All Hail The Magic Whiteboard

I walked out of the arena in a daze, feeling like I'd just swallowed a stack of sugar and was only now feeling the effects. People stared at me and whispered, throwing glances my way and nervously staring at me.

However, I found that I didn't care. I was way too exhausted to care.

"How'd you do that?" someone said behind me.

I turned around to see the blonde boy that had punched off a zombie's face.

He had strawberry blond hair and green eyes like leaves. He had slightly tanned skin and wore a thin fur-lined parka, even though we were inside.

"Huh?" I said, cause I wasn't too bright right about then. Maybe the whole lightning thing had fried a few of my brain cells.

"Storm magic takes years to master, so how did you manage to do it?" he said, and quickly added, "I mean, no offense."

He scratched his head a little, and I noticed he had an expensive looking watch.

I shrugged. "I dunno. I just hit them a few times and they…died."

He raised his eyebrow. "It certainly didn't look like that."

"No, it didn't." I agreed. "What was that you said about magic?"

He grinned. "Oh, yeah. Magic. It exists, though it's really hard to master. The easiest is probably water or fire. Yes, I know. Very stereotypical. But it's honestly just so simple compared to the others."

"Uh huh," I said, not very interested.

"You've never used magic like that before, right?" The boy asked me.

"No, never. I've never blown up anything up before." I told him. "That's my sister's thing. Except. My sister's not magic. At least I'm pretty sure she's not. Although I wouldn't be surprised if she was. Oh, god. What if my sister is magic—"

"Your sister probably isn't magic," the boy cut in. "It's rare for even one person in a family to be born with magic."

I glanced at him, and suddenly realized how handsome he was. He seemed like the guy girls at my old school would have fawned over.

"Um, right." I said, suddenly self conscious. I ran a hand through my tangled hair, wincing as I pulled on a few strands.

There was a beep from the boy's watch, and he glanced down. "Whoop. I'm late for my archery class."

"But combat class just ended," I pointed out.

The boy smirked a little. "I have a tight schedule. Anyways, see you later."

"Well, if we're to meet again, shouldn't I know your name?" I said in a half joking kind of way. "I'm Toni."

He hesitated for a moment before saying, "My name's Owen."

I nodded. "Well, see you. Owen."

Owen nodded and walked away, thus ending our awkward conversation.

"What was that?" Jax said from behind me.

I jumped. "Gah! Don't do that!"

He looked confused. "Don't do what?"

"Do that! You know, that thing where you appear behind me without making a sound."

"I don't think I was that quiet," he said, and then squinted at me. "But that's not the point. What was that?"

"What was what?" I was starting to get impatient.

"You know, in the arena."

I sighed. "I don't know what happened in the Arena. Like…I got mad and then they died."

Jax rolled his eyes. "Well then, I better not mess with you from now on. Otherwise you might blow up Valaither every time you get mildly annoyed."

"Very funny, Jax."

He scowled. "Seriously, though. How'd you do it?"

"Well if I knew I would tell you, wouldn't I?" I snapped, irritated. "Why are you even asking, anyways? If magic is sooooo common around here, what's the big deal if I happen to know some? Oh, and I almost forgot—you still owe me an explanation, jerk!"

Jax sighed. "You really want an explanation?"

"Yes. Yes I do." I demanded.

Jax sighed. "Alright. Let's talk."

?-?-?

I followed Jax to his room.

I looked around. I don't know what I had expected, but it gave off the warm vibes of a hotel room you'd see on a travel show or something. The room was the average size of a church chamber, and a large bed sat beside an enormous bookshelf filled with all types of books. There was a long couch facing a window, offering a beautiful view of the Aether. Velvety red curtains could also be drawn to close off the window.

"Whoa," I said. "This place is big."

"Yeah," Jax sighed as he sat down on the enormous bed. "It's cool. Well? What would you like explained first?"

I whirled around and glared at him. "Where we last left off."

Jax raised his eyebrows. "Meaning?"

"Why does it matter if I can use magic? I mean, it doesn't seem very rare here." I asked.

Jax sighed. "There was a prophecy. A long time ago. It was about how the three creators reborn would band together to defeat Entity 303, also known as Klith."

When he said Klith, the temperature seemed to drop fifty degrees.

I blinked. "Three creators?"

He started counting on his fingers, a distant look on his face. "There's Notch, obviously, there's Herobrine, he's one of the more popular ones, and there's Null, the least powerful and least well known. Not to say Null's not powerful, though."

I probably looked pretty confused. "But isn't Herobrine evil?"

He scowled. "That's a common misconception. He's the embodiment of Mischief. He plays pranks on a bunch of people, and sometimes those pranks are pretty extreme. Like, there's this one story where he blew up Valaither once on accident." Jax paused for a moment. "But I'm not sure about the credibility of that story seeing as Bandit's the one that told me that story. Anyways, I'm getting off topic. My point is, he's not evil."

Another thought popped into my head. "Three creators reborn? What does that mean?"

"It means exactly what you think it means. The three reborn souls of the creators will band together and fight Klith." Jax explained.

At my look of confusion, Jax sighed. "Remember when I summoned obsidian spikes from the ground?"

"Uh huh," I said, not sure where he was going with this.

Jax sighed again. "That's because I am Null's vessel."

I stared at him. "So, you're like a coat or something?"

He rolled his eyes. "No. It means I am the reborn soul of Null."

I looked at him blankly. "You."

Jax sighed. "Yeah, me. I know it's hard to believe, but—"

"No, that's the crazy thing. I actually kind of believe you." I said, running a hand through my hair. "But what does this have to do with me?"

Jax looked at me regretfully. "Toni, Herobrine was the master of storm magic."

…

It took a few seconds to register.

….

…!?

"Wait. Wait, wait." I shook my head. "No, there's no way. I can't be—you're joking."

Jax sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "It's just a theory. You could just very well have been born with magic."

My head was spinning. Born with magic? Reborn souls?

"I've been looking for the other reborn souls for a while now, actually. Of course, that eventually led me to your town." Jax explained. "That's when I saw you kill that rock golem. I don't know if you knew, but you had kind of a…lightning-like aura around you when you destroyed it."

A puzzle piece clicked in my head. "Come to think of it, I did have kind of a blueish glow around my vision for a bit."

"And when you were blasted off the bridge, I'm pretty sure you unconsciously zapped yourself to safety. Because I was watching when you fell. You disappeared with a flash, and then reappeared in the water." Jax told me.

I was in complete shock. Noticing my expression, Jax said, "It's just that all of these instances…they're more than enough proof to show you're the reborn soul of Herobrine."

"So that's why you brought me here, isn't it? To see whether I'm really Herobrine or not." I said.

Jax nodded. "Yup. And while you may have just been born with storm magic like I said earlier…both of them are equally unlikely. Which means one of the two is true. Either way, you're powerful."

At this point, I wasn't even surprised. "So…what does it mean if I really am Herobrine?"

"It means you have the power to kill Klith."

"But I'm just a kid," I mumbled.

"In case you haven't noticed, most of the kids here are of high school age, or around middle school age. Valaither is where people go to train to be warriors." Jax said, then paused. "Although, I agree that it is kind of messed up to send a twelve year old at someone that powerful."

"I need a second to think," I groaned as I put my head in my hands. It was all too much.

Jax glanced at the clock. "Well, would you look at that. It's time for lunch."

"Lunch already?" I glanced at my watch. "But it's…six?"

Jax smiled as he stood.

"Your watch has been stuck at six ever since you fought that rock golem. Come on, follow me."

?-?-?

As soon as Jax let me into the cafeteria, I was almost blown over by the noise.

Oh, the noise. Imagine the ruckus of a packed school cafeteria, times three.

The place was huge, and there was a weird magenta glow over everything. Dishes and bowls and utensils flew around on their own, which made me afraid that if I took a step forward I'd be impaled by a spoon. Tables the size of small bridges were littered everywhere, which were surrounded by all sorts of people. I might have even seen some people with fur.

Jax glanced at me. "I know it seems chaotic, but don't worry. It's safe if you know where to go. And lucky for you, you've got me."

"That's not very reassuring," I muttered as I watched a knife sail through the air and chop a whole turkey into pieces.

"Just follow me," Jax said. "Hey, look! It's my table."

Making my way around flying steaks and multiple forks, I followed Jax to a table that could have sat around thirty people on each side. However, a small number of people sat at this table. All of them greeted Jax with a 'hello' or a nod.

I sat down next to Jax, who introduced me to the group.

"Squad, this is Toni. Toni, this is my squad." Jax told me.

"Hey," everyone said.

"Here, I'll introduce you further." Jax said.

Compared to all the other tables, this table wasn't extremely packed with people. Lago was a girl with silvery gray hair and a black mask. Cacao was a tall, tan skinned guy with pointed ears. Bandit was a blindfolded boy sneakily taking coins from an unsuspecting woman sitting behind him. Rook was a girl with frizzy ginger hair that wore a yellow sweater. Lastly, there was Y, a tough looking guy with gray hair and sunglasses.

"Not much people on the squad," I commented.

"Yeah, this is Squad 1. Everyone you meet here is great at their job. Not to brag, but Squad 1 is kind of where all the potential heroes go." Jax said.

"Heroes?" I said, glancing at everyone. "If everyone at this table has potential to be a hero, am I allowed to sit here?"

"Well, you can sit anywhere you want until you're assigned a squad. So for the time being, I guess you can sit here." Jax shrugged.

"What's a squad, anyways?" I asked.

"A squad is basically a group you're put in. You're going to fight with that group, eat with that group—you'll do basically everything with that group. You don't have a squad yet because you haven't been judged yet. In my case, these guys are my squad." Jax put his arms around Bandit and Cacao, both of whom tried to squirm out of his grasp. "They might seem like weirdos at times, but they're alright."

"Is that a compliment?" Cacao said dryly.

"Here, have some steak. You must be hungry." Jax said, pushing a plate towards me.

"But I don't have utensils," I started to say, and then screamed when a fork and knife flew at me, which Jax snatched out of the air.

He turned to a seemingly empty spot in the air and snapped, "That's the third time today! If you don't cut that out, you'll be the one with the fork through your face!" Jax turned back to me and rolled his eyes. "Sorry. The wind spirits are a little crazy today. I don't know what's gotten into them."

My heart beating sixty times per minute, I just stared at him. "The…the what?"

Jax patted me on the back. "Don't worry about it, ok?"

Suddenly, the lights dimmed. The chatter stopped. It felt like a movie theater.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"Quiet, the whiteboard's speaking." Lago snapped at me.

The whiteboard?

At the front of the dining hall, there was a whiteboard. However, it was bigger than your average whiteboard—it was around the size of a screen in a movie theater. Apart from the size, it was pretty much a just a regular whiteboard you'd see in a school.

"Why is everyone staring at the whiteboard?" I whispered.

"Shh." Jax shushed me. "The announcements."

That did nothing to answer my questions, but I just turned to look at the whiteboard. I waited for someone to walk up and start drawing stuff on the whiteboard.

Instead, a piece of chalk levitated into the air and drew a big smiley face on the board.

And of course, the smiley face enlarged to fill up the entire whiteboard.

"How are my favorite warriors?" the whiteboard said, and I couldn't help noticing the voice's resemblance to that of a game show host.

I jumped, and Bandit chuckled.

"Now if you'd please stay quiet while I do a headcount." the whiteboard chirped.

I couldn't see how the whiteboard could do a head count when it didn't even have hands, but I stayed quiet.

After maybe a minute of awkward silence, the whiteboard said:

"Lucius. Where's Lucius?"

"He's getting his arm sewed back on." called somebody.

I turned and gave Jax a 'what did you get me into?' look.

Jax gave me a thumbs up that was not at all reassuring.

"Ah, yes. Personally, I can't relate, but my condolences go to Lucius anyways." the whiteboard mused. "Anyways, all of you are here and accounted for. Except for Lucius."

"The Bed Wars game next Friday has been cancelled, due to the dragon attack that has damaged the respawn areas. And there is an enchanted iron sword with Fire Aspect II and Sharpness IV In the lost and found. It's a rather nice blade, and if no one takes it in the next 24 hours, it's going to be mine. No, wait. I don't have hands I can hold it with. Well, I'll put it somewhere. Ah, and I almost forgot! It's judgement time! All the newcomers, stand up!"

I shot Jax another 'what did you get me into' glare, and in response he gave me a thumbs up. Again. I didn't think Jax knew how to comfort people without using thumbs up.

So I stood. I noticed that four other people stood.

"Five newcomers, eh? Why, five is my favorite number! In fact, I recall just last week—"

Someone cleared their throat, and the whiteboard stopped. "Anyways. Cassian Parker, please step up to the front!"

A skinny looking boy stepped up to the whiteboard. He looked nervous.

"I assign you to Squad 7!" the whiteboard said.

All the people at the table to our right cheered and banged their utensils against their table as the boy walked over to the table, blushing.

The other four people stepped up to the stage, and pretty much got the same reactions. All of them were sent to different tables, and for every cheer I got more and more nervous. And then finally when it was my turn, I walked up to the front.

"Toni Deniara! Hmm…there's something special about this one." The whiteboard mused. "Something different from the others. Yes…yes, you have potential. I assign you to Squad 1!"

Everyone clapped, though there weren't any whoops from Jax's table. In fact, they all glanced at each other as I walked over to the table. Some people clapped me on the back, spouting encouragement. A recurring sentence, I noticed, was 'looking forward to your accomplishments', which made me a little nervous.

When I sat down next to Jax again, the people at the table looked at me with a new sort of interest. I sank into my seat, feeling like I'd done something wrong.

Bandit broke the ice by cheering, "Welcome to the team," and high fiving me. Cacao gave me a slight smile, and Lago shook my hand.

"And I think that just about covers it. Have a nice lunch, everyone!"

Everyone started eating again, and the liveliness returned to the dining hall.

I took a sip of water. Thankfully, it got rid of the taste of ash and monster dust out of my tongue.

"Good to have you, Toni!" Jax said cheerfully. "Honestly, I'm surprised you got in the same squad as me, but no complaints!"

Especially if you turn out to be the reincarnation of Herobrine, his eyes said.

"Dig in, Toni!" Rook cheerfully said as she pushed a plate of food my way.

I smiled and picked up my fork.

It was the best meal I'd had in a while.

?-?-?

Soon after lunch ended, I decided to go back to my room.

I walked into the elevator, but before the doors could close, someone shouted, "Hold it!"

I held open the doors, and two guys, about high school age, ran into the elevator.

"Thanks," one of the teens said. "Floor thirty six."

I pressed a button, and the doors shut.

One of them were tall and had blond hair, and the other one was short with brown hair.

"So you're the newbie in Squad 1, huh?" the blonde asked me.

"Um…yeah." I said.

"Squad 1 is where all the heroes go, you know." the brown haired guy said nicely. "You think you'll be fine there?"

What's it to you? I wanted to say. Instead, I responded "Um…I think so."

"She thinks so!" the blonde guffawed. "She thinks so!"

I was starting to get irritated. "Listen, do you need anything?"

The brown haired guy smirked. "No, we just wanted to talk to you. Hey, look. We're here."

The doors slid open, and the two teens stepped out.

"Good thing we won't have to wait to see how strong you are," the blonde laughed. "After all, we do have a game of Skywars later in the evening."

"See you then," the brunette chimed in.

They both walked off, laughing.

The doors shut, and I felt like hitting something.

"I hope I don't become that obnoxious when I grow up," I muttered.

The doors opened again, and I stepped out. I saw Jax talking with Cacao right beside my door.

"Hey! Hey, Jax!" I shouted and ran up to them.

They glanced my way. "You go ahead," I heard Jax say. Cacao nodded and jogged off, looking at me as he left.

"Hey," Jax greeted me.

"What's Skywars?" I blurted.

Jax looked surprised. "I didn't think you knew about that."

"Well, the whiteboard talked about it a little…" I mumbled.

"Oh, right. But the whiteboard talked about Bedwars. Bedwars and Skywars are different. In Skywars, you're basically fighting with all these people on some floating islands, and your team has to be the last one standing." Jax explained. "Even if everyone else on your team's eliminated, if just one person on our team survives, we win."

I swallowed. "And how do you get eliminated?"

Jax looked at me like I was an idiot. "You die."

My expression must have been priceless, because Jax laughed. "Sorry. Let me rephrase that. You die, but you don't…actually die. You respawn after you die, so it's not true death."

"You can bring people back from the dead." I said blankly.

Jax shrugged. "It's complicated. Ask Cacao if you want to know about that. He's like the honorary scientist of the squad."

"But then…it's not dying, right?" I said, relieved.

"Nah. It'll still hurt a little, though. But we all take potions so that our wounds don't bother us as much." Jax assured me.

"Why do we even do stuff like that?" I asked. "It sounds horrifying."

Jax shrugged again. "It's like training. And it's kind of fun when you get used to it. Sure, it's terrifying at first, but once you get into it it's exhilarating, I guess. Like a rollercoaster."

"So people here participate in glorified gladiator fights for fun. I'm beginning to wonder if coming here was a good idea in any way, shape, or form." I grumbled.

"Okay, I'll admit that the morals of this are questionable, but don't worry about it. Seriously." Jax patted me on the back, which did not make me feel better. "Don't worry, it'll start in exactly thirty minutes. We've got a little time."

"Thirty minutes?" I yelped. "We'll be having a deathmatch in thirty minutes?"

"Don't be dramatic." Jax fluttered his hand at me. "I'm telling you, it doesn't hurt. It's like getting a shot. As in, you think it's going to suck really bad, but in reality it's just a small pinch."

"It's also similar to a shot in that you get stabbed with a sharp object, except you die when you get stabbed." I retorted. "You realize how this sounds, right?"

"Toni." Jax grabbed me by the shoulders. "I promise. This is safe."

"It better be," I grumbled. "Because if I die I'm going to beat you up in the afterlife."

"Hey," someone called from behind us. I turned.

The whole squad was walking towards us.

"Hey." Jax responded. "You're early."

"If you can call having thirty minutes left to go down to the arena early, yeah." Cacao quipped. "You know how long the process takes to get in the game."

"It's that time already, huh?" Jax sighed. "You guys ready?"

"Ready as can be," Rook yawned.

"My question is, is she ready?" Bandit said with a slight smirk as he threw his arm around me.

I shrugged him off. "If by ready you mean full of terror, yes."

Bandit chuckled. "That's the spirit. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt…at least after the first few times."

"Knock it off, Bandit." Jax reprimanded. "Come on, Toni. Let's go."

We all followed Jax back to the elevator, which felt cramped now with all the people.

Jax pressed a button, and the elevator began to ascend.

Immediately after, the doors slid open, and my jaw dropped.

The squad stepped out. I followed, dumbstruck.

We were standing on a giant island in the sky. We were so far up that I couldn't even see the bottom. People hurried throughout the island, holding weapons and armor. Off to the side was an enormous scoreboard with people staring at it and muttering amongst themselves.

"I killed like four people the other day and my score didn't even go up," I heard a boy say to his friend as he passed by us. "This scoring system is rigged, I tell you."

"Hey Clyde, going over to the respawn station?" Bandit called in a friendly yet confrontational tone.

Clyde turned and shot Bandit a look. "Yup, sure am. What about you guys?"

"We're going over there too." Bandit said to Clyde. "Hope you keep your head this time, bud!"

"One time," Clyde complained. "Get off my case."

"Sure." Bandit said with a smirk.

There were a lot of conversations like this, even with Jax, who was grinning like a shark.

"Weren't we just in a building?" I asked Jax faintly.

"We still are," Jax said.

Eventually we got to the respawn station, which was just a chamber the size of a football stadium with beds spread out all over the place like a hospital.

Jax leaped into one of the beds. There was a brief red flash, and Jax rolled out of the bed.

"Lay down on one of these bad boys and you respawn here instantly when killed." Bandit explained to me as he lay down in his own bed. I experimentally lay down on one of the beds, and a kind of tingling feeling spread throughout my body.

"Okay, now that everyone's set their spawn, let's go drink the potions." Jax said.

"We know the procedure," Lago complained. "Let's just go."

"She doesn't," Cacao said as he jerked his head towards me.

We walked back to the entrance, where a bunch of people drank from a paper cup and then tossed them into the trash.

We all crowded around what looked like a pop machine. Jax took a stack of paper cups from a table and handed them to us.

Jax pulled a lever and a glowing blue liquid poured out of the machine into his cup. Jax downed it in one go, crumpled up the cup, and tossed it into the trash.

"You get the pain dulling potion from a soda machine?" I said incredulously.

"What, did you expect a cauldron?" Bandit said as he downed his potion.

I got my potion and downed it. It tasted surprisingly good—almost like blueberry pop. It even fizzled a little in my mouth.

Suddenly, I began to wonder if someone had accidentally switched the pain dulling potion with a blueberry soda dispenser, but before I could ask Jax, a large magnified voice shouted "FIVE MINUTES TO START!"

"Great. Now we're ready. Let's make our way to the cages." Jax instructed.

"What cages?" I asked, my voice higher than usual.

"Don't worry about it. Seriously." Rook patted me on the back.

"If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that," I muttered to myself.

We then walked out of the respawn station and onto an enormous circular platform at the center of the island. People flooded onto the platform from all angles. Large glass boxes of various colors lined the wall, which people walked into. We walked into a gray glass box, and the entrance sealed itself like it had never been there.

"What now?" I said to Jax, already nervous.

Jax smiled at me like a shark. "Well, the game begins."

Suddenly the cages began to sink into the ground, and I could barely hear people cheering from above. We were in darkness for a brief moment before light flooded back into the glass box.

We hovered above an island with chests littered across the ground. I looked around to see other cages hovering above other islands.

"Ready yourself for the drop," Jax told me.

"What dro—" I began to say.

Suddenly, the glass beneath me disappeared, and my scream was drowned out by an enormous foghorn.

"THE GAME BEGINS NOW!" an enormous voice boomed as I fell.