Staring up at the skyscrapers was always weird to him. They were so tall, some even penetrating the clouds and rising even higher. It made him feel like an ant. Sure, he was shorter than most at his age, but everybody was like an ant to the skyscrapers. He snapped himself out of his trance. Quickly checking the time, he realized he would be late if he didn't hurry. Cursing under his breath, he bolted down the street, swerving around people and ignoring their shouts. Reaching his destination, he had made it just in time!

Waiting in front of the building he had been heading to were two people. One was a man that was wearing what seemed to be a modified gas mask. The bottom half of his face was covered while the upper half was covered by purple plastic, making it hard to tell what color his eyes were. Brown hair came out from behind, it was tied in a ponytail, with a braid hanging down the left side of his face. The other person was smiling at him. One of his eyes was green, while the other seemed to be all the colors at once, like a rainbow. He had scars on his face and arms, clearly visible on his tan skin. A gray tabby cat was lounging across his shoulders. He also had a gray tabby cat tail and pointy ears, along with small wings that were transparent, with a grayish blue color to them. And he had a weird metal contraption on his legs.

"Grian! You're just on time." The masked man observed. He nodded and then bowed. "No need to do that, Xisuma's not super big on formalities."

Grian straightened and nodded. "Uhm, thank you, for allowing me to join."

"Well, you wanted to fight for a better cause, and why not fight for the safety of the city. Scar, I'm leaving you to show him around the base. I need to get back to work. Goodbye." The masked man, Xisuma, said and waved, walking into the building. So now, it was just him and Scar. "Uh, anyways! I'm NaScar! Though, I go by Scar."

"Grian, uh, Grian Xelqua."

"Cool name!" Scar exclaimed and then moved to the entrance. Following him, he saw that there was a black pad and a number keypad. "This is the Hermitcraft Mafia headquarters! Only members, or hermits as we call ourselves, can get in. The black pad is for a handprint scan, your handprint will be added later today when we input you into the system. The keypad is for a code. You need both to access, so make sure you don't lose your hand!" Scar joked and Grian chuckled softly. "The code's04132012. Don't ask why those numbers, I have no idea."

He pressed a hand to the black pad, and it scanned, turning green after a second. Then he put the code in and there was a click. The double doors swung open on their own accord and Scar walked in, motioning him to follow. Grian walked in and blinked. This was not what he had expected. It was a big room, with white walls and gray floors. It would've looked plain, if there were no plants. Plants littered the area, shades of green were everywhere, with dots of other colors from flowers. There was a front desk in the middle, with two people sitting at it. A brown-haired man with glasses and magnificent blue and white wings, while the other was a woman. With ginger hair and green skin like a zombie's. They both looked up, breaking their conversation and the man smiled. "Oh! You're the new hermit, right?"

He nodded, nervous to speak. Scar just stood next to him, rubbing the cat's head and seemingly not paying attention. "I'm Joe, the secretary, or head executive of the mafia. And this is Cleo, the mafia's international dealer, and my girlfriend." Joe introduced. Grian nodded and bowed, saying, "Nice to meet you two, I'm Grian."

"Whoa kiddo, no need for bowing. Actually, just stop that. We hermits don't really do formalities. But yeah, nice to meet you too." Cleo said. He straightened, embarrassed but he pushed that away. Instead, he nodded and looked at Scar. "Don't mind Cleo, that's just her personality." Scar replied with a smile. He glanced at the two and saw that they had gone back to talking. Scar seemed to not even notice them and walked past them, Grian following him.

This was really different fromtheirheadquarters. They were all expected to be formal and treat the higher ranks like a god, but it seemed the Hermitcraft Mafia wasn't like that. Because literally, the head executive was casually talking to him like they were on equal ground. It was so weird. Grian followed Scar around for the next hour. the man showed him the entire first floor, which had a kitchen and living room that was giant, and a lot of hermits had been in there as well. He had met Tango, Impulse, and Zedaph, an energetic trio who were clearly in a three-person relationship. He had also met Mumbo, Iskall, and Stress. Overall, he had met two executives, the doctor, two fighters, and and infiltration squad member in the commons area.

The other places on the first floor were a staircase, a few high-speed elevators, and what seemed to be a pet room. Walking inside, Grian's eyes widened. A few cats were there, along with dogs, some fish, and even a turtle! The cat around Scar's shoulder leaped off of him and landed elegantly on the ground. "This is what I call, the Pet Palace! A few hermits have animals, so we keep them here. The cat that I just had is mine, her name's Jellie! If I'm being honest, I really only know who owns the turtle and the fish, otherwise I have no idea whose dogs and cats these are. Xisuma owns the turtle, he wants to get an axolotl as well. And the fish are collectively owned by Cub and Etho. Anyways! I'll show you the basement!"

The man grabbed his wrist and hurried over to the elevator. Grian looked at all the buttons. There were a total of 14 buttons, two were for underground and the highest button was for the roof. Scar pressed a button under the main floor one and soon, they exited into a concrete hallway. And like the floor above it, it also had a lot of plants, but unlike the other, paint splatters covered the walls. "The door on the right is Cub's shop and office. Xisuma tried to convince him to get an office above ground, but he refused. While the other two doors on the left are access to the training room and shooting range. We have another building for training as well, since this room isn't big enough. It's behind the base, along with the garage. It houses the medical veichles, along with Xisuma and Xanthus's veichles. I'll introduce you to Xanthus later. Anyway! Under us is the underground garage. There's a tunnel that pops out a few miles from the city, but you can get through the tunnel super-fast. No speed limits!" Scar giggled as Grian blinked, surprised by how much enthusiasm the man had, but he just smiled, trying to seem normal. "The torture rooms are also down."

His smile fell as he looked at the man, alarmed. "Don't worry! We don't use them."

He nodded, sighing in relief. "I worried for a second there." He confessed as they headed to Cub's shop. "Same! When I first joined, I was terrified! I was like, what the heck?!"

Walking into the shop, there were a lot of machines and tools lining the walls and littering the floor. There was another door to the left that probably led to Cub's office. "Scar? What do you need? Is the Walker malfunctioning again?" A man asked, not even looking up from his work. He had black hair, with a streak of light blue. Small wings popped out of his back; they looked just like Scar's. "Nah, the Walker's doing just fine! But I'm here to introduce the new member. This is Grian, Grian, Cub, Cub Grian." Scar replied with a cheery tone. Cub looked up and stared at him through his glasses. "Nice wings, you should talk to False if you don't know how to care for them. She's an expert." He observed as he walked over to him. Unconsciously, he moved his wings, slightly curling them around him. The light gray feathers peeking into his vision. The wings by his ears also moved, wanting to cover his eyes but Grian forced his instincts to stop. "Uh, thanks….. but I know how to take care of them just fine."

"Alright, anyways, I'm Cub, the engineer of the mafia. If you want me to build anything for ya, just come and ask. But uh, you might wanna knock first, and don't follow Scar's example of barging in. He's almost had his arm cut off twice by doing that."

Scar gasped. "Cub! And I thought we were friends! I'm offended!" The man dramatically said. Grian just giggled and shook hands with Cub. Then Scar decided to talk and the two dove into a short conversation, leaving him to awkwardly stand there until Scar decided that he needed to see all the other floors, so they entered the elevator and hit the number 2 button. The whole day was spent visiting all the floors and getting to know all the hermits. There was a total of 22 members, but it seemed that the mafia was doing better than ok with not a lot of people. The offices were also not like normal offices. They all had a small bedroom and bathroom connected to it, allowing members to take naps or sleep there if needed. The two top floors were home to just two people. Xisuma had the top floor while Xanthus had the one under him. Grian walked onto Xanthus's floor with Scar. There was a man sitting on a couch, seeming to have been waiting for him and Scar to arrive.

"This is Xanthus, the underboss and Xisuma's twin."

The man looked up at him and walked over. He looked like a clone of Xisuma, if the clone had a different hair color and a different outfit. "Uhm, nice to meet you Xanthus."

"Mhm, Scar, can you leave us for a bit? I want to talk to Grian in private."

Scar just nodded and left without question, waving goodbye before the elevator door closed. Now he was getting nervous, and kinda scared. Xanthus looked kinda scary. But he did follow him into his office. Sitting down in front of the desk, Xanthus took the seat opposite him. "Normally Xisuma would be talking to you, but he's busy. Now, can you just tell me about yourself and why you decided to join the mafia? I need to input it into the system so you can access the base. It also helps us to get to know you better."

Grian blinked and decided to look at the desk, the dark oak wood slightly scratched up. "Uhm, I'm Grian Charles Xelqua, and I'm 19."

"So, you're the youngest member of the mafia now."

"Huh?"

"Just continue."

"Ok…. uh as you can see, I have two sets of wings, one pair on my back and the other pair by my ears. I'm not exactly counted as a Winger so I don't really know what I am. Uh, I can levitate objects and people, the heavier it is, the harder it is to keep up in the air." Grian paused, thinking about the real reason why he had joined the mafia. No, he needed to lie, he couldn't tell the underboss that he was actually a Watcher! And how he used to be part of the very group that the mafia was trying to eradicate! But he didn't know if Xanthus could detect lies, so, half lying would have to work. "I joined the mafia because I want to protect people. A few of my friends were killed in the Evo attack. I-I don't want anyone else to die at their hands."

Xanthus hummed as he typed in a few things, then he sighed. "Alright, just put your hand against this." He did. "And there, your handprint's in the system."

Grian nodded as he moved his hand to his lap again. He was about to ask if he could leave when Xanthus looked at him dead in the eye through his mask. "Grian, you said you had friends in Evo. Who were they?"

Grian blinked but answered, stuttering over his words, "I was friends with Taurtis, Pearl, Timmy- uh I mean Jimmy, BigB, and Martyn."

Xanthus nodded. "Well, I'm guessing you haven't heard any more information since the attack happened."

Grian nodded. He only knew that the Watchers destroyed the town and killed everyone, otherwise, he was clueless. "Well, Pearl, Jimmy, BigB, and Martyn are alive. But they're missing. We only know they're still alive because their bodies haven'f been found. I mean, I've tried to find them, against my brother's will, but I couldn't find any trace of them. Even Cleo couldn't locate them when I sent her around the world a couple years back."

Grian's eyes were wide. "They-they're alive…?"

Xanthus rolled his eyes. "I just said that. You can go now. Go have some fun and relax, the first few days allow you to do that."

Grian nodded, thanking him before leaving the office, hurrying into the elevator waiting for him. Clicking the main floor button and exiting the machine after a few moments of descending, he glanced at the front desk and saw that no one was there anymore. But he did hear voices, so he went to the commons area. Inside were a lot of hermits! He was pretty sure most of the hermits were there actually.

"Oh, Grian! Great of you to join us!" A hermit called, he was pretty sure his name was Bdubs, and he was the intel gatherer. He just nodded and stood in one of the corners farthest away from them. They were all eating some food, Keralis, Joe, and Stress were cooking away in the kitchen, while a few of the other hermits were playing a video game, the others watching or talking. He sighed and looked at all the hermits, listing their names so he could remember them. Tango, Doc, and… Wels were playing Mario Cart. Mumbo, Iskall, and Scar were talking by the dining table. Cleo was drinking some beer on the couch, Etho sitting next to her and also drinking, but not as heavy as the woman. When he did take a drink, he did it in a way that his mask wouldn't reveal the bottom half of his face. And Bdubs, Ren, Hypno, Jevin, Cub, False, and Zedaph were watching the race, with Impulse seeming to be asleep on Zedaph's lap.

Grian just stood there for at least five minutes, until he slipped out of the room and hurried up to his own office on the fourth floor. Apparently, it was supposed to be on the third floor, but things changed last year, and the second floor became the medical wing. Walking into his office, he hurried into his bedroom and collapsed on the bed. The room was quite plain, a completely white bed with an oak wood closet in the corner was the only furniture in the room. Though Scar had told him he could decorate it to his heart's content once his bank account was linked up to the mafia's network. After all, the mafia made money like crazy, apparently. He sighed and turned onto his stomach, holding a hand out in front of him.

Purple magic started to swirl out of his palm and his light gray wings turned back to their original color, purple and silver, a symbol of the Watchers. He had to hide them, keep it a secret. He only joined the mafia to gain some protection, and the Watchers wouldn't just burst in here and demand him back, him being in their enemies' base and all.

The Watchers were heinous beings, powerful and cruel to players. They gained a reputation when they destroyed a town called Evo, killing everyone living there. The ones that survived went missing, and the mayor's son disappeared, dead or alive, no one knew. Around that time, the Hermitcraft Mafia was established, run by a man named GenerikB. His reign of the mafia lasted for about two years, until Xisuma became the boss. He led the mafia into a new light. They started to devote their lives to fighting the Watchers. Even if they did steal and do some illegal acts, they were respected, and one time they even teamed up with the police. Overall, they were the protectors of Mineville. And Grian, was one of them now. Sighing once more, he sat up and kicked off his shoes, changing into his pajamas. Lying back down on the bed, he closed his eyes and let his wings, light gray in color once again, cover his body like a blanket. Then, he drifted off to sleep.

Word Count: 2,950

In the future, I'm going to be writing missions that Grian goes on, and if you have any ideas for it, I'm happy to listen, so comment your ideas and I may use it! (i will credit you don't worry)