Hi, Ara celene! Great to see you again! You'll find out what happened to Brine… eventually. I still have several chapters of hinting and foreshadowing to go before i tell you all ;)
Chapter 4: Arson and attempted murder
Steve
When Alex left to go mining, I was left all alone with nothing to do. So I grabbed a book and waited for her to get back. I wanted to go with her, but if I broke my stitches, I would have to get them fixed. That was something I never wanted to experience again. Both Alex and I had learned that day that I'm not very good with needles.
Thunder boomed outside, and I glanced out the window to see a thunderstorm brewing. The wind whipped the trees and whistled in the roof, blowing in the fresh smell of rain. Lightning flashed across the sky, and the growl of thunder quickly followed. A cow gazed on the grass just outside, unaffected by the weather. An Enderman teleported around with a grass block in its claws. Once it started raining, that Enderman was going to be very sad. It took me a second to realize how strange the weather was. The way our world works, the rain started as soon as the storm did. I closed my book and peered outside. The sky was so dark it almost looked night. Lightning briefly illuminated the property, and someone standing creepily outside the fence. I squinted to see who it was. It was too dark to tell, but it was probably Alex or Notch. Right? Nope. The figure pulled out an enchanted diamond sword, and had glowing white eyes.
Herobrine
I gasped and backed away from the window. Herobrine was here!? I was under the impression that he'd get deleted by Notch's program if he tried to come here. Program or not, he was here, and he was probably going to kill me. The wind whipped his hair, which was a little longer than mine. He examined the house and ran his tongue over his teeth. He pointed his sword at our oak fence, and it was struck by lightning. A large section of it was blasted away, and the rest of it was on fire. Herobrine walked right in.
I realized that instead of just staring out the window, I should probably find a weapon.
Herobrine
I walked across the yard of the house. The house wasn't too shabby, but it did a rather pathetic job keeping me out. It was going to be ashes by the time I'm done. I opened the door and examined the living room.
"Herobrine." I glanced to my right to see Steven pointing an iron sword at me. He was in full iron armor, but it didn't hide the fact that his knees were quaking.
I smirked. "Steven. I told you we'd meet again."
"Get out of my house," he ordered. He held his sword like it could actually inflict damage on me.
I looked at the sword, then Steven, then back at the sword. "You should probably put that away before you hurt yourself."
"No. Get the hell out of this world."
"You think you can order me around?" I laughed. "Nice try, Steven, but I'm not leaving until you're dead."
"What is with your obsession with trying to kill me!?"
"My goals are much bigger than destroying you and your pathetic little life." I said as I lunged at Steven with my sword. He barely had time to react and block it with his own. The sounds of diamond on metal resounded through the clearing. Steven was a clumsy fighter, and I believe it is because he has never fought a person before. My sword grazed his rib cage, and in response Steven kicked me into the wall. I barely got out of the way when he shoved his sword into the wall where my head was about two seconds before.
"Looks like someone's learning," I said with a smirk. "You're still really, really bad."
"Shut up!" Steven yelled. He snatched a handful of ender pearls from a chest and the room erupted in purple particles. Steven was everywhere at once, and he managed to kick me in the face. I grunted from the impact, tasting blood. Watching the pearls fly, I snatched one out of the air and crushed it in my hand. Steven was instantly in my arms, and I shoved my blade into his chest. A mix of horror and pain filled his face, and he looked down at the injury. His shirt was slowly dyed red with his blood. I dropped him, and he cried out in pain. I loomed over him, watching his struggles.
/gamemode_Steve_hardcore
"There. Now you won't respawn," I said with a grin. I slowly circled him as he lied on the floor and bled out. He moaned and pain and put a hand on the injury. "You did well, surprisingly. I honestly didn't think I'd have to come back for you. But you are stupid AI, and I am a Glitch." Steven held up his blood-covered hand to see it for himself. He groaned and pressed his hands on the sword, probably trying to stop the bleeding. Before I could leave, Notch teleported just outside the house, and Alex wasn't far behind. She had a bow in hand, and an arrow hit me in the side. I snatched the second arrow out of the air before it could hit me in the forehead. I sighed and turned back to Steven. "Looks like your friends are here. Goodbye, Steven." I teleported out of the world, but not before a bolt of lightning hit the roof of the house, lightning it on fire.
Alex
A bolt of lightning struck the house, and Herobrine vanished without a trace. I couldn't see Steve. I pushed away the thought that Herobrine had killed him. "Steve!" I yelled. I began running toward the house.
"Alex, no!" Notch shouted. He grabbed my arm and pointed to the roof. "It's on fire!"
He was right. The bolt of lightning had lit our roof on fire, and it was quickly spreading. The wind made sure of that.
"I gotta save him!" I yelled. I wrenched myself out of his grip and ran inside. A wave of heat wafted over me, instantly sticking my clothes to my skin. I coughed as the smoke burned my throat. "Steve!" I screamed.
A groan came from my right. Steve was on the ground in a pool of blood, and a diamond sword was stuck through his chest. A chunk of flaming ceiling had landed on one of his legs. He coughed and shifted slightly, the only sign he was alive. "Oh, thank the Nether you're alive!" I tried to help Steve to his feet, but he just moaned in pain and muttered something unintelligible. "Come on, Steve! You've got to get up!"
"It hurts…" he muttered. I pushed the block off his leg, and my stomach did flip flops when I saw the charred mess underneath. I could see his bone. It took everything in me not to lose my lunch all over Steve.
A sickening CRACK! came from the ceiling. The fire was weakening the boards, and any minute now the place would implode. "Steve, come on! The house is going to come down on top of us!" Left with limited options, I managed to get him to his feet and I half carried him out. Notch's keys clicked as he typed. He executed some kind of command, and rain started, instantly extinguishing our house.
"Oh my gosh," Notch said when he saw Steve. I set him down on the grass.
/gamemode_Steve_survival
"How on earth did Herobrine manage to set him to hardcore!?" Notch muttered.
I didn't care what Notch had to say about this. Steve grimaced in pain. "Notch, he has a FRIGGIN' SWORD in his chest! He's gonna die!"
"Its ok, Alex. He'll respawn. He'll be fine in a few minutes, just give him a second." Someone called for Notch on earth. I couldn't quite make out what they said, but the word "Herobrine" was involved. "I gotta go, Alex."
"No wait don't you dare leave me!" I screamed.
Notch left the game
I cussed and slumped down in the mud, which was more red than brown from Steve's injuries. My throat was still hoarse from the smoke, and my tears blended in with the rain. I laid down and held Steve's hand, just listening to his breathing get slower and slower. He would respawn. He would be fine.
Herobrine
Despite my handful of injuries, I was rather pleased with myself. Steve was most likely dead by now, and since I set him to hardcore he was gone for good. All I had to do was get rid of Alex, and Minecraft would be free of intelligent AI. Once that was done, there would be nothing standing in my way.
Nightmare grabbed the arrow in my side. "This is probably going to hurt," he warned. He ripped the arrow out, and I barely flinched.
Not only that, Notch and his computer geeks are probably searching the game frantically for me. Little did they know, I'm not in the game. They physically cannot find me, and even if they somehow did, I wasn't worried. There wasn't really anything they could do to me. They could try to delete me again, but they should know by now that I evaded it every single time. And yet, every time they update the game they try.
Dreadlord walked in and instantly noticed Nightmare doctoring me and the bloody arrow on the bed. "So, how'd it go?" He asked sarcastically.
"Actually, a lot better than it looks," I replied. "Steven is most likely dead by now. We just need to get Alex, and the game will be ours."
Dreadlord cheered. "Nice, Herobrine! We're so close!"
I nodded. A tiny twinge of quilt rose up in my chest, which I promptly crushed. Steven's death was one hundred percent necessary. He was just an AI that shouldn't have existed in the first place. Nothing to feel sorry for.
"Wait, you put Steve in hardcore, right?" Nightmare asked.
"Yeah. That's the only way I could kill him and have it stick."
Nightmare showed me a holographic screen showing who was in Steve and Alex's world. They were both in survival and alive. I swore under my breath. "Notch. He must have changed him back."
"So… you didn't kill Steve?" Dreadlord asked for clarification.
"No. They're both still alive." I snapped the arrow in half to take out my frustration. These two were as hard to kill as cockroaches.
Dreadlord sighed. "So were still no closer to taking the game. Why didn't you make sure Steve was dead before you left?!"
"Notch chased me out! Besides, you wouldn't have done any better!"
"You wouldn't know that! Ive never gone with you on your little character-killing crusades!"
Before I could retaliate, Nightmare shouted, "Enough, you two! None of that matters! What matters is both of them are still alive, and fighting about it wont kill them! So cut it out and lets actually do something about this!"
I crossed my arms, and Dreadlord seethed. "Fine. What's the plan?" Dreadlord muttered.
"Well, invading their world has proven to be futile, so I have a different idea. We may be able to draw them out into the player base."
Dreadlord scoffed. "The player base!? Are you sure that's a good idea? If a player even catches a glimpse of your eyes or even something that could potentially be you, they organize huge manhunts and tear up their worlds looking for you."
"I am aware," I said. "But I'm not afraid of the players. All we have to do is stir up some trouble, and Notch probably will send his characters after me since he is either too lazy or too busy to deal with me himself. We kill them, kill any player who gives us an issue, then go after the game's source code. Easy as pie."
"All right," Nightmare said with a nod.
"Wait, we?" Dreadlord asked.
"Yeah. If all three of us went, it increases the chances of Notch taking action instead of randomly 'updating' the game," I said.
Dreadlord grinned. "Let's cause some chaos."