Herobrine's Message (19 page)

“So . . . as far as you know”—he spoke tentatively, and Kat sensed, for the first time in months, a tiny element of his old fear worming its way into his voice—“what exactly
is
Herobrine? And what exactly is the extent of what he can do?”

“That's th' scariest part . . . nobody has an answer t' either o' those riddles,” Crunch replied solemnly.

“If I had to venture a guess,” Cassandrix replied slowly, “Herobrine is most likely some sort of major coding glitch in Minecraft that managed to grow stronger and stronger the
more the people at Mojang tried to fight it. And eventually, it got so strong that it was able to behave and act like some sort of mob.”

“Aye, that be one theory,” agreed Crunch, nodding his head. “Yet another be that Herobrine be th' agonized spirit o' th' dead brother o' Notch, th' creator o' Minecraft, that managed t' fuse itself wit' th' codin' o' Minecraft itself 'n' become some sort o' half code, half demon monster.”

“Oh, please, let's try to stick to rationality here,” spat Cassandrix at Crunch arrogantly. “Even if it were somehow possible for a dead person to become part of a game, Notch has gone on record to say that he doesn't really have a dead brother.”

“That's jus' wha' he wants us t' think . . . I smell a conspiracy here, I do . . .”

“Anyway,” continued Cassandrix, pretending that she couldn't hear Commander Crunch prattling on, “to answer your second question, Charlie . . . nobody really knows exactly what Herobrine is capable of. I think we can all agree that he was obviously born out of some sort of glitch—although we can only guess what that was—and the fact remains that he's already shown himself to have powers that are at least equal to those of an operator. If he can do that . . . well, as to the rest of his abilities, we can only speculate until the day when we get to see more of them firsthand.”

“I gotta say, Cassandrix,” cut in Commander Crunch in a taunting voice, “fer somebody who claims they ne'er believed in Herobrine till now, ye seem t' 'ave a decent amount o' knowledge about 'im.”

“Well, I think you'll find a solid reason for that, Commander,” Cassandrix replied coolly. “While I never saw fit to believe something with no evidence behind it at all, I always found it a pleasure to look on at those who did and have a good laugh to myself about it. And yes, I do in fact remember a thing or two of what those gullible saps said.”

“Oh yeah?” cut in Kat. For some reason, something in Cassandrix's reply had plucked a nerve in her. “Well, if you're so high and mighty, how does it feel to know that this entire time, you were wrong and those ‘gullible saps' were right?”

Cassandrix whipped around to face Kat, and opened her mouth to retort, then abruptly closed it. Kat was shocked; she had never seen Cassandrix rendered speechless before. There was a split moment of silence before finally, Charlie cut in.

“It's late,” he grunted. “We've all been at sea for way longer than is good for us. It'll affect your mental state if you stay out there too long—”

“Hey! What're you tryin' to say?” Commander Crunch cut in, outraged.

“And we really need a good night's sleep,” finished Charlie
without missing a beat. “Let's just go to bed now. We hit the road for Element City in the morning.”

And with that, Charlie flopped down on his bed, turning his back to the others. Seeing no reason to argue, the other three players did the same thing, with Commander Crunch still grumbling softly to himself about Charlie's final comment. Kat hardly noticed, though. Her head was too full of thoughts from the stories she had just heard.

Kat had always fantasized about having operating powers. From the moment that she had heard about them, she had imagined herself wielding their incredible strength, using them to become the most unstoppable force in all of Elementia. And now here she was, preparing to fight against a being that not only had abilities that were apparently quite similar to operating powers, but were even stronger than that.

Long after the snores of the other three players had started up with various degrees of volume, Kat still lay awake in her bed, dreading just what exactly it was that she was preparing to face.

A
re you kidding me?”

“Calm down, Khan!” shouted Arachnia, her firelit face tired and stressed. “The situation is bad enough, and getting angry won't help.”

“Oh, just shut up!” spat Creeper Khan, his gritted teeth showing as he sunk his hand into a nearby tree in frustration. “Honestly, you have no idea how hard I'm trying to stop myself from blowing up this entire forest . . .”

“Arachnia, I don'd ged id,” said Zomboy innocently, looking at her in confusion. “If dere were tree of you—and jusd two of dem—how come you did nod win?”

“Finally, that giant hunk of rotten flesh says something logical!” hissed Creeper Khan as he whipped back around to glare at Arachnia.

Arachnia took a deep breath, then replied, “I told you, they had the element of surprise on their side. I certainly wasn't expecting Leonidas to jump me like that. It's the same reason I was able to take down Kat and that other girl she was with by myself—they didn't see me coming.”

“Well, even if you did manage to . . . ugh . . . lose to just two people, then why is it that Enderchick didn't warp Zomboy and me over to you guys?” Creeper Khan demanded. “We weren't doing anything, and if
you knew that Stan was on that island, then we definitely weren't going to miss anything by leaving our posts. Why didn't Enderchick just grab us?”

“Ugh . . . right, that . . . ,” spat Arachnia in disgust. She still couldn't believe the excuse Enderchick had given her. “Apparently, she was just
too tired
from warping three people at once, and couldn't bring herself to warp again until she rested.”

“You cannot be serious!”
bellowed Creeper Khan, a vein pulsing in his forehead. “You're telling me we lost the opportunity for the biggest paycheck we've ever gotten just because that little spoiled brat couldn't be bothered to move?”

“Yep,” sighed Arachnia in disgust.

“Argh!”
Creeper Khan gave a bellow of rage, and not too far away from him, an explosion came from nowhere and blasted all the leaves off the top of a tree, leaving the trunk engulfed in fire.

“Watch it! You'll kill us if you can't control yourself!” cried Arachnia, leaping to her feet before clutching the lump on her head, and forcing herself to sit back down on her tree stump while Zomboy lumbered over to the burning tree and punched the fire out.

“Whatever,” shot back Creeper Khan, plopping himself onto the soggy ground with a wet smack, and beginning to punch the dirt in frustration. There was a moment of silence,
with nothing but the ambient sounds of the dark, soggy swamp around them as Zomboy lumbered back over to the group and sat down next to Arachnia.

“You know, it's been way too long,” grunted Creeper Khan impatiently after a minute. “Why isn't Enderchick back yet?”

“Well, that's a good point, actually,” replied Arachnia, as she realized just how long Enderchick had been away. “She should be back. Her talk with Drake shouldn't be this long. Do you think that he might have done something to her once he found out what happened?”

“Doubt it,” Creeper Khan said, with a dark snicker. “If there's one thing we know, it's that she'll always be able to warp if it's
her
sorry self on the line. Wouldn't you say, Marrow?”

Lord Marrow, who had been leaning up against a tree a distance from the campfire while looking down at the ground, glanced up to look at Creeper Khan. The player's skeletal face raised an eyebrow and took a tone of indifference for a moment before returning to its original position.

Creeper Khan gave a soft growl. To be honest, he was getting really sick of everybody on his team being so intolerable, what with Arachnia's condescension and Enderchick's ditziness, and the less said about Zomboy, the better. Lord Marrow was the only one who Creeper Khan had really been
able to tolerate, and now even his perpetual stoic silence was wearing on him.

“You know, maybe I won't even wait,” he spat. “Maybe I'll just use my Final Nova on all of you—”

“I told you not to joke about that!” Arachnia cried, suddenly looking terrified.

Creeper Khan's retort, however, was broken by the sound of teleportation, as Enderchick appeared next to the campfire in a puff of purple smoke.

“Finally!” grunted Creeper Khan in disgust as he whipped around to face her.

Arachnia sat up straight and asked, “What did Drake say, Enderchick?”

“Omigosh, just, like, give me literally two seconds to rest, people,” whined Enderchick, sitting down on another tree stump and looking pouty. “Ya know, it's not, like,
easy
to warp from Element City to this stupid suh-
wamp
. . .”

“Cry me a river,” cut in Arachnia, as Creeper Kahn sputtered in outrage, “build a bridge . . . and then go jump off it. You were the one who caused us to lose Stan, Enderchick. You're in no position to ask for favors.”

“Well ex-
cuuuse
me, princess,” huffed Enderchick. “You know, whatever, I'll tell you. Basically, Drake told us that he was, like, super mad at us for losing Stan. Like, I dunno, he said something, like,
‘If you don't get Stan to me before he gets
to Element City, I will be forced to turn you over to Lord Tenebris.'
I mean, he's like, so melodramatic . . .”

“Haha . . . melondramatic . . .” Zomboy chuckled, his mouth hanging open and a dopey expression on his face. “Haha . . . I like melons . . .”

Zomboy continued laughing while Enderchick absentmindedly wiped a spot of mud off her leg. Creeper Khan gave a roar of frustration and glared at Enderchick and Zomboy, then yelled, “You two are nothing but a couple pieces of brainless, incompetent—”

“SHUUUUT UP!”

Arachnia's yell was so loud, so forceful, and so harsh that immediately, all three of her fellow mobhunters whipped around to face her, and were terrified by the wrathful expression on her face as she clutched her diamond sword. Even Lord Marrow glanced up from the ground, his eyes locked on to her.

“Do you people realize,” whispered Arachnia with more power than a yell could ever convey, and her face devoid of anger but ripe with fear, “the position that we are in right now? Do you realize what will happen to us if we
don't
have Stan delivered to Drake on a silver platter within the next couple of days?”

The four other members of ELM just stared at her for a moment. They all knew the answer, but Arachnia said it anyway.

“We'll suffer. We'll suffer hard. I don't think that any of you truly comprehend the kind of forces that we're dealing with here. The Noctem Alliance is powerful, but they're also ruthless and merciless. I think that if you'd just put your ridiculous squabbling to the side for a minute, you'd realize that we've got one foot in the grave and another on thin ice right now.”

There was yet another moment of silence, but now the truth of Arachnia's words sunk into the other mobhunters. They all remembered the things they had heard about the Noctem Alliance, all the horrible stories that had passed through their small outpost in the middle of the desert about what the Noctem Alliance was capable of. Never had it fully hit them that, should they fail, all that power would be directed on to them. They all knew now that the time had come to fully devote themselves to their work. Even Zomboy waited with bated breath for Arachnia's next order.

“Okay,” continued Arachnia, her breathing calm but her tone serious, “Enderchick, did you ask Drake how close they were to breaking into Element City, like I told you to?”

“Yes,” Enderchick replied, no longer distracted but fully focused. “He told me that they would be through the wall within a matter of days . . . that something special is headed for Element City, like, right now, and when it gets there, they'll finally be able to get in.”

“Okay then, team,” replied Arachnia, her mind kicking into hunting mode as she glanced around at her four fellow members of ELM. “Here's the plan . . .”

“You can't be serious!” Stan exclaimed.

“As much as I hate to say it,” replied Leonidas, his eyebrows knitted and his expression grim, “it's true, Stan.”

“And . . . you're saying . . . ,” continued Stan, as he tried to wrap his head around the ramifications of what Leonidas had just told him, “that . . .
that's
the guy who's leading the Noctem Alliance? The guy who can do all
that
stuff?”

Leonidas nodded, his expression dark. As much as he had hated to explain to Stan exactly who Lord Tenebris was, he knew it had to be done. Although Stan was most assuredly terrified out of his wits at the prospect of fighting the most powerful and evil being in Minecraft history, he still had to know as much as possible about what the Noctem leader was capable of. Suddenly, Leonidas realized that he was walking alone. He stopped, and looked behind him to find Stan stopped in his tracks, staring at the ground in foreboding between two particularly large swampland trees.

“Are ya all right, Stan?” Leonidas asked in concern, doubling back to where Stan was.

As he looked up to face Leonidas, Stan's face showed a mixture of confusion and fear. “Not really, no,” he replied
honestly. “So you're telling me that Lord Tenebris, or . . . how do you pronounce it . . . Hiro . . . Haro . . .”

“It's Herobrine, Stan,” Leonidas corrected him, and he sounded it out. “Heh-roh-brine.” Leonidas shook his head in disbelief. “Honestly . . . You're a Minecraft fan, you've been on the internet before, but ya still don't know who Herobrine is? How's that possible?”

“I don't know!” exclaimed Stan. “I mean, to be honest, I've just been playing on Elementia for as long as I've been in Minecraft . . . I've never really had to leave for anything, I learned how to play in the Adorian Village, and I've kind of been too busy since then to look around at a lot of other Minecraft-related stuff.”

“Well, in that case, lemme make one thing clear to ya, Stan,” replied Leonidas, and Stan looked him in the eye.

“All that stuff I just told ya about Herobrine, and what he can do . . . some of it might not be true. Everythin' that I think Herobrine can do is based off what people've spread around. Nobody knows for sure what he can and can't do, 'cause people keep on pullin' off hoaxes and pranks to make their friends think they've seen Herobrine and stuff like that. Matter of fact, the people who made Minecraft've said that Herobrine doesn't really exist. 'Cause of that, your guess is as good as mine what Lord Tenebris, the
real
Herobrine, is capable of.”

“Wait . . . hold on,” said Stan slowly. “You're saying that people fake sightings of Herobrine all the time? The same way that people fake, like, Loch Ness Monster sightings or Bigfoot sightings?”

“Exactly.”

“Well . . . then . . . how do we know that Lord Tenebris is really Herobrine?” Stan asked, his spirit lifting slightly at this idea. “How do we know that the Noctem Alliance isn't just faking it to intimidate us?”

“'Cause I've been face to face with him, Stan,” Leonidas replied darkly. “Once, months ago. Right after you and your army beat the King, me, Caesar, and Minotaurus made our way to Spawnpoint Hill, and he appeared in front of us. And he was floatin' in midair, Stan. That's not just somethin' that any old player could do. He was either an operator, which ain't possible, or he was somethin' else.

“And trust me, Stan . . . it wasn't no special type of monster spawned in with mods or nothin'. When I first saw Lord Tenebris, I looked him straight in his dead, white eyes. but I could only hold eye contact for a second. I'm not entirely sure why, and to this day I can't put my finger on it, but there was somethin' in those eyes that was more sinister and evil than I can put into words, maybe because they definitely belonged to somethin' that wasn't human.

“To be totally honest with ya, Stan, I haven't seen Lord
Tenebris since that day. All my communication with him has been through Caesar, and 'cause of that I have no idea what he really is capable of. And maybe that's the scariest part. Besides, even now, months later, those eyes still haunt me . . .”

Leonidas realized how long he had been talking, and he looked up at Stan. The look on his face was concerned, anxious, and unnerved all at the same time. There was a moment of quiet, as neither of them knew what to say. Then, finally, Stan spoke.

“Well, I can tell you one thing, Leonidas. If the prospect of just seeing Lord Tenebris affected you that badly, then I can only imagine how hard it must've been for you to leave the Noctem Alliance and join us.” Stan's voice was kind and sympathetic. “I'm glad that you're here with me, Leonidas, and I'm proud to call you my friend.”

Leonidas looked up. When he looked into Stan's eyes, there was no fear. There was only simple joy and contentedness.

“Thanks,” Leonidas replied with a smile.

Before Stan could reply, though, Leonidas suddenly became aware of a sound, and he held his hand up to silence Stan. A screeching noise vaguely reminiscent of a jet engine was coming from above their heads, and it was growing louder by the second.

“What is that?” Stan asked, looking skyward as Leonidas
glanced around, his eyes finally locking onto a small mine not too far from them. Without hesitation, Leonidas grabbed Stan's arm and yanked him down into the tunnel. The two glanced up through the canopy of leaves above their heads and into the pink glow of the sunset sky as the sound escalated into a deafening roar.

Then, without warning, a massive black form rocketed directly over their heads. The two players couldn't make out what it was through the thick foliage, but the deafening sound and strong tailwind that rustled the leaves forced them to duck their heads even deeper into the mine. They barely had time to comprehend what had happened when another giant black object flew overhead, bringing the same cacophony and strong wind stream with it.