Minecraft 1. Chapter 1

Prologue: Days and nights are the same length as normal life, not ten minutes. Minecraft physics. Hard difficulty.

**Part 1: Freighport**

**CHAPTER 1- THE STRUGGLE**

Charlie lived in a small neighborhood on a large island. The town was called Freightport because of the chest minecarts that came every Saturday to haul off the coal to the ports. Charlie's island was a historical place and besides coal mining, the other main industry was tourism. He was an average kid who didn't bother with dressing up in fancy skins when he went places, usually he just stayed as the original. Charlie was in the fifth grade and didn't have a lot of friends, his school wasn't very filled and there were only about thirty kids per grade. He was a smart kid but he only had one friend who's name was Brine, a girl in his class with red hair and a pink shirt.

This particular day there were a couple seventh graders teasing him and punching him into lockers. Luckily that morning Charlie made the decision to put on leather boots which decreased the pain of the kids punches. He hit one of the kids back right when a teacher stepped out of the nearest classroom holding a stick. "Charles Dittor enough!" Mr. Z shouted and all four students froze. Stepping over to them and looking at them who all had their heads pointed at their toes. They were all the same height which was normal after a kid left Kindergarten and hit their growth spurt. "Who started this?"

All three seventh graders looked at Charlie and the boy looked around at all of them. "They're lying," he mumbled hopelessly, "They were insulting my dad."

"What you want, another beating boy?" One of the boys asked before jumping back as he realized what he said. "I mean..."

"I think I've heard enough Mr. Arn, you three to the principal's office now." They moaned and started walking down the hallway punching their stupid friend. Turning back to Charlie who had had enough time to recover to full health asked, "You alright kid, sorry about accusing you like that. What were they saying about your dad that got you so upset?"

"They told me he must've been a coward to raise such a wimp like me. He died in the coal mine collapse four years ago, saved ten people then ran back in for more." Charlie was proud of his father more than any other aspect of his life. Many people died from Freightport that day so Mr. Z accepted and patted him on the back. School had just ended and Charlie was sprinting home hoping not to run into those boys on his way. Although the town was a main provider of coal for the mainland, the workers were never paid very much. All the money went to the mine owner who had a mansion at the top of the hill overlooking the town. The streets weren't even paved only made out of cobble placed by the original builders of the town. There was the occasional hole in the street but nobody bothered to patch them up. Finally Charlie reached his home and went to check up on his mom. Being an only child was hard on him but they had received a settlement from the coal mining company Coal Co. It was enough to get them by even without his mother working. She'd been diagnosed as a crazy person and she heard voices all day so Charlie didn't worry about her much, she had company. After he shut the fence gate and made the way down the dirt path he looked around. All the neighbor's yards were freshly mowed but his was covered in grass and flowers. He went to check the small garden they had behind their house but there wasn't much there, he harvested five wheat and replanted the seeds but didn't dare plant any more because he needed the money for his mom's medication.

Walking in the back door Charlie called out, "Mom I'm home." He walked into her room but she was sleeping, it seemed to be all she could do anymore. Tossing a loaf of bread at her it was placed in her inventory and fortunately didn't wake her up. Being the smartest kid in his grade meant nothing to him, he didn't want to go into the inventing business, or being a lawyer or businessman. He grabbed his wooden sword that he save up a lot of levels to name Gutter and went into the back to practice fighting. There were two saplings in his backyard so he couldn't hit them like usual which was probably better since Gutter had only a quarter bar left of durability. He spent long into the afternoon and it started to get dark but he still was swinging his sword around his backyard. Putting the sword back in his inventory he went around breaking the grass and flowers. Happy that he got a total of ten wheat seeds from his front and backyards, Charlie walked up to his backdoor but he heard something in his yard. Spinning around the first thing he noticed was that the trees grew when he turned around, the second was a pair of red eyes behind the tree. _Oh no, the light! _Charlie thought frantically, the torches placed in the backyard were close to the house and the trees obstructed the light. Springing up from the darkness was an eight-legged, red-eyed, monster. Switching back to his sword Charlie stood next to his back door. The spider was attempting to climb over the tree, it wasn't smart enough to go around and Charlie Dittor kept thinking the smart thing was to run to the police, spiders can't break down doors he'd be safe inside. "Uuurrggh, sss sss," the noises piled up but he definitely made out the sound of a zombie. _I can't leave mom alone, that zombie will break down the door, _so he made a decision, a decision that would change his life.

Drawing the monsters towards him he ran past the tree and placed a torch in the dark spot of his lawn. Getting hit by the zombie he heard a growl and started running. The hit hurt much more then he thought, much more than the punches from his classmates. Running into his front yard he took a look around, the spider was almost as fast as he was but the zombie was still pretty far back. The spider lunged at him and he bat it back with his sword, it didn't do as much damage as he thought it would and the spider jumped right back at him. Never having fought a real fight before Charlie blocked as he backed up towards the street, the zombie was getting closer.

Charlie's next door neighbor Mrs. Flynn had her husband run to the station as fast as possible when she saw the monsters appear in the Dittor's backyard. She was currently hiding behind her door watching as Charlie got hit again and again by the spider. Her daughter Brine was in the kitchen eating dinner while it all went on. Knowing her daughter to be friends with the boy, Mrs. Flynn decided not to let her know what was going on. A minute ago however, the zombie's noise was heard through the wall and Brine stood up fast, her bow was instantly on hand having it always ready with the only two arrows she owned. Running next to her quivering mother at the door she froze as the sight of her friend since childhood appeared in front of her.

Now on the street Charlie swung his sword again hitting the spider knocking it back. Suddenly wishing he had eaten some bread after practicing, his health wasn't coming back to him, in fact he was starving, getting exhausted from the fighting. Hitting the spider a third time it came right back and hit him again breaking his boots. The surprise of them breaking caused him to loose a grip on his sword. As he stepped towards it to pick back up he saw a green foot step on it. Looking up he saw the zombie as close as it could be without touching him in front of his face.

Charlie didn't feel good, he was hurt more than he'd ever been and he knew it. Checking his health he saw that he only had three hearts left. The watch that told him this was invented by the ancients, one of their earliest devices. Next to his health was his hunger and half of one drumstick was remaining. Swinging his sword he knocked back the zombie only to get hit again by the spider. _It's all over, I hope someone takes care of you mom when I'm gone._ he thought and closed his eyes.

"Charlie look out!" he spun, opened his eyes and saw the spider flipped on its back, an arrow sticking out of its head. Knowing Brine was there with him Charlie found a newfound confidence, his hunger was at zero and the last one and a half hearts he had started going down but he was in a rage. Taking his sword he yelled out a war cry and hit the green mess of flesh picking up the spider's silk the spider dropped as he walked over it. The zombie wasn't as fast as the spider and he hit it again losing half a heart from starvation. He hit it again and again and again and again, the zombie was still moving slow and he was down to half a heart. Another arrow flew past him and knocked the zombie back but it still wasn't dead. In a last ditch effort Charlie jumped towards the zombie and hit it sending impact lines flying out of the point where it hit. The zombie was thrown backwards falling on the ground dropping some of its flesh. In victory Charlie walked over and picked up his trophies before collapsing on the street. His last sight as his eyes closed was Brine running towards him followed by the entire six man police force in full leather armor with stone swords. _About time they got here, _Charlie's eyes closed and he passed out.

After spending a night in the hospital Charlie awoke drowsily wondering where he was. Brine was sleeping on an armchair next to his bed while her father paced back and forth around the room. Telling from his face it looked like he'd been there all night and hadn't slept a wink. Mr. Flynn was like a father to Charlie since his father had died. They'd worked together and Mr. Dittor saved his life that day; he was trapped under a collapsed part of the area without a pick and Frank smashed his way in pulling the trapped man out with him. Charlie sat up, not feeling any pain unexpectedly. "Mr. Flynn?" he asked getting out of bed.

"Charlie!" he yelled in relief walking over to the boy and embracing him. Although they were the same height and looked similar, Mr. Flynn had spiky black hair and orange clothes, it looked like he was a prisoner except for the words on the shirt that read 'Every day is fun day.'

Brine jumped out of her seat and stepped between her father and her best friend. Looking Charlie in his black square eyes she smiled and he smiled back as they embraced in a long hug. Tears started to well up in her eyes and Charlie said frantically, "Don't worry, I'm fine look," he stepped back so she could get a good look at him.

"Your fine?" she asked waiting for a nod. After seeing one she frowned and punched him in the shoulder, "What were you doing? You could've been killed! You should have ran to get the police," Brine paused waiting for an answer.

"Maybe you weren't paying attention in monster evolution class but zombies learned how to break down doors hundreds of years ago." The boy looked into her eyes that were softening as she realized his mother kept him home fighting. A smile broke onto her face feeling proud of her friend who went into his inventory and pulled out the string. Seeing the pieces in his hand, Brine's eyes grew wide, "Oh you want these?" Charlie teased, "well you did get the kill shot so here," he tossed the pieces to her and she jumped for joy then bent over in happiness.

Mr. Flynn was feeling a bit out of place and went to tell the doctor that the boy was okay. When he shut the door he noticed two men in police officer skins wearing leather helmets and recognized them from the previous night. "Hello officers, what seems to be the problem?"

The one on the left replied, their positions were the only way to distinguish them from each other, "Mr. Flynn I presume? Before we get started I'd like to thank you for notifying us as soon as something happened."

"Not like you were any help in the matter spending over a minute putting on all that armor, if you had come earlier you could have actually helped." Usually Mr. Flynn was a friend to these men, it was a small town and there weren't more than a thousand people living there, but he was still upset from the night before. "Now a boy is in the hospital, he could've died had my daughter not stepped in."

"Yes we deeply regret not being there to help but we had no assurance that the boy lit back up the area like he did," the man on the right said. "Had there been any more..."

"I'm sure the six of you would have been able to handle it," Howard Flynn replied, "even without your armor."

The left man spoke again, "As we were saying we're sorry, but that's why we're here Mr. Flynn." Howard looked confused but allowed them to explain themselves, he was never one to interrupt a cop and highly respected them aside from his outburst a minute before. "Those two kids showed bravery where many adults wouldn't have. Or didn't. Many other of your neighbors hid inside when they saw young Charles fighting a spider."

Mr. Flynn muttered something about cowards under his breath and the right man continued again. "We brought six of the seven officers to fight two monsters. In a town of one thousand two hundred and rising we need more men. Unfortunately in the last ten years nobody has joined the force. Kids follow in their parents footsteps and almost every man in this town works in the mines and every woman stays at home. It isn't like this in the rest of the world but these kids are the first I've seen in a long time with ambition, a spark."

Inside the door to their room, both Charlie and Brine had their ears pressed firmly against the door. They kept mouthing to each other things like, 'Oh my God,' and 'Awesome.'

"We'd like to ask you if we could invite them to become junior policemen on the force." Seeing the look of reluctance on Howard's face that any father would have sending his children into a dangerous line of work, the left man reassured him, "I know you must be hesitant before making such a huge decision but I'd like you to know that coal mining is in fact a far higher risk job with all the cave ins, lava falling from the ceiling, and high drops that could kill you. And your daughter, she could grow up and marry a coal miner and live a life like so many before her, but you can see if that's what she wants to do." Finally the officer stopped hoping that he had convinced the man.

Mr. Flynn looked back at the door and to the officers, "It won't come into conflict with their schoolwork?" The two men shook their heads and the kids inside the door grinned to each other. "Well you'd have to ask them, I don't know if..."

The door was thrown open as both fifth graders jumped out screaming in unison, "Yes yes yes yes yesss!" Both officers and Brine's father smiled at the kids who were beaming.

Having been fully recovered, Charlie left the hospital and raced his neighbors home on foot. They were taking the minecart subway that went underneath most streets to a couple of depots. The one closest to their house was still pretty far away so as Brine and Howard Flynn got off of their car they started sprinting for home. Reaching their door they didn't see Charlie anywhere and panting Brine cheered, "Yeah we beat him!"

"Think again," a voice said from behind a tree on the Flynn's front yard.

"I don't know how you do it kid, you always beat us." Mr . Flynn said ruffling Charlie's short cropped hair. Brine pouted and walked inside upset she'd lost, again.

Charlie left their yard and went inside his house, "Mom, guess what." He ran into his mother's room but she wasn't there. Walking over to the bathroom he knocked on the door, "Hey mom you in there?" Pushing the wooden door open he stepped inside and noticed the floor was covered in water, _Damn that's the second time she's fallen asleep in the bath this month, I thought I told her not to take one when I wasn't home_. Shielding his eyes so he wouldn't see his mom's undressed body, Charlie stepped to the side off the tub. As he thought it was filled to the brim with water, "Come on mom wake up, I don't want to have to carry you to bed like last time." Moving his hand away from his eyes he looked into an almost empty tub. On the bottom sat a couple roses, daisies, some wool, and a loaf of bread. Fearing the worst, Charlie stepped back and slipped on the water falling to the ground. More than he'd ever been during the fight, Charlie was afraid, thoroughly scared. He started to cry, not remembering when the last time he cried was, probably back in first grade when his father died. Finally he snapped and screamed, "Mom! Mom where are you!" _Maybe she just dropped her entire inventory in the tub_, he thought. Running around his house and backyard he searched everywhere for his mom. Hearing his screams, Dorothea Flynn came over with her daughters and husband. Brine's older sister Alice tried to calm Charlie down while the others looked around.

"Howie," Dorothea whispered as they searched the woman's bedroom a third time, "you heard what Charlie said, his mom's stuff was in the tub. It wasn't the first time she fell asleep in there she drowned and we all know it." Howard dropped the bed back down pretending to look under it for no reason except to hold onto the small but of hope his wife extinguished. "It's time to tell him, and you'll have to do it," they both knew why. While Charlie's dad was dead he could get close to Howard, but as long as his mother was alive, he would never get close to Mrs. Flynn, it would have been like giving up on his mom.

Charlie was told the truth. He already knew it, in his heart, but hearing it out loud made everything so real. That night Charlie dug a hole and the Flynn's called over some friends of Mary's but there was no family left to mourn. It was tradition to bury a person's inventory in their grave as bodies were never recovered. On the occasion that the person's bones are dropped they are turned to bone meal to grow a small garden of grass and flowers over the grave. When rotten flesh is dropped it was incinerated as burying either of those things caused a skeleton or zombie to come back. Many people try to bring back loved ones like this but end up scarred from having to then kill their hostile family member or get killed themselves by it. Charlie wordlessly waited for all the mourners then ungracefully tossed them one by one in the grave. Two roses, a daisy, two pieces of white wool and one brown - she had been meaning to make Charlie a sweater out of it for weeks. Finally he held up the bread he'd given her upon returning from school a day ago. After one last look he dropped it in with the rest. The hole was three blocks deep but only one on either side and Charlie filled in the two top spaces of the grave so to belongings wouldn't be exhumed. Having one remaining block of dirt in his inventory he put it in the top right spot and swore to never remove it.

A/N I wrote the entire first part out already and I'll upload each of the four chapters once a day. I love to get reviews and feedback to help me improve my work and let's me know you enjoy the story. Hope you enjoy.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2- REVELATIONS**

Over the next three years Brine and Charlie finished fifth grade and went on to get through sixth and seventh. After his mom died Charlie was offered to stay with the Flynns but he respectfully declined. He said that he'd been self-sufficient for years, but something had changed in him. Instead of the carefree, loving, adventurous boy, he became recluse, besides shopping, he only left the house to go to school and to fight crime which he did every weekend with Brine. Mrs. Flynn always said that it was the loss of his mother that changed him but the other two knew Charlie much better than that. It was the loneliness. When she'd see him at school he always looked like he had something on his mind and the only time he seemed happy was during the weekends when they would patrol the streets together. They'd only seen action once during their time as cops and it was a dog that someone punched.

Although the dog's owner was against the killing, it was the only way to stop it. Once a dog was hit it reverted back to a wolf until its victim was dead. Brine couldn't do it however and Charlie took it on himself to take it on. Wearing full leather armor he took out his stone sword and hit the wolf twice before it bit him back. The wolf's bite hurt even more than getting hit by a zombie and Charlie took a step back but unlike the zombie the wolf was fast. Brine figured it was the dog or her friend so she attacked the dog and got attacked back. Charlie saw Brine get hit twice and his face turned to fear, scrolling up his inventory a shinier sword appeared and he hit the wolf killing it. She'd asked him what the sword was made out of but his stone sword was back in his hands and he just said stone and that her eyes must have been playing tricks on her.

That was a couple months ago and she'd been getting worried. Charlie's scores were dropping, not as low as hers but far from being top of the class anymore. He constantly came into school late with different excuses every time. She came over his house a lot but recently he was never there.

Sitting in her last period class of the day she looked over at Charlie. The only periods he payed attention were history and creating. Since the start of the eighth grade Charlie was not sad anymore, Brine could see that replacing the sadness was determination. Ever since they defeated the monsters in fifth grade, school was much better for Charlie. Although, unlike Brine, he didn't want the attention and would shy away from any questions about the incident, she would always blow out of proportion how brave and ferocious he was. After that day he was never bullied again, some of his classmates even smiled and said 'hi' when he'd pass them on the weekends during his patrols. She could tell he liked all the attention even if he would never admit it.

It was after the second day of school that Charlie started acting differently. Instead of hiding his sadness like he had the last couple years, now he walked around like he had a purpose.

During the history lecture that day Charlie was sitting with his chin resting on his hands holding his head up though he was on the verge of falling asleep when the teacher, Mr. Simmons, said something that intrigued him. She could never remember what it was as she wasn't paying very much attention but all of a sudden Charlie's hand shot up. Brine didn't remember him holding up his hand once in all of seventh grade but in the second day he'd already asked a question and it was a doozy. During the heated argument that followed after class ended Brine waited patiently by the door trying to listen. Mr. Simmons was happy that he had an interested student in at least one of his classes but Charlie's questions made no sense. First he asked why digging your own caves like they used to was frowned upon and even after the answer was given, for safety reasons, Charlie kept asking questions like, 'how far would I, I mean they have to dig to find caves' or 'how far down would it take for lava to appear?'

Mr. Simmons felt it was his job as a teacher to inform his student of what he wanted to know but when Charlie asked about diamonds he felt uncomfortable continuing and asked him to leave. It was a law of not only Freightport, but all of Lewis Island, that no one was permitted to be in the possession of diamonds, diamond tools, or diamond armor, under penalty of ten years in prison. Only those with special permission from the government could get diamonds and they were watched carefully, having to give sixty percent of their findings to the island's government.

Charlie backed off after that and Brine thought he was never happier as they walked home. He kept talking about the first men and how interesting their lives were. She'd agreed with everything he said happy that he was seemingly changed. They hung out into the night and did things together they hadn't done in years: had running races, climbed trees, acted like kids again.

She thought things would go back to normal, she knew that he didn't have many friends and she did, even if he was always her best. Things didn't, and after that day they only got worse. It was on this day, a month and a half after that incident with the dog that she decided to check up on him for real, not just leave when she didn't find him there like she usually did.

"Hey Charlie you home?" she called out as she walked through his door. He'd long ago placed pressure plates in front of both doors, front and back, against the wishes of the Flynns, it literally begged monsters to come into his house since he barely lit up his backyard now that it was fenced off. Watching from her window she would sometimes yearn to be with him while he fought with monsters in his backyard. She looked around his house finding no sign of him. She checked the basement that seemed bigger every time she visited. The other neighbors would probably be upset that his basement stretched under their properties but no one dug down anymore past the first couple blocks so she didn't tell anyone.

His basement stretched from under his entire property, front and backyard, and under the house, it was under her house completely after she gave him permission and it stretched under the street into under the lawns across the street. One wall was filled with chests that he told her were empty but were locked tight with signs that read "Charles Dittor." Looking around the room, which was mainly open space, she didn't see her friend and decided to wait for him to get home from whatever errand he was running.

Three hours later Brine was still standing around in Charlie's kitchen. She went into his food chest and pulled out a mushroom stew. The youngest daughter of the Flynn family had never tasted it before but it didn't taste great. Checking her watch she saw that her hunger was at half and had gone up a whole three hearts, _Wow even more than bread! I didn't know there were swamplands around here, I should leave the town more often. _Their town was surrounded by a one black thick walk of cobble that was three blocks high and had an overhang so that spiders couldn't climb up it, but she'd been up there around the entire town and she didn't remember seeing any marshlands near. _Hmm, he probably went really far out knowing his recklessness_, she gave a wry smile at the thought of Charlie being brave and taking on the wild. All of a sudden she heard a door shut and footsteps running into Charlie's room. The kitchen was next to the front door and it didn't sound like the back door, it sounded like someone opened a door manually. "Charlie?" she called out walking into his room.

Charlie had his back to her but she didn't recognize him at first. The boy was in full iron armor except for a chestplate. Another thing she noticed was that he kept turning red. "Charlie what's wrong?" she asked confused and he spun around same iron sword drawn as was the day they fought the wolf. Brine jumped backwards dodging a swing and shouted, "Are you crazy! It's me, Brine," Charlie's face changed from battle mode to recognition of what she was saying and switched from his sword to a bottle with a weird pink fluid in it and threw it at the ground.

It exploded on impact and he kept getting hurt for a couple seconds longer before he stopped getting hurt and ate two bowls of soup that were in his inventory. "Hey Brine, what's up?" he asked after checking his watch to make sure he was fully healed.

"What's up!" she shouted, "How about sorry for almost chopping you with my sword. Where were you?"

"I was just hanging out in the basement," he said nonchalantly like nothing had happened.

"What?" she questioned and Charlie realized his mistake. "I went to the basement and looked for you, a couple times."

"Umm, what I meant to say, I mean I was... umm," Charlie was at a loss of words. He had kept Brine in the dark since school started months ago but he didn't see a way he was getting out of it. Sighing he motioned for her to follow him. Charlie brought her into the basement and led her straight up to the far wall that was under the neighbors across the street's houses. Moving along the wall he found what he was looking for, Brine noticed for the first time that blending in with the wall was a button. Charlie did a double take to make sure they were the only ones around before pressing it. Immediately the blocked next to it was pulled back and inside the hole there was a lever that he missed and had to press the button again. This time he got it and Brine got a good look at a trail of glowing red dust she figured to be redstone before the wall closed back up. Again Charlie motioned for her to follow him, this time to the wall closest to her house and up to a picture of himself. She'd watched him design it and like how it came out but always wondered why he kept it down here instead of upstairs where everyone could see it. Staring at Charlie she saw him take a deep breath and walk straight through the painting. Brine gasped, _There should be a wall of stone behind that picture, I watched him place it. _Walking through the picture she came into not a solid wall but an open space. Looking around the chests didn't have Charlie's name written on them locking them she guessed he'd never expected anyone to get in there. Watching the boy with new perspective she noticed subtle differences in his skin too. Instead of the usual shade of blue shirt it was a little darker though she didn't have time to see it clearly as an iron chestplate covered it.

Turning to his friend Charlie held up another chestplate in his hand. _Aw, she's wearing such a nice skin today,_ he thought as he tossed her a chestplate followed by iron pants, boots, and a helmet covering her blonde hair. As she put on the armor and her purple dress was no longer visible, Charlie frowned receiving a glance from Brine that made him blush. "Okay take this too," he added tossing her an iron sword.

She picked it up and threw it back on the ground, "Charlie, I've seen you use one of these before and I haven't told anyone but iron swords are for emergency situations and only police officers are allowed to have them."

Charlie gave her a smirk that she loved about him and replied, "Well I guess it's a good thing we're cops." She couldn't think of a retort and didn't want to, this was fun, the excitement. He turned back to the picture frame and pulled a lever from the inside that put two blocks of stone behind it so no one could find the hole.

Unable to find out how he was doing all this stuff she remembered a lab they did in creating class earlier in the year and a science lecture about redstone: it was used as a sort of power, for the lab they put a door down in the middle of the room and connected redstone to it and a pressure pad blocks away and completely surprised the class when it opened anyway. Her friend had a similar argument after fifth period with Dr. Francis before they had to rush to get to their next class. "Charlie how are you doing all those things?"

"I used redstone, pistons, levers, buttons. I was just tired of keeping the basement small because I was worried about someone finding this place," he said and pulled out a stone pickaxe. Breaking a block in front of him he turned around and tossed her the pick before pulling out his own, also stone.

Brine had never held a wooden pickaxe before let alone a stone one, even the coal workers couldn't use stone picks and had to call over one of the foremen who had one if they found an iron deposit. She took a look at the spot Charlie had opened and saw darkness behind it, not a wall, nothing. "But that wasn't cobble?" she asked more than stated.

"Yes but if you put cobble in a furnace it smooths out and I can replace it to make it like I was never there." he replied. For months he'd kept all his genius a secret and now that he was telling someone about it and she was amazed he felt like all this teedy work had payed off. "I used to come down here in leather armor but after Ryan I stopped."

They both bowed their heads in remembrance of one of their fellow officers. A group of high schoolers were seen sneaking out of the town at dark and coming back eyes red so someone called it in and a squad of two was sent after them to bust them. Ryan and his partner James, the second in command after the chief, went to check it out. The area right outside the wall was lit up so that no monsters would spawn right out the wall. The two quickly found the group of four teens and bows in their hands they asked the smoking teenagers to quietly come with them. According to James' debriefing, the teens started backing off with fear of death in their eyes so the officers switched from their bows to open hands. The teens screamed and fell backwards away from the cops and one of them shouted to look out but it was too late. James recalled that he would never forget the sound, he reacted fast and started running but Ryan didn't process what was going on. 'ssssSSSS' BOOM. The creeper exploded less than a foot away from Ryan. Even with full leather armor he was blown away. The teens were brought back home and are said to have completely changed their ways and are tops of their class. Ryan was buried, his damaged leather armor and stone sword were the only things he brought to work and his wife decided to bury some of his other belongings with him. Over the years both Charlie and Brine had gotten close to the men on the force (Brine being the only girl) and went to the funeral.

"I see," Brine remarked worried that there must be creepers where they were going if he was concerned enough about getting one-shot killed.

He saw the worry in her face and rested a hand on her shoulder and she looked into his eyes. Charlie spoke, "I won't let anything happen to you." Brine smiled, always being the strong girl wasn't easy and sometimes she needed someone to tell her that. Nodding he broke apart the other blocks around the first and light flooded in from the small room they were in. The darkness didn't go far, there was a two block wide hole on the side of the room that she saw ladders coming out from. Between them and that hole were two zombies that had already seen them. Brine took a step back but Charlie charged in and finished them in a quick four hits each before placing two torches in the room. His skills with a sword really increased she noticed and as she watched him her thoughts drifted to gladiators or warriors and couldn't help but compare this glowing figure in front of her to them. Turning around Charlie had an arrogant smirk on his face, "Impressed?" he asked.

Oh she was impressed but there was no way she would admit it and boost his ego. "Eh," she said but Charlie could see straight through her.

"You will be," he said with a voice that made Brine gulp. Adrenaline was pumping through her as her last chance to back out was about to disappear. Charlie got on the ladder and started his descent. Not wanting to be called a chicken she followed close behind him.

"Wow we must be as deep as the coal miners by now," she commented as it didn't seem like the ladder was finishing any time soon.

They continued to descend but Charlie chuckled. "Brine we passed the level the coal miners stop at a while ago." Finally Brine saw the bottom of the ladder touching down on a cobblestone floor. "I didn't bother to cook the stone in here so it's not a looker."

"I wasn't expecting much," she said as they touched down and she stepped out into a room. The walls were so far away on every side she couldn't see the ends. "Whoa," she said elongating the word as she did a full three sixty.

The way down was pretty dark but as soon as she stepped into the room she recoiled as the light blinded her temporarily. _All the coal he used to make this many torches, _she looked around. "What happened to not following in our parent's footsteps?" she teased.

"I may have had to spend a lot of time mining coal but neither your parents nor mine have ever been this far deep. I'd bet no one from Lewis Island has been this deep in centuries." Brine looked at Charlie amazed, the realization of what they were doing sinking in.

Looking around the room again her eyes adjusted to the dark and in the distance she saw tunnels cut into the walls on all sides, even the one they'd climbed down. "How big is this room?" she asked looking up, finding the ceiling high above them.

Already having an answer prepared he replied, "120 by 120, and thirty five high." she gasped and stated at him. "Took me over two weeks."

"Two weeks!" she shouted echoing off the walls. "It looks like it took two years."

"That's because we've never had to live like this, those men who lived in the old times, they had a rough time and there was danger around every turn, but you know what else?" he asked nostalgically as if he was there. "They had fun, even as adults they enjoyed playing and building and destroying and fighting."

Brine smiled happy that she could share this secret with her friend. "Hey Charlie, what have you been doing down here? Why were you hurting when you got up to your room?"

"Actually I didn't get hurt down here," she looked at him skeptically, "I promise. It was once I got upstairs into that dark room, I hadn't been lighting it up so that I could get some practice in before I came down here. Today I was coming up after mining and I found there were three odd green spiders in there. They were smaller than usual but I ran in foolishly. Easy kills, two hits each, but I was hit once by one and after I looked at my watch I saw I was poisoned. I tried eating food and when my hunger was quenched and I was at full, the poison was still hurting me only slower. It was supposed to last two minutes and I didn't think I would last that long since the reason I came up anyway was to grab another iron chestplate."

Annoyed by the long response she said, "Okay but tell me this, what was that pink bottle you threw at yourself that healed you?"

Charlie grinned and motioned for her to follow him again as he started sprinting off. "Get some food from here," he motioned to a chest in front of a huge farm with lines of water going down and assortments of different crops being grown. _Up there I might be the poor kid in the neighborhood just getting by, but I could feed all of Freightport for a couple days if anything were to happen. _Charlie thought and after she grabbed a half stack of carrots from the chest she followed her friend. Running down out of the main room they were in a two block wide tunnel. Charlie explained why they were there, "You see when I first started digging off in different directions this was one of the first tunnels I dug." Brine nodded from behind him and although he couldn't see her do it he continued, "It was the 'first' time I found something, and it was the biggest." He stopped talking and they ran until they slowed down, then ate some food and kept running. Right when Brine thought about suggesting a break for another bite to eat he announced, "We're here."

The tunnel looked like it kept going but something on the wall caught her eye. Behind one of the torches was a block of unmined iron ore. Throughout the entire tunnel, no piece of ore was untapped and cobble filled in the spots where he dug out the ores. Using his stone pick he removed the block to the right of the iron ore block and the one underneath it revealing a room. Inside the room was a weird black box with a skeleton spinning around inside of it. It was a weird tiny skeleton that didn't seem hostile or to know they were there. Next to the cage was a chest.

"That is a skeleton spawner," Charlie told Brine noticing her staring at it intensely. The floor was covered in mossy cobblestone and she almost slipped on numerous occasions. "It wasn't the spawner that I brought you here to see. See in the world these spawners appear in dark rooms like this and monsters spawn constantly. However, when I broke into this room by chance as I mined, I found there to already be torches placed. The entire room was covered in them and I only removed a couple to make sure skeletons still couldn't spawn in here." Brine looked at the torches completely covering and surrounding the cage.

"What does that mean, was someone here before you?" She inquired.

Charlie nodded, "Nice, you picked up on that quick. Whoever it was covered their tracks, I dug around a little and found no trace of an exit trail, the person who did this didn't intend on people finding it easily. It was when I looked inside the chest that I ran." she looked at him confused. "I'm not going to lie to you anymore, that was my first reaction. I got maybe a quarter of the way back before I stopped. I was breathing so heavily I thought I'd contracted a coal lung from my mining already, or asthma, or something. I thought about what was in this chest and headed back here, nervous but excited. Go ahead open it."

Brine inches closer to the chest and it was a single so she didn't expect there to be that much inside. She was wrong. The second she opened the chest she shut it and looked at Charlie in disbelief. "Fake?" she said in a questioning voice and he shook his head. Opening back up the chest they looked inside and scanned the contents. Putting her hand over certain glowing items, her watch told her the diamond armor was Protection II and Unbreaking II for all of it. When her hand rested over the sword it said Sharpness II and then she saw the most attractive item in the entire chest. From the second Charlie saw her in his house he knew he was going to have to show her this first. There was a glowing bow that unlike the armor and sword, had not lost any of it's durability. Her hand was shaky as it hovered over the bow and gasped, she didn't know what the words meant for the bow but Flame I Power III and Infinity I seemed really good. She knew what Infinity meant and looked at Charlie with her best puppy dog eyes.

"It's yours," he said and Brine instead of picking it up wrapped Charlie in a big hug. Looking into the chest again Charlie sighed, "I left this stuff in here a couple months ago because I was still afraid of someone getting down here, breaking through the lock on my chests, and taking them to do bad things, but now I can't see with all my precautions, anyone possibly getting their hands on it."

Brine was still looking around the chest, it had twenty diamonds, two stacks of Iron, an old fashion watch that only told night and day, a compass, a map, and the rest was weird things she'd never seen before. Stuff that her watch told her had names like blaze powder, netherbrick, neitherwart, and a whole lot of those potions like the one Charlie used to heal himself with. There were only four open spots in the chest, _Okay two of those would have been the weird potion things he used what else? _"So what else was in here?"

"Oh well there was one more of those health potions and this," he switched to holding a book in his hand. The book was glowing like the armor and weapons. "This book has secrets that were forgotten in time or things the government doesn't want us to know. It talks about how to make those potions, set up intricate traps with spawners like these to get the items they drop. Imagine, an infinite supply of arrows and bones that we could get from this." he pointed at the spawner. The magnitude of what he was telling her suddenly increased as he continued, "It speaks of creatures I've never seen before, blocks, and items that can only be found in other worlds." Brine looked at him skeptically but saw that there was no sarcasm on his face.

"But that's ridiculous! How can you just take everything in that book for fact?" she yelled.

"The author signed his name at the end of the book you want to know what his name was?" Brine nodded slowly and Charlie took a long pause, "His name, was Steve."

A/N Don't worry in another day it'll be posted so you won't be hanging for too long. Hope you enjoyed again and please leave a review.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3- SUPERCHARGED CREEPERS**

"You don't think... It can't be, he's just a myth. The man with the power to die and come back to life, the one who evolved the world." Charlie kept nodding to her questions as this was the man he assumed him to be.

"Legends of Steve have been passed down for thousands of years Brine. Every culture has images, statues of him in their religions. He wrote in here that when he decided to make potions a part of the world he was already thousands of years old and had gotten bored. Leaving this book in here he left a message in the back that let me know that he went around the world placing chests like these hoping that they could awaken the sleeping race of humans to the wonders of the world they were being withheld from by their governments." the eighth grade girl was suddenly feeling overwhelmed and needed some fresh air but then realized it would take close to twenty minutes to get all the way back and understood what he was talking about with originally leaving this here.

"Hey man let's take this stuff and go, nobody's going to find this place anyway just hide it closer to your house." Brine said reaching back into the chest and moving things into her inventory. Charlie Dittor didn't feel like arguing and he kind of agreed but they had to be careful. Going back into the chest he took some potions of swiftness and regeneration along with the diamond sword chestplate and boots. Brine took the ingredients for more potions and some strength potions along with the netherbricks and remaining enchanted diamond armor. Running back to the underground base they talked about school and how no one there had near as exciting a life as they were having right now. Charlie set up a chest in a hole in the ground and after placing all their goodies they headed back up the ladder. The chest was hidden under a block of stone and it was impossible to know which one unless you were the ones who buried it. Impersonating pirates they joked about buried treasure on an island and laughed.

_I'd forgotten how much fun hanging out with her was_. Charlie was staring at his friend and she giggled, "Charlie, what are you looking at?" she teased and he slowed down on the ladder so she could get ahead of him but they were already at the top anyway so he got off and she saw how red his usually tan face was.

Closing back up the room with smooth stone behind him he pulled the lever and stepped back into his main basement room. "In these chests here are stacks upon stacks of cobblestone, entire double chests completely filled to the brim with the stuff." They started walking to the short staircase up to his house when they heard an explosion in the distance.

Running up the stairs and out the door they quickly changed back into leather armor and put on their police skins in case something was wrong outside. Brine stepped out first and shouted to Charlie, "Get your other armor back on!"

Charlie stepped outside and saw her already changing into iron armor which was something he'd been able to avoid doing for over half a year and she was breaking his rule the first day. Regretting brining her down there only lasted a second as he took in his surroundings. From the porch he could see miners running around with pickaxes, women and kids holding shovels, and then they saw one of their fellow officers holding a stone sword but he was moving slowly behind the group making sure there were no stragglers, they were moving in the direction opposite the loud explosions that could be heard from the other side of town. Running over to him and putting on his iron armor on the way they saw it was Dennis, the next youngest member of the force after them at thirty five.

Dennis saw the two iron clad figures approaching and held up his sword in block. "You've come to finish me off haven't you? Well what are you waiting for just promise me you'll let the others escape, there are women and children with them."

"Dennis calm down," Brine started "it's Brine and Charlie. Tell us what's happening, what are those explosions?"

"I don't know how you guys got iron armor but right now I don't care, there are people attacking the city. The front gate was closed and I was working my shift when I saw them approaching. I took the flint and tinder from the chest next to the beacon and set the wood on fire, by the time they got here the chief, James, the whole squad except Frank was there who was back at the station. All five of us were trying to be intimidating because this group of strangers had weird looking skins on. Usually we'd let people into the city, a little tourism every once in a while's good for the town but they were scary looking. While Matt and the chief got up on the wall, James, Sean, and I waited behind the gate staring through it at some of the smiling members of the gang. All of a sudden the men in the front started placing TNT blocks a block away from the gate. There were ten down in a second, as I ran backwards I saw Matt jump off the wall into Freightport as the chief pulled out his bow and fired at one of the men. Looking back I saw on the other side of the gate, all the men now had full iron armor on and one who was in the front, their leader, now had an arrow sticking out of his head. By now we were all backing up except for our fearless leader who stayed to tell them off. The man with the arrow in his head listened as the chief promised not to kill them all if they just took their TNT and left, a bluff but the leader didn't fall for it and took out a flint and steel lighting a block of TNT on fire and running backwards. The chief turned around and we were all stumbling backwards yelling to him to run but he shouted at us, 'Evacuate the city and,' that's all he was able to make out before the wall exploded and TNT went flying everywhere. The chief was gone, not one piece of him remained. All the explosions destroyed his inventory after it dropped. I was hit with a stray TNT which probably saved my life. James took control and seeing my damaged state ordered me to go back to the station and get Frank to help evacuate the town while they held them off. He's on the other side I need you two to go find as many people as you can and we're leaving out the back gate." Dennis finished his tale and looked like he was about to go rush back to the people he was evacuating.

"Hey Dennis take these," Charlie threw his iron armor at the man and his iron sword "and take this," he tossed him a couple loaves of bread which he gobbled down. "Don't worry I have more. Dennis don't lead the people too far away from the city," he looked at Brine and she nodded. "We're ending this," they ran back into Charlie's house.

"Wait Charlie I have to check on my parents," she started to run back out the door but Charlie stood in her way.

"Your house looks fine, unlike those houses in the distance being destroyed and burned down, your family was probably already evacuated, we're far from the main gate I'm sure they're fine." Nodding Brine raced back downstairs and Charlie pulled the lever in one try and didn't bother shutting it behind him knowing they were coming right back out. They moved down the ladder as fast as possible and dug up the spot where the chest was hiding.

Brine took the pants and helmet and Charlie took the chestplate and boots. "Okay Charlie you take the sword and some potions, I've got the bow and a couple arrows in my inventory. Because its infinity I don't think I'll run out so I'll be good." Charlie looked at her and nodding they both ran back to the ladder quickly recovering the chest. Climbing up fast they stopped in the basement to shut the door and Charlie grabbed a stack of cobble that he handed to Brine.

They ran back outside but Brine tossed Charlie her diamond armor parts and said, "I'll be good with iron everything don't worry. All I need is this bow. Bring them near my tower and I'll snipe them out. Do you think there's any chance James, Matt, and Sean are still alive?" she was concerned having worked with them for three years.

"No," Charlie replied before putting on his full diamond armor. The shiny blue was accentuated by the glowing enchants. He ran off without a goodbye,_ If I say goodbye that's like accepting this might be a suicide mission_, he thought and sprinting away he had an idea. He filled up his hunger bar and drank a fire resistance, strength, swiftness, and regeneration potion. The strength and regen potions only lasted four minutes so he put two more in his hotbar, the fire resist and swiftness potions lasted eight minutes so in their places he put splash potions of health. He took a deep breath and walked out from where he was hiding without his diamond armor equipped and started screaming, "Don't kill me I know where diamonds are." He kept shouting that as he walked fast into the area of burning buildings. His hands empty of anything he continued shouting and checked his watch seeing that a minute had already gone by. "Come on I know where diamonds are!" Finally a group of men in iron armor came out of a house swords drawn covered in blood. Trying to keep his cool and not start attacking them out of anger he kept up with his trap. He continued talking in a loud voice so others would converge on his position.

One of the six guys that was walking up to Charlie shouted over him, "Oh you have diamonds!?" in a sarcastic voice but it caused a couple other men to round the corner coming to see what the commotion was all about. "Bullshit kid, you don't have diamonds."

"Yeah I do," Charlie responded and the man walked up to him, _only two minutes left of the strength and regen, I have to start._

The man did exactly what Charlie wanted him to do, he played down the importance of what the kid was saying. He held up his sword to Charlie's chest and demanded in a menacing voice, "Tell me where."

"Right below you," Charlie said and the man looked into Charlie's hand to see a glowing diamond sword. Before he could back off he was hit by the weapon that Charlie was glad didn't have knockback because he was able to hit him again right away and the man's surprised expression disappeared as he died iron armor and loot from people's houses spilling all over the place. The other men were too shocked to react and Charlie ran right through them without getting hit.

"Come on you guys there's over ten of us and he has no armor," one of the men taking control shouted. "Besides the boss will want that sword." The men started sprinting after Charlie who was running back for his house. His swiftness potion gave him enough time to get to his house long before the men though the could still see him and now that he was stopped there wasn't a chance they wouldn't keep up with him. Drinking the other strength and regeneration potions he held up his diamond sword still not putting on his armor, he expected the only reason they were chasing him was because they thought he didn't have any. Looking at the large cobblestone tower that was on his front yard he looked to the top where he saw Brine looking down at him and she winked. He winked back and faced the men who had slowed down upon reaching him.

Yelling at the top of his lungs all the men froze in their tracks as they approached him, "Hahaha! Which one of you has the balls? Who would willingly attack me first knowing that they would die from two hits?" He looked some of them in the eye one by one, running down the streets they'd picked up more of their comrades and he noticed it. "You aren't a team," he started in his most disgusted voice. "None of you would lay down your life for another. You're just thugs and thieves who care about nobody but themselves."

They all wanted to prove him wrong but nobody was willing to attack first to provide an opening for the others. The guy who took charge before figured out a plan, "On three men we'll charge him at the same time." Grunts of agreement sounded from the iron armored men.

"Hahaha," Charlie laughed opening his inventory.

"One," the man called out.

Charlie hovered over his diamond chestplate ready to quick change it onto him. He looked up and to the men it sounded as if he was praying, "When you hear 'three' save me, save me." Brine took the hint and got ready aiming her bow straight at the new leader.

"Two," many of the men said in unison raising their weapons. The leader grinned knowing that he had won when in front of him a diamond chestplate appeared on the boy. Quickly following in rapid succession were the pants, helmet, and boots.

"Three," Charlie shouted, finishing the count and the man in front of him was knocked a few feet backwards by an arrow to the face that lit him on fire. The man screamed in agony and Charlie jumped forward landing a critical blow on the man's head killing him. The surrounding gang members made the wrong decision, instead of scattering they tried to fight. Brine aim at the guys on the outside of the group and shot any that started to back off or run away knowing they would continue to hurt people in her town. In the pile of men Charlie was spinning trying to focus on one guy at a time but there were so many around him. Every time he got off a hit they got two on him though he knew they were feeling it more. He was at half health and he scrolled to a health potion throwing it at the ground and throwing another right behind it. Being splash potions they healed the other guys too who found newfound confidence with their higher health. Out of the fifteen guys that started only three were down from him though he thought maybe Brine got one. Two of the guys stepped back from the fight and pulled out bows shooting Brine who was precariously on the edge of the tower. She shot one of the archers and hit him again killing him but the man next to him hit her and she almost fell off, the top of the tower was two by two, not the safest she could have made it.

Still getting hit, Charlie went back into his inventory and put another instant health potion on his hotbar but it was the last one that was in the chest. While he was in his inventory he was hit a couple more times but stayed above half. All the potions had a minute left and when they ran out he didn't know what he was going to do. _I've gotta finish this before then, _he started focusing on one guy at a time even getting hit on other sides just so he could kill that one man. The new strategy was much better and the thugs were losing ground fast. They were almost down half their group even with two others coming in since the fight started.

Brine was trying to focus on hitting the guy that kept getting cheap critical hits on Charlie from behind and finally hit the guy setting him on fire running down the street. Before she could take another shot she felt a sharp pain as she was hit in the side with an arrow. She tried to find her footing but she was off the tower. Charlie was fighting seven guys at once and the two new guys had joined the archer who switched back to his sword. She had full iron armor on still and an iron sword plus she'd taken the last of the three strengths and regens right before she was knocked off. Running over to the three who were planning on charging her she caught them off guard. Rapidly attacking her strength iron sword did well knocking back enemies and she could see they weren't expecting an iron sword to hurt as much as it did. They quickly adjusted though and were better trained than the thirteen year old girl fighting back with ferocity and agility.

Charlie took down another one and they backed up a little, only six remained and they seemed disheartened. His health was below half but his potions ran out too. He was completely relying on his armor now. He still had a speed pot to run away with but now that Brine fell that wasn't an option. Them stepping back was the opening he needed and he hit a guy he knew he'd already hit once but he wasn't killed after the second hit, the strength gave him enough power for that so as they backed up further he lunged again this time killing the man. Two of the five remaining ran off turning their backs and booking it down the street. They had no way of telling that this guy was low on health. The other three looked at each other and Charlie screamed a roar at them which would have sounded silly coming from any adult but from a little boy that just slaughtered ten of them, it was horrifying. Bumping into each other they ran and Charlie turned to the two remaining guys fighting Brine. "Rarrggh!" he shouted jumping in between a hit aimed for Brine and her attacker. He grinned an evil smile at the man to unnerve him. Taking his sword he swiped at the man right in from of him and took him out one shot, his friend had already gotten a bunch of hits on him.

The last attacker was running and she grabbed Charlie's arm who was already preparing on chasing the guy, "I've got this one," he got farther and farther and she lifted her bow higher in the air before releasing. Down the street they saw the man's body burst into flames, silver outline turn red then die of burning. She'd also gotten many hits on him too. They took a good look around seeing inventories all around with all types of loot from people's houses or from what was on Freightport people when the thugs killed them.

"How many hearts you have Brine?" he asked.

"One and a half, you?"

"Same." he said smiling at her for the first time since before it started, "let's go inside and eat." Liking the idea they went into Charlie's kitchen and had some bread and mushroom soup regaining all their health. Both of them checked their armor and inventories. They only had two swiftness potions left and Brine had a fire resistance she didn't use since none of them seemed to be using fire weapons, They'd used almost all the potions on only half the guys. Heading downstairs they went all the way to the deep basement. Checking his armor, Charlie saw that all the hits with iron swords had taken his armor down a quarter of the way even with Durability II. They went into the chest and took out 17 of the twenty diamonds making another chestplate, pants, and sword.

"I'll take the enchanted boots, chest, and unenchanted pants," Charlie said putting them on.

"So I'll take the enchant pants and helmet and normal chestplate," Brine said putting them on and grabbing the extra diamond sword. "Should've done this earlier," she mentioned but neither knew what the intensity the battle that ensued was going to be.

Heading back up the ladder they discussed their next strategy but reaching the top of the ladder Charlie put his finger to his lips in a shhh and the walked to the lever in silence. Before pulling it he heard a voice coming from the basement. "I'm sure boss, the boy and his friend ran into this house. I saw them after I ran away but really just hid in the bushes. He's in full diamonds and they're all enchanted maybe we should just leave."

"Yeah that's exactly what we'll do. Coward." The man they assumed was the boss hit the man.

"What was that for?" They heard the man say.

"In case you've forgotten, we don't attack towns for money. We've got enough of that. One diamond is more valuable than all the money in this town," the men walked out of the basement not finding anything. Charlie waited a minute then opened up, both had diamond swords at the ready.

"Charlie I think we're out of our league here." Brine said nervously. They made eye contact and Charlie looked down.

"Brine you should go," by the was he suggested it, it sounded like he didn't plan on coming. "I can't ask you to risk your life on my suicide mission any longer. From what Dennis told us we didn't even get half of them and that was when I had all the potions. We've got nothing now except for speed." he looked at the ceiling of the main basement.

"Charlie don't give up, we can still do this," she encouraged. "We could..."

"I've got it!" Charlie shouted then covered his mouth, whispering he said, "I know what to do. You know how Dennis mentioned they used TNT to blow up the front of Freightport?" Brine nodded, "Well in my mining I found some creepers myself and killed them, they dropped gunpowder that I turned into TNT. The recipe for it was in the book I showed you." The boy was moving around his basement checking out the line where the road would have been above him. He started to dig up and being careful when the cobble road could be seen from below he broke one and replaced it with dirt. Brine got the idea and asked him to give her some. Both of them spent the next couple minutes replacing the cobble with dirt carefully in case anyone was above watching. After it was all down. Charlie took out all fifteen pieces of TNT he owned. "This is all I have, I hope it's enough." he said and placed them two or three blocks away from each other under the dirt. Finally he put cobblestone under each dirt block.

_Some creepers, he must've taken out an army for this much TNT. _"What are you doing," his friend asked.

"When TNT is lit, it falls so there need to be blocks under it. We made the ceiling dirt first because TNT breaks through dirt easily." He explained. They headed for the main floor, careful to look out for the bad guys. Looking out some of Charlie's windows they saw two guys patrolling the street but before Brine could suggest letting them pass Charlie was already outside. They had already passed his house so their backs were to him. They were walking away and Charlie was walking ten feet behind them knowing that if he ran they'd hear him coming.

"Yeah man apparently that big cobble tower we just passed is where two _kids_ killed ten of our guys." One of them said.

"Bull shit, we're the Supercharged Creepers, nobody could do that." The one who said it turned around to get another look at the tower and came face to face with a kid in full diamond armor except for a helmet.

"Looks like your luck just ran out," Charlie announced leaping towards the man. He hit him once and the mans health was brought down three hearts. The other guy who had his back turned started running but Charlie hit him once too. Charlie's first victim spun around and sliced at Charlie hitting him then dodged another hit from the diamond sword. "Hey Roger get back here, this guy might look good but he's got no experience." He called to his friend that was watching as the man dodged each strike by Charlie and got in one of his own. _Wait weren't there two of them, _Roger thought and on his run back to the fight to help Uther he saw another person in diamond armor except for boots. As he saw her he got an arrow to the chest. His health had gone up a little since getting hit the first time since he was full hunger but the bow still brought him down to three hearts. He was on fire but didn't panic and put down a bucket of water cooling himself off. Charging towards the girl and weaving in and out of her arrows he jumped and got a critical hit on Brine. He hit her again as she swung her bow and only took a half heart off of him. Uther was having similar luck back at nine hearts he finally got hit again by the sword bringing him down to half health but he didn't slow down and kept up his tactic of strafing.

Charlie was frustrated as every time he tried to hit this guy he moved away, or escaped, or he just missed. He was down to four hearts and his health wasn't coming back like the other guy's because he was constantly being hit. Taking a glance over to Brine he saw she was in trouble. "Switch!" he shouted and jumping away from another hit from Uther he sprinted towards the guy fighting Brine. The two thugs weren't expecting the sudden change in action and as Brine backed away from Roger she charged her bow. Roger got ready to dodge and she released so he jumped to the side, right into a hit from Charlie's blade killing him. Uther saw his buddy die and was still half health and thought about running over to help when an arrow hit him straight on but instead of killing him instantly it brought him down to half a heart so he had time to scream before the flames engulfed him.

"How about you give me a warning next time you plan on charging people." Brine shouted at Charlie who was admiring the handiwork that his strategy allowed for.

"I didn't think they'd be that good," Charlie remarked, "the other guys were overconfident from their numbers but we should definitely have a strategy for now on." Brine nodded sarcastically and made a face that said "duh." Eating up they made a plan to get some guys to chase them," Charlie put a bunch of pressure pads over the dirt near the end.

Running back into town using one of the speed potions Charlie was screaming, "I killed your men!" Over and over again he shouted until a group of eight men appeared on a street in front of him. They'd probably grouped up after hearing him, in fear of getting killed themselves. The boy didn't expect this many men but he led them back to his street anyway where they slowed down instead of chasing him.

"He's getting away, the boss said find this kid and we'll be rewarded," one of the men shouted and continued sprinting after Charlie. Most of the men followed him but one of them grabbed his friend and pointed down. The cobble road ended and had turned into dirt. Looking up they saw it went for a while but Charlie had almost reached the end. Digging under some of the blocks one of the men gulped and shouted, "Everybody stop!" but the group wasn't listening to him so he broke the TNT and ran backwards taking his friend with him. Charlie slowed down as he reached the pressure pads almost at the end of the dirt road and right when the thugs got halfway down it he sprinted again right over the pressure pads and onto the cobble road quickly built a cobble box around him on the dirt side. He left the back open and Brine was watching from Charlie's house waiting for the cue.

The men watched in horror as the ground in front of them exploded and they started turning around to run back. Explosions continued to make their way to the men and before the could start running the ground beneath them exploded and more TNT exploded after that. The two guys that had run off went to get some back up but weren't back yet.

As Charlie jumped out from behind the cobble wall that had been slightly damaged but held so he didn't lose any hearts, he looked into his basement. Brine came running out prepared to attack but there was no need, not one guy survived. The basement was a mess and some pieces of TNT broke parts of the walls but none of the chests were damaged. The girl looked at him and grinned, "Good job."

"Thank you, I try." Charlie said scanning the distance for the other two who seemed to have gotten away. "Well now we've got no TNT, we can't make any more armor out of diamonds and we've only gotten sixteen of their men."

"Actually seventeen and Charlie I have a plan this time." Brine said, an evil look in her eye. She explained her plan and they went into the basement acting fast knowing that others were probably on their way. Charlie broke the sign locking one of his chests thinking it would take to long to add her as able to open it and they went inside. The double chest had stacks of iron ingots from top to bottom. Clearing most of the useless junk from their inventories they were able to take all but one line of iron. Charlie shut the chest and they ran up to the surface where they saw a group of ten guys or more in the distance of their street. The men saw them and pointed yelling probably drawing more men in to help. Charlie turned to Brine, "It's too late, run Brine take the swiftness and follow the plan."

"No Charlie you won't be able to take them all you take the speed. Lead them in a circle and I'll come back and meet you here." She said and tossed him her speed potion. Before he could deny it she sprinted off in the other direction towards the back gate of the town hoping that Dennis hadn't gone too far.

Charlie looked at his attackers who were sprinting down the street and gulped. It looked like the whole gang was there and the man leading the crowd had a scary diamond sword in hand. _Looks like I know what the boss looks like. _He chugged the speed potion as they reached the hole in the ground that was many blocks wide from where the dirt road started to where it ended. "Haha how are you going to get over this giant hole I made?" he shouted sarcastically at them. The boss grinned and five men walked in front of him bows raised while three others with stacks of cobble in hand crouched over the edge and started placing a bridge. Hiding back behind his cobble wall he filled in the holes in it from the explosion and built it across the entire road then took five steps back and built another one, two blocks high so they couldn't jump over it. As he placed the last block he was hit by an arrow, the first one that he hadn't seen coming and dodged. It didn't do much damage considering he was fully armored with only a iron helmet not diamond. _Where is she they're gonna reach me any second?_

Brine had reached the back gate and went out but didn't see anyone, the town had been fully evacuated a couple hours before. The night was approaching and she called out Dennis' name as loud as she could. She'd almost decided to go back into town and help Charlie when she saw Dennis and Frank with a group of men holding pickaxes come out of the trees.

"Brine, is that you?" Frank asked shocked that Brine somehow had full diamond armor.

"No time!" She placed a crafting table, "We've already killed half of them but we need some help, the rest are fighting Charlie alone right now." She threw stacks of iron ingots on the floor as the thirty or so miners and two cops approached her.

"This is a lot of iron, what do you want us to do with it?" Dennis asked as he picked some up. Brine had mad a couple more crafting tables and placed them down in a line.

"Swords and armor, make as many as possible and hand them out we have to get back in there quickly." she replied. A couple of the miners gave words of approval and started crafting some armor and passed around the iron to the others. _I just hope we get back in time._

Charlie was placing random blocks of cobble as he backed up further. Anything to make it so they had a harder time getting him. The swiftness was down to three minutes and he was getting worried and pissed that he used it so soon. The second wall he placed must have had stairs built behind it because five guys had made it over now. When the first broke through he charged the man and triple shotted him before the man knew what was happening but as the man dropped two others came onto the wall and shot him from there so he ran back a little. He was behind a two high stone pillar but when he poked his head out he saw that half of the fifteen or twenty guys left had jumped down. Deciding to run he booked it away getting hit by two arrows but his hunger was only half a heart down. Turning right on Smith street he ate another piece of bread before sprinting away.

"After him men don't let him get away!" the boss commanded from the top of the second wall and wave after wave of men came over the wall and he jumped down screaming chasing the boy. Charlie was obviously faster then them and he turned right on the next street. "Dixon, Vance, Viktor, Seth keep chasing him the rest of you follow me he's making a full circle."

Charlie didn't hear the man say that and had already made another right. His speed potion was ten seconds away from wearing off as he got back to his street. He ran to the cobble path the men had made and walking backwards on it, he broke the pieces so that the men chasing him would have to make a bridge. He saw the first of the group round the corner and he stopped destroying the path. Getting up on top of the first wall again he already had a speech ready to tell the leader. Watching the group advance he was confused, only four men were coming.

"Looks like you miscalculated," a voice he recognized as the boss's said behind him. Turning around slowly he saw a group of sixteen men standing behind him. _Damn it Dennis you underestimated their numbers._ They were standing on blocks of cobble that he'd placed as obstacles, the street level, and five of them were up on the second wall behind him. Looking forward again he saw the four men, two holding bows, two with iron swords looking at him, daring him to try to go back that way. Charlie turned and face the leader again and smiled.

"Hahaha, Hahahhahaha." the men in front of him were unsteady. This boy was greatly outnumbered and they had him cornered. "Oh you almost had me, that was a smart move, the whole waiting for me to go around. You knew exactly what I was going to do so you know what's going to happen next?" Charlie was grinning like a madman.

"First I'm gonna kill you," the boss started, "Then I'm going to get some new men to join my gang and who wouldn't when a man with full _diamond_ armor invites them." The man's face was filled with greed, ambition. He started swinging his diamond sword in front of him, "And when I restock my men were going to go sack the capital of this godforsaken island and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

The boss started laughing and all his men joined in but Charlie was smiling, "You're right I can't, but they can." Charlie was still grinning as behind the group of thugs was an army twice the size, all in iron armor with iron swords like them and Dennis and Frank stood on either side of Brine who stood in the front. Her and Dennis both had diamond swords in hand since she had brought the extra diamonds with her.

Dennis shouted in a commanding tone, "Put down your weapons and armor now." The Supercharged Creepers looked at their boss who was weighing his options.

"I've got an idea," he said sarcastically, "a town full of miners gets themselves some toys and they think they can mess with the big boys? Well let me tell you this, for each one of my men there might be two of you but mine are worth ten of any one of you in skill, I hand picked them myself. Men ATTACK!" The uplifting speech brought up the morale of his men and they charged the miners.

Realizing they weren't going to back down at the start of the speech the three police officers in the front got into line with some of the other miners who were trembling. Brine heard one man behind her say to some of his friends that maybe this wasn't the best idea they should run while they had the chance, he'd never even held a sword before. "Alright men," Brine yelled drowning out the noise the boss was making with his own speech. "They might be better than us, they might have more experience." Dennis nudged her as her speech seemed to be convincing the men not to fight and some were backing up as the group of thugs in front of them charged, "But there is something we do have, this is our town, they took our stuff, burned our houses! Killed our friends!" The men who were backing away shouted in agreement and stood firm. The thugs were getting closer and Brine devised a strategy, "Alright while twenty of us meet them straight on the rest of you hold back, if you feel like you are weak then pull back and two others make sure he makes it out by attacking his would be killer. Charge!" The men in the back stayed where they were but the front few lines ran forward and met the enemy straight on. Boss man was standing in the back with two of his men watching as the two groups collided, their's were obviously better but the others kept backing up whenever they were close to being down for the count. Finally the first one was down and it was a Supercharged Creeper.

While the main fight started, Charlie had to make sure the four men didn't go back around to flank the people of Freightport. He jumped off the first wall and said, "You guys want me then come get me," and hopped down into his basement. The four men figured that in an open space like that they could easily take Charlie and jumped down as well. The boy ran to his basement door and quickly climbed up the stairs to his house.

Vance ran after him first followed by Viktor and Seth with Dixon taking up the rear, "Where did he go?" Seth asked reaching the top of the stairs to a confused Vance.

"I don't know I was right behind him." Vance looked around, "Dixon with me, you two go that way, call out if you find him and the other two will back you up. This guy doesn't get out of here alive."

Charlie ran straight to his room and opened the chest next to his bed. _I was saving this but now is looking like a good time to use it. _Two of the men ran into his room and watched as Charlie had a golden apple in his hand that he gobbled down. Checking his watch he saw that it gave him an extra few hearts so grinning he looked at the men in front of him. One let out a yell and Charlie charged him hitting the man in the doorway. Seth tried to block the boy in and shut the door as he backed away but Viktor was still inside and backed up against the door suddenly wishing he hadn't yelled. He couldn't move past the door and Seth said from the other side, "I'm sorry man," Viktor screamed as Charlie's sword hit him once, twice, and then took him out while he stared into Seth's eyes from through the door. Vance and Dixon got to the door and saw Seth but no Viktor and he pointed into the bedroom. "He's in there, Viktor's gone." The three men stood at the ready about to enter the room while Charlie just stared at the door waiting for them to come in.

Back in the main battle the battleground was madness: all the miners were fighting now, there was water everywhere, and someone had placed TNT during the fight killing members of both groups and creating a crater on the cobble street. The plan fell through after awhile and Brine called them all in because they were losing ground but instantly regained the advantage with the reinforcements, some fresh, some had regained their health with a break. Seeing them all rush in the boss told his two men with him, his seconds in command, to join him in battle and all three sprinted in attacking the miners. They were cold-blooded killers and didn't stop attacking a man until he was dead. It wasn't hard to recognize which men were their's as there was a blue SC branded into each piece of all their armors.

Brine had out her bow realizing it did more damage as long as she didn't hit people with it. After shooting a man his friends dropped water and now they all had to wade through a stream while they fought. She estimated they were winning the fight until the leaders of the enemy joined in, she watched as each one of them took out one of her's with little or no damage done to them. _Uh oh, Charlie we could really use your help._

Charlie was having problems of his own in his house fighting three men in confined quarters. The fight wouldn't take long since there was nowhere they could run, Vance closed the door behind them so Charlie couldn't run away. The eighth grader wasn't thinking about running away however, he was focused on the guy who trapped his friend in here to die, he had to die first. The battle started and as soon as Seth was hit the other two attacked Charlie but he didn't turn to face them and instead hit Seth again. Seth knew what three hits did and didn't need to check his wrist. Dropping his sword Seth shouted, "Wait!" and Charlie hesitated but Dixon got another hit on him so he spun and hit the man with the dark complexion then jumped to the side anticipating the swing from Vance and turned and quickly double hit the man. All three were on different sides of the room panting while Charlie stood in the middle, they were all regaining health for round two but Charlie wasn't going to wait that long.

Seth still hadn't picked up his sword but Charlie walked over to the man, "I bet your friend didn't want me to kill him either when you locked him in here with me." Dixon looked at Vance knowing that that was something Seth would do. "The only difference between you and him is that he wasn't such a coward that he threw his sword down." Charlie jumped up in the air and came down with his sword into the man's head killing him.

Vance was back to five hearts, five and a half, and turned to Dixon and said out loud, "Kid you win," and threw his sword down too, "I know I can't repent for what I did but please don't kill me. Dixon put your weapon down or you'll die."

"He'll kill me anyway, I'm going to go out fighting." Dixon replied shaking.

"No, I won't," Charlie said, without looking back he opened the door and walked out.

"Dixon, listen to me." Dixon looked as if he was about to charge back out there. "Even if we win, the gang has been decimated, we'll never recover from it." Dixon hesitated at the door and looked back, Vance was the only guy in the whole gang he liked anyway so he stopped. "Come on let's get out of here." Vance said putting a hand on the mans shoulder picking back up his sword.

Charlie was building a bridge to get to the side of the hole where the fighting was occurring. He looked back at his house and saw the two men he'd left there. They gave him a quick glance and smiled. Saluting him as a joke they ran back down the town dropping their armor and swords that marked them as Supercharged Creepers. Charlie grinned and got to his wall. Climbing on top of it he looked at the battlefield in front of him and knew what he had to do. The miners were losing ground fast. At least a third of them were down and only six or seven of the gang were but since he got up the tower two more miners were killed, one by the boss. Using all the air in his lungs he shouted, "Hey Assholes!" he jumped from the first wall to the second barely making it over the gap, _That would've been embarrassing if I fell down there. _"Are you afraid to fight me or something?" The fight had stopped for a moment as everyone stared at Charlie. He was glowing in almost full diamond armor holding a diamond sword dripping in blood, "Just because those other four were no match for me doesn't mean you don't have a shot, come on give me your best shot."

His taunts ceased and everyone was silent. Some of the Supercharged Creepers were hoping they would surrender. They were down to nine men and the miners were still over double although from the thirty three people from Freightport, twenty remained. The thought of their destroyed homes and dead friends and family had kept their resolve strong.

The boss wasn't ready to give up yet and shouted, "Get back in it," as he ran back towards the wall to fight Charlie one on one the men continued to fight. Knowing that the boss wasn't watching anymore two of the gang members threw down their swords. The other six attacked and although outnumbered proved to hold up. Brine shot another one and Dennis got in a hit with his diamond sword killing the man and they looked at each other satisfied with their handiwork. Only the two men that stayed with the boss were still fighting, two more had dropped their swords and were roughly taken away to the other two. The boss got to the wall the same time Charlie jumped off and they stared each other down.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble kid. I'm going to have to refill almost my entire gang because of you."

"Haha _almost_," he said and the boss took a look behind him to see his only second in command left get shot by Brine and drop to the ground. Four of his men were now dropping their armor at the feet of those miners.

"They might have pussied out but I always finish the job." Swiping the boss got the first hit on Charlie and he noticed that it hurt more than the iron swords hits did.

Jumping back, Charlie held up his hand palm out. "Don't Brine!" he ordered and the leader of his one man gang turned to see a bow aimed straight for his head. Next to the girl were five miners who had swords raised, the others had gone back to let everyone waiting just outside the town know what had happened. "I'll fight him on my own, do not interfere." Brine nodded knowing the feeling. _It won't be like back in fifth grade. She won't have to save me again._ Charlie faced the man with determination all over his face. "This is the end!" He attacked and their swords clashed, diamond on diamond sparks flew out around them. Wildly attacking Charlie hit the man who stayed back circling and getting a heart back before diving back in but unlike the cheap blow he'd gotten on Charlie as they started the fight, the man was unable to hit anything.

"I'm the leader of one of the most infamous gangs in Grend how can a mere child stand up to me!" He wasn't thinking straight, a town that was supposed to have a weak police force and be an easy job since they'd lost a lot of men on the last big city they raided, was guarded by two kids that were able to supply the townspeople with iron armor. "What is it with you, how are you beating me?" he asked getting hit again now sweating profusely. He managed to hit Charlie again with his sword but the armor was good and he was still above half health.

Looking the man straight in the eyes he smirked, "It's because I have something to fight for!" he screamed and ran into the man not caring about getting hit and swung but instead of three hits like his other kills had mainly been, the man had some of his health recovered during the fight. The entire time the others were silently watching, Brine ready at all times to shoot if the fight got out of control.

"Wait please stop," the leader checked his watch and saw he had a single heart left. "Arrest me," Charlie should have been happy but every fiber of his body was telling him this man didn't deserve to live. Putting his sword down Charlie accepted and turned nodding to the miners in front of him. Looking at Brine he smiled, they had finally won.

Watching Charlie fight she couldn't help but feel the power radiating from her long time friend. He fought with such intensity she didn't even realize she was holding her breath until she needed to breathe. Charlie had won the guy had surrendered, and although she wanted to see the man pay there wasn't much they could do. That's when she saw it, the sword the man threw down was no longer down in had been pulled back into his inventory. Looking at Charlie her eyes went wide as the man jumped up in the air behind him. He saw her look and did a three sixty extending his blade as he did so and continued to walk towards her. The leader's body dropped behind him and Charlie remarked, "I gave him a chance, no second chances."

"Wow that was pretty cool bro," she said to him talking about his finishing blow and gave her a smile. Now it was definitely over.

Charlie walked over to where the four men were sitting hands cuffed and they curled up afraid, "What was your bosses name?"

One of the men who wasn't shivering as much replied, "Yuri, his name was Yuri." Charlie headed off into town and Brine followed behind him.

"Where are you going we should wait for everyone to come back."

"We'll be back in time, I just want to go name this sword." Walking into the blacksmith, Charlie walked up to the anvil and engraved the name Yuri into his sword. _Now I'll always remember, he thought._

The prisoners were brought to the capital of Lewis island by an escort of twenty men in leather armor with stone swords as to not arouse suspicion in Drakeport. Unlike Freightport, which was on a river, far inland, Drakeport was actually on the coast, close to the mainland Grend. The prisoners were transported there across the bridge as they were international criminals to be tried for their many crimes by the royal court.

The townsfolk agreed not to mention the diamond armor and swords to the authorities but did give them the sword the leader possessed as evidence. Charlie and Brine were considered heroes as were Dennis and the other miners. Frank and a little over a third of the miners were killed in the fight and were also revered. The true heroes however, we're James, Matt, the chief Hagar, and Sean who were able to stall long enough at the cost of their own lives, for many people to be able to be evacuated. Barely any civilians were killed during the siege, only those in the houses closest to the front gate.

The rebuilding of Freightport took under a day with Red Street, a fitting name for Charlie and Brine's street that was where most of the battling occurred, and the front gate area taking the most time. Working together they were able to do it fast and after a couple days break school started back up. All the other students were asking them crazy questions and gone was the confident intense Charlie of before and out came shy timid Chales Dittor. Brine did not hesitate to give every little detail of Charlie's battles (along with her own) making him blush whenever she spoke about it occasionally speaking in to downplay it with things such as, "There weren't a hundred guys," or, "It didn't hurt that much." His modesty only made a better name for himself as he rose to being the most popular kid around in a day. Brine was up there with him and even with their new fame they still spent the next weekend patrolling the streets in iron armor, the new decided armor for the police officers. Since Dennis was the only full time police officer left the mayor appointed him chief and he went around to the miners who had helped during the battle and many agreed to join the force. A record high thirteen full time officers were on the force. Charlie supplied the iron armor and swords and life went back to normal.

Finishing the eighth grade Charlie and Brine got ready to go into high school the next year. During the summer they spent a lot of time in the deep basement Charlie created mining iron, coal, and especially diamond. Using Steve's book they looked up the formula for an enchantment table but needed obsidian that they had to use three diamonds to get a pick to mine. Deciding against it they read up on a lot of the other things in the book too but over the summer the largest project they were working on was the wall. The mine owner, a man who always had a cigar in his mouth, Mr. Tums, had suggested that a thicker, higher wall would have stalled long enough for everyone to have gotten out on time. Although many people disliked him because he lived on the top of a hill in a mansion while they were payed so little, they had to agree so Charlie took it upon himself and Brine decided to help.

They spent the whole summer working on it. The inside of the town might still not have looked too great but the outside wall was deceiving, at eight blocks tall, nine blocks every other so it gave it a castle like look, and four blocks thick with a passageway in the middle, the wall was magnificent. The front and back gates were also spectacular with levers on the inside to pull that would open the iron gates. The day before school started they finished and proud of their work went home to the Flynn's where they got Brine's parents to come look at the finished work. Amazed the adults walked along the top of the wall, climbed up the ladders on the inside to get up to the towers. Every thirty blocks there was a tower that extended out an extra couple blocks and went a few higher with a chest with a couple bows and some arrow stacks on top of each one. Using web from spiders they were able to make a lot of bows and they'd gone back to the skeleton spawner and made a trap with a hopper attached to the chest and every time they checked on it, the chest was full of arrows and bones with the occasional bow. Nobody asked about where all the stuff was coming from because they all assumed they knew the answer. There were over fifty towers around the town and someone brought up a point at a town hall meeting that there was no standing army so a militia was set up with almost every able bodied male put in and many females joined in as well. The militia made up about half of the population of the town but would only be called upon in emergencies.

A/N And the battle for Freightport just happened. Hope my battle scenes were good. If you enjoyed please review, love the feedback. Tomorrow the stunning conclusion of part 1, Freightport.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4- THE ADVENTURE BEGINS**

Junior year of high school Brine was one of the most beautiful girls in school. Charlie's grades had gone back up and he had gotten a lot more friends since he entered high school and wasn't such a loner anymore. Barely anyone spoke of the Supercharged Creepers attack back when they were in eighth grade because it was old news.

Brine was getting tutored by her friend while they spent time together. For instance one day they'd mined into a cave and were fighting spiders and Charlie called out, "What's the square root of sixty four?"

Brine was focused on the fight but thought for a second, _What times what is sixty four, umm oh, _"Eight!" and Charlie said good job before finishing off his spider and a couple seconds later she killed hers. It was during the second week of school junior year that they were running around a cave lighting it up when Brine screamed. Charlie ran over to her and saw what she was looking at. A couple feet in front of her was a three block tall, lanky black creature that he recognized from the book and from monster class as an enderman.

"Whatever you do don't look at it or it will attack. Put on your diamond armor quick." At the tops of their inventories they kept a full set of diamond armor each with Charlie still having enchant boots and chestplate while Brine had the other two that they'd repaired at the anvil to full. Most fights weren't life threatening so they saved it from losing durability. "Okay Brine follow me, and whatever you do, don't look directly at it." He said. Charlie was always in charge whenever they went mining. Although he only had a little more experience than Brine he was always quick to switch into gear when a dangerous situation arose. Turning around to go back up the cave the enderman teleported in front of them. Brine tried not to look but it was right in front of her and it spun around. It's mouth unhinged and a screeching noise was heard along with static and the teens froze, it was the most horrible sound. Teleporting a block away it punched Brine with both hands and even with her armor it took down three hearts.

Charlie acted fast and hit the monster so that it would be focused on him. It turned and hit him taking out three and a half hearts. His new diamond helmet helped he realized after his last mine he found a whole lot of diamonds and made some more armor for them or if another enemy attacked the town. He'd remembered something he read about endermen as he hit it again and it teleported away. Getting out his water bucket he saw Brine holding her bow fully charged. Firing the arrow was right on its mark but right when it should have hit the monster it vanished and the arrow clanged harmlessly into the wall. "Where did it go?" Brine shouted spinning around. Charlie felt a sharp pain in his back as the monster hit him again but as it continued swinging it's skinny arms to land another blow, Charlie dropped some water on the floor and the monster screeched in pain as it teleported away again. Standing in the center of the water spread he waited for it to appear again. The enderman came back right next to Brine who had her sword back out but instead of attacking her, the tall dark mob ran past. It stood at the edge of the water and gave a bloodcurdling screech and static was heard from every direction making them hold their ears. Brine knew that Charlie had to stay in the water and her health had gradually came back until she was at full but the monster didn't stop screaming. Sneaking up behind it, it didn't even process that she was there it was so focused on Charlie. _Oh fuck me, _she jumped up in the air and critical hit the monster's head. Landing she swung again and again and again knocking the enderman back every time until it screamed one last time almost like a call for help it was so loud before crashing to the ground and releasing an little orb.

"Good job!" Charlie congratulated, picking back up the water source he placed. "Let's get out of here I didn't like the sound of that last yelp." Brine showed him the sphere and Charlie's eyes grew wide. "There is mention in Steve's book about those and it says that they're really important but as it continued to talk about them the next few pages were ripped out."

"That's weird," Brine started, "you'd think whoever ripped those pages out would have taken the diamond too."

"Strange indeed, now let's go," Charlie suggested and they headed out of the cave. He tried to think of what the importance of the enderpearl was but without those pages he was clueless and there was only one person he could ask about it.

Four months later, Brine and Charlie went to school but Charlie brought along the enderpearl with him. After school was over they went into their old tenth grade history teacher who really liked them, not because of them saving the town, but from their interest in his class. "Brine, Charles, to what do I owe this visit?"

"Mr. Dean," Brine started, they'd aleady planned out how they were going to approach the topic, "we'd like to know about the history of those tall black monsters, the umm endermen, I think," she put a confused look on her face to look sincere. Though she knew more than she was letting on Mr. Dean didn't need to know that.

"Hand it over," he stated. Both teenagers looked at each other with startled galnces and shrugged. "Don't play dumb with me, I know that you two spend all your time doing things, dangerous things. I want you to show me your enderpearl."

Charlie grinned, this was exactly why he liked Mr. Dean, he was sharp. "Can't get anything passed you can we?" Charlie asked rhetorically and pulled out the sphere dropping it in front of the teacher.

"Careful!" he shouted taking the sphere into his inventory. Getting it back in his hand and holding it in front of him he explained, "I assume you somehow killed an enderman to get this?" he looked at Charlie who tilted his head at Brine who was beaming with pride. "Very good dear, now the reason I said to be careful is because if a ball like this is thrown, the thrower will be teleported, like an enderman, to the spot it landed and the sphere will be gone forever," he handed back the sphere and Brine looked really excited but Charlie looked at him confused.

"Are you sure that that's its only use?" the boy asked and for the first time since they met him in the beginning of their sophomore year, the man stuttered.

"Y-yes, there's nothing else special about it." Mr. Dean said a little too quickly. _How could they possibly know about it._

_There's no way Steve had something about it being super important and then removed his own pages. Brine might think someone else took it but I think he thought they were too dangerous to be lucked upon by the wrong hands. Whatever it is, Mr. Dean isn't telling us everything._ "Mr. Dean," Charlie said raising his voice making Brine look at him oddly, "What are endermen? Where did they come from?"

The teacher turned away from them and his lips quivered, "I d-don't know what you're talking about." Finally he sighed and looked back at the two teens in front of him. They'd saved his life and so many others, they could be trusted. "What I am about to tell you is the biggest, most well kept secret in the world that I don't believe a handful of people know about. Under threat of death, you still can never release this information, understood?" Charlie and Brine nodded smiling wide and leaning in close. "It was thirty years ago..."

**Francis Dean walked into his monster studies class after the seminar had ended and walked up to his college professor. Throughout the class period he'd been bringing up questions about the endermen but Professer Walken wouldn't answer them and kept changing the subject to his annoyance. It wasn't the first time Francis had done it either and although the teacher was happy about his enthusiasm there was nothing he could say while in front of a class of that size. Seeing his student march down the steps of the lecture hall he resolved to answer the boy's questions once and for all.**

**"Before you say anything my boy, come with me," Dr. Walken had told him. Mr Dean was already twenty at the time and resented being called 'my boy' but let it slide. Going into the teacher's office he saw the professor close the blinds and lock the door behind him. Giving him the same speech he just gave the two teens he pressed a button on the wall behind him. A whole appeared on the floor and in it was a chest, in the chest was a book, a very old book. Blowing the dust off it Dr. Walken sighed, "This will never leave this room, but it will stay with you forever." **

**Opening the book the doctor started, "In the beginning there were two worlds, the world of humans, and the other world of fire know as the Nether." Francis seemed irritated, he knew all this already, he'd already had his Nether course in his freshmen year. "The two worlds lived in harmony until one day someone found something, and this something changed the world. It was back in the time of the ancients when the room was discovered. These men were making mineshafts deep underground to mine the gold deposits they believed to be hidden down there. They hit something," the professor flipped the page and turned the book so that Mr. Dean could see the pictures. "What looked like normal stone contained what we now call silverfish but this was the first time the men had ever seen them. Believing they were close to discovering something big they dug, they dug tunnels throughout the area where their mineshaft ended and kept digging on the hope to find some sort of riches when one of them broke through a wall into a room. In the room there were more silverfish but they were coming out of a spawner which the men quickly destroyed."**

**"What does this have to do with endermen?" Francis asked impatiently.**

**"Quiet boy I'm getting to it." Dr. Walken snapped. "As I was saying, the silverfish spawner wasn't the most impressive part of the room. No what was inside changed the face of the world." Francis's eyes opened wide wondering what one room could have held. "See at this time there were no such thing as endermen, at least they didn't exist in our dimension. Like the Nether portals of old, there was a portal in the room, only they didn't know that yet. In the center of a group of green and white blocks there was blackness. The blackness was covered in purple specks that flew out of the portal constantly and the men were amazed. They'd never come into contact with anything such as this before, in fact nobody had." He paused taking a sip of water. "You have to understand before I go further, the man who gave me this book told me that there were people who would kill if this information was known. I won't tell you who it was so don't ask but in his voice I heard truth and I've never told anybody about it, ever." Francis nodded obviously wanting the man to go on. "As you wish, the men heard sounds from inside the portal, scary sounds but back then diamonds were not a rarity. A person was expected to have stacks of diamonds and they were used as not only money but people used them for all sorts of things like armor, and even weapons. These men suited up in their finest armor. It is said that twenty went in and none came out. Nobody knows what happened to them but as soon as they were in, the others waiting in our world had to fight an onslaught of endermen. They appeared almost out of nowhere and never before had one been seen so the first thing they did was stare at them. I know that you know what happens when you look at one of them," Francis Dean nodded, "well not many survived. They smashed the little boxes that were somehow keeping the portal open trapping the others inside but hoping that it would stop the monsters from coming in. The portal however, was not their only way and once introduced to our world, they were able to teleport in. That is where endermen come from." He shut the book and pushed the button quickly placing it back in his hidden chest.**

**"Wait professor, what happened to the men, did they ever make it out?" Francis asked, the book looked like it lasted much longer than where they read up to.**

**"The rest is a bunch of myths that were probably handed down long before the book was written and can't be taken with a grain of sand." he said preparing to tell his student the finale to the story. "It is said that Steve, the original Minecraftian, and his arch enemy teamed up to enter the portal to somehow stop the flow of these creatures that kept killing them as they were immortals and wouldn't stay dead for long. This we know now as foolish as such people couldn't've existed. They spent months putting thousands of combinations of materials in crafting benches until they finally found the missing piece that re-completed the portal. Supposedly the two entered the portal and reappeared five hours later with their inventories gone, having placed down beds that somehow revived them to the spot they retold what they had seen. The tale of their story included thousands of endermen, a mystical world that was the size of an island not even a quarter the size of our own, and a dragon. A big black dragon with purple eyes, they fought it for the entire time they were there. They said that there was no way out and once they entered the portal there was no sign of the portal they'd exited from, it was like they just appeared out of thin air. The dragon never stopped attacking them and they fought hard but there was no way to kill it, they didn't have the power. They'd checked their watches during the fight and the dragon was taken only below three quarters health no lower throughout the entire battle because there were towers they had to climb to destroy the contraptions that were healing the dragon, it's all a bunch of fairytales. The men were nowhere to be seen when the two entered the world and although his nemesis disappeared after the fight, Steve stayed preparing the men who had called him there in the first place for a fight to avenge their friends.**

**"Come on what happened? Did they go back in and kill the dragon?" Francis asked on the edge of his seat obviously not taking it with a grain of sand but as if it were all fact.**

**The professor sighed and answered, "This was the time around when Steve no longer became a piece of peoples' histories but instead as a figure that only appeared once every century or so. Something happened when they went back in, during the fight they managed to kill the dragon and experience fell from its body giving the three remaining men, including Steve, forty levels, each. It was on the way out of the portal that an incident occured. As the men retold the story of what happened in The End, the name they gave the world, Steve looked into the distance depressed and angry. One of the men is said to have started retelling the trip back to their world when Steve shoved his sword through the man. Panicing most people scattered but the other man who had made it out was chased by Steve and mercilessly slaughtered in front of the man's wife and son." Francis gasped, Steve was always the pinnacle of perfection, a symbol of the ideal person. "Nobody knows what happened on the way out of the portal but centuries went by before anyone went near the portal again. Apparently a new civilization was in power over the portal and knew almost nothing about what had happened in there hundreds of years before but Steve was waiting down there. It was his home that he stayed from then until that point. The people there were rich and liked unique things and had heard that a different type of block resided in there. Running past Steve they jumped into the portal and since endermen never stopped entering our world, they knew not to look at them. It wasn't the endermen that shocked them though it was the dragon that had been reborn. Steve wasn't prepared but the portal that he'd opened out of the world was still open. There was an egg sitting on the exit portal and he remembered trying to hit it the last time they were there and it disappeared. Bringing the people back into the portal it is written in the book that they instantly ran away from Steve who hunted every single one of the rich people down and killed them for their knowledge of whatever they saw on the way out that they were too afraid to tell people about when leaving the End."**

Mr. Dean stopped talking and his former students were looking at him in awe. Charlie's mouth was open and he was having trouble determining which parts of the story to believe and which not to. It all seemed so fantastical but there was no denying that some of it could be and probably was true. Brine was the first one to speak up, "What ever happened to your teacher? Mr. Walken?"

The man's face became dark and he looked at his students, "What I said about this not leaving this room you must follow. I don't know how but my professor never came to school again after that day. I searched his office that looked like it had been ransacked but luckily nobody had found the book."

"You still have it!?" Charlie asked excitedly.

The teacher shook his head. "I believe my teacher was killed, assassinated by whoever it was that he was trying to hide his knowledge of The End from. I read the book cover to cover over and over again until I had it memorized and then I buried it. Buried it in the deepest hole I could dig and then placed a sapling over the spot so that hopefully I'd be able to find it again although who knows how many people could have cut the tree down. It's probably lost forever." the two kids moaned and he stopped them, "Good riddance, that book probably cost the lives of many others before my teacher."

Charlie thought for a minute and the room was silent, "Mr. Dean, what were the things they used to enter the End with."

"An enderpearl and a piece of blaze powder are put together in a crafting table, and out comes an eye of ender." He tried remembering the specifics from the book, "If I'm right, by throwing one up in the air it will arc in the direction of the portal that you can pick up and throw again, if you can find it. These things are attracted to the place where they can become one with the blocks that open the portal. After Steve went in with the greedy rich people, he is said to have taken out all the ender eyes that he put in and burned them in lava pools before closing the room for good and disappearing." Charlie looked at Brine who smiled back at him and their high school monster teacher stepped back falling onto his chair. "You can't possible be thinking..."

Brine grinned, "Thanks Mr. Dean, you were a big help."

"Yeah massive, this will really help us with our _schoolwork_." Charlie and his friend cracked up running out of the room.

"Wait kids!" Francis shouted after them and they spun around bouncing up and down ready to sprint away at any time. "The two most powerful beings in history couldn't handle what I'm sure you're both going to try and do. What makes you think you'll stand a chance?"

Charlie pulled out his diamond sword and turned it to Mr. Dean so he could read what was engraved in the material. "Yuri asked me the same thing when he thought he could beat me when we fought for the town. I tell you now that it's because I think I can do it, that I will do it." he looked at Brine, "_We_ will do it!" he yelled and they charged down the hallway knowing for once in their lives what they wanted to do. Mr. Dean smiled off at his students who were running down the hallway _such free spirits,_ he thought and turned around going back to his desk and sitting fown happy that after three decades he was finally able to get the weight of being the only one who knew off his chest.

Brine spent the rest of junior year trying to convince her parents to let her go on an adventure. Mr. Flynn was set on his daughter doing what she wanted to do. His other daughter, Alice, went to college unlike most women who found a suitable husband. She even went to Grend National University on the mainland. His wife however, was very concerned about her daughter not finishing high school and going to college, and not finding a husband right away, the only two options in her opinion. Traveling the world with her best friend was not a profession she'd said, but Brine held firm. She wanted to leave on good terms with her parents so before she was eighteen she wanted them to allow her to make the decision since she was going to make it anyway once she was legally an adult. Her mother agreed on the condition that she finish eleventh grade.

The two never told anyone about what Francis had told them but the news did spread fast that the town's heroes were about to leave on an adventure. Many believed the two were going out secretly but they never were even if they did have strong feelings for each other. Final preparations were made for their departure as they created an enderchest that they believed was worth the use of one of the five endereyes that they were able to create with the blaze powders from the chest as it almost doubled the size of their inventories. Refraining from creating a nether portal to save it for another time, they did make diamond pickaxes and mine obsidian. Using it they were able to make the enderchest, but also an enchanting table they used on their swords and armor that weren't enchanted and Charlie also enchanted a bow to level thirty with the bookshelves they made. In each of their enderchest they had extra enchanted diamond armor, swords, and bows, along with a stack of diamonds each. They had the ingredients for the potions that they knew they would have to make one day and many other diamond tools. When the chest was full it was broken and picked up by Brine who put it in the same top right spot that Charlie kept his mother's grave dirt. The way it worked was that when it was placed down both of them could access their own personal chest that no one else had access to so even if they left it unlocked in the open, whoever opened it would find it empty and could put their own belongings in it too. That way even with only one chest they were still both able to double their inventory space.

Charlie, on the day before graduation, brought Dennis and the other policemen down his mine. This was the first time that anyone besides Brine, (and her father who had asked to come down and see what they were doing) ever saw the place. "Kid, this place could fit the entire population of Freightport if we ever needed to escape underground!" Dennis shouted echoing off all the walls. He handed the man a book that had detailed directions of which tunnels had been mined, which had caves at the end, where the spawners were to get unlimited supplies of not only skeleton droppings, but also spider and zombie spawners were also found over the years. Finally he broke all the signs to the chests in his basement along with his deep basement and told the cops that it was for everyones use now and they could decide how to distribute it. As Charlie walked away the men looked around the room they'd been brought to which was covered wall to wall in chests full of everything, coal, iron, redstone, and hundreds of full double chests of cobblestone.

Knowing that the two would not be there for senior year they were allowed to graduate with the class a year older than them. The Flynns were all in attendance, even Alice who had come back from college a month earlier as her school year ended earlier.

Two days after graduation the pair left their homes at six in the morning getting up early to use the day to the best they could. On their hotbars, which were identical, from right to left was a stack of torches, a full stack of bread, a compass, an iron shovel, an iron axe, an enchanted diamond pickaxe, a enchanted bow-Charlie's newer one, and Brine's one from the chest which had lost some of its durability, both had enchant diamond swords with Charlie's proudly brandishing the name Yuri, and in the first spot was a blank map that they had enlarged six times to make sure that it would last a long time. In the inventories were doubles of most of their items, they were wearing full diamond armor but had another full set in their inventories. They didn't have doubles of the compasses or the bows but above the compass and the blank map were more blank maps to continue their progress on so they would always be able to find their way home no matter how far they went and how many maps they filled up. Above the bow for Charlie were three stacks of arrows as he had good enchants, Power III Flame I, but not Infinity, while Brine only had one arrow and a couple iron picks so she wouldn't have to waste her diamond one all the time. Both had a full stack of iron blocks that they could turn back into ingots at any time but was better for transporting and a full stack of obsidian.

While they walked from their front doors and met each other in the street they smiled at each other. Looks of anticipation, excitement, and nervousness was written all over their faces. "You ready?" Charlie asked his long time friend.

"Of course I am, are you?" she asked. He nodded and they turned for the front gate. They walked as slow as possible taking in as much of the town that was beginning to look more like a city every day. They'd grown up in Freightport, it was all they knew. "I wonder if we'll recognize it when we return." Brine commented as they passed another house that was working on construction of a third floor, probably from their own material that was given out by the police to pretty much everybody in town. Even the coal was distributed which was great for everyone except for Mr. Tums who instantly changed his coal business to iron business and promised higher wages and a safer work environment.

As they walked, Charlie took a quick glance behind him and turned back forward snapping his head fast. The nervous boy appeared again as he stuttered when he spoke, "B-b-b-Brine d-don't look behind us." Obviously the first thing she did was turn around and not ten blocks behind them were Brine's entire family. Behind them was the police force followed by the entire high school student body and faculty followed by every single soul in Freightport.

She spun back around and looked to the side as they passed a house and the door opened and a family of four piled out to join the massive crowd. They were wearing full diamond armor and had swords in their hands and quickly switched to the blank maps. They reached the front gates and Dennis was waiting for them and saluted before hitting the lever opening the gates to the town. The two walked outside the town and a thousand people came out behind them: the elderly, the young, everyone had taken off from work to come see the heroes depart. Brine looked around again and didn't know what to say they were all looking at them expectantly, _do they want a speech or something._ She tapped her map and it showed a small circle around where she must be standing and Charlie did the same thing.

_Oh god if this goes backwards into the town it's going to be really embarrassing._ Charlie took out the enderpearls, replacing his bow as he didn't see a need for it at the moment. Before he was able to throw it Brine shouted out, "Thank you all for coming to see us off," he looked at her as the whole crowd was silent. "You have all been nothing but supportive of us for years and we love you for it. Don't worry, one day we'll return. I promise!" Her voice was as loud as it could be because she had to make sure everyone heard her and for a second after she stopped talking everyone was still silent. Then, all at once, the entire population started cheering and clapping. Charlie took it as his cue and threw the enderpearl up in the air; it flew straight to the right and he let out a sigh of relief that it didn't go backwards into the city. "Goodbye everyone!" Charlie yelled as he ran following the enderpearl to the right.

All except for one person in the crowd was confused about what the boy was doing or what he threw up in the air but it didn't matter and they all called out goodbyes back, hoping that somehow their's was heard over everbody elses. Brine sprinted after Charlie, he'd reached a dirt mound but instead of climbing over it or going around he barely slowed down and had his shovel out digging straight through the hill. Brine came up next to him and made the tunnel two wide and because of the diamond shovels they got through the hill like speed demons. The citizens watched in awe as they disappeared into the distance seeing the sphere like object get thrown up into the air again.

_My daughter is all grown up, _Mr. Flynn thought staring into the distance. _I hope she's alright out there. Charlie you better protect my little girl._

Charlie picked up the enderpearl and threw it back into the air chasing after it. He glanced behind him and couldn't even see the wall in the distance anymore, his childhood home was gone. Brine occassionally picked up the eye and threw it up into the sky and after a couple minutes they lost it having to search in between a group of trees for five minutes before finding it again. They had no idea where the portal was going to be but they didn't have the luxury to lose a single eye, especially not this early in their adventure. The pearl was heading west telling from their compasses and that led straight to Drakeport and if it wasn't there, then they would have to go to Grend. They reached the outskirts of Drakeport and decided that the chances it was in the town were slim so they should just keep heading west over the bridge before throwing another eye of ender. Approaching the city they saw a farmer outside of the walls who was harvesting some potatoes and they waved to him but he dropped his potatoes and ran screaming.

"Crap, Charlie, these people aren't used to us wearing glowing diamonds, remember it's like highly illegal," she said quickly putting her diamond sword away and pulling her stack of bread eating two and then leaving it out to make her seem friendly.

Charlie took his bread out too and said, "Maybe we should just make some boats and cross the sea that way. It's not even that far we could probably swim, I mean they built a bridge between the two lands so it couldn't be that far." As the contemplated walking away they saw ten men in partial iron armor with iron and stone swords running out of the gates. "Looks like we have a welcoming party," he whispered then he started shouting as they neared the group of men and women who looked like they were about to pee themselves, "We're not here to hurt you. We are friendly visitors who just happen to want to cross into Grend using the bridge."

The leader, police chief Rolldale tried to keep his cool as he spoke but it cracked a couple times, "I don't think we believe you. Queen's Bridge is a very important place and we can't let, excuse me when I say it, criminals, cross it without trying to stop them."

Brine acted quickly, "Okay you win, we won't use your bridge." She started walking away and Charlie turned his back to the group as well who were befuddled that these people who they thought were going to try to kill them were just walking away.

One of the women called out, "Wait where are you going?"

"To make some boats," Brine called back without turning around. "I would've loved to buy one from the boat store here, I heard it has the finest boats on Lewis Island." Now some of the militia were feeling a little less threatened and some even lowered their swords.

The police chief thought for a second, _guys with that much diamond must be loaded, it'll be great for the whole city._ "Wait, sorry about misjudging you two please come back." he shouted and Charlie looked at Brine amazed she was able to get them access. _I'll just have to explain this to the King and maybe he'll understand,_ the man gulped.

They went into town and bought some stuff: a couple loaves of bread each to refill their stack to the top, a pass that would give them access across the bridge- it had to be checked off by the gate guards on the island side of the bridge, and the guards in Grend who were said to be ruthless thugs who excersized their power excessively- and everytime they saw a guard pass by them he would smile having been notified by the King that their guests weren't to be hurt probably thinking they were some of the people he'd given special allowances to.

Eating soup at a restaurant in the city keeping up to their promise that they were going to buy stuff to help the town's economy they talked about the bridge. They assumed the chief was going to tell the bridge guards they were coming but then they'd be on their own and the other guards might try to engage them if they cross while in diamond armor. One thing in particular as they finally headed for the bridge after lunchtime caught Charlie's eye and he went and bought a whole stack of pumpkins from a street vendor who was grinning madly as Charlie threw a wad of cash at her. "Charlie what are you doing?" Brine asked, "That was a quarter of our money you just used on _pumpkins_. Why would you do that?"

"Because I want the guards to be so afraid that they don't even try to fight us," Charlie replied and Brine just looked at him like he was an idiot. As they got to the bridge the gate guards were quick to let them through opening the gates and bowing like they were VIP's. _I am not taking this diamond armor off for anybody. The world is a scary place and I won't be caught off guard._

"Wow when I said we could swim the distance I must have been on drugs," Brine commented. Instead of sprinting they were walking the bridge and already a couple minecart trains had passed them by, probably filled with chests of coal and furnaces to keep the carts going to wherever the coal was being shipped. _This is much bigger than I thought it would be. Charlie wouldn't have even been able to build it this far in a day, let alone all the engineering that went into it._ Althought there was no need for them, there were huge pillars all around the bridge supposedly keeping it up although they knew that it would have held up fine without them. The bridge was twenty blocks wide and they'd only passed one couple walking the other direction towards Lewis Island.

In the distance they finally saw the other guard house and stayed back where they were. Charlie put his stack of iron blocks in his hand and made five letter T's out of them with four blocks each. Brine was about to ask him what he was doing when he tossed her a pumpkin and said, "Put it on," holding himself back from laughter. She decided to humor him and removed her helmet putting on the pumpking over her head. She could see through the eye holes but it seemed like a bad idea, _I lose my periferal vision with this and I'll be less effective in combat, let alone not having head protection._ She looked at Charlie who had his pumpkin head on and heard him mumble, "Those poor, poor gate guards." She couldn't take it anymore and was about to shout at him and ask what he was planning on doing when he put the pumpkins down, one on top of each letter T and she screamed. In front of her were five giant monsters that were made of the iron but had somehow animated themselves into life by some sort of magic.

"Geramo, Geramo did you hear that?" Fillipo the gate guard asked his buddy who was standing next to him. Unlike the other side of the bridge where the entrance is in a city, there was no town in the area near the gate house and they were all alone out there. It was a long commute to work but the pay was good and the company wasn't bad.

"Yeah, that lady we messed with who was with her hubbie before probably saw a ghost or something, don't worry about it." Geramo repied not looking away from the television.

Kurama jumped in, "No I heard it too that definitely was not the same woman."

"What the Hell?!" Fillipo screamed as charging towards them were two, what looked like people except their faces were orange with black eyes and had crooked smiles. They were in full glowing diamond armor compared to the gate guards' iron but what was worse was the five golems that were also barrelling down the bridge towards them.

Charlie and Brine were letting out a war cry as they sprinted down the bridge, shouting out, "We are the mighty pumpkins hear us Roarrrr!" They roared and the golems behind them roared too but much more menacingly.

"I didn't sign up for this," Kurama said dropping a minecart on the tracks and pushing it before jumping on as it hit a powered track sending her flying away. Fillipo and Geramo were right behind her bugging out. Charlie and Brine cheered breaking through the gate only big enough for them to get through leaving their golems behind.

Charlie went back and opened the gate a little wider so they could get off the bridge but then in a very stern voice said, "Go, run away." They looked almost sad as they were being released but Charlie knew they would draw too much attention if they stayed with them and if he left them here they would be killed when the guards came back with reinforcements. He and Brine put back on their helmets and she tossed him back the pumpkin to put with the rest of the stack. The iron golems she swore started whimpering but when Charlie made a really serious face to show them they couldn't come with them they scattered into the forest around the minecarts.

"Wow Charlie, that was a good plan, Charlie what are you..." Brine asked as Charlie turned away.

"It's nothing," he said trying to sound as serious as he just did but he'd gotten attached to his monster children he created and was holding back tears. "Let's keep going," he said throwing up the eye of ender and running off into the woods. They ran for the whole night and reached the top of the nearest mountain where the sun was setting and they decided to set up a house as it would be too hard to find the eye during the night. From the top of the mountain they couldn't help but feel a tinge of doubt, they didn't know where they were going or what they would do when they got there but from that mountain they could see the edge of Lewis island across the sea and with one last glance, walked over the summit and set up a house on the other side of the mountain losing sight of their homeland for good.

A/N Finally I finish Part 1. I'm sure you're wondering what happens next. At least I hope you are but you'll have to be in suspense for a while longer as it'll take me some time to get more chapters written down before I upload. As always review if you can and I hope you enjoyed!

**\- Aeyrn Levia: ** Thank you for your reviews and your support for my story. Knowing that someone enjoys my story makes it worth it to continue writing and making a second part.


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