Minecraft Story Mode Season 3, Episode 1: Powerless

Part 13: Redstonia At Last

Jesse and Romeo picked up their pace and ran back to Lukas' home, where they saw Lukas sitting on his porch and watching the Nether portal. His blue eyes were focused on the portal's swirling purple plasmalike matter, and this matter was bordered by the obsidian frame Jesse had placed. The purple plasmalike matter was a sign that the portal had activated, which had appeared after Jesse had lit it.

"Lukas! We're back!" Jesse announced. Lukas stood up and turned towards her.

"So you're ready to go into the portal?" Lukas asked. Jesse beamed at him, nodded, and dashed straight into the portal. As soon as her body passed through the purple plasmalike matter, she vanished. "Well... uh... ladies first, I guess," Lukas said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"You've been giving me a lot of one-on-one time with Jesse lately. Why? ...I'm really sorry. Normally I wouldn't ask," Romeo answered.

"Look, I didn't like you that much because you impersonated Jesse and almost drove a rift between her and me. Not to mention locking up lots of innocent people for no other reason than not listening to you, putting said innocent people in danger, and forcing Jesse to participate in several challenges that risked her safety," Lukas sighed. Romeo's eyes widened and he crossed his arms.

"Doesn't answer my question, but okay," Romeo retorted. Lukas' right hand performed a "stop" position.

"You didn't let me finish. The reason why I've been giving you a lot of time with Jesse is because she seems to like you as a friend... a lot. But I still need to get used to a nicer Romeo that doesn't have blatant disregard for people's safety," Lukas continued. Romeo, who was very baffled, blinked twice.

"I'm so confused right now. Was that a compliment or an insult?" Romeo questioned. Lukas shrugged and then smiled at him.

"It was really just meant to be a statement. Y'know... you're not as bad as most people think. You've just got some issues," Lukas explained. He walked up to the portal, stepped through it, and vanished. Romeo was offended by Lukas' final statement, and it showed in his expression. He threw his hands in the air, then dropped them back to his sides.

"'Issues?' What issues?!" Romeo huffed. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and strode into the portal. Walking into a portal felt like walking into a curtain of water without getting wet-- which was great, because Romeo hated getting wet.

He recalled that Xara and Fred used to tease him about it. It would have been a fond memory, but Fred was gone and Xara hated him. It just reminded him of what he'd lost, so he pushed the memory to the back of his brain.

Romeo emerged from the portal and realized that he was now in the Nether. The ground and rock formations were made completely of Netherrack, a red stone that burned forever when ignited. The fact that the Nether's lakes and waterfalls were made of lava didn't help. Neither did the fact that ghasts and blazes- monsters that resided in the Nether- shot fireballs.

Lukas stood next to Romeo, while Jesse stood in front of both of them.

"I was wondering when you two were actually going to come out of that portal," Jesse quipped. She grinned and rolled her eyes good naturedly. "The minecarts are really close to here, I know the way," Jesse stated. She led Lukas and Romeo to a row of six minecarts that were sitting on top of minecart tracks. Romeo beamed and pointed to the first minecart in the row.

"I get the first minecart! No takebacks!" Romeo exclaimed. He teleported into the first minecart, leaving only fading purple teleport particles behind. "My powers work when I want the front row seat but they won't work when my life's in danger," Romeo thought in exasperation. He reclined in the minecart, placed his hands behind his head, and crossed his legs.

"Hey! No fair! ...Fine. I call shotgun!" Jesse piped up. Lukas held back a laugh and turned his head to Jesse.

"Jesse, they're all in a row. There is no shotgun," Lukas told her. Jesse let out a sigh of annoyance.

"The second minecart. You know what I mean," Jesse replied. She hopped into the second minecart and sat up straight with her hands in her lap, looking pretty happy with herself. Lukas sat in the minecart behind her and clung to the edges, like he was bracing himself for an intense roller coaster. Lukas glanced at Romeo and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... you know this isn't one of those 'sit back and relax' minecart rides, right?" Lukas questioned. Romeo only smiled wider.

"Yeah, I know that," Romeo answered. Jesse flicked a lever to the right of her minecart and the minecarts began to rumble.

"Here we go!" Jesse called out. The minecarts zoomed down the track, and soon reached the peak of a tall and steep drop.

"Ohh man. I hate this drop," Lukas commented. His grip of the sides of his minecart tightened as Romeo grinned in excitement.

"I love it! It looks fun, and it'll definitely be a rush!" Romeo exclaimed. Lukas' eyes became the size of golf balls.

"I'd ask if you were crazy, but I know you are and this is exactly the type of thing you'd find fun," Lukas teased. As the minecarts shot down the steep drop, Jesse put her hands in the air and let out a scream of excitement. The minecarts then left the drop and continued on to smoother tracks.

"Woo, roller coaster!" Jesse cheered. Lukas turned his head to Jesse.

"You too?!" Lukas said in disbelief. Jesse smiled at him.

"Yep. That drop was amazing," Jesse gushed. They passed a wooden sign with the word "Redstonia" painted on it in red letters. "Okay, that sign means we're almost there," Jesse announced.

Romeo's eyes wandered to a Nether Fortress in the distance that was made of dark red nether brick, and he gasped when he saw something that wasn't the norm in such a place... a person whose head bobbed above the fortress walls. Since she- Romeo assumed it was a girl- was so far away... Romeo could only see her long bright red hair, her blue beanie, and her black glasses that gleamed in the light of the Nether's lava. He couldn't help but stare at her out of curiosity. What in the world was a spectacled human girl doing in the Nether? It was a dangerous place, so hardly anyone visited. The girl noticed Romeo was staring at her, froze like a deer in headlights, and bolted. Since her reaction when Romeo saw her was reminiscent of a child who had been caught doing something bad, she obviously didn't want to be caught doing- whatever she was doing- in the Nether. This only spurred further questions in Romeo's mind. Romeo racked his brain for who she could be and what she could be doing, and after a bit of logical thinking and inferences he came up with a possible answer. He- upon realizing who the girl almost definitely was- bit his lip. Romeo wanted to tell Jesse the girl's identity, what she was doing, and the danger she posed... but the last thing he wanted to do was worry Jesse right now. She was on cloud nine, and he didn't want to ruin that. Romeo decided to wait until later- "later" being a time when she wasn't stuffed to the brim with happiness- to tell her.

The minecarts began to slow down and soon came to a complete stop at the end of the track. Jesse, Lukas, and Romeo climbed out of their minecarts. The three of them walked up to a nearby exit portal.

"Jesse, how exactly does this work? Wouldn't it make more sense to build a minecart network that's in our world instead of the Nether? The Nether is a highly dangerous place full of lava and fire," Romeo pointed out. The corners of Jesse's mouth turned upwards.

"Good question. Moving one block in the Nether is equal to moving eight blocks in our world. That, combined with the high speed minecarts, gets us to Redstonia faster than we would if we didn't travel through the Nether. Okay... so imagine we went through a Nether portal and moved ten blocks in the Nether. We would then use an exit portal to get out of the Nether and get back to our world, and you'd see that we moved eighty blocks from the portal we used to enter the Nether. It's really a whole bunch of calculations and multiplying, if you think about it," Jesse explained as she gestured to assist her statements. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I just really geek out when it comes to portals or other worlds," Jesse apologized.

Jesse and Lukas walked into the portal and vanished. Romeo walked into the portal too, and he again experienced the feeling of walking into a curtain of water without getting wet. When he reached the other end of the portal, he realized he was back in his world... but he was now in front of the iron and glowstone gates of Redstonia.