Descent Into Overworld: An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure (11 page)

“If you think we’re giving you a bike ride, you’re totally wrong, dude.”

Ant struggled as the skeletons pushed him onto the blocky seat of the diamond condenser.

“The only thing you will be giving me is the power I deserve,” Slashax snarled. “Now, sit still and do as I say and you might make it back to your world in one piece.”

Hamid didn’t resist when the skeleton shoved him into the seat of the condenser. All his energy was focused on working out how all this happened.

* * *

One minute, he and Ant were cowering, waiting to be blown up by creepers. Then they were battling skeletons with Jaina. Before they could even high-five, they were captured by their school principal and had their diamond swords taken away. Whiner had not only traveled into their game with them, the old fartbag ran the show in here, too. And just like at school, he worked for the bad guys.

Whiner had led the way back to the Portal Chamber. As they marched, he berated Ant over his addiction to videogames, unfinished homework or some other tragedy affecting today’s youth. Ant nodded sagely as Whiner spoke. His friend looked completely absorbed in the words of wisdom from their great and wonderful principal. Hamid knew better. Ant was most likely waiting for the perfect moment to trip the old geezer.

Hamid marched beside Jaina. The skeletons were too busy being mindless undead to pay attention to his hushed conversation with her.

“Why is Whiner helping Slashax and Herobrine?” Hamid said.

She shot a nervous glance to the front of the line.

“Long story,” she said in a low voice. “Whiner hates Minecraft. He wants it destroyed.”

“No surprise there,” Hamid said.

“Not just deleted from the school computers. He wants the game wiped from existence.”

“He’s not alone. Herobrine wants the same thing.” The skeleton guard walking next to Hamid turned its eyeless gaze to them at the mention of Herobrine. Maybe they weren’t as mindless as they seemed. Hamid lowered his voice to a whisper. “Herobrine is trapped on this server. He wants to use the seed generator to escape and cause chaos in the real world.”

“That cage thing with the spinning rock?” Jaina said. She kept her words quiet and her eyes on their skeleton guards.

“You’ve seen it?” Hamid said. “That spinning rock is a seed. It generates the code behind every Minecraft world. Herobrine wants the seed so he can corrupt the server world codes. If he succeeds, he will be able to move between the game world into the real world.”

“Like we did because of the swords,” Jaina said.

“Exactly. And Herobrine won’t be alone. He will send an army of creepers and zombies into the real world.”

“Using the world’s Minecraft servers as entry points,” Jaina said. “But Slashax has his own plans. He wants the power from our swords so he can defeat Herobrine and be the boss of all Minecraft.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Hamid said, remembering Yurei’s warnings about upsetting the balance of control and chaos. “We have to get our swords back and the Seed Generator away from Slashax.”

“Anything else while we’re at it? Achieve world peace? Stop climate change?” Jaina said. Her wry smile held equal measures of hope and doubt.

They arrived at a set of iron double doors.

“We’re here,” Whiner said. His square face lit up. Hamid had seen that look before. It was the glow of satisfaction that came before dishing out the punishment. “There is someone in here who is very eager to meet you.”

* * *

Hamid sat in the seat beside Ant. A pair of skeleton hands on his shoulders held him in place on the diamond condenser.

The whole thing was shaped like the wheel. Hamid, Ant and Jaina sat at three different points on the outer edge of the machine. In front of each of their seats stood a narrow tube. In the center of the wheel stood a single redstone block. Redstone circuitry ran along the spokes of this very strange wheel.

“They should totally bring this ride to the school fun fair,” Ant said.

“Not really a time for joking,” Hamid said.

“No, it’s a time for panicking,” Ant said. “But I’m not giving Whiner the pleasure of seeing me pee my pants.”

“The liquid might short circuit this contraption,” Jaina said from her seat on the other side of the strange machine. Two skeletons held her in place. “It could be worth a try.”

Ant closed his eyes and concentrated. He quickly opened them again.

“Not happening,” he said. “I’m either too scared to pee, or you know, this skin isn’t set up for that sort of thing.”

Hamid craned his neck around to get a good look at the room. Whiner had called it the Portal Chamber and it was easy to see why. A massive Nether Portal, built on a raised platform, dominated the middle of the large room. The gateway to the fiery realm of Minecraft pulsed an ominous purple.

Whiner stood near the portal with Slashax. The principal nearly jumped out of his blocky skin when he saw a pair of skeletons emerge from the Nether Portal. The skeletons walked down the platform and across the room.

“Where did they come from?”

“Relax, Mr. Whiner,” Slashax said. “They are merely returning from Nether. My soldiers come and go all the time.”

Another pair of skeletons climbed the steps up the platform and walked through the portal. They were quickly swallowed by the purple light.

“Is that where Herobrine is?” Whiner asked.

“Perhaps,” Slashax said. “One must pass through the Nether to find Herobrine, but you need not worry about such things.”

The painting on the wall near the skeleton king pulsed to life. Slashax moved to stand in front of the painting.

Hamid couldn’t see the painting clearly from where he was, but he could hear it buzz like it was charged with redstone. And he heard the voice that came from the painting.

“What is your progress, Slashax?”

Slashax bowed deeply to the painting.

“Greetings, Master,” he said.

Ant’s eyes went wide at the sound from the painting.

“Is that …?” His words trailed off.

Jaina nodded quickly and shot him a look telling him to stay quiet. Hamid didn’t need such a warning. He also didn’t need to be told whom Slashax was talking to. Only one entity could command such respect from Slashax.

Herobrine.

Slashax bowed to the screen again.

“We have secured the artifact you seek,” he said.

“Then why is it not with me? How dare you delay in completing your task!” said Herobrine.

A collective shudder ran through the skeletons in the Portal Chamber. Even Whiner, who didn’t know Herobrine from a hero sandwich, flinched.

“There is no delay, master,” Slashax said quickly. “We are merely preparing the Seed Generator for travel to your location.”

Slashax waved a bony hand to where a group of skeletons had dismantled the strangest mob-spawner Hamid had ever seen. One of the skeletons removed the brown Seed from inside the cage and held it up for Herobrine to see.

Hamid struggled against the firm grip of skeletons holding him in place. The object of their quest was within reach, but it might as well have been on the other side of the Overworld. Hamid was trapped. He couldn’t even scratch his nose.

In the hands of the skeleton, the seed had stopped spinning. Long strings of numbers continued to float out from the seed and up into the air. Each number was a blueprint for a new Minecraft world. Soon, all those Minecraft world seeds would be corrupted by Herobrine and his minions.

The skeletons handed the seed to Slashax. He held out the seed in front of the screen.

“You see, Master. Here is the key to your freedom. We will bring it to you right away.”

“Do not delay,” Herobrine said.

“I would not dream of it.” Slashax bowed deeply, cradling the seed like a newborn baby.

The screen sizzled and blazed with a fiery glow. The light faded and the screen was once again a painting. Herobrine was gone.

Slashax handed the still-glowing seed to a skeleton and stepped down from the platform. His red eyes burned into the three friends, still stuck in their seats.

“Alone at last,” he said. “Now we can get on with the real show. That’s the one where my loyal subjects give the power of their True Diamond swords to the almighty Slashax.”

“You’ll never get away with this!” Hamid said.

“Oh, but I already have,” Slashax said. “That fool Herobrine doesn’t suspect a thing. And even your friend, the ghost creeper, cannot help you now.”

“Yurei!” Ant said. “How do you know about Yurei?”

“I am the Skeleton King! I know all,” Slashax said. “Yurei has tried to defeat me in the past and failed. When I have the power of the four True Diamonds, I will finish him once and for all.”

Slashax moved to the center of the condenser wheel. At his signal, three skeletons stepped forward on either side of the kids. They each held a diamond sword. The skeletons slid the swords into the tubes.

“That’s what they’re for!” Ant said. “Here I was thinking they were for holding an umbrella.”

“Don’t do this, Slashax!” Jaina said. “Herobrine will destroy you!”

“It is I who will destroy Herobrine!” Slashax placed his bony hands on the redstone block. “We are ready for you, Mr. Principal.”

Principal Whiner looked up from where he stood, still staring at the painting. Even their school principal felt the power of Herobrine long after he had vanished. He turned to Slashax, looking like he was in the middle of a terrible dream.

“Hurry, you fool,” Slashax snapped. “You dare keep me waiting from my destiny. When you add your sword to the condenser, all power will flow to me. Only then will I be able to help you rid your world of the menace you call Minecraft.”

Whiner shuffled to the diamond condenser. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in this room.

“You’re sure you can defeat Herobrine?” he said. “What if you can’t? What if Herobrine comes looking for me? Maybe we shouldn’t cheat him like this.”

“Silence!” Slashax barked. “Place the sword in the holder or my skeletons will do it for you.”

Principal Whiner took another reluctant step toward the condenser.

“Don’t listen to him!” Hamid said.

But Whiner did listen to Slashax. The school principal climbed onto the condenser. He sat in his seat. He slid the final True Diamond sword into its slot.

The condenser jumped to life. Redstone buzzed with energy and untold power, all of it flowing to the center hub. In the middle of it all, Slashax let the power of the True Diamonds pour into his bones.

Minecraft had a new ruler.

The entire Portal Chamber sizzled.

The condenser rumbled, like an angry beast woken from a long sleep. Power drained from the True Diamond swords. It flowed into Slashax, coursing through his bones and sending him into a dreamlike trance.

Jaina struggled to keep her eyes open as the power drained from her as well. Her body grew weaker but her brain was still sharp. Her mind stayed alert for any chance to escape the machine and stop Slashax’s power grab before it was too late. The skeleton hands holding her firmly to the seat made sure that both those things were not going to happen.

In the seats across from Jaina, Ant and Hamid squirmed against the hands of their own skeleton guards. They wriggled like a pair of first graders struggling to sit still through a two-hour school assembly. They were helpless to stop Slashax from stealing the power of their swords.

Principal Whiner looked like he was actually enjoying the ride. His pudgy face was frozen in a look of bizarre happiness. The few hairs remaining on his head stood on end and quivered like antennae as the power of the True Diamonds were squeezed into Slashax’s very bones.

The Portal Chamber blurred on the edges of Jaina’s vision. The room spun like a pinwheel. The double doors on the far side of the chamber barked like a pack of dogs.

Jaina fought to clear her mind before she completely lost control of it.

She heard it again. Barking. Lots of barking.

An avalanche of white tumbled through the doors into the Portal Chamber. Growling, snarling and gnashing teeth, the pack of dogs sent the surprised skeletons scrambling. Jaina’s heart leaped at the sight the dog leading the charge.

“Bones!”

Red-collared and tongue wagging, Bones jumped at the skeleton holding Jaina to the diamond condenser. The dog’s teeth dug into the skeleton’s leg.

“Get him, boy!” Jaina shouted.

The skeleton swatted at its new attacker with a bony hand. Jaina pushed against her captor with renewed strength. The skeleton’s remaining grip on her shoulder broke. Jaina slipped free of the condenser and fell to the ground.

All around her, dozens of dogs snarled, barked and bit at Slashax’s skeletons.

Jaina stumbled to her feet. “You brought the entire pack, Bones! Good doggie.”

Bones barked and took another bite out of Jaina’s former captor. The skeleton struggled to break free but could not escape Bones’s toothy grip. Two more dogs jumped onto the guard, bringing the skeleton crashing to the ground in a clatter of bones.

The wolf pack was in doggie heaven with all these skeletons in one place. They chewed up the place like hungry teenagers at an all-you-can-eat barbeque.

Three dogs leaped onto the skeleton holding Hamid in place. The guard fell to the ground under the snarling puppy pile. Hamid jumped free of the condenser. He scrambled to the enchantment tables near the map wall.

On the other side of the diamond condenser, two dogs played tug-o-war with the leg of the skeleton holding Ant in place. That was all the distraction he needed to slip free and run toward Hamid.

Seeing her friends begin to rally, Jaina ran through the mess of flying fur and joined them beneath the maps. A pair of dogs dragged another skeleton to the ground in front of them. The skeleton broke apart in a clatter of bones. Each dog ran off with a fresh bone in its jaws.

“Who ordered the puppy patrol?” Ant said.