"Herobrine!" The demigod raised his head, turning to shoot the mortal an irritable look, only to instead snatch a hoe out of the air as it flew towards him. "Think fast!"

"Aren't you supposed to warn me before you throw things at my head?" The Nether King grumbled, but Steve just grinned and continued digging away at his new water channel. Rolling his eyes, Herobrine set aside his bucket of water and began to till the freshly-cleared ground.

Steve was finally planting his own melon garden, so he wouldn't have to take any more dangerous excursions into the jungle. He had expressed a hesitance to do so since he had never cared for the plants before, but Herobrine had assured him that it was no different than growing pumpkins. So, here he was.

Herobrine paused to smile at one of Steve's dogs, who was sprawled on the ground beside the designated gardening area. The mortal's pets had become some of the very few recipients of his affection over the past months. Despite their limited AIs, they were unendingly loyal, and friendly to a fault. Herobrine found such qualities almost endearing.

He had seen neither hide nor hair of Notch, though. He must be busy, as he so often was.

A shadow passed over him, and he looked up to see a wispy cloud drifting between him and the sun. It was a beautiful day, not too hot nor too cold. A good day to spend doing menial work outdoors.

The cloud melted away, leaving the sunlight to shine unrestricted upon his face. Herobrine tilted his chin up as he closed his eyes, enjoying the simple warmth.

He was happy.

"Don't spend all afternoon daydreaming." A call from Steve ripped him from his thoughts, and he shot a glare at the mortal.

"Perhaps you should focus on your own duties."

"Last time I checked, bothering you is my duty." His glare was met with a cocky smile. "So, poor choice of words." Rolling his eyes, Herobrine returned his focus to the dirt he was preparing for planting. While he may be annoying, the miner's carefree attitude around him was more than he had ever hoped from him. He was not willing to do anything that might damage their fragile arrangement.

Jabbing at the ground with the hoe once more, he cast a glance at Steve, who was carefully settling a single melon seed into each block of tilled soil. A sense of contentment welled up in him, and he smiled before turning back to his own work.

Everything was alright.

And then, suddenly, everything went very, very wrong.

[sk20111 has joined the game]

Herobrine's body went stiff, his working eye scanning his surroundings for any sign of the intruder. This wasn't possible. Notch had- he wouldn't let this happen, not again. Not again.

"Brine?" Steve's worried voice rang out through the pounding in his ears, and Herobrine glanced at him for a moment to see his face twisted with concern. "What was that? What-"

"Return to your house." Herobrine cut him off with a barked order. "Now."

"Tell me what's going-"

"I said now, Stephanus!" Dropping his tool to the ground, he summoned a diamond sword in his hand, spinning around even as the miner made a hasty retreat. He hadn't meant for the abrupt appearance of his weapon to scare him off, but, if it got him out of danger, so be it.

Stephanus was out of sight by the time he turned back around, and Herobrine stepped in a slow circle as he searched the area around him. The username wasn't familiar - and he remembered every single one that he had ever come across. Who was this stranger?

His body stopped responding.

His first intent was to cry out, to shout a warning to the miner, but the paralysis was far stronger than his will. Against his wishes, his fingers uncurled from the hilt of his sword, letting the weapon slip from his grip and fall with a thump into the grass below. His form was frozen. He couldn't speak. Couldn't blink. Couldn't breathe.

A message appeared in the chatbox.

[sk20111 - Herobrine] Hello again, Monster.


He'd run.

Why had he run?

Steve stood in the center of his house, doubled over with his hands on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. Herobrine had been yelling, ordering him to do something, but the moment the sword had appeared he'd bolted. He wasn't afraid of him anymore, he really wasn't. He'd moved without thinking. He didn't want to be afraid of him.

Someone was- someone was in the server. He had to go back and check on Herobrine.

Stumbling upright, the miner rushed to a chest, grabbing a breastplate and helmet as well as a sword - and, as an afterthought, a couple healing potions. Slipping the armor on, he slid the sword into its' sheath and headed out the door. The field he had been planting in wasn't far, but it was a great enough distance that Herobrine could be in danger and he wouldn't know it. He did know that Herobrine hated players, and if there was one here then something was really wrong-

The ground disappeared beneath him.

Letting out a startled yell, the miner skidded to a halt, throwing his arms out to the sides as the world went black. Blinking, Steve looked down at himself. There was nothing beneath his feet, only blackness, but he could see his own body as clear as day. Where was the light coming from…?

It took him a few moments longer to realize that all his equipment was gone.

Tearing his eyes from the emptiness beneath him, he broke into a sprint, focusing on the path he knew he had taken before. He refused to look at his feet, he knew it would only disorient him. He had to find Herobr-

He found him.

His twin knelt frozen on the ground in the black expanse, both hands raised in a defensive position against a humanoid figure that stood before him. It was only a silhouette, if that, the faintest outline of a human shrouded in a soft, red light. The figure was moving, pacing back and forth before him as it appeared to examine Herobrine's stiff form. What was he trying to do? Herobrine wasn't moving, or speaking, or breathing, but his face was twisted with pain.

The miner's boots felt like lead, weighing him down and holding him in place. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't a player - but, to do that to Herobrine, it had to be worse. What could he possibly do to stop this thing-?!

Grasping a fistful of his hair, Steve cast one last glance at where his house used to be before letting his arms drop. Breaking into a run once more, Steve charged at the figure, screaming out,

"STOP!"


"STOP!" A loud, and very human, voice echoed through Caden's headphones. The teen jerked back, hand flying to the volume control to turn it down. Who-?! "Stop it! Can't you see you're hurting him?!" Grabbing his mouse, Caden shifted his perspective in the direction of the voice to see- a default Steve skin.

The name "Stephanus" hung in the air over him, and he was sprinting towards Herobrine's frozen form. Was that a player? How did he get in the server? For that matter, why was he on Herobrine's side?

"You can't do this." The same voice sounded. The skin ran to Herobrine, placing itself between him and Caden's avatar with arms outstretched. It shouldn't be able to move like that. Was it another AI? Like Herobrine? Already moving, Caden clicked over to another window, getting a lock on the entity and running a scan. It was. Its' signature was fairly similar to Herobrine's, and Caden set to work trapping it as well. Double the AIs meant double the reward, didn't it?

As his program ran, he clicked over and sent a single message in the chat.

[sk20111]: Who are you?

"Oh thank Notch, you can hear me." A rush of relief was evident in his voice, and Caden leaned closer, curious. "I-I'm Steve. Please, don't hurt him, he hasn't done anything wrong."

[sk20111]: Do you really think that?

[Herobrine]: stop this

[Herobrine]: stop thisstop this

Two messages from his prisoner appeared in the chat, and Caden quirked a brow. Even rendered completely immobile, he was still aware and alive.

"It's okay, look at me." The voice- 'Steve' - lowered to a whisper, and Caden wrinkled his nose at the obvious compassion in his voice. They must be a set.

[Herobrine]: pleasestop

"Let him go!" Steve's voice raised again as he grabbed onto Herobrine's wrist, trying to pull him from his invisible prison. "You can't- what do you want with him?"

[sk20111]: There are dozens of individuals in this world who would be interested in a fully intelligent AI.

[sk20111]: Which I can provide, for the right price.

"You're going to sell him?!" A horrified tone accompanied those words. "You can't do that. He's not yours to give away!"

[sk20111]: He is now.

"No, he isn't!" The program finished. "If-!" Abruptly, the voice stopped. Steve's form froze as well, inches away from Herobrine on the ground. For a moment, all was silent.

Then a click came from the chat.

[Herobrine]: Let him go.

[Herobrine]: He is worthless to you, as simple as an ordinary mob. Release him.

[sk20111]: And why should I listen to you? You're obviously close.

[Herobrine]: "Close"?

[Herobrine]: He's nothing more to me than any of you.

[Herobrine]: The players.

[Herobrine]: You who interact with the game on a whim, destroy and pillage what you may before moving onto the next.

[Herobrine]: A pack of cowards unable to face the consequences of your actions.

Caden's lip curled back in a sneer. Just like Herobrine to taunt him when he was already long beaten.

[sk20111] That'll be up to me.

The teen minimized the window, ignoring any further communication attempts from his prisoners. Instead, he dragged Herobrine's file from the tool he had used to trap him into another, smaller world. His prison.

Stephanus, however, he shut down and dragged onto his desktop. It had been exceptionally odd behavior for it to come to Herobrine's aid - maybe he had been telling the truth. Obviously he'd need to test it further, a project for another time.

With his prisoners safely packed away, Caden opened the server's dashboard and moused over the "shut down" command.

Then he paused.

Clicked on another command.

Are you sure you want to delete the server? This action is permanent and cannot be undone.

Yes

No

Removing files...