Virus (A Minecraft Story)

Chapter 7

We stared up at Loca, floating gracefully in the air. He came down gently, and laughed. "I told you I was raised by chickens." Lyta stared some more, then a smile spread across her face. "This is brilliant! Realmers can get powers! We can fight back against the mobs!" She jumped up, excited. Then her face fell.

"But that could have happened only to you." She sighed, dejected. Then she gathered herself and ordered, "Show us what you can do." Ana put her hand on her shoulder. "Shouldn't we let Loca rest?" Lyta glanced back, saw the concern Ana had for Loca, and relented. "Alright. The Ender Dragon isn't here, neither are the endermen, and there's been no sign of Virus. I don't think he's here."

Loca held up his hand. Now he wasn't rolling around in pain, he was back to his irritating self. "I can check it out. I think. Lemme try this." He clicked his fingers, and was suddenly rising into the air. He winked at us and gave a salute. "I'll be back."

He shot up in the air, shot off to the left, then stopped so suddenly he did a somersault. "How do I do this?!" He yelled down to us. "Try thinking of the direction you want to go!" I shouted. That advice worked. It worked a little too well, actually. Loca shot forwards, yelped in shock at how fast he could go, before slamming face-first into a pillar. We all cringed.

"Airborne faceplant." I said. Loca peeled himself off the pillar, looking dizzy, and threw his hands out to steady himself. The air rippled, and, realising what was about to happen a second before it did, I threw myself sideways, knocking Ana and Lyta aside.

The displaced air hit the pillar and blasted it apart, sending obsidian blocks flying everywhere. They hit the ground, leaving craters. I picked myself up off the ground and glared at Loca. "Alright, I think we figured out you have air powers, Loca, no need to prove it!" He looked sheepish. "Sowwy." He turned around and zoomed off, still a bit wonky and unsteady.

I sighed. "I wish we had powers..." I expected Ana to tell me that was stupid, that magic was a dangerous beast that couldn't be tamed. But instead she was smiling, a look of pride and maybe a tinge of sadness on her face.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll all get powers someday..." I nodded. I didn't like to admit it, but I was jealous of Loca. When I'd always had the same dream when I went to sleep; a woman wearing a white dress, flame-coloured hair drifting in the breeze, A storm of fire swirling around her, her eyes glowing a fiery orange.

I'd wanted to do that, have the ability to control fire; it had always fascinated me. I thought Lyta would be outraged that he could use such powers, since she was the one training to use spells and enchantments. Instead, she was examining a obsidian block, curious, then pulled out her diamond pick and started to smash away at it.

"What happened to you guys?" I asked over the sound of cracking obsidian. "We were supposed to spawn in the same spot, right?" "Well, I don't know what happened, but we ended up on a slab of obsidian, so I'm pretty sure we were in the right spot. Didn't see you guys, just a blur of black as we teleported in."

I scratched my head. "Was it carrying anything?" She stopped what she was doing, and looked over at me. She knew instantly what I was thinking, and the blood drained from her face. "You don't think they can..." She whispered. I grabbed my bow. "With the way everything's been going? I think it's pretty likely."

Ana frowned. "What are you talking about?" "Everything's changing, getting upgrades. You really think it'll be different for endermen?" A look of fear passed over her face, and uttered two words; "Realm teleporting." There was a sudden whoosh, and endermen were all around us, purple eyes glowing fiercely.

Muscles bulged in their once-skinny arms, and each carried a endstone sword. Lyta drew her sword, and Ana twirled her staff menacingly. "Where's Loca?" She growled, eyes full of rage. One of them laughed. It was a little shocking to hear an enderman speak. "We left the little idiot buried under one of our pillars. Virus asked us to take care of any Creator supporters, so we were happy to oblige."

I stepped forward, bow raised. "We're not Creator supporters. We hadn't even heard of them until yesterday. We're just ordinary Realmers." They all laughed with rasping voices that sounded like they'd never been used. "Not Creator supporters?" One of them rumbled.

"Don't make us laugh. We know who you are, even if you look different. The one we killed was flying, which meant he was Master of Air." His eyes travelled to Lyta. "She is the Master of Water." His gaze went to Ana. "She is the Master of Earth." His eyes came to a stop on me, and he smiled. "And you are the Master of Fire. The Leader, the one who rallied the terrified Creators."

I laughed at him. "Seriously? I've had people call me a Zombie Pigman before, but a leader of these supposed 'gods'?" I made quotation marks with my fingers. "You guys have been reading fairy tales." The enderman stepped forward, and I tightened my fingers on the string of my bow.

He raised one hand, and handed me a page with the other. "This was taken by our kind three thousand years ago, from an underground library." I took the page carefully, and began to read.

The Allies of the Creators, also known as the Four Elementals, are not dead. No one knows how they are alive, or why they stay around, but they are four Realmers. There is no way to tell who they are until the End of Days comes around, which is when their powers will be reawakened and they will fight once again.

I looked up, tucking the paper into a pocket in my black jacket. "So what? We're a group of four, that doesn't mean anything." The enderman laughed. "Then how come the person we just killed was flying? He was obviously the Master of Air." I snorted. "Please. Loca was a good person, a Realmer that I knew. It wasn't his fault he went through an hour of torture, get amazing powers for five minutes then get buried under a ton of obsidian. It's this stupid legend that's got you all believing we're three thousand year old allies of some stupid made-up gods." And I released my arrow, burying it into the enderman's chest. He dropped as we charged, but the endermen just teleported behind us, grabbing our arms and forcing us to our knees. Another enderman stepped forward. "You may be the Elementals, ir you may be just a couple of stupid Mortal Realmers. We're going to kill you anyways, just to be on the safe side." He drew his sword and rested the tip against my throat. "You should be thanking us for our generosity. We're about to reunite you with your dear friend."