was silent for several moments. "It's possible. If this is true, we may be in even more danger than we thought."

"These civilians have proven to be more useful than you in a single day, Commander," the king said. "Be wary that you do not anger me."

"Of course, your majesty," Commander Scott bowed. "Let's go you four."

They followed him out of the throne room to an armory where he sat, watching them as they all leaned against the wall.

"What was that ruin?" Jesse asked.

"It was the site of the Skeleton King's defeat the last time he battled His Majesty," Scott said. "His Majesty is the greatest warrior of all time. The last time the Skeleton King attacked, the king was a mere soldier, serving the former king. However, that king died fighting the Skeleton King at the ruin you found, an old abandoned fort. His Majesty witnessed the former king's fall and was struck with anger and sought vengeance. He failed to kill the Skeleton King, but he did drive him away."

"And the Wither Lord?" Petra asked.

"The Skeleton King's greatest ally," Scott said. "The Skeleton King possesses the ability to move at supernatural speeds. The Wither Lord possesses the ability to corrupt his foes, dead or alive, to fight for him."

"So he can turn his enemy's forces against them, literally," Jesse said.

"Indeed," Scott nodded. "In the past, His Majesty was forced to slay his own brother because the Wither Lord was controlling him."

"Then we should probably gather whatever forces we can and go kill them," Jesse said.

"No," Scott said. "This city has never been taken. It will withstand any assault by the Skeleton King, Wither Lord or no. And you all will be helping us to guard the city."

"And if we refuse?" Jesse asked.

"I thought you wanted to help," Scott said.

"Well, our options were either help or be executed, so..." Jesse shrugged.

"Well, that's not exactly accurate," Scott said. "We'll execute the males and the freakishly large and ugly female. Your more attractive friends, however," he gestured to Petra and Olivia, "will be...keeping the men company. The men could use a good way to relieve stress. Eventually, of course, yes, we would execute them as well. Or maybe we'd give them to the Skeleton King."

"You won't be touching either of them," Jesse snarled. "I'm inclined to let this city burn. However, we're supposed to be heroes, so we'll help defend it. But after that, we're all walking away free."

"Deal," Scott said. "Unless the king decides otherwise."

"If the king decides otherwise, we'll kill him," Jesse said, Scott staring at him in silence for several moments before standing and walking out of the room.

"We need to get out of this world as soon as we can," Olivia said. "I don't want to keep the men company."

"You won't," Jesse said. "I'll kill them all myself before I'd let that happen to either of you. Come on. Let's go find the others."

The other three nodded and they left the castle, heading to the wall to look for the rest of their group.

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