This is unbelievable, just unbelievable. Ranger scowls as the two players - Notch and this "Herobrine" guy - carve a smooth, two-by-two tunnel into his mountain! It was a void in personal property, an utter sniff at his rules and laws regarding the literal chunk of Minecraft property that he claimed!
"Unreal. The jerk." He twists his head around to glance over at his friend, wide-awake now and sitting tensely on his bed, typing furiously on the bulky laptop. "Hey, Tony, done with it yet?"
"No." the roommate replies sullenly. "Since you yelled at me earlier, I'm working on mine first. Ask me in another five hours."
Ranger growls and jabs the "w" key hard with his middle finger. His character pitches forward from his halted position on the mountain, shooting into the empty air in front of him. Moving him like a limp doll, Ranger turns him around and drifts him so as to get a good view of the newly-dug tunnel. "Lookin' for diamonds, eh?" he mutters darkly, stroking his chin with a thoughtful right hand. Placing it right back where it belongs - on the mouse-pad - Ranger chuckles and releases DiamondShiner74's fly. His Minecraft avatar drops like a stone block out of the air, soaring down a good stack of blocks only to crunch on the grass. If avatars could cry or moan, his surely would.
Leaning back in his office chair, Ranger watches his computer screen with a smirk. Ohh, I love hacking. They don't even see me. Oh, oh, look, look, they've stopped.
He frowns.
I hope they don't turn around. Actually, no, I hope they do! So they can get the heck outta MY MOUNTAIN!
The hacker calmly changes his game mode to "survival" and draws his glinting diamond sword. "Come on, come on... Aw!" He blows a great exhale of breath as Herobrine takes over the digging. "Dang it!" he yells, pushing himself up with his palms slammed onto the desk, a certain fury in them. Just as he does so, a roar of thunder screams in the distance.
"Sh-shhh! Ranger, hush!" Tony hisses quietly, one finger to his thin lips. "I don't want to get in trouble again!"
"You will if you don't get our papers done." he sniffs, turning up his nose at Tony. Tony's face contorts a little, then drops back down to the harsh glow of his laptop. His fingers fly over the keys, loud, repetitious clacking the only sound in the strained room. It was like a rubber band stretched taut, just waiting to either be released or snap from the built-up pressure.
Ranger, with a purse of his lips and a click of his tongue, follows the two players down the tunnel. But instead of simply trailing after them, glistening sword in hand, ready to hack down his barriers, he swaps his game mode into "creative" and interchanges his sword to a diamond pickaxe; his avatar begins to dig deep into the mountain - away from the original pathway - creating a narrow side tunnel extending, winding, exploring deeper and deeper into Minecraft strategically enough to know his position from the rest of the tunnel. And with every satisfying disintegration of a block, Ranger grew increasingly determined to exploit Notch's pet project for all its worth; extra player or no extra player.
He'd prefer no extra player.
As Ranger's DiamondShiner74 breaks into a cave, he stops and looks around. Ranger smirks and steeples his hands, elbows on the light grey desk. Zombies and skeletons continue to spawn in the large cavern, creaking and groaning in the dark. With this, I can set up a pretty neat trap for that mystery player... "Heh-heh-heh..." he chuckles, rubbing his palms together. "Goodbye, Herobrine..." Clicking his tongue without thought, Ranger searches through his inventory for something he could possibly use for a satisfying end to the player he hates.
"Done!" Tony exclaims proudly. Ranger jumps, then turns a glaring eye toward his dorm mate, scowling deeply, raising a finger to his lips. "What?!"
"Be quiet and just finish mine now, okay? I don't care about your procrastination pride."
"I think I'm going to get a snack." Tony sniffs, sliding the laptop off of his thighs and standing with a groan. "I'll work on your paper in a few."
"Yeah, a few hours maybe." Ranger snorts, turning back to his computer and back to more pressing matters. The white dormitory door closes softly - softly enough to avoid another scolding from Professor Fresco - and Ranger lets out a held exhale of breath.
The hacker's attention is suddenly snapped to the far end of the cave where a standard player has spawned. His entire body stiffens, and his hand clenches around the mouse enough to kill it if it were alive. The player looks around, then begins to back away as the mobs advance slowly toward him, belting and bleating their sounds of anguish. Ranger's lips curl into a cunning smile. My, my, look who it is.
"Herobrine. A pity we had to meet so early." He suddenly sucks in air sharply and grimaces as Herobrine's body contorts and twitches at the onslaught of mob-on-player. "Too early." Ranger swears loudly and bangs his fists hard on the keyboard. DiamondShiner74, on his human's unwanted command, moves forward sharply toward Herobrine's remaining pixels. One eyebrow twitching downward, Ranger groans like a zombie and moves his player back to a safe distance. Great, the mobs already did him in. Typical newbie player - I don't even have to try, he just gets himself killed all by himself.
The dorm door opens with a squeak and closes with a muffled noise. "Hey, Ranger, I got you a coffee." Tony says.
Ranger twitches and whirls around, a look of panic melting to one of sheer relief. "Yeah. Yeah, thanks."
"Is...your voice shaking?" Tony steps forward and sets the steaming coffee down on the desk, to the right of Ranger's laptop. "It's not iced, obviously."
"Doesn't matter!" Ranger gasps, going toward the coffee. His hand misses it as he jerks his body hard to the right, the side of his hand slamming into and sending the hot beverage sailing across the desk to Ranger's hands and entire front. He takes a shuddering breath, eyes wide, and whimpers slightly. Tony swears and snatches the tissue box away from the windowsill, carting it immediately to his best friend. Ranger, gasping, face contorted in pain, blindly gropes for the kleenexes and presses them hard against his worn jeans with violently shaking hands. "Gah! This is w-why I hate hot drinks!"
"Sorry!"
His eyes desperately turn toward his laptop, and, not caring if he is still soaked to the skin with searing hot liquid, begins to grab at the tissues for emergency medical care of his keyboard. He lets out a sigh when the kleenex comes up clean and dry. Panic begins to block his nerves, panic that blinds him to any burns he may have, panic that moves DiamondShiner74 out of the cave, down his own tunnel, and bolting across the players' two-by-two tunnel to intercept his ignorant prey.
"I'll get you more coffee." Tony mutters, waking out of the room.
But Ranger does not even notice his comment. He stays direly focused ahead, breath coming out heavily. His Minecraft avatar moves swiftly to the edge of a great chasm where he thus activates his flying - soaring to middle of the ravine and sharply cutting left. The ravine curves in a circle, and, at a satisfactory point, Ranger drops DiamondShiner74 down with a grimacing crunch and begins to frantically dig a one-by-two tunnel into the solid stone side of the ravine. He was not particularly looking for anything... just something he could use for a trap.
The window flashes and crackles with an electrical scream. Ranger barely darts his eyes to the window to notice the looming electrical storm.
The Minecraft tunnel is suddenly filled with light as DiamondShiner74 breaks another row of blocks down, and Ranger's attention surprisedly jerks back to the screen. His pickax gleams as he steps inside the relatively small, plain cavern, a lava-fall - the source of the uplifting light - streaming quietly from the opposite wall.
Ranger's eyes abruptly fly open as an idea comes to mind, an idea he is sure Notch at least will heed without any hesitation.
A "glitch tunnel."
Now all he needs is for the two players to walk right into his trap.
