Fluorescent lights.
White walls.
Murmuring voices.
There were four of them.
They each wore lab coats.
Metal instruments.
Then, everything faded to black.
Doc could remember that moment like it was yesterday. It was what got him here. He blamed them for everything.
They were the ones, after all, who had made him this way.
People looked at him, then looked away. They were scared of him. It wasn't of how he acted. It was how he looked.
After all, it's not every day you see a Creeper hybrid.
The scientists experimented on him. They merged his body with a Creeper, seeing what traits he would keep of himself and which ones he would get from the Creeper.
The scientists didn't care about his own well-being. To them, he was just another guinea pig in their experiments.
There were others, too. Once, Doc got a glimpse of a red metal suit. Another, he saw a gleaming metal eye. There were also plenty of animals in the lab, too. Once, half of them disappeared. Doc never saw them again.
When Doc wasn't being experimented on, he was kept in a holding room. More white walls. Nothing to entertain himself with. Everything in the lab was stripped of color.
Then came the experiment. The experiment that changed everything.
The scientists were going to see if Doc could survive another Creeper's explosion. They put him in a blast chamber and stood nearby, taking notes.
Doc could have died. But did it look like they cared? No.
The Creeper came up, first inspecting Doc. It must have been fooled by the hybrid look. Then, changing its mind, it came right up to him and started flashing.
Doc braced himself.
The explosion knocked him out. The last thing he saw was the scientists leaning over him in disappointment, like it was his fault that this happened.
It wasn't until later that Doc realized that the scientists thought he had died.
But he'd survived. Barely, but he had survived.
Doc didn't remember the rest. He just woke up, surprised that he had lived, in a new area. The lab was nowhere in sight. They must have gotten rid of the "body", so to speak. But where was he?
The outside world was so full of color. After the blankness of the lab, Doc was momentarily overwhelmed by the number of things outside. It had been so long since he'd seen grass. Or trees. Or animals, out in the wild.
His sudden euphoria of being free of the lab faded away. Then he started to worry. He didn't recognize this place. He didn't have any food, or anything to sustain himself. His body ached still because of the explosion.
He wouldn't find people for another few weeks.
Those few weeks were the hardest. Doc crafted a weak wooden sword and tried to harvest some wheat for bread. He finally stumbled across a village after a few days, but apparently any kind of green skin was associated with zombies. The iron golem wasn't happy with Doc.
He basically had to start from scratch. Even though Doc hated the lab, sometimes he thought about it. At least he didn't have to worry about monsters or going hungry. But, in the end, even this was better than being stuck and being and being a guinea pig for experiments.
Then, finally, he found civilization. Actual people.
Doc had been wandering the forest for days, occasionally resting. He came across a clearing in the forest and decided to stay there for the night.
Then, something he hadn't heard in a while.
Voices.
It was female. Laughter bubbled up from nearby. Doc hesitated. Would this girl be scared of him? Run away? Should he go and see them or keep on going?
Before he could make a decision, someone came out from the trees. A girl. Probably the one Doc had heard earlier.
"Oh!" She said. She had short brown hair and was wearing some sort of blue minidress with a tiara. The most shocking thing? This girl didn't look scared of him. She looked surprised that he was there, not really looking at his appearance.
The villagers had been afraid of him. Even the scientists, when he was merged with the Creeper for the first time, had cringed when they had seen him.
But not this girl. She continued, genuinely smiling. "Hi. I'm Stress. How did you get here?"
Doc couldn't talk for a few moments. He finally spoke what was on his mind. "You're not scared of me?"
Stress blinked, a bit surprised by the question. "No. Why?"
Doc was even more surprised. "Look at me! I'm merged with a Creeper. Everyone I've met so far has been freaked out. You're not? For real?"
"Why would I be?" Stress smiled a bit. "In the group I'm in, you're just as weird as the rest of us."
"At least you look normal." Doc felt a surge of relief. Stress didn't judge him. She was also part of a group out here. Doc could finally find people-maybe his people. People who didn't judge him for his appearance.
Stress giggled. "I have freaky ice powers." She wiggled her fingers. "My bodyguard is way too overprotective. I'm friends with a prankster angel and rebel demon. I know someone who has the power to bend reality but refuses to use it. And, oh yeah, a guy from the End is obsessed with his pet pig. A Creeper hybrid is normal. I swear."
So many things were wrong with that statement, but Doc couldn't help but smile. She called him normal. She didn't care what he looked like. She was friends with people like him. Well, not really like him, but still unusual. Out of the ordinary.
For the first time ever, he felt like he belonged.
"Lead the way to your friends," Doc said. Stress smiled, but then her eyes wandered to someone behind Doc.
Doc turned around. No. He couldn't be here. Not him. Anyone but him.
"You."
(WC: 1003)
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Hermitcraft: Origins
Fanfiction"Each world has its own story. Even if you tried to get a story from me, I wouldn't be able to tell you half of it. There is so much life in each build and block, and each event has told their own tale. But it has to start somewhere." Fate has the o...
