Chereads / The Renegades / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2

Zander starts heading back to the main meeting room before running into Annabelle. She comes running in at lightning speed from the Northeast entrance. She comes running down and stops in front of Zander, his eyes wide open in shock and confusion.

"Annabelle? What the Hell are you doing and why are you coming in so fucking fast?" Zander asks, hands up.

Annabelle comes up, panting and out of breath, "You might… wanna see…something. Down in…the cells…now!" She then grabs his hand and yanks him over to the stairway to the deeper underground. After going down several flights of stairs, he pulls his hand out of her tight hold.

"What the Hell is going on? You tell me to come see something and then just grab my hand and drag me away?! I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what happened out there."

Annabelle looks back down the hall and to the doorway to see Kat, her face telling her to hurry up. Annabelle looks back at Zander, "Listen, I'll explain everything. So will Kat, but right now, you need to come see this. It's something we've never seen before."

Zander sighs and puts his hand out for Annabelle to lead the way. She then guides him to the back of the hallway towards one of the bigger cells. Kat stands there to greet them both.

"Now, can someone explain to me what happened out there?" Zander asks.

Kat looks over at Annabelle as she nudges Kat to explain. Kat sighs, "So we were out heading towards the big hill near the border of the Dark Forest. Annabelle had a little bit of a panic attack so I knocked her out."

Annabelle laughs nervously, "Yeah. But that's not the biggest part. We were heading back and Kat heard a noise. We went over and saw some sort of black figure standing there."

Zander starts to look more and more nervous, but angry, "A black figure?! What did you two do?! I said, 'No trouble'. What do you think I mean when I say that?"

"Listen, we know what you said. And we didn't actually get into any trouble." Kat says. Zander looked down confused at Kat, then kept the same face and looked at Annabelle.

"I remembered Kat having some of those experimental arrows with her. She had a knockout one. You know, where the target then falls asleep? Anyways, I used my crossbow and I shot at it using that arrow." Annabelle explains.

Zander looks from Annabelle to Kat and back. He then holds the crown of his nose and asks "So you shot at it. Tell me you left it alone afterwards?" Kat and Annabelle look at each other, then back at Zander with a nervous smile.

Zander looks at them both, eyes go wide and throws his hands up and turns away saying, "No. No. Nope. Not today!"

Annabelle runs out in front of him as he turns his head away, "Just trust us. You're gonna want to see this." Zander looks back at Annabelle as she then says, "Please Zander?"

Zander looks back at Annabelle, her eyes back to her shimmering glow. He sighs as he turns around and says, "Alright. Don't let this be a waste of my time."

Annabelle runs in front of him and both of them meet back up with Kat. From there, with Kat first followed by Annabelle and Zander, they all head down to the biggest cell. There, the three of them stand to see a black figure with its arms being held up by chains connected to its wrist. It was sitting on its knees, head leaned forward with what seemed to be something purple dangling down in front of it.

Zander looks at the black figure, "What the absolute fuck is that?"

Kat replies, "That's the thing. We don't know. We've never seen anything like this."

Annabelle then says, "We thought maybe you would possibly know. You've been all over. Maybe you've seen something similar to it before."

"Are you serious right now? I've seen Guardians, Endermans, and even Blazes. But I've never seen anything like this."

Annabelle and Kat both look at each other, then to Zander and all of them stare at the chained creature. The eyes closed, completely out. That is, for a brief moment. It opens its eyes and looks up at the three of them, only able to see its eyes. They all take a step back in fear and Zander pulls out his trident and points it straight over to the creature, sticking it right under its chin.

"Listen, you are our prisoner, you vile creature. You will not be able to escape, so don't even bother trying." Zander says demandingly.

The creature looks over from Zander to Kat to Annabelle and back to Zander, "Are you fucking serious right now?" the creature starts laughing hysterically. "This has got to be a joke. Where are the cameras? This is just too good!" It then continues to laugh.

Annabelle and Kat look at each other confusingly. Zander then asks, "Wait, you can speak english?"

"Well duh. Of course I can. You can understand me, can't you?" The creature speaks.

Kat then asks, "What are you?"

The figure looks down and back up, "You know, that's kind of a rude question to ask, don't you think? Hasn't your parents taught you anything about manners?"

Zander shoves the trident closer to the creature, just touching its chest. "Answer the damn question. What are you?"

"Ugh, you humans are all the same." the creature then stands up fully. It wears a black tight shirt with a hood that cuts at the elbows, then continues the sleeve to act as gloves at the hands. The ends of the shirt and gloves were purple. The shorts were the same shade of purple with two white chains at the side. The boots were black with the same shade of purple. Its hair was faded from dark to light purple and its eyes were just like an Endermans. Then, a mask rested across its face, hiding its mouth and nose. "The name is Ender. And I think you all know exactly what I am." it says with a sarcastic tone.

Annabelle then says with a whispering fear , "You're an Enderman."

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner! You're a smart one aren't you?"

Kat then replies back with, "If you're an Enderman, how come you don't look like them exactly? Endermans are tall and lengthy, with no hair at all. Their skin is completely black and rough."

Zander replies back with a question, "It's because you're only half Enderman, aren't you?"

"Wow, good job Captain Obvious. You win again!" Ender starts laughing once more.

"But you're a girl. We thought you were some horrific monster like the rest of them." Kat answers back to Ender.

Ender stops laughing, "A monster? A monster you say? Well, I may not be like my brethren, but I can sure damn be a monster. A beast you might say." Ender sits back down on her knees. "And yes, I am a girl. As are you and Pinky over there."

"Pinky? Why I outta-" Annabelle starts heading towards the cell, but Zander stops her in her tracks with his arm. She looks over to him as he shakes his head no at her. Annabelle then steps back.

"If you're an Enderman, then how come you haven't teleported out of those chains yet?" Zander asks, pulling his trident out.

Ender looks up at the chains connected to the wall as she tugs on them. She then tries to teleport out of them, but instead gets shocked with some sort of current for a few seconds. Ender screams fairly loudly, seeming as though the current was hurting her. Once the current stops, Ender looks back down as smoke comes around her.

Breathing heavily and looking down, Ender says, "My my. Seems as though someone thought this part through." She looks back up at Kat. "I'm guessing this was your doing. Right, PipSqueak?"

Kat looks around, then back at Ender, "Me?"

"Well who else would I be talking to? I mean, I don't think Fish Sticks or Pinky could do anything this fancy." Ender says as she tugs on the chains.

"Hey! We have names you know!" Annabelle snaps.

Ender looks up completely to show her full face at Annabelle, "Oh really? Do I look like I really care to know?"

"Better than you calling us stupid names like those." Annabelle replies.

"But that just ruins the fun Sweetheart." Ender says, then going into a laugh.

"Well, my name is Annabelle. That there is Kat and this is-" Annabelle says before being interrupted.

"Zander. My name is Zander." Zander then places his trident back under Ender's chin.

Ender looks at the trident driven close to her chest and then to Zander, "Oh, I know all about you. I'm guessing you're the one in charge around here. Just by looking at your stature and demeanor."

Zander then pulled his trident out and set it upright next to him. "That is correct. I protect my friends from evil creatures like yourself."

Ender then says as she swings her head around, then back down, "Yeah yeah, that's what they all say. By the way," Ender looks up with her eyes. "Conner wanted me to tell you he said hi."

Zander then gets angry and runs up to the cell's bars, holding on to them tight and screams, "What did you do to Conner?! How do you know him?!" Ender doesn't respond. "Answer me!!"

Ender laughs normally and slowly starts going into an evil hysterical laugh, "Oh don't worry. I knew him pretty well." She then looks back with her head and then forward saying, "Before striking him in the chest."

Zander gasps and pushes the cells' bar in front of him. He then walks backwards for a few steps and then turns around, pushing past Annabelle and Kat. The two of them watch, look at each other and then go after Zander.

"Hey, are you ok?" Kat asks.

Zander continued to breathe heavily, putting his hands on the back of his head. "I…I don't know! Conner was my best friend! Last time I saw him was years ago and now he's dead?! Died to that fucking monster!!"

Annabelle tries to calm him down, "We know Zander. But right now, you need to calm down. You're in shock at the moment."

Zander turns quickly towards Annabelle, "Shock? You think this is a shock?! This is pure fucking anger!"

Kat interviens, "We can tell, but Annabelles right. You're not in the right headspace to do any sort of, well, anything."

Zander then says, "I'm perfectly fine! I just want that monster gone! And when I mean gone," he then turns around away from them, "I mean dead."

Annabelle and Kat look at each other and can tell they're both worried about him. Zander then stands completely straight up and says in a calm voice. "Take her mask off."

Annabelle and Kat are both taken back by Zanders demand. Annabelle then replies back, "Um, I'm sorry. You want us to do what?"

"Take the mask off. I want to fully see her face when I kill her."

Kat then says, "Zander, you need to think logically and rationally. Do you really think killing her is the best course of action?"

Zander turns around, eyes closed and opens them once more as they are full of fiery rage, "I. Want. Her. Dead." He then pushes past both of them and heads back towards the cell. The girls stand there, now very concerned for Zanders' well being. A few seconds later, Cy and Peter come running in.

"Thank god! You two are alright!" Peter yells coming in.

"We thought you two were goners! Especially what happened with us up North."

"What the fuck happened to you two?" Annabelle asks.

"Enderman. There were too many of them. We had to sprint out of there as fast as we could." Cy recipes back.

Kat then asks, "So you guys ran all the way back here? You guys seem to have just as much of a trip as we did."

"What are you talking about?" Peter questions.

"I'm getting bored over here!" Ender yells from the distant cell.

Cy and Peter look at Annabelle and Kat with very confusing faces. The two of them guide them down to the cell where they all see Zander standing a few feet away from Ender's cell.

"What happened to him? He's just standing there." Cy asks.

"He found out that the person in the cell killed Conner." Kat explains.

Peter gasps and Cy's eyes go wide open as he looks up to see the back of Zander's head. Zander stands there, looks down towards Ender's cell. He turns around to face all four of them, "One of you. Go into that creature's cell and take the damn mask off."

"Creature? Ok, someone has got to explain what happened while we were running for our god damn lives!" Cy yells out.

Annabelle sighs and explains, "Fine! Long story short, I shot a person with a sleeping arrow. Come to find out that it's more than a person, but part Enderman. She then told Zander that she killed Conner down in Keloria."

"Oh my gosh. That's horrible!" Peter exclaims.

Cy looks back to see Ender learned forward in her cell, hair flown forward and shrill connected to the chains. He then looks back at Zander, "But that's a girl. Girls don't kill."

Annabelle and Kat both look at Cy with an angry and frustrated stare. Peter then nudges Cy and shakes his head no. Cy steps back with his hands up.

Zander's face is stern and fierce, clearly not joking around, "So, which one of you is going in?" No one replies. Everyone looks at each other, not wanting to do anything that has to mean getting close to an Enderman. Cy turns around trying to sneak away without anyone noticing.

Zander looks over at him and calls him out, "Cy."

Cy stops in place, slowly turns around. "Zander! Nice to see ya. Is that a new haircut?"

Zander points to Ender's cell, telling him to go. Cy sighs and slowly makes his way over. He walks about a third of the way, then stops to turn around back at the group. Zander stands there with his arms crossed. Cy groans and turns back around. He heads down to the cell where he can see Ender's head tilt forward.

"You're new. Not like the others who came before you." Ender says.

"I mean, yeah. I am. My name is Cy. You're the Enderman I'm guessing?" Cy questions.

Ender stands all the way up with her head still forward. "I mean," she then flips her head up right and tilts slightly to the left. "What do you think?" She then starts laughing.

Cy gathers up his courage to open the door into the cell and walks inside. Ender watches, a small outline of a smile can be faintly seen from the mask. Cy closes the door behind him, making a loud bang of metal clashing. The rest of them hear this and follow up behind Cy. Zander stands there in disgust.

"Oh wow. There's a whole lot of you now. Is it my birthday already?" Ender laughs again.

Cy then takes his sword out. Ender watches him and says warningly, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You could release something you don't wanna deal with."

"What are you talking about?" Cy then asks.

"Cy, what are you doing? Rip it off already!" Zander yells from behind.

"Listen Fishstick, as I was telling your friend here, I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ender explains warningly, but somewhat threateningly.

Zander then walks up to meet behind Cy from the outside of the cell. "Well now I'm talking to you. Whether you like it or not, that mask is coming off. Then, when all is said and done, you will die. Is that clear?"

Ender shrugs and closes her eyes. Cy uses his sword to swipe the mask off her face to reveal something no one had expected. Underneath the mask was the creepy Enderman smile. Ender then opens her eyes to show the pupils shrunk, glowing red and an evil grin to show the sharp Enderman teeth.

Cy gets freaked out and runs out of the cell as Zander pulls him back out. Ender then starts evilly laughing hysterically. She was about to go on a killing rampage. She looks up to the chains connected to the walls. She looks back at all of them and yanks the chains out of the wall like it was nothing, leaving two huge holes. A huge cloud of dust and smoke appears as everyone starts coughing.

Everyone turns away to not get dust in their eyes, but when they turn back, they can all see Ender standing there breathing heavily. Her smile was wide and showed the sharp fangs inside. Her eyes represented ones from an insane asylum. She then says one thing, "Crystal clear!"

Ender looked at the first person she saw: Cy. She ran up a bit and swung the chains over to Cy. He quickly saw the flying metal and held his sword out. She swung the other chain from her opposite hand and hit him in the calf. Cy yelped in pain and fell to the floor. Kat ran over to drag him out as both Peter and Annabelle ran in Cy's place. Annabelle quickly drew out her crossbow and went up high. Peter ran around to the other side with his whip in hand.

Ender starts laughing, "This is all you got?! I thought you guys would be strong!" She then whipped the chain on her right hand towards Annabelle, knocking her to the ground. As she was falling, Annabelle drew the arrow back and let it fly, landing into Ender's back. Ender grunted in pain but quickly pulled it out. As that was happening, Peter slashed his whip into Ender's right hand. Ender reacted and blocked it with the chain, causing it to fall off. Ender looked down to see her hand was free, then looked at Peter.

"You made a horrible mistake!" She then slashed the chain on her left hand at him. It didn't land on Peter, but on Zander's trident. He then yanks the chain down, causing Ender to fall forward. While that was happening, Peter ran over to Annabelle and helped her over to Kat and Cy. All of them watched as Zander pulled Ender to the ground.

"I think you're the one who made the mistake!" Zander pulls his trident up as if he was going to strike down. Ender looks over her shoulder then rolls off to the side as Zander uses his trident to strike the ground. But as he does, the chain on Ender's left hand breaks free. She looks down and laughs wickedly. She stands up at full height, which was almost to Zander's height, and started walking backwards till she got to the hole which led outside. Charlie walks past and notices Ender. Her eyes go wide and full of fear. Ender looks up to see Charlie and smiles back at Zander.

Pulling up a little of what's left of her mask, Ender's eyes go back to a normal purple tent, "As much fun as this is, I gotta bounce. But don't worry," Ender turns around away from them. "I'll be back!" Then teleports away. Zander runs up to the hole and sees that she teleported away. He then pounds on the wall in frustration. Charlie then runs up to the others.

"Is everyone ok? What the fuck happened?!"

Kat then replies, "It's a long story."

"Was that an Enderman? I could've helped if I'd only known there was danger." Charlie replies back, sitting on her knees helping Cy with his leg.

Annabelle stands up with Peter's help, then asks, "What are we going to do now? There's a girl out there working with the Enderman!"

"You're telling me," Cy says. "She's fucking crazy dude! I've never seen someone with that kind of raw strength before!"

"Wait, she? It was a girl Enderman?" Charlie looks around asking.

"She was half Enderman and half human. But boy, she has some power." Peter explains.

Zander walks over to the rest of them, still in full rage from the fight, "The next time we see her, she will die. No whats, buts, or ifs about it. She's caused too much damage as it is and has seen where our base is."

Charlie then panics a bit, "Does that mean we have to evacuate again?"

"No, of course not." putting his hand on Charlie's shoulder. "This does mean we have to be extra cautious. Go in groups instead of alone or groups of two. Do I make myself clear?" Everyone nods in agreement.

"For now, I think it's best for everyone to get some rest. It's getting late and we got some more stuff to take care of tomorrow. Goodnight everyone." Zander says, walking out of the room. Peter then helped Annabelle back up to her room, Kat walked with Cy to the medical center, and Charlie ran after Zander.

"What the fuck Zander! I could've helped! Once again, you left me out!" Charlie yells to Zander.

"Charlie, that thing was way too dangerous for you, even for us. This was a good call on my part."

Charlie then starts turning around and pacing back and forth in frustration. "You're not listening to me! I said I wanted to help, not stay on the sidelines!"

"And I said you needed to stay safe! Like you said earlier, you're not like me or Annabelle or anyone else around here! You're something different! It was best you stayed out of the way." Zander says and pouches past Charlie. "Now, go rest. That's an order."

Charlie and Zander separate. Everyone rests in the room, but not Charlie. She stays up a while longer to do some research in the cavern archives and library. She wanted to know more about who she is and what she could possibly be. There was no luck, until one book gave her some clues as to what she's been searching for.