A Minecraft Endeavour

Chapter 8: Partial Powers and Purposeful Prizes

"I have powers?" asked Emily.
"Of cou..." But before Herobrine was able to finish his sentence, a loud *boom* was heard throughout the ship accompanied with many shouts. All of a sudden, the door of Herobrine's cabin was slammed open by a young Steve.
"Sir! We have breached stage one of the outer ring!" shouted Steve before running out of the cabin.
"Well Emily," Herobrine said, "I believe it's time to get ready for a good fight. Follow my wife to get some armour. We will continue this conversation as soon as I find time." And with that, Herobrine ran out of the cabin.
Emily followed Herobrine's wife, Minecraftia, through various decks and tunnels of the ship until they reached an iron door. After flicking a few levers on the walls in a specific pattern, Minecraftia led Emily into the room. Emily was astounded to discover what was inside.
In the room lay row by row of different types of armour and weapons. Stockpiled on shelves contained boots, helmets, chestplates, pants and many other pieces of armour made out of so many different kinds of materials, Emily stopped counting after a few minutes. To her disappointment though, Emily did not have the luxury of time to take in the beauty of the armoury for very long.
"As my Hero would say, SUIT UP!!" commanded Minecraftia as she grabbed a diamond helmet.

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Jake's eyes fluttered opened to the sounds of wailing note blocks and the flashing of redstone lamps.
"What's going on?!?" shouted Jake, trying to communicate above the heavy din of the sirens. From there, Jake realized where he was. He was sitting in an extremely fancy room of Notch's creation. And right beside his bed stood a group of nerdy-looking villager scientists, each mumbling something that sounded like it somehow was related to Jake. On the other side of his bed stood Notch.
"To answer your question Jake," began Notch, "my advisors have informed me that we've experienced a breach in security..."
But before Notch could continue, Jake interrupted, "Who's breached the palace? Is this place even safe anymore???"
Notch replied more quickly and with a less content facial expression than previously, "That is insignificant Master Jake." Addressing the scientists, Notch said, "We must skip on to stage two." Ignoring the outbursts and cries from the scientists, Notch continued, "Please allow our friend here to be escorted to the Continuum Generator Room. And please dial into the Nether layer at once." Notch turned to leave but hesitated as if he forgot something. Without turning back, he muttered, "Oh and one of you be sure to call my brother... We may be late to the party..."

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Emily stood at the prow of Herobrine's flying vessel, admiring the beauty (and devastation) of the countryside.
From what Emily's eyes could tell, what the Steve had called "Stage One of the Outer Ring" was a grand wall made of obsidian bricks and automatic lava sentries, ready to pour the lethal liquid onto their ship. Somehow the ship itself had not retained even a single scratch or dent. Sadly, that couldn't be said for the wall.
What lay beyond the wall was what some would call the "devastation". If Emily had to take a guess, she would've guessed the land beyond her was once farmland. It certainly was not that anymore. Instead of farmland, Emily was forced to have her eyes look upon fields of billowing smoke, fire and netherack as well as mutated stone bricks called "Mob Spawners", that only spawned naturally in dungeons & strongholds. These were now scattered across the landscape creating bloody life-leaching inhuman and anti-minecraft creatures. And as if it couldn't be worse, Emily realized that what those things that looked like polluting coal blocks stacked in piles, were actually the creatures' houses! Emily did not know how the rest of Minecraftia would survive if this ravenous group of monsters escaped into the rest of the realm.
"Emily, I would advise you to stay below decks," said Herobrine. Although he didn't do anything, moving not even an eyebrow, Emily could tell that it was an order by his tone. "Be prepared. We're about to breach stage 2. And I hear this stage has a few more... interesting things prepared by my brother."
Emily agreed with herself that she wasn't very fond of finding out what these interesting things were going to be from the horrendous looks of stage one.
"I'll be right down Hero," replied Emily before Herobrine turned to go back down below decks. Emily took one last look at the wasteland before turning toward the hatch that would bring her temporary safety.

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"Notc, I mean Sir, but where exactly are we going?" asked Jake as the two trotted quickly down countless nether quartz hallways accompanied with their advisory group of villagers. On and on they walked, occasionally passing through intersections where Jake could see villagers running to and fro, carrying pieces of armour or bundles of weapons. One time, Jake was able to even catch a glimpse of giant mega tnt canons outside of a window.
Notch abruptly turned a corner and began descending down a grand set of stone staircases. "Well Jake," began Notch, with each word accompanied with a huff or puff, "because the perils of Minecraftia are upon my doorstep, I am going to have to accelerate your training." Notch took a big gulp of air before continuing. "We are descending to an underground section of my headquarters where I will be giving you a task that could determine the fate of Minecraftia..." With a final splutter of words and coughing, Notch quieted down and proceeded down the stairs even further, with the fate of Minecraftia transferred to the shoulders of Jake.

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Emily was sitting on her bed in her cabin belowdecks. She was walking back and forth. The name Jake just kept tormenting her mind. Jake Jake Jake, why couldn't Emily think of anything other than Jake? Maybe... Cake! Like Grandma's cak... No maybe treasure! Or maybe not... Roasted Chicken sounded like a good idea! Emily did love her roasted chicken. Hot and juicy, right out of the oven. Taking a piece in her hands, she would sit down and would have a pleasant conversation with Jak... NO Emily couldn't stand it anymore. Any minute her mind would just....
All of a sudden, the door exploded open, the young girl who had woken up Emily such a long time ago was now dressed in gold armour, carrying a message. "Emily, Father requests for your aid outside. We've breached stage 5 and nearing the first part of the inner ring. He says it's important."
When Emily arrived outside, she accidentally released a little cry. On the outside, the world was in chaos and turmoil. The sky had turned a bloody red. On the ground, thousands of villager troops were marching forward and clashing against the few members of the crew. Those who weren't fighting were on the ship setting up more lava flows to pour on enemies. Emily was able to see Hero & Minecraftia somewhere out on the battlefield. She was also able to see at once the problem. Right in front of the path of the ship was a humongous wall of pure black, like the death that awaited all in the End. The space around it was literally sucking up light.
"Hero," Emily shouted, "what can I even do to help?!?"
Without even saying a word, Herobrine turned his head and stared his deathly white eyes at her. All of a sudden, Emily understood. She just... remembered everything at that moment. Power that lay dormant inside her was suddenly screaming for use. The energy flowed through her veins, ready to burst with unstoppable abilities. She knew she had the power to stop this chaos. Emily ran toward the end of the prow of the ship and focused on the glowing Minecraftian sun.
From here on out, people have told different accounts of what happened. Some say Emily jumped down and became the ultimate warrior. Some say she hailed down fire from the heavens. Others say she did dead nothing. One person thought they saw a girl turn horribly cannibalistic and slowly devoured the entire crew. Although she did do something spectacular, she did not become a cannibal. In fact, Emily did something else entirely.
Focusing on the sun, the light of day got brighter and brighter, and pixel by pixel, the Minecraftian sky got yellower and yellower. But the most brightest point was focused toward the wall. The air around the wall began to shake. The world began to whine. The universe cried in pain. The sun screamed with support for Emily. The power inside Emily roared with brimming life. And with one gesture, Emily directed her finger toward the wall, and the sun did as she commanded. Bright light filled all of Minecraftia, the world shifting with disturbing relentlessness. All of a sudden, the wall's darkness was consumed by the light, and the obsidian of the structure shattered into a billion pixels. Time slowed there. Suspended in the air, not a single player moved, not a single pixel shifted. The world gasped for air. Emily looked around slightly confused. Then suddenly, time sped back up, and where the obsidian pixels once were, was now a gaping hungry portal consuming all and everything around it, including the ship, both opposing armies, and Emily as well.