Counterfeits and monsters (A Hermitcraft fan fiction) DISCONTINUED

Prologue

Scar walked through the shopping district on his own. It was season 6, nearing the end. Demise was at its peak and he was checking sales at his shops. He expected large numbers of diamonds to greet him as normal, and they did. He gathered the blue gems into his inventory and walked off, returning to the secret pirate cave to put them into a chest.

As he set off for the nether portal, he paused. It felt like someone was watching him. So he looked around. 

And saw Xisuma. 

'Hey, X!' He greeted cheerfully. The admin didn't reply, and Scar realized something was off. 

Xisuma's helmet was cracked, like it had been for the whole of demise, but he wasn't monochrome. Just as he was about to ask why, the figure walked off. Scar followed, trying to catch up. 

But X had disappeared. 

===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===

A couple months passed. Season seven had just began, and the hermits were setting off to start their bases, including Etho. 

The Canadian followed Beef through the water and onto land, where he stopped, frowning. 

Someone was watching him, standing on a hill. They were too far away to see properly, but it wasn't a hermit. Etho shrugged, and continued on; not noticing when the figure glitched away. The canadian looked back, and shrugged a second time. 

===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===

Another month passed. The head games was in full swing, but Grian wasn't doing well. Except the fact he'd just found a way to get the bounty on his own head. He landed by the board, lamented at his lack of points, and paused.

'Grain? GRAIN?! You... you think I'm BREAD?! I... I'm not even on the leaderboard. There's this GRAIN character instead and- hello?' 

A mysterious figure that looked like Xisuma in his old outfit glitched into existence, looked at him for a second and then glitched away. Grian looked confused, before he flew away.

===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===

Even more time passed, and the hermits were celebrating Scar's landslide victory in the mayor race. Scar, Etho, Grian and Xisuma were all chatting together, the conversation changing every few minutes. 

'Mumbo didn't stand a chance against you...' Grian sighed to the newly-elected mayor. 'But at least we got an excuse to hang out with each other.'

'You two don't need an excuse! You just muck around anyway. To be honest, I was slightly surprised you didn't join Mumbo in the head games instead of Scar,' Xisuma pointed out. 

'I was just too good.' Scar replied jokingly. 'Who doesn't want to hang out with their favourite wizard hermit?'

No one replied, and the mayor looked slightly betrayed. 

'Of course we want to hang out with you Scar!' Grian responded eventually. 'I mean, how else would we get close enough to steal Jellie?'

'Exactly.' Etho agreed, holding the mayor's cat. Scar looked over and sighed. 

'Fine... You can stroke her...' Etho smiled devilishly and gave Jellie a bit of fussing. 

'I'm liking your new style, X. Very... unique.' Grian complimented. 

'Thank you. Made it just for the new nether stuff. You can call me Stridesuma!'

Grian laughed, but then frowned. 

'X, I've got something I've been meaning to ask for ages but... I saw a figure a while ago that looked like you... it was during the head games... they sort of glitched into and out of existence... was that you?' Have asked

'No... I've never heard of anything like that...'

'I saw a figure that looked like you too... at the end of season six, during demise. It was how you looked during demise, but not monochrome. They just watched me, before walking off.' Scar recalled. 

'That wasn't me... but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation...'

'I saw a figure too... it was right at the start of season seven... I didn't see what they looked like...' Etho added nervously. 

'I'll see if I can figure out what's going on. And if I can't... well, I have a second plan I don't really want to use but...' 

'I hope you work this out...' Grian grimaced. He didn't want to think about the strangeness of what he saw. 

Or the dread he felt that something was going to go wrong...