HI!
Thank you to, Kingdom Hearts Slayer, Abyss101, TheAmberShadow, The Sorrowful Deity, CemronXTheXGamer, and of course, NovaAurora10.
DISCLAIMER - (I haven't done one of these yet...) Minecraft belongs to Mojang. Story Mode belongs to Telltales games. :)
POV: JESSE
Jesse had never been to The Nether, she just didn't have the opportunity to go, and she wasn't allowed to go on her school field trip to The Nether Research Center (built by Ellegaard… oh, and someone else) because her parents were paranoid one of the mobs there would blow the place sky high and kill her.
This was her first time heading through a portal, one of her first times ever seeing one. How did it feel?
At first it felt like Jesse's bones were being stretched and muscles shrinking, her head felt like dead weight and her limbs went spontaneously numb. The discomfort was there, and then it was gone, like it was all a bad dream or trick of the mind.
The physical pain came when Jesse was spat out the other side of the portal. She landed hard on the strangely cold netherrack. (The netherrack was like gravel in the fact it was made of small pixel rocks but it felt solid, like stone.)
Odd, She thought. Isn't this place supposed to be hot?
She groaned into the rock below her, because she had no idea how to describe how she felt. She felt fine, but she still had a phantom feeling that she was being squashed and stretched like a bug.
Jesse pushed up off the ground and onto her back. It felt nicer than standing up.
Lukas was next to her on the ground in a similar position, though he was clutching his stomach. He was no doubt in pain.
Reuben squealed in fear and began to run around his owners. He stopped in between the two and laid his head onto Lukas' arm as comfort. Lukas patted his favorite pig on the head.
"Jesse?" Lukas muttered. His girlfriend grunted before she slowly sat up.
"I'm good." Jesse grunted.
Olivia quickly moved to help her friend back onto her feet. Axel grudgingly helped Lukas out of obligation.
Lukas winced, his hands covering his stomach in record time.
Jesse hated seeing Lukas in pain, so clearly bruised under his shirt. She set a hand on his shoulder to help him out a bit. He smiled sheepishly, then pulled his hand away from his side.
He pulled up his shirt to inspect the damage. Other than his stomach turning sickly yellow and blue from bruising and a cut about half an inch long from when he was thrown halfway across the portal hall, he was just dandy.
"You're hurt." Jesse covered her mouth to keep herself from throwing up. She only got hit by that Wither once in the back, she felt sore and her back stung, but she know it wouldn't bruise up.
Lukas took a Wither Arm and a full grown women to the chest, there could be some serious damage.
Lukas shook his head, dropping his shirt back down.
"Just a cut, I'll live." Lukas assured weakly. Jesse frowned, that was the least of her worries, she was worried about internal bleeding, and him sleeping comfortably for the next few weeks, broken ribs and potential infection.
Jesse looped her arms under Lukas arms to help him to the closest raised Netherrack block for him to sit on.
"What happened out there?" Olivia asked the two. Jesse watched Lukas turn white and eyes turn watery.
She sat him onto a block, then sat next to him.
"Where's Petra?" Axel asked, practically spat.
Lukas gulped before he looked away sadly. Jesse hated that look on his face.
"We did what we could." Lukas whispered, barely audible. Jesse (hoping that the others didn't hear) was going to tell her friends what happened in a much less vague form, but one look on Axels face made the words evaporate from her brain. Axel heard and he looked pissed.
"What are you saying." Axel most definitely spat.
Jesse wanted to strangle both of the boys.
"Lukas, we both know what your implying isn't true." Jesse said softly. Axel looked between the two, confused.
Olivia stared at the Nether Portal, as if she expected Petra to run through any second.
Jesse rubbed her boyfriends back. Again, she was going to answer without the vagueness but she was once again too slow.
"It was chaos. I didn't try to do anything…" Lukas answered. Jesse kicked him in the ankle, making him wince but he didn't say a thing.
Jesse was so over Lukas' self blame for this whole disaster. It wasn't his fault.
"Lukas-" she warned. Jesse wasn't going to have it, she was going to force Lukas to tell the actual truth, but he didn't seem to care about her warnings.
"I got scared," Lukas continued as if Jesse never said anything. It infuriated her. "just for a second…" He trailed off. Axel took a menacing step forward, eyes ablazed and shoulders tense. His eyebrow scrunched together like a promise for pain.
"You got scared?" Axel asked rhetorically. He tightened both his overly large hands into fist the size of a block.
For someone who wasn't suicidal Lukas sure did want to die.
"... I'm sorry." He whispered and Jesse had a feeling it wasn't towards Axel.
Damn right you better be sorry you maroon! Jesse growled to herself. But not for him freezing up as he claimed to have, no, for telling a twisted version just because he felt bad. It wasn't his fault he got knocked back by a tentacle, it wasn't his fault Petra wanted to stay. It wasn't his fault he didn't have a weapon or that there was a Wither in the first place!
"You got scared and you're sorry?!" Axel roared, looking ready to punch Lukas in the eye. Olivia, to Jesse's joy, jumped between the two of them, arms out, while Jesse quickly shielded Lukas.
"Stop it, both of you." Olivia said, glaring at Axel and looking back to give Lukas a sympathetic look. She had to remain neutral so Axel wouldn't blow up again. "Petra is still up there and arguing isn't going to solve anything." Axel turned around, thinking hard. Jesse mouthed 'thank you,' to Olivia for helping out. She nodded.
Jesse knew Olivia would come around. Even if it was based on pity by the looks of it.
Axel twirled around to grab Olivia by the wrist.
"We gotta go back!" He shouted as he began to pull his best friend to the Nether Portal. As brave as Axel was, Jesse knew that Axel wasn't a fighter. He was the troller in school that didn't get caught and ran from a fight when he did. He did everything from a distance. Despite common belief, he always ran in with a plan, not run in swinging without one.
Axel was in over his head.
"No! We just have to wait. Think about what you're walking into." Olivia shouted, wiggling her wrist out of Axels grip.
"There is absolutely nothing you can do. You'll end up killing yourself!" Jesse chimed in. Axel growled, hysteria and desperation radiating off of him in waves.
Jesse didn't like it when Axel got like this, it always scared her a little.
"You don't know that!" Axel yelled angrily. He looked slightly out of his mind. "You don't know-" While Axel had his breakdown Olivia glanced at the portal from the corner of her eye. It didn't seem that anything significant was happening, so when Olivia's eyes when wide eyed and she gasped, she had everyone's attention.
"Wait! The portals opening!" Olivia pointed at the subtle way the portals purple light seemed to move and sway like it was unstable.
Axel faced the portal with hopeful eyes and Jesse stood so she could hug Petra if she came through. Lukas stayed on his block, but he did grab Jesse's arm as if getting ready to stand.
The portal flashed black just as a person came stumbling out of nowhere. It wasn't Petra, to everyone's disappointment. It was the last person any of them wanted to see.
Ivor.
He glared at them all, the scariest and hardest directed towards Axel.
"You again?" Ivor spat. He bordered the line between impressed and surprised, not that Jesse actually cared. She sat back down, upset that Ivor came through and not Petra.
Lukas slumped against her sadly.
"Ivor?" Olivia gaped. Jesse didn't get why she was surprised, of course he was the one to make it. The one person who didn't deserve to get through the portal was the person to come through.
No one had time to process that Ivor truly was the one that passed through before a Wither tentacle suddenly exploded into the Nether, flapping around like a fish to grab anything in its path. Jesse and Lukas were far enough away to not get hit but Jesse still protected him.
The tentacle made Axel fall onto his back, had Olivia screaming and Reuben hiding in a pothole in the ground.
To their surprise (and mostly horror) the arm wrapped around the Nether portal, squeezed and the beautiful obsidian blocks flew out of its hollow rectangle shape. A few pieces landed on the ceiling to stay and one landed in the center of a small pit of lava.
It was quiet. Deadly quiet. The arm was sucked back into the Overworld, there was no way of getting the obsidian without a diamond axe, or without destroying the block in the lava. They were stuck.
Ivor was the first to break the silence.
"You ruined everything." Ivor muttered darkly to Axel, who in return, jumped back in surprise. "Don't pretend you don't know, thief! You took my most valuable potion and what shouldn't been my moment of triumph!" Let's be honest, not for the last time that day, Jesse saw red.
Was it wrong to want to see someone killed by a zombie, or shot in the eye by a skeleton.
"Excuse me, this is all your fault!" Jesse abruptly stood up, he short temper in full view of everyone around her. Ivor didn't seem pleased with her tone. He merely scoffed.
"I had a plan, and that boy interfered." Ivor pointed directly at Axel, who growled. His temper beginning to snap as well.
Jesse was a few beats in front of them, she stood a few steps forward and if Lukas hadn't reached out and snagged the straps to her overalls she would have decked Ivor. As hard she could, which was said to be an impressive feat by Olivia.
"Your so called 'plan' was to set off a Wither, a Wither," Jesse stressed each syllable in the awful word. The name of the product of a monster in the surface world. Though… if Jesse were to think about it, Ivor was the monster, The Wither was a pawn. "in a theater full of people!"
Ivor didn't look too happy to be reminded of his mistake. He seemed infuriated with Jesse just as much she was infuriated with him.
"A Wither I could control!" Ivor snapped. He was glaring at her the most now. He may have blamed Axel for stealing his wonder-potion, but he obviously hated Jesse more.
"Oh, yeah, that makes it all legal!" Jesse will never understand these types of people; thinking that just because 'they had things under control' or 'had a plan' or 'it wasn't supposed to end this way,' or 'it was for 'justice' meant that everything was perfectly legal.
She knew that The Town didn't have a guard force, not like Oak City where there was a guard on every street corner, a courtroom and a prison. But they still had laws, rules and regulations. What made them think a bigger city like Oak CIty (or Glass Central) wouldn't come in with their forces to have them tried and hanged.
People like this made no sense to her.
"That is," Ivor continued from his previous statement, much more thoughtful than before. He completely ignored Jesse's last comment, as if she never spoke. "until he showed up. There's nothing left up there! Nothing but that Wither Storm."
Wither Storm? That's what its called? Jesse thought. That's one way to describe it.
"And whose fault is that." Olivia muttered rhetorically. Axel walked up to Ivor and pushed him.
"Why are we wasting time talking to this jerk? We have to go and get Petra!" Axel yelled.
The portal is gone, Axel, there is no getting Petra. Not right now, anyway. Jesse thought, but did not say. The look on his face was enough to tell her he already knew, ten fold.
Jesse felt a tug on her clothes, both on her overall straps and her pant leg. She looked down to see Reuben at her feet. She sat down next to Lukas and had her pig jump into her lap. She held him close to her chest as she continued to watch the ongoing argument she was too tired to participate in anymore.
It was quiet for a second. Ivor was the only one looking confused, as if just being reminded of something he had long forgotten.
A few seconds later, it finally donned on him.
"The girl." Ivor said with little emotion. "I saw her." He acknowledged. Lukas and Axel perked up, like pups being offered beef.
"What? You're serious?" Lukas asked, he looked better than his previous mopey self, it warmed Jesse's heart.
"While I was running towards the portal, I passed her." Ivor remember. Axel nodded for him to continue. "She was running in the opposite direction." Ivor told Axel, no sympathy or remorse. He sounded flat, a little arrogant as if to say that Petra was a fool and he was a genius.
"Notchdamnit, Petra." Axel cursed. Lukas didn't look happy either. She was leaving them behind anyway, but it did suck she didn't go through even to just on Lukas and Jesse after they were thrown in.
"Such bravery." Ivor admired sarcastically. Jesse forced herself to stay put and rub Reuben's ears. "But of course, there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity. And your friend, has crossed it." No one bothered to say anything, Ivor wasn't worth their time.
Ivor seemed pleased with himself. He managed to shut them up. Ivor examined the terrain, a dead end of a small cave, there wasn't many places to go, except to out of the little cave and follow one of two path. Ivor looked down both, then he smirked. He pointed down the right tunnel.
"Through that tunnel is a network of minecarts built by The Order of the Stone. It's your only way out." Ivor told them.
Jesse raised an eyebrow, what in this psychopathic notch damn mind made him think they'll listen to a damn word he said-
"We should go that way." Axel agreed.
Apparently Axel, Jesse thought.
"Times wasting. Lets go." Olivia nodded. She was looking down the tunnel as well, like she could already see the minecarts.
And Olivia... I'm sorry what happened to hating this guy?
"We're just going to let this murder on the loose?" Lukas whispered to her.
"I don't think there's much we can do." Jesse whispered back. She wanted to tie him up and head to a big city so he could be properly detained, but she was guessing that wasn't a small-town-in-the-middle-of-the-woods thing.
Weird.
"What about you." Jesse asked before Ivor could leave.
"Excuse me?"
"How will you get out of here?" Ivor rolled his eyes.
"I'll use my imagination." Jesse's eyes harden. Honestly, she thought his last statement was funny.
"Then Notch help you. I'm pretty sure it's dangerous, judging by what's going on in the Overworld." Again, Ivor fumed. He most likely would have said something if a weird sound didn't come through the cave. It sounded like a mix between a child's cry and young pups wine.
"I'd wish you luck," Ivor glared. "but luck won't carry you through the Nether."
He pulled out a grayish blue potion to drink. As soon as the last bit of liquid left the bottle Ivor disappeared, the only hint he was here was the potion, which he dropped.
As soon as the last bit of bearable footsteps left Jesse said, "I think I hate him."
"Yup," Lukas muttered. Jesse let Reuben hop off her lap to stand. Her back was still sore, making her wince, but she was okay.
When Lukas stood up, on the other hand, he gasped loudly but refused to touch his abdomen where it hurt the most. He was able to stand without help, but that wasn't something to brag about, its walking he needed to worry about.
Jesse was there at his side to help him in less than a second and Reuben was leaning against his leg to help support him the best the little piglet could.
Lukas smiled thankfully.
Jesse wanted to believe that things were going to get a little better, maybe it'll get a little worse, but they were going to get out of The Nether with little to no trouble. She knew almost instantly that Notch was secretly laughing at her optimism when her small group of friends heard another strangled cry.
Jesse had never been to The Nether, she knew lukas went once but he only went to buy blaze powder from a merchant (who set his store up in The Nether because the overworld, "Damages the merchandise.") and the portal was just outside the little store; he never had time to see any of the mobs down there. So she had trouble pinpointing the blame on anyone in their group for not knowing that the cry belonged to a ghast.
The Ghast was much bigger than Jesse had imaged, just barely able to fit inside a decent sized gap in their protected room. For a second Jesse didn't understand why ghast were so deadly, this one looked calm and seemed to just be flying by. It didn't help her naivety that the mob had tears falling out of its closed eyes.
Thank goodness lukas had more sense than that.
"Run!" He shouted at the others. Axel and Olivia both bolted down the path Ivor pointed down without glancing back. Meanwhile, Jesse looped an arm around Lukas to help him run better, though she still didn't know why they had to run.
The Ghast eyes opened and Jesse soon understood. The mob eyes were glowing bright red, not the dark bloodish-maroon red that Jesse was told about once, and somehow the the bright, almost neon, red was more terrifying than the blood red eyes. The Ghast opened its mouth to reveal that it was equally bright red, slowly growing brighter and brighter.
Run, was right.
Jesse ran as fast she could while helping Lukas not instantly fall face first into the ground. They surprisingly did well enough with running away from the ghast and even (barely) managed to catch up to Olivia and Axel. They jumped over the top of a small hill, disappearing out of sight but at least they knew where the two were.
Reuben ran ahead of his owners and went over the top of the hill too.
Jesse and lukas made it to the top without any seconds to spare, or even look where they were going, before they were forced to jump down the small cliff to get away from the chasing mob. Lukas winced and groaned when he landed; that was not a good idea.
Jesse was able to see, upon landing, that they were just blocks away from a railtrack that lead into a small tunnel. There were already minecarts layed out for them and Reuben jumping at the front of the train for them to come quickly.
Jesse, though sorry for him, grabbed Lukas' arm and hauled him towards the track. She tried to ignore any regard of his current state because it wouldn't matter if he was dead in the end.
Jesse went for the first two carts because that and the one on the end were the only ones open. She pushed Lukas into the second one while she jumped into the first, with Reuben jumping into her lap.
Axel, who was in the very back, pulled the lever, at last, that sent them all flying into the tunnel.
Lukas winced and silently groaned as he sat up in his cart, making Jesses and Olivia's cart shake more than they probably should have. Jesse had the disadvantage of having a pig on her chest so when she sat up she was forced to press Reuben in the farthest corner and moving her cart so much it scraped the walls of the tunnel a few times.
When they both ended up in a reasonably comfortable position that didn't have them moving around too much, the cave tunnel gave way to a single tracked bridge over a sea of lava in an open cavern.
"The Nether." Olivia breathed. They all stared anxiously at the lava below them, knowing that just one mistake and thrown over cart could be the end of them all.
Jesse wondered who made the track. She doubted it was Soren or Ellegaard because of the single block path that was just plain unsafe. It had to have been Magnus and Notchdamnit what is wrong with him? Does he have a death wish or something?
Jesse took a deep breath of The Nethers air, it smelled like wet wood smoke and quartz mixed with barely breathable oxygen. Strangely the air felt familiar, almost like Oak City's air. (despite common belief there wasn't a lot of trees in her hometown.) She turned around to look at Lukas who looked to breathing just as easily as her, but Olivia and Axel were coughing and wheezing behind them. Even Reuben was sneezing and making weird snorts.
"Nostalgic for you?" Jesse asked. "The air, I mean?" Lukas nodded.
"Ah, I missed the poor air quality." Lukas said sarcastically, it made Jesse smile. She asked if Olivia and Axel were okay behind them, they both gave a thumbs up. She asked Reuben the same thing and he nuzzled his face into her overalls. She took that as a 'yes.'
She finally focused on Lukas who was sitting awkwardly, pressed up against the back of the minecart and his legs curled into the front so he had little pressure on his chest and stomach.
"You alright?" Jesse asked. Lukas nodded.
"I'll be okay. I just hope there's a health potion wherever we're going." Jesse nodded, she was hoping for that too. She was also hoping that it was day by the time they got up there, that they didn't run into any more dangerous mobs and they ended just outside The Orders temple.
Yes, she knew that was wishful thinking. Jesse turned back around towards the front to just enjoy the rest of the ride.
Yes, she realized that was wishful thinking too.
Up ahead of their little train was a sudden drop, like a freaking roller coaster.
"Oh, no," Jesse breathed. She hated drops, she hated roller coasters. She could already feel the sudden stone in her stomach. "oh no, no, no, no, that's a drop. That is very, very much a drop." the others behind her said their own reactions, some terrified, others excited.
She hated the ones who were excited.
Jesse shrunk in her cart into a position similar to Lukas' and bottled down a scream when she felt the high speed of going straight down the side of a cliff. Axel whooped and hollered. Olivia made nervous noises, but seemed excited enough. All Lukas did was close his eyes and grip the sides.
The track went flat just as sudden as the drop making Jesse jump almost out of her cart. If it wasn't for Reuben as a weight she probably would have gone higher. Reuben squealed and buried himself farther inside Jesse's overalls.
Jesse slowly rose again to make sure nothing else would happen.
"Wall!" Axel shouted. Jesse groaned, before them was a netherrack wall that was only half gone, only the carts could go through without (barely) hitting the blocks. Jesse and her friends ducked inside the carts to go under the wall and not die.
Jesse sprang back up to see another oncoming wall of the same material.
"Oh, come on." she growled.
"Watch out!" Olivia hollared for Axel and Lukas to stay ducked inside their tiny carts. Jesse ducked a second time.
Thankfully, there wasn't a third wall. That would just be annoying.
They all emerged for, what they were hoping was, the final time. Lukas looked behind them at the second wall that was almost completely out of sight thanks to the polluted air.
"Is The Order trying to kill themselves!" Lukas snapped at no one. Jesse felt annoyed, and a little angry. This track was definitely built by Magnus; to troll the rest of The Order no doubt.
Olivia leaned back in her cart and groaned, she was over it too.
Axel kept his eyes ahead of the track, so the others could relax their eyes from that traumatic experience.
"Uhh," Jesse tensed up at the uncertain, concerned sound of Axel's voice. "I'm not the only one seeing that we're running out of track, right?" If Jesse was standing she would have fallen, she was sitting she would have fallen, and true to the pattern Jesse fell completely inside the minecart in a curled position. She quickly got over her shock and bolted up to look at the end of the track. At the end was a wall of lava, just waiting for them to go flying into it.
"No, no, nononono," Lukas pressed his back against his cart even more, his eyes wide and body shaking. "I'm not dying after all of the crap we just went through!" Jesse wasn't either, but they couldn't just jump out. Maybe it they all destroy their carts at the same time...
"Jesse! That switch!" What switch, Jesse thought. She looked around to try and find the switch that Olivia was talking about. It was barely noticable, just a speck towards the end, on the side of the track.
She only had one chance, maybe the others could hit it if she failed but that was just as likely as she hitting the stupid lever.
Jesse saw it coming closer and closer by the second, she knew she had to lean over the side of the cart to hit it. It was terrifying reaching over the side to hit the damn lever above a lake of lava. She was just lucky to have Reuben (who jumped out of her overalls at this point) biting on her straps to keep her in place. She was safe from falling. Now, what about everything else.
It wasn't reaching the lever that was the problem, it was hitting it hard enough for it to move that was difficult. So many things could go wrong. The lever could be rusted, the lever could do nothing, the redstone could be faulty… they sure were riding a lot on a Notch knows how old lever.
With a prayer and both eyes wide open, Jesse somehow managed to hit the lever. It flicked from one side to the other with ease. Ahead of them, a patch of rails disappeared with the block their were on. They were soon replaced with inactivated power rails.
As soon as Jesse's cart it the special rail she lunged forward, almost falling outside. The others hit the rails and came to a sudden stop soon after her. Jesse was shaking, she wanted off this track straight from… well… The Nether.
That sounded like a bad pun.
"Yes!" Jesse shouted, she was completely high on adrenaline, and very hysterical. She start laughing with pure joy. Both her hands were in the air and stayed there as she slowly sunk back into the confined comfort of her little minecart.
Axel and olivia were both still frozen in shock, and Lukas was on the other side of the spectrum from Jesse. He was shaking and scared, confused and almost inside the bottom of his cart, rocking himself back and forth best he could.
"I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die." Lukas mumbled. Jesse was about to yell at him to shut up because he was ruining her mood, she was happy. They were safe.
Below them, the redstone was slow due to years of disuse, but the redstone began to dim as they finally lost connected to the pistons below the power rails. A deep groan echoed throughout the cavern, rusted parts finally finding use again. The first set of pistons retracted, then the next set, then the next. To the small group of friends horror, they began to sink.
They saw the wall of redstone trails that flickered off and back on after they past. They were all terrified of where they were going now.
They finally hit a track, a beautiful, beautiful track, that lead a million different directions. It seemed Magnus like screwing with his teammates before they split apart because the tracks switched, turned and lead every single cart to different paths. Before Jesse could say, "The Nether!" She found herself alone, the faint shouts and girlish screams of her friends were the only indicator they were still alive.
"Lukas?! Olivia! Axel!" She knew it was useless, but she had to try. Reuben squealed his prayers with her.
Her efforts were futile. She was just going to have to meet up with them later, hopefully soon, extremely soon.
Jesse watched the scenery as it past by, looking for anyone off in the distance, or maybe hear them. It didn't take long for the track to run side by side with another. Jesse really wanted for another cart to come rolling past with her with one of her friends inside, but nothing happened. It was just a blank track.
"Okay, Reuben," Jesse sighed as she kicked her feet up to relax. In retrospect, that was an awful idea. "remember how I said everything was going to be okay? I know I was wrong then, but I think this time-" There was a loud cry, a mix between a child's cry and young pups wine.
Jesse looked behind her, where another ghast was following close behind, quickly flanked by two others. Their eyes were closed, with their tears flowing nicely down the sides of their huge faces.
Reuben began to oik, he sounded annoyed and tired; just how she felt.
"What is my luck?" Jesse asked the ghast. In response they opened their devil eyes and mouths. "duck!" Jesse pulled Reuben with her to hide at the bottom of the carts. The middle Ghast behind them fired a fire charge, it missed them and hit the lava below them.
Jesse peaked back out, on instinct she drew out her heavy gold sword.
Lukas' voice filled her head.
"Did you know you can hit a fire charge, sword, hand, piece of paper and it will bounce in the other direction?"
"How the heck is that possible?"
"Because its small, flying explosive, not a ball of fire. You block or hit it like deflecting a ball and it will make it fly the other way, where it stops flying for more than a seconds will make it explode." Jesse remembers Lukas making a small explosion with his hands. They were just friends back then, they were working on an extension of her house, a few months after Jesse's second building competition.
"What about breaking it in half?"
"They're hard to break open, even with diamond tools. Scientist say the explosion they give off on the inside is more than 100 TNTs. But the shell protects you from taking too much damage."
"Huh, cool."
Lukas' nerdiness came in handy sometimes.
The ghast cried once again, the one in the middle mouth began to glow brighter and brighter. It fired another fire charge straight at Jesse's head. It was painful for Jesse to wait until the charge was close enough to hit with her sword.
Four blocks, three, two… Jesse swung at two blocks away, because that means she would hit it at one, just in time.
Just like Lukas promise, her sword hit the charge on the side, it change direction and flew at the ghast on the left. It touched the ghast but inside of bouncing off, it seemed to almost attach itself to the mob. Exactly two seconds later it exploded and the ghast died.
Jesse smiled a little.
The ghast on the left fired, Jesse swung and hit the ghast in the middle. She didn't know what to do anymore. Wherever she swings it will go in that direction.
The ghast fired another charge, not knowing what to do, Jesse ducked with her hands above her head. Reuben squealed louder and pressed himself close to her chest.
Her sword was peaking above the side of the cart, and the charge hit the sword edge. The sword bent back a little before going forward, it being a soft gold sword, and sent the charge spinning towards the last ghast.
It attached and exploded.
Jesse was on high alert for a few seconds, she heard nothing.
She slowly peaked up and saw that the Ghast was finally gone. She heard an explosion, then the ghast was gone. For a few minutes she wondered what happened, but she ended up on caring.
She turned to the front of the cart, she watched The Nether pass by like nothing happened.
Reuben peaked over the edge with her, searching for something that wasn't there. The little piglet nudged Jesse, wanting to make sure she was okay.
"Ghast are officially off my to-see list." Jesse answered with a pat on his head. Reuben oiked in agreement. Ghast had done… more than enough to make certain that Ghast were feared by her as much as possible."Done with Ghast. I never want to see them again."
What was the old saying?
Karma is a… something. Jesse couldn't think of the word, but she knew the meaning! Because apparently, she hadn't suffered enough for whatever sin she was paying off, of course there was a fourth Ghast! Or maybe it was the missing third one. (In her mind anyway.) for the love of Notch, Jesse didn't see the third die, it wouldn't surprise her!
"Reuben. Never let me talk again." Jesse didn't even move, she was too mentally done to want to do anything.
Jesse just gripped the sides of her cart and just prayed that she will be okay as she flew past the floating mob.
It was too late she realized that the end of her track… was missing, and therefore, going to make her fly off to who knows where.
Jesse finally felt human again as she pressed against the cart with Reuben and flew off the end of the track, right past the Ghast. They just did a cry, eyes still closed and mouth not glowing.
Jesse had terrible images of drowning in lava, of her skin burning off to match the temperature of the molten rock.
She had quick flashbacks of random points in her life, like what she did last week and her dad giving he hug as she packed the last of her stuff into chest before she moved to town.
She didn't see her life flash before her eyes, she wouldn't say, it was just the same six or seven memories on repeat for those awful four seconds she was in the air.
She hit the track it lead to, the broken part apparently not being broken like she originally thought.
Damn Magnus… damn him so much… Jesse thought.
Jesse was now Lukas from earlier, curled into a ball on the floor of her minecart and trying to calm her pounding heart.
Her cart jumped forward a bit as it ran into something else on the track. Jesse guessed it wasn't dangerous as she kept moving and no mob jumped in to play.
Relief flooded her system when she realized what it was.
Ahead of her, Axel, Olivia and Lukas were rolling in a train once again. All looking fine, but traumatized no less.
"Never again, never again," Lukas muttered.
"Is everyone okay?" Olivia asked with a groan from the second cart in the train.
"I mean, I'm not dead. I guess that's pretty good." Axel answered, he was first in the line. Lukas groaned, everything looked like it hurt.
"Yes, yeah, on the not dead." Jesse answered, pressing her face into the metal of her minecart. Reuben oiked lazily next to her. Jesse patted his tiny head.
"How can Petra come down here all the time." Lukas stated more than questioned. "This is place is a nightmare."
Jesse slowly rose from her fetal position and slumped herself over the edge of her cart.
"It's The Nether, Lukas," Jesse felt drunk, or high. Give her a bottle of rum, have her take a sip and she probably would have passed as drunk off her horse at this point. "did you expect trees and sunshine?" Lukas looked up at her, behind him (it was an awkward angle, yes.) He smirked at her snarkiness.
Olivia laughed, she was laughing so hard she was holding her stomach. She had no idea why she found it so funny, she just did.
"By the way," Olivia added, her tone nothing but smug arrogance she never had. "who was the one that screamed like a squeaky piston? Sounded like Axel to me." Axel blanched, his eyes almost doubled in size. He seemed embarrassed.
Lukas chucked from his spot, while Jesse found herself smiling.
"I think I heard him too." Lukas commented, to further the teasing.
"What? Me? How do you know it wasn't Jess." Axel defended himself… badly.
Jesse didn't really scream on her trip, which she was more proud of then she should have been. It just felt good, and that's all that mattered.
"I personally think it was Lukas." Jesse teased, still slumped over the side. Lukas smiled flirtatiously.
"Now, what did I do to you?" Lukas asked, making it nothing but obvious he was being flirty and ironic. He gave her a side look that was all smiles.
"Want the list in chronological or alphabetical?" Jesse said in the same ironic tone. Lukas set a hand on his heart.
"Oh, that hurts." They all burst out laughing, and they laughed almost the rest of the way.
POV: OLIVIA
When the minecart train finally came to a stop, all Olivia wanted to do was jump out of the torture chamber on wheels and get out of The Nether. If she never came back she wouldn't complain.
However, one step outside the cart and she knew she made a mistake. Her head twirled with vertigo, and she felt sick. She gripped the side of her cart as she held her stomach.
She groaned.
Axel jumped out quickly, which had him almost collapsing as well.
Jesse and Reuben climbed out slowly, taking their time to not lose what little food they had lingering in their stomach.
Jesse didn't seem as dizzy as Olivia and Reuben stumbled a bit but he didn't fall which is always good.
Jesse was the first to recover and she helped Lukas out of his cart without hurting himself more than he had to.
Axel and Olivia managed to feel better, enough to look around without getting a headache.
They were at the bottom steps of a sort of temple like area. They were surrounded by Nether Brick walls and fences, keeping them from toppling into the lava below them.
Olivia had never been happier to slowly walk away from a minetrack.
Olivia, covered her stomach (coughed a few times from the terrible air quality) as she began to walk to up the steps, breathing heavily and temples pounding.
She looked behind her halfway up, Jesse was helping Lukas walk still. He didn't look any better than the second he came flying out of the portal earlier.
Notch, that felt like days ago.
Olivia waited for Jesse and Lukas to catch up, so they could finish together.
Axel just past the three of them to the top of the… temple? Room? Tower? Olivia didn't know.
"Woah, look at this place!" Axel shouted from the top.
The three finished their walk and separated. Jesse let go of Lukas so he could sit down and wondered in one direction.
Olivia looked around, finding the place impressive like Axel. It had an over arch made of nothing but Nether Brick materials, the floor was solid and well designed. The sides were lined with fences but you could still see the area around the tower will ease. At the center of the tower like pillar, there was a Nether Portal, that was honestly the least interesting thing about this place.
Olivia headed straight for the side fences. They were surrounded by a lava lake, and dozens of tracks, dozens, all leading to this one place.
"All the tracks converse here." Olivia leaned over to get a better look were the tracks headed. She saw little signs next to each track. She didn't see them when she was down by the tracks. "You could probably get to anywhere in the world from here." Olivia realized that was the whole point, to be able to go from one place to another.
By why wouldn't they just create a train station on the surface? Seemed a bit impractical to do it down here when you don't know where the portal is going to lead you.
"One block in The Nether equals eight in the overworld." Lukas said from his spot on the floor.
Olivia turned to listen to Lukas better. He was laying flat on his back, looking up at the ceiling and breathing perfectly fine. (Olivia did not cough.) Reuben was also at his side, laying his head on his hand, his eyes sad.
Olivia found that weird, Reuben didn't get attached to people this quickly. It took time, but he seemed to be glued to Lukas at the hip even more so than he was to Jesses.
"You could literally cut your travel time by one one-eighth of the normal time." Lukas finished, snapping Olivia out of her daze. Olivia shook her head and pushed that train of thought of her head. Reuben didn't like seeing people hurt, that was all.
"How did you know that?" Olivia asked politely. She was genuinely curious. It wasn't everyday you heard facts about The Nether spoken with so much… fact.
"I used to live in Sahara City." Lukas explains. Axel, who had been glowering at Lukas for most of the time, scrunches his unibrow up. Olivia turned her head.
What was… Sahara City?
Jesse saw their shared confusion and she cut Lukas off.
"Glass Central." She told her friends. They both tipped their heads back together. Olivia understood now.
"Ohhh." Axel and Olivia said together. She honestly never took Lukas for a City Boy, he seemed well traditioned in their small town life. She knew he moved their a few years ago but thought he came from a different town no one's ever heard of.
Glass Central? Really? Seemed like an alien idea to be honest. Lukas, born and raised in Glass Central…
She waved for Lukas to continue his story. Lukas didn't seem surprised that they didn't know that Sahara City and Glass Central were the same place, a little annoyed, but not surprise.
"And we had really big schools, and I took a lot of advanced classes throughout high school." Olivia had never been to 'high school,' they didn't have schools in Town. They just learned from their parents, took up their business and learned new things (things their parents didn't even know) from books they bought for two coal pieces at the local crazy shop. The only reason why she knew what High school was was because Jesse explained it her.
Wow, Jesse was from a big city, too… Olivia could see it as easy as she could see Lukas walking in a street filled to the brim of people and buildings towering a hundred blocks tall.
Jesse stood next to Lukas head, somewhat protectively if Olivia was honest…
"Wanted to be an alchemist?" Jesse asked. It was… oddly specific...
"Yup." Lukas popped the 'p.' Olivia wondered if she was the only one picking up on how weird Lukas and Jesse were acting.
Wait a minute… Lukas wanted to be an alchemist? What…
Olivia had too many questions or one day.
"Well let's hope we don't need your excessive knowledge of potions later on, because here's the portal." Olivia tried to brush Lukas old dream career but it stayed in her head. Later, she told herself.
"Why would we be worried about that? It leads back to the surface." Axel said, he sounded happy and hopeful. He looked like he just wanted to hope right in and never come back to The Nether. Olivia didn't, and couldn't, blame him.
"The surface is also where that creature is." Axels gleeful face fell at Lukas' words. He didn't look like he wanted to go anymore.
"Exactly. We have no idea what's up there. It could be dangerous." Olivia agreed. Honestly? She was beginning to… like Lukas. Not in a romantic way! Notch, no! As a friend. For all the times his friends made fun of them, he was actually really cool.
You know, as Olivia thought about, Lukas always kept the teasing to a minimum. He never engaged and lead them away, he always cut in and told them to shut up. He glared at them, and even apologized on behalf of his friends. He never participated, never ever.
Maybe Lukas wasn't so bad.
"Well, going off of Nether VS. Overworld logic we did travel pretty far." Lukas pointed out. Olivia nodded to herself, he was right.
"That doesn't mean the other side could lead us into the middle of a cave, or a field full of average monsters." Jesse cut in.
The area was quiet, everyone taking in the information at their own patient. They eyed each other nervously.
"So…" Olivia trailed off. "who's going first?"
"Not Lukas, he's hurt enough as is." Jesse gave said boy a shriveling look. He glared back.
"Then following your logic, you can't go either." He snapped.
"But she's the only one with a sword…" Olivia muttered, she sounded weak, and cowardly, but it was true. She was the only one with a sword and knew how to use it.
"Then one of you can take it." Was Lukas' response.
"I'm alright guys, really, I can go." Jesse pulled out her sword for emphasize, she even got into a fight stance to prove she'll be okay.
"No." Surprisingly Lukas and even more surprisingly (because Olivia didn't think he was against it) Axel both said together, firmly.
"Give it here, I'll go." Axel took Jesse's gold sword right out of her hands, then headed to the portal. At first he seemed confident and ready, but as soon as he was a block away from the portal he seemed to regret his decision to go first.
He muttered a few words of encouragement to himself, but he couldn't seem to make himself go into the portal. He looked behind him several times like he was expecting someone else to volunteer in his place.
It took a snarky quip from Lukas, that Olivia found kinda funny, to get him to go through.
"You know, thanks for being so brave, Axel. We really appreciate it." He said sarcastically. Axel growled, then forced himself through the portal.
They waited several minute and when Axel didn't come screaming back through, they guessed it was safe. Or deadly dangerous, whatever.
Jesse helped Lukas up and Olivia picked Reuben up, despite the piglets protest.
"That was mean." Jesse muttered to Lukas before Olivia jumped into the portal.
When Olivia exited the portal, she didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't Axel breathing heavily in the middle of a pond, sword drawn and hands shaking.
"I hate zombies." Was Axels only explanation. Olivia nodded.
The portal was carved into a hillside cliff, surrounded by a pond. There was a small overgrown path to a clearing surrounded by trees.
Olivia treaded through the water to get to the clearing. She was extremely annoyed that her pants were wet and she was now freezing. A part of her thought that maybe the Nether wasn't that bad because at least it was warm down there.
Jesse and Lukas stepped through, the latter walking by himself but Jesse still looking anxiously at every step he took. They didn't look too happy to wade through the pond either.
Olivia twirled in a circle around the clearing. She couldn't see a damn thing that resembled a shelter. Why would the central control center for The Order of the Stone lead to nowhere.
Axel stepped next to her and growled. He was dripping wet, and shivering the hardest of them all.
"And now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere." Olivia said exasperated and tired. She set Reuben down to walk around. Instead he went straight for Lukas and Jesse, oiking with concern. Olivia chose to ignore that.
"Maybe not." Jesse said. She patted Reuben on her way next to Olivia's side, her arms were crossed and her teeth chattered. "Before I was thrown into the portal Gabriel told me to find The Orders temple. He said to find Ellegaard and Magnus; if the tracks down there all lead to here…" Jesse trailed off for them to fill in the blanks.
"Then the temple is near here." Lukas finished for her. Olivia felt sick again, they were lost, that's what they were. The temple was Notch knows where and the vegetation hid the path to The Temple.
It was hopeless.
"You nearly got yourself killed for that?" Olivia jumped, she didn't expect Lukas to keep speaking. In fact he sounded angry, at Jesse. He was even glaring at her from his nearby spot.
Jesse turned with a threatening glare of her own.
Goodness what happened? One second they are nice and friendly to each other and the next they hate each other.
Or was that a… protective angry?
No, that can't be it.
"I could say the same about you, except about you staying up there without a sword, period." Jesse spat.
Or… maybe it was. But why? They barely know each other.
What was Olivia missing?
"Alright you two, insulting each other isn't going to get us anywhere." Olivia snapped them out of their glaring competition. Whatever they had happened between them, they didn't need a fight breaking out. "So, we're looking for a giant building. It should be pretty obvious."
Lukas shook his head, mumbling shamefully, "I say we bed down for the night." It was actually a good idea.
"But we just said we need to find the temple." Axel argued, sounding snarky and mean.
"It's dangerous to be wondering out in the dark." Lukas said calmly.
"If we find the temple than we have a shelter already!" Olivia was really getting annoyed with Axel's attitude towards Lukas. He was smart and had helped them. Other than be friends with a couple of jerks, what had he ever done to them?
"Mobs don't spawn within a thirty block radius of a person. We'll literally be walking into hoards." Was Lukas' final argument. Axel looked ready to fight back, but luckily, Jess was there to help.
"Then building a shelter is an excellent idea." Jesse gave Axel a warning look that said, 'drop it.'
Axel huffed.
"Okay, then we should hurry. I say we build a treehouse." Olivia offered.
"That'll take forever," Axel complained. He looked sore about losing his argument with Lukas. "and we'll be exposed while we do it. We just need a quick and dirty hut."
"No treehouse," Jess agreed. "those things will be a disaster to climb into." Jesse motioned to her back and Lukas' whole front side.
Olivia smiled apologetically, she wasn't thinking.
"Then let's get to work." Olivia agreed.
Olivia punched several trees to make as many wooden shovels as possible, then got to work.
Axel and Olivia did most of the digging, with Jesse helping without taking 'no' for an answer. Lukas was forced to watch with Reuben sense he could barely walk on his own
After Axels shovel broke, he started on the foundation of their hut. That wasn't too long ago, he was starting on the roof and was yelling at them to give him more dirt.
Jesse gave her few pieces of dirt to Axel and leaned on her shovel next to Olivia.
"You doing okay?" Olivia asked her.
"Yeah, just a little sore." Olivia turned to look at Axel.
"Looks like Axel is going to be doing most of the building."
Jesse snorted, "Probably best." Jesse looked around before releasing a long breath. "Hey, I'm going to The Nether for a piece of Netherrack, for a fireplace." Jesse told Olivia. She nodded.
"Okay, I'll get the last of this dirt for Axel." Jesse and Olivia exchanged quick goodbyes before Jesse started her walk towards the Portal.
Breaking ten blocks of dirt was easy so Olivia was done in no time. She handed Axel the dirt he needed, which he took without question.
"Need help, Axel?" Olivia asked politely, even though helping Axel build was the last thing she wanted to do.
"Nah, I'm good. You can go sit down if you need to, Olivia."
Feeling relieved, Olivia walked over to Lukas and Reuben to sit down. At first she was a little hesitant, but then she realized she shouldn't be worried about Lukas anymore.
She collapsed into the dirt next to him and the little piglet with a sigh of content.
"Uhg, I remember when I used to love destroying hills with a shovel, now it's just a pain." Olivia smiled fondly at her childhood memories. In hindsight they weren't supposed to be very fun.
Lukas snorted, "Can't say I feel the same. Back in Sahara you had to travel valleys outside of the city to do anything like that and not have anyone get mad at you. Couldn't really destroy anything actually." Olivia turned her head, finding that… interesting and surprising.
Learning more about Lukas' background was oddly nice, it showed he had a tiny bit of trust in her. She liked that.
"So what did you do?" Olivia asked. When she was a kid breaking and building things was how they played, having small competition with the other kids and seeing who could chop down a giant oak faster was how they played. Not being able to do that must have been incredibly boring.
"Played with the other kids; games and mock sword fights. You don't really learn how to break or craft things till your… I want to say twelve, maybe a little older." Olivia frowned.
"Thats… awful." Lukas smiled shyly, he didn't seem surprised, just amused. He had had this conversation before.
"Just another difference between living in a big city and living in a small town." Olivia hummed. She began to pick at the grass blocks underneath her. She was thinking about The Nether and having to hit levers, buttons, and ducking under obstacles in order to live. They were traps worthy of Ellegaard, but she wouldn't dare make those on a minetrack.
She thought about finally meeting up with Axel again, then with Lukas. She thought about how Lukas said he wanted to be an alchemist. It didn't make sense to her, Lukas was a builder. That's what he did. He was the best in town. Alchemy and building are two very different things, practically opposites, so how did he go from one side of the spectrum to the other.
"Can I ask you something, Lukas?" Olivia needed to know. Lukas shrugged.
"Don't see why not."
"Back in The Nether you said you wanted to be an alchemist?"
"Uh, yeah, but everyone thought I'd be a better builder than a scientist." Lukas leaned back, away from Olivia.
"Why's that?"
"No use for it, but a city like that could always use a good architects." Olivia didn't understand how a huge City with millions of people could not use potions to their advantage. Did they cause chaos or something?
Questions aside, if he wanted to be an architect, then why did he move to a small town where literally no one needed a house.
"Then why'd you move?" Olivia asked.
"To get away from the heat and be closer to Endercon." Lukas answered, almost robotically. That wasn't what Olivia wanted to hear, she wanted to know why Lukas wasn't acting out on either of his dream careers.
"Ever thought about learning about potions again?"
"Sometimes." Olivia waited for about a minute for him to continue.
"But?"
"Nothing." Lukas cringed back when Reuben unexpectedly liked his face. He playfully pushed Reuben back away from him. "Sometimes I think about being an alchemist, but it would be impractical. Takes too much time and I'm a bit late to that scene." How old was Lukas? Olivia personally was the youngest of her friends at twenty three, and Lukas was obviously older...but by how much?
Too many questions, stay on track, Olivia, she told herself.
"I know you help out with buildings but you more of a construction worker than an architect."
Lukas Smiled fondly with a bit of a laugh, "Ha, yeah, seems to be the only thing I'm good at, actually." Olivia frowned deeper. Lukas' seemed to keep switching patterns, and answers.
He says one thing, then says another. Olivia thought.
"Why would you say that? What happened to being an architect?"
Lukas shrugged against, now he was picking at the grass. "I can design houses, and small buildings, give me something like a… skyscraper or factory to build? Yeah, no. That's pretty much the story of my life. Okay at everything, but not good enough to be anything. Except following directions." Olivia mouth went dry. She couldn't believe someone would say something that about themselves so… nonchalantly, almost as if it was a joke. It was slightly heartbreaking.
"oh." Lukas raised an eyebrow at her reaction.
"You'd be surprised to know that it doesn't bother me too much." Olivia blinked, she did not expect that to be his response.
"How?" She asked hesitantly. Lukas stopped to think. He looked up past Olivia's shoulder at nothing in particular. He was just thinking.
He shifted his gaze to Olivia.
"'Cause I'm good at a little bit of everything. It's nice sometimes." Olivia took a second to think about that. It was… kinda nice to hear that.
"Guess that's one way of looking at it." Olivia agreed.
They sat there in silence, not needing to speak anymore. Olivia knew that she had learned enough about Lukas for one day.
Reuben grunted a few times, a little piggy smile on his face. Eventually Jesse came back with a single piece of netherrack in her hands.
"I'm back." Jesse announced. Olivia waved and Lukas nodded. Reuben oiked and Axel turned to look at Jesse curiously.
"From where?" He asked. Axel hopped down from the roof of the hut, now finished and needing a door.
"The Nether, I went to grab something." Jesse answered.
"What did you get?" Jesse showed Axel her netherrack. Axel nodded. He was impressed.
"Oh, smart, put it in the middle." Axel pointed to the center of the hut. Jesse nodded and walked right into the hut.
Olivia stood up, glad she'd be able to dry her pants and get warm again.
Without hesitation this time, Olivia offered her hand to help Lukas stand.
I always have this deep satisfying feeling of goodness and happiness whenever I finish a chapter. I did not have that feeling this time, because I did not finish. Believe it or not people, this was supposed to be longer but the chapter was getting too long and I had already spent a week writing this chapter, and it was already a week late... so... *shrug* HERE YOU GO!
Alright people, I can't wait for next chapter! Because then I can officially end episode 1 and start episode 2. 2 will be extremely fun.
Also, sorry about my horrible grammar and spelling. I'm trying to get better.
Well, I believe I've said my piece for this month. On with other stuff!
REVIEWS!
Abyss101 - Thats who Luke Callestan was supposed to remind you of. Luke from PJO. So sad, Luke. I mean. Thanks for reading my story, I'm glad you like it!
TheAmberShadow - IDEA! IDEA! IDEA! Oh, I love you and your awesome idea! I'm using it, I'll give you credit, of course, but IDEA! I love it! Also, I'm sure you've guessed I'm taking your advice too. Olivia was fun. Also, the risk has been taken. It wont show up fully till later, but it has been taken... God help my soul.
Well I'm done for!
See you guys later!
Bye!
-Kayla.
