I'm baaaaaaack! Extra long chapter as a compensation for the terribly long wait you had to endure :'(
HUAHAHAHAHAHA! SO MANY REVIEWS! THANK YOU!
Holy crap, I never seriously expected to reach the point where OC submissions were a possibility! Again, THANK YOU!
I have now decided to respond to reviews!
exb756 - Yeah, cave spiders suck. And thanks to your review, milk will now become part of the story! Hooray for cave spider venom!
pikminpro - I accept your OC. However, our characters actually need to find a jungle before they find -unknown_name_OC- Thanks!
Donut Yang - I will consider your OC...IF you allow me to tweak her a bit. Just a bit...
And now, Part Two of The Underground!
The girl looked away, slightly embarrassed by so many new faces. "My name is Rebecca Diamond VVII."
Max raised an eyebrow. "Diamond?"
Rebecca scowled. "It's a family name!"
Max raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I wasn't saying you weren't worthy or anything! Just... a little taken aback."
"You didn't answer his question. Who are you? How did you wind up down up here?" Raymond asked.
"I was getting to that..." Rebecca said, shooting Max a look. "Anyways, I didn't 'wind up' down here; I live down here." A second later she shook her head. "I know what you're thinking. No, I don't live down here." she gestured around the city. "I live with my family in a shelter down there." she said, pointing at an innocent-looking drainage hole.
She started walking toward the hole, but before she got three steps she gasped and doubled over. Max hurried over. "What's wrong?"
She looked up, and rolled up her left sleeve without a word. On her arm was a small gash. Spreading from it were small lines of green. Imagine a shattered windshield.
"Cave Spider venom." Rebecca gasped, before falling down.
Everyone else looked on in shock. Max was the first to react. "Help me!" he commanded, and together he and Cliff helped up Rebecca and dragged her to the hole, where they jumped down.
Inside was dark and musty. Cliff and Max looked around. Everything was dark.
Max smacked his head. "Of course. Guys, we need some torches down here!" he yelled back up.
A light filled the room. Wow, that was fa- Max's train of thought was interrupted by the realization that he was surrounded by several people, and that the light that enveloped him was far too powerful for some torches. When his vision cleared, he realized he was surrounded by men with swords pointed straight at them.
One man stepped forward to attack them, but stopped cold when he recognized Rebecca. "Wha-put her down! Who are you?!"
"Please! Wait! We helped her...she helped us..." Max pleaded.
"Oh thank Notch! Darling, you're alive!" the man gasped, and Max guessed he was her father.
Suddenly, another of the men stepped forward, eyes wide. "Get away from her! She's been bitten!" he screamed, pointing at her arm.
"No..." the father sobbed.
The other man was less tearful. "Get her away!" he commanded, pointing at Max and Cliff.
Neither budged, slightly stunned at what had just happened.
"Move!" he said again, waving his sword.
Without a word, Cliff and Max carried her out of the drainage ditch and back into the city.
The Survivalists were very confused at this point, with what they heard making no sense. Cliff started to explain basically what had happened, but Max was distracted by a small note that the first man had slipped him as they had scrambled out.
Quickly, get into the palace and find the cure to this horrible plague. We are so afraid of it, they just cast out my own daughter, Rebec- no time, go, but be c-
And all of a sudden, the text stopped. Max guessed the man had not had enough time to write the rest of the note. He looked up. Rebecca was starting to get up again. Max ran over.
"We tried to get into the pipe, but then th-" Max was cut off in the middle of his harried explanation.
"I know, I know. I heard the whole thing..." Rebecca sighed. "I thought that my dad would put up a better fight than that...I'm dead..."
"No. No you're not. There's a cure!" Max exclaimed, rather suprising everyone.
"Shut up. Stop giving me hope. You get bit by a cave spider...you're dead. No chance. Just gotta wait for death, I suppose." she groaned, downcast.
"You'll see." Max scowled, and ran off.
Rebecca looked around. No one else was paying any attention anymore, as they were all crowded around the drainage hole in curiosity. She ran after him, clutching her arm.
Max finally stood before the large building he assumed was the palace. The door was barred shut, and he prepared to bash it down with some scrap wood.
However, a voice stopped him. "Max, wait! STOP!" Rebecca screamed.
Max spun around. "What are you doing here? Get back to my friends!"
She glared at him. "No!"
Max jerked back, stunned. He glanced away. "Sorry for trying to help..." he mumbled.
"Agh, I'm sorry. I always ruin things with my temper, don't I?" Rebecca said, the anger draining out of her, replaced by dread. "I'm sorry."
"Yeah. Sure." Max growled, and lifted the chunk of wood yet again to smash the door.
"What did I tell you?" she snapped, grabbing his arm. Max shot her a look. "Yeah, sorry. But...don't open that door!"
"Why not...?"
"I'll explain later, just go this way, ok?" she said, climbing through a broken window.
Max went in after her, and found the inside musty but well lighted by the holes in the roof. He looked at the doorway, and saw that it had a small piece of rope that was rigged to these strange boxes, hooked up by this mysterious red dust/wire that snaked along the floor.
"What's this?" he wondered aloud, reaching for some of the wire.
Rebecca shoved him aside, and threw a stick on the wire. A second later, the wire glowed with an intense red light, and several arrows shot out of boxes and imbedded themselves in the doorway. Max stepped back, wide eyed.
"And that is why I didn't want you to break down that door..." Rebecca chided. "Come on, and try not to get killed along the way." she said behind her as she headed down a hallway.
Max ran to catch up with her. "Wait, who booby-trapped this place? Why the heck would they do that? What's h-"
Rebecca interrupted him. "You see...I was just a little girl when we still lived in this city. We were cut off from the rest of the world, and the only contact we had was these miners that came down. A few years ago, they discovered something. We have no idea what, but it turned them into those...things that we saw earlier. The plague quickly spread, and what was left of our people hid in these bunkers. The miners also unleashed those spiders, and my people are paranoid of their bites. They will kill you, and a lot of people think their venom is the reason behind the infection."
Max was, overwhelmed to say the least. "Still not answering my question..."
"Oh, yes. That. Anyways, right before we gave up and ran for the bunkers, the mayor announced that he had found a cure for the bites. Unfortunately, he went a bit crazy and along with a couple" here Rebecca grimaced, "and barricaded themselves in the palace. We're a whiz with redstone, you see, and they trapped it so no one would steal their power, the cure."
"Well then...why did they just leave a giant hole in the window?" Max asked.
"Well, it wasn't there when they were alive, you dummy!" she retorted. Max nearly said something before he realized that her voice had been playful, not actually angry. But there's a fine line between that... Max mused.
Farther and farther they advanced into the palace, and the decay off the building exposed traps and/or deactivated them, rendering the entire passage safe.
"And here we are!" Rebecca exclaimed, as they strolled into the main hall of the palace. Max was expecting another run down, broken up place, but instead the room, its furniture, the decorations, the golden throne, everything was in pristine condition.
"Wait, a throne?" Max asked.
"Something isn't right here. This guy was only a mayor, after all..." Rebecca whispered.
Suddenly, from the ceiling came a dreadful laugh. Both teens looked up in horror, to see a old, enfeebled man crouching in a small hole in the ceiling.
"Hows does you leek mee throone?!" he screached.
"He's insa-" Rebecca suddenly gasped and doubled over. "It's the poison!" she exclaimed before falling to the floor in agony.
"Haave yee come ffor the cuure? Leek everyoone eelse? Hahahaha!" the terrible voice berated them, holding a small vial filled with a glowing red liquid.
"Yeah, we have! Give it or face my fury!" Max yelled.
Rebecca looked up. "'Face my fury'? No offense, that was pretty weak."
Max rolled his eyes. "Kinda in the middle of something! Stay down!"
"Mee frieends weel keel youse! Buddiees!" the crazy mayor screamed, pulling a lever. A hidden door in the wall opened up, and a small horde off monsters staggered out. "Gooo awayyy!"
Max was frozen, his mind racing furiously. Aha! I got it! he thought excitedly.
"Hey, mayor!" he yelled.
"Itss KING to youse!"
"This room looks pretty good. But I have a suspicion that you didn't try and fix what was on the inside of the palace, did you?"
"Whaaaas?"
"The framework. What holds all this pretty crap together. Its whats on the inside that counts here, eh?" Max clarified, and slammed his pickaxe into the wall just as the monsters shuffled under the mayor's position. The ceiling fell down, the mayor with it. Max grabbed the healing potion right out of his hand.
"Eeeeiiiii!" he screamed, just as the monsters started to converge n him, an easier target. Max went to help Rebecca up.
"Waiit! Youse saaave mee, not her, riight?" the crazed, evil mayor shouted.
Max looked at the mayor, and then at Rebecca's struggling form. "Are you kidding me?" he asked, and helped Rebecca up with one hand. Together, they staggered down the hallway, leaving the mayor to his fate.
Once they staggered out of the palace, Max helped Rebecca down and tried to give her the potion. She batted his arm away, with her diseased, feeble arm.
"No! Give it to my people, so they can copy it! We have a dozen more people in an isolation chamber, sick! We can save them, but it'll take more than one potion!" she pleaded.
"Fine. Here, some water." Max offered.
Quizzical, Rebecca would have suspected something had she been fully alert, which she obviously was not. "Thanks." she took a long gulp before realizing that Max had given her the potion.
"What! Why you...you really care for me that much?" she asked, watching the poison receade from her arm.
Max just grinned, and shifted positions. Rebecca hadn't been the only thing Max had brought out of the palace; he had also found a entire box of healing potions in the confusion.
"...I'll get for that one!" she promised.
So sorry, it took FOREVER to get this chapter out, but here it is. Please submit your OC's, if you have them. Wow, writing the mayor's dialogue really drove SpellCheck crazy, but, screw it.
Guys, I almost gave up writing back there. School was overwhelming, and I felt like there were SO MANY other things to do, but just looking at your reviews, your PM's, seeing how you enjoyed my story...you guys are the true reason for this chapter.
Thanks so much.
Also, every chapter now I shall make a list of my (current) favorite Minecraft fanfictions!
+Prophecy of Minecraftia
+Gone
+The Minercaft Project
+Minecraft (yeah, yeah. just find it, ok? its name is actually pretty unique! :P)
+Minecraft: The Saga of Kyle
One last thing: I'm thinking of writing a pretty unrelated one-shot on my Hardcore character's life. Should I? Head on over to my account page, and check out my poll!
You guys are the best.