The New Order (29 page)

Sounds of outrage erupted all throughout the crowd.

“And you brought troops with you? It is illegal for you to carry out military operations on our island, President Stan,” seethed the player, his eyebrow twitching. “In the name of the Greater Mushroom Tribe, of which I am the chief, I demand that you and your cohorts leave immediately, or we will be forced to take action against you.”

And with that, the twenty fighters closed in on Stan and his friends, their blocky fingers clenched into fists. Stan wasn't sure what to make of this. Did they honestly think they could
take them in a fight, unarmed? Commander Crunch surged forward in a rage.

“Ye idiotic savages! I'll 'ave ye know that under th' law . . .”

“Commander, calm down,” said DZ, grabbing Commander Crunch by the arm and throwing him backward as the eyebrows of the chief knitted and a scowl crossed his face. “Let me handle this.” And with that, DZ stepped forward to address the chief face-to-face.

“Honorable Chief of the Greater Mushroom Tribe, we ain't gonna carry out any type of military operation on this island. The Mushroom Islands are still part of the republic, I'm sure you know that, and so President Stan has the right to carry troops with him here, especially in a time of war.”

“What war?” demanded the chief, his eyebrows shooting up as whispers suddenly broke out in the group of tribesmen. “What are you talking about?”

“The Republic of Elementia has been fighting against a terrorist group called the Noctem Alliance for the past month. They have attacked us on multiple fronts, and we are engaged in an all-out war with them.”

“And what does that have to do with us?” asked the chief skeptically.

“Well, we have reason to believe that the leaders of this group, the Noctem Alliance, have been hiding on the Mushroom Islands. We have already conducted a search of the
Lesser Mushroom Island, and we found nothing.”

“You are being deceived!” exclaimed the chief as mutters of disparagement and disgust broke out. “If there is an evil organization present in these islands, then it is being harbored by those ignorant, materialistic demons on the Lesser Island! They are lying, no-good animals who snuck away from us, and have destroyed the sanctity of the Lesser Mushroom Island for nothing more than the evils of capital gain and greed! Surely, such a despicable agenda would go hand-in-hand with an organization bent on taking over this server! And furthermore . . .”

“Enough!” cried Charlie, cutting off the chief's tirade. “Look,” he continued, once the chief had finally stopped breathing heavily from his rant, “it's not the place of the president, or the republic, to get involved in quarrels between you and the Lesser Tribesmen. But it is our job to destroy the Noctem Alliance. The organization is sly and devious, and isn't afraid to use tactics like sneak attacks and Potions of Invisibility to win the war. The Noctem Alliance is determined to destroy everything that we hold dear, and it will surely come after both Mushroom Islands next if it is not destroyed.

“All we are asking is for your help to find out if there are any members of the Noctem Alliance hiding on this island. If there are, then we'll get rid of them, and if there aren't, then nothing changes. Do we have an understanding?”

The chief threw back his head and gave a dry laugh. “Ha! Of course we have an understanding. We're not like those traitors on the Lesser Island, oh no, we respect our president and share your enemy as our own. We actually have integrity. And actually, now that you describe this . . . Noctem Alliance . . . to me, I think they might be here, and I can point you to where.”

Stan's heart lifted, and he stepped forward to join the conversation. “Really? That would be hugely helpful. What do you know?”

A shadow crossed the chief's face, accentuated by the sun finally dipping behind the horizon, bringing darkness to the world around him.

“Many of my people have reported unnatural disturbances to me, all of which come from there, President Stan,” the chief said solemnly, and Stan's line of sight followed the chief's pointing finger to the top of the peak rising high above the plateau. “Atop Mount Fungarus, there have been troubling signs. Loud noises of an unnatural sort. And on that cliff that you can see right beside the cave entrance, a sort of . . . shimmering . . . that we have only hypothesized to be some sort of glitch, or perhaps something more.”

TNT
, thought Stan gravely,
and Potions of Invisibility
. The Specialty Base had been constructed up there, by hollowing out the top of that mountain.

“Many of us have wanted to go up and explore that cave atop Mount Fungarus,” the chief continued. “However, we have not found it wise. Throughout our fighting with the monsters of the Lesser Tribe, we Greater Tribesmen have developed great unarmed player-to-player combat skills, developing the style to the point where we are able to fight unarmed to the level of master swordsmen.”
Well
, thought Stan,
that explains a lot
.

“However, in the dark of the cave, monsters will spawn. Evil mobs cannot spawn on mycelium, and so we, on the Greater Island, have never had to deal with them. This also means, however, that we are not skilled at combating them, and so we have seen fit to avoid the darkness of the cave altogether.”

“Thank you, Chief,” said Stan, stepping forward and extending his hand, which the chief tentatively shook. “Thanks to you, we'll be able to take down the Noctem Alliance quickly, and we'll be out of your hair.”

“Chief,” said Commander Crunch in businesslike fashion, “I suggest that ye evacuate yer scallywags from th' area. Thar's a good chance that they will try t' escape, 'n' if they do, then we do nah want any hands o' yer tribe gettin' hurt.”

The chief nodded and gave a grunt of assent, before turning to face his people, who had been listening to their conversation with a mixture of awe and confusion. He briefly
explained the situation to them, and ordered them to move down the mountainside. Within minutes, the plateau was cleared, and the Greater Tribesmen were nothing more than specks down in the valley below.

Stan looked away from the tribesmen and over at his men. Charlie, DZ, and Commander Crunch were staring at him, deadly serious looks on their faces. The fifteen men huddled behind them wore the same expression.

“It's time, isn't it,” said Stan, after a deep breath. It wasn't a question. They all knew what was about to happen.

“Yes, sir, it is,” replied DZ. He looked around at everybody. “Is everyone ready?”

Eighteen heads nodded as one.

“Ender Pearls at th' ready!” ordered Commander Crunch, and, in one motion, nineteen Ender Pearls were pulled out of inventories and sat in their respective owners' hands.

“All right,” ordered Stan in tones of steel. “Let's finish this.”

And, in one motion, he pitched the Ender Pearl as hard as he could toward the sky, aiming at the slight outcrop of rock directly outside the cave near the peak of Mount Fungarus. As soon as he did so, there was a flailing of limbs and arms as eighteen more Ender Pearls were pitched sky high. Stan closed his eyes and prepared himself. After a moment, Stan felt his feet leave the ground as he rushed through space at breakneck speeds until his feet finally hit stone.

CHAPTER 27
THE TRAITORS

S
tan's first realization atop the stone platform was a feeling of déjà vu, as immediately after he landed, all he was aware of were the projectiles flying all around him, bouncing off his chestplate and helmet. It was all Stan could do to sprawl to the pressure plate–covered ground and bellow “HIT THE DIRT!” repeatedly as loud as he could, hoping that the others would be able to duck in time to avoid the barrage of arrows. Indeed, the air was soon punctuated by the sounds of teleportation, shouts of pain, and players dropping to the ground all rolled together into a wild cacophony.

Stan looked up toward the source of the fire. He saw that the entire group had landed on a grid of pressure plates, and he noticed the redstone wire that ran across the ground toward a row of arrow dispensers. In one quick motion, Stan awkwardly dragged the blade of his axe across the ground, severing the glowing redstone dust lines from the dispensers and cutting off the entire flow of arrows instantly.

Stan pulled himself up off the ground, aware of the constant clicking noise being generated from the pressure plate–covered ground around him. As he looked around, Stan saw that, to his relief, there had been no serious injuries from the trap, with the
diamond armor taking most of the damage. Only one of the soldiers had taken an arrow to his knee, and he quickly remedied the injury with a Potion of Healing.

As the group recovered, Commander Crunch walked up to the front of the pack. After glaring into the mouth of the cave for a moment, he gestured them forward. As Stan began to walk into the cave, axe now drawn, he noticed very quickly that this was not a normal cave. Immediately past the mouth, the cave entrance suddenly became very square shaped, with cobblestone patching up certain places in the otherwise pure stone wall. Furthermore, Stan could see a light at the far end of the tunnel, growing brighter and brighter the farther they walked. His heart began to race. They were getting close.

Every soldier had his eyes peeled and was scrutinizing every nook and cranny of their surroundings, on high alert to detect any more booby traps. Commander Crunch seemed to be particularly finicky, twitching around as he surveyed the premises. The walk down the squared-off cave went off without a hitch, however, and the group soon reached the source of the light.

As Stan looked around the brightly lit room, he was incredibly unnerved by the lack of anything of interest. The room was large and shaped like a cube, with a five-block drop down from where they were standing to the floor of the
cube. The ceiling was high, and the entire cubic room was lined with torches. There was one element, however, that immediately caught everybody's attention: two cobblestone staircases, at both of the back two corners of the room, that led out of sight.

Stan looked over at the others. DZ and Charlie looked bewildered, while Commander Crunch leaned over to Stan and whispered in his ear, “We needs somebody t' go down thar 'n' see if th' coast be clear.”

Stan opened his mouth instinctively to protest, but then closed it. The commander was right after all. As much as Stan hated throwing one of his soldiers under the bus, he knew that somebody would have to go down there first, at the very real risk that they could die instantly. Stan accepted with a heavy heart that, though he would gladly go down himself in their place, as president, he was too important to do something so risky.

And so Stan nodded his head and looked at his men. All of them showed expressions of grim determination, showing that they all seemed up to the task. And so Stan pointed at the soldier nearest to him and said, “You, go down there and scout out the scene.”

The soldier stepped forward and nodded. Stan couldn't remember what this soldier's name was. He thought maybe it was Josh, but he couldn't remember clearly. This player had
pale skin and brown hair, and the little bit of his shirt visible under his armor revealed a red shirt with a
Star Trek
logo on it. The soldier stepped forward to the edge of the ledge. He took a deep breath, drew his diamond pickaxe, and jumped down the five-block drop to the ground.

The instant the soldier landed, there was a rapid series of clicks and whirs, and the wall with the staircases in them opened up, revealing a window. In a flash, a whirling blue blur flew out of the window, and before the soldier could even react, the flying diamond sword knocked the soldier to the ground. Three arrows flew from the window and found their way into the soldier, the last of which caused a ring of items to burst out around him.

Stan's emotions were on a roller coaster in a matter of seconds. He was livid that his soldier had fallen and furiously wanted revenge. At the same time, though, he was relieved that this member of the Noctem Alliance, shrouded in shadows, wasn't particularly skilled, having killed the soldier in such a clumsy way. Then, after a click, the lights illuminated in the window to reveal the smug face of Caesar laughing. Stan was a little surprised that Caesar had had to knock the soldier down in order to get a clean shot at him, but this emotion was drowned out by the beast in Stan's chest roaring in simultaneous triumph for finding Caesar, and hatred and desire to take him down.

“Well, well, well,” simpered Caesar in his upper-class accent. “It's nice to see that you've finally decided to show up. Minotaurus!” he suddenly shouted. “They're here!”

Another series of clicks and whirs, and out of the wall underneath the window opened a hole two blocks wide and three blocks high, out of which burst Minotaurus in all of his giant, muscular terror, double-bladed diamond axe in hand. “Oh yeah!” he bellowed. “I'm ready to fight!”

Another equally powerful wave of rage crashed into Stan like a locomotive. Caesar may have been the mastermind and organizer of the Noctem Alliance, and he may have caused the deaths of Archie and hundreds of other Elementia citizens with his terror attacks and his war, but Minotaurus had taken Sally away from him. Now, on a fair playing field, it was time for Stan to take his revenge.

“We have no time for your games, Caesar!” bellowed DZ across the courtyard, a vein pulsating in his forehead. “Come down here and fight us like a man!”

“Oh, I don't think that will be necessary,” replied Caesar, in an infuriatingly mundane voice. “You see, I am simply the tactician of the Nation of the Noctem Alliance. Minotaurus is the powerhouse. If you'd like to fight, he will be more than happy to oblige you,” to which Minotaurus gave a wildly enthusiastic nod. “However, I will tell you now that you will have to get through both of us if you wish to challenge Lord Tenebris.”

“Har har! So that's yer great last stand?” Commander Crunch laughed, mockery dripping from his voice. “Fightin' us all by yourself 'n' alone?”

Caesar then proceeded to give the most maniacal, evil laugh Stan had ever heard, which made his blood curdle, before responding, slyly and slowly. “My dear Commander . . . whoever said that we were alone?”

All at once, Stan suddenly found himself flying forward with no warning and no explanation. He teetered for a moment before tumbling head over heels toward the stone courtyard, his arms flailing in panic. He landed with a thud on the stone floor, and a lightning bolt of pain shot through his body for an instant, leaving a slight ache behind. The sounds of moaning and groaning around him suggested that he had not been the only one to fall, and a quick look around confirmed this. His entire team now lay on the ground in various states of disrepair, struggling to get back on their feet. Stan was flabbergasted. How had they been pushed down there? But then, within the next ten seconds, it all clicked into place, and in Stan's mind, everything made terrible, horrific sense.

All around the perimeter of the room, players were appearing in poofs of purple smoke, and when the smoke cleared, Stan recognized the spore-coated and empty-handed fighters of the Greater Mushroom Tribe, all staring directly
at Stan and his men. Stan then watched as an Ender Pearl flew directly over his head and landed in front of Minotaurus, and in a puff of smoke, the chief of the Greater Tribesmen appeared, a grim sneer on his face.

“Are you ready?” the chief yelled up to Caesar as Stan and his teams stood paralyzed with white shock.

“Attack at will,” Caesar replied, almost lazily.

And with that, all fifty members of the Greater Mushroom Tribe charged forward, converging toward Stan and his men.

Stan found no need to order his men to counterattack. At that moment, every member of Stan's team had one thought and one thought alone: it was time for these unarmed traitors to die.

As the blades came out and the members of the task force started to gang up on everybody two-to-one, Stan set his sights on Minotaurus, who was charging into battle with his axe spinning like a sideways helicopter rotor. Right as Stan was about to catch up to Minotaurus, though, a punch from somewhere to his right slammed into Stan's head. He reeled for a moment, and wildly swung his axe to the side, forcing the Greater Tribesmen's chief to hop backward away from him. The two simultaneously recovered, and their eyes locked.

“What do you think you're doing?” bellowed Stan in fury.
“You said you were on our side!”

“Well, I'm sorry, President Stan, I truly am,” replied the chief, bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet while he cracked his knuckles. “But that's just the way it is. You have your agenda to keep, and I have mine!” And on the last word, he threw another punch at Stan's head, which Stan quickly ducked under and counterattacked with the axe.

Stan fought his hardest, determined to make the chief pay for his betrayal, but he had never fought anybody like this before. It was well known that Stan was by far the best axe fighter on the server now, but the large weapon with far range seemed to be countered quite nicely by the chief's empty-handed fighting style. Stan's blows were fast, hard, and accurate, but the chief always managed to slip in through the tiniest cracks in Stan's offense and land a punch or kick on some part of his body.

Try as he might to fight, the chief was too evasive for Stan to hit, and the constant barrage of landed kicks and punches were wearing Stan down quickly. All it took was one slow attack and the chief's foot launched Stan's axe into the air, and another square punch to the face sent Stan flying across the room, landing beside his weapon.

As Stan's dizziness from the blow subsided, he could make out the chief sprinting toward him, his blocky hand raising a fist for a final blow. As quickly as he could, Stan
swigged a Potion of Healing from his belt, feeling instantly better, and he scrambled across the ground to retrieve his axe. Before the inevitable barrage of kicks and punches could land, however, Stan heard a grunt of pain from behind him.

He snatched up his axe and spun around, only to see Charlie, now fighting the chief. Stan watched the fighting for a moment and saw that Charlie's pickaxe was able to get in quickly and effectively. In fact, Charlie's fighting style was similar to empty-handed combat, with the diamond pick as an enhancer. No sooner had Stan thought this than Charlie's pickaxe grazed the chief across the arm, and one kick in the stomach later the chief was in a crumpled pile on the ground. Aware that he was being watched, Charlie wiped his brow, whipped around, and addressed Stan.

“Your axe isn't a good match up to their style, Stan! We'll take care of them, you take down Caesar and then Minotaurus!” Charlie jabbed his finger over to the corner of the room, and then rushed back in to finish off the chief.

Stan looked where Charlie was pointing. He noticed Caesar sitting up in his window, watching the battle with glee, while below him, the two staircases stood completely unguarded.
This is my chance!
Stan thought triumphantly as he sprinted toward the stairs.
I can catch Caesar off guard and finally take him down!
Stan ran as fast as he could, and was about to climb onto the first step when suddenly,
another player emerged from the stairwell, blocking his way.

Stan was too stunned to do anything. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He knew this player, quite well, actually. He easily recognized the black body, beady white eyes, and splash of yellow on his face. Stan was barely able to speak, he was so confused.

“Blackraven, wha . . .
oof
!”

Blackraven had whipped a diamond sword out of his inventory and had struck it across Stan's chest.

The diamond armor absorbed the hit, and the blow only caused Stan to stagger backward. But the mental shock of processing what had just happened was too much for Stan to handle. His battle instincts told him to raise his axe to counter two more swings, and to swing back in retaliation, causing Blackraven to feint backward, but he still couldn't work out why.

“Blackraven . . . ,” said Stan, dazed. “What . . . what the . . . what are you doing?”

And then, for some inexplicable, horrible reason, Blackraven gave an evil grin and replied, “Something that I've wanted to do for a very,
very
long time, Stan.”

And with that, Blackraven lunged forward, his sword outstretched and his eyes blazing with fire.

As determined as Caesar was to oversee this battle like the dignified leader he was, he couldn't help but laugh merrily when he saw Stan and Blackraven fighting. Stan was completely, horrifically astounded. Caesar had been waiting for months to see how Stan would react when he finally found out that Blackraven had been the spy in the midst of the council, and this reaction was everything Caesar could have hoped for.

Caesar readily admitted that Stan was one of the most dangerous fighters in Elementia, or even in the whole of Minecraft. But his complete and utter shock at seeing Blackraven's true nature had caught Stan completely off guard. It was a testament to Stan's skill that he was able to repel Blackraven's full-on attack, even when it seemed that his defense was almost robotic, like he was too stunned to defend himself properly. But soon enough, Blackraven would break him, and Stan2012 would finally be handed over to Lord Tenebris.