Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Homework, homework, HOMEWORK, PEOPLE! Gotta love freakin homework, right? As if eight hours of school wasn't enough...

Sorry I'm posting kinda late. I mean, it's late here, but maybe not where you guys are... I dunno, just saying.

Anyway, putting those thoughts out of mind, how about some replies to reviews?

Replies To Reviews...

Volcanic the hedgehog: Dude, you know what? You always seem to be the first guy to review my story whenever I post a new chapter. You're ranking is moving upward, I can say that. Sooner or later you'll become my #1 fan!

CSICreeper: You're lucky that you got a Facebook at your age. I couldn't get one until I was thirteen. Shoot, that reminds me, I need to update my age on my profile; still haven't changed it. Must'a slipped my mind.

BfheadGamer: Have you figured out what Gabe was secretly crafting a while back? It'll be revealed in the chapter after this one here, so take an educated guess! :D

Dirt BlockZ: Okay, let me explain... Lucas was a completely normal kid at first, but when he went with Mark, at some point the Glitch wanted to keep an eye on him closely, so he used Lucas as a host. This was also to spy on Gabe, because the Glitch was suspecting the possibility of Salutem also keeping an eye on Mark for safety. In a way, they were cancelling each other out in the means of Mark's safety. But yes, they both needed to keep an eye on Mark, or for the Glitch, also set its sights on the Balance Core, plus Gabe in case he was just Salutem in disguise. Do I make enough sense? I'm pretty sure Rexum explains the whole thing better in the chapter after this one.

AMinecraftMaster: Surprisingly, I saw a few people who were expecting it... Weird. :/

Now we can get back to the story, right? Yeah? I was hoping, because the plot of the story will be coming into play VERY soon. Now then, ON WITH THE STORY!

Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Last time on VOiD, we watched as the whole of Operation Overkill came and went. Throughout it, Lucas was chased down by a swarm of silverfish, had a torrent of water dumped on him in his pjs, had his clothes stolen by somebody unknown, got shot in every single direction without warning on the inside of a dim hallway, attacked by zombies in an unused storage room, and dropped down a terrifyingly lengthy hole. After Mark gave his speech about Lucas's impudence in front of the entire school, Lucas made a grab for the Balance Core unexpectedly, and Gabe came in for the rescue. Chaos arose, for the Glitch unearthed itself from out of Lucas's body right before everyone's eyes and killed the entire staff of Diamond University in one swipe, feasting upon their souls. Finally, Gabe was also killed, and Salutem revealed itself from out of the body to fight off the Glitch so that Mark could grab the Balance Core and escape. Mark built an emergency Nether portal and made it through the other end before the Glitch could get its massive black wings on the ancient item it needed most. Now we watch as Mark explores the Nether, coming across several interesting things along the way.

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 25: Ineffective Inferno-Therapy

Vanessa raised Cantatis into the air as she ran and then pictured a jetpack in her head. The next moment, Cantatis glowed bright red and transformed into that same machine, and she slipped it on hastily. Then she took off into the air as fast as she could, desperate to get as far away from the Glitch and its horrific screeches of anger as possible. But as she flew away she could see the rest of the group below, and they were all running as well. She didn't want to go back down to the ground and risk her life, but then what would the others do?

Thankfully, there was a sudden flash of golden light from below and she could see Rexum appearing there, sending many golden clouds to pick everybody up. In less than ten seconds she was joined in the skies by her fellow teammates. All except Mark, of course. But where was Mark? Was he safe? Despite being annoyed by her brother all her life, Vanessa was scared for Mark. She didn't know where he was or if he was even alive, and it shook her deeply. For once she actually wanted to have her older brother by her side.

Rexum had finally gotten better, and although he looked weak on the outside, Vanessa could sense that he was still alert and well-aware more than ever. This was the second time they'd been attacked by the Glitch—except for the bombing of Invacuo City so long ago, but she wasn't even there. Suddenly, Rexum raised his staff with both hands and it glowed so brightly with gold that Vanessa turned away. She couldn't see what incantation he was performing, but without any warning she felt herself being sucked through what felt like an extremely powerful vacuum. In fact, she lost consciousness as the light surrounded her, but it wasn't a sickening feeling, it was rather a pleasant sensation of falling asleep.

Something slimy was touching her face.

Her immediate reaction was opening her eyes and making a sound of something like "bleck", which she very much did. Her vision was slightly blurry for some reason, but even so she could tell that she was in a dark cave, because she could see a dull orange light coming from what looked like the mouth of the cave, which stood twenty blocks away.

She couldn't move her arms, because they were encased in the same jello-like substance, and were sticking to the wall behind her, and same with her feet. Where had her shoes gone? The floor was burning beneath her feet, and she wanted to move, but she couldn't. The floor was extremely hot. VERY! She cried out in pain, desperate to move her feet, but they stay stuck together on the floor.

Then there was a sickly-sounding lurch from somewhere in the cave, and she jumped slightly. Almost as suddenly, a voice came from deep in the dark.

"Welcome to the Inferno-Therapy Clinic! Here at our clinic we will stop at nothing to give you the relief you really need!"

The voice was over-the-top cheery, and to be honest, it really creeped her out. Then the voice spoke again and said,

"Here, let us show you how we do treatment here at Inferno-Therapy Clinic!"

As though there were a projector above her head, a bright image was projected into midair for her to see. It was really bright, so it was hard to make out the words, and could only make sense of the images. First it showed a picture of a man with only his boxers on, and he looked ready to crap his undies because he was so scared.

"Here at Inferno-Therapy Clinic we use heat to relieve stress and pain!"

The images shifted and the man was now surrounded by four small magma cubes, and each of the creatures leaped forward and pinned him to an invisible wall. The man was then shown slowly being lowered into a pit of lava, starting from the bottom and going up. He screamed in agony, a scream that chilled her blood. When the horrible projection finally faded, she was left pressed up against the wall in darkness again, and her feet had gone numb from the pain of the hot floor.

"Now, we're VERY busy at the moment, so the earliest we can schedule you for is 5:00 sharp, which will occur in one hour! Please wait while we tend to our other customers! Goodbye, and thank you for coming to the Inferno-Therapy Clinic!"

The splurching and sloshing of what was probably a magma cube faded away as it hopped out of the cave. Now she was alone, completely surrounded by darkness, unsure of how she had gotten there, and scared out of her mind.

The ground was hot and sticky beneath Mark's hands as he laid face-down on the ground. He knew he was in the Nether, he knew he had miraculously escaped from the Glitch's dark clutches, but what he didn't know was how the Glitch had disguised itself as Lucas that whole time. Wait, HAD Lucas been a fictional character the whole time? But then how would've Mrs. Bailey Creeper given birth to him and raised him? No, there must have been one point in time when the Glitch wanted to spy on Mark and decided to take Lucas as its host body.

Finally, when Mark could not stand the heat pricking at his face and palms he sat up. Yes, he was definitely in the Nether. He was sitting near the edge of a deep ravine that stretched far into the smoke-filled distance. Around him were lots of zombie pigmen, but they were all just looking at him suspiciously, not attacking.

Mark stood up and brushed himself off hastily, and then looked around quickly for any hostile mobs such as Ghasts, Blaze or magma cubes. When he didn't see any, he decided to start walking. He knew for a fact that if he opened the portal back up he could be dumped anywhere in the entire world of Minecraft, and the LAST thing he needed was getting lost in somewhere unknown. If he had to pick and choose, he'd stay in the Nether for now, because the Nether was a lot smaller than the Overworld, so he'd have a better chance of finding somebody else.

So that's what he did. He walked across the steaming red stone for a while, drowning in his own sweat. He wanted to rest, but since he couldn't find anything to lay on that wasn't singing hot, he just kept on moving forward.

Herobrine screamed angrily and blasted fire through his mouth, singeing Carl in the face.

"CARL, YOU GO RIGHT BACK TO GENERAL BLACKFLAME AND TELL HIM TO GET ME AN ACTUAL REPORT ON THE GLITCH'S STATUS! YOU TELL HIM THAT LORD HEROBRINE DOESN'T WANT THE SCUMMY ACCOUNTS HE'S BEEN SENDING, AND THAT HE'D BETTER WISE UP QUICK OR HE'S FIRED! NOW GO!"

A darkened-faced servant clapped a clammy hoof to his head to extinguish the small flame that had ignited what few hairs he had growing from his scalp, and then hurried off frantically, not wanting to be blasted again. Once he had gone, Herobrine continued with his frustration-fueled pacing. But just walking in a line wasn't enough, and he got so angry that he screamed again, blasting flames onto his throne, setting it aflame and startling his wife Emily, who stood near to the soulsand-crafted chair. She walked forward and put a comforting hand on her infuriated husband's shoulder and attempted to console him.

"Herb, I know that you're upset, but if you just keep letting yourself get angry like this, well... You won't make any progress. I suggest taking it easy; take a dip in the Magma Springs to help you relax."

Herobrine sighed and said,

"You're right, you're right..." he snapped his fingers and the flames surrounding his throne extinguished.

Herobrine walked back around his throne and entered through the open doorway that stood there. He stepped through it and found himself back in the steaming-hot poolroom of lava that stretched forty blocks down. He took off all his clothing and folded them up on the edge of the pool, and then he lowered himself down into the lava. It was a very pleasant temperature to him, and although it may boil the average man, he found it very soothing.

While he lay in the pool of lava he cleared his mind of everything about war so that he may relax fully. Emily's advice was actually working, because now Herobrine no longer thought about the war declarations nor the activities of the Glitch. He couldn't even think about thinking about it!

"Herobrine! What's the news on the war declarations and activities of the Glitch?"

Herobrine opened his eyes and jerked his head to the right and yelled so angrily that his breath came out in a glowing fireball, which disintegrated the unfortunately curious Blaze that had been hovering next to him. He may be able to stop thinking about the Glitch, but what good would that be when everyone in his kingdom was asking the same questions he was trying to avoid?! Life was impossible, it seemed.

Just thinking about this made him even more frustrated, so to release his anger he let out a terrible yell that shook the entire Nether.

The gravel floor beneath Mark suddenly rumbled violently, and he yelped an unmanly little noise as it fell, and he was sent falling through the air. He screamed as he went, flailing his arms hopelessly, but then finally landed in a massive pile of something squishy and hot. When he stood up and spat whatever the thing was out of his mouth, he looked down and saw that he had faceplanted in a massive pile of Netherwart.

He rubbed his tongue, trying to get the lumpy plant taste off his taste buds. But while he was doing so, he realized that the patch he was standing on wasn't naturally formed from the inside of a Nether fortress, but rather it was a perfect square plot of Netherwart that was 7x7 on the ground with some lava holes here and there. Mark immediately turned around to see what he thought he might see, and he was right, for there was a house made of cobblestone sitting six blocks from the Netherwart farm on which he stood.

Mark immediately ran to the house and entered. It was a small house, but it had chests lined up along the walls, anvils, crafting tables, plus another Nether portal. He had finally found a house! Now all he had to do was wait...

Mark checked his watch every now and then, but it was useless, for his dial was spinning out of control. Apparently, time did not matter in the Nether. Finally, after waiting for what seemed like a half hour, Mark stepped back outside and looked around for some sign of a person's trail. In fact, there was a convenient path of cobblestone built into the floor that stretched around back of the base of the mountain he stood by. Naturally, he decided to follow the path in hope to find its creator walking along it as well.

He followed the path for twenty minutes, walking all the way up the mountain until he reached a tiny cave that had formed at the peak and went down inside the mountain. Mark walked down the cobblestone steps and was thankful for the torches that the owner had put down. He kept going down for another few minutes, but then the ground leveled out and he entered another cave. The cave was a bit larger than the hole that led down to it, and far on the other end was its mouth, leading back to the outside of the Nether.

"Hello?" Mark said, making his voice echo off the cave walls.

He heard somebody in the cave make a startled noise, and he felt heavy breathing down his neck. Mark whipped out his diamond sword and whirled around, holding it out to whoever was there. He heard a girl shriek right in front of him.

"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

Then the girl in the dark started weeping and murmuring to herself.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Mark, feeling forward in the dark.

He felt something soft in front of him, and whatever it was retracted immediately.

"Don't touch me! Get away!" she screamed in a warning tone.

Mark felt around to her side, and then felt something like warm jello.

"What are you doing here? Just tell me what happened and I can help you." he murmured softly, careful not to touch the girl.

"A bunch of magma cubes pinned me to this wall by my hands and feet! Now my bare feet are burning on the ground! It hurts!"

Mark crouched down in the ground and felt around.

"Here, I'll get those magma cubes off of you, just hold still."

Mark patted around the ground until he felt the jello-like stuff again, and it suddenly turned hot.

"Okay, now I'm going to cut it off with my sword, but I won't hurt you."

"Just get it off m-me, please..."

Mark felt the hot jello with one hand and then brought his sword down with the other, cutting said magma cube with a splurch, and the little creature squealed in pain as it died.

"Welcome to the Inferno-Treatment Clinic!"

Without any warning, four slimy magma cubes leaped from out of nowhere and tackled him to the wall, pinning him by his hands and feet, and he immediately dropped his sword, hearing it clatter somewhere at his feet.

"Dr. Ash is ready for your appointment!"

From next to Mark, he heard the girl whisper feverishly,

"Oh no, oh no, oh no..."

Suddenly, the floor dropped beneath them and they started descending down an extremely dark tunnel. Unable to move or even see, Mark just whispered calming words to the other girl to comfort her, but more to comfort himself, as he didn't know what would happen to him.

"It's okay, we'll be fine..." he muttered under his breath, blinking as his eyes attempted to adjust to the pitch-blackness around them.

Then they emerged from the dark tunnel into a small 10x10x10 room with a floor completely made of lava. Mark turned his head awkwardly to the left to get a good look of the girl. She looked like she was the same age as Vanessa, and she was really small. By the looks of it she was part Asian, so her eyes looked like it, but the rest of her face seemed normal, and her skin had a golden tan. She had a head of curly reddish-brown hair and small hazelnut eyes. Even though she was kind of shrimpy, she looked like she hadn't quite lost the prominent round belly of childhood. For some reason she had been stripped of everything except her undergarments.

"Geez, magma cubes seemed so innocent before now, but after witnessing this, what am I supposed to say?! Besides, how the heck are these things even talking..." wondered Mark.

The young girl kept looking with a horrified expression at the lava below them. Just as they started moving, another small magma cube hopped forward from out of nowhere and pinned the girl's only free foot back to the wall before she could kick it away. She screamed again, jerking the rest of her body forward as to free herself, but failed. Mark's panic was also setting it, because he now had to be afraid of two things: one, that these creepy magma cubes would strip him down to his boxers in front of a girl he hadn't before, and two, that he'd be deep-fried in lava and die for real. Both outcomes seemed all-too real.

The magma cubes connecting them to the wall stopped moving, leaving them stuck to the wall, just one block away from the lava pit below. Suddenly, a pillar rose up out of the lava nearby, and sitting on it was a medium-sized magma cube.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Ash, and I'll be your treatment specialist today."

The girl next to him lowered her head, letting her hair drape down over herself, and she let her tears fall into the lava and hiss as they evaporated.

"Don't be scared, we always bring in new people, and their treatments have gone perfectly well!" said Dr. Ash in a singsong voice.

Mark knew he had to get out of there fast, and so he tried reasoning with the doctor, which was all he COULD do.

"Dr. Ash, we're not from the Nether, so if you dip us in the lava we'll burn to a crisp!"

A little black slit opened up beneath Dr. Ash's mouth and it curled upward, which must've been a smile.

"Exactly!"

Mark's stomach churned instantly, contributing to his dizziness—along with the steam and smoke, obviously. He so wished he had his sword at the moment. Dr. Ash shifted slightly on his pillar to stare directly at the crying Eurasian next to Mark.

"I'll start with the young lady." he said cheerfully.

The next moment, the magma cubes that connected the girl to the pillar slowly inched downward, lowering her to the lava. The lava was coming dangerously close to her feet, and she started screaming. Mark squeezed his eyes shut and did the only thing he could do...

"Farixz, please, if you can hear me, get us out of here!"

The air was suddenly filled with bloodcurdling screams unlike any other, and when Mark opened his eyes he saw the bottoms of the girl's feet just touch the lava. That EXACT moment, something extraordinary happened: from out of nowhere, the lava drained from the room and was replaced with water, and this water didn't evaporate instantly. The magma cubes that held Mark and the other girl to the wall instantly died, sending them both into the water. While underwater, Mark felt something materialize in his hand, and it was smooth and cold. His sword had returned, and as soon as he got a good grip on it he bounced off the bottom of the pool and rocketed upward with his sword straight up. When he broke through the surface, Dr. Ash was skewered by his sword, and three mini doctors burst out, falling into the water to drown.

Mark climbed in a sodden mess onto the Nether brick pillar. The girl was not there, but when he looked back down into the water he saw her thrashing around in the water below. He took action and did a dive into the water, grabbed her arm, and then swam with her to the surface. Her face was screwed up in immense pain and she was moaning. Mark lifted himself onto the pillar and then grabbed her hand, pulling her up as well. As soon as her feet touched the platform she screamed and slipped, almost falling back into the water. Mark stopped her from falling and then sat her down on the pillar instead. She started crying again.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, trying to keep her calm.

The girl sobbed and pointed at her feet, which were outstretched as far away from the pillar as possible. When Mark looked over at them he gulped and saw immediately what the problem was. The bottoms of her feet were crisp from being dipped in the lava, and were black with 3rd degree burns. Mark sighed and then looked back at the girl, who was now staring at him pleadingly.

"What am I supposed to do now? I can't walk!" she protested as fresh tears came to her already-reddened eyes.

Mark grinned and said,

"I'll carry you, no problem."

So that's exactly what he did. Mark lifted the small girl with both arms and then looked around for an exit. Of course, there was none. So instead, Mark closed his eyes and whispered his prayers to Farixz again.

"Farixz, can you get us home, please?"

He was answered again, for the next moment he felt himself traveling at the speed of light and then stopping again, although now he stood holding the girl while standing in the Netherwart patch near the cobblestone house. Mark carried her all the way to the house and then stepped inside. He set her down on the bed in the corner of the room and she lay down flat, being careful not to touch anything with her feet lest she feel the immense pain once more.

"Have you got any sponges or wool or something? Water buckets?" asked Mark, moving among the chests.

The girl whispered quietly in a voice that was now barely audible.

"There's wool and a water bucket in the top right chest."

Mark stood on his tip-toes to see inside the high-laced chest, and quickly located the items he was looking for. He set down the water bucket and then dipped two wool block in the bucket. As long as he didn't place the water on the ground he'd be fine. Once they were soaked well enough, he walked back over to the girl and slowly brought the cloth to her feet. As soon as they touched she screamed again in pain and thrashed, kicking Mark in the nose on accident. Mark stumbled back and slammed into the chests, groaning and holding his face.

"Sorry!" she murmured in a loud whisper.

Mark held the wool to his own nose to stop the blood that had started to flow. Through a plugged-sounding tone he said,

"Dat's okay, I'b bine..."

When the bloody nose had cleared up a few minutes later, he sighed and looked back at her.

"So, you're sure you're okay?"

"Yes..." she murmured shyly, looking down at her bedspread.

"What's your name?" asked Mark, purely out of curiosity.

The girl looked back up at him with her reddish-brown locks hanging over her eyes. She whispered something that wasn't audible at all.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Mark asked politely.

"Olivia." she murmured as blush entered her cheeks.

Mark grinned and held out a hand to her, and she shook it politely.

"My name's Mark." he bent down and examined her burned feet. "Gee, Olivia, I don't know how to heal this kind of thing. Oh wait! I know, let's get you some food."

He searched among the chests and quickly located some cooked fish, which he brought over to Olivia, who looked down as he approached. He knelt down next to her and slowly fed her the fish. Once she had finished three whole pieces, he walked back over to her feet, but saw that they had not healed up even the slightest.

"Okay, so food won't work either..."

Mark pondered what he could possibly to do help Olivia out, but his mind drew a blank. Suddenly, Mickey's voice echoed inside Mark's head, although it came in with lots of static, almost like a long-distance phone call.

"Master, what is it you ask?"

Mark glanced at his back but saw that he had no Blockpack, for he had left it back at Diamond University. Mark quickly occupied himself with bending down and trying to tie his shoe so that he could talk to Mickey.

"Dude, you can hear me from that far away?"

Mickey spoke again, clear as ever.

"Is true, yes. Our connection will never break. Also, I know you need help healing girl's feet, I help you."

Mark paused for a moment and considered the matter.

"You can help me? How?"

"I know friends, friends heal feet, they good at healing."

"Just tell me how to find them."

"Make call of the slime, like this... Wee, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, wee! Like that, and slime friends come help. Go to Overworld to summon them first."

"Thanks, Mickey. I knew I could count on you."

Mickey gave a proud little sigh inside his head. Suddenly, another thought came to Mark's mind and he said,

"Mickey, where are the others?"

"Oh, you mean Master's friends? Master's friends look for Master, wizard is searching for Master, he will find. We will see each other soon, yes?"

"I guess so. Well, bye Mickey."

"Goodbye Master."

And then the connection went blank, and Mark stood up from his crouching position and looked back at Olivia.

"Hey, I just remembered some friends of mine who might be able to help the burns heal."

Olivia nodded silently and then said,

"Can you, um, take me to them, please?"

Mark sighed and walked next to her, bending over and saying,

"Alright, I'm going to pick you up again."

He lifted the little girl with both arms and then stepped towards the Nether portal.

"They're in the Overworld, though, so..."

He took a pause, waited for Olivia to nod again, and then stepped through the purple tiles of the portal. There was that moment of sickening travel, but the next moment he came back through to the other side and felt his feet hit wet grass. They had landed on the border between a swamp and a desert.

Mark carefully set Olivia down on the nearby sand and she kept her legs stretched out so she wouldn't hurt herself again. Mark stood up straight and looked down at her.

"Okay, now this may sound like bull, but I swear I'm telling the truth when I say that my friends who'll help us are, well... Slimes."

That exact instant, Olivia's face froze with fear and she stared horrified at Mark.

"Don't worry, they're nice." he said, holding his hands outstretched and shaking them.

Mark lifted his head again and then made the call that Mickey had suggested, although he did it with slight embarrassment.

"Wee, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, wee!"

He felt like a complete idiot saying it, but he did it anyway. At first, all was quiet.

"They didn't come..." murmured Olivia, almost relieved.

Mark waited impatiently, wanting the silence to end, and then it did. A few seconds later, hopping sounds came from behind him, and when he turned around he was startled to see an entire swarm of twenty or so slimes of different sizes jumping towards him and Olivia quickly.

Before Mark decided about backing away, he suddenly heard the slimes starting to speak on their own.

"Is that Mark Cobweb?"

"Yes, it is Mark Cobweb!"

"I can't believe it! Mark Cobweb called us!"

"Who else, dummy? Who'd you think he was, Herobrine?"

Then Mark realized that they weren't even speaking out loud, but it was just inside his head, just like Mickey usually did. Why was it that he kept hearing non-anthropomorphic creatures speak? Maybe he was just crazy...

But while he was thinking, the entire swarm of different-sized slimes formed a ring around Mark and Olivia. A large-sized magma cube hopped forward from the back and landed in front of them, making Olivia give a frightened yelp. Mark heard a hearty laugh echo in his head and then a deep voice say,

"OHO! Hello, Ultra Hero! MY name is Chief Flub! We have long awaited the day when the greatest antagonist of the Divination Dimensions would cry for help! Now, what needs healing here, eh?"

There was a very pregnant pause, but then Mark just looked back over his shoulder at Olivia. The great Chief Flub hopped over to Olivia, who cowered in fright. He bent his massively slimy cubed body over and peered with squinty eyes at the blackness that covered her feet. He let out a curious grumbling noise, but then turned around on the spot and boomed,

"Bella and Ella! C'mere for a moment, girls!"

Two small slimes bounced forward excitedly, practically vibrating with joy. In chorus they said,

"Yes, Chief Flub?"

The chief turned back around and looked down at the burns on Olivia's feet.

"Heal the poor girl up straight away! It looks like she's fallen into some lava, the unfortunate thing."

Olivia looked up at the massive slime with apprehension, but Mark gave her a look of assurance.

"They can heal the burns, okay?" said Mark in a slow, comforting voice.

Chief Flub gave a hearty belly-laugh and continued to speak.

"Oh, we can heal her, alright! Bella and Ella, I've already said it; heal up this poor girl's feet!" the two small slimes hopped forward towards Olivia, who started to shy away.

"Is it going to hurt?" she asked timidly, looking unsurely at the creatures that bounced before her.

"Ha! Does it hurt? Of course not! What do you think we're made of, aftershave?"

Mark relayed the message to Olivia, and her face turned extremely red.

"C'mon, it's better than the burn, right?" said Mark, shrugging at her.

Olivia looked from Bella and Ella to Chief Flub and then to Mark. She sighed and nodded slowly. The next moment, the two small slimes at her feet formed indents at their fronts that were shaped like footprints. Slowly, Olivia inserted a foot into each of the indents, and they slipped on like shoes. Then the small slimes got to work.

Mark watched in amazement as the black skin on Olivia's soles began to dissolve inside the two small slimes' gelatinous bodies. Within a minute of the process, slimes Bella and Ella slid off her feet and dissolved the rest of the blackness, then moved back to admire their handiwork. Just like that, Olivia's skin had been restored to its healthy form.

Olivia smiled gratefully and lifted her foot, staring at it with an amazed expression. Chief Flub attempted to bow over his girth at her.

"It has been my pleasure, young lady."

Mark immediately turned back to the chief and remembered his question he wanted to ask.

"Chief Flub?" he thought. "You wouldn't happen to know where Mickey might be, would you? He's traveling with a group of people, and I need to get back to them."

Chief Flub looked over at Mark and his tiny little cube mouth curled upward—even though it probably shouldn't have been able to in reality.

"Mickey? Oh yes, the little silverfish! He's a friend of mine, you see. I can contact him for you, if you'd like."

"Yes, please."

Another pause occurred, and during it Olivia spoke again to Mark.

"Mark, what's it doing?"

Mark turned and looked down at her for a moment, muttering,

"Focusing, I guess. He's trying to find my group; I was separated a couple hours ago from them, and he might know where they are... Let's just wait a moment."

The next instant, Chief Flub spoke telepathically to Mark again.

"Ah, yes. I have just spoken with Mickey for a moment, and by the quality of our connection I would say that he is roughly one and a half miles west of our position."

Mark went "yessssss" and pumped his fist. How lucky was that?! He was so close! He quickly ran over to Olivia and got her onto her feet.

"Okay, my group is just a mile and a half from here, so we REALLY need to go."

Before Olivia could protest, he pulled her forward, said a quick goodbye to the clan of slimes and Chief Flub, and zoomed west, his heels slapping into the sand of the desert. Even though it had only been a few hours, Mark felt like he had been away from his friends for years. Either way, he wanted nothing more than to be with them, and this thought kept him going as he crossed the scorching sands of the desert.

Finally! It felt like years, didn't it? Well, it did to me.

Anyway, how about some QAA?

To The Glitch: *Gasps desperately for air* Ha! You just told me your weakness! I have *gasp* to tell *gasp* someone, for everyone who was just killed, for all of the structures. *brings two fingers to forehead and vanishes to an unknown place*
The Glitch: Aha... Alright then, I shall be waiting RIGHT here for your return! Mwahahaha... Mwaha... Ha.
To Herobrine: *telepathically* Please listen! I have important news of The Glitch!

Herobrine: GAAAAAHHHHH! I CAN'T STAND THESE PERPETUAL CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE GLITCH I'M SICK OF THIS! *blasts fire into your hair out of anger*

To the Glitch: You so stupid I bet you couldn't tell a female Kel Dor from a half-Nautolan, half-Cathar!

The Glitch: Ha! Why, that is such a trivial thing to know! Why, I just happen to know the difference is... Er... *searching databanks*

To Salutem: Were you Gabe the whole time, or did you just inhabit his body? Same with your evil twin?!

Salutem: I dwelled inside of the body locally known as Gabe in order to keep an eye on Mark. I knew that the Glitch was hiding inside Lucas ever since the kid threatened me down in that cave while I was mining. Things just haven't been going well for me... *sighs heavily* And now I'm on the run again. Or slither, or fly, or whatever you want to call it.
To the Glitch: Don't mess with the Cookie Clicker Dimension, man. Forces beyond. Forces beyond. Soon you will become slave to the cookie. *pushes cookie and teleports away.* Have fuuun!

The Glitch: Watch this... *clicks cookie once, instantly clicking it an infinite amount of times instead* I just made the worldwide high-score. Whoopdeedoop, what fun. Now then, back to destroying! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

To Mark: I feel bad for you, so here's a portal gun and companion cube.

Mark: *imitates Tobuscus* And all I want for Christmas is the gun from portal. Amen, Toby. *laughs* Anybody else remember that?

Well, for next time, how will Raven, Kelsey and Astrid react to seeing ANOTHER girl appearing on the scene? Will we accidently end up with a massive harem? What happened to all the boys, huh? Once Mark reunited with his group, will they all be able to get to their goal before time runs up? And who would've guessed that Herobrine's real name is Herb? Find out next chapter in VOiD! But for now, this is Pastrinator64, and I'll see you later with chapter numbah twenty-six!

*throws sugar bomb, disappears in a cloud of fine white sugar*

Byyyyyeeeeee...

~Pastrinator64 [~]