Chapter 3: Glitches
Alex
Notch joined the game
I raced to a window to see Notch appear in thin air. He ran inside (without asking. If this had been any other situation, I would've pointed this out) and looked at Steve. He didn't look any better. He cried out in pain and punched the air.
"What's wrong with him!? Why does his eye look like that!? NOTCH WHAT IS GOING ON!?"
Notch ignored me and placed a hand on Steve's head. Steve's eyes closed and he stopped thrashing. White light flowed through Notch's arm and into him. "Don't die on me, Steve."
Steve
I don't know how long I could go on.
My sword was on it's last leg durability-wise. I was covered in cuts, gashes, and bruises, and I think the only reason I'm still alive is because Herobrine was playing around with me. My breathing was heavy as I struggled to stand again. My white-eyed doppelgänger watched me with a sadistic smile. "Tired, Steven? Ready to give up?"
I didn't answer, mostly because I didn't have the breath to. I WAS tired. I didn't know how long I could go on.
Herobrine swiped my legs with his own. I hit the ground hard, and my sword fell out of my hand. Herobrine kicked it way out of reach. He smirked. "You did a nice job, all things considered. But all good things must come to an end."
Suddenly, his form glitched, and the smile fell off his face. He put a hand on his forehead and swore. He turned back to me. He glitched again, and it seemed worse. "I'll see you again soon, Steven." He vanished, and the blackness around me crumbled and disintegrated.
Alex
Notch removed his hand, and nothing happened for a few seconds. Then, Steve shot upright and gasped for air. His white eye faded back to normal.
"Steve!" I cried, embracing him.
"Alex!" He hugged me back, then winced at the pain in his arm. He inspected my less-than-stellar job. "What happened?"
"I don't know. You were in some kind of coma. What happened to you?"
"I'm not sure, either. A white-eyed version of me named Herobrine tried to kill me, and he almost did." He ran his fingers along the crude bandage on his arm and shuddered.
"Herobrine," I echoed. "I bet ten emeralds that's who dug the mineshaft and was talking to me in the forest."
I wondered if he also was the one who took all the leaves off the trees outside. We should probably fix that. Once Steve was feeling better, him and I could go and find another forest to borrow some leaves from and fix the trees outside the fence. Wait. The fence.
"You knew!" I blurted, pointing at Notch. "You knew Herobrine would attack us, that's why you were talking about upping our security. Herobrine was the admin you wanted us to keep out!"
"Well…" Notch hesitated and rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't know for sure when he would attack, and I thought he would go for the both of you. I put a program in that would delete his as soon as he put a single toe in here. He somehow managed to attack Steve psychologically from outside the game."
"And put a virus in Notch's computer so he couldn't get into the game, you gotta admit, he and his Glitch comrades are very smart." Dinnerbone chirped from Notch's world. Notch scowled at something beyond our vision, presumably Dinnerbone. He mouthed the words "shut up!"
"Glitch? What's a Glitch?" Steve asked.
Notch rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Why does no one every help me when I'm trying to accomplish something? Like not cause a panic?"
"Notch, what is a Glitch?" Steve repeated.
Notch sighed. "A Glitch is a being that lives in the internet. They behave like viruses, and they try to take down websites and apps. Herobrine is one. Well, kinda. I'm not one hundred percent sure exactly what he is, so…" Notch trailed off.
There was a long pause. "Why wouldn't Herobrine be a Glitch?" I asked. Steve and I exchanged glances.
"Well, I'm gonna go on lunch," Notch said quickly.
Notch left the game
"There's something he's not telling us. About Glitches, about Herobrine, about everything," Steve said.
"Yeah," I agreed. "Are you ok?"
"I'll be fine. I took a few blows to the head, but nothing too severe." Steve stood up and rubbed the back of his head. "We should probably get an actual bandage on this," he said, gesturing to his arm. I laughed and together we walked downstairs.
We were going to be ok.
Or so I thought.
Herobrine
I walked through the decimated halls of the apartment complex. Dim lights peeked from under a few of the doors, so I only had the light from my eyes to illuminate my surroundings. The cut on my arm that Steven gave me stung a little, but I was too furious to care. I had been stupid enough to let my ego get ahead of me. If I had just killed Steven and not made it a game, Notch wouldn't have almost killed me. Oh well. Regrets will not change the past, but they will help change my actions in the future.
I walked through the door of room 212. Two Glitches were in a very intense game of chess. The first Glitch had bright red skin, red eyes, and black sclera. He grinned, showing off his long fangs. He had long legs with reversed knees and sharp talons for feet. He examined his claws as the second Glitch pondered his next move. The second Glitch was nothing but a skeleton, with a purple cloak covering his bones. A stone sword he got off a wither skeleton hung at his waist. He examined the board carefully, then moved his queen forward three spaces. He captured the pawn inhabiting the space. The red Glitch confidently used a knight to capture the queen. "Your move," he said with a grin.
"You've got to be cheating, Nightmare. There's no way you're this good," the skeleton accused.
Nightmare laughed. "I play against my daughter all the time. I'm the only Glitch in the entire internet that can put her in her place at least once in a while." Nightmare leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the table. "You're just a sore loser, Dreadlord."
Before Dreadlord could defend himself, Nightmare noticed me. "Herobrine!" His smile quickly left his face when he saw my bloodstained sleeve. It was only a few drops, nothing serious. "Oh my gosh what happened!?" He asked. He rushed over like I had walked in with my arm chopped off.
"I'm fine. Steven nicked me, that's all." I lifted the sleeve to reveal the four-inch-long scratch. Despite my attempts to convince him I was in no need of medical attention, he put a bandage on it.
"Speaking of Steven, is he and the girl dead?" Dreadlord asked.
I scowled at the floor. "Notch somehow knew I was coming, so he put a program in that would delete me if I went in there." I held up my hand. Two of my fingers were slightly burned. I yanked my hand away before Nightmare could have a heart attack over such a small wound. "So I dragged Steven to the border and almost killed him there. But Notch somehow broke through your virus, Dreadlord, and moved the program to us. I barely made it out with my own life."
"I didn't think he'd do this," Nightmare said. He wrung his hands nervously. "I mean, we've all heard the stories, but the way he sounded when we first met in the Nether…"
"We cant just sit around and do nothing." Dreadlord said. "We gotta try have to kill those two if we want a shot at taking the game for ourselves. And I have to go get a refund from Ben for selling me that cheap, useless virus."
"You're right. Here's the plan: Dreadlord, start working on that program. I need to get into that world. Also get that refund. We need that money. Nightmare, stay here as backup in case things go south. Both for me and Dreadlord."
Nightmare nodded. "What are you going to do?"
I drew my sword. "I'm gonna show Notch once and for all that we Glitches are going to take his game no matter what."
Alex
"Steve, this would go a lot faster of you would just hold still!" I yelled. Steve whimpered and sunk into the chair.
It had been a little under a week since Herobrine nearly killed Steve, and his arm still hadn't stopped bleeding. We didn't have the ingredients to make a healing potion, so I was attempting to give Steve stitches with some spider string and a fragment of bone for a needle. This was also the day I learned Steve was not good with needles.
Steve winced and gripped the arm of the chair so hard it started to crack. He cried out, even though the needle wasn't touching him.
"Steve, you're such a wimp." I said with a sigh.
"It hurts!" Steve whined.
"You can punch through full grown trees, I don't want to hear it," I hissed. "Besides, if you held still it wouldn't hurt as much." I got about two stitches in before Steve flinched. "Dammit, Steve!" I shouted as the string snapped.
…
After I somehow finished Steve's arm, I went mining. I wasn't going to let him out of the house so he wouldn't overexert himself and break the stitches. If they did, I don't think I'd have the patience to fix them again.
I hoisted the pickaxe on my shoulder and went into the cave. I found a vein of coal a few blocks in, and I crafted more torches with it. It felt strange not having Steve by my side. Since the day we met we hadn't gone mining without the other.
I descended deeper into the cave, and it went close enough to bedrock for diamonds to spawn. I found a vein of four, and I finally had enough to finish our suit of armor and make a pickaxe on the side. I adjusted the chest plate to fit me and admired my reflection in a pool of water. I grinned at the thought that I would get to break it in. I put my crafting table back into my inventory and continued on, now on a mission for obsidian. Notch was right, we should improve our security. Not sure how much good it will do if Herobrine attacks Steve psychologically again, though.
On second thought, maybe leaving Steve alone wasn't the smartest idea.
I wasn't paying attention, and when the obsidian I was mining broke, a few drops of lava from the pool underneath in splashed up and landed on my hand. The water I was standing in cooled the lava into obsidian, but not soon enough. I swore and held my hand. The burns didn't look too bad, but they hurt like the Nether.
"That looks painful."
I whirled around, mostly out of surprise. I knew that voice. "Herobrine," I whispered. He was leaning back on the cave wall and inspecting the blade of his diamond sword. "What are you doing here!? Where is Steve!?" I drew my sword.
"Relax. I'm not here to hurt you. At least, not yet."
"Then what are you doing here?" I demanded.
"I just thought it was interesting that even though none of the admins know what made Steven come to life, they were able to perform that same mistake again with you." Herobrine didn't look up from his sword, but a sly grin spread across his face.
"What are you talking about?"
"HEROBRINE!"
Notch joined the game
Notch appeared between the two of us, with two enchanted diamond axes in his hands. Herobrine's smug smile vanished. "Notch," he hissed.
"Herobrine," Notch replied with an equal amount of venom.
"Great, we know who we all are," I said sarcastically.
"Leave Alex alone," Notch ordered, completely ignoring me.
"Or what? You'll delete me? Oh, I'm so scared. Absolutely petrified. Its not like you've tried and failed so many times before," Herobrine said with a smirk.
"You should be scared. I don't know how you broke through my program, but I'm fixing it as we speak."
The two men glared at each other for a long time, waiting for the other to make a move. Herobrine then grinned and ran his tongue over his teeth. "You cant stop the inevitable, Notch. Your game will be mine and your precious characters will be dead." His gaze shifted to me. "No matter how suspicious they are."
Notch stepped in the way of Herobrine looking at me. "In your dreams, Herobrine. The Glitches would never win, and you know that."
Herobrine laughed. "Not with that attitude, no."
A loud explosion tore through the tension, followed by the crack of lightning. Herobrine's eyes glowed brighter.
"What was that!?" I cried.
Herobrine chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, Notch. You are too easily fooled by decoys." Herobrine vanished and a vein popped on Notch's neck.
"That slimy, sadistic, son of a bitch!" Notch screamed. He then vanished, leaving me all alone in my confusion.