Stephanie's PoV

Well, it's finally time to go to the Nether. I always knew about that place, but I never went there. I just got all the stuff I needed from there via anonymous airdrops like I got everything I needed for a new machine. Speaking of which, the others had been building machines so they could get some higher-class weapons and stuff like that. Andr had made herself a sword made of Enderium, Crystal had a manyullyn rapier, Yaebi had an ardite cleaver, Steve and Rat had diamond swords and iron armour, and I had a titanium longsword. Most of the others were staying behind, but we managed to convince Cindy and Cupa.

We stared at the rippling portal for ages, but none of us wanted to go in first.

''What's the matter? You guys scared or something?'' Vanessa taunted.

''We're not! In fact, I'll go in first!'' Steve yelled back, and jumped in. One by one we followed him in…

MEANWHILE

''They're here.'' Paula said to Willow.

''Good. You know the plan. Pig girl, firebat, bring them here alive.'' she replied, with a look that seemed to reach into your soul and incinerate it.

''Yes, my queen.'' said Paula and Fiona simultaneously, and walked out.

Once they were out of the fortress, they started talking.

''Fiona, I really don't want to do this. I don't know what those guys did, but I don't think they started it." Paula started.

''I don't like it either, but we firebats gotta do what we can to survive. Trust me, you don't want to end up like your dad…''

''My father was a great, intelligent, honest man! He reinvented redstoning forever! And Blazette just…just…'' Paula started crying a little bit.

''Blazette was angry that he didn't want to fight in the Surface Wars, and you know that. It didn't matter if we were the bad guys, or they were. You were just supposed to fight. Anyone who said no was executed. C'mon, we learned this years ago…'' Fiona tried to reason with Paula.

''But… Blazette's not in charge anymore. Maybe we can…''

''No, Paula. We are not doing anything except what the queen wants us to.''

Paula frowned. ''What happened to rebellious Fiona? The Fiona that challenged everything to the end?''

''Are you kidding me? I nearly died today! I'm not risking my life again. Now c'mon, we have a job to do…''

Rat's PoV

Wow! Just… Wow! The Nether never looked this good in the stories of the players! They described this place as deserted, devoid of life, uninhabitable, and now look at it! Blue, white and red trees sprouting from the searing netherrack! Neon coloured mushrooms pushing out of soul sand patches! Bright yellow vines hanging from the blood red roof of this hellish place! It's so lush and beautiful!

''Has anyone seen any sphalerite anywhere?'' Stephanie asked.

''There is a lot of lava here.'' Crystal said as she stared off into the distance.

''Is that tree growing on the ceiling?'' Steve asked.

''Gather up as much stuff as possible, and then get out quick. We don't want any run ins with the locals…'' Andr told us.

Just then, there was a horrible screaming sound. A massive white creature came out of nowhere, shooting fireballs at us. One of the fireballs hit the side of the portal, and the purple light flickered and cut out. We were horrified at the sight of our only way back home destroyed, but there was another problem too…

''Guy's that's a ghast, and it's a monster, not a mob!''

I asked what that that meant. ''Well, Steve here is from prehistoric times, where mobs looked like that. Or at least ghasts did. These evil boss mobs named Valerie and Willow have been kidnapping mobs and devolving them into monsters like this. The evolved ones are referred to as mobs, the devolved as monsters.''

Suddenly, the ghast picked up Cupa with its tentacle things, and carried her over to a huge lava lake.

''AHH! SHIT! HELP ME!'' she yelled as the ghast got ready to drop her.

We all stared out, unable to help as the ghast shot more fireballs at us. Suddenly, Steve jumped out and ran towards a netherrack cliff. I had no idea what his plan was, but I knew it was stupid…

Steve's PoV

There was no way I would just sit around and let Cupa die. If she died I would too! But, it would be better if nobody died. I reached the top of the cliff, swinging back any fireballs that came near me. I made a huge running jump and landed on top of the ghast. I drove my sword into its head, and it died. Only problem was, that ghast was the only thing stopping Cupa and me from falling into the lava. As we fell, I grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. And then… Ow! I fell flat on my back suddenly. This couldn't be lava, it was hard, and not even hot! In fact, it was cold… Cold… TOO COLD! We quickly ran out of the cold stuff towards the others, who were cheering for me. No, wait, they were cheering for Andr, who was standing there with a bucket lined with ice crystals. Apparently, she had thrown a bucket of gelid cryotheum over the lava, and it had turned into very, very cold obsidian. We gathered up enough obsidian to fix the portal, but we had no way of lighting it. We spent the next few hours gathering the stuff we had come here for, glowstone, quartz, soul sand, nether wart, sphalerite and pyrite, all that we could from the area.

''I can probably rig up a laser or something that can heat up the portal frame enough to start it up, but I need a ruby to focus the beam.'' said Stephanie.

''I haven't seen any rubies anywhere, but there are peridot and sapphires, so there must be rubies somewhere here…'' said Cindy. When she said this, we all knew the only way to get home would be to go deeper into hell…