Eye Spy with My Everything Eye Chapter Two| The Quest for Pizza

Chapter Two| The Quest for Pizza

Scar gasped for breath as he came to an abrupt halt, almost falling off the side of the hill. Grian, still confused about what was going on, just stood still.

“We need to go get him back! I think Martyn stole him.”

“Woah woah, calm down Scar. First of all, who’s Pizza? And also, who’s Martyn?”

“Are you being serious? Pizza is my boy! He’s the best llama there is! Also, what do you mean by ‘who’s Martyn?’ Martyn’s Martyn. That’s who Martyn is: InTheLittleWood. C’mon Grian, we gotta go save Pizza! And while we’re at it, maybe we can buy a couple things from people for reputation points.” Scar answered. However, the answers only added more questions to the pile rather than resolving any of them.

Grian decided to just go with the flow for now, joining Scar on his dangerous adventure across the world for… Pizza the llama. As they made their way, Grian only gained more questions than answers. He was awake, and he was definitely himself. That’s for sure. And Scar was here—who he knew, along with a couple others like Cleo and Ren. However, there were some unfamiliar faces as well. Also, the world was definitely not Hermitcraft. It was also quite small, the Worldborder barricading off most of the desert. According to Scar, Grian had named the place Sandland. Very creative. And also very Grian. So he probably did name it.

On their journey, they met a fellow player named SolidarityGaming. He had iron armor, red eyes, and a teasable demeanor. He didn’t know why, but Grian had a sudden urge to mess with the man he just met.

“Hey Jimmy, I’m off to go save Pizza, are you willing to donate to our noble cause?” Scar says, his pompous voice filled with whimsy.

“Look Scar, I am already on my third life and I have nothing but iron armor. I can’t give what I don’t have! Also, you took my diamond boots for reputation points on my second life,” Jimmy said as he pointed at Scar’s shiny blue shoes.

“Ah yes, a loyal patron I see. Well, since you have our great reputation points, would you like to join us then? We’re off to pay Martyn a visit.”

“Actually, I’d like that. I have a bone to pick with Martyn as well.”

The three then continued on, going up hills of oak and birch and not much else. Like said earlier, the world was quite small. The journey wasn’t quiet, as small talk continued on between the three of them.

“Timmy, how are you already on your third life?” Grian asked. He didn’t know what he was saying, but his mouth muscles found the words before he even registered it.

“Mate, you literally blew us up! Dogwarts is no more because of you.” Tim- Jimmy complained.

“Oh, let’s let the past be in the past,” Scar interjected in a singsong voice. “We have bigger fish to fry; fish to fry; fish to fry,” he echoed his own voice. As strange as that was, Scar was acting the most usual out of the three. His whimsy loving mind did what it did best, and unpredictable was the predictable when it came to his behavior.

Finally, after making it what felt like all the way across this small world, the three found Martyn hanging around alone in front of a pond. He was staring into the water. Almost meditatively. When the group got close enough, his attention snapped away from the water towards them.

“To what do I owe the pleasure to you three?” He said.

“I know that you stole Pizza, Martyn. Where is he? Take me to him,” Scar demanded.

“Oh, I didn’t take him, Scar. But I know who did.” Martyn pointed at Mr. Solidarity Gaming.

“What? No I didn’t! Scar, you have to believe me. I would never do something like that to you,” Jimmy protested.

“Relax, I didn’t say you were the one who took him. I’m saying that it’s one of his teammates,” Martyn added.

“Who?” Grian asked, still only about eighty percent certain that Pizza is actually a llama and not just the food.

Martyn opened his mouth to say something, but paused. He sealed back his mouth and observed Grian for a moment. Then, he grinned as if a realization came.

“Ah, I think our resident watcher probably knows better than me.” Martyn suddenly switched his attention to Grian’s black button eyes, approaching in a creepy manner.

“I think…” He continues, “one of us doesn't actually belong here. Right?” Martyn bent down, meeting Grian’s gaze from his chest level.

Does he know? Grian thought to himself. He met Martyn’s gaze, and his eyes were… cosmic. Suddenly, a similar rush of energy as last time began to surge in Grian’s body. This time however, it wasn’t as intense, and it only gave Grian a light jolt. As the nerves in his body flinched, memories flooded in. Memories… that were his. But also not.

A new world. Scar’s first death to a creeper. Three lives. Alliances. Pizza. All of these memories made sense, and it was definitely Grian who experienced all of those memories. But, at the same time, it felt more like the memories were movies rather than actual lived experiences. It felt like he wasn’t the actor in these scenes, rather an audience. However, the memories were enough. They were enough to help Scar find Pizza.

“Hey Scar,” Grian said, snapping back to the present situation. “I think I know where Pizza went.”

The Desert Duo left Jimmy and Martyn to handle their own drama, and the two made it to the remains of Dogwarts. In one of his memories, Grian had blown it up the last time he was there with an excessive amount of TNT minecarts. To be fair, he had failed the first time, and it seemed like it was because there wasn’t enough.

They rummaged around, and found that the northeastern pillar was still quite intact. They climbed up and found Pizza safe and sound, which, in all honesty, was a surprise based on how much damage the castle received.

“Oh Pizza, thank goodness that you’re safe!” Scar exclaimed, running over to his llama. The llama spat in return.

“We should head back now, Grian.” Scar said. Grian nodded.

The sun had now set almost completely, only silhouettes of the trees being visible in front of their path home. Luckily, the way back wasn’t as treacherous. Scar went off to do his own thing, and Grian went into their sandy house. Who am I.

Grian sat on the bed with his hands on his head, as he tried to wrap his mind around what had just happened. He wasn’t just dreaming. He was living in a completely different reality. But he was also not him. It felt like he was spectating someone else’s life inside of them. 

Am I in a different universe? Did I die? Am I dead? Is this some kind of reincarnation thing that I’m experiencing?

Overwhelmed, Grian decided to do what he does best: start over from the beginning.

Facts: This world isn’t hermitcraft. I seem to have three lives. I’m on my second. People on their last lives are hostile. Scar and I have an alliance going on. Scar is on his third life. We just saved Pizza. There are only seven people left. Martyn knows who I am. Wait…

Grian’s two brain cells connected as if to complete a circuit for a lightbulb. He grabbed a couple of materials from his chest and left the house. He looked down from the sandy hill to see Scar setting up traps around the area. Grian took extra caution to watch his steps as he made his way.

He made his way… to see Martyn.

—Later—

“To what do I owe the pleasure, spectator?” Martyn said. As Grian hoped, he was still at the pond.

“I’m here because I feel like you’ll have some answers.” Grian approached him closer, standing next to him by the water.

“All the answers you need… are already out there. You just need to find them.”

“Stop talking in riddles and please tell me! I know that you know something. Something that might explain all of this and what’s causing it.”

“Oh, nothing’s causing anything. You’re here at your own volition. In fact, you can go back whenever you can. It’s just that you need to figure out what that’ll take. Staring into something grand can help with that. For example, the sky,” Martyn said, pointing up at the stars twinkling in the night.

Grian looked up, seeing the sight of thousands of white specks in the air slowly drifting through the air. His gaze slowly drifted around, looking at each star and the story it has to share. It felt like he was looking at different parts of his memories, each contained within a faraway light. He went from one star to the other, his eyes filled with awe. That is until a particular star caught his attention. It was telling a story very familiar to him.

“Gem, do you know what’s happening to him?”

“I don’t know, Etho! We need to get some help. Where’s the fire department? Pearl? Impulse? Mumbo?”

“Dang it, they probably took their pearls away because we kept sending them across the continent with our wind charge pranks. I think we should put him to safety-”

The story got cut short, a tug from behind bringing him back. It was Martyn.

“Did you see anything?” he asked.

Grian stood silent, his head even more complicated than before. At least he wasn’t dead. Or it seemed so. If that star really was his life back in Hermitcraft, then there might’ve been a way back.

“Yeah… it was my other life. Do you know if there’s any way to travel between… whatever those things are called?”

“Well, I’m able to see across them, and I have moved across sometimes. But, I’m also still not sure how all of this works.”

Grian looked down at the still water, slightly disappointed.

“However,” Martyn continued. “There is a way that will certainly make you at least jump some of the time.”

“What is that?”

Martyn took a few steps away from the pond in a theatrical-like performance. Then, with a dark smile in his eyes, he responded,

“death!”

From behind him, a group of people came out in an ambush, all with red intent to murder. Jimmy, Scott, Cleo, and Ren were stood in an aggressive formation, about to pounce.

Grian tried to run away, but his legs were frozen in place. Ah, is this how I die? Am I really going to see the end of my life in a place like this- A hand pulled his shirt from behind, and Grian was barely able to avoid the initial strikes of the ambush. He fell down from the force and turned his head around to see Scar coming out of nowhere.

“I got your back, teammate!” Scar said with gusto in his voice.

Grian got back up, and the two took a step back. “It looks like we’re in quite the prickle,” Scar commented.

“Pickle. Scar. It’s ‘In a Pickle.’ That’s the saying,” Grian corrected. It was bath salts all over again. Even the opponents couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle in such a tense situation.

As the remaining players prepared for a standoff, Scar tugged Grian and whispered something in his ear. Grian nodded, and they moved away from each other to execute whatever agenda Scar had cooking in his mind.

Grian pulled out a block of TNT, throwing it towards the direction of Martyn and his goons. The group scattered, to get away before covering their ears from the loud explosion in the air. With enough time bought, Grian and Scar ran away, back to the yellow dunes of Sandland.

The group of reds—don’t mind the fact that they were all red you know what I mean, chased behind the two, gaining small amounts of ground as Scar took stumbles and trips here and there. However, there was still enough distance between them for the duo to retreat to safety. At least for now. 

They were in a bunker that Scar had finished up while Grian was out by the pond with Martyn. Though it was made of solid stone, it wouldn’t be long before their hideout would be breached. The two peered through the iron bars to see Martyn and his crew closing in, zigzagging through the clearly suspicious looking pressure plates laid above the sandy plain.

“Grian, I need you to push that button-”

Without even a moment of hesitation, Grian pressed the stone button in front of him. Through the iron bars, Grian saw what would scientifically be classified as a crapload of TNT start to spew from in front of their base. However, the TNT weren’t making it far. In fact, it almost looked like… they themselves were going to be in the zone of impact.

“GRIAN! You need to let me finish! I was going to say that you need to push that button when they get close, not now! Why did you press it immediately?”

“Because it’s a button! I have to press buttons, you know this. If there’s a button in front of me, I have to press it!”

The sound of the hissing TNT stopped and a giant cacophony of explosions followed. Though the roof was completely decimated, the walls of Scar’s bunker were still intact. Unfortunately, the explosion had taken out a grand total of zero people.

“Uh, Grian, do you have a backup plan?” Scar asked nervously.

“Mmm, no. What do we do now?”

“Well, the only option left now is combat I guess.”

The two made their way out of the bunker and raised their swords, preparing for war. In the messy terrain caused by the explosion, the two navigated through holes and craters as they began fending off strikes from the enemies. While they were more well-versed in navigating the terrain, they were too outnumbered.

Grian clashed his blade with Ren’s. The Red Winter King gave a devilish grin as he parried off the fast but messy blows from our protagonist. Scar was able to fend off a little better, but being outnumbered two to one was chipping away at him. While the enemy took turns being in the front line and preserving stamina, Grian and Scar began to grow weary. Is this how it’ll end? Grian thought.

He had to find a way out of this.

His body was growing more fatigued with each consecutive clash of their blades. There wasn’t much time before he would simply be overpowered and slain. There had to be something he could use to gain his advantage. His gaze started to slip away from the fight, darting around to see what he could do. Suddenly, he gained an idea. It was stupid. Cosmically stupid. But it was still worth a shot.

Grian matched the flow of movements from Ren’s attack, bringing himself lower. Taking the opportunity, he changed the grip on his sword to his right hand, and used his left to grab a handful of sand. He then threw them at Ren’s eyes, blinding him for a short while. As Ren opened back his eyes again, he peered strongly into them. Ren was wearing sunglasses, so it was extra hard to locate his pupils. But once he did, he peered deep. Deep into Ren’s eyes. Deep into his psyche. Deep into his conscience. Deep into…

His mind.

Grian felt that strange feeling he did when he met Martyn’s gaze last time. Like then, he felt a rush of energy flowing into his body again. However, this time, he wasn’t the only one affected. Ren’s eyes, though covered with shade, were still visibly blank. They looked as if his soul had left his body. And with that he… died? He vanished into thin air with a thunderous strike coming from the sky.

Not just Grian, but everyone else was surprised by what had just happened. They thought they had missed the finishing blow that Grian had dealt. However, there was one person other than Grian who seemed to have seen what had happened. Martyn. And the two locked eyes.

Suddenly, the serious look in Martyn’s demeanor shifted. Grian thought he would show an emotion akin to shock or anger. But rather, he looked… satisfied?

“It seems my duty has been fulfilled,” Martyn said.

In a turn of events, Martyn suddenly turned around to his other teammates, piercing his sword through their backs, literally and metaphorically backstabbing them. Now, it was just the three of them left.

Martyn walked towards Grian, his gaze not even looking away for a second. Standing head to head with Grian, Martyn let out a laugh, whispering into his ear, “see you next time. Watcher.”

Then, he grabbed Grian’s Sword and stabbed it through his own body. Another bolt of lightning struck, and it was just Grian and Scar left.

“So… what do we do now?” Scar asked.

Watcher? Grian’s mind was preoccupied at the moment.

Seeing that his friend was distracted, Scar tried to grab his attention.

“Hey, Grian?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I mean, I guess we should finish off what was started.” He didn’t know why, but it felt as if the world could not permit any red names existing any more.

“Right… but how do we do that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Ooh! How about we ask Pizza?” Without waiting for a response, Scar pranced over to his Llama. However… the Llama wasn’t anywhere to be found. Maybe it had escaped. Maybe it died in the explosion. Maybe Martyn and his gang had got to him before them. Or most likely, Scar misplaced where he hid him. However, there wasn’t enough time to go on a detour for a Llama again. Grian didn’t know why, but time was running short.

“Hey Scar, how about we fight it off at the top of the hill?” Grian proposed.

Scar nodded.

The two went up the hill and stared off into the small world one last time.

“You know, I’ll really miss this,” Scar said.

“Me too,” Grian said. It had been maybe a day or two at most since he’d been here, but he had quickly grown fond of this weird world.

The two quickly place a couple of cacti in a ring to create an arena before dumping all of their stuff into their chests.

“You know, I think Pizza probably died in the explosion. After all, I hid him quite close by,” Scar said.

“It’s okay, he’s up there with the rest of our friends, waiting for us to go to him again.”

“For Pizza?”

“For Pizza.”

The two prepared to exchange blows. From the wind, as if a ghost was talking, they could hear a countdown. 3… 2… 1… Scar quickly rushed towards Grian, but Grian was easily able to overpower Scar in the solo duel, dodging and countering Scar’s strikes. The two continued exchanging fists as they were taking turns getting knocked back into the cacti surrounding them. Finally, after a painful battle, Grian dealt the final blow, punching Scar straight into the spiky plants, making him meet a prickly end. Another strike of lightning crowned Grian as the last survivor of this world.

However, he was running out of time.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” he said, preparing to finish himself off. He went over to a steeper part of the hill, getting ready to jump off.

The final bolt lightning struck. And a couple of seconds later, the world got quickly enveloped in darkness until… nothing.

—Somewhere—

Grian opened his eyes, being overloaded with sensory. The world in front of him was much more built and sophisticated than where he just was. But he knew that he also wasn’t home. There were way more faces he didn’t recognize. Fruitberry? Philza? HBomb? He didn’t know who these people were, but they were all wearing vibrant colored suits. He looked at himself, and he was wearing an orange sweater rather than his usual red. On it was the purple ribbon. He looked around to see three more people wearing similar colored outfits. They had the words ORANGE OCELOTS written on the back of theirs. Luckily, there were also a couple of faces he recognized. Among them, just one was wearing the same colored outfit as him. FalseSymmetry.