Redstone

Michael didn’t feel well. He was airsick. He should have been excited; he was going on holiday for the first time in 3 years. But something didn’t feel right, he was bored, bored of his reality. Before he realised, he was starting to fall asleep...
He dreamed. He dreamed of falling, wasn’t he in the plane? Where was he? Were the brief thoughts that passed through his mind as he fell. Something was starting to come into view. Land? He thought. Am I going to die? But as the thing got closer, he realised it was some sort of hole. But how was that possible? You can’t just have a hole in open space? He closed his eyes to brace for possible impact… but none came? He opened his eyes it had been a hole after all. But the question was. Where was he now? This was impossible. The world was made of squares? Yes the ground was made of green square tiles for as far as he could see. He looked down. Now this was weird. His legs were made of squares too?! He stretched out his arms. Square too.











This wasn’t possible. Was it? He decided to look around. He wandered for what felt like a few hours. Eventually he came across a tree, at least that’s what he thought it was. But yet again it was square. Then he got frustrated, where was he? Why was he here? Why him? He punched the tree to let off steam. And again something strange happened, where his fist made contact cracks spread through the log. He drew back his fist and the cracks vanished. He hesitated for a moment and punched the tree again. The cracks spread back; he punched with his other fist and then with drawled his first fist to punch again, the log broke, but not exactly. In its place a smaller version lay, floating slightly above the bottom block of the tree. He reached out to grab the log, and it popped, disappeared into thin air, but what was this feeling? It was like the log hadn’t vanished from reality, then he realised, it was inside his head. He closed his eyes and concentrated. There was something inside his head. An interface of some sort? He looked closer, the log was there! He focused and realised he could move the block around the various slots and then he tried throwing it out the inventory, when he opened his eyes their laid the block, still in shrunken form.
“Okay” he said out loud.
“I can break and pick up logs, but how do I put them down in normal form?”
Then he felt a possibility. He picked up the block into his mind and with his mind he placed it into his hand, he reached down and placed the small block on the ground, it began to grow until it reached its normal size. He broke the log and the rest of the tree, and carried on with his journey, after sometime he reached a place where the grass (presumably that’s what it was) seemed to die and go brown, he looked ahead and saw a dessert; there was what was probably meant to be a cactus. From out behind it, the ugliest thing he had ever seen strolled out. “A duck?” he thought at first glance, but as he looked it over he realised it was a chicken. “So I’m not the only thing here huh?” then he heard a loud popping noise and a square egg laid next to the chicken, he picked it up into his mind and looked at it. He mentally put into his hand. He glanced down at the egg. He tucked the egg into his inventory. Now for an experiment. He reached forward and grabbed the chicken. It didn’t disappear into his inventory, instead it turned around at him angrily and pecked his face he let go of the chicken
“So I can still be hurt huh?”
With this carefully in mind, he wandered deep into the dessert. And then the sun set.

…

What was that? Growling where?! He turned around, afraid of what he might see, he turned back round, and there it stood. A green man with torn clothes, arms outstretched, and if he could say, very bad teeth. It had a faint purple glitter to it. It looked at him hungrily, and without warning struck him. He turned around and ran as fast he could. He didn’t like this anymore, where was he, why was he here, was he going to die? These thoughts rushed through his mind as he ran. He saw something in the distance, a person? Maybe they could help him get out of here! But as he approached the figure he realised something was wrong. As he got closer, he realised what it was. It wasn’t a person! It was a skeleton! He stopped in his tracks the skeleton turned round. How was this possible?! Surely it was dead?! He noticed the skeleton was wielding a bow which it raised to fire. it too had a faint purple glitter. He did the same as with the green man, and turned to run and sprinted as fast as he could, an arrow flew over his shoulder but he didn’t stop running. Eventually he was surrounded by skeletons green men and a few other monsters, all with purple glitter. Just as he was about to give up hope, an idea struck him, he grabbed the logs he had collected and started jumping whilst placing them under him until he felt he was safe. Surely they would give up eventually? He held on tight to his precarious tower and fell asleep…

He was woken up by the rising sun and nearly fell off his pillar, the monsters were still their but, and they had started burning in the light. This gave him hope, the monsters weren’t invincible, and as the last green man crumbled to dust he felt somewhat triumphant, and nearly fell of his pillar. With uttermost care he broke apart his pillar and carried on his journey through the sands… eventually he reached what seemed to be an ocean, careful to make sure it was safe, he gingerly dipped a toe in the water, it felt surprisingly normal. He tried to pick it up, but it poured in square shape drips onto the sand. And then he had an idea. Using the logs he had collected he built a raft to take him across the strange ocean of this new world. He couldn’t remember how long he had floated on his raft, it felt like days, maybe it was longer… then when he felt he was going to die of hunger; he saw something in the distance, an island? He grabbed his makeshift paddle and rowed towards the island. It was noon before he arrived and the sun was setting, he had to hide! He broke his makeshift raft and using the wood built 4 walls around himself and fell asleep, waiting for mourning… he awoke to the sound of shouting, was the dream over? As he opened his eyes he nearly had a heart attack. Surrounding him were 5 square people, just like him! The apparent leader who was nudging him with his foot was tall, his head was bold but he had a beard and an angry expression on his face, behind him was a skinny but taller man with brown hair, he appeared to be covering his mouth with his jacket, next to him was a man wearing sunglasses and a jacket, he looked vaguely like that guy from gan man style. Then there was a shorter and chubbier man who looked a bit younger than his cohorts. Lastly there was a girl in a green shirt with blond hair.
He looked around at the people and said “who are you?”
“We” the leader began
“Are the people who are going to ‘save’ this world”.
“Save it? From what?” asked Michael.
The leader broke a hole in the wall
“Look out there, what do you see?” he said gesturing for Michael to come see.
As Michael peered out the hole, he saw some green men wondering around.
He pulled his head out “you mean the monsters?”
The 5 strangers nodded.
“So what do you want with me?” Michael asked.
“We just want to verify” said the leader. “Why are you here?”
Michael hesitated for a moment, but answered “I fell asleep on the plane, and woke up here”.
“You too?” said leader before turning back to his team
“Okay now we know for sure”.
“Know what?” asked Michael.
“That were not dreaming” the leader replied.
Michael replied “of course I’m dreaming, there’s no way this could be real!”
The leader shook his head. “It’s real, otherwise who’s dreaming it? We have been stuck here for 4 years”
“Four years!” exclaimed Michael.
The group gave a sad nod in perfect unison.
“But that’s insane! How did you survive!” he exclaimed.
“How can we not? Whenever we die we are just reborn” said the leader.
“Really?!” said Michael, “I didn’t know that, that would have been useful to know”
“Enough about that said the leader, we’ve got a goal, we believe if we rid this world of monsters we will go home, but like us they respawn. However, they’ve got a weakness, they respawn using a special cage, and if we destroy all the cages they won’t respawn.
“Okay” said Michael “how can I help?”
The boss smiled “I’m Obsidi-dan, this guy’s Pork chop” he said gesturing to the cubby one.
“He’s Birch” he said pointing to the one with brown hair.
“This guy’s smooth stone” pointing to the man who looked like he was from gan man style.
“Oh and this lady is Rose” he said referring to the one woman amongst the group.
“Okay. I’m… I don’t know…” said Michael.
Obsidi-dan patted him on the shoulder and said “None of us know our names; we were forced to make our own. Come with us and I’m sure you will find a name you like”
…
And so he moved in with the gang, together they broke down his log wall, and Birch taught him how to craft, teaching him how to turn his logs into planks, quadrupling his block supply. The 5 showed him the way to a cave which was secretly their base; the gang taught him a lot, like mining and crafting, the basics of how to stay sane. One day, when he was digging out a room, he slipped and fell into a ravine; luckily the gang had showed him how to set his spawn point so he reformed by his bed, but his stuff was still down in the ravine, so he went back, carefully scaled down, and looked around.
“There!” He mentally exclaimed as he saw his stuff, he approached it and started picking it up when he heard a loud groaning behind him, slowly he turned around, behind him, where he had fell, was a green man that looked just like him, he slowly backed away to the wall, to his surprise the green man didn’t run at him and rip his face off, instead it just looked at him curiously and titled it’s head. Something was different about this green man, but he couldn’t tell what, and then he realised, it didn’t have the purple sparkles! Slowly he approached the green man, it was defiantly alive, he poked it, it stumbled back a bit and groaned at him, he circled around, inspecting the green man, an idea crossed his mind, he admitted it was stupid, but he took his spare pickaxe gave it to the green man, and using his pick, dug into the walls of the ravine. The green man raised the pick curiously, and stabbed the rocky wall with it. The rock crumbled into a small floating block of cobblestone. The green man tilted its head and groaned. It worked!
Maybe he could use this green man as an ally he thought.
“The gang are going to be impressed” he said out loud. The zombie turned to him and said “gaaaannng?”
At this Michael exclaimed “oh my god it can talk!”
Hastily he made some ladders and scaled up the ravine, trying to encourage the green man to follow him up. When they got back to the start of the room, he carefully got out a smooth stone block, and making sure the green man was following, he placed it in the ravine, then another and another, then he carefully gave the green man the smooth stone. As he had hoped, the green man carried on placing smooth stone until the ravine was covered up. He raised his hand for a high 5, the green man also raised its hand, and carefully he pressed his hand into the green man’s. And then the gang came.
…
“What is this, THING doing in our base?” Obsidi-dan roared.
“I can explain!” said Michael
“Oh really?! Let’s hear it.”
“I fell in the ravine and this guy” he said referring to the green man “Spawned where I died, he didn’t attack me and I’ve taught him how to dig and build-“
here he was interrupted by Obsidi-dan “ You taught them how to MINE?!” exclaimed Obsidi-dan
“THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE, YOU ARE BANISHED FROM THE CREW! SMOOTH STONE, SET HIS RESPAWN TO THAT PLACE”
At this smooth stone pulled a strange block out from his inventory, fiddled with it and said “Okay Dan, its done”
At this Obsidi-dan drew his sword, it was made from rare pure diamonds and struck the green man, it evaporated into white smoke. He then turned to Michael and raised his sword. Michael closed his eyes. SLASH rung through the air.
Michael opened his eyes. Obsidi-dan had killed him. This wasn’t his bed, where was he? He couldn’t see because how dark it was, but he guessed he was somewhere underground. Deep underground… and then he heard a familiar groaning, “Greenmen” he instantly thought. He got on his stomach and crawled up what he hoped was a boulder. Even though it was dark, he could make out the figures of greenmen. He didn’t have any of his stuff so he was unarmed; there was no way he could win a direct confrontation. He got on his feet and silently climbed down the rock.
He turned around and slowly crept away… and then he heard the groan. “inttrruddeur…” echoed around the cavern.
One of the greenman had seen him! As the zombies approached he crept back up against the wall…
…
The next thing he remembered he was in some sort of cell.
“What’s this? They didn’t kill me?”
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he became aware he was being watched. Outside the cell an elderly looking greenman and what the gang called ‘creepers’ were watching him intently
“Uh… hello?” he said cautiously
“Greeeetiingsss…” said the creeper.
The greenman watched him silently. “Um I’m sorry for intruding…” said Michael.
This time it was the greenman’s turn to speak “Why where you in our sacred grotto?” Michael was rather taken aback, the greenman could speak perfect human!
“Well…” Michael began. A few hour later he had finished explain.
“Applejack, it is worse than we thought… the plague is spreading faster than we ever imagined…” the zombie said to the creeper.
“But for it to sspread through the ssandss sso quickly…” the creeper replied.
“Um I’m sorry to interrupt… But what is this plague thing?” at this the zombie and the creeper turned and stared at him.
“His story is believable yet… perhaps he really did appear from the world unknown…” said the elderly greenman.
“The plague is a terrible curse spread by the walkers of eternity, the lost ones… we understand you day walkers have started calling them ‘endermen’… Any caught by the plague become mindless beasts, living only for the kill…” continued the elder greenman.
“Endermen? Those weird black things that teleport all over the place? Is the plague the purple sparkles?” asked Michael
“Yes…” replied the elder greenman.
“Applejack… release him… He means no harm….”
At this the creeper made a coughing noise and spat out a key. Picking up the key with its mouth (for they didn’t have arms), Applejack the creeper opened the cell door. Carefully Michael stepped out.
“What will you do now… day walker?” asked the elder.
“Um… I’m not really sure. Can I stay with you awhile? Just until I know what to do?”
At this the elder laughed “stay as long as you like… however not all of us speak as fluently as me or Applejack… My apologies I haven’t said my name, I am elder Lapis Lazarus, leader of the night walkers…”
To this Michael replied “Um, I don’t have name to introduce myself as...”
At this elder Lapis Lazarus gave him a quizzical look and said “No name? We will have to do something about that… how about… Redstone…?”
…
“Red stone… Redstone… I like it…” said the newly named Redstone.
The elder smiled. “It is the name of a strange dust, ground from an ore found deep down. The dust has strange properties”
And then Redstone remembered “Green-me! I forget about green-me! He should have re-spawned at the soul cage right?!”
“You mean the night-walker from your story? Yes, he has, his testimony was the reason we believed your story… He’s waiting outside…” said elder Lapis at this Redstone rushed out the door head first.
He was still in the cave, but it was more of an underground metropolis, greenmen, skeletons and creepers wondered around through the various cobble houses, and, as the elder had told him, there was green-me. He appeared to be playing chess with a skeleton, and winning, upon Redstone’s arrival green-me got up and turned to face him. “Thanks for the testimony” said Redstone. Green-me just shrugged and said “nOo Problem…”
…
The house he rented wasn’t very good. But it set his spawn and that’s what counted. The elderly green lady who owned it was nice, if a bit cheap (3 emeralds per night!) and she did provide breakfast.
“Gooodd morrnin mister Redstoonee” she said as he went down the stairs 2 at a time.
“Thaat felllooow of’v yourrs is waittng outsiiidde” she continued
“He mmentiionned sommethin abbbout a job…” at this redstone rushed out the door.
Like he was told the familiar face of green-me met him outside.
First green-me handed Redstone something wrapped in a cloth “O-pen i-t” he said.
Redstone took the package and said “your pronunciation is getting better” and proceeded to unwrap it.
When it was just about open a fine red dust trickled out onto the stone floor “Redstone dust?” said Redstone.
The greenman nodded “Okay thanks gre-“at this he stopped himself “You don’t have a name do you?” Green-me shook his head.
“Okay” said Redstone as an idea struck him “How about… Greenstone?”
The greenman seemed to ponder before saying “not a.. bahd nayme” said greenstone.
“So anyway, what’s this about a job Greenstone?”
At this greenstone seemed to wake up “Day wak-ers good witfh rehd stoone, cihty.. need engineeer” said Greenstone,
“A engineer eh? Sounds like fun” said Redstone
…
3 weeks later Redstone obtained the deeds to an old shop in the market area and began converting it into a workshop. 3 days later he began work on his first invention, a block placer. He made it by converting a dispenser to contain a piston which pressed the stored blocks forward, forcing them to take solid form. It was an immediate success for a simple design. Then he got to work on a block breaker, this was found to be more of a challenge, but by automating a mining motion with pickaxes and a sticky piston to collect the item from it worked. These 2 inventions became the basis of the drawblock, a device used in the creation of portcullis and draw bridges. It seemed he was cut out for redstone. He made circuit blocks for the creation of more complex devices, such as T flip flops and nor latch’s. He even created a redstone fishing rod that detected fish. One way or another, he was good at the mechanic business, he even received a knight hood from elder lapis for his dedication to redstone. And then he got specialised, thinking about what the people needed. Many of them had not seen so much as a glimpse of the sun, he got to work on blue prints for ‘sun towers’ complex towers full of shutter mechanisms allowing monsters to the sun without burning.
…
One day he received a summon from the council of elders. It seems they had been sent a message. At the grand hall (where the elders resided) the square table was entirely occupied, except for one chair placed there for Redstone. He silently took his place at the table.
“Hello elders, is there a reason you wish to see me?”
“Yes indeed” said elder lapis
“We have received a message from the day walkers you told us about” at this he passed a piece of paper on the table and it circulated it around the table until it arrived with Redstone.
It read “Hey nameless, it’s me Obsidi-dan, we wish to talk to you and your monster friends. Meet us at the west entrance on new moon day (they kept track of the date via moon cycle)”
At this Redstone felt a tang of hope, maybe they had finally came to their senses.
“It arrived this morning, new moon day is tonight. What is your suggested plan of action?” said one of the elders.
“I suggest we trust it” said Redstone
“They were attacking you out of miss-understanding, if we talk I’m sure we can work it out. And if not… I promise to take full responsibility” said Redstone.
At this a chorus of mumbling started round the table.
“SILENCE!” cried one of the elders. “We shall trust you this once, but if things go wrong, you will be held responsible” the elder continued.
Redstone Identified the Elder as Elder Sand, a greenman of high respect in some parts of the community.
“Yes. Elders.” Said Redstone
…
As Redstone travelled to the west entrance he remembered all his memories of the gang. Finally he could properly introduce them to Greenstone; after all, the whole thing had only been a misunderstanding, no harm done, right? ‘neighhh! Cried his horse as it stopped in its path. Some guards where in his way.
“What is the meaning of this?!” he cried the guards turned to look at him.
“Many apoloogy’s sir Redstone”.
Ah good, this one was a clear speaker thought Redstone to himself
“But we are preparing armaments for the expected attack”
“Expected attack?!” Cried Redstone
“The day walkers come in peace!” to this the guard replied
“Many of us don’t think so. Many of us cannot forgive the crimes they committed. The reason our city is so big is due to how it’s one of our few remaining spawn points…” the guard explained.
“Fine.” said Redstone “but let me pass.”
He was at the west entrance gate, he had his speech already, he had a banquet prepared inside to welcome them, and now all he needed was to wait…
“WE WISH TO PARLEY!” came the booming voice of Obsidi-dan.
‘What is this, pirates of the Caribbean?’ he thought to himself “YOUR WORDS FALL ON LISTENING EARS!” he replied in what he hoped was the same way Obsidi-dan had called.
At this Obsidi-dan appeared, not walked up, not raised from the ground, appeared.
“Prepare an ambassador” said Redstone to the nearest guard.
The guard disappeared promptly and the portcullis opened and Greenstone slowly walked out from the gate. At the exact moment he appeared, the other members of the gang jumped out from the landscape armed with bows and immediately let rip several arrows at greenstone. But greenstone was quick, he drew his iron sword and shielded against the arrows.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Redstone cried in shock of the ambush.
“You thought we would speak with you?!” said Obsidi-dan in his regular angry voice
“NEVER!” he yelled at the top of his voice.
“WE SHALL NOT REST UNTIL YOU SPAWN NO MORE, YOU MONSTERS! AS FOR YOU NAMELESS, YOU ARE A TRAITOR!!” boomed the voice of Obsidi-dan
“We will give you one day to change your mind and then…” said Redstone, nearly on the verge of tears.
“Fine” said Obsidi-dan “You can have one day until we attack” spat Obsidi-dan.
Deep down Redstone knew they would not change their mind, so he told one of the guards. “Prepare for war…”
…
Redstone did not like having to make weapons for war, but whilst he was the town engineer, he was the town blacksmith too. He gazed at the liquid iron before promptly pouring water on it to cool it. It was then he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in!” he yelled.
The door was promptly opened by a skeleton. “Ivvv gota favvvour toa ask you” said the skeleton, teeth chattering.
“Yes?” Asked a nervous Redstone. “Cad yoau caute me in iron?” asked the skeleton.
“You sure you want me too? Asked Redstone “I can’t remove it” the skeleton nodded.
“Okay. If you’re sure, what’s your name anyway?” “Brick” replied the skeleton. Redstone started reheating the iron until it was a glowing liquid. He got a brush like tool and started painting the iron onto Brick’s bones. Many had come to him with similar requests; he wasn’t sure how much it would help them.
Later that day, he got a telegram from the elders saying he would atone his mistake by fighting. He knew he wasn’t a fighter. But maybe he could give himself some sort of advantage… he looked towards the liquid iron. Suddenly an idea struck him. He grabbed a bag of red stone dust and tore it open and poured it into the liquid metal. It slowly turned a dark shade of red.
“Perfect…” he whispered.
He had created a new alloy, he didn’t know if it would be any good but…
…
Exactly 24 hours after the negotiation, both sides met at the gate, the gang were in full iron armour with swords, bows and arrows, they had set up a small camp outside the gate. Redstone stood in front of a group of monsters equipped also with iron, Redstone was geared up head to toe in the new red alloy.
“Nice armour, nameless!” yelled Obsidi-dan.
To this Redstone replied “My name is Redstone.” “Oh, you got a name now traitor?!” roared Obsidi-dan.
“Listen, we don’t have to have a huge bloody massacre –“ Redstone began, but was sharply interrupted by Obsidi-dan “
For the last time! There shall not be peace!”
“I wasn’t referring to peace Obsidi-dan; I’m asking to challenge you 1 on 1, loser has to leave the island. Forever”
Obsidi-dan appeared to consider this for some time before saying “agreed, and to make sure I don’t get any help...” He turned to the members of the gang and nodded. At this moment Redstone realised that peace really had been impossible. The gang took their swords, and swiftly cut their own throats.
For a moment Redstone and the crowd were in shock and then Obsidi-dan said “What? You all gonna stand their gawping or are you going to FIGHT?!”
Redstone regained his composer and raised his red sword.
“Now we’re talking!” said Obsidi-dan, drawing a sword as black as night.
Seeing Redstone’s eyes focused on the sword he said “Oh? You like it? We made it from a shard of obsidian, as long as I have this sword, NOTHING CAN DEFEATE ME!”
The second he finished speaking, the sword was lashed at Redstone, who only just managed to parry it, and then Obsidi-dan hit him in the gut with his freehand, winding Redstone, paralysing him for just long enough for Obsidi-dan to swing his sword back around, but Redstone reacted just in time and managed to get a straight strike, blocking Obsidi-dan’s sword and grazing Obsidi-dan’s cheek, at this Obsidi-dan skidded back- he was surprisingly smiling. Seeing Redstone at a loss for words he yelled “What? Cat got your tongue!?” before charging back at Redstone, sword first. Redstone couldn’t block this, so he dodged to the side and the sword grazed his arm. Without realising it, he had extended one leg, tripping Obsidi-dan, who skidded to the ground with a thud. Slowly Redstone approached to see if he was still alive, and suddenly Obsidi-dan was back on his feet, charging blade first in the sudden shock, Redstone simply reacted without thinking, stabbing Obsidi-dan in an attempt to parry. And then it was done. Obsidi-dan had fallen. It was about this time the corpses of the gang simultaneously raised as green men, apart from Obsidi-dan, who, Redstone guessed would take a while.
After the fight, Redstone wasn’t sure what happened, he had been carried through the streets of the city. There had been speeches, drinks, and celebrations. But it all left him feeling a bit empty inside. The battle was won, but what of the gang?
That night Redstone didn’t sleep well. He dreamt of the gang, travelling far away, but something was there, they weren’t alone and they knew it. They were in a circle formation, scanning for the thing stalking them in the dark. And then they saw it, from Redstone’s expression he was right behind it, he couldn’t see its face, only its tall dark, shadowy figure…. And then he woke up. It was the middle of the night and he was hot and sweaty. He turned on his redstone light (a device of his own creation) and then, he heard a rumbling from downstairs. He put on his helmet and picked up his sword and crept down stairs. Something was rummaging through his chests. “A thief?” he thought before switching on the lights. The creature stopped. It’s shape clear for all to see. It was the monster. It slowly turned its head to face him. The Enderman. The creature started shaking violently, its jaw seemed to unhinge, and a strange noise that appeared to be coming from everywhere filled the room. Redstone clasped his hands to his ears in a desperate attempt to block out the noise. And then it was gone. And so was the enderman. When the noise finally stopped echoing through his head, Redstone, fell with a thud.
…
The next morning, Redstone was woken up by some of the council’s guards. It was important. After being escorted to the council hall (a large building in the centre of town), Redstone was brought to the council. Elder Lapis Lazarus came forward.
“Things are grave; we are facing a situation far worse than Obsidi-dan and his gang of thugs… The plague has reached our gates, the Endermen are passing our borders…. We need your help, now more than ever…”
For a moment, Redstone was speechless, but he regained his composure and said “I saw an Endermen in my house, it appeared to be searching for something” there was murmuring among the elders.