Notch took a sip of his tea before setting his cup on the table and clearing his throat.
"Are you two feeling better?" Steve didn't move from his seat on the other side of the table, head resting on his arms and wrapped in a blanket. Alex, on the other hand, had her feet propped up on the corner of the table and was casually sharpening an axe.
"Which answer gets us closest to kicking that hacker's butt?"
"'Yes', probably." Notch fixed Steve with a stare until he halfheartedly lifted his chin, meeting his gaze. "Tell me everything you know about Entity 303."
"Well, he's pretty powerful." Alex kicked her feet off the table and sat up straight. "He can teleport, summon weapons and items, place blocks infinitely including bedrock, generally screw stuff up. Not to mention he hangs out in a secluded corner of the End, apparently."
"He's a human from the real world, according to Heather." Steve piped up. "Somehow he hacked into the game and managed to… possess his avatar, I guess, because he doesn't behave like a player. He has the range of motion and control that one of us does. Or Heather. But he's obviously on creative mode, and has weapons with obviously hacked enchantments." He paused, then resumed. "And… he's not afraid of you. At all. He barely sees you as a threat."
"Which will undoubtedly be his downfall." Notch drummed his fingers on the table. "You said he was in the End?"
"Yeah."
"Do you have the coordinates? Initially I could track him, which was how I sent Herobrine there, but he has since escaped into anonymity, as has the girl."
"Wait." Alex interjected. "You sent Herobrine? Since when do the two of you get along?"
"We don't." Notch took another sip of tea. "He came to me, begging me to help him find his wife. I allowed it and provided him with the coordinates."
"Huh." Alex slammed her axe into the table, startling Steve, and leaned her elbow on the handle sticking out. "To answer your question, I do. Our cell was at 289383X, 20Y, -375982Z."
"Wonderful." A menu appeared in the air next to the god, and he inputted the numbers Alex has given him before it disappears again.
"What are you gonna do?" Steve asked, propping his chin up in his hand.
"I presume that since he hasn't attacked me yet, he's preparing. I intend to interrupt such an action." Notch held out a hand, and an enchanted diamond sword appeared in it. "I'm going to kill him."
"Incredible." Herobrine's flat voice rang out through the hall as 303 opened his door. "His highness has deemed me worthy of his presence. Pray tell, what have I done to warrant such a momentous occurrence?" Narrowed eyes glowed from the farthest corner, and 303 glanced around for a moment before locating Manfred standing against the opposite wall.
"Your wife is ****ing annoying." He answered the question, gesturing to the Enderman and calling him to his side. As the mob obeyed, Herobrine raised an eyebrow at him.
"You're removing my guard?"
"Yeah." 303 replied, as nonchalantly as he could manage. "I'm not worried that you'll run. It's not like she's any safer than she was before." Herobrine glanced at the Enderman. "He works for me, he's not gonna protect her."
"Do you know what I think?" Herobrine leaned his chin in his hand, the epitome of insouciance as he reclined against the wall. "I think you underestimate the creatures of this world."
"Yeah, we'll see about that." Beckoning the mob with him, 303 turned and exited the cell, letting the door slam behind him once Manfred was clear.
The creature let out a string of unintelligible speech, and 303 side-eyed him before pulling up a menu.
"This is getting old real quick." Pausing to lean against a wall, he isolated Manfred as an entity and inputted a few commands. The creature watched quietly for a few moments, then froze briefly as 303 activated the new code. "Now, what'd you say?"
"I asked where we were going." The Enderman's voice was still low and garbled, but at least vaguely understandable. He had no idea how Heather managed to learn their tongue.
"Back to Heather's room, you two can hang out for a while." Dismissing the menu, he continued down the hall again.
"Why?"
"I'm getting tired of her whining."
"...ah." He fell silent, and the two made their way back to the girl's cell. 303 directed him inside without interacting with the cell's inhabitant, and turned away, putting some distance between them. Their earlier interaction had been awkward enough, he didn't want to instigate another one.
Teleporting back to the hallway connected to Herobrine's cell, Theo cast one last withering look at where Steve and Alex had been housed. Somehow they had slipped out, and managed to pull off a suicide jump into the void. Now they were out there somewhere, and he had to track them down all over again.
At least it wasn't Herobrine, he mused as he sat down against the wall. He'd be much harder to catch, since he knew him better now. The element of surprise was gone.
Unless, of course, he could cripple him. That way, if he did escape, it would be simple to get him back. Cracking his knuckles, Theo pulled up another menu, locked onto Herobrine's signature just a few blocks away, and got to work.