Chapter 1

Steve

Crash! “The city’s under attack!”

“Find the mayor!”

“John? Where’s John?!”

“Help!”
“WAKE UP!”

Steve groaned. He opened his eyes to see his sister standing over him, her blocky mouth open to scream at him again.

“WAKE UP AND HELP!” Lilly yelled.

Then, like someone had flipped a switch, Steve’s brain turned on. He lunged out of bed, pushing his little sister out of the way before yanking his armor off its stand. Undulating waves of purple light pulsed through it, and Steve instantly felt its power make him stronger. The chainmail had a comforting weight to it and moved with his body. Next, Steve went to get his sword.

The shining weapon was lying in the bottom of Steve’s chest. The enchantments placed upon it made the iron sword even more powerful than it already was, and Steve had never had a chance to use it much before; fights against attacks were usually over by the time he got to the front of the large village. This time, though, things would be different.

“What’s it this time? Zombies?” Steve asked as he passed a baker named Olivia.

“Worse than that! Run!” was her reply.

Steve shrugged – Olivia was one of the few of the older generation remaining, and something had apparently happened a long time ago to make them all fear attacks. This included cows and chickens as well as the usual array of zombies and skeletons.

“Hey, is it skeletons?” he asked, slowing as he arrived at the gate to the village.

A man around his father’s age turned to him, his thick unibrow creased in worry and confusion. “No, not those bony guys – this is something, well… stranger.”

Steve pushed his way through the throng of villagers flooding through the gate, determined to see for himself what was causing all the chaos. Finally, he arrived outside. However, he was not greeted with the sight of swarming zombies, skeletons, or spiders – or creepers, or endermen, or anything from the Overworld, for that matter.

Dark clouds were blotting out the sun’s earliest rays, but no rain fell from them. Instead, lightning simply ripped through the sky, lighting the plains in all directions. There were no monsters, but everyone who could carry a sword was there, each dressed in his or her best armor. Steve noticed that the lightning was purple; that certainly couldn’t be normal.

“It’s returned…” he heard one of the oldest men in the village murmur to himself. All the other Old Ones slowly nodded.

“What’s returned?” Steve started to ask, but another bolt of purple lightning chose that moment to strike.

And, much to Steve’s misfortune, it chose to strike him.

The chunky body of the young boy was swallowed in a blinding flash of light, and multiple peopled screamed. “Steve… NO!” a girl with bright ginger hair shrieked, stumbling towards him blindly. The Old Ones, however, held her back and continued to nod calmly.

“He has been chosen,” one of them remarked in the same manner as one commenting on the weather.

“So he has,” another agreed, staring at the boy dissolving in the bright light.

Steve, meanwhile, was in a world of pain. Who knew being struck by lightning would hurt so much? Well, this is what I get for trying to participate in the fight, he thought, grinning despite his situation.

And then, the orb of purple light surrounding the boy disappeared from the surface of Minecraft, Steve with it.

“Wow,” was all one of the less hysterical adults could say as the clouds in the sky instantly dissolved into the ordinarily beautiful sunrise.

From Steve’s point of view, it felt less like he’d been struck by lightning, turned into a witch, and teleported to somewhere in a swamp, and more like he’d been seared in a furnace, ripped apart by the Ender Dragon, and smashed back together again on an anvil. Both theories were, however, incorrect; as soon as the blinding light and feeling of being ripped apart had started, it stopped, and Steve was abruptly dumped onto the ground.

Groaning, Steve rolled onto his side. His body ached all over (like he’d been ripped apart and smashed back together again – we covered this already, so you need to pay more attention) in a way he was unfamiliar with. Sure, he hurt for a second, but then he simply became weaker, not injured. Weaker meant he could eat an apple and a hunk of bread and be good. This was different, and he somehow knew he couldn’t simply top off his health bar by eating.

Steve opened his eyes and pushed himself up onto his elbows. He was instantly hit with brighter light than he’d ever dealt with before, and it took him a moment to adjust. Once he did, he realized he was no where he’d ever been before – this wasn’t the Overworld, the Nether, or even the End. In fact, he wasn’t even sure he was in Minecraft anymore…

Chapter 2

Hermione

“I’m sorry, Ms. Granger – but I’m afraid your schedule is simply impossible.” A tall woman in a prim, neat dress with a pointed witch’s hat sitting atop her head stared over a piece of paper at Hermione Granger through a pair of silver spectacles.

Hermione leaned forward breathlessly, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of her stomach. “But, Professor,” she said, pleading with her teacher. “I can work extra hard, and even skip Hogsmeade trips-”

“But you cannot be in two places at once,” Professor Minerva McGonagall said. “You may not select this many classes, and that’s final.” She handed Hermione her schedule of classes she’d chosen, which consisted of every available class.

Hermione shook her head desperately. She couldn’t miss out on any class! How else was she supposed to decide her path for when she grew up if she hadn’t evaluated all the options? “Please, there has to be a way – there has to!”

McGonagall began to shake her head, then stopped. “Well, there is one way…”

“What is it?” Hermione asked.

“It’s… well, I was planning on giving this to you anyway… it shouldn’t be used by students, though…”

“What is it?” Hermione repeated. “Please, just give it to me – anything that could help me take all my classes!”

Finally, McGonagall relented with a sigh. “The only thing that could possibly help in your case would be a time turner, Ms. Granger,” she said.

Hermione’s eyes widened. A time turner looked like a small hourglass inside a ring, and it sent you back in time by an hour each time you turned it. The Ministry of Magic needed to regulate such an object before use, since it was very illegal when not used properly. “A time turner?” she said, barely believing her ears.

“Yes, Ms. Granger – a time turner,” McGonagall confirmed, rubbing her temples. “And I believe I can get you one.”

That was how Hermione managed to get to all her classes on time. Of course, she never expected she’d have to use it for something else, but she did.

It all started with the thunderstorm. Hermione had just finished Potions and Study of Ancient Runes, and she was heading to the library to do homework. The essay wasn’t due for another week, of course, but she just had to do it early.

“There you are, Hermione!”

Hermione looked up. Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter had just popped through a doorway to her right, and they fell into step next to her. “Hey, Ron,” she said in answer to his call.

“Where were you?” Harry asked. “We thought you were next to us after Potions, but you weren’t. Where’d you go?”

Hermione pretended she hadn’t heard him. Part of owning a time turner meant she couldn’t tell anyone about it, so explaining that she’d been going back in time to attend Study of Ancient Runes would be difficult.

Luckily, Harry and Ron didn’t seem to notice. “Hey, do you reckon it’s gonna rain tonight?” Ron asked, nodding toward a window. Though it wasn’t that late, the sky was quickly darkening to almost-black.

“I suppose,” Hermione agreed with barely a glance. She really needed to be doing homework at the moment; in fact, she’d barely done anything but schoolwork over the past month, but that’s the price she had to pay for taking so many classes.

Harry stopped, staring outside. “Wait a second, I think the I have quidditch today,” he realized. He tore through the halls to the Gryffindor boys’ dormitory for his broom and robes.

It was a good thing Harry remembered, because the Gryffindor team would have been short on one seeker if he hadn’t. Quidditch was a favorite sport of everyone in the wizarding world, and it consisted of fourteen people – seven on each team – flying around on broomsticks while trying to score. There were four balls: the quaffle, which could only be used to score by the three chasers on each team; two bludgers, which chased people and could be knocked away by the two beaters; and the snitch, which could only be caught by the seeker, and the game ended when the snitch was caught.

Ron and Hermione headed to the stands to watch right as it began to rain. The drops were big, “But what’s life without a little water?” Ron argued.

Agreeing, Hermione sat back to enjoy the match. To be honest, all she could think about were the piles of homework waiting for her back in her room and in her bag. It weighed on her like a rock, but she forced herself to forget about it and have fun for Harry’s sake. She cheered every time Gryffindor scored a goal, booed whenever Slytherin scored, and tried to follow along as best she could – though she often had no idea what was going on.

Suddenly, lightning ripped through the sky. The dark clouds flashed purple, which was strange; lightning was supposed to be relatively white, right?

After the first streak of lightning, it seemed like the sky had been ripped open. Rain positively poured on everyone watching the quidditch match, and weird girl named Allison Pratt could only barely be heard shouting, “Go Ravenclaw!” over the booming thunder.

“Ugh, I bet Harry’s getting soaked,” Hermione said loudly into Ron’s ear.

“I bet Malfoy’s getting it worse,” Ron replied with a grin. Draco Malfoy was Slytherin’s seeker, and he and Harry hated each other with everything they had. In fact, Hermione wasn’t sure Malfoy hadn’t joined the team just to get another chance to be better than Harry…

Hermione’s attention was tugged back to the game when Lee Jordan – a boy who liked to provide commentary for the quidditch matches – yelled, “Ooh – and Pucey’s off his broom!”

Adrian Pucey, a Slytherin, had indeed fallen off his broom. The intense wind had knocked the large chaser clean off, and he dropped twenty feet to the ground. The crowd gasped, then cheered as a Gryffindor chaser named Angelina Johnson took control of the quaffle and scored.

Just then, a bolt of lightning shot through the sky and hit Hermione.

There were shrieks as everyone in the surrounding area struggled to get away from the orb of light quickly growing around her. It seemed to fry every nerve in Hermione’s body, but she didn’t scream. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and simply hoped for the best.

Chapter 3

Bruce

“Oh, yeah!” Three more people on the screen went down. “I’m on a role!” One of them snuck up from behind and smashed the player to pieces. “Augh! $#^&#(%!”

Bruce threw down his controller and began throwing things at the television, noting with satisfaction when he finished that it was severely dented.

“Master Bruce? Is that you?” an elderly voice with a crisp British accent called.

Bruce looked around. “Uh, yyyyyyyyyyyes,” he said hesitantly. “Oh, and we need another TV now.”

“That’s too bad,” was the reply from the doorway. Alfred was standing there, a duster in one hand. “I was just coming to dust it in hopes that you hadn’t destroyed it quite yet.”

“Looks like I’ll have to crush your hopes, then,” Bruce replied unsympathetically without looking up from where he was pulling apart the television. “Ah, here are the wires!”

“But, Master Bruce,” Alfred said, perplexed. “We’ve just bought this one, and I thought you said you wouldn’t break another!”

Bruce shrugged as he yanked out wire after wire. “So what – I changed my mind.”

Alfred sighed. “I see you won’t be moved in your opinion?”

“Yup. And by that, I mean nope.”

“Very well.” Alfred turned to leave, then added, “But at least spend half an hour outdoors to make up for all that screen time.”

Bruce started to say, “I make no promises,” then thought the better of it. “You know what, I’ll go out if it satisfies you,” he said out loud, but Alfred was already gone.

Before he could go outside, though, Bruce needed to change clothes. He did this regularly, going through approximately five pairs of clothes on a good day and seven on a bad day. So far today, he’d worn three pairs; however, he was on his way to six at the rate his day was going at the moment.

When Bruce had finished tearing up his closet, he was wearing his favorite black suit with a matching cape. He made a big show of sighing as he dragged his feet when he went outside, but Alfred didn’t seem to notice the sarcasm. Instead, the old man nearly broke his back trying to help his young master walk outside, seeming to believe Bruce had some strange condition that kept his legs from moving properly. Finally, Bruce was outside.

He was outside.

It had been years since Bruce’s face had seen the morning light, and he had to squint. Despite Alfred’s protests, he yanked his cowl down over his face and groaned. He was pointedly ignoring his butler, but it was a shame he did; if he hadn’t, he might have heard Alfred’s comment that perhaps he should go inside after all due to stormy weather.

As it was, Bruce wasn’t paying attention. And then, he did. After all, it’s very hard to ignore lightning striking you out of nowhere.

Bruce yelped, more with surprise than anything, then burped rudely when he heard Alfred say, “See? I told you being outside would be more interesting, Master Bruce.”

Things like this tended to happen a lot to Bruce. All it took was a moment for him to collect himself, and then he just sat back, folded his arms, put on an intimidating face, and waited to see where the light – obviously a teleportation portal of some kind – would take him.

The last thing he expected was to be dumped out in the middle of what appeared to be a girl’s bedroom. With someone in it.

Chapter 4

Pixal

Being the ninja’s computer can be hard work. More so when all Kai wants to know is where he can buy the best hair gel. That was Pixal’s life, but it wasn’t like she had any choice in the matter; Nya had accidentally transferred her to the main computer a few weeks ago, but something else, something strange, had happened…

When she was transferred to the computer, she was also transferred to a new body.

Pixal had enjoyed racing around New Ninjago City, saving citizens and keeping people from harm as the Samurai VXL, but she couldn’t let the ninja know… if they did, they’d probably send her back to the computer. She hated being there.

One day, however, everything changed. Pixal had just been alerted about an attack downtown, and she was racing to the spot in her mech. She stopped when she realized there was no one there. Instead, there was a note:

Meet at Skylor’s.

It was brief, but Pixal knew it was important. “Kidnappers,” she hissed to herself. If there was one thing Pixal hated, it was people who forced other people to do things against their will. That was after she herself had been hacked by the Overlord – who forced her to do evil things – and kidnapped by Chen – who scrapped her. She’d had a hate for people like them ever since.

Streaking off for Chen’s Noodle House – Chen’s daughter, Skylor, owned it now – Pixal readied herself to fight. No one knew who she was, so that had made multiple people in the past more brutal. Obviously, someone had been kidnapped, and the kidnapper wanted ransom.

This was far from the case, however; when Pixal arrived at the restaurant, no one was there. There was another note, though, and this one told her she was too slow and to try Wu’s monastery next.

Wu’s monastery? Pixal wondered what that meant. Back when Master Wu was still a sensei, the house he and the original four ninja were living in burned to the ground. Pixal hadn’t been around at that point, but a good search through Zane’s memories told her enough. Did that mean the kidnapper wanted her to go to the mountain the house had been on?

After putting the note through her systems multiple times, Pixal figured it was the most probable choice. She flew out of New Ninjago City, heading towards the mountain.

Soon, Pixal’s destination was in sight. She landed and looked around at the charred remains of the ninja’s first home. It was strange – everything was exactly as it had been in Zane’s memories, and to Pixal it felt like stepping into a familiar movie would to you.

A slow, rough laugh caused Pixal to turn around with inhuman speed (she was a robot, after all). Someone she’d hoped never to see again was standing there.

Pythor.

Pythor P. Chumsworth had caused Pixal more pain in the past than she wished to admit. It was he who had rescued the Overlord before he could be deleted, which had led to Zane’s death. It was Pythor who had haunted her only dreams, ruining the rare experience completely. And now, it was Pythor who had led her to this place.

There was no poor citizen of Ninjago waiting to be rescued. There was, however, a purple lightning storm.

That can’t be normal, Pixal thought as she stared up at the sky. She searched her database for every instance of purple lightning, and nothing came up. This was something new.

Just then, a tendril of lightning reached shot down from the sky and hit the titanium Android. Pixal had been expecting this, of course; metal attracts electricity. What she didn’t expect was for light to surround her, making her feel as if she were being scrapped all over again, before dumping her out on the ground in a place her sensors told her was a completely different area.

Chapter 5

Unexpected Visitors

In her writing office high up in Regina Manor, Draco Regina was working on a new story. She pulled out a scroll (the Writers in the Enlightened Realm were a bit behind the times and would only accept parchment) and listened hard with her mind for the person she’d been assigned to write.

“But why?” Tip Tynn, the boy she’d been connected to since becoming another one of the Writers was saying. “Why a book, and why rocks? It’s easy enough to just carve a rock to the right shape.”

“I don’t know,” a woman Draco knew was Ezlynn Mercine replied. “I don’t know.”

As Draco wrote down everything that she’d heard and seen through Tip’s eyes, she thought about her other works of writing. She’d recorded the lives of many people in other Realms, leading her to wonder about her own Writer. Was someone out there at that exact moment, recording her thoughts and actions onto paper (or parchment, if you wanted to be specific)?

A loud noise pulled Draco out of her muse. Zyhnn, her drakonling, was pawing at the glass wall. Draco laughed. “In you come,” she said, opening one of the panels. Zyhnn flew in on his tiny wings, giving Draco a disapproving look as he settled into his favorite spot on a chair.

As Draco went back to her work, she thought about her name. Every name has a meaning, she thought. I guess my name certainly affected my destiny as a dragon tamer!

Draco Regina meant dragon queen in Latin. Draco herself had spent a majority of her life fascinated by dragons, fitting to her name, and had begun taming them in her free time when she moved to Regina Manor.

Just then, a bolt of purple lightning came down from the ceiling and hit the ground next to Draco, who screamed as four people simultaneously appeared around her.

A lanky boy wearing a blue shirt and – was that purple? – pants with what appeared to be magical armor pulled himself up on his elbows, his eyes wide. He reached for his sword (wait, what?), which also seemed to be enchanted. “Wha-?” he started to say, but Draco beat him to it.

“Who are you?” she said, keeping a calm voice. She lived in Keroine, after all – weird things like this were bound to happen at some point.

And just like that, everything turned to chaos. A girl with a bush of brown hair and a soaking wet robe that belonged in a costume shop screamed. The other boy – this one wearing a cape and mask, both black – tried to stand up, falling over on top of someone wearing what looked like a blue and gold samurai suit.

Finally, the samurai pushed their way out of the jumble of arms and legs and stood in front of Draco. They pulled off their mask, and Draco realized with a jolt that it was a girl with shining metal skin. Her eyes were literally bright green – they were lights. Her hair was also made of metal, and part of it was pulled back in a short ponytail. “I am Pixal,” she said in answer to Draco’s question.

Instantly, Draco sat down in the nearest chair, feeling like she was about to pass out. She knew who this girl was, all right – who wouldn’t recognize someone from their favorite TV show?

“Pixal?” Draco repeated, not believing it.

Pixal seemed confused. “Is there a problem?” she asked.

Draco just shook her head and looked at the other three strangers, now seeing them through a new lens.

“Don’t panic – Batman’s here,” the black one was saying confidently.

“Batman? I don’t know any Batman,” the boy wearing the weird clothes said. He seemed to be having trouble standing up, as did Batman.

“I do,” the bushy-haired girl said, paling. “You’re just dressing up, right? You’re not actually Batman?”

Batman looked insulted. “Dude, do you think I’d buy a tailored cape made of legit dragonhyde just to play dress up with?” he frowned.

As Batman and the girl argued a bit more, the boy wearing armor stumbled over to Pixal and Draco. “I’m Steve,” he said, putting his hand out and marvelling as Draco shook it.

“Draco,” she said, “and I do know who you are.”

“Really?” Steve asked, still not looking away from his fingers. Draco couldn’t blame him, because he’d probably never seen anything like it before in Minecraft.

“If you know who Clumsy Boy here is, then what’s my name?” Batman asked.

“Um, Batman?” Draco replied. “You just said that. I don’t know who you are, though.” She turned to the girl.

The girl smiled. “Oh! I’m Hermione. Hermione Granger. And you are?”

“Draco,” was the vacant reply. Hermione Granger? Was she serious?

Hermione’s eyes widened. “-Malfoy?”

Draco shook her head. “No, Regina – my name is Draco Regina. It actually means ‘dragon queen’ in Latin, though a lot of people do get confused at first.”

“Oh.”

But Draco’s mind was far from her name. She was really wondering how four people from four different works of fiction could be standing in front of her in her room in Keroine. They’re obviously here for a reason, she thought, but what could it be?

Chapter 6

Villainous

The Joker was sick of waiting.

He was sick of waiting for Batman to come and fight him, he was sick of waiting for the rest of his gang to show up, and he was sick of waiting for his new bunny slippers to arrive via UPS.

“I just sit here and wait patiently for him to come and find me,” the Joker was saying to Harley Quinn, his trusty girl buddy and fellow villain. “I even threw a bunch of weird vendors dressed as hotdogs fifty feet in the air – well, Bane threw them for me – but did he pay attention? Noooooo… he did NOT!”

As the Joker continued to rant, Harley zipped around the room on her roller skates, trying to get a better view of Wayne Manor. There was a strange purple lightning storm going on over there, and she wanted to get a better view.

“You know, Sugarplum? Why don’t you just bring the party to Batman if he won’t come?” she suggested, still staring out the window.

The Joker perked up. “Great idea! Let’s go! Right now!” He was practically bouncing up and down as he pulled out a walkie-talkie, ready to signal the rest of the gang.

“Oh, don’t do that,” Harley said, finally paying attention to what he was doing. “We can go and take down Batman by ourselves this time – you know, just the two of us?”

“Even BETTER!” The Joker jumped up out of his chair, now excited. “But I still want to go right now.”

Harley shrugged. “Okay.” She’d be able to get a better look at that lightning storm from right under it, after all.

Soon, the Joker and Harley were breaking into Wayne Manor. It was actually easier than one might think, probably because there were only two people living on the entire island. They were just in time to see Batman struck by lightning, and the Joker laughed maniacally. He and Harley rushed forward, looking for a singed foe, but all they found was Alfred.

“UGH! Where did he go?!” the Joker yelled, punching the old butler out just because.

“Hmm…” Harley looked at the spot Batman had been standing in, and she realized there was as small rip still in the air where the lightning had hit. It was slowly shrinking, though, and she couldn’t see where it led to. “So why not?” she said out loud.

“Why not what?” the Joker asked, looking up from where he was kicking an unconscious Alfred through the dirt. He hopped over, took one look at the rip in the sky, and jumped through with a whoop. Harley shrugged and jumped after him.

Immediately, everything felt turned upside down and inside out. They were surrounded by a silvery mist that seemed to stretch on forever on all sides, but there was a rip in the air ahead of them. It, too, was closing, and it shut right as they reached it. Instead, they took another rip in a different patch of air, and the weightless feeling ceased.

The Joker and Harley were dumped back to solid ground at the base of a tall mountain, the top of which being completely flat. “Oof,” the Joker said lamely from halfway under Harley.

Harley stood up and looked at her surroundings. “One thing’s for sure, Sugarplum,” she said, putting his hands on her hips. “We’re certainly not in Gotham City anymore.”

…

A little ways into the forest on the right of Harley Quinn and the Joker, Voldemort was thinking along the same lines. “Well, well,” he said to himself. “It appears I’m no longer in England.”

Indeed he wasn’t. He was at the bottom of Taramath, the largest mountain in Keroine. Voldemort didn’t know this, but he did know that he felt stronger here. Stronger, and much closer to life than he had been. “I can use this new strength,” he said, then realizing he was talking to himself. He shut up.

Suddenly, Voldemort felt the urge to cringe. Obviously, someone relating to that pesky Harry Potter was also here in this strange land. I’ll have to make a change of plans, then, he thought. I’ll go after this other wizard, then use them as bait for the boy. I’ll kill them both, of course – why not?

…

And so it was in the worlds of Pixal and Steve as well. Pythor found the rip in the sky and slithered through, finding himself halfway up Taramath. The Herobrine virus leaked through into Keroine somewhere to the left of Batman’s enemies. None of them knew the others were there.

But Sen did.

Sen was by far Keroine’s biggest villain. He had taken over village after village, city after city during the Light versus Dark war, capturing everyone he found in them and giving them the choice to join him or be imprisoned, possibly even killed. He had been the one to burn the large monastery off the top of Taramath, leaving his younger twin, Yen, homeless. And more recently, he had banished a boy named Tip to another realm after capturing the boy’s friends, Em Firney and Brandon Roberts.

All in all, Sen was evil.

Today, Sen had noticed when Steve, Hermione, Batman, and Pixal had entered Keroine. He would be keeping his eye on them. He also noticed when the villains showed up. They would be more difficult to keep track of.

He had seen this coming, of course. You would have, too, if you’d read the Book of Prophecies. Sen hadn’t read the entire thing, but he’d just finished a poem predicting the arrival of people from other realms. He’d formulated his newest plan around this, deciding that he would convince the other villains to join him in his endeavors to take down Yen and his followers. It would be difficult, but he’d use the appeal of destroying their personal enemies (Steve, Hermione, Batman, and Pixal) to get them to agree. Now all Sen had to do was wait.

Chapter 7

Powerless

“So wait – you’re saying there are actually books out there about me?” Hermione asked, gaping at Draco.

Draco chuckled. “Yes, and you’re quite a famous character at that.”

“But what about me?” Batman pouted. “People love me, too, right?”

Draco shrugged. “Sure. Batman’s always cool,” she said.

“Anyway,” Steve said, coughing to get everyone’s attention. “How are we going to get home? I mean, I’m pretty sure this isn’t Minecraft.” He stared at his now human limbs, still getting used to the feeling.

“Yes,” Pixal agreed. “The ninja are not aware that I am even gone, so perhaps returning would be a good idea before they discover I’m missing and begin to worry.”

“I, uh, don’t know exactly how we’re going to do that,” Draco admitted.

Hermione stared at them all. “I do have a wand, you know,” she said, pulling it out and showing it to the others.

“Then use it to teleport us back, already!” Batman exclaimed impatiently.

Steve shrugged. “He’s right – it can’t hurt to try.”

“Well, can you tell me more about where you live?” Hermione asked. “I can’t apparate you to a place I can’t picture.”

“Um, it’s a big mansion, there’s an old guy standing in front of it, it’s totally awesome – oh, and it’s an island by itself in the middle of the ocean,” Batman said. “There. That’s all you need to know.”

“My home is in Minecraft,” Steve said. “Everything is blocky, and it’s located in the plains biome. It’s your typical oak village, and there’s a wall around it.”

“I live in a ship called the Destiny’s Bounty, and it can fly,” Pixal put in. “It has a large computer in it, too.”

Hermione looked a little overwhelmed. “Okay… here goes,” she said. Raising her wand in the air, she said, “Apparate!”

Absolutely nothing happened. They hadn’t moved an inch.

“Why isn’t it working?” Hermione asked out loud nervously. “Aguamenti!” Nothing. “Ascendio! Engorgio!” Then, more hesitantly, “Orchideous…?” No bouquet of flowers sprouted out of the tip of her wand.

“I guess magic from other realms doesn’t work here,” Draco said, shrugging.

“Maybe not.” Hermione stared at her wand, not wanting it to be true. Sure, she’d lived most of her life without magic, but now that she had it, she felt vulnerable without.

A thought suddenly occurred to Steve. He tried to pull out a few sticks he remembered having in his inventory. Nothing – he couldn’t even feel his inventory there. “I can’t use things specific to Minecraft, either,” he said.

“And I don’t think I can communicate with the ninja,” Pixal added.

Draco squinted thoughtfully. “It sounds like you can’t use anything that requires connection to the realm you live in. That’s probably because the connection was broken when you were brought here.”

“But how were we brought here?” Batman asked, triumphant. He knew he’d solved the problem when he saw Draco’s eyes light up.

“That’s it!” she said. “If we can find out the reason why the lightning struck you, we can do it again! If I’m right, that will teleport you directly back to where you came from.”

Pixal smiled. “I just ran it through my systems, and it actually has a 79.63 rating of success over our other options.”

“I’ll just take that as a ‘yeah, this plan’s totally gonna work’,” Batman said, and everyone laughed.

Chapter 8

Allies

“I’m in.” The Joker gave Sen one of his trademark grins, revealing far more pointed teeth than anyone had a right to have. “If you leave Batman to me when we find him, I’ll gladly work with you – who else is, too?”

Sen smiled to himself as, one by one, the group of villains before him agreed to go along with his plan. Very soon, he told himself, would his brother be in his hands.

And soon after that, he would have the world.

By now, Herobrine, the Joker, Harley Quinn, and Pythor had joined Sen. Little did they know, they were helping boost the secretly growing Dark ranks. Voldemort was the only one who hadn’t yet agreed to Sen’s conditions.

This Sen is much more than he appears to be, he thought to himself. He most likely wishes to take advantage of me.

At that moment, the Joker got into a fight with Pythor about who had the cooler-looking archenemy. It made absolutely no sense at all.

Then again, Voldemort thought with a wince, I can’t let Sen deal with these fools by himself. Perhaps I’ll help – but only because I don’t want him to screw up. He only added the last part to cover up the feeling he was trying so hard to suppress.

Voldemort, the Dark Lord and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Names, felt bad for a random guy he’d just met.

Of course, realizing this only made it worse. Voldemort feels no pity! he shouted in his head. Voldemort feels no pity, much less for this slippery snake of a warlord!

Sen smiled again as he watched Voldemort fight within himself, but it just served to make him creepier. He could see the other villain giving up. Not long until he joins as well, he thought. He knew Voldemort couldn’t pass up the chance to control an army. He himself knew he couldn’t, and he and Voldemort were truly more similar than they both thought.

When Voldemort added himself to the group, neither he nor Sen knew what was ahead of them. The Joker, Pythor, Herobrine, and Harley would be relatively easy to control and command, but Sen and Voldemort were something else. They were darker than the rest, and were both willing to do anything to achieve their goals.

I will not be taken advantage of, both thought to themselves. I am, after all, the most traitorous villain in the world.

They were right in their own way, of course. Villains always are. In their own land, they were the most traitorous. What they were wrong about was that no one could take advantage of them, and they were about to learn that lesson soon…