A/N I've decided to follow a different plot line here, so please forgive the replacement chapter. This happens instead of our courageous (?) hero Sky entering Freddy Fazbear's Pizza with his best slime friend Jerry Slimer the Second.

Chapter 23:

The Gamble

The bat flew in through the slightly open door. What unnerved him was the way that the door slammed behind him. Chalking it up to wind, the bat darted into what appeared to be the main room.

It was a strange building – even for humans. There was multiple rows of tables, and to the front of the room on an elevated stage were strange creatures. He watched the unmoving creatures for several seconds before he heard the sound of someone moving.

To the front of the room was a human. The human was a strange one – he had to think for a good minute before he realized that the human man was a pirate.

A hook glinted in the dim lights of the room. The pirate's right hand held a fork as he ate what looked to be steak. The bat watched the man eat for a second before looking at the rest of his appearance.

The pirate had his out-of-control scarlet hair thrown back in a ponytail, a few stray strands hanging down. The man had tanned skin, but his skin wasn't free of scars. He wore a long black coat. His shirt was a ruffled white one, and he had a sash around his waist. The pirate's pants were black, and on his feet he had a pair of boots.

He also had an incredibly over-the-top hat perched on the top of his head. The bat raised an eyebrow at the sight of the hat. The man was hiding something underneath it. He was sure of it.

The bat's mouth watered at the sight of the steak as the pirate ate it. The smell was irresistible, and his stomach growled as he continued to stare at the steak. He was so hungry.

The bat decided to play a gamble. He was going to wait for the pirate to get up. And when the unsuspecting human did, he was going to dive down and grab some of that steak for himself. The gamble? The pirate could finish eating it before the bat could get its share, or the pirate could catch it in the act.

It was a risk worth taking.

After many anxious minutes passed, the pirate finally got up. He was heading off to what appeared to be a bathroom – the bat could tell by the sign to the room.

He dove towards the steak. He had almost grasped the steak with his feet when a human hand grabbed him from behind.

"Caught ye right in th' act," the pirate said with an animalistic grin. It was only now, when the pirate had the bat turned to him, that he could make out the human's face.

He had stubble on his chin that was the same color as his hair. The pirate stared at him with a single, fox-like golden eye. His other eye was covered by an eye patch, and the bat wondered what lay underneath it.

The man's teeth, the bat realized with horror as the pirate continued to give him that terrifying grin, were all sharp, and he had a pair of fangs.

The bat felt a shiver race up his spine.

The pirate held up his hook and pressed it against his throat. "Ye should have learned that it ain't be wise to steal from pirates, landlubber."

The bat cast a quick glance at his wings. He didn't quite qualify as someone who walked on the land.

The pirate rolled his eye. "It be close enough," he replied. "Now, promise ye will never again steal an' me will let ye go."

The young mob once again pointed out another flaw in the human's conversation by simply glancing at the hook being held against his throat. Pirates were notorious thieves, at least from what he had overheard.

"Me not be th' conventional pirate," he said. He didn't offer an explanation as to why he wasn't. He simply stared expectantly at the bat.

He gave a terrified nod.

A sigh escaped his lips as the pirate set him down on the table. He watched the pirate warily, wondering what the pirate wanted him to do.

Then his stomach growled.

The pirate gaped at him for a quick second after the noise. Finally closing his mouth, the pirate slid the steak over to the starving bat. "Eat it," he commanded.

The bat was happy to comply.

The pirate rested his head in his hands (hand and hook?) and watched the bat wolf down the meal. "Me name be Captain Foxy, but ye can call me Captain, ye scurvy dog-er bat. Ye have a name?"

The bat shook his head. He had been too young to have been given one when it happened. And if he had been given one, he certainly didn't remember it.

Captain watched him for another minute before speaking. "Then yer name be Lorcan Furey II."

The bat raised an eyebrow.

"It be a good name," the pirate huffed, crossing his arms. "Yer namesake be a vampirate. Me be a pirate, an' ye be a bat. It be fitting, ain't it?"

He nodded. The newly dubbed Lorcan watched Captain with curiosity in his blue eyes, wondering what strange thing the pirate was going to say next.

"Now, where will ye stay?"

Lorcan almost fainted at the suggestion.

It had been a good day since their fateful meeting, and Lorcan was quickly deciding that Captain was a strange pirate. In fact, he was a rather strange human.

"So, me looking fer Herobrine," he confided in Lorcan. The bat stared at him. The Herobrine?! The one who were you were supposed to stay five hundred gazillion miles away from?! The one that had betrayed Notch millennia ago?! Lorcan realized that his companion (friend, at the moment, was a bit of a stretch) most certainly had a death wish. "Ye see, he most likely be responsible fer me presence here. Me going to find th' bastard an' then me find a way home."

The rest of the day was spent in preparation of Captain's search for Herobrine. Lorcan was torn between going with the pirate or returning to the life of a loner. Even though he knew that finding Herobrine would also be finding death, he didn't want to be alone. He wanted to be with Captain. Captain was smart – most of the time. Captain was kind. Captain was exactly who Lorcan had been looking for, even if he hadn't been searching for those traits in a human.

Lorcan watched the Captain pack with curiosity. A few pieces of bread were thrown into a rucksack. An apple. Three actual diamond spheres. What ship could he have possibly gotten those from?! It took a master craftsmen to take diamond ore and make a perfect sphere from it and other diamond ores.

The last things that he grabbed were from the stage. He climbed onto it, marched over to the bear-thing and stole its microphone. Like everything else he had packed so far, it was thrown into his rucksack. However, the strange red guitar that he took from the equally strange purple rabbit was slung around his shoulders.

He started to make his way towards the door. "Ye coming?" he questioned Lorcan. The bat shot after him. Lorcan knew that Captain was bound to get into trouble, but he had the hope that Captain would also be able to get both of them out of what situation they found themselves caught in.

And maybe, just maybe, Lorcan would eventually call Captain his friend.

A/N Hello, wonderful Souls! Never fear, TheHopefulSoul is here! Today marks an important day for me. However, I'll start this author's note by explaining the name change.

We all live in a world that is chock full of problems. Sad things happen, people are mistreated, and violence unfortunately plagues the world. I've recently decided to declare myself an optimist. My goal when writing is to bring hope to my readers, therefore the "Hopeful" part of my new username was born. I want to bring hope to you guys, to light up your darkest days. My stories can be dark sometimes, but I want to always make you remember that life gets better. It always does.

I loved being called Soul too much to change that part of my name. Anyways, I would have to redo a poll on what to call you guys. Imagine that you had become my Errors instead of Souls! I would be the TheHopefulError. It seems just a bit contradictory.

Okay, remember how I said that today marks something really important for me? I'll jump back a year for a quick moment. Imagine I, a writer intent on the goal of embracing my beloved fandoms through writing, having been writing fanfictions since I discovered a link to this wonderful website on my favorite author, Johnathon Stroud. Now that I have become a dedicated fanfiction writer, I truly admire him for that – but that is a story for another day.

A year ago, I decided to create account simply to review. My first fanfictions, in my opinion then and now, had been trash. The character that was the center of almost all of them was constantly out of character. The ideas were good though, and they were different. That same thought of writing unique plots, along with a picture I found on the world wide web, made me bingewrite and publish Truth: The One Thing Often Overlooked.

I was shocked to find that people liked it. It was an amazing feeling, one that I had never truly experienced before. And now I have officially become obsessed with this wonderful world of fanfiction.

So yes, this is my fanversary. I've been a part of this website for one year, and I've loved every minute of it.

There's a lot of people that I want to thank. First off, I want to thank every single writer on here. Your ideas inspired mine. And even if I haven't read your fanfiction, I'm grateful that other people treasure their fandoms enough to write stories about them. Next, I wanted to thank all of the readers. Without you, I would simply be posting my stories online. Your inputs help me a lot, even though you don't know it.

Now here's the part about the specific users.

Thank you Zelda48, curligurl0896, ThreeKittiesDancing, Tyto11, FlareHeart404, ThatRandomMooshroom, GalaxyFangirl, Darksorceress16, Animefox46, NoxPerpetuo, BlockDebockle, EnhancedHD, Fluffy543, Void of Shining Darkness, Platypotato, DarkWolf133, Mr. Villager, Watcher321, HiDeKiThEhIdDeN, and DiamondMiner37 for reviewing my stories.

Thank you iamsolarflare for being the first person to review my first story on here. Without it, I might have never gotten this far.

Thank you LarkSweetsong for being my first friend on Fanfiction – I'm sorry for the lack of PMs lately. I really want to catch up on your story and review it first.

Thank you RavenstarIsAwesome for being an awesome reviewer and friend. Though I haven't heard from you in ages, I still remember you.

Thank you FlufferNutter Sandwich for the creation of Phoenix and Carly. Both of them have really impacted the course of A Hero's Destiny. Like with RavenstarIsAwesome, I haven't forgotten you.

Thank you Dannyjamesjannydames for the creation of Aleks. He has impacted A Hero's Destiny and its sequel so much, and my writing in general that I can't begin to describe how thankful I am. Like with FlufferNutter Sandwich and RavenstarIsAwesome, I'll never forget you.

Thank you DawnTotadile for being a great friend, and for all of our fandom-based banter.

Thank you The scribe of the 4th brother for sticking with A Hero's Destiny and a bunch of my other stories. You always come up with great dares, and I'm glad to call you friend.

Thank you Raiden the OC. Or, as I prefer to say, Random the OC. You were the first person who ever asked me to be friends; now looking back, I realize that – even if away from the screen – I'm the one who asks first. You've unlocked my love of roleplay. You're one of my most consistent readers. Like The scribe of the 4th brother, you have been granted the ability of creating great dares and questions.

Finally, thank you CsMelody. You were the first person who ever understood my Bartimaeus rants. You've been a great friend in the time we've known each other, and I love our discussions. There's been countless times you've been awesome towards me – like reading Entwined Worlds without reading Heroes of Olympus.