Following their return to PMC City from the End, the Soda Strike Team aided their fellow PMC Military soldiers in battling the Nether Army in the city streets, as they had finally broken through the shields surrounding the city. During the battle, King Noncommercial himself arrived in a powerful mech powered by an energy source stolen from Lord Piaccu's fortress in the End. Eventually, the King did leave to destroy more of the city, but the Nether Army still managed to gain the upper hand on the PMC Military, with the Strike Team watching from the rooftops as their fellow soldiers were held at gunpoint by the piglins. However, they regained upper hand when Forgemaster Chaos, his girlfriend Shadow, their friend Trot, the mage Rakkitatoru, and the Forge Apprentices arrived to turn the tide of the battle. Then, Noncommercial returned, with his head scientist, Dr. Goldeye, on his shoulder, and he used a massive cannon he had returned with to split Cyprezz Tower in half, with the top half falling down and wrecking part of the city. Forgemaster Chaos was trapped under some rubble, but was freed by IGEBM and Shadow, the latter of which helping him walk after the incident. As the fighters evacuated to the Ancient City to join the rest of the PMC City citizens, they were followed by Dr. Goldeye and the Nether Army. Forgemaster Chaos heroically sacrificed his life to detonate a bomb which killed Goldeye and soldiers caught in the blast, and brought down the cave entrance. After IGE and company explained what happened on the surface to Gracie and the Council of Mods, Grace spotted Spencer, leader of the Luminous Gang, at the entrance to the Ancient City.

"Guys, look!" Gracie says, breaking the moment of silence the group was having for the fallen Forgemaster Chaos. They all turn around to see Spencer, the leader of the Luminous Gang, standing at the entrance to the Ancient City. "Spencer?" IGEBM asks, shocked at his appearance. "Yep, it's me." the armored Luminous Gang leader says. "I was sent a message by Councilman Adrestio to come here. All they told me was to come to the Ancient City, nothing else. Do you guys know why?" "Well, does the Luminous Gang know that the Nether Army has invaded the city?" Chaos asks. "No." Spencer responds. "We lost contact with the surface world when someone presumably sabotaged the communications up there." "Ah." Pig says. "Well, they broke through the shield and have claimed the city." "Don't forget that Noncommercial has a friggin' mech and he destroyed Cyprezz Tower with a massive cannon." Ella adds. "I hate to say it, but they won." Spencer, while taking in all of this information, notices Shadow is looking depressed. "Are you okay, Shadow?" he asks. She turns away. Everyone is silent. "What happened?" Trot walks up to him. "He's dead." she says. "Chaos is dead. The other one, cause, you know, there's another Chaos with us." "I know." Spencer says. "What happened to him?" IGE explains everything to Spencer. "He saved us." he finishes. "And he died a hero."

After another moment of silence, Whisper speaks up. "So, what now?" she asks. "What else can we do?" "Yeah, the Empire won." Cloudkitty says. "Cloud's right." Potato adds. "We've lost the war." "No." Tem says. "I refuse to believe that." "What?" Rakkitatoru asks, surprised. "I refuse to believe that this is the end." Tem continues. "We can't just sit back and let him win. We have to take a stand!" "Come to think of it, I have an idea." Spencer says. "But we're gonna need the entirety of the Overworld to be on board with it. How about we head to the Luminous Caverns and discuss things there?" "Good idea." General Axo says. The group follow Spencer out of the city and into the tunnel that leads to the Luminous Caverns, the home and base of operations for the Luminous Gang. Chaos notices that Silabear and Stubbs aren't coming. "Are you guys going to come with us or what?" he asks. "We're gonna get the council together and catch up with you." Silabear says. "I'm an honorary member for now, I guess." Stubbs says, realizing that he's working with the council even though he's not a member any more.

The group soon arrive in the Luminous Caverns, a large expanse of deeplsate caves connected by tunnels, all lit up by luminous ooze, a material only found at a y level of -53 or lower. "It's beautiful." IGE says. "I know." Spencer says. "It's hard to believe there can be such an amazing place this far below the surface. Oh, look, we're here." He leads them into a large cave, one of the largest in the Caverns. Inside is a large table, which is made of deepslate and covered with a gray tablecloth, as well as several chairs. Along the walls of the cave are several computers and a few doors leading to other (smaller) rooms. "Welcome to the Luminous Hub." Spencer says as everyone looks around. "This is where everything in the Luminous Gang is run, from communications to organizing exploration missions."

The group sit down around the table, and Spencer activates a hologram showing a map of the tunnels, overlayed above a map of PMC City. "As you can see, our tunnels do have other exits, but this is the main one." he begins. "No one knows about these other exits except the council and-" He is interrupted by the council members walking into the room. "Speak of the devil." Trot says. "We're here." Adrestio says, stating the obvious. "So, what's the plan?" Smack asks. Spencer restates what he said before and continues explaining the plan. "I was thinking we have Sila and the council head up to the surface using the main tunnel and then surrender." he says. "But, before you object, let me finish: the surrender is a distraction. While they let themselves be handcuffed by the Empire - just wait, I know this is sounding crazy - teams of PMC Military troops and Luminous Gang soldiers exit from the other tunnels and surround the Empire, who are, I'm assuming, mostly all gathered on Paril Road near the ruins of Cyprezz Tower." "Yep." Potato says. "Most of the Nether Army was gathered around the tower's remains before we ran into the cave." "This sounds like a great plan." Silabear says. "What about us, though? If we're gonna be surrendering, we'll need a way to free ourselves and help fight." "That's where this comes in." Spencer says. He takes a small vial containing what appears to be luminous ooze with deepslate pebbles mixed in. "Our Science Division has been working on a new type of armor, which I'm holding right now. It's basically genetically-modified luminous ooze that can form into armor around you once you pour it on yourself." "Fascinating." Smack says. "And we can use this to fight back once you guys start the fight?" "Correct." Spencer says. "This sounds like a plan to me." IGE says. "Let's get to work."

While the others leave the room, Gracie stays there and tries to get a phone signal. She looks for one of the maintenance staff, and finds one repairing a computer. "Hey, does this place have WiFi or anything like that?" she asks. "The network is LumGangWiFi and the password is HailB0B, no spaces or underscores, with 'B0B' being spelled capital B-zero-capital B." the maintenance worker responds. He goes back to fixing the computer. Gracie finds the WiFi and types in the password, getting a connection. She goes to her Phone app and calls Grimm. He picks up. "Hey, where are you?" she asks. "I'm still in Sodaville." he responds. "My mech needs some repairs." "Yeah, well we're in the Luminous Caverns!" she quietly shouts, before explaining what happened on the surface. "So the piglins have taken the city?" Grimm asks after she finishes. "Yes." Gracie responds. "I'll try to hurry up the repairs." Grimm says. "Love you." "Love you too." Gracie says back before he hangs up. She heads to the armory.

Trot finds Shadow outside of the Hub, sitting on the ground against the cave wall, crying up a storm. "Hey, are you okay?" Trot asks. "No, I'm not, and you should already know that." Shadow says. "I had to watch the love of my life die. Do you know how hard that is?" Trot sits down next her. "No, I don't, but I want to help you." she says. "It's hard seeing my friend like this." "He was the best person I ever met." Shadow says. "And he's gone. I don't think I can help fight." "We need you." Trot says. "You're one of the best fighters here." "Trot, I can't do it." Shadow responds. "I don't care if it's for PMC. I'm not fighting." "Then don't do it for PMC." Trot says. "Don't even do it for me. Do it for Chaos. It's what he would've wanted." Shadow cries some more before Trot hands her a tissue. "I'm sorry, Trot." she says, blowing her runny nose. "I can't. Now please, just leave me alone." "I will respect your wishes and go." Trot gets up and creates a flame to toss around as she walks away to wait in the Hub.

In the armory, General Axo, the Soda Strike Team, the Apprentices, and Spencer are looking at weapons. The walls are lined with gatling guns, plasma blasters, laser swords, pyro-axes, and all sorts of explosives. Pig, ever the demolitionist, was fascinated by the Luminous Gang's various light-based explosives, but was most interested in the strange purple bomb in a glass case. "What's that?" he asks. "That's a singularity grenade." Spencer says. "One of the most dangerous weapons in our arsenal. It's not really light-based, but we were able to harness the power of the void that is quite close to us and store in a small container. From there, we designed an explosive that, when triggered, would cause the void energy to release in a manner that would create a small singularity that sucked in anything near it and eventually collapsed, causing a contained explosion that would destroy everything that was sucked in. We only have one, as the others are currently being worked on, but feel free to use it." He enters a passcode that causes the case to open. Pig takes the singularity grenade and puts it in his tactical belt for future use. "This might be useful." he says. Meanwhile, General Axo is examining the various heavy weapons they have. He settles on a large gatling gun with three barrels. "This is gonna be a fun battle." the general says, taking several ammo clips for the coming fight. "All our weapons use light bullets, which are about a little stronger than normal ones." Spencer says. IGEBM and Chaos both select plasma blasters to go with their laser rifles, while Ella picks out a pyro-axe. The Forge Apprentices stick with their normal weapons, instead choosing to enhance them with luminous ooze, which is very durable and it can harden around whatever it touches if cooled. Spencer himself picks out a glow glaive, as well as a few light grenades. "I'm gonna get changed." he says, leaving the armory to walk to his room so he can change out of his Cultist of B0B jacket and into his armor. As he leaves, Gracie walks in to pick a weapon, having just gotten off the phone with Grimm.

After everyone has gotten ready for combat, they all meet up in the Luminous Hub, where Trot has been waiting for a few minutes. "Are we all ready to go?" Spencer asks. "We have our armor." Silabear says, gesturing to the small vial of liquid luminous armor (as they've dubbed it) that he's stored in his robes. The other council members, as well as Stubbs, have it too. "We've got our weapons." General Axo says. "And Grimm is on his way." Gracie says. Realizing Spencer doesn't know what she's talking about, she elaborates. "Because Noncommercial has a mech, I called Grimm to bring his mech here to fight. I made that call back when we were still in the bunker, but I called him earlier and he said he was doing some repairs." "Hope he comes soon." Chaos says. "We need his help to take down Noncommercial." "My forces are ready for combat." Spencer says. "I've split you guys up into teams, and written down which district you're going to. By the way, districts are what we call the small bunkers at the end of each tunnel that branches across the city." He gestures to the papers he's put on the table, which have the teams that the soldiers are going to. "Ah." Ella says. "I was about to ask you that." "Well, what are we waiting for?" Adrestio asks. "Yeah, let's go!" Stubbs says enthusiastically. "Council, follow me!" Silabear says.

As the different teams split up and make their ways to the tunnels leading to each district, where their Luminous Gang teammates are waiting, Silabear and the Council of Mods leave the Luminous Caverns and make their way back to PMC City, where Smack leaves a holo-message that announces what's going on the people of PMC City, who are currently making the most of their time in the Ancient City. The Council head up to the cave entrance, where they begin to get rid of the rubble that was blocking the cave entrance. Adrestio uncovers Forgemaster Chaos' body. "May he rest in peace." the councilman says. Once all the rubble is removed, the 27 Councilmen (28 if you count Stubbs) exit the cave with their hands in the air. As Noncommercial's second-in-command, ComfySteve, spots them and orders his men to raise their crossbows, he is shocked by what Silabear says. "ComfySteve, tell King Noncommercial that we surrender." the wise bear says.

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE EXCITING FINALE OF PMC: WAR ON THE NETHER - FOR PLANET MINECRAFT

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Cast (in order of appearance)
GracieMockingjay as Gracie Mockingjay
IGEBM as IGEBM
OrderOutOfChaos as Chaos
TheMcPig as Pig
Pixella_9487 as Ella
ShadowOnTheLoose as Shadow
Trotelot as Trot
WhisperOfTheWild as Whisper
crowedd as Cloudkitty
BigFatPotat as Potato
CrownDeluxe as Tem
Rakkitatoru as Rakkitatoru
Sp3nc3r_ as Spencer
AxolotlArmy as General Axo Playz
Silabear as Silabear
Stubbs1 as Stubbs
Adrestio as Adrestio
smack17 as Smack
TheGrimmKnight as Grimm Knight
ComfySteve12345 as ComfySteve

Mentioned (in order of mentioning)
TheCrypteral as Forgemaster Chaos Crypteral
Noncommercial as King Noncommercial of the Nether Empire

Writing completed 4-22-2023 at 5:02 PM ET
Published 4-25-2023 at 3:35 PM ET
Written by IGEBM

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EARLY ACCESS
As with the previous chapter, I used a random number generator (the number list will be included below) to determine who would get early access to the story. I generated 3 different numbers between 1 and 18, with the plan being for the last one that was generated to be the person who gets early access, and on the third generation, I got 13, which was WhisperOfTheWild, so I PMed her the story on 4-22 and she got to read it 3 days early. I'm gonna do this for every story, if I complete it at least 2 days before the usual release date of the coming Tuesday.

Numbers
1 - GracieMockingjay
2 - OrderOutOfChaos
3 - Pixella_9487
4 - ShadowOnTheLoose
5 - Trotelot
6 - WhisperOfTheWild - WINNER!
8 - cloudkitty
9 - BigFatPotat
10 - CrownDeluxe
11 - Rakkitatoru
12 - AxolotlArmy
13 - Silabear
14 - Stubbs1
15 - Adrestio
16 - smack17
18 - ComfySteve12345

(Note: I excluded several people from this list, those being me, since I can already see the story because I wrote it, Sp3nc3r_, because he got early access last time, Pig, because he's been offline for over a week, and Grimm he's no longer on this site.)

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Fun Fact
I never intended for the Luminous Gang to be in this chapter, but Sp3nc3r_ PMed asking to be in the series in some way, and it just so happened that I had a chapter called "A Light in the Dark," which would be a perfect way to introduce him and the Luminous Gang into my lore, so here they are.

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People I'm Tagging So They Can See This
LegendarySi, Stormy, ghostoftheglade, Greief, GoldenScientist, Rob333 / DarkRob333, Elightin_elytra, Firestar2477278, Aspirin60, GhostlyBit_57, and Guts N Pixels