I do not own Minecraft (Notch does, I believe, since he made the game) but I do claim the unique characters and plot of this Fanfiction. I was inspired to write it because of the game, and hope that it is a decent tribute. The purpose of this Fanfiction is to amuse, and I make no profit from it whatsoever. Also worth noting is that the names I use in this Fanfiction are made up, and if they happen to be the names of real users then the happenstance is purely coincidental.

Without my wonderful beta reader, Kitsune no Tora, I don't think I would have had the guts to post this story. She deserves many thanks. I also suppose I should thank paulsoaresjr (though I doubt he reads Fanfiction) for posting Minecraft videos on YouTube. It was after watching a few that I decided I needed the game.

Minecraft: Commence in Zero

Chapter One – Minecraft

Rain splattered up against the window of the car as my dad drove me through the busy streets of Baltimore. I found the foul weather befitting of my mood and the past two weeks had been a nightmare. No matter what I did, I couldn't wake up.

When my mom told me that, for work, she would be spending most of the summer abroad I was put into a state of shock and disbelief. What, exactly, did she plan to do with me? Fourteen-year-old girls weren't exactly allowed to live alone for two months.

"You'll be living with your father's family this summer," Mom told me as I goggled at her, unsure of whether or not I had heard her correctly. "He has agreed to watch you. It'll be nice. You can get to know him again, and get to know Jamie and Asher."

This was coming from the woman who thought of my father's second wife as a deflated sorority girl and had divorced my father six years ago because she thought he was too unpleasant to be around. His quiet personality didn't mesh well with her outgoing, bubbly one. I, for the most part, took after my dad, though I didn't shrink to the wall in a crowd either.

"The last time I saw Dad was Thanksgiving," I had pointed out. My parents had miraculously stopped bickering long enough to plan the event for my sake. It was supposed to be good for me to see both parents at once. I had seen my dad for a total of five hours before he and his family had departed for the hotel.

"I know that, sweetie. But it will still be good for you to see your father this summer."

The conversation had ended there. I had wanted to argue, but my mom's boss had called to discuss the upcoming trip and I knew better than to disrupt her while she was on the phone with him. Two weeks later, I found myself on a plane bound for Baltimore. The entire state of Maryland seemed to be covered in a cloud of rain when I arrived.

"You've grown," my father said. I saw him glance back at me with the rear view mirror. I had insisted on sitting in the back seat even though he had offered me shotgun.

"Maybe," I muttered in response.

"Jamie made up the spare bedroom for you last night. I think you'll like the room. The closet is mostly used for storage, but we can move stuff around on an as needed basis."

"Okay."

Dad seemed to give up on trying to talk to me. I was fine with that. Sighing, I leaned my head against the window of the car and closed my eyes. Maybe I would wake up and find that the past two weeks had been a dream?

I opened my eyes again when my dad stopped the car. I hadn't slept, though I'd pretended to sleep just in case my dad decided to talk again. We hurried with the wet task of unloading my luggage from the trunk of the car and dragging it up the walkway and into the house. As I had feared, Jamie was there to greet us. She had dinner in the oven and wanted to know if there was anything she could do for me.

"Uh, can I just unpack?" I asked, doing my best not to sound too rude. Jamie, like my mom, was very bubbly – though in a completely different way. I found her personality annoying. Then again, I might have found my own mom annoying if I didn't live with her.

"Of course! I'll just show you to your room," Jamie said, helping me carry my bags upstairs. To my relief, she left afterwards. I began to unpack my things, putting the clothes in the drawers and shoving my DS and a tangle of various charger cords onto the tiny bedside table. While I was working I heard a car pull into the driveway, and the front door open and close a minute later. My stepbrother had come home.

Jamie called me down for dinner just as I finished lining my bags up against the wall. Dad hadn't lied – the closet was so full of boxes that I had feared an impending avalanche upon looking into it. I'd quickly closed the door and figured that putting my empty bags away wasn't too high on my imaginary list of things to do.

I timidly entered the kitchen and quietly slid into the closest empty seat. Jamie had set everything out on the table – fish filets, broccoli, and pasta. Everything smelled good.

My dad took the seat to my left, smiling at me. "Jamie's a wonderful cook, Laurie," he assured me. I said nothing, not really confident enough around my dad and his wife to respond. Instead I watched as a black-and-white cat crept under the table and rolled onto its back.

"That's Minnie," Jamie said, taking the seat across from me. "She's sweet, but might scratch if you try and lift her. Only Asher can pick her up without getting clawed."

"Where did he go – he was here a second ago!" Dad said, glancing through the doorway into the empty living room. He then made a grunting sound. "Wait, I know where he is. That boy's addicted I'll tell you . . ."

"He holds a full time summer job, Lewis," Jamie said. "What he does in his free time is up to him."

My dad grunted. "Asher! You can play after dinner! Come and eat!" he called through the house. Minnie ran from under the table into the next room. I heard someone climb the basement stairs, and a moment later Asher appeared. He took a seat on my right and then shot my father a vexed look.

"I said I'd be back in a minute. There's no need to yell," Asher mumbled. He looked to his mom briefly before reaching for the broccoli bowl, starting the meal. I began to scoop pasta onto my plate since the dish was closest to me. I then passed the bowl to my father and took the broccoli from Asher as he handed it to me.

"Asher is addicted to this game of his," my father said. "Minecraft."

"What I do in my free time is none of your concern," Asher said simply. "Would you rather I did drugs or drank underage? There are much worse hobbies, Lewis."

"What do you do in your free time, Laurie?" Jamie asked me, trying to diffuse the tension between her husband and son. I was not pleased to be put on the spot.

"I draw a bit. I read a bit. I play games." To my annoyance, my mom had not let me take my Wii to Dad's. I had succeeded in packing my DS, though.

"Not you as well," my dad said, rolling his eyes.

"Do you play Minecraft?" Asher asked, glancing at me. My stepbrother was a rough-looking rising college sophomore. He had similar features to his mom, the same curly brown hair and eyes.

"I've never even heard of it," I replied, starting to eat after filling my plate with food.

"Really? That's too bad," Asher said, turning back to his meal. Jamie then changed the conversation, deciding to ask her husband how work was going. I listened, though my mind wandered at the same time. Mom would be leaving the house for her overnight flight sometime soon. She had said she would call when she arrived, though with her scattered brains I didn't expect to hear from her until Tuesday.

I noticed that Asher successfully left the table without saying anything after he finished eating, depositing his empty plate in the sink, so I did the same when my meal was done. I then moved into the family room, eying Minnie from a distance. She narrowed yellow eyes at me. I stuck my tongue out at her. Mom hadn't mentioned that Dad's family had a cat. I'd never had a pet before. She was allergic, so we couldn't have any pets.

"What'd she do to you?"

Asher caught me making faces at Minnie. I snapped my tongue back into my mouth, shrugging. My stepbrother gave me a funny look and then headed into the basement. I hesitated, then followed him, glancing back into the kitchen before doing so. Jamie and Dad were still talking and didn't notice my descent.

The basement was finished and had been turned into a sitting room, but Asher was nowhere to be found. I began to walk around, glancing at the titles on the bookshelf. Something moved behind me, and I saw Minnie dart down the stairs and through a cracked door on one side of the room. Curious, I followed her.

I found Asher in a study of sorts. Two long tables were up against the walls on the side of the room with three computers between them. A hanging shelf was covered in books lying on their side. A couple of pictures hung on the otherwise empty walls. Minnie had taken up residence in a pink cat bed tucked in the corner by the chair where my stepbrother sat.

Asher didn't seem too surprised to see me. He was on the largest of the computers, one of the two desktops, playing a game. I stood back to watch him as he typed some stuff into a chat feed. Other people responded to him. Then Asher began to move, looking away from the wall he had previously been staring at on his game and facing a skeleton. I squeaked.

Smirking, Asher said, "That's not a monster, that's his skin," without bothering to look at me.

I said nothing. After talking some more to the skeleton guy, he closed the chat window and then spared me a glance. "This is Minecraft. Wanna try it?"

"Why not?" I said.

Asher nodded to the second desktop. "That's my old computer. Turn it on and then run the game. Make sure to put it on Peaceful otherwise you won't last very long. Do singleplayer."

Silently, I took a seat in the indicated chair and turned on the computer. The old Mac hummed to life, and within a minute I was on the desktop. Minecraft was easy enough to locate. I opened the game. It asked for a password to accompany the name 'Asherforce.'

"Minnie," Asher said quickly. I typed in the cat's name and got to the main screen of the game after opting to play offline. I clicked singleplayer. Slot five was free. I clicked that.

"Put the game in Peaceful," Asher reminded me. "It's on Hard."

My character was dropped in the middle of Antarctica. I hit the P button repeatedly, trying to pause the game. When nothing happened I began to panic until Asher reached over and hit escape. The game paused.

"Look at the controls while you're here," Asher advised. "WASD, not arrow keys, for movement. Spacebar to jump, et cetera."

Meekly I switched the game mode from Hard to Peaceful and then went back to check the controls. I then went back to the game and looked around. As far as I could see, the world on my game was covered in snow.

"Get wood, make planks, make a workbench, make sticks, make tools, find coal, make torches, and then make shelter. Try to do all of this before nightfall. That would be when the monsters would spawn and attack you if you were playing a level with monsters," Asher said, not bothering to look away from his own computer as he instructed me.

I was thoroughly overwhelmed, leading me to feel panicked. I began to repeatedly tap the spacebar and W button, bouncing uncertainly into the unknown. I climbed a hill and saw a plateau of grass. A trio of trees was in the distance. I ran up to the trees and, after a moment, managed to begin digging at the blocks that made up the trunk of the nearest. It began to crumble. Smiling, I destroyed the entire trunk, reaching high into the branches for every last piece of wood. The leaves began to vanish as I moved to the next tree, destroying it as well before moving onto the last tree. When I was done I had amassed 14 wood blocks.

Struggling to remember what I was supposed to do next, I opened my inventory to stare at the fruits of my labor. Tentatively I moved the wood blocks to the crafting square and made 56 wooden planks. Then, after some experimenting, I managed to make sticks. I made 64 of them. That was the largest number I could keep in one square. After a moment more I discovered how to make a workbench, then excitedly returned to the game only to throw it across the ground. I picked it up again then more cautiously placed it on the dirt. I right-clicked onto it.

"What sort of tools should I make?" I asked.

"A pickaxe and a shovel." Asher spared a glance at my screen. "Whoa, you already made the workbench? I thought you'd ask when you were ready to do that. You're a natural with this game."

I bit my lip and turned back to my computer, Asher's praise making me feel giddy inside. Minecraft was a nice little game, and I was a natural. I played around with the workbench, guessing correctly that I would need sticks and wood to make the tools. I made two of each and then ran in the direction of the looming, irregularly shaped mountain in the distance, running over a few baby trees that had been floating at my feet and picking them up in the process.

The mountain grew before me. I hopped up to the edge, moving my mouse to give myself a better view of the thing. About ten blocks above my head were some stone pieces that were streaked with black. Could that be the coal that I desired? I began to dig into the wall with my pickaxe, finding the shovel to be useless. I would have that coal soon.

"Damn," Asher said after a moment, seemingly forgetting that I was there. I glanced at his screen and saw that he was talking again to someone else on his own game. He must have been doing the multiplayer mode. The message on the screen said that three people had just died because of something called a creeper.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, forgetting about the hole that I had begun to dig into the wall of my mountain.

"Yeah, three of my players just died."

I cocked my head, too new to Minecraft to understand why that could be a problem. It was just a game after all. Couldn't they just restart? "Can they restart?"

"Not for a week. My server is . . . unique. That's what makes it great. Only problem is that, while there's no short supply of people willing to collaborate on the Project, not many people are good enough players to last long enough to do much."

"Project?"

"I call it Operation Commence in Zero," Asher said, leaning back and stretching his arms before exiting out of the chat and moving out of the building he was in and down a ladder. I fixed my eyes on his screen, watching as he walked through a town of sorts as the world around him slowly started to darken.

"I've been playing Minecraft since the alpha was first released," Asher elaborated. "I even find the Hard mode easy now, and when I ventured online to join in on a multiplayer server I was too easily annoyed by all of the halfwits that play the game. I would make astounding structures only to have idiots grief – err, destroy – them. So I decided that I would make my own patch for the game to make it more fun for some of the more hardcore players out there like myself. The end result is my server, and O-CIZ. I only allow serious players onto the server to help with the Project, which is to find the gemstones that are hidden somewhere in the world. If we can find all twelve then we've won."

"Minecraft has gemstones?"

"Not the real game – well, aside from stuff like diamond and lapis lazuli for dying wool – only my server has the special gemstones and the other tweaks I've added." Asher smiled and slit his eyes smugly. "I'm a fair wiz at computers myself. It didn't take too terribly long to implement all my changes onto my server."

I glanced back at my game and then, remembering that I needed coal for my own game, began to play again. Asher had moved into a different building and crafted a book. He had then begun to type out a log in the book, which I found boring since I didn't understand the specifics.

"Have you found any of these gemstones yet?" I reached the coal and begun to excavate it from the wall. More coal was behind it, and I began to dig at that, too.

"We've found five," Asher said. "Spinel, Ruby, Emerald, Topaz, and Aquamarine. They are kept under heavy guard; because one of my tweaks is that the monsters on the server will try and steal them to return them to the place of their origin. In the case of Ruby, that was in the middle of a lava pool. Two people died just trying to extract it. Sevidracona returned a week later. Kwipplet didn't bother."

I made a dozen torches and then continued to bore into the side of the mountain, deciding to make a cave house. Night had fallen on my game, but with the light from my torches I wasn't worried. Though I didn't ask any more questions, Asher continued to talk.

"I suppose that Kwipplet didn't find the Project to be fun anymore. Many people do because of all the changes I made to the game. For instance, at noon every day, your character loses 2.5 hearts. That's easily regained by eating a piece of cooked pork or something, though that does mean that pork has to be cooked – and that pigs have to be slaughtered – around the clock just to keep up with demand. People also gotta eat when injured, and nights here are rough – especially around the fortresses where we keep the gemstones."

"Then just have someone run around and catch pigs all day," I suggested. My cave was quite large now. I blocked up the entrance with cobblestone and then cut a window out of a couple of blocks so I could look out. "Hey, what would happen if I turned on the monsters now?" I asked Asher.

Asher glanced at my screen. "A spider would climb through your window," he said simply. "Block up a hole. Then you'd be safe. Things would growl at you but they'd vanish with the sun so you'd be fine." Asher smiled. "Go ahead, change the game to Easy."

Feeling bold, I switched levels of my game. I then waited, pacing back and forth on my game until I heard footsteps. The most chilling sound I had ever heard emerged from my speakers, causing me to shiver. It was the sort of growl one would hear from . . . from . . .

"That's just a zombie," Asher said, sounding amused. "Hey, breathe, will you? Lewis would kill me if you suffocated yourself over this game."

I timidly reached out to my keyboard, pressed escape, set the game to Peaceful, and then began to breathe once more. "I don't like this game anymore," I declared.

Asher snorted. "Wimp."

I shot the boy a cruel stare. "That was horrible! I don't do scary stuff! I'm sure Minecraft is a great game, but it's not worth the nightly heart attacks when the monsters come out."

"Then play on Peaceful?"

I crossed my arms over my chest, debating the idea. The zombie had not growled since I had switched levels back on my game. I hoped that it had disappeared. It would be fun to build things with the blocks on the game . . . but I was mad at it for scaring me so badly and wasn't about to give Asher the satisfaction of continuing to play.

"Maybe later," I said stiffly. "Does this computer go online? Can I check my Facebook? I want to see if anyone noticed that I'm gone."

"Unless you have blind friends, I'm sure they noticed," Asher muttered. "But yes, it goes online. Plug in the yellow cord there and you'll get Internet. Lightning Internet, too, courtesy of yours truly since nobody else seems to understand what a wonderful thing it is."

"Jamie mentioned that you work. What do you do?"

"I fix computers. It pays well. You'd be surprised how technically challenged most people are."

"No, probably not. My mom can't do wired things. She doesn't know how to work the DVD player even. I do all the installations at my house."

I opened Firefox and was dumped onto Asher's homepage – Minecraft Wiki. Biting back the urge to snort, I opened a new tab and logged onto my Facebook. No new notifications. I clicked out of the window and then stared blackly at the Minecraft page. My fingers dragged the mouse slowly down to the F.A.Q.s link. I clicked.

Something rubbed against my leg, and I watched as Minnie began to divide her time between Asher and me. She began to meow persistently, done napping.

"Whaddya want?" Asher asked the cat. She mewed. He sighed and tapped his lap. She jumped into it and then Asher stood. "I'm gonna go give her ten minutes of outside time, back in a bit."

"Okay," I said. Asher left the room. I watched him leave and then shifted my gaze back to the computer screen. Had the cat read my mind? I had wanted a way to scan the Wiki site without Asher seeing me. Now I had the chance to read about Minecraft without him judging me as I did so.

I made the most of my golden opportunity. Nine minutes later I turned off the computer and walked out of the room as Asher returned, no longer oblivious to the world of Minecraft. Skimming did wonders. The next morning I went down to Asher's game room again, knowing he worked on Tuesdays, and turned on his old computer. I started over my old game and played on the Peaceful level for an hour. In three game days I found coal, made torches, and made a 5 by 8 house of cobblestone with a glass roof and windows. I felt very accomplished.

After lunch I continued my game. I found a cave and, despite the scary ambient noises, went exploring. I found a boatload of iron and melted it down to make myself armor. Once the default clothes on my character had been covered by my shiny new duds, I decided I would become bold. I turned the game to easy, and come nightfall I climbed into what was now a two-room structure for the night. I climbed my ladder onto the roof and began to scan the darkening world for signs of movement. I was on a plateau where the ground sloped on all sides of me, and could see fairly far in all directions.

Then I heard the skeletons approaching. I stood petrified on the roof of my house, unable to make my fingers move the character on the screen. An arrow hit me. I pressed escape, quit the game, and left the room.

The next day, after lunch, I found myself back at the computer. Minecraft was difficult to stay away from. I set the game to Peaceful again before starting and focused on the building aspect of the game, the part I found most fun. I quit two hours later, knowing that Jamie would come looking for me if I disappeared for two long, after making a fortress on the beach out of glass. My chosen building material on Minecraft was glass.

When I wasn't playing Minecraft, I found that I spent most of my time downstairs anyway. The sitting room had two large bookshelves stocked with books, and many of them seemed interesting. I didn't foresee needing to go to the library while stranded at my Dad's house this summer. Minnie once sat down on the couch next to me while I was reading. She stared at me for a little while, then I stuck my tongue out at her and she ran away.

Thursday evening I was reading when I heard Asher animatedly swear from his game room. Curious, I investigated, and saw him frantically typing in the chat screen on his game. I waited politely behind him until it seemed safe to ask what had happened.

"Three people died trying to dig down to the next gemstone. It's well guarded – there are monster spawners all around the cave it is in. A total of eight people have died this week alone . . ."

"Can't they just come back in a week?" I asked.

"A week in real life is weeks in the game. I need those players now . . ." Asher moaned. He then seemed to freeze, and glanced over at me. "Wanna play?" he asked.

I backed into the wall in my haste to get away. "Are you kidding? No! Your server is on Hard!"

"I know you've been playing Minecraft while I'm at work-"

"I would be useless on your server. I won't – I can't – fight things. I just run around building things and jumping into the ocean from the side of cliffs for fun. I would be useless," I repeated, trying to stress the point.

"Nobody is useless. If you don't want to fight things you could be a town worker. They're the players who kill pigs and mind the furnaces. At night you could either stop playing or just hide away in a safe house somewhere. I wouldn't judge you for that. In the day you could build, explore, and stuff."

I said nothing, thinking silently. A part of me wanted to try going on Asher's server, scary as it would be. I didn't mind the fact that I would be the local cook – it would give me a definite goal in the game to complete each day. It would be fun.

"Oh fine, I'll play."

Author's Note: Well, what do you think? I'd love any feedback on the story. I'm not exactly sure when I'll have the next chapter ready, but I cannot stand half-finished stories so I will not simply forget about this or anything.

I suppose I should also say that I am basing this story on Minecraft as it is and will be, though because I have never played on multiplayer a lot of it will be somewhat made up. I will do my best to keep things realistic, but please bear with me if my imagination gets carried away.