Hello Internet!
So, after my first chapter, I got an inflow of messages and comments, which is pretty cool.
Anyhow, I've gotten a few more characters. I think I have enough.
If you want to send me one, by all means, send it, but there are no guarantees that I'll accept it.
Anyway, ON WITH THE STORY!
The characters "Galaxy" and "Nikki" come from Galaxy Fangirl
The character "Lucca" comes from AngelTheSeventh
Mandatory Disclaimer: All rights to Minecraft and all related mobs and characters are reserved to Mojang. Rights to OCs are reserved to their respective owners. I only own the story.
-()-()-
GALAXY
Two characters stare down the long, stone hallway. One is a human, female, tall and pale. The other is a creeper, short and green.
A long moment passes as the two stare at the stronghold entrance.
The tall girl falls to her knees and drops her bow. It clatters on the stone bricks. The noise reverberates around them, causing a faint click across the cave and dungeon.
"The stronghold," Galaxy whispers, "we've found it…"
"YAAAYYYYY!" Nikki jumps into the air repeatedly, excitement evident in both her voice and movements.
Galaxy rises and picks up her bow, slinging it over her thin shoulders.
"It's not over yet," she says, "we still need to navigate the dungeon."
"What?"
The girl looks at the creeper, "The stronghold is a maze. We've found the entrance, we still need to find the exit."
"Oh…" Nikki frowns, "that's bad."
"Whatever," Galaxy starts forward, "let's go."
Nikki runs after the girl, and just catches up to her as they reach the first iron door.
Behind, there is a three-way split.
"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" Nikki cries softly
Galaxy doesn't reply. Extending her hand, she places it upon the leftmost wall. She walks forward, never letting her hand depart form the fortification.
Nikki follows behind, murmuring quietly to herself.
-()-()-
LUCCA
(Three Years Earlier)
"Lucca, come on!"
"I'm coming!"
"Woah, guys! Check this out!"
"What is that?"
"Whatever it is, it's awesome!"
"It's amazing!"
"It's glowing!"
"Any guesses as to what it is?"
"Is it a portal?"
"It's not like the nether portals I've seen."
"It's not a nether portal…"
"I've heard about this thing in storybooks, I didn't think it was real…"
"Wait, you know what this is?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"It's a portal to… the End."
Three boys stand in a stone brick room. Lava bubbles to their left and to their right. Broken pieces of a silverfish spawner lie strewn about the floor.
One of the boys speaks up, he wears glasses and a button-down shirt, "This is called the End Portal. It's not like the nether portal. Once you go in, you can't come back."
A larger boy looks down into the void of the portal, "Wow. That's pretty impressive."
Finally, a small boy stands behind them, watching as the two other boys look into the portal, "I say we should try it!"
The other two boys whip around.
"What?"
"Are you serious?"
The smaller boy looks back at them and shrugs. "Do we have anything to lose?"
The glasses-wearing boy opens and flips through a book, "Technically, we have our families, our friends, and our LIVES!"
The largest boy glances at the portal, and then at the smaller boy, "We have no family, we have no friends, and I could care less about my life. What about you?"
A pause.
"I'm willing to try."
"So am I."
"Excellent!" says the larger boy, "We should go in together."
"Actually no," Glasses glances at a page in his book, "The portal barely has enough power to transport one human at a time. Three would destroy it. Then we would have to gather twelve more eyes of ender."
"Okay then," the larger boy says, "Who goes first?"
"Me," replies Glasses, "I know the most about the End. If the portal is destroyed, and I'm stranded, I'm the most likely to survive while you two get the eyes of ender."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely," Glasses smiles confidently, "I've been waiting for this my whole life."
"Okay," the large boy walks up and bro-hugs Glasses, "Stay safe, and good luck."
The large and small boy back up. Glasses walks to the entrance of the room.
"Excelsior!" Glasses yells, and runs forward, jumping at the last second.
For a moment, he seems to hang in the air. Then, as his foot touches the black, starry portal, his body glows with unearthly light, turns black, and then, disappears from existence.
A minute passes in silence as the other two boys stare at the space where the other boy's body was a moment before.
"Right," the older boy says, "You're next."
"Why?" the younger boy asks
"Because I can handle myself if the portal closes. In the End, there will be two of you."
"All right." The younger boy says, backing up to prepare for the run and jump.
Suddenly, without warning, just as the younger boy was about to dash forward, an enderman appeared directly in front of him.
"LUCCA!" the older boy yells, "Don't look at its eyes!"
But it was too late. The enderman opened its mouth with a piercing scream and ran toward Lucca.
"NOO!" yells the older boy, rushing forward to meet the tall black mob.
The younger boy stands perfectly still as he sees what happens next.
The older boy runs forward, smashing into the enderman before it has a chance to teleport. They both topple backward, off of the stairway and into the black void.
Then, the two bodies glow, turn black, and disappear.
"JASON!" Lucca throws himself forward toward the portal.
He stops himself at the edge when he realizes that the portal is no longer there. Just yellow end portal blocks and lava underneath.
He teeters on the edge for a precarious moment before pulling back.
He stands, panting and crying.
"Jason," he sobs, "Jason,"
He falls to his knees.
"Come back."
(Present Time)
Lucca stared at the entrance of the dungeon. After three years of being stranded in a village, gaining strength, gaining confidence, and gathering eyes of ender, he was finally ready.
It was time to get his friends back.
What he was not expecting was another player walking into the dungeon followed by a creeper.
Who was that? Why was it being followed? Why was the creeper not detonating?
Lucca drew a wooden axe out of his backpack, and sighed.
Many villagers had mocked him for wielding an axe. And a wooden axe at that. They said it wasn't powerful enough. It didn't pack enough punch.
He didn't think so. To him, the sword always felt… wrong. It wasn't balanced right. It didn't feel good in his hand.
On the contrary, when he first picked up an axe, he knew that this was the perfect weapon for him. It balanced perfectly on the end of his hand, it almost felt like an extension of his arm.
If only the villagers knew…
He always practiced in secret, not letting anyone know what he was doing. He would swing his axe, back and forth, building muscle. Gaining strength and precision.
Eventually, he began to attack trees. Standing perfectly still, and then throwing himself rapidly upon the logs. After a few blows, the tree had been felled.
After a long time of training, he began to practice on mobs.
By that point, it had been two years since his friends had gone. They would not have recognized the man that he was now. While before, he was a small, weak, scared child, now he was strong and tall, even though he was still a bit lanky.
Mobs stood no chance.
Lucca would practice by moving silently behind a zombie. Creeping slowly, ever so slowly, until he was right behind it. Then, he swung once. A single blow destroyed the green abomination and left rotten flesh in its wake.
Skeletons were more difficult. Sneaking up behind them was practically impossible since their senses were more developed. But still, after a bit of practice and a few arrows to the knee, Lucca was able to sneak with almost no sound at all. Skeletons were quickly removed from active service.
Creepers were the hardest. Their highly tuned sense of smell removed any possibility of sneaking. Lucca took a more direct approach with those mobs.
He would rush forward, covering the distance between them in only a few seconds. Before the creeper could react, he would plant two strong strikes upon their head, and they disappeared with a poof and some gunpowder.
After so much practice and patience, Lucca was not ready to give up his trusty axe.
Staring at the corridor in front of him, the tall boy donned a leather helmet, and moved silently forward.
In his two years in the village, he became known as 'the protector'. He would never let anyone be harmed by an aggressive mob.
Not a villager.
Not a player.
And definitely not a lone girl in a cave.
No, Lucca thought, the creeper will be destroyed.
With that thought, he quietly rushed into the dark room, ready to face his foe.
-()-()-
And there you go! Another chapter given without meaningful backstory on either of the characters from the last chapter!
Oh well. I like how this is developing.
I've got a few more characters I need to introduce before I give background on them. I realized that there will probably be two or three separate stories going on here. At some point in the far future, they will all collide.
Until then, we'll just have to wait.
Thank you to everyone who commented and messaged me. It was very helpful! Your comments keep me alive (No, seriously, I live in my basement and feed off of internet reviews).
See you all in the next chapter!