Steel Blood - A Hermitcraft fanfiction

5: The Suspicions of Scar

'Hey, Cub!' 

Scar stood at the end of the line of hermits, wondering with mild annoyance why so much of the server was interested in 'Rusty', if that even was what the creature was even called. 

'Oh, Hi Scar.' His fellow vexling replied with a smile. 'Still waiting?'

'Still waiting... what are you doing?'

'Returning to my base.' 

'Oh, ok. Any secrets behind Rusty, or best friend discounts you can give me?'

'Best friend discounts?!'

'Yeah! I'm your best friend! And as a member of Boatem and the Convex, I was hoping not to spend too many diamonds on it. Especially since I only have 2.'

'You only have two diamonds?!' Cub half-laughed back. 

'I'm a poor man, Cub! A poor man!' 

'I thought your swaggon was getting you lots of diamonds? Or does the complete lack of any and all ender chests put people off?'

'It was one swaggon, Cub. Just one. You know it was.'

'No shop is a real shop without an ender chest.' Cub replied in all seriousness. Scar laughed back. 

'Anyway, what you doing in your base?'

'Building? I mean... there's not much really...' Cub shrugged. Scar gazed back at the queue, walking towards the end again. Cub joined him. 

'So...'

'So what?'

'What is Rusty? What is the creature?'

'A fortune teller?'

'Oh, no. It's more than just a fortune teller. There's more going on here, Cub. And we both know it.' 

'It's a fortune teller, and a way for me to get diamonds.' Cub's eyes flickered to the ground as he spoke. Scar noticed quickly. 

'Cub, just tell me.' 

'I should go back to my base...' Cub began to walk off, still trying to evade the situation. Scar grabbed his arm and he let out an involuntary Yelp of pain, pulling quickly back. 

'Cub, what happened?' 

'Nothing!'

'Cub, something attacked you. What happened?'

'It was a zombie.' Cub lied, showing the wound. Scar narrowed his eyes, looking between it and his friend. 

'A zombie wound would've healed by now.'

'You don't know when I got it!'

'And besides, you can't have been hurt by a zombie because a: you're too good at fighting to get hurt by a zombie and b: you don't look like Cleo.' Scar gave Cub a smug smile. With a sigh, Cub walked away again. 

'Scar, I'm not telling you! I'm sorry, but I'm not going to tell you.' 

'Fine.' 

The Convex split ways, Scar returning to the queue and Cub flying to his base, silently wishing he could tell his closest friend what had happened.

It was a while yet until Scar got to talk to Rusty - Grian was doing repairs - but finally the winged hermit nodded, stepping away. The vexling approached with his ticket. 

'You'll only need one to talk now. You can have a full conversation.' 

'Really?'

'Enjoy!' Grian flew away, and Scar approached, entering his ticket. 

'Hello, Rusty.'

'Hello, hermit.' 

'Who are you?' He got right to the point immediately. There was silence. Had he done something wrong? Had he already broken Rusty? Was Grian wrong?! What was happening?

'I am Rusty. The answer to all your deepest questions.'

'No, but who are you? Because I don't believe you.' 

Silence again. 

'You won't beat me.' 

'This... isn't a game?'

'I can't be beaten. My coding says I must hide who I am.' 

'Your coding? Are you a robot? Are you dangerous?!' Scar continued to question, wanting to write stuff down. His findings. 

'I won't hurt you unless you hurt me.'

'I... won't? You can trust me. Who are you?'

'I am Rusty. This is who they made me to be. This is who Grian made me to be.'

'Grian?'

'Grian turned me into this.' Rusty's voice was quiet, mad, slowly building rage and insanity. Scar stepped back. 'He's always using me for his benefit, and then leaving me behind. He's your friend, isn't he?'

'Y...yes?' Scar began to back away. 

'Don't trust him. He's a liar. He hid me here.'

'D...did he?'

'Him and his little friends. Mumbo Jumbo. Cubfan135. They trapped me. Forever. They hid me.' A hand slamming on the wood of the house. Scar backed up quicker.

'You can't see me. You never will. You can't see what they turned me into!'

Scar scarpered. He'd broken Rusty. He'd asked too much. He'd ruined whatever this creature was. But he'd found out more. So much more.

Something weird was going on.

And he was going to find out what.

A day had passed. Rusty had supposedly returned back to how he was before, happy, sharing his great universal wisdom with the Hermits, especially Tango and Ren, who kept coming back for more. Scar had kept well away, and had decided he would find a different way of 'greeting' the mad creature everyone else has befriended. 

He landed outside Etho's base, nervous. They'd also been slightly suspicious of Rusty, making them the perfect two to help him with his plan. A certain Canadian ninja watched him from above, jumping down to join him.

'Hey, Scar. What's going on?' 

'I... wanted you to do something for me.'

'Alright...? What is it?'

You're good at PvP, right?' 

Etho frowned, looking Scar up and down, confused.

'I'm alright at it, yeah?'

'Well, I'll pay you later, because I'm poor, but I want you to kill someone for me.'

Another glance. 

'Who?' Etho narrowed his eyes. Scar bit his lip.

'Rusty.'

Midnight. NPG sat alone in his prison, more content than he'd been before. Business had gone well. And he'd actually enjoyed talking to most of the hermits. Spreading his love of a certain style of building. He'd counted up all his tickets. He'd got over a stack. It still wasn't enough, but his sales weren't over.

The sound of a firework outside, someone muttering to themselves, and the robot sat up, awaiting another scrap of paper to slip into view. None arrived. All he heard was something that sounded like... laughter? What was going on? 

Wary, NPG stood up. He wanted to talk, but they had to insert a ticket first...

Before he had time to process what was happening, an axe stuck into the walls of his building. The robot backed quickly away, into the back wall, panicking. What did he do? Was this his fault? Was he being freed?! 

The wall fell in, and a hand grabbed at- no! the tickets! His promised builds! This was all a trick! A stupid trick! And he'd fallen right for it. 

Wood fell on his head and he fell over, all systems in utter haywire. He pushed it away, only one function, one thought, filling his head. 

Kill.

What? A chapter of this book that I enjoyed writing?