Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Two Is Company. Three Is a Crowd. But with Odds Like These? The More the Merrier! Ash had never seen Minecraft so crowded. And it had never been so loud, either. "Woo-hoo!" cried Ned as he punched a tree into free- floating blocks of wood. "This is so cool!" Shelly shouted. She ran her hands over a sheep. "It feels so real." "A-W-E-S-O-M-E!" Tony the cheerleader spelled out. "Po, is that you?" asked Raul, one of Po's basket-ball teammates. "Why do you look like a cat?" "Maybe the question is why don't you look like a cat?" asked Po, who was wearing a cat suit. Raul seemed to think this was very deep. "Huh," he said, nodding slowly. "But what's wrong with the sky?" asked Ricky, another teammate of Po's. "And why aren't the biomes

connected? It all seems…disconnected." Ricky tapped the headless Evoker King, but nothing happened. "Inquiring minds want to know," said Ned. "Why is there a phantom out during the daytime?" "Phantom?" echoed Harper. "Where?" But the answer was soon obvious. The flying undead mob swept down from the sky, cutting a path through the players. Shelly was nearly knocked off her feet. Raul took a swing with a brand-new wooden sword, but the phantom had already flown beyond his reach. "It's circling back around," said Ned. "Raul, Raul, you can do it," cheered Tony. "Come on now, there's nothing to it!" added Po. The phantom flew low again, aiming for Raul, who readied his sword. "Wait, be careful," Ash warned. "We don't know if—"

Before Ash could finish her sentence, the phantom began to flash red. It reminded Ash of how a creeper flashed…right before exploding. "Raul, get clear!" she cried. Raul barely jumped out of the way in time. The phantom exploded, taking a big chunk of the plains biome with it. Now there was a gaping hole at the base of their mismatched watchtower. Ash hurried over to plug it up and to check on Raul.

"I'm okay," he said. "But why did that thing explode? And why was it out in the daylight to begin with?" "That's what I meant when I said this version of the game is breaking down," said Morgan. "The code has gotten all wrong. We're never sure what's going to happen next." "Which means we need to make the slime engines immediately," said Ash. "Before things get worse." "Slime engines? What are those?" asked Shelly. "It's what we're here to build," answered Morgan. "Ash, Po, Jodi, Harper, and I all have the design memorized. But we need materials: redstone, wood planks, and slime. A lot of slime! Can you all help with that?" "It's going to mean doing our best to hold this place together a little bit longer," said Harper. "We'll need bridges or staircases to connect the biomes. We'll need to plug holes in the ground and fight off mobs that might be extra dangerous and unpredictable."

Po eyed the nearby sheep with suspicion. "Don't try anything funny," he warned them. "They would never!" Jodi insisted. "Tony, as a cheerleader, you're good at being heard from a distance," said Ash. "Can you climb the watchtower? If you see a vex, let us know immediately." "Aye aye, captain," said Tony. "Wildling Scouts, you're on slime ball duty." "Where will we find slime balls?" asked a scout. "There's a swamp nearby," Morgan explained. "Make yourselves some weapons and go hunting for slimes." Jodi added, "Or if you're not interested in combat, find some pandas! If you're lucky, a sneezing baby panda will leave a slime ball behind." "We've got this," said Shelly. "Go team!" said Tony.

As Ash watched them, she saw the kids take naturally to teamwork. Ned mined, providing the material Shelly needed to build a piston from scratch. The drama kids crafted an entire bridge, linking the plains biome to a swamp in a matter of minutes, and Wildling Scouts rushed across on their hunt for slimes. "This could work," Morgan said beside Ash. "I just hope we're ready before the vex appears," said Ash. "We need to be ready to seize our chance." Morgan agreed. "Yeah," he said. "Because it might be the last chance we get."