“You’ll grow bored of it, I promise,” Simon told them as he struck the two griefers.
“Doubt it,” the blue griefer replied and engaged in a skilled sword battle with Simon.
Lily was battling the griefers when she stopped. She could hear Mr. Anarchy’s cries in the distance. “I have to save my friend.”
“Your friend,” said the orange griefer, “is about to be wiped from existence.”
“No!” Lily cried and tried to run toward Mr. Anarchy, but the orange griefer lunged at her with his diamond sword, while the blue griefer splashed a potion of weakness on her. Lily was losing hearts. She tried to fight back, but she didn’t see the two skeletons that spawned behind her. They unleashed a sea of arrows that struck Lily’s back and she was destroyed.
Lily’s heart was racing as she respawned in her bed. She looked over at Robin, who had just respawned in her bed.
“Who destroyed the bedrock wall? Look.” Lily pointed out the rubble. “They must have used the cube of destruction, and it didn’t even cause that much damage to our house,” Lily noticed a few small blocky holes, which were easily repairable.
“I bet Michael or Simon or someone else thought we were trapped in here and were trying to free us,” suggested Robin.
Lily agreed.
Lily looked out the window and realized it was nighttime. They must have lost track of time in the stronghold and didn’t realize it was the middle of the night.
A zombie ripped Lily’s door from the hinges. She wanted to TP back to the stronghold, but didn’t have a chance. Three zombies entered her living room and she had to destroy them.
Lily grabbed her diamond sword and struck one of the vacant-eyed mobs. The three zombies surrounded her. Lily quickly took out a potion of harming and splashed the zombies, but it didn’t destroy them. The zombies grabbed her and she lost a heart. Lily was worried; she’d be destroyed and by the time she could respawn back to the stronghold, Mr. Anarchy would be destroyed. She hoped her friends were able to battle the griefers and save Mr. Anarchy.
Lily splashed another potion on the zombies, and one of the undead beasts was destroyed, but she saw others lumbering toward her cottage. Lily was trapped.
“Lily,” Robin called out.
“Help!” Lily cried.
Robin slammed her sword into the swarm of zombies, annihilating the undead mob with her strength.
Lily had a moment to grab a potion from her inventory and sip it to regain her energy. “Let’s destroy these zombies,” Lily shouted as more zombies entered the small cottage.
Robin and Lily struck the zombies with their swords and used potions to weaken the undead mob. When the final zombie was destroyed, Robin said, “I have to tell you something. It’s about Mr. Anarchy.”
10
TESTING
“What’s happened to Mr. Anarchy?” Lily asked Robin.
“I think Nicholas is performing some horrendous experiment on him,” Robin informed her friend.
The two TPed back to the jungle and Robin called to Michael, “Over here!”
Michael rushed toward them, but the blue-and orange-jacketed griefers raced behind Michael. The green griefer caught up to Michael and splashed a potion of weakness on him. Simon attacked the blue griefer before he had a chance to hurt Michael.
Ilana, Peter, Pablo, Ronan, Matthew, Sunny, and Blossom clutched potions and splashed them on the two griefers, destroying Nicholas’s evil minions.
“We need to find Mr. Anarchy!” Lily ordered the others. “We must search every inch of this stronghold until we find him.”
A pair of red eyes peered out from a corner. Lily jumped back, but it was too late and the spider bit her. The spider’s poison entered Lily’s body and she lost a heart. Another spider crawled toward her and bit her foot. Lily’s health bar was slowly being depleted.
“Help!” Lily cried.
Michael struck the spiders with his diamond sword, obliterating the arachnids.
Simon called out, “I see a door. Maybe this is where Nicholas is keeping Mr. Anarchy?”
“Maybe!” Nicholas’s voice was loud and almost deafening.
Lily leapt at Nicholas, but he laughed and splashed a potion of harming on her.
“Mr. Anarchy isn’t trapped in the prison.” Nicholas opened the door. “He is free to leave, but he doesn’t want to go. He wants to stay here and help me terrorize you guys. Maybe you thought he’s changed his ways, but he hasn’t. He’s still a terror.”
Mr. Anarchy sat in a room tinkering with command blocks. Lily was the first to enter the room.
“Tell me Nicholas is lying. You can’t be evil. You’re my friend.” Tears streamed down Lily’s face.
Mr. Anarchy didn’t look up at Lily as he worked with the command blocks.
Simon quickly entered the room. “You’re evil? Why?”
Again, Mr. Anarchy didn’t respond and just fixated his attention on the command blocks.
“What are you doing?” Lily pleaded. “Speak to me!”
Mr. Anarchy didn’t speak; he focused on his experiment and didn’t look up at anyone.
“I’m standing right here! You can’t ignore me!” Lily exclaimed. She grabbed her diamond sword and pointed it at Mr. Anarchy.
Nicholas noticed and rushed toward Lily. “Leave him alone! He works for me now.”
“I don’t believe you.” Lily struck Nicholas with her diamond sword. He lost a heart and was infuriated. Nicholas called for the three one-eyed griefers to assist him, but only the blue and orange griefer appeared. Nicholas questioned, “Where’s the purple griefer?”
“He’s missing,” the blue griefer replied as he struck Lily with his diamond sword.
Michael and Simon raced into the small prison cell to help Lily battle Nicholas and the griefers.
Lily couldn’t even concentrate on the battle; she was too bothered by Mr. Anarchy. She had trusted him and he was betraying her. She didn’t know what experiment he was working on, but she knew it would hurt her friends. Lily was devastated that Nicholas was able to brainwash Mr. Anarchy.
Michael and Simon battled the two griefers, while the others crowded into the tiny cell to help defeat the griefers. Mr. Anarchy didn’t pay attention to the battle that was taking places inches from him. He was immersed in finishing his experiment.
A loud thunderous boom shook the small stronghold room. The blocky ground rattled.
“It’s going to explode,” Nicholas cried out and ran toward the exit.
Everyone followed Nicholas, except Mr. Anarchy, who stood by the command blocks.
Nicholas looked out at the rainy sky. “I don’t want to go out there. It’s dangerous.”
Pablo, Ronan, and Matthew held their swords against Nicholas’s back. Pablo said, “You have no choice.”
Pablo, Ronan and Matthew forced Nicholas out of the stronghold. As they exited the stronghold, rain fell on them. It was still nighttime, and lightning shot through the dark, cloudy sky. Nicholas, Pablo, Ronan, and Matthew were struck by the lightning.
“Where did they go?” Lily questioned.
Nicholas, Pablo, Ronan, and Matthew disappeared.
Mr. Anarchy rushed from the stronghold. “Did it work?” He looked over at Lily.
“What are you talking about?” Lily asked as she shielded herself from the rain.
“He’s gone!” Mr. Anarchy smiled. “I got rid of Nicholas!”
“And Pablo, Ronan, and Matthew,” added Ilana.
Mr. Anarchy raced back inside, and seconds later the storm stopped.
“Mr. Anarchy?” Lily sprinted down the dirt hall and toward Mr. Anarchy’s prison cell.
He walked out of the room. “Lily, I’m sorry I was silent before, but I had just reached a vital point in my experiment and I knew that I finally found the way to get us off this server. If Nicholas thought I was working with him, I’d be able to finish it and then zap him off first.”
“He’s back in the real world?” asked Lily.
“Yes, I was able to zap them back,” Mr. Anarchy announced proudly.
The others crowded behind Lily. The blue griefer was furious. “You destroyed Nicholas. I will never forgive you.”
The orange griefer stood next to the blue griefer and declared, “I will imprison all of you. Mr. Anarchy, you’re a traitor!”
“You guys are next!” Mr. Anarchy screamed and ordered the others to chase the blue griefer out of the stronghold and toward the lightning bolt. Mr. Anarchy summoned a powerful bolt with command blocks.
Lily held her sword against the blue griefer. Michael cornered the orange griefer. Both wore terrified expressions as they ran from the stronghold and were struck by lightning. Lily and Michael watched from the stronghold.
The two griefers were zapped by the lightning and returned to the real world.
Ilana rushed back into the small prison cell and confronted Mr. Anarchy. “Mr. Anarchy. Stop! It’s not fair. I want to go home. Why are you rewarding the bad when the good people want to leave?”
“I needed to zap off the bad people so I can focus on getting everyone off. We don’t want any distractions,” Mr. Anarchy explained.
“Well, I want to go first!” Ilana whined.
“No, I do!” Peter pushed in front of Ilana.
“Who said you guys are the first to go?” Blossom was annoyed. “Sunny and I deserve to go first.”
“Blossom is right. We should go first!” Sunny called out.
“Why? That doesn’t make sense at all. You were one of the last people zapped onto this server,” Simon said. “We’ve been here much longer.”
The friends were in the middle of a heated argument. Everyone wanted to get zapped off first.
“Stop!” Mr. Anarchy screamed.
Nobody listened. They kept arguing. Lily looked at her friends; they were battling each other in the narrow hall in the stronghold. Lily couldn’t believe these good friends were quickly turning into enemies. The gang was so busy battling, they didn’t realize they exited the stronghold and were bickering in the night, leaving them exposed and vulnerable to an attack from a hostile mob. Lily took a deep breath and hoped for the best.
11
THE FIRST ONE
Warren shouted, “Everyone! Please be quiet.”
His voice was loud and everyone stopped talking and listened. Before Warren was able to have a rational conversation with his friends, three skeletons spawned in the thick of the night.
“Watch out!” Lily shouted. “Skeletons.”
“We have to be careful; it’s nighttime,” Michael reminded them as he raced to the skeletons and clobbered one of the bony beasts with his diamond sword. Ilana and Peter destroyed the other skeletons.
“Let’s get back in the stronghold,” Warren called out to his friends. “We need shelter.”
One by one, the gang entered the stronghold. Mr. Anarchy explained, “I have enough command blocks to summon three lightning bolts. Then I will have to start over.”
Ilana paced down the hall of the stronghold. “So we have to choose which of us is going to go first?”
Everyone spoke at once and Lily screamed, “We can’t keep battling over this. It’s not getting us anywhere. We have to figure out a plan for who gets zapped back first.”
“Should we put our names in a hat and see who is chosen first?” asked Peter.
“Maybe we can flip a coin?” suggested Michael.
The gang had many theories, but everything came to a halt when a loud explosion rocked the stronghold.
Kaboom!
The stronghold exploded and Lily respawned in her bed in the cottage. Lily noticed something strange—the bedrock wall was gone. It was morning and Lily looked out toward the window, when Robin called her name.
“Lily? Who blew up the stronghold?” Robin was confused.
“I have no idea who did it. Maybe Nicholas left TNT down there.” Lily had a bunch of theories, but no concrete answers.
“We have to find the others and get off this server.” Robin put on armor and went toward the door.
Michael and Simon were standing in front of the cottage. “Mr. Anarchy is missing.”
“Do you think he was zapped off?” Lily questioned.
Simon replied, “I’m not sure. We searched all of Lisimi Village.
“And everyone was accounted for but Mr. Anarchy,” added Michael.
Lily paced around the entrance of the small cottage. “This is awful. We must find him.”
Lily and the gang sprinted into Lisimi Village and continued their search for Mr. Anarchy. Juan the Butcher was exiting his shop. “What are you looking for?”
Michael replied, “Juan, have you seen Mr. Anarchy?”
“Oh,” Juan sighed. “Is he up to his old tricks?”
“No.” Lily defended her friend. “He’s missing. He’s still a good guy.”
“I haven’t seen him, but I did see the strangest person earlier today. He came into my shop and traded emeralds for some meat.”
“Why was he so strange?” questioned Robin.
“For one thing, he had one eye and he wore a sparkly purple jacket, but he acted quite bizarre.” Juan described the purple griefer.
“The purple griefer!” Lily exclaimed. “Maybe he can help us find Mr. Anarchy.”
“Where did he go?” Michael questioned.
“I don’t know,” Juan confessed.
Emily the Fisherwoman and Fred the Farmer walked toward the gang. Emily said, “You won’t believe what just happened. We just met the oddest person. He asked us all sorts of strange questions.”
Lily looked at Emily. “Did he have one eye and was he wearing a purple jacket?”
“What type of questions did he ask?” Michael asked them.
Emily paused. “He asked one strange question about the average time people stay on this server.”
Fred said, “I told him we’re on it forever.”
Emily smiled. “Then he asked us one about houses.”
Fred clarified, “Yes, he wanted to know if you can just stay in a house that was already built or if you have to build your own.”
“Did you he where he was headed?” asked Robin.
“No,” Emily replied and then questioned, “Do you know this man in the purple jacket?”
“We know who he is, and he might be able to help us track down Mr. Anarchy.” Lily replied.
“We know where Mr. Anarchy is. We saw Mr. Anarchy by the shore. It looked like he was about to head under the sea,” Fred the Farmer told the group.
Lily thanked them and excused her friends. “We have to go to the water to see if Mr. Anarchy is there.”
As the gang headed toward the quiet shoreline, they spotted a purple sparkly jacket in the distance. Robin called out to him, but realized she didn’t know his name. “Stop! The man in the purple jacket, please stop!”
The one-eyed man in the purple jacket turned around. “Wow, I was looking for you guys. What happened to Nicholas and the other people he zapped onto the server?”
Simon asked, “What’s your name?”
The purple man replied, “Benji.”
“Benji, they were zapped back to the real world,” Robin told him.
“Really? I wish I was zapped back to the real world.” Benji frowned.
“You would have been zapped back, but you were missing,” explained Michael.
“I wasn’t missing. I knew Nicholas was going to blow up the stronghold and I was trying to get rid of the TNT, but it didn’t work. It was too late and I watched it explode. I realized most of you would respawn here, so I came to this village to look for you.”
“Have you seen Mr. Anarchy?” asked Lily.
Benji didn’t have to reply. Everyone turned around when they heard Mr. Anarchy call out, “Guys. Over here!”
The gang sprinted toward Mr. Anarchy. “We’re so glad we found you,” Lily exclaimed.
<
br /> Michael questioned, “When can you zap us back to the real world?”
“I would do it right now, but all of my command blocks were destroyed in the explosion.”
Benji announced, “I know where we can get command blocks. Nicholas had a bunch stored in a mineshaft in the jungle.
“Great.” Mr. Anarchy asked, “Can you lead us there?”
The gang sprinted toward the jungle biome. Ilana and Warren spotted the gang in the middle of the town, and called out, “Can we join you?”
“Yes,” Lily said breathlessly. “We’re going to get command blocks, so we can finally get back home.”
“And I don’t want to hear you fight about who is going first,” Mr. Anarchy said as he raced toward the leafy biome.
Large trees stood out in the verdant landscape with the lazy river running through the lush biome. Simon pointed at the oak trees. “We’re almost there.” The group raced into a valley filled with ripe melons.
Benji looked confused. “Maybe we made a wrong turn. I remember the mineshaft was right by this patch of melons and was covered with vines.”
A familiar voice called out, “Looking for command blocks?”
“Nicholas.” Mr. Anarchy was stunned. “It can’t be.”
12
CREEP
“I’m back on the server and ready to destroy you!” Nicholas pounded his diamond sword into Mr. Anarchy’s side.
“There must have been a glitch, because none of the other people came back,” Mr. Anarchy said as he struck Nicholas with his sword.
“Or I’m smart enough to zap myself back on the server. Did you ever think of that?” Nicholas sneered.
“Impossible,” Mr. Anarchy retorted, but he wasn’t sure he was correct. Maybe Nicholas had the power to zap himself on the server? He wasn’t sure.
Lily leapt at Nicholas. “Leave us alone.”
“Never,” Nicholas shouted. “This battle has just begun.”
Lily and Mr. Anarchy were able to weaken Nicholas with blows from their diamond swords. The others splashed potions of harming on him. When two creepers silently lurked behind him, he was destroyed in the explosion.
“We have to find the command blocks before Nicholas respawns.” Michael searched the grassy path looking for the abandoned mineshaft.
Creeper Invasion Page 4