Hey folks

This chapter is too long for my liking

Prolly mitsakes

k bye

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Infinity

It wasn't difficult making our way up to the roof of the building. For a place where people stored their precious stuff, you'd think it would have more security. But we just made our way into the building, told the manager we were getting our stuff from the top floor, and then broke a hole in the roof. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the guy had been robbed before.

The tunnel was three blocks above us. I placed down a couple of cobblestone blocks to make a staircase.

"What we're doing isn't illegal, right?" Elly asked nervously, glancing over to the MineMail building.

"I hope it is!" Jazz exclaimed excitedly.

"It's probably illegal," J confirmed. "We could be arrested for tampering with someone's mail."

"Even if we don't open anything?"

"They wouldn't have any proof that we didn't."

"I've always wanted to go to jail..." Jazz mused thoughtfully. staring up into the sky and imagining it. "I'd be the head of a gang within the first week."

"How did I get stuck being a babysitter?" I groaned, standing on the top of the staircase and looking down at everyone.

J furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm older than you."

"Then act like it." I clapped my hands once. "Okay, troops, here's the plan. We're going to run across the top of this tunnel to the building, where we will then break through and make our way up to the minecart room using air vents or something."

"Or something?" J asked.

"I haven't thought that far yet." I snapped. "It's fine, though, because the author wants us to make it there. Therefore, whatever we do, we have plot armor and it's fine."

J opened his mouth to say something else, then shrugged as if he figured it wasn't worth asking.

"Any questions?" I asked my troops.

All three of them raised a hand.

I smiled, satisfied. "Alright team, no questions. Let's move out!"

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

"Wow," Jazz said. "That was a really amazing way to get here."

We stood at the entrance of the minecart room. It took up most of the floor, with minecarts laying around all over the place and chests filled with them. The lighting was dim, and there weren't any decorations, so it looked more like a warehouse than a pristine building.

"I know!" Elly exclaimed, running forward. "The fact that we didn't get caught at all is crazy."

I walked forward and added, "What's even crazier is that there are no guards in the room at this second!"

J was the only one still at the entrance, a confused look on his face. "Is no one going to talk about what just happened? We just... appeared here."

"It's best not to question it." I said, picking up a minecart. "This'll do." I checked out the two minecart tunnel exits from the room on opposite sides. One tunnel declined slowly, and split off into many buildings only a few blocks away. However, the other one lowered even more quickly, and raised up and down multiple times, with a few tunnels branching off.

"This is the one." I grinned, picturing it as a rollercoaster.

"How do we make sure we don't split off?" Jazz asked.

"If we shove with enough force at the right time in the right direction, we should be able to control the minecart." J answered him. When Jazz looked away with a satisfied smile, J glanced at me with an 'I don't know' expression.

"Oh well." I placed my minecart on the first track. It was a powered rail activated by a button.

Then, we heard voices. They were coming closer to the door.

"Hide!" I hissed.

The three set their minecarts down and we all scattered. Jazz and Elly ran behind a wall of chests. J covered himself with an overturned minecart, while I hid behind a pile of them.

"I'm telling you, I saw her in the city!"

"No way, man. The prophecy girl is still in Notch City."

"She was dressed the same, though!"

The door opened. I peeked up and saw two male workers in overalls walking in. One had a clipboard, which he looked at as he spoke. "There are copycats clearly trying to get attention."

"Copy... Kats?"

I had ducked behind again, but I heard a smack, and could tell the guy who made the joke was hit with the clipboard.

"Whatever, man." The punny guy continued. "Hey, what's this minecart doing all set up already?"

I heard footsteps walking over to the area, and shifted my position so they wouldn't see me.

"I dunno, it's not scheduled for anything. It doesn't even have a chest in it yet."

I looked up just in time to see the punny guy throw the minecart across the room just because. It hit the wall of chests that Jazz and Elly were behind, and one of them squeaked.

"What was that?" Clipboard Guy asked.

The two walked over to where my friends were. Jazz and Elly peeked their heads out at me, panicked looks.

I stared back, panicked, trying to come up with something. But before I could, someone else spoke.

"Cough."

It wasn't even a real cough. Just the word.

"Did that minecart just... cough?" Punny Guy asked.

They headed over to J's area, and I motioned for Jazz and Elly to move. They understood what I meant, and quietly ran across the room to the minecart tunnel. Jazz placed down another that Elly jumped into. He pressed the button, and hopped in as well, and they disappeared down the tunnel.

"Hey!" Punny Guy exclaimed. "Did you hear something?"

"I heard a cough." Clipboard Guy insisted on focusing on J's area, gave Punny Guy his clipboard, and started lifting J's minecart.

Without thinking, I kicked the minecart next to me, earning a solid metal sound in response.

"You have to have heard that!" Punny Guy shouted again.

"Fine." Clipboard Guy said, and I heard the minecart drop. J wasn't found yet.

As they walked over to my pile, I moved around it so I was closer to the tunnel and on the opposite side of them. J's minecart raised an inch, and I saw his feet moving under it. He started moving to the tunnel as well. He made it there before me, and placed it down. Quickly, he ducked out of sight.

"Now there's another minecart there!" Punny Guy noticed, making me realize that was why J ducked. "I swear, this place is haunted."

"Or," Clipboard Guy was clearly the smart one, "We're being messed with."

They started walking over there. I quickly got out an arrow, and threw it as hard and as far as I could. It hit the far wall and fell into a minecart with a satisfyingly loud noise.

"Now what?" Clipboard Guy groaned. The two of them, clearly not wise enough to split up, went over there.

I looked back at J, who was inside the minecart and ready to push the button. We nodded at each other, and he took off. I quickly grabbed a minecart from my pile, and ran for the tunnel.

"Hey!"

Without looking back, I continued running forward. I lowered the minecart and jumped, landing inside of it as it slammed against the powered rails. I pushed the button, and was off.

I didn't have time to calm down from the thrill. The tunnel immediately declined, with powered rails making it go faster and faster. The city passed in a blur. I had to grab onto the sides of the minecart and hang on for dear life.

"YEEAAHH!" I screamed, laughing.

The tunnel flattened out for a good few seconds, enough for me to catch my breath, then shot to the left.

The ride was exhilarating. I felt like I was faster than a boat on ice (which is really fast and just as fun). I tucked myself inside the minecart to go faster and to hopefully catch up with the others.

It worked. After a couple of minutes of free riding, my tunnel went upward and I was able to get a better view. Jazz and Elly weren't far away from J, who was slowly catching up to them. Right before I declined, I noticed that I could take a shortcut if I went straight instead of turning right.

I went on the downward slope, and shouted in excitement again. I had the best ideas.

When I made it to the area, I calmed down to focus. The right turn was coming up in forty blocks... thirty... twenty... ten...

I ducked down, grabbing the sides of the minecart, and pushed myself up. I ducked down again to avoid hitting the roof. The jump was small, but it was enough. I was over the gap and heading straight as Jazz and Elly turned onto my tunnel ahead of me with J behind them, going in the same direction as me.

"Hey guys!" I shouted, waving at them.

They all looked back, grinning. J looked... happy? He actually had teeth?

We all enjoyed the ride for a few more minutes, our laughs and shouts of excitement mixed together. I nearly got hit by a mail cart coming onto our tunnel, but fortunately nothing happened. Other than that, we had no interferences. Except when we were close enough to the ground, where people saw us with startled expressions.

Of course, the fun eventually had to end.

"Oh Notch!" I heard Elly exclaim.

I looked ahead, and saw that our tunnel was ending at a random small office building.

"What do we do?!" Jazz shouted back at us.

I didn't have enough time to think of a solution, because Jazz and Elly disappeared inside of the building. J looked back at me, then turned around as he entered it. I winced as I passed through as well, and slammed into J's minecart, who slammed even harder into Jazz's and Elly's, and we al toppled over onto the floor and onto each other. I was on top, so I quickly stood up to see where we were.

We landed inside of the second floor. There were cubicles making up most of the floor, with an area for a small kitchen and couches, and a couple of offices in the back. Most people were in a cubicle, two were by the kitchen, some were on the couches, and three were standing outside one of the office doors, looking the most professional.

Everyone was staring at the four kids that came out of the wall, mouths gaped and eyes wide.

"Hi..." Elly waved meekly. A man waved back.

"What...?" I looked around furiously. "What is... This isn't our stop! I..." I shook my head. "I can't believe those imbeciles got it wrong!" As we all got up and started heading for the door, I continued on. "I am so sorry for the intrusion, I know you all were hard at work, and I consider you all to be heroes of the community. Truly, it's an honor to be in the presence of such... magnificent workers. Especially you, ma'am. Anyway, we'll be going now. Bye!"

We sprinted out of there, down the stairs, and out the front door. No one stopped us, but we still continued walking quickly down the street just in case.

"Infinity," Jazz huffed out, a grin on his face. "If the group ever splits up again, I'm going with you."

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Ash

I stared into the eyes of my enemy. It was hard, since he was swimming around, and I could only look at one eye at a time. Nevertheless, the squid still stared back.

I narrowed my eyes.

He narrowed his eyes back.

I furrowed my brow.

The squishy parts above his eyes scrunched down.

"Ash," Scarlet said. "You've been doing this for ten minutes."

I ignored her.

"Are you just going to stare at him, or are you gonna fight?" Rein huffed.

Groaning, I finally blinked. "I must intimidate him, and strike fear and doubt into his pathetic heart. But now that I lost my focus, he is feeding off of my mortality."

"I..." Skye looked around. "What?"

"Scarlet, explain it to him."

"I'd rather not."

"Well," Skye continued, resting his elbow on the railing. "I'm waiting for a fight, so if you aren't delivering, I'm heading out."

"I wouldn't mind seeing the pandas again." Jona whispered. "I like when they sneeze out snot."

Skye stared at him. "And on that note..."

They both started walking away.

"Wait!" I raised my hand, but not my voice. It was still so powerful that even some strangers stopped moving for a second.

As Skye and Jona walked back, I saw my enemy move around in such a manner that was mocking me. He accepted my challenge.

"It's time." I whispered. "Guard me from outsiders."

Scarlet cleared her throat. "You do realize we can't do anything illeg-- and there he goes."

I climbed on top of the iron rail and dove into the water. And by dove, I mean belly-flopped.

The water splashed and bubbles formed around me as I sank into the water. I heard panicked screams and shouts from the crowd above, but I focused on swimming toward my enemy. I grabbed one of the squid's tentacles and yanked him toward me, where I then wrapped my arms around him. He started squirming around, which made it more difficult, as he was already slippery enough.

After struggling for a few seconds, I dragged him up to the surface with me as I swam up to get air.

We broke the surface together. I inhaled as much air as I could as the squid wrestled me downward. I glanced at the crowd, and saw Scarlet, Skye, Jona, and Rein surrounding the stretch of the squid exhibit wall, keeping people away from me.

The squid dragged me under, and started bucking and swimming around. He was trying his best, but it would not be enough.

It was only a matter of time before guards showed up, but I would be done by then.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

"Of all the immature, insufferable, irresponsible things I have ever seen in this zoo-"

"Don't forget irrational." Scarlet casually added.

The zoo official stopped her pacing to face Scarlet and give her a glare that should've sent her running. Then, she continued pacing, her posture perfectly erect, her hands behind her back, her uniform crisp and clean. With the way she presented herself she looked like she should've joined the army.

"I have worked in this zoo for twenty-three years..."

"How?" Skye grinned, giving her a wink. "You don't look a day over thirty."

She stared at him. "I've helped animals birth babies that are now older than you, little boy."

Skye shrunk back and looked down.

She continued down the line of the five of us. When she reached Rein, she stopped again, still staring straight ahead. "Shoulders back, stomach in, chin high, hands at your side. And put that hair up; that length is only slowing you down."

Rein did everything she commanded as she listed it off, but when the lady mentioned her hair, she winced.

The zoo official continued down, and only took off Jona's fox hat and handed it to him. "That color doesn't do you justice."

Jona gasped as she walked away.

She finally reached me, and stood inches away, glaring down at me. "You."

I was still dripping wet from the fight, ink stained on my clothes and covering my face. That nasty squid had some dirty tricks. "Me."

"I-" She started, but had to blink and shake her head because she was so dumbfounded. "I am completely flabbergasted. What on Minecraft led to you doing that?"

"That squid had it co-"

"Nevermind, I don't care." She waved me away, and turned around to pace the other direction. The three security guards on the other side of her were at attention, staring past all of us. One was also dripping wet from when he was knocked in trying to get me.

"What I do care about is that you harmed an innocent animal."

"He was not innocent at all." I muttered, thinking about when he pinned me to the bottom of the tank and tried to drown me.

She whipped toward me faster than lightning. "What did you just say?"

"Please, sir. Ma'am." Rein corrected herself quickly. "Our friend here gets a little... confused sometimes."

"Does that excuse him from attempting to battle with a harmless creature?"

"Harmless?" I coughed, remembering when he spun me around to make me dizzy and drown me. Jona elbowed me.

"Miss Barsotti!" Another security guard came running up through the door of the staff center. He quickly stopped, saluted, and continued to the lady. He started whispering in her ear, and her eyebrows furrowed. She waved him away, and he saluted again, then left.

"My employee here just informed me that you walk around with the prophecy girl. Is that true?" She stood in front of us, sweeping her eyes around to each one of us.

"Yes, Miss Barsotti, we're her friends." Skye answered.

"You will call me Sir or Ma'am and nothing else."

"Yes, sir."

"Then surely you all should have a sense of responsibility, yes?"

"Yes, sir." We all answered.

"And, correct me if I'm wrong, but that also means you have Notch's blessing, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you honestly think he would approve of this behavior?"

"No, sir." Wow, she was really good at making people feel bad.

"They are just kids, ma'am." One of her security guards mumbled.

"Who said that?" She shouted, turning around. All of the guards stiffened up to have even more straightened posture. "Did I say any of you could speak?"

They didn't answer.

"Did I?"

"No, ma'am."

She turned around to us. Then, she covered her face with her hand, and sighed. In that gesture, she looked more like a disappointed mother rather than a drill sergeant. "What are you even doing here? Surely you have more important duties."

"With all due respect, sir, our mission is classified." Rein spoke out. "However, we have to wait to continue our next step, so we decided to explore the city and its attractions. Our group came here to see the animals."

"To fight them."

"To see them." Jona finally spoke. He jabbed a hand in my direction. "He's the idiot here."

"Do you really think we would've bought merchandise if we only came for violence?" Skye gestured to the fox hat in Jona's hand.

"We are just kids," I finally added, knowing the lady wasn't going to accept the fact that one of her squids is evil.

She looked at each of us, staring past our eyes and into our souls. "Someone is still going to have to be in trouble." She looked back at me.

"Then you'll have to take that up with Notch." Scarlet casually mentioned. "I mean, he is the reason why we're on this time-sensitive, world-saving mission in the first place. And I'm sure he wouldn't like it if it was delayed."

Miss Barotti walked back to her and put her face mere inches away from Scarlet's. "Are you threatening me?"

The rest of us would've cowered, but Scarlet remained deadpanned. "I'm just speaking the truth. I'd hate for the wrath of a god to come down on you and your zoo."

The lady narrowed her eyes. "You don't have the gall."

"I walk around with these losers. Trust me, I do."

The two females locked into a staring contest, Miss Barotti's face slightly scrunched to show annoyance, Scarlet's relaxed and calm to show she doesn't care.

Unsurprisingly to Rein and I, who have known Scarlet for a long time, the zoo official broke first. She sighed and backed up. "Well something has to be done for repercussions."

"How about we have Notch come visit your zoo and give it a good rating?" Rein suggested.

Miss Barotti tapped her hand on her chin in thought.

"And we never come here again," Jona added.

"Deal." Miss Barotti quickly shook hands with everyone down the line. When she got to me, I held out my ink-covered hand. She gave me a quick look of disdain, then lightly patted me once on the shoulder.

As we walked out of the staff center, being escorted by four guards surrounding us, I grumbled. "I would've won that fight if there was no intervention."

"Ash, dude, let's face it. That squid had a surprising amount of strength, and great technique. I mean, did you see some of those moves? They wer-"

He stopped talking as I slowly wiped my inky hand all over his face, and accepted my ink.

"You know," Jona put the fox hat back on. "I don't care what she says. I think this color looks great on me."

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Before we get to the redstone factory story, I'm going to remind you what the place looks like, so you can have a better time visualizing it :)

"The first thing that hit me was the smell of redstone and slime, something most people would hate, but that I loved. The second thing was the noise of people shouting and machinery moving. The room could hardly be classified as a room--it was a giant underground redstone factory that had to be at least a third of the city's size above us. We were in the corner, hugging the right wall. To our left was most of the room, offices hugging the leftmost wall. There were hundreds of conveyor belts at different heights and angles moving around all different kinds of redstone projects, from the tiniest TNT cannon to a giant movable house. It was like the mailing system that the city had, yet more chaotic looking. There were certain flat areas dedicated to testing throughout the place, and catwalks above, with lights stringing down. Workers were moving all around, shouting and carrying things. Pathways were marked by red terracotta on either side, making sure visitors don't go over the line into dangerous territory."

Have fun :D

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Gordon

"Look at that!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, we're looking." Yuri stated.

"And that!"

"Yep, we see that too." Mastermind chuckled.

"Oh my Notch, that's amazing! Do you see that?!"

"No." Glitch rolled his eyes. "We don't."

"How could you miss it?!" I pointed at a quad-direction double-decker TNT cannon. "That design has such little redstone, yet can launch so quickly and effectively! It's probably the first of its kind!"

The tour guide lady cleared her throat, catching our attention. "Thank you, young man, but please allow me to do my job."

"Right!" I raised my hand. "Yes! Sorry, ma'am. Won't happen again."

She sighed, obviously already drained, and continued walking down the path.

The factory was amazing. The pathways were in a grid pattern, but we were only going down the rows. There was so much happening both on the ground and on the catwalks. They offered woolen ear plugs because of the noises, but I declined. The scraping of the materials, the banging together of two pieces, the explosions, the shouts of people... it was all music to my ears. This was where I belonged.

"Ms. Tour Guide Lady." Glitch raised his hand, even though she couldn't see it. "Everything seems to be constantly changing here; how can you do tours?"

She turned around, looking pleased. "Good question! Us tour guides spend weeks training down here, expecting to talk about the unexpected. We still continue to learn names of models and designs. Every Sunday, workers are expected to submit a report on what they plan to work on for the week, so us tour guides can be prepared." She straightened her blazer. "Of course, sometimes they stray off because they think of a new idea, so we have to be ready for that kind of improvisation."

"Wow," Glitch said, nodding slowly. "That sounds incredible."

She grinned, not noticing his sarcasm, and turned to the side. "Oh! Over here we can see one of the inventions being shipped off!"

The four-sided TNT cannon now had ropes attached to the blocks below it, all connected to a single lifting mechanism above hanging from the ceiling. A worker tugged on a rope, and waved upward. The invention--and the floor under it--was lifted up and toward the ceiling and away. A worker on the catwalk nearby gave a whistle in celebration, and two on the floor high-fived each other.

"Where is it going?" Mastermind asked.

"It's heading off to the Design Inc. building to be evaluated and approved by the Board of Designers, which includes Mumbo Jumbo himself."

"Ahhh!" I squealed, grinning and jumping up and down. "Is he here right now?"

"Dude, play it cool," Mastermind whispered.

The tour lady pressed her lips together. "I'm sorry, but he's currently at the office right now."

I pouted. "Poo."

"Perhaps we should continue the tour?" Yuri suggested. "I would love to see more engineering. I'm not sure if you know this, but I'm a bit of an inventor myself."

We all groaned.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

"Mastermind wasn't confident about building the Chariots. He believed it was impossible. So I said, 'my dear boy, nothing is impossible!' and showed him that some things are worth taking risks for." Yuri chuckled.

"That didn't happen," Mastermind added for the seventh time during Yuri's story.

"My design required such little redstone, even Gordon here said it was revolutionary."

"That didn-" Mastermind stopped. "Actually, that did happen. But still, it was a collaborative process."

"Yes, little boy, it was." Yuri patted him on the head, then whispered to the tour guide, "I let him believe that."

"Okay!" The tour guide turned around. "We have made it through... one row. We are a tenth of the way through." She sighed. "Are there any questions so far?"

Everyone raised their hand.

"Questions that aren't involving your... Chariots."

Yuri put his hand down.

"Or asking if you can play with the machinery."

Glitch put his hand down.

"Or if you can ship yourself off to be evaluated just so you can meet Mumbo Jumbo."

Mastermind put his hand down.

"Or if we can call Mumbo Jumbo and ask him to come here."

I put my hand down.

She sighed yet again for some odd reason. "Right then, let's continue."

We continued forward, but then something caught my eye.

I gasped and stopped, staring.

"Gordon?" Glitch asked.

"You..." I gawked in amazement. "I can't believe you're here!"

I walked up to them slowly, admiring the view. "Wow... you are the most beautiful being I have ever seen..." I rubbed my hand on their arm. "You're gorgeous... the love of my life..."

"Gordon." Mastermind said from behind me. "You're scaring us."

"Why are you touching my work?!" A worker exclaimed, grabbing his hair in exasperation.

I stared up into the eyes of the iron-plated suit before me. It stood a block taller, due to all the added features and thickness of the material. There was no visible redstone, yet the joints looked like they could move smoothly. The headgear was a helmet that would completely engulf the head, with a single line running across where the wearer's eyes would see out of.

"This baby is loaded!" I exclaimed.

"Sir, please stay within the pathway." The tour guide lady said with a strained voice. "This is the fourth time you've stepped out, and we're only eleven minutes into the tour!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am," I replied unapologetically, "but I'm a redstoner. This stuff is incredible!"

The worker snorted. "Redstoner? You don't belong with this kind of machinery."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

He patted the arm of his invention. "Do you see any redstone here, bud? No? That's because there isn't any. This was made with new smelting tactics, pal. Soon, redstone will start becoming a thing of the past."

"You think some fancy smelting will get rid of redstone?" I mocked his snort.

"Not that alone, no. New ideas of engineering are coming together, bud. Gunpowder and fireworks are being used in weapons and transportation. Smelting is creating more powerful armor and weapons, and even structures. People are harnessing lightning to give their machines more power than any amount of redstone can handle." He shrugged with a smirk. "Sorry, kid. If you want to keep using redstone, go for it. But it's becoming a thing of the past. If I were you, I'd move on."

I didn't move or even look as he walked away. I was stuck, both physically and mentally.

"Gordon..." Mastermind put his hand on my shoulder.

"He's right," I said, blinking. "He's right. Redstone is being replaced."

"No it's not," Glitch said incredulously. "So many things are still being powered by redstone, and they're going to keep being powered by it."

"Dude, how can you say that when we have things like television, virtual games, and, and... the Chariots! The Chariots are a perfect example. Like he said, fireworks are being used more often now, like you guys used them." I looked at the ground, defeated. "I dunno. I want to believe redstone can stand strong but... it's been around for so long, you can only do so much with it anymore. He's right, it's a thing of the past."

"Don't tell me you're actually going to give up on redstone."

"And what if I am?" I snapped, turning toward the person that said that. However, I immediately dropped my attitude as well as my jaw when I saw them.

"What a shame..." Abby tutted. "I was really hoping you would go on to become the most innovative redstoner in the world."

She was standing there with her arms crossed, a mischievous smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. Seeing her there gave me butterflies and made me instantly feel better. She had come to see me.

With a grin forming on my face, I rushed forward and hugged her. She squeaked in surprise, but then returned the hug.

"Thank you." I whispered to her in our embrace.

"Can I get a hug too?" Glitch asked.

Abby and I pulled away from each other, and I could see a bashful smile before she covered it with a grin. "Are you asking me or Gordon?"

"Anyone who could give me one. I've been feeling unloved."

Mastermind grabbed him and wrapped him in a tight hug, and refused to let go even when Glitch was gasping for air.

"Okay, okay, so do we have another on the tour?" The guide asked, a little nervous.

"Yep," Abby said happily, "I already signed in."

The lady quietly pleaded to her, "You aren't as... passionate, as your friends, are you?"

Abby gave us an accusing look, and assured the lady, "Don't worry, I'm not. I'm more of a builder."

"Abby!" I raised my hand. "There's some stuff here that doesn't include redstone! Engineering stuff! Like this really cool suit!" I gestured to the armor.

She walked up to it, her eyebrows slightly raised. "Yeah, there definitely isn't room for redstone here... Wow, that's really cool. That has to be iron, right? But it looks so much stronger..."

"And they just had a four-sided double-decker TNT cannon shipped away."

"Four-sided?" Abby asked, amused. "That's pretty incredible; I didn't even think that was possible."

She did a slow twirl to look around, then gasped as she spotted something. "Oh my Notch, what's that?!" She ran off the path and into the mass of machinery and workers.

I grinned and ran off after her, with Mastermind, Yuri, and Glitch following. We could hear the tour guide lady groan behind us.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Kat

The outside of the library looked like a very stubby tree with the palette chosen, but I didn't expect there to be an actual tree on the inside.

Apparently, the leaves that made up the roof were actually part of a real tree. It was massive, too. The library had bookshelves all along the walls, and walkways on each floor with stairs in the back. The tree was on a little island with a stream circling around the base of the trunk, and branches breaking off into the walkways. Some of the branches had paths on them that people could use to reach a platform around the trunk on the third level, where there was a children's section with kids reading there. The opacity of the leaves allowed natural light to come in, but there were some occasional lanterns. To the right was a two-story addition that appeared to be reading rooms. Immediately to either side of me were two desks with two workers each. The signs on them said the left one was for checkout and return, and the one on the right was for assistance and getting a library card.

"Can I help you with something?" A man working at the right desk asked with a small smile.

"Uh..." I looked around at the bookshelves again. There appeared to be signs labelling the sections, but the guy didn't seem busy, so it wouldn't hurt getting a little bit of assistance.

"Yeah, actually." Smiling, I walked up to the table. "Can you show me where to find... hmm... mythology? Stuff about gods?"

"Yes!" He moved out from behind the desk and walked toward the water and near the middle. He began to point out areas. "On the fourth level right there is our mythology section, but much of that is fictional. They are stories of the past that haven't been proven true. There's a whole debate about it. If you want to know about the gods of today, that would be in our history section, which is the entire third floor. Section C, to be precise. Right there."

I meekly pointed to both areas, and he nodded excitedly.

"Right..." I blinked, but smiled again. He seemed really passionate about his job. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" He went back to his place behind the desk.

I walked behind the tree, looking at people reading on couches and chairs and looking through bookshelves. The atmosphere was quiet, but it was peaceful and not tense. The quiet conversations, the light sounds of footsteps, the occasional flip of a page, the thud of books being stacked. It was in a rhythmic fashion despite the irregular beat. It brought ease to me as I walked up the stairs to the third floor.

There were benches placed along the railing, and I moved around someone sitting on one. I peered at the markings of the shelves until I found section C. It was as stacked as the others, and not a lot were checked out. There were a lot of ones about Notch and his accomplishments. A Brilliant Brain, The Art of Notch, The Greatest Craftman... They all talked about his greatness. There were fewer books about Herobrine, but I was too lazy to think about the titles. They were punny about his evilness, though. There were even a couple books about Steve, but I also didn't think about at the titles.

It was crazy how many books there were. Especially since they were about people I knew. My family. Would people write books about me in the future?

That thought hit me, and I immediately scanned the bookshelves. I had surfaced a few months ago, so there could be something about me.

Nothing.

I huffed, frustrated.

"Maybe I'll have Abby write a book about me," I mused with a smile.

I picked a random book titled 'Taking It Up a Notch', and sat down on a nearby bench.

Then, I started reading.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

A couple of hours later, I was laying on the bench with a stack of books on the floor next to me. I skimmed through most of them, skipping chapters and trying to find anything that was useful and interesting. Most of it was actually really helpful. I learned much more about Notch and his powers, and what he had achieved so far. It was surprising how many accomplishments he assisted with. He helped design the minecart system in Corola City and chose the spot for Notch City (though he didn't name it). There was also the development of new potions, which apparently he never created. Potions were discovered by the very first witch of Minecraft a couple of centuries ago, who I also read up on. She was good-hearted until the power went to her head and she tried to create a potion of immortality, which quite literally blew up in her face. Also, he didn't create music discs either. The date of those is unknown, as they were first discovered in dungeons, which appeared before Notch existed.

It was crazy to think of a time before Notch. He was our god of creation. To think that things were created before him... who made the world? What made the world? What gave him and Herobrine their powers? A book said they weren't born with them, so they had to have gotten them from somewhere.

I remembered the guy mentioning that Notch and Herobrine were the gods of today... so that must mean there were gods of the past. He said they weren't proven to be real, but that doesn't mean they didn't exist. Maybe they gave the two their powers. Well, three. I kept forgetting about Steve.

I got up and gathered my book pile. There was one I had planned to read about Herobrine's deeds before he became evil, but I couldn't bring myself to read it yet. Part of me didn't want to believe he could have had some humanity in him at some point. It would only make it more difficult to defeat him.

Nevertheless, I put the rest of the books away, and kept that one. I walked up to the fourth floor to the mythology section.

It was three times as big as section C. I stepped back to see if any books caught my eye, and glanced outside. Sunset was coming soon; there was no way I could go through even a third of them.

Sighing, I got to work by judging books by their covers.

The first half hour, I didn't find anything. The mythology also included young adult novels, so that was what I mostly found. People finding out they have godlike powers, mortals having to vanquish gods, gods coming down from the heavens to fall in love with mortals. That last one actually gave me a name I could look up--Primis.

I set off on another book finding adventure, and finally found one with a list of mythical gods. There was an introduction for the first chapter, which I took my time reading:

There are few people who still believe in the gods of the past. The beings that roamed Minecraft before us. The deities that created the mountains and rivers, the oceans and forests. Whether one believes in them or not, there is proof that they existed, for how were the wonders of the world created before we wandered the lands and seas?

In this book I will list every god and goddess that has been recorded in books and poems from the past, and any stories that come with them.

I flipped to the first chapter, which was titled 'Primis', and started reading it. It stated that Primis was the first being ever, and created the universe, including Minecraft. He was powerful, but lonely, so he created the other gods, and they shaped Minecraft into what it was a couple of centuries ago. They eventually created the first humans to watch them move around the world.

The book also mentioned Notch, and how the author predicts that he is Primis's successor. However, he doesn't say why, nor does he know where Primis went.

There were many gods listed, some extremely powerful like gods of the air, earth, fire and water. Some of those were subcategories and overlapped, like the god of ice and goddess of storms. Some were pretty specific; there were gods of parkour, mining, fighting, farming, potions, building, redstone, trolling, animals, nature. The least powerful gods were ones of every biome, but they seemed more like demigods than actual gods. There were more ancient ones like gods of the sun, moon, and stars, and some for dimensions, like the Nether and the End.

The End... I've heard about it a few times, but there wasn't much known about it. There were multiple portals to go there deep in underground structures, but no one knows about what's on the other side. No one except the brave explorers and warriors who went in and never came back out. Notch must've known about it, though.

I leaned back on the bench, realizing I had been reading in the same position for so long, and my back was starting to hurt.

These gods... the only proof of their existence is the world we walked on. They could be just stories, but if they were real, it could change the way everyone looked at the world and the gods of today.

The only people that could know if they are real are Notch, Herobrine, and Steve. I had to ask one of them. Preferably Notch or Steve. Preferably Notch.

Another thing that occured to me was Herobrine's powers. He's labelled as the god of evil, but he had to have been given his powers before he was evil, otherwise he wouldn't have deserved his powers. So what was he the god of before that? How did that whole process happen?

The final chapter laid out theories from different people of where the gods disappeared to. Some suggested they went to live in the Aether, a mythical fourth dimension of the gods. A few said they have a hidden city in the Overworld or Nether or End (the last one seemed the most reasonable to me). One said they disguised themselves and decided to live as normal people, another suggested they wiped themselves out in a civil war, and one said they moved to a different planet.

The author of the book ended it with one final personal paragraph:

No matter which theory you believe in, or if you do not think the gods of the past ever existed, something magical happened in the beginning to create what we see before our eyes today. I personally believe in these deities. Their imagination gave us our land and our waters, our animals and our mobs, our mines and our biomes. They gave us our Minecraft.

I closed the book, staring at the title page and thinking about what he said. Then, I noticed at the bottom there was the word 'Anonymous'. The author didn't reveal his identity.

"How are you finding our collection?"

I looked up at the desk helper standing in front of me. He had his head tilted, a small smile on his face.

"The library has a great collection." I told him, putting the book away. "Thank you so much for letting me use it."

"You don't plan on keeping that one, do you?" He asked with a teasing smile, gesturing to the book about Herobrine that I had next to me on the bench.

"No!" I shook my head quickly. " I wasn't going to steal it, I promise. I just wasn't sure if I was going to read it."

He looked at me, then back at the book. Picking up the book, he looked at the title, and handed it to me. "You should check it out."

"Thank you, but I couldn't. I don't know when I'll be back here."

"Then keep it." He took my arm and placed the book in my hand. "And I'll pay for it. You need to read up on the enemy if you plan on beating him."

I blinked once. Twice. His expression told me he was waiting for me to respond.

"I..." He knew who I was this whole time, but still treated me like a normal person?

What an absolute legend.

I smiled, and put the book in my inventory. "Thank you so much. I will try to return it someday."

"Whatever happens, happens." He grinned, then started walking away.

I remembered something, then called out to him, "Wait! I need to find the poetry section. There's a book called Poems of the Past."

He turned around and informed me, "It's on the fifth floor, on the opposite side."

"Thank you!" I smiled and he returned it, then walked down the stairs.

I made my way up a floor and over to the poetry section. It didn't take long for me to find the book; it was the thickest one on the shelf. I struggled carrying it over to a bench, and set it down with a thud. Flipping to the table of contents, I skimmed down the list of titles and authors, and realized with a groan that Abby never gave me a title. She did, however, give me a summary so I could figure out titles from there, and she also said it was anonymous.

With another glance outside, I realized sunset was coming soon, and I didn't have much time. There were over 700 poems in the book, though most of them were only a page or two long.

For a while I skimmed down the contents, flipping to the anonymous authors.

Finally, I found it. Untitled, anonymous. It was less than a page long.

I wait here.

When the first light of the sky emerges, and a new day begins,

I wait here.

When the sun kisses the horizon and leaves us, and a blanket of stars covers the land,

I wait here.

When the wind rustles the trees, and whispers in my ear to move along,

I wait here.

When the waves crash onto the shore with mighty roars and quiet mews,

I wait here.

I wait for hope.

I wait for love.

I wait for the smile of a friend.

I wait for the arms of a lover to wrap around me.

I wait for people to come together, locking hands and hearts.

I wait for days where imagination will grow stronger than monotony, and love will conquer fear.

I wait for days when an inevitable death will no longer discourage those to embrace what they could in life.

I wait for days when the dark will no longer drive away the light of hope.

Hope for the future.

Hope for change.

I wait for hope.

I wait for me.

I stared at the lines, and reread them. Again, and again. The last sentence completely threw me off. I knew some poetry was supposed to be confusing, and there had to be some deeper meaning to it.

I wasn't sure what else to think about it. It seemed like the person lived back when there weren't many people around. Maybe the last line meant he was waiting for himself to take charge and do something? But maybe the meaning wasn't as simple as that.

Sighing, I shut the book loudly, earning a 'Shh' from a closeby reader. I put it away, and headed down to the first floor. When I walked past the desk, the guy waved at me, and I waved back.

Man, I really hope he didn't get in trouble for giving me the book. He seemed pretty confident around the library, though, so he must've been a valuable worker.

When I got outside, the sun was getting close to setting. I walked back to the apartment.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

"Hey, Kat!" Elly waved at me.

Rein, Infinity, Jazz, Ash, Elly, Skye, Jona, J, and Jona were sitting or leaning against the wall of the apartment building, all laughing and talking. Ash was wet.

"Ash." I frowned. "You're wet."

"Really?" He glanced down, and wrung out the bottom of his hoodie, water dripping down on the ground. "Thanks, I didn't notice."

"He fought a squid." Skye told me.

"And the squid won!" Rein laughed, causing everyone else to laugh or smile.

Ash did not smile. "It was a tie."

"Whatever, man." Infinity wiped a tear away. "At least you didn't interrupt a whole office floor."

"Or convince a mail worker the place was haunted!" Elly giggled.

"Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun." I laughed. "Are we just waiting on the redstone group, now?"

"Wait no longer!" Gordon's voice called out from the side. Him, Abby, Mastermind, Yuri, and Glitch were walking toward us. I smiled at how happy Abby looked by Gordon's side.

"How was the library?" Abby asked me.

"It was amazing, you're going to have to go there someday. They also had that poem you mentioned, it was really thought provoking."

She beamed at me, then looked at Rein. "Whoa, Rein, I love your hair!"

I had only just noticed, but Rein's hair was put up in a nice high ponytail with her bangs hanging down.

"Thank you!" She grinned, patting it. "I just felt like it needed a change."

Abby frowned and looked down in thought, touching her own low ponytail.

Mastermind turned to Ash. "Ash, you're wet."

He sighed.

"Okay, we gotta hear that story." Gordon gestured to him. "But let's do that while we walk. Abby, lead the way."

As we headed down toward the coast, we all took turns telling our stories. I clearly had the least interesting, but when I told them about the mythical gods, they genuinely seemed interested.

"Bah," Yuri waved the idea away. "Science created the universe."

"Then how did Notch and Herobrine get their powers?" Jazz countered.

Gordon interrupted, "I would love to meet this god of redstone to see what he says about new engineering."

"Can we all just acknowledge," Infinity raised her voice to get everyone's attention, "that Kat is the only one who didn't disrupt a corporation and actually behaved herself?"

"Clearly you guys are the bad influences." I joked.

The stories continued, and we kept walking for another twenty minutes. The sunset had come and was nearly gone. As the poem's author would say, it had kissed the horizon and was leaving the sky.

"There." Abby pointed ahead, and we all stopped.

We were nearly at the coast, and I saw a walkway ahead that branched off the beach. There were lights and colors around it, but I tried not to look at it for too long, as I wanted a better view up close to reveal it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Gordon walked ahead and turned around to face us, still walking backwards toward the beach. "We're not doing any good standing here!"

We all took a second to look at each other, then sprinted forward and stampeded past him.

"Hey! Wait up!" He called from behind us.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

Of course my longest chapter ever (I think) was one that was half of a two-part filler lmao

This took me two days to edit because I don't like reading long chapters. Even my own.

Anyway this chapter is late, but don't worry, the next one has been finished for weeks now so it will still be published on Saturday.

I think we can all guess what the 'underwater attraction' is tbh

This apple juice I'm drinking doesn't taste good :(

Fun fact this chapter wasn't supposed to exist; I planned on just leaving all of the stories on cliffhangers and have them discuss them some other point, but then Tood was like "imo dont" so I didn't

SO that's the origin story of my longest chapter

Anyway

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ⓡⓞⓒⓚ ⓞⓝ, ⓜⓨ

ⓛⓘⓣⓣⓛⓔ ⓡⓔⓑⓔⓛⓢ

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