“No,” replied Will. “But I’ve heard about him. He caused a lot of damage to another village in the Overworld.” Will stared at Adam. “You look familiar. Didn’t you live in that town?”
“Yes,” replied Adam. “But we defeated Thomas in the end.”
Will said, “I don’t think we should waste our energy building new homes. I really think we should spend our time finding and fighting Thomas.”
Violet looked out at the sea as she stood on a hill. She could make out the shore of the mainland they had left behind. She wondered if the hotel had been destroyed yet or if Thomas had returned to their town to attack the townspeople. “Maybe you’re right. This wasn’t the most well-thought-out plan.”
The group passed by huge red mushrooms and headed for the dock.
“Stop here,” Violet said before anybody boarded the boats. “This is a quiet spot where we can rest and strategize for a bit. There are no hostile mobs here so we can think without any surprise attacks.”
Noah agreed and said, “Everyone, please tell us what you know about Thomas. If we put together all the information we have about him, we might be able to stop him before he destroys the Overworld.”
Will said, “I know he likes tunnels.”
Adam said, “And he leaves patches of wool wherever he goes.”
Daniel said, “He can’t be far from the town. He wants to destroy that hotel. He won’t be happy until he wrecks it. I think we should head back to town.”
“But then we’ll be right back where we started,” Violet said. She felt a bit annoyed.
“We will be closer to finding him there than we are here.” Ben tried to defend the plan. He, too, knew they’d be back at the beginning, but at least they had two more allies to help them now that they were reunited with Will and Trent.
Violet watched her boat floating by the dock. She hated to get back on the boat without a plan of attack, but she was outnumbered. Everyone thought heading back to the hotel was the best idea.
As the gang prepared to climb aboard the boats, Hannah called out, “I see a hole in the ground!”
Violet rushed over to check out Hannah’s discovery. Maybe they were closer to finding Thomas than they thought.
10
TUNNELS
This seems to go forever!” Violet called out, as the group traveled through the cavernous tunnel.
“I see a door!” Adam hurried to the door and opened it. The group followed him into a large room.
“This looks like a stronghold.” Ben walked around the spacious room, searching for signs of Thomas.
Adam picked up a block of wool and announced, “Thomas was definitely here.”
“Yes,” a familiar voice called out. A figure emerged from behind a wall. It was Thomas.
“You must take us off Hardcore mode!” demanded Violet.
“Never! I am going to destroy the Overworld!” Thomas screamed and threw a potion of harming on Adam.
Adam’s health diminished rapidly. “Help me!” he called out weakly.
Hannah rushed to his side and gave him a potion of healing, while she shouted at Thomas to leave them alone.
Noah charged at Thomas with his diamond sword. “It’s over, Thomas!”
Before Noah’s sword could strike him, though, Thomas splashed a potion of invisibility on himself and disappeared.
Noah was angry. “He’s been pulling the same trick over and over. This guy is a master escape artist.”
“We’ll never catch him.” Violet felt defeated.
Daniel walked around the large room, inspecting the corners. “There’s nothing valuable here.”
“How do you know?” asked Noah.
Daniel pointed at an empty chest that sat in the corner. “If there was something valuable here, he wouldn’t have left.”
This made sense to the group. Violet suggested, “I don’t think he could have gotten too far. Let’s try to find him.”
Will agreed. “The potion will wear off soon. We need to pursue him.”
They ventured farther into the stronghold and walked up the stairs, entering a room that looked like a library.
“You used to have a place set up in a stronghold,” Noah addressed Daniel. “Do you have any idea where he might hide something in this space?”
“He could have command blocks set up anywhere. We really need to find the blocks. We don’t even need to find Thomas—the blocks are more important,” Daniel said as he opened another door and entered a room with a huge fountain. A stone brick ring dominated the center of the room.
“There isn’t anything here,” Daniel said. He opened another door, walking into a dark room lit by a single torch placed on the wall.
The gang followed Daniel into the room and noticed a ladder.
“This is a storage room,” said Will. “I think there is usually treasure here.”
Trent hurried to the ladder and began to climb. “Yes,” he called out, “there is a chest in the corner the room up here.”
“Don’t open it,” warned Violet. “It could be booby-trapped.”
Trent ignored Violet’s warning. “These chests are usually not booby-trapped. It will be fine.”
Violet held her breath as Trent opened the chest. He was right. It wasn’t booby-trapped.
“Diamonds!” he called out to the gang as he peered into the chest.
Trent climbed down the stairs and handed out diamonds to the group. They placed them in their inventories. As Violet placed the final diamond in her inventory, she noticed a creeper lurking in the corner behind Trent. Before she could utter the words “Watch out,” the creeper blew itself up.
Kaboom!
“Trent!” Will screamed. But Trent was gone.
“Oh no!” Hannah was devastated.
The group felt sad. Trent was destroyed, and he wouldn’t respawn. They stood in silence. There were no words. They missed their friend. The first person to speak was Daniel: “We need to find Thomas. He will pay for this!”
Daniel sprinted toward the door in a rage. He searched the entire stronghold for Thomas. He called out, “Thomas, do you hear me? Where are you hiding? We’re going to find you!”
The gang walked with their swords and bows and arrows out ready to attack Thomas, but he was nowhere to be found.
“This is pointless,” Will said in frustration. He had just lost his best friend and the group was losing energy in their quest to find Thomas.
They stopped to drink some potions to restore their energy. Adam said, “Look for jail cells.”
“Yes,” Daniel agreed. “They always have cells in a stronghold.”
“We know—you kept us prisoner in one,” Noah reminded him.
“And you kept me in a jail cell for ages. So we’re even,” Daniel retorted.
“Even?” Noah was getting annoyed at Daniel’s impudence.
“Guys, this is no time for fighting. We need to find Thomas.” Hannah tried to make peace within the group. If they didn’t work together, they would never win this battle against Thomas.
“Shh!” Violet called to the others. “I think I hear something.”
A muffled noise arose from behind the other iron door in the prison cell.
“It might be Thomas!” Hannah was excited. She wanted this battle to start for real.
Violet carefully opened the iron door and was struck with an arrow. An army of skeletons emerged from behind the door.
“But there aren’t skeletons on Mooshroom Island!” Noah was shocked.
“It’s Thomas. He’s summoning these bony beasts,” Violet called out. “He must be the reason they are here!”
Violet’s energy was very low. She was struck by another arrow and fumbled with a bottle of potion, hoping she could regain her energy quickly. As she drank the potion, a skeleton shot an arrow at her, and she dropped the potion. Luckily she managed to swallow a small drop, which gave her just enough strength to lunge at the skeleton and destroy it with a blow from her diamond sword.
<
br /> Adam rushed to her side and gave her some potion. “You’ll be okay. We are going to defeat Thomas. It’s almost over.”
Violet wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe they would be saved and wouldn’t be destroyed in this stronghold beneath Mooshroom Island. She thought about the town and the hotel; she missed both places. She yearned for life to be back to normal and to spend the day trading emeralds for meat at Valentino’s butcher shop, but she had a battle to win. And sadly, the battle hadn’t even begun. Until they found Thomas, or the place where he was using command blocks, and changed the setting off Hardcore mode, they wouldn’t be able to go back home and feel safe.
After the final skeleton was destroyed, Violet let out a sigh of relief.
“We’re all okay, right?” asked Noah.
The group nodded their heads; they were okay, but they were still sad that Trent was destroyed.
“We have to figure a way out of this stronghold,” said Noah.
The group exited the room with the prison cells and walked down a hall. Another door came into view, and Noah opened it, with Violet following closely behind. She looked down at the ground and spotted another block of wool.
“Guys,” Violet said in a whisper. “He’s here.”
Hannah joined Violet. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she replied and showed the group the block of wool.
“We have to be prepared,” Violet said as they opened another door and entered a room with an altar made of stone slabs and a chest.
“Do you think there’s treasure in the chest?” asked Ben.
Will walked over to the chest and opened it. “Emeralds!”
“All of this loot is a great find, but it won’t do us any good if we’re destroyed and don’t respawn,” remarked Noah.
As they placed the emeralds in their inventories, they heard a voice. Violet looked up and saw someone standing at the door. He pointed his diamond sword at them. She almost passed out in shock. She couldn’t believe who was standing there and threatening them to give up their diamonds.
11
DISCOVERIES
Will didn’t know if he was happy or horrified.
“Trent?” Will called out. He thought he was imagining seeing his friend.
“You’re all going to be destroyed!” Trent laughed.
“What?” Daniel asked. “Why are you doing this?”
Noah asked, “How did you respawn?”
Thomas appeared behind Trent and explained, “Trent and I aren’t on Hardcore mode.”
Will screamed at his friend, “How can you work for Thomas? I trusted you!”
“Never trust a true treasure hunter,” Trent replied with a sinister laugh.
“That’s not true. I’m a treasure hunter, and I can be trusted.” Will was upset with his friend and utterly devastated that Trent was working with Thomas.
Noah didn’t want to argue. He wanted to destroy the two evildoers who stood by the door. He dashed toward the duo with his sword, but Thomas shielded himself from the blow and struck Noah.
“This is a losing battle. You’re on Hardcore mode, and we’re not. We will just keep respawning and trying to destroy you until you’ve run out of resources and have no energy. Just give up,” Thomas called to the group.
“Or you can join us and help destroy the Overworld!” added Trent.
“Never!” Violet shouted.
“Why are you doing this?” Will asked Trent.
“When you destroy people in Hardcore mode, you get all of their stuff,” explained Trent.
“But soon you’ll be the only two people left in the Overworld. If there is nobody left to share the stuff with, what’s the point?” Violet was perplexed.
Thomas winced when he heard the word “share.” He said, “Share! Who wants to share?”
“Who wants to be alone?” Violet asked.
“I do. When I have all of the treasure from the Overworld, I won’t need anybody else. I will have the most loot. I will be the ultimate winner!” Thomas shouted and let out another sinister laugh.
“That doesn’t sound like a winner to me. It sounds like a loser.” Noah stood next to Violet. “I’d rather have my friends than a bunch of stuff.”
“That’s why we’re different. I don’t care about anyone else,” Thomas told them.
“Trent,” Will said to his old friend, now turned new enemy. “Once Thomas destroys the Overworld, he will set you to Hardcore mode and end your life, too.”
Trent looked at Thomas and asked, with a worried expression, “You won’t do that, right?”
“Of course not,” Thomas replied, but Trent didn’t look too sure that Thomas was telling the truth.
“You’re pure evil, Thomas. But I actually feel sorry for you,” said Violet. “A real person understands the importance of other people and not just things. You’re the one who isn’t living. Maybe we’ll be destroyed and we won’t respawn, but at least we had each other, and that’s a lot more than you’ll ever have in your life.”
“You are such a sentimental fool with mixed-up thoughts. You really don’t understand how to win the game.” Thomas approached Violet and aimed his diamond sword at her chest.
“I don’t think we’re playing the same game,” Violet replied as she backed away from Thomas.
Noah rushed over to his friend and pointed his sword at Thomas. “Take us off Hardcore mode.”
“No!” Thomas struck Noah with his sword. The strike was hard and powerful and weakened Noah.
Hannah, Will, Ben, Adam, and Daniel hurried over to Noah and Violet and started to attack Thomas and Trent.
Thomas and Trent fought dirty. They splashed potions on the group, which left the friends extremely tired.
Hannah could barely get a word out, but she wasn’t too tired to notice three creepers enter through the door. Thomas and Trent didn’t see the green explosive creatures.
Kaboom!
But nothing happened.
“We’re on Creative mode,” Thomas laughed.
“We need to get out of here as fast as we can,” Noah told the gang, but he was still feeling the effect of the potion and was extremely weak.
Adam gathered what strength he had and pulled out some bottles of potion from his inventory. The group walked slowly, but finally reached Adam. He handed out the potions. They drank some and felt better.
“We don’t have much time,” Noah warned them.
“They’re about to attack us again,” Hannah said as she drank the last of her potion, restoring her energy.
Thomas and Trent sprinted toward the group with their diamond swords. As Adam splashed a potion of harming on them, he also splashed a potion of invisibility on himself and his friends. They used Thomas’s trick to escape. Now they had to exit the stronghold before the potion wore off. It was a race against time, and they were hoping they’d win.
12
CRACK THE CODE
Adam was the first to call out, “I think I see the room where Thomas is hiding the command blocks.” He stopped and looked for the others, but they were all invisible, so he didn’t know if they were ahead of or behind him.
“I’m here,” Violet said, but they didn’t hear from the others. “Let’s go into the room. If we can shut off the command blocks, we will have won this battle.”
The two of them began to reappear as they walked into the room where Thomas might have set up the command blocks. A man wearing a blue helmet sat in the middle of the room. He looked up at them in surprise. “Who are you?” he asked.
Adam didn’t answer. He swung his diamond sword at the man in the blue helmet.
Violet cried out, “Don’t! He might be on Hardcore mode and he won’t respawn.”
“Thanks,” the man said to Violet.
“Well, if I do a favor for you, you must return it.” She smiled.
“What do I have to do?” he asked.
“Take us off Hardcore mode,” demanded Adam.
The man looked confuse
d. “I don’t know much about command blocks. Thomas has kept me prisoner and forced me to sit in this room.”
“This is most likely where Thomas is controlling the Hardcore setting,” Adam replied, and asked if he could put in a new command with a command block.
It was very clear to Adam that this was the place the command blocks were being controlled. “I got it. I switched the setting. We’re off Hardcore mode!”
“I’m sorry,” the man in the blue helmet told Adam and Violet. “I never knew that I was in charge of such a horrific thing.”
“Come with us,” Violet said. “We are going to get out of this stronghold. You don’t have to be a prisoner anymore.”
The blue-helmeted man followed Adam and Violet as they made their way to the exit.
“I’m Jasper,” the man said as they hurried down a long hallway.
“Nice to meet you, Jasper. Do you have any idea where an exit might be?” Adam could barely get the words out because he was racing down the hall. He wanted to see daylight. He wanted to emerge on Mooshroom Island and see a large red mushroom.
“I don’t know. Thomas trapped me down here so long ago that I have no idea how to escape,” Jasper confessed.
The three of them opened doors that lined the hallway, but they were all dead ends. There seemed to be no way out.
“Stop!” a voice called from down the hall.
Violet didn’t have to turn around. She knew it was Thomas’s voice. The trio ran faster. She opened a door, and they rushed into a room with a staircase and skipped up the stairs.
“Take out your pickaxes,” Violet directed Adam and Jasper.
The three of them hit their pickaxes against the roof of the stronghold, trying to break a hole in the ceiling to crawl through.
“I see light!” Adam called out.
Thomas and Trent entered the room and shot arrows at them. An arrow hit Violet and she cried in pain. Adam banged his pickaxe against the ceiling as Violet shot arrows at Thomas and Trent.
“Is the hole big enough to crawl through yet?” Violet asked as she tried to fight off the two evildoers on her own.
“Almost!” Jasper yelled as he and Adam tried again and again to break through the ceiling.
The Hardcore War Page 4