Minecraft (Dark Horse Comics)/OpenPlot

A woman is seen running away from something, but is unable to get over a fence. A creeper then explodes behind the woman, causing the fence to break apart. A man is then seen pouring water on some lava that had breached the moat thanks to the creeper. The woman, now named Sarah, survives the creeper explosion and heads further into the man’s base. The man offers Sarah an apple, but she walks past him, instead being amazed by the base that he had made. The man immediately makes Sarah leave, not before giving her the apple. Sarah attempts to eat it, but asks for help. The man then tells Sarah to right-click to eat the apple, and she happily gulfs it down. Sarah then asks for the man’s name, and the man says that he is named Hector before he asks Sarah to leave. Sarah turns to leave, but then asks Hector if there is anything else that he can give her. Hector says that he can give her a nether star, much to her own amusement. Sarah then looks up information about the nether star, and thinks that she can obtain one by defeating a wither underground. She begins to dig down, but is stopped by Hector, who asks Sarah if he can teach her the basics, and she happily agrees. Sarah then says that her mom bought the game so she could make some new friends, but Hector says that he doesn’t need friends and that he wasn’t actually serious about giving her a nether star. He then reiterates that he’ll just reach her the basics and then ask her to leave, and Sarah agrees, much to her own bereavement. Hector then explains to Sarah one-hundred-and-three rules of Minecraft over several hours before asking for her to leave again. Sarah then asks about the wither, and Hector asks Sarah as to why they would fight something as dangerous as that. Sarah then says that he wants to do something for him after he did so much for her. Hector agrees, simply because he would like to get a nether star, and Sarah squeals in delight.

The next morning, Sarah shows up at Hector’s base. Hector prepares to give her some diamond armor, but she soon leaves, much to Hector’s surprise. Sarah shows up again the next morning, mentioning that she had to leave because her mom came home early from work and bought pizza. Hector then says that he doesn’t think fighting the wither will work out, and asks Sarah to play with someone else, as he doesn’t want the risk of someone bailing randomly on him. Sarah then leaves in a huff, mentioning that she only bailed once (yesterday) and proceeds to dig straight down, much to Hector’s disgust. He then calls out for Sarah moments later, but gets no response. Hector then rushes to the hole and hears the sound of a zombie, followed by Sarah screaming, and he jumps down to check on her. Sarah fends off several hostile mobs before the two escape by breaking the surface, but Hector asks for her to leave again, saying that she is reckless and almost got herself and him both killed. This time, Sarah leaves without incident. Hector then returns to his base, but a creeper explodes directly in front of him, causing the entrance (and part of a structure) to be destroyed. Meanwhile, Sarah eventually walks to a cliff with a forest and river down below, and throws down her shovel in frustration. Back at Hector’s base, Hector fixes up the building as night falls, but he says that still feels broken. Hector then finds Sarah sitting by a campfire in a fenced-off area and apologizes to her about his actions, saying that he is afraid of being left alone. Sarah then goes off in a fit about not letting her explain what happened, and she reiterates that she logged off because her mom came home from work early and bought pizza. Hector then apologizes to Sarah for not listening to her, saying that he was scared and only thinking about his problems. He then says that his mom and dad helped build his base together, which is the only memory he has left of them, and again apologizes to Sarah for taking out his anger on her. The two reconcile as Hector explains that the emerald pyramid at his base is for a beacon, which is why he wanted to find a nether star, but he is considering in leaving it behind to start fresh. Sarah immediately questions this and offers to help him in getting the nether star, and Hector accepts. After gathering some weapons, buckets of milk, food, and potions, the two create a nether portal and go through it, spawning in the Nether. Luckily, they appear close to a nether fortress and climb toward it, not to forget about collecting soul sand.

The two (Sarah and Hector) soon arrive at the nether fortress and start walking through it. Sarah is soon attacked by a wither skeleton, but it is killed by Hector, who says that going through the fortress won’t be easy. He then notices that Sarah was inflicted with the wither effect and asks for her to drink some milk, which she does, curing her of the effect. The two soon come across a blaze; Hector kills it and obtains the blaze rod that it dropped, but inadvertently makes Sarah fall to the floor below him. Sarah then walks around to find Hector, but soon reaches a dead end. Upon hearing the sounds of a wither skeleton, Sarah then takes out some dirt and creates a wall in-between herself and the wither skeleton. She then takes out a block of dirt for curiosity, only to see three wither skeletons on the other side. Sarah then stabs her diamond sword through the hole in the wall and kills two of the three wither skeletons before going up against the last one by herself. Meanwhile, Hector is looking for Sarah as he kills a magma cube nearby, but Sarah soon rejoins Hector and shows him a wither skeleton skull that she got, much to his excitement. Hector then gives Sarah an apple to help her regain health, while also acknowledging her skills and thinks that he himself is a "scaredy cat". Sarah then says that it isn’t true and that she only acts brave the whole time as it’s easy to do so when she isn’t alone. Hector then says that he feels the same way and states that he wouldn’t have come down here again if she weren’t here. The two then prepare to head back to the nether portal, but come across several wither skeletons. They decide to retreat as Hector fires an arrow at one of the wither skeletons, making it drop its skull as it is killed. Hector then places some cobblestone blocks on the ceiling of the area they are in so the wither skeletons can’t attack them, but says that they need to get the wither skeleton skull before it despawns. Sarah then uses some cobblestone to make a path on the side of the walkway, before mining through the wall so Hector can get the skull. He is able to do so despite being attacked by a wither skeleton, and the two soon make it out of the nether fortress.

On the way back to the nether portal, Sarah considers fighting the ender dragon once she and Hector get back to the Overworld. She flails her diamond sword to mimic attacking the dragon, but she inadvertently hits a zombified piglin, causing her and Hector to take cover underground just over a lava lake. Sarah then notices the nether portal on the far side of the lava lake and begins placing down gravel so it can fall to the lava below. Hector wonders as to why she is doing this, and Sarah says that it is safe. She then falls through the hole onto the gravel pillar with Hector following suit, but they are soon attacked by a ghast. Sarah mines out the pillar and then uses the gravel to make a path toward the portal. Hector then uses his last arrow to kill the ghast just before they go through the portal. Back in the Overworld, Sarah and Hector repair their tools and armor and replenish their supplies before they decide to fight the wither. They end up finding a pit with stone at the bottom and then place down the soul sand in a T-shape, followed by placing down the wither skeleton skulls, which spawns the wither. It isn’t long before the wither is killed, and Sarah and Hector use the nether star that it dropped to craft a beacon. Hector then places the beacon on the emerald pyramid at his base, having finally completed his task. Sarah then prepares to leave, but Hector says that there is one more thing that they can do together. He heads into his house, but soon reappears with TNT, saying that he forgot about what really mattered about Minecraft when he put up walls to protect himself. Hector then blows one of the walls to his base. Sara asks why, and he says that he wants to open up the base to everyone. Hector then places down a sign at the entrance which reads "TOGETHER WE CAN BUILD ANYTHING".