TinkerTown [Ch. 21]

TinkerTown

Desert Biome, OverWorld

"We're here," Jake said as he looked back at Steve and Alex. He put his map away into his inventory. He smiled. "Steve. Alex. Eve. This is...TinkerTown."

He took a few steps backwards so that Steve and Alex could get a good look at TinkerTown. Their mouths dropped as they witnessed the future right before their very eyes.

Male and female blockheads were crowding the streets of this very active town. When Steve, Alex and Eve turned their heads to look to their left, they all saw a female blockhead experimenting with chickens.

She was pulling a lever on the side of a tall cobblestone tower. At the top of her tower, a glass window revealed chickens crowded into a small space. They clucked and flapped their wings. Every time she pulled a lever, a single chicken would fall down into a fire. The fire was burning right below where the chickens were being kept.

"What is she doing with those chickens?" Alex asked as she watched the chickens get killed one by one. It was all for a good cause though. Turns out, this blockhead was tinkering with her high tech, complex invention.

"That's Carmilla," Jake said, "the genius behind finding a use for red stone."

Steve and Alex turned their heads to look over at Jake. He didn't answer Alex's question. Seeing those chickens being killed made Alex's heart ache. But again, it was all for a good cause.

"That's the future in the making that you're looking at," Jake said, "Carmilla calls it the auto-harvester and cooker. You see, when the chicken falls into the fire it's meat is cooked instantly. Once the meat is fully cooked, it's dropped into a hopper. If you look carefully, you can see the hoppers directly underneath the netherrack. The meat drops into the hopper and is then collected by Carmilla. It's still a work-in-progress however."

"Why did she choose to invent something like that?" Steve asked, "every invention has to have a story right? So what's hers?"

"Her parents were slaughtered when King Miraz raided their village. They died protecting her. After that, she was left homeless and alone. Hungry and thirsty. Defenseless," Jake said, "she roamed through the biomes in search of a new home, food, and somewhere safe to sleep. Doing that, she almost starved herself. That was, however, until a friendly warlock came to her assistance. He offered her a place to sleep, food and water, and even a place to call home. Long story short, she wants no blockhead to ever go hungry again. Her story is what motivates her to keep pushing herself to do better each and every day."

Steve and Alex were shocked by Carmilla's motivational story. Now seeing the chickens being killed didn't make Alex so distraught. She suddenly understood why Carmilla was working on that invention.

"Food for everyone," Steve said, "enough to go around, enough to feed everybody. That makes so much sense now."

Jake walked over to Steve and Alex. He stood in between them. He wrapped his arms around the both of them and smiled.

"You see that house right up there?" Jake asked. Steve and Alex looked all around to find the house he had just mentioned. As they did so, they saw many other blockheads working on their inventions too. One really stood out from the rest.

This invention had see-through green blocks, cobblestone blocks, red stone and oak wood planks. It also had blocks on it that neither Steve or Alex could recognize. They made shifting noises as they moved forward and backwards in a repeat motion. Sitting on the top of it was an older male blockhead.

He had a long grey beard and hair on his head. Wrinkles could be seen on his face. He also had blue eyes, and was wearing an all white outfit, except for his shoes. Those were black.

"What's that?" Steve asked as he pointed at the old blockhead's strange invention. Jake looked over at the thing Steve was pointing at.

"A floating barge," Jake answered, "crafted from rare and valuable resources, the barge can transport up to four blockheads. It's also good for transporting goods from one place to another. I think that's my favorite invention here by far."

"What's it made from?" Alex asked.

"Cobblestone, slime blocks, sticky-pistons, and red stone. The red stone is what powers it. Without the red stone, the barge wouldn't work at all," Jake explained.

"That's so cool," Steve replied, "how come I've never heard about this place before? I have so many ideas for inventions, it's unbelievable."

Jake laughed. He knew that Steve and Alex would be amazed by everything TinkerTown has to offer. That's also why he brought them here. Maybe seeing what the future could be like with these inventions could encourage them to think positively about the looming battle?

"This place is far better than I had imagined it to be," Steve mentioned, "it's remarkable really."

"That it is my friend," Jake said, "that it is. Now let's go find Oliver. He'll be the one to forge you two some armor and weapons. He's the one you should go to if you want the best armor around."

After Jake had said that, he began walking towards TinkerTowns center. Steve, Alex, and Eve all began following him as he led the way.

As they ventured further into TinkerTown, Merlin was still in his falcon form. He was resting on a tree branch nearby TinkerTown. He was watching Steve, Alex, Eve and Jake silently. He was also listening in on their conversation.

"I knew the prophecy was true," Merlin mumbled to himself. He spread his wings to fly on over to another tree. But just before he was about to lift off, he heard a faint cry for help in the nearby distance. It was a female blockhead's voice calling out.

"Help me!" The faint voice shouted, "someone please help me!"

Merlin hesitated for a moment. Should he keep following Steve and Alex? Should he go and help the blockhead who was calling out? Merlin knew this blockhead was in trouble. His first instinct was to go and help. After all, that is what he does right?

He spread his wings once more and quickly flew off of the branch he was on. Instead of flying to another tree, he decided to go and assist whomever it was that was in trouble.

"Don't worry. I'm coming," Merlin said as he vigorously flapped his wings to go faster. "Just hang in there."

As Merlin flew towards the blockhead who was in distress, things back at the Village weren't going so well. Annabeth, Sam and Victoria were busy trying to fend off a massive herd of zombies and skeletons. Franklin was inside a small house. The door to that house was closed and locked.

The entire village was surrounded by zombies and skeletons. Luna, Sam's dragon friend, was flying in circles over the village. She was using her fire breath to burn the zombies down on the ground.

As they all continued to fight the flesh-hungry zombies and sneaky skeletons, NightMare was slowly descending from the sky above. No one noticed her, not even Luna did. Accompanying NightMare was HeroBrine, NetherBrine, and EnderBrine. They all floated in mid-air as the fight below continued.

NightMare found the blockhead she was looking for. She pointed down at the blockhead. HeroBrine, NetherBrine and EnderBrine all located the blockhead.

"See her EnderBrine?" NightMare asked, "take her down!"

"With pleasure," EnderBrine replied as he quickly flew down towards the ground. HeroBrine and NetherBrine remained with NightMare.

"Watch and learn boys," NightMare said, "focus."

HeroBrine and NetherBrine watched their father in silence. Just a couple of blocks off of the ground, EnderBrine stopped flying and just hovered in the air. He inhaled and exhaled deeply as he closed his eyes.

His hands suddenly began glowing a bright purple. When he opened his eyes, they were entirely purple too. As Annabeth continued to hit some zombies with her sword, EnderBrine looked down at her.

He waved his hands around in the air. He spun around in a circle before stopping. Once he stopped, he released the magic from his hands. Two bright purple beams shot down towards Annabeth. She had her back facing EnderBrine.

She didn't notice the beams because she was so occupied already. But as she turned around to fight another zombie, the two purple beams struck her right in her chest area. After the beams had hit her, she froze. She dropped her golden sword onto the ground. Two black circles were seen on her shirt. Her shirt was burned because of the beams.

Annabeth then fell to her knees. The zombies surrounding her then closed in on her. They all piled on top of her. EnderBrine nodded his head once as he smiled evilly.

"Too easy," EnderBrine mumbled to himself, "way too easy."

EnderBrine then flew back over to NightMare, HeroBrine and NetherBrine. NightMare smiled at him and nodded her head.

"See boys?" NightMare said, "when you're as powerful as we are combined, we can do anything and everything. No matter what the cost is."

As for Merlin, he suddenly stopped flapping his wings. He began falling towards the ground. He fell to the ground so fast, that the impact severely injured him. Instead of staying in his falcon form, he turned back into his normal self.

He sat there on the ground, unable to get back up onto his feet. His gut feeling was now telling him that something bad had just happened. But to his knowledge, he didn't know what had just occurred.

"Oh dear," Merlin said to himself, "that can't be good."