Herobrine's Message

by Sean Fay Wolfe

  “CASSANDRIX, DO IT NOW!” screamed Kat at the top of her lungs, as she desperately looked up at the monster about to blow her to smithereens. An instant later, Kat had to squint her eyes as the pistons whirred and the entire bedrock chamber flooded with daylight. The Wither reeled back, surprised, and three skulls shot from its mouths in random directions, creating massive explosions across the roof of the chamber.

  As Kat watched the Wither adjust to the light, she felt the familiar feeling of warping for a split second before tumbling to the ground at the opening. Kat could see Cassandrix standing next to the lever, which had been pulled down. Outside, a short drop down a steep mycelium hillside led to the edge of the ocean.

  “What now?” Kat asked, turning to face Cassandrix as she heard an alarm go off somewhere in the distance. “That was as far as I got in my plan!”

  “I have two boats that the soldiers dropped in my inventory!” Cassandrix replied, as Commander Crunch pulled himself to his feet and Charlie lay motionless on the ground.

  “Okay, sounds good. Everyone, down the hill!” Kat bellowed. As Cassandrix hopped her way down the slope, followed by Crunch, Kat knelt down and shook Charlie, trying to get him to come around. It was no use. He had been totally spent by Drake’s torture, and the landing of the teleportation had knocked him out cold. Kat took a deep breath and hoisted Charlie on her back, resigning to carry him down the mountain herself.

  As Kat hopped off the smooth bedrock floor of the cave and onto the jagged mycelium cliff side, two black Wither skulls rocketed over her head, her hair blowing in their tailwind. Realizing that the Wither would likely be in hot pursuit of them, Kat shrugged Charlie off her for a moment and knocked the switch of the wall with a well-placed arrow. With no flow of redstone energy, the pistons returned to their off position, closing the hangar door. Even from outside the prison, Kat could still hear the explosions inside. She knew that it wouldn’t be long before the Wither blasted its way through the door, so she picked up Charlie once again and hopped her way down the hill.

  The trek down the hill was one of the most strenuous things that Kat had ever done. Beyond the fact that she was sprinting as fast as she could down an uneven slope while carrying another unconscious player on her back, Kat’s legs still had an ache in them from the teleportation, which only grew worse and worse with each step down the mountain. By the time she reached the final expanse of mycelium leading to the beach, her legs were killing her, while Cassandrix and Crunch had already managed to make it to the shore.

  As they set up the boats, Kat suddenly heard a whooshing sound, and an instant later an arrow stuck into the ground beside her. She strained her neck to look over her shoulder and saw to her dismay that the entire outside of Mount Fungarus was now covered with black-clad Noctem troops, all firing at her. Kat looked forward again, and tried as hard as she could to zigzag back and forth, making herself a harder target.

  Then, when she was just ten blocks away from the boats, Kat felt a sharp sting on the back of her right thigh, and she knew she’d been hit. Gritting her teeth, Kat hit the spongy mycelium ground hard, flopping face-down while Charlie tumbled off her back and toward the shoreline. Kat forced herself to get back up to her feet as she became aware that Crunch and Cassandrix were dragging Charlie back to the boats.

  Then, as Kat finally got up, she heard a sound behind her, like a car coming closer and closer. She looked over her shoulder, and her heart stopped. The Wither had blasted a small hole through the front of the hangar door. Through that hole, a black Wither skull was flying directly toward her, and it was now less than ten blocks away from her.

  Kat had no time to dodge. She had no time to duck. There was nothing she could do as the skull sped toward her at breakneck speed. Kat took a deep breath and closed her eyes, preparing for the end.

  Kat heard the explosion . . . but she didn’t feel any pain. She felt the wave of force knock her to the ground. Lying there on the mycelium ground, Kat knew that, somehow, the Wither skull had exploded before it reached her. And oddest of all . . . she wasn’t dead.

  She opened her eyes. Sure enough, the cloud of smoke from the explosion hung right there in front of her. She couldn’t see anything through the black cloud, not the island, not the mountain above her, not the Wither, not even the sky. The only form that Kat could make out was a black figure, with a cloak draped over his head, vanishing into the cloud of smoke.

  For some reason that she could not explain, the name Black Hood entered her mind.

  Kat didn’t take the time to question what had just happened, though. She sprinted the last few steps across the shore and climbed hastily into her boat, alongside the unconscious Charlie. By the time the smoke of the skull’s blast had cleared, the four players were already dozens of blocks from the shoreline, arrows from the island were falling far short of reaching them, and Kat could hear cries of indignation and fury from the prison guards they were leaving in their wake.

  It wasn’t until the Mushroom Islands had completely vanished from their view that Kat finally allowed herself to breathe. She glanced over at Cassandrix, piloting the boat beside her with Commander Crunch snoring behind her.

  “Hey, Cassandrix?” Kat said.

  The girl returned her look, and raised her eyebrows in response.

  “Good job in there today.”

  Cassandrix looked across the water at Charlie’s unconscious form, then behind her to the sleeping Commander Crunch, and then back to Kat again.

  “Thank you, darling,” Cassandrix replied, before setting her sights back out to the open ocean.

  Kat sighed, but then smiled a little to herself. She supposed it was a bit too much to ask for Cassandrix to return her compliment. She had managed to get a thank you out of her, with no snide remarks to accompany it.

  At the very least, that was something.

  It was plain that neither of them were in the mood to talk after all they had been through, and so Kat focused on piloting the boat yet again. However, as she tried to turn her mind off and allow her brain to slip into autopilot, she found that a certain question couldn’t stop nagging her in the back of her brain. Finally, she turned to Cassandrix yet again.

  “Hey, I have just one more question,” Kat said slowly.

  Cassandrix nodded, still looking straight ahead. Kat spoke on.

  “When . . . when that Wither skull almost killed me . . . did you . . . or did anybody . . . block it?”

  Cassandrix looked puzzled for a moment, and then turned to look at Kat again.

  “Of course not, darling,” Cassandrix replied, as if it should be obvious. “The Commander and I were pulling Charlie onto the boat, and there was nobody else on the beach. Why? Did you see somebody?”

  Kat thought back to that moment, less than an hour ago. The explosion had gone off right in front of her. She was being struck by waves of force, light, and sound, and in the center, she clearly remembered a figure silhouetted in the smoke, wearing a black cloak, with a sword held in a block . . . as if the player was defending her . . .

  “No,” Kat replied, shaking her head and glancing down at her reflection in the water. “I’m sure it was nothing. . . .”

  CHAPTER 10 THE POTENTIAL

  I gotta admit,” Jayden mumbled to G as they filed along with the rest of their class of recruits into the rec area, “I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t hate that lesson more than I did.”

  “Agreed,” replied G, pulling the door closed behind them. “I mean . . . I know that the stuff they’re showing us is being used against Elementia troops,” he murmured under his breath, “but still, I think those interrogation techniques might actually turn out to be pretty useful.”

  Jayden nodded, and he sat down on a wood block on the floor and watched the other players in their group having fun around the rec room. Truth be told, G was finding it difficult to look around the room without squinting, since everything was almost entirely white.

  On the most recent update to Minecraft,
quartz had been added in veins throughout the cave of the Nether. In order to flaunt their dominance over the dimension, the Noctem Alliance had apparently taken it upon themselves to mine as much quartz as possible and incorporate it into their buildings. In fact, G had heard Tess saying that their group of recruits would be going into the Nether before long to mine quartz. As of now, there was only one small part of the rec room that was still made out of chiseled stone blocks, not having been remodeled yet.

  G ignored that, though, determined not to let the white quartz distract him from the game of Spleef being played in the rec room’s miniature arena between several of the recruits. After all, Spleef was enjoyable to watch no matter who was playing, and G felt that he and Jayden deserved some downtime after all their hard work.

  In just the last few days, they had managed to learn crucial information about the Capitol Building, and where the hostages may be. They had narrowed it down to three hallways in the building, and all they needed now was some way to check them. How they would do that, they had yet to figure out. Still, they were doing good work, and G was looking forward to an afternoon of relaxation.

  As the Spleef match was coming to a close, the wooden door of the rec room swung open. Through the doorway walked General Tess, still dressed in full uniform, her pink face as unreadable as ever.

  “Good evening, recruits,” Tess said, in a voice that wasn’t particularly loud, but nonetheless caught the attention of every single player in the rec room. In an instant, every player dropped what they were doing and stood up, including the two remaining Spleef players. They turned to face Tess, and stood at full attention.

  “Good evening, General Tess,” all the recruits replied in unison.

  “At ease, soldiers,” Tess said, still not cracking a smile, or showing any emotion for that matter. “I’ve only come for one of you. MasterBronze, would you come with me, please?”

  G’s heart skipped a beat. Me? She wants me? What does she want with me? Does she suspect me? Despite his racing thoughts, he tried to keep a determinedly calm and respectful demeanor as he marched over to join the general. He shared one last baffled expression with Jayden before the door closed behind him, and he found himself standing alone in the hallway with Tess.

  “What may I do for you, ma’am?” G asked, standing at full attention.

  “Did you not hear me before, soldier? I said, at ease,” Tess repeated, and she watched as Jayden let his hands hang loose by his side. There was a moment of awkward silence before Tess spoke again.

  “What level are you, soldier?”

  “Um . . . I’m sorry?” G stammered. She must suspect me . . .

  “I asked you what your level is.”

  “I’m level sixty-four,” G answered, not sure what it had to do with anything. “I would be higher, but these are tough times, and you of all people must know how necessary it is to have enchanted weapons on hand.”

  “As I suspected,” Tess replied and, to G’s amazement, she actually smiled. “A master Minecrafter like you? It doesn’t shock me at all that you’ve got a good number of levels under your belt, even for someone in this Alliance.”

  “I’m sorry?” G replied, not following.

  “Soldier . . . actually, let’s drop the formalities for now . . . can I call you MasterBronze?”

  “I, uh . . . suppose so . . . ,” G answered clumsily.

  “Soldier, even at ease, I’m still your commanding officer,” Tess said, her voice suddenly stern again. “When I ask you a question, you will respond with ‘yes, ma’am,’ or ‘no, ma’am.’”

  “My apologies,” G said, taking a deep breath to overcome his discomfort. “Yes, ma’am, you may call me that.”

  “Good,” Tess replied, smiling once again. “MasterBronze, ever since you won that Aptitude Tournament a few days back, I’ve been keeping my eye on you, and I must say, as a soldier I see some real potential in you.”

  “Oh. Well, thank you, ma’am.”

  “Besides already being well versed in fighting, I see that you have a drive to you. In every training exercise that we’ve done so far, you in particular have given all your energy to it. You do this in every area, from your fighting to your skills training.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “And because of that, MasterBronze, I would like to personally appoint you as my apprentice.”

  “I’m . . . I’m sorry?” replied G, taken aback. “What exactly do you mean?”

  “Well, to be honest, it’s a bit unorthodox,” Tess replied. “No general in the Noctem Alliance has ever handpicked a student to personally train before. However, I’ve never seen any recruit come through this program with more potential than you, MasterBronze. Therefore, after initial training sessions are completed each day, I would like to train you myself in various high-level tasks.

  “None of the other students will have the opportunity to do this, and it is more than likely that you will advance much faster through the ranks of the Noctem Freedom Fighters than any of your fellow recruits. What do you say, MasterBronze? Does that sound like something that you’d be interested in?”

  “Of course, ma’am,” G replied enthusiastically, a huge smile breaking across his face. This is fantastic, he thought to himself. The faster I can get access to high-level Noctem information, the better!

  Tess smiled even wider. “Excellent. We will begin tomorrow. For now, you may return to the rec room.”

  And with that, General Tess turned on her heel and walked back down the hallway. G pumped his fist in ecstasy, and strutted proudly back toward the rec room. He couldn’t wait to tell Jayden the great news that he was one step closer to uncovering the Noctem Alliance’s deepest, darkest secrets.

  “Okay, noob,” Sally said, flying high in the sky. “Let’s do one more drill, and then we can take a break. All right?”

  “Sounds good to me!” Stan shouted from the ground about a hundred blocks away.

  “Here’s how this goes,” said Sally. “I’m going to try to catch up to you. I won’t go at full speed, but I won’t go slow, either. Your job is to try to keep away from me for as long as possible. You can use anything that you’ve learned so far to slow me down. For now, I’ll come directly at you, which means I won’t, like, loop around anything you put up, I’ll go through it instead.”

  “All right!” Stan shouted back.

  “Are you ready?” asked Sally, a devious glint in her eye.

  “Just a sec,” replied Stan. He took a deep breath, focused as hard as he could on feeling weightless, and, with all his might, he launched himself into the air. Stan flew upward until he was at the same eye level as Sally, and then just floated there, looking back at her.

  “Okay,” he shouted back to her, a diamond axe popping into his right hand as a manic grin crossed his face. “Come at me.”

  Sally flew directly toward Stan, a diamond sword appearing in her own hand. Stan stretched out his hand and, through the power of his mind, he summoned a giant wall of bedrock directly in front of Sally. While she was punching through, Stan focused harder, and a flow of lava appeared at the top of the wall. When Sally burst out through the wall of lava, she gave a short scream of pain as she caught on fire.

  “Nice one, noob,” she chuckled after the shock wore off, and she swigged down Potions of Fire Resistance and Regeneration. “I’ve gotta admit, I didn’t see that coming.”

  Stan smirked, and he swept his hand through the air, causing a cascade of gravel blocks to appear above Sally and immediately fall back down onto her. Without flinching, Sally dived to the ground but wasn’t expecting to see the grid of sand and cacti that Stan had summoned directly beneath her. Sally did a U-turn in midair and barreled back up through the falling gravel, squinting her eyes as she did so, only to get caught headfirst in the mess of gooey cobweb blocks that Stan had summoned directly above her.

  “Well, I give you points for resourcefulness, noob,” remarked Sally in a muffled voice as she hacked through the mess of co
bwebs with her sword.

  “I’m not done yet.” Stan laughed as he focused all his energy on a spot right next to Sally. A moment later, with a pop, a Blaze appeared out of nowhere. The spinning inferno of a mob fired off three tiny fireballs, which hit the cobwebs and engulfed Sally in flames.

  There was a teleporting sound as Sally warped out of the disordered cobwebs, floating above them instead. She squinted her eyes, clearly focusing hard, and all of a sudden, there was a crash of thunder as the sky turned gray, and heavy rains started to fall from the clouds in waves. The fire of the Blaze was instantly extinguished, and a moment later the mob itself fell dead from the sky, leaving only a single blaze rod to fall to the ground.

  As he watched it fall, Stan felt himself clutched in the grasp of an invisible power as Sally stretched out her hand toward him, followed by a mischievous leer. Try as he might, Stan couldn’t break free of her hold, and she levitated him toward her until finally they were close enough for her to poke him in the forehead.

  “I win,” she replied cheekily. With a pointed blink from Sally, the weather instantly turned back into sunshine again. She released Stan from her telekinetic grip, and, totally unprepared, he plummeted toward the ground, flailing for a good few moments before he caught himself in midair.

  “Hey, no fair,” Stan laughed. “You weren’t supposed to use powers I haven’t learned yet.”

  “Noob, if life were fair,” replied Sally coolly as the two of them levitated back to the ground, “then my personal online business that sells pants with built-in life preservers would have taken off by now, and I’d be a multibillion-dollar entrepreneur rather than some chick who stays home all day hacking Minecraft servers.”

  Sally focused on her hand, and instantly two pumpkin pies appeared.

  “Eat up, noob,” Sally said with a smile, tossing Stan one of the pies, which he caught in his outstretched hand. “You’ve earned it.”