I was cold. That was the first thing I noticed. I had gone through the portal to the strange, blocky world Chosen and I had visited years ago hoping to find my superpowered associate, and the first thing I noticed was that it was cold. And snowing. The world had changed significantly since the last time I'd been here, back in 2011. Instead of the crunchy, pale sand I'd been expecting, I was standing in snow. How strange, I thought, I may as well explore. It only got colder as I walked, and soon I came to a small cave. Near the entrance of the cave was a half-built, unlit campfire. Deciding that this was as good a place as any to wait out the coming night, I gathered some dry branches, reassembled the fire, and lit it up. I heard footsteps and looked up to see a young man, gold in color, standing a few feet away with branches in his arms. It was apparent he had the same idea as I. "What do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms. "That's- that's my camp you've just taken over!" he answered, sounding annoyed. "You shouldn't have left," I said. Maybe I was being a bit unfair, but I was cold and tired and not really in the mood to deal with other people. "Well, I had to get firewood!" he protested, depositing his wood on the ground next to the fire. "Maybe we could work together?" he suggested, cocking his head. "Why should we? I've got it under control by myself." "Well, you're definitely new here, or I would've known you were here." "I've been here before." "The world changes." "Clearly. But it's nothing I can't handle," I countered, and, hearing a growl behind me, promptly torched the zombie trying to sneak up on me. "See?" "There are other things here than just the hostiles," he replied. "Oh, really?" I challenged. "Like what?" "Glitches." I laughed. "Oh no. How terrifying." I said mockingly. "I'm being serious!" he protested. "Sure you are," I said. "Prove it." "Fine!" he answered, and sat down next to me. He grabbed my arm, holding on firmly when I tried to yank away. Then parts of him started... glitching. The right leg. The left shoulder. The right side of his face. And finally, the hand that was gripping my arm. I suddenly felt a cold, tingling shock go up my arm, spreading through my whole body. I tried to fight it, but somehow it was more powerful. The next thing I could remember was waking up in the cave with the young man standing over me. He was holding a bowl of stew. "Eat," he said, thrusting the bowl into my hands. "Regain your strength." "My strength is perfectly fine," I said, or tried to say, but it came out slurred. "Shhh," he said. "Eat." "This better have meat in it," I muttered, voice sounding more normal, and reluctantly ate the stew. It had rabbit in it. Good. Looking down at my arm, I saw that it was glitching. Hopefully, that wouldn't be permanent. Summoning my own powers, I spread my virus over my glitching arm and waited for it to stop tingling. Gradually, the cold in my arm faded, replaced by the familiar warmth of my tech. "What's your name?" the young man asked suddenly, startling me. "Why do you care?" I countered, feeling defensive for some reason. "I was just wondering," he said. "My name's Gold." "Good for you," I grumbled, turning away. Then, an idea dawned on me. Turning back, I asked, "Any chance you've seen a black stickfigure around these parts? He's a hollowhead like me and his name is The Chosen One." Gold paused, thinking, then replied, "Nope, sorry." "How did you do that?" I asked after a while. "Do what?" "That glitch thing. How'd you do that?" "It's... a long story." "My one lead is a de end and I'm stuck in this cave with you. I seem to have plenty of time to waste. Do tell." "Well!" he said, clapping his hands once for no apparent reason. "Before I got stuck here in Minecraft, I lived with my dad, Mango, in the Outernet. Specifically in Rocket City, which you may or may not know is run by Victim. "During one of the full-moon festivals, I spotted a booth for something called 'Minecraft: Interactive Experience'. It looked very exciting, and so I asked my dad if I could try. He said yes, signed a paper, and we entered the booth. I entered the simulator and began playing Minecraft. All went fine... until the Glitch appeared. My father and the people running the booth tried to save me, to get me out of the simulator, but the doors wouldn't open. And I was sucked into the Glitch. The Glitch took pity on me, as I was only a child at the time, and granted me these powers." "How'd you get out of the simulator?" I questioned, skeptical. "The Glitch led me to the port it came through and brought me here. Say, how'd you get in here? Could you get me out?" "Not unless you can fly." "Oh." Gold said, disappointed. Then he perked up again. "You could carry me? I'm not that heavy." "Absolutely not. I am not a taxi." I said, glaring. "You know what? I don't have to stay here. I'm going home. Don't follow me."
I didn't actually care if he followed me or not, I just wanted to end this pointless conversation. Standing, I strode out of the cave. I heard Gold scramble to his feet behind me and knew he would try to follow anyway. I walked until I reached the spot I had come in from. Summoning my virus, I reopened the portal to the Outernet and walked through. Flying through the translucent tunnel, the fire in my hands a comforting sensation, I sensed Gold pass through the portal and closed it behind him. Emerging from the tunnel, I angled up towards my little shack on the cliff. I hadn't been back here since... since Chosen's orange friend blasted me into the cliff. Landing through the hole in the roof—created by me, when I first activated my Vira-band—I walked over to the console and plugged it in. The entire place was in disrepair, and there were leafy plants on almost every surface. I stood at the console a long time, waiting for the portals' sensors to tell me that Gold had reached this end of the tunnel. When I saw that he had, I turned on the console and pressed the button to close the portal. Good. It still recognized me. I heard a splash echoing up the cliff wall. He had jumped through the closing portal and fallen in the water below the cliff. I shrugged and turned away from the console, unplugging it once again. Deciding I may as well give Gold some chance, I opted to walk to my base instead of flying. When Gold emerged from the forest between my shack and my base, I was waiting just in front of my door, hands on my hips. "Two things. First, you are quite loud. Second, I definitely told you not to follow me." I said, scowling. "I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head. "I wanted to get out of Minecraft, and then I didn't know where else to go." "Not here." "Why not?" Gold replied, crossing his arms. "It's a big house for one person." "There's supposed to be two of us..." I muttered, turning and walking into my house. "But someone decided to turn on me." "Oh," he said, shifting subtly from foot to foot. "Was it The Chosen One?" "Shut up," I growled. "Fine. You can come in. But don't bother me. I've got stuff to do and I don't need any interruptions." "Okay!" Gold chirped, bouncing on his toes. I led him inside and showed him to Chosen's room. "Stay out of my workroom. The kitchen is three doors down on the right if you are hungry," I told him, then turned and walked down the other hall to my workroom. "First things first," I said aloud, cracking my knuckles, "We see how many of my pets I've got left. At least five. At least five, because there were five putting me back together after the explosion." Summoning my virus, I called my spider-bots to me. As I waited for them to arrive, I set to work making sure the house knew that Gold wasn't an intruder and shouldn't be inc!nerated on sight. Not that it would be any loss, I caught myself thinking, and shoved the thought aside. I had work to do, and didn't need my thoughts interrupting me. Pacing the length of the workroom, I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked that everything was exactly where it belonged. By the time the first wave of my spiders arrived, everything was clean, working, and exactly where it was supposed to be. I did a quick count of my spiders, then frowned and recounted, slower this time. How could there possibly only be thirty-two of them left? I had created thousands. A formidable army. And Chosen's orange friend had obliterated my entire work in mere seconds. Impossible, I thought, and counted again. But I was right the first time. There were only thirty-two of my spider-bots remaining after my battle— my showdown, with the traitorous Chosen and his allies. Which reminded me, I needed to change the password on my console so whoever managed to get in and bring Alan's cursor here couldn't do it again. I was walking towards my computer, brainstorming new passwords, when I heard a knock on the workroom door. I jumped, startled, and turned to find Gold standing in the doorway. "I thought I told you to stay out of my workroom," I said, crossing my arms. "Technically, I'm not over the threshold," he started, "And there's no food in the kitchen." Well, that was certainly an unexpected dilemma. "Fine," I grumbled, storming past him. "Come on, then. Don't act so surprised, I can't leave you here, you'll mess something up." I strapped on my armor and flung my cloak around my shoulders, then started for the door. I paused, thinking, then summoned one of my bots to my shoulder and told three more to stay nearby but out of sight. Gold put on a pair of leather boots and a hoodie, strapped a glitching diamond sword to his belt, and followed me. We made it to Rocket City in a matter of minutes, walking through the forest. Sure, Gold had to take three steps for every one of mine, but I didn't care.
