POV Rio
'Hmm, that should do it.'
Clunk
I shut the hatch and looked at the portal that Gruncle Stanford had built. If my calculations were right, I could now throw the switch, and the portal would start working.
'Hmm, well, I guess I should do it.'
I walk over to the main power switch and pull it down.
Clunk
WRRRRRRRRR
I sat at the computer desk and watched the power stabilize, and the portal light up, flashing various magical symbols.
'Pressures steady. Power stable. Hmm. Yeah, I could connect to a world if I wanted to.'
I let the portal warm up, but I don't choose a destination. There was no need. I only finished the portal as a bit of a side project and because the Batman side of me wanted to tinker with it. It was this or a spaceship.
'Well, I'll let it run for a bit longer and record the results.'
Several Hours Later...
After several hours of testing the portal and ensuring it was stable and free of anomalies, I was getting ready to shut it down when an idea popped into my head.
'Hmm, maybe I should test to see if I can create a working Nether Portal now.'
I considered the risks and deemed it unlikely to cause critical failures; even if it did, the portal was built with numerous safeguards, and the Nether Portal was always very fragile. In either case, it was within my risk tolerance, so I built it after looking around for the Obsidian.
Flint and Steel!
Wrm
"Huh? That actually worked?" I mutter.
I started running scans and made sure nothing crazy happened, but I found that everything seemed normal. To further test things, I made several more tests. The first was whether the Nether Portal remained active when I turned off the other portal. No changes. Then it was to deactivate the Nether Portal and reactivate it. No changes. Then I created another Nether Portal and lit that. No changes. Then I closed all the Nether Portals, went to the farthest location I had, and created another Nether Portal. No changes. I destroyed that portal and went home.
'Fascinating. It could be that the Nether Portal worked fine all along, but it truly was FOZ Worlds dimensional instability that prevented it from working. Or even some other interference.'
After some thought, I looked at the gear I had. The armors or suits I had access to weren't the best, but I would use what I had. I chose the Mento Suit as it was a bit more well-designed, and I really didn't care if it was destroyed or soiled. Then, before leaving, I sent a message to John saying I would be out of contact for a bit and to not wait up for me. John had been a fantastic housemate. Helen helped cook, and John did cleaning and patrolled the forest for lost hikers and the like. With a disguise, of course.
'Okay, enough stalling. We Need to Go Deeper.'
I light the portal and walk into the purple swirling mass. After some disorientation, I was suddenly in a much warmer place. My instincts from playing years of Minecraft kicked in, and I quickly left the portal and looked around me. There was Netherrack everywhere.
'I must either be very high up or really deep down.'
I was in a cave network, by the looks of it, and it was empty. The air was breathable, and the temperature was definitely pretty high, but not unbearably so for most life. Where I was, it was 121 F. Hot sure, but this was basically the Minecraft Hell Dimension.
'Well, let's secure the portal first.'
I start building a robust shelter around the portal to make it at least Ghast-Proof. But I also made it difficult to get to the portal in general. Once that was done, I started testing some things. I tested the rules of the dimension, such as if water can exist. It could, just not the endless water of Minecraft. Water Bottles, Thermoses, Water Skins, A Pepsi Can, I didn't recall having a moment ago, all of them were fine, and I could water bend the water out without issue. Cauldron Water also existed just fine.
'How interesting.'
For now, I would explore the caves. To start, I would head down.
As I went down, I felt the temperature slowly increase. Not drastically, but I figured it might be a good sign. Unfortunately, I was wrong. It led me to a small lava lake. It wasn't much, but at least I got a nice source of lava for my smelting needs.
'Well, I guess I can either tunnel or go up.'
I chose to try going up first before resorting to tunneling. Thankfully, this time I lucked out and got to what could be called the surface here. It was quite the sight to behold. The cave opened out into a massive valley that stretched for miles. Lava pillars spilled from the various places, and I could spot the distant floating shapes of Ghasts. I was near a massive Warped Forest. And that spooked me a bit as I saw the Enderman there, and they were not the somewhat goofy Minecraft mobs you see. They were far more expressive in their movements. And I soon learned there was no range limit to their teleportation.
"GRAHHHH!" The Enderman screams at me from behind as he hits me.
I get smacked over the edge and fall and tumble down the hill right next to a patch of lava. I draw my Silver Sword as I knew that projectile weapons were unlikely to work against them. I looked around me and waited for the Enderman to teleport to me again. But as it doesn't immediately appear, I start building a shelter to maybe keep them out. Something told me it wouldn't work, but I had to try.
"GRAHHHH!" screams the Enderman, and I move to block his attack, but he teleports away.
Then I see something that chills me to the bone. Four more Enderman appear this time, crawling on all fours rapidly towards me.
'Nope!'
I take out my wand and go to teleport away, but stop it when I see them freeze for a second. I feel a cold sweat cover me as I feel I just narrowly dodged a bullet. But I barely had time to put away my wand when I felt the force hit me from behind.
Sizzle
"Ahhh! Hot Hot Hot Hot HOT!" I scream as I get thrown into the lava.
My skin rapidly melts, and I quickly crawl away from the lava. The burns hurt really badly, but I didn't have time to wait as I blocked another strike from an Enderman. It teleports away, and I grab my ICA Briefcase out of my inventory and throw it at them. They dodge it, but the briefcase keeps following them wherever they teleport to, keeping one of them off of me for a second. As I am throwing the ICA Briefcase, I have to dodge another attack and respond by sticking my Ripper into their chest.
Purple blood sprays out as the Chainsaw Knife digs into their flesh. They teleport away, and I use a second sword, this time the one I got with the Black Knight, to stab the other Enderman teleporting behind me. However, I couldn't block everything, and a third assailant attacked me, hitting me back into the lava, but this time I was lucky to only fall into a very thin puddle rather than a meter-deep hole. But it still burns me again, but this time I say to hell with it and throw some of that lava onto my assailant. That causes them to teleport away, and I then have to react to another attack, but this time I react faster and embed my silver sword into the Enderman's head.
The Enderman freezes and then drops dead, but before I can retrieve my silver sword, I am attacked. This time, by the Enderman I threw the case at. They return a slash into me. I take the hit as well as I can with my vision so blurry. I take out my steel Witcher Sword and lop off their arm. They teleport away, and as the next Enderman attacks me, I stab them right in the heart or at least the chest area. They go down and don't get up. The Enderman, missing an arm, comes back, but I grab the Silver Sword now lying near a Blue Pearl and stab them through the chest. This Enderman doesn't go down so easily and smacks and hits me multiple times. But eventually they stop struggling and melt into purple dust, leaving behind an Ender Pearl.
I breathe heavily as I wait for more attacks. But none come. So I get up and start retrieving my gear. I get the Silver and Steel Witcher swords back, as well as the briefcase, but the others seem to be missing. I tried to summon them back, but I got no response. I decide to follow the blood trail and find that it ends at a cliff. I look over the cliff, and sure enough, there is nothing but lava. Which meant I lost the medieval sword and Ripper. Oh, and my suit, which was destroyed beyond repair and likely melted into my skin.
"Screw the Nether, I'm going home," I say while hobbling back up the cliff.
This trip was awful, even with Stimpaks and a Doctor's Bag, I was still really messed up. I also used some Water Healing, but I would have to use the Locket to become fully healed. The only upside of this trip was that I got 2 Ender Pearls. I could have handled that encounter much better, but once I was sent into the lava, I had lost the advantage, combined with the constant attacks from numerous angles from an unknown enemy. I was flustered and made some mistakes. I hadn't had to fight such a tricky enemy and wasn't prepared for battle. But I survived and would live to fight another day.
Once I was through the portal, I disabled the portal, took out the locket, and started using it to heal.