Happy birthday Ara!

Well, the chapter's title was originally what I put below, but when I tried to put that as the title officially, Fanfiction said, "ewww, that's too many characters." So I shortened it. Have a good day y'all!

Chapter 5: Herobrine hunting (and other dumb ways to get yourself killed)

Steve

The first thing I remembered was the dull throbbing in my head. I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. Everything ached.

"Steve?" Alex was leaning over me, watching me hopefully.

I mumbled something along the lines of her name. My mouth tasted like ash.

She grinned. "Morning, sunshine."

I smiled weakly, then noticed we were in a small dirt shack. Right. Our house probably burned to the ground. "Did… did I die?" I croaked. Speaking made my throat hurt.

Alex nodded. "But you're ok now. I saved your inventory for you, in case there was anything in there you cared about." Alex passed me a few pork chops, the book I had been reading, and an iron sword with a scorch mark on the blade. I took the items and groaned at the pain that caused my rib cage.

"Ugh, respawning hurts…" I moaned. I settled back down on the bed. "Did Notch catch Herobrine?"

Alex shook her head again. "I don't think so. I haven't even seen Notch in days. I think if he got Herobrine, he'd tell us. Then again, he doesn't have a very good record of telling us stuff, so…" Alex shrugged. "You need to eat. It'll speed up your regeneration."

I nodded and munched on one of the pork chops. The glint of something blue caught my eye, and I glanced at the source. "Wait, you saved our diamond armor from the fire?"

"Actually, I had it on me when I went mining. I finished the set and got us a diamond pickaxe." Alex smirked as she pulled out the pickaxe to show me. "Didn't we agree whoever finished the set would get it?"

I rolled my eyes playfully. "I guess we did."

Alex cheered and put the armor in her inventory.

Notch joined the game

Upon seeing this, Alex equipped the armor and pulled out a sword. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"That bastard," Alex muttered. "I'll be right back, Steve. I'm gonna go give him a piece of my mind."

"Don't do anything stupid," I warned, but I don't think Alex heard me. She walked out of the shack without another word.

Alex

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in," I said. I leaned on an oak tree and crossed my arms.

"Alex!" Notch exclaimed. "There you are! Is Steve ok?"

"Oh, now you care," I retorted. "You didn't seem to care when he had a sword in his heart and was about to die."

Notch groaned. "This again? Alex, we don't have time for this! Where is he? Did he respawn?"

"Dunno," I said with a shrug.

Notch rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This is why I have gray in my beard," he muttered.

I laughed. "So, old man, why'd you come back? Especially after that little stunt?"

"Well, first, this is my game. I believe I can come and go as I please. Second, there's been an update in the Herobrine situation."

"Aw, did Hewobwine outsmart the big bad admins?" I asked sarcastically in an immature voice." Notch gave me an unamused glare, which I laughed at.

"Alex, do you know how easily I could delete you? You would exist one minute and not the next, all with a few key clicks."

"But you wouldn't do that. Notch, if you're going to threaten me, at least pick something that you might actually do." I smirked.

"Alex, cut it out! I'm not in the mood for this! Where is Steve!"

We glared at each other for a full two minutes. Hmm. Tell Notch where Steve is or continue being a pain. Of course, I chose the latter. "What's forcing me to?" I asked, casually examining my nails. "The way I see it, Steve died because you never cared enough to warn us Herobrine was coming. You knew we would get attacked on both occasions, and yet you never said, 'hey, Steve and Alex, how is your day? By the way, and evil white-eyed psychopath is going to drop by later today, just FYI.'"

Notch hesitated, grinding his teeth in irritation. "I know, I should've told you. But I didn't want to worry you. I didn't even know he would come here in the first place, and I put up precautions in case he did."

"And yet, here we are," I said, waving my hands at the scenery.

"Can it, Alex. I need to talk to the both of you. This is important. Now, tell me where Steve is or I will lock you in the Nether for as long as I deem fit!"

"There you go, Notch. Now that is a proper threat," I said with a smirk. "He's in this little dirt shack I made a few chunks away while he respawned. He woke up about twenty minutes ago-ish, but he's still pretty sore." I walked off into the forest, with Notch following me.

Steve sat up in bed as soon as I came through the door. "Oh, hey Notch," he said.

Notch glanced around the hut. "Wow. You really did lose everything in the fire, didn't you?"

"Don't judge us," I snapped. "I did the best I could."

"I'm not! I just didn't realize Br— I mean, Herobrine did so much damage."

"Whatever. What did you want to talk to us about?" I sheathed my sword and leaned against the wall, uninterested in what Notch had to say.

"I know the two of you aren't in the greatest conditions, but Herobrine has been detected back in Minecraft. He's in a player's world. I don't know what he's doing there, but you two might be able to catch him off guard and kill him."

"So, you want us to go into a player's world, even though we've never even seen a real player before, fine Herobrine (the person who killed Steve and griefer our house), and kill him," I summed up.

"Are you so sure that's a good idea?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Notch replied.

"You're out of your mind, Notch. Steve is in no condition to go anywhere right now. Besides, why don't you just go and delete Herobrine with your amazing admin powers?"

"Ive already tried," Notch snapped. "Do you thing I'd be coming to you two if I hadn't been trying to delete him for months now!?"

"Also, there's a lot about Herobrine and Glitches in general that you aren't telling us about," Steve remarked.

He had no idea.

"Ive told you everything you need to know. If you two don't help me kill Herobrine, then he'll just come back and try again. And next time, i may not be able to switch you back to survival."

Steve and I exchanged glances. Despite neither of us liking Notch currently, he was right. Steve didn't even survive the last encounter. There was a good chance that next time, neither of us do. I sighed and slumped in defeat, cursing Notch in my head. "How do you plan on getting us there?" Steve asked.

Notch smiled, triumphant. "Ive been working on this little thing. It will allow you two to access every single Minecraft world and server out there." Notch pulled out a wristband that was patterned like a command block and gave it to me. "DO. NOT. LOSE. THIS." He said, enunciating every word to press his point. "It's basically indestructible, so if you die with it, it'll be fine. But DO NOT let it fall into the player's hands." I nodded and put it in my inventory. Notch pulled out a strength potion and gave it to Steve. "Here. This should help you recover more quickly from respawning." Steve nodded and uncorked it. He downed about half of it in one gulp, and wisps of red smoke began to drift off of his skin.

"Blegh. These taste terrible," Steve remarked. He finished the potion and put the empty bottle in his inventory. "But I feel a lot better. Thanks."

I examined the wristband closely. Something about it's energy…. It felt familiar. I ran my fingers along the buttons.

"Hey. Don't touch that one. That button is strictly off limits," Notch said, pointing at a green one. I nodded. Why it was off limits, I don't know, but it must be important. Maybe it just summoned whatever item you wished, and Notch didn't want us running around like we were in creative mode. Notch helped me fasten it to my wrist. "Stay safe, you two." He selected a button, and the world around us destabilized into bright colors.

Herobrine

The night air was cool. A breeze brushed against my skin, and I resisted the urge to shiver. I was fine. I examined the surrounding area as Nightmare and Dreadlord appeared next to me. Dreadlord folded his arms and Nightmare shifted nervously.

"Where to now, Herobrine?" Dreadlord asked.

I scanned the horizon. We were in the middle of a plains biome in the middle of the night. Monsters shuffled and crawled around, making monster noises. They didn't bother us, though, probably because somewhere in their tiny programmed minds, they knew we were not players and therefore not to mess with us. To the left of us, there was a roofed forest, to our right there was a jungle, and in front of us there was a plains village. "I don't know. I don't think we should head for the village, since that's probably where all the players are. Let's head for the jungle and get some resources. If we do run into players, let me do the talking. I have… a way with the players," I said with a smirk.

Nightmare nodded. "Ok. Let's go!" He headed toward the jungle, Dreadlord and I trailing behind.

"So what happens if we run into Notch?" Dreadlord asked.

"I doubt he'd chase us here. He doesn't like to interact with the player base. We're safe here."

"But if he sends Steve and Alex?"

I scoffed. "I'm not afraid of a couple of AI's that he never intended to exist in the first place. We kill them, and the game is ours."

Dreadlord nodded as we entered the forest. There was a dramatic difference between the two biomes. The jungle was suffocatingly hot and humid, and parrots called to each other. A panda munched on bamboo and watched us pass with an uninterested gaze. Nightmare pulled some cacao beans off a tree, then crafted cookies with it. He munched on one, and handed the other to Dreadlord. "Cookie?" He offered.

Dreadlord scowled and swatted it out of his hands. "I'm allergic," he grumbled.

Nightmare stared at him for a second, confused beyond all reason. "You are?"

"Mmm hmm."

"How?"

"I just am."

"Focus, you two! We're trying to kill a couple characters, not figure out how a skeleton is allergic to cookies!" I barked. Dreadlord scowled at me.

"Hey! You! Yeah, you three! Drop your items and turn around slowly!" Someone shouted. We froze, Dreadlord and Nightmare both tensed up. Nightmare peered over his shoulder at who was talking to us.

"It's a PLAYER," he whispered, as if players were the most terrifying things to have ever existed.

"Let's fight it," Dreadlord suggested with a grin.

Nightmare's eyes doubled in size. "We cant fight it!" He exclaimed.

"I'm gonna fight it." Dreadlord drew his sword.

"You cant fight it!"

"I'm totally gonna fight it."

"You cannot fight it!"

"Both of you shut up!" I hissed. "You are not going to fight it, Dreadlord." He scowled at his feet.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me!? Drop your items and turn around! Slowly!"

"Follow my lead," I whispered. I dropped my sword, and Dreadlord copied me. Nightmare didn't have a weapon, so he dropped his cookies. "When I give the signal, whirl around and look as terrifying as possible. Don't turn around until I say so, though."

"What's the signal?" Nightmare asked. "Is it like a bird call?"

"You'll know it when I do it," I said. Dreadlord raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"You'll see."

"Now turn around. Don't try anything funny, or I'll kill you," the player said.

I chuckled as menacingly as possible. "You seriously think you, a pathetic player, can boss me around?"

"Well…" the player hesitated. "Yeah. I think I can. My brother is the moderator of this world, he can ban you before you can say, 'wait, please don't ban me!'"

I chuckled again, and my sword zipped into my hand. I could only imaging the player's face. "But what you don't know, player," I turned around, "is that I cant be banned."

The look on the player's face was priceless. He gaped and stared at my eyes. "H-H-Herobrine!" He dropped his sword. Who in their right mind would enchant an iron sword? This idiot, apparently.

I smirked. "Everyone knows the name." I signaled to Dreadlord and Nightmare, and they turned around. Nightmare snarled and showed off his long claws. Dreadlord showed off his mediocre sword skills, but it was enough to scare the player. I pointed my own sword at the player. Knowing players, this one would probably try to kill me because players think that they are somehow capable of harming me. I prove them wrong every time. Unfortunately, this player was either too intelligent or too cowardly to face me. He turned around and ran the other way, screaming. I sighed and shook my head. "Pity. I wanted him to fight." I teleported right in front of him, and he ran into me.

"Please don't kill me Herobrine!" He cried. He threw his hands up over his face.

I took a moment to relish in the player's fear. For a few brief seconds, I almost couldn't remember a time when players didn't fear me.

Almost.

I sneered. "Coward." I shoved my sword into the player's chest. He screamed in fear (not pain, since he was a player) and disappeared in a poof of white smoke. Only his inventory and a cluster of enchantment orbs remained, which I promptly burned.

"What'ya do that for!" Dreadlord exclaimed as he ran up to me. "He could of had some good loot!" He sheathed his sword and crossed his arms.

"Nothing that player could've had would have made this game any easier for us." I sheathed my sword and noticed Nightmare staring at me. "What?"

"Sorry. Its just sometimes you can be really scary. Like, one minute you'll be… well, you, and then you'll be… that." Nightmare waved his hand at the block the player used to be on.

I glanced down at the block. The fear in the player's eyes…. "You should know better than anyone why I do that. You were the one who nursed me back to health, after all." The memory of a sword being dragged across my flesh briefly flashed through my mind. I pushed it away. "Now, come on. We've got a game to conquer.

Somewhere on earth…

I stared at my screen. That was… that was Herobrine. He and his two freaks killed me. I took a minute to process what happened, and I clicked the respawn button.

"You ok, man? What happened?" My brother, Ian asked.

"You're probably aren't going to believe me, but I saw HEROBRINE! And he KILLED ME!" I cried.

"Uh huh. And I'm, like, the queen of the Nether," my sister, Stephanie, piped through my headset.

"I'm serious! I was in the jungle, getting bamboo, when I saw these three players. I figured they were yours, Steph, so I had them drop their items and turn around. The middle guy, who I figured was in a Steve skin, was being all creepy. When he turned around, HE HAD WHITE EYES THAT WERE GLOWING! His friends were were this skeleton in a purple cloak and a bright red… thing. They killed me!"

"Chris, Herobrine is, like, not real. He's just a name given to Minecraft errors and glitches. You're, like, making this up," Stephanie replied.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Stephanie," Ian interjected. "Check the chat box."

Rashain was slain by Herobrine

"You too? You guys are, like, really going all out with this prank, aren't you?" Stephanie laughed. "By the way, have either of you, like, seen my diamond pickaxe? It's gone. Did you two knuckleheads, like, take it?"

Shit. I borrowed the pickaxe to mine obsidian, and I had it on me when Herobrine killed me. I rushed out of Ian and i's base, where I respawned, and ran as fast as I could to the jungle were I died. I swore when I found the coordinates where I died. My stuff was gone, and so was Herobrine. Stephanie was not going to like this. "No, I haven't seen it," I lied.