Two figures were standing at the Nether Portal. One was a girl with white hair that faded into a silvery color, wearing a brown leotard that had a open skirt around it of a lighter color. Around her neck, waist, tops of her gloves, and the part of her leggings that reached her thighs was fuzzy white wool. She had black sclera with with bioluminescent yellow irises. The most dazzling part was her silvery wings. The person beside her had black hair in a low ponytail hidden beneath a heavy coat and a mask that covered their neck and face. There was nothing immediately unusual about their appearance except for their eyes. They were black but the eyes showed color in the same way bubbles did. In the light of the Nether Portal, the eyes shone with a ombré effect of blue and purple.

"Shroud! Crescent!" Tempest called out. The two looked up from their one sided conversation. Shroud didn't have a physical change to show happiness, but something in their aura shifted that way. Crescent bounded towards Tempest with a bright smile. Tempest opened his arms as Crescent nearly tackled him down. Her wings fluttered happily as she pulled back to look Tempest in the eye. She tapped against his mask a few times with gleaming eyes. No matter how civilized Crescent tried to be, her moth instincts called for her to go to the nearest light source. With the dark aesthetic Shroud had, Tempest's glowing weaponry and eyeholes in his mask awakened Crescent's primal urges. Tempest didn't say anything as his eyes looked over to Shroud. "How have my favorite people been?"

"We've been fine," Shroud said. They didn't whisper, but they had a naturally quiet voice that was low in pitch. Tempest was trained to hear those sorts of noises. Crescent was used to Shroud's brand of silence that she could decipher the hushed whispers meant to be words. Siren was just in tune with sound. It was his best sense in no small part because of his powers. Even if Siren's ears couldn't pick it up, his sixth sense could feel the vibrations in the air to make out a language.

"I can't believe we get to work with you! What are the odds that the Eye of Ender would be in our turf? Can you believe it, Shroud? I was surprised, obviously, but you didn't seem to feel the same way. Do you know what the Eye of Ender is? It's really important. I don't know more than that. I was told it was a green jewel the size of a baseball. It obviously looks like an eye but not, yeah? What creature did it come from? An Enderman, Ender Dragon, or a Shulker? Do Shulkers have eyes?" Crescent rambled with her attention shifting from Tempest to Shroud and back to Tempest. Her two friends didn't miss a beat even when Siren was confused about who was in the conversation. Had he been asked anything in that word vomit?

"We better go inside now," Shroud said while placing a hand on Crescent's arm, careful not to touch the blades attached to the cloudy pale blue half sphere on her hand. Crescent blinked at Shroud before nodding rapidly. Crescent continued to chatter as they stepped into the Nether Portal together. The purpled fell down upon them before they were whisked away to the Nether dimension. Siren took a step to follow them, but Tempest grabbed the back of his jacket. Siren stopped when he was yanked back. Siren stumbled back until he was facing Tempest. The younger had his face downcast with loose fists at his sides.

"I... I don't trust you. I'm not even sure I like you. You are a proper bitch, and I'd like to shove a stick up your ass. But this isn't the time to be having emotional therapy. I just need to know before we walk in there that you aren't going to betray us. Like it or not, the Heroes Association made us a fucking team. Shroud and Crescent might be temporary people in your life, but they're good people that don't deserve to be sacrificed for your fucked up sense of pleasure," Tempest said in a voice that was close to a growl. Tempest lifted his face to meet Siren's eyes. Tempest did not like the amusement he found swimming around.

"Relax, Toms. I told you that I hold no hard feelings. It is hilarious that the two of us crossed paths, especially at the time when it happened. You don't know this, but I was in a depressive state before I met you. Niki was the one to send me to that bakery that way I could he happier. When I met you, I found someone in my life that I didn't mind at all besides my father. I liked that Tommy much more than this one, but I won't let either of them die. For better or for worse, you are now mine, which means no one can lay a hand on you without dealing with a pissed off Wilbur," Siren said with a wink beneath his mask. Tempest gagged as he pushed Siren into the portal. Tempest took a step in after.

Purple swirls filled his vision as his entire insides spun around. Tempest was pooped out at a spot in the Nether. He was standing on red rock with lava-falls all around him depositing into the ocean of lava below them that stretched for miles. Besides the cackling of fire, the Nether was devoid of sound. Most creatures that had once roamed the Nether had been driven to extinction or secluded camps along the edges. One reason for that would be humans. When the first portals had been created centuries before, humans had found the resources of the Nether to be indispensable. An equally damaging piece to the puzzle of extinction was the gruesome wars that took place between Nether species. It wasn't uncommon for Piglins, Striders, Blazes, Ghasts, Wither Skeletons, and Magma Cubes to attack each other until battles broke out. Thankfully for the ecosystem, none of the creatures had been wiped out completely, but there was only a couple hundred of each. Humans had eventually stopped trekking through the Nether because of how dangerous it was. The governments all over the countries had taken control of the Nether to regulate border control. 2b2t was the one place that didn't care. The Nether, for them, was a way to solve overpopulation and for criminals to escape. Most people who found a way out of 2b2t did so by sneaking into a portal controlled by the most powerful local mafia.

"Techno was born in the Nether, did you know? He wandered out when he was little. He was too young to remember the culture of his Nether family. Dad found him wandering around. That's how I got a brother. Not like I wanted one. I was fine being an only child, but that bastard decided to be all cute to suck up to Dad," Siren spoke. There wasn't malice in his voice. Tempest heard the irritation, but it wasn't prominent enough to be real annoyance. Tempest wished he had a sibling. It would be nice to have someone to unconditionally love and pester. It would be someone that would remain by Tempest's side. It would have been great to have someone like that in Pandora's Vault. Maybe Tempest would have lived a different life had someone been there for him in his turbulent youth.

"There's somebody here," Shroud called back to them. Tempest looked at the Fortress to see that there were people there. The tallest of the group was a blonde who wore a green sleeveless jacket with a popped collar tucked into black pants with a black sports bra underneath. She didn't wear a mask, so Tempest recognized that it was Mamacita. There was also a girl wearing a dark green knee-length dress with white gloves, boots, and a mask. She had a gold belt, buckles on her boots, and had a cape that ended where her dress stopped. Tempest knew those toxic green eyes as Beauty. The last girl of the trio wore a what looked like fresh green leaves sown together into armor like those people from that one movie Bad would make them watch when it wasn't anime. She had long redwood tree colored hair with small roses growing around her eyes to create the illusion of a mask. Tempest felt his stomach drop as he recognized Hannah. That meant the golden haired blonde beside her... Foolish, dressed like Totem.

Tempest would have liked to sneak attack, but Mamacita spotted them right away. Tempest snarled beneath his mask as he pulled out a gun. Crescent threw both her arms down so her blades snapped out, creating the shape of a crescent. The half sphere charged with energy as Crescent steadied her hand. Shroud pulled off their cloak. Beneath was black military style clothing complete with a bulletproof vest and fingerless gloves. Out of Shroud's back, metallic gold spider legs came out, larger than life. Eight- four on each side- landed on the ground with a slight bend, lifting Shroud above the ground. The joints could bend in every direction, and Shroud could do spin vertical with the limbs automatically readjusting. They could even stick to any surface regardless of gravity or texture. No matter how mechanical they looked and acted, Tempest knew they were 100% natural.

"You just have to ruin the fun, don't you? At least you brought my favorite person!" Beauty yelled at them as she approached. Tempest was the one to meet her. He tried to strike with his blade, but Beauty deflected it with a hard kick that sent it flying. She shook her head with a vicious smirk. "No weapons. I prefer to keep this hand-to-hand combat."

Tempest didn't reply as he tried for a punch. Beauty grabbed onto his wrist to try and flip his body. When she failed, Tempest brought up his leg to kick her side. Beauty pushed his leg away after it made contact, sending Tempest into a backwards spin. Beauty slammed her heel into his shoulder blades. When Tempest went down, he did a front roll right as Beauty tried to slam a high kick down on his body. Beauty landed unsteadily giving Tempest the opportunity to grab both of Beauty's arms. He kicked his body up with his feet flying into the air. When Tempest came back down, he positioned his feet up at his chest before straightening them out into Beauty's back. Since Tempest was still gripping her arms, he heard the awful noise of both her shoulders dislocating. Tempest was shot forwards as he let go of her arms, his feet coming up to land on the ground with scuff marks following due to friction. Beauty almost vomited in pain, but turned towards Tempest with hard eyes. She leaned towards him before blowing out blue fire from her mouth. Tempest didn't have time to dodge as the fire hit him. Strangely, he didn't feel hot. In fact, Tempest felt his body temperature drop. He looked down to see his body had been encased in ice that was shimmering in the lava light.

"My powers are a bit of a contradiction. I shoot out fire, but it tends to freeze instead of burn. Throws my opponents for a loop, though!" Beauty said as she pushed her shoulder up against the ground until there was a sickening 'pop!'. With one arm properly located, Beauty pushed her other arm in. Beauty cried out in pain when she pushed the muscle back into her body. Tears were built up in her eyes, but she had a huge smile on her face. Beauty opened her mouth to talk, but a noise of a muted scream and a falling body stopped their bantering. Tempest and Beauty both turned their attention to see what had happened.

Crescent was lying unconscious on the ground in a pool of her blood. Mamacita was standing a few feet away with the Eye of Ender in her grasp. She was the one that had been fighting Crescent meaning that she had been the one to injury Crescent to that extreme. Because Tempest was looking over there, he got to see the much more horrific act. It seemed to have been an accident. Shroud's spider legs got tangled in Hannah's vines. As Hannah was pulling them back to her, Tempest got to watch as Shroud's legs were ripped from their body. A traumatized scream echoed in the Nether as Shroud face planted into the Nether rock with blood pissing from their back. Tempest could hear Shroud's sobbing from where he was at. Hannah had hit her knees with a shaky form. Foolish had ceased fighting with Siren to help, but he seemed hesitant to stand by Shroud's side. Siren rushed to Shroud to stop the bleeding while Foolish scooped Hannah into his arms.

Tempest was crying. He didn't utter a noise, not a gasp or sob or hiccup, but tears were falling from his eyes as he saw his old acquaintances on the ground in fatal pain. Beauty lost her confidence as she looked between Tempest and his fallen comrades. Beauty opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it as she ran to the Nether Portal where Mamacita had already disappeared with the Eye of Ender. Tempest used all his strength to snap the ice open. He stumbled but he ran at Foolish and Hannah. He wasn't able to make it, but he kept screaming as he moved. "What the hell are you doing?! You're supposed to be a fucking hero, Foolish! Those are villains you are working with who want to destroy L'Manberg! And Hannah... I helped you when I didn't have to. I could have killed you or turned you in. I trusted you. Niki and Puffy trusted you."

Foolish gave Tempest a heartfelt frown of regretful sadness that made Tempest halt. He didn't speak or move as Foolish disappeared through the portal with a crying Hannah in his arms. Tempest fell to his knees as the rapid temperature flux got to his senses. His adrenaline faded away. Tommy stumbled towards Siren, Shroud, and Crescent with cloudy eyes saturated in unshed tears and held in whimpers.