"Please don't do that again," Jesse implored to Ivor as she took the Atlas and the flint and steel from his somewhat reluctant grip on it, "I don't want to be responsible for explaining to Gabriel and the others why you've been reduced to a smear on the floor."

"Petra wouldn't go THAT hard on me- she'd do much worse," Ivor responded drily, but shooting the redhead a nervous look.

Petra didn't bother defending herself at the slight jibe; she was so angry at Ivor already that her face was almost as red as her hair and you could practically see the smoke shooting out of her ears.

"Well at least wait until we get back home to murder Ivor, I'm... honestly a little sick of this hallway." Lukas made a small face as he ran a hand through his messy blonde hair, making it stand up on end a bit.

Olivia chuckled at the banter between the four of them, as Axel seemed to be looking at one of the portals. "Well, let's get going then."

"Yes, I suppose I should probably stay at home for a couple days before going on another adventure... I suppose I got a bit overexcited," Ivor said, rubbing his head tiredly. No one seemed to acknowledge his apology, although Petra's face did go a few shades lighter.

"Does this portal feel... weird to you guys?" Axel asked, still staring at the portal. Jesse took a look around at the portal Axel was talking about- it looked like a regular portal to her, with lapis lazuli surrounding the beautifully dark blue portal. She went to go stand next to Axel, and immediately she could tell what he meant- a warm, fuzzy, tingling feeling spread over Jesse from the ends of her hair to her toes, and she repressed a slight shiver. "Oh. Wow. Yeah."

"What are you talking abouuuuuholy crap this is weird," Lukas said, a bewildered look coming into his clear blue eyes as he moved to stand next to them, blinking as the feeling came over him as well.

All six of them shared a funny look, before Jesse turned reluctantly back to the portal. "Well... maybe this is important, or something. There has to be a reason it's making us feel all... fuzzy."

Petra squinted her gold eyes at the portal. She was quiet for a full fifteen seconds before saying, in a rather calm voice, "Okay, then- we'll head in here, check what's going on, and then go home. Deal?"

Everyone chorused in agreement, even Ivor, who rubbed his head again sheepishly.

Jesse turned to the dark blue portal, took a deep breath, and walked in.

Like all the other portals in the hallway, it felt like walking through one of those bead curtains. Unlike all the other ones, though, Jesse felt the warm tingling intensify until she felt like she was being relentlessly tickled and going numb at the same time, a warmth washing over her.

And a hint of icy coolness.

Before Jesse could wonder what that was about, her foot caught on something, she tripped, and stumbling forward she proceeded to land flat on her face on a wooden floor. At least it wasn't stone, right? That... definitely would've hurt a lot more...

"Ow," she finally said, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm.

A hand placed itself on Jesse's shoulder and hauled her to her feet, Jesse finding Ivor helping the slightly shorter girl to her feet. "Thanks, Ivor," she said, wincing and rubbing her side again. "That was a more... violent landing than I was expecting."

"Same could be said for me," Ivor said wryly, as the others came through, all of them tripping, stumbling, or at least getting thrown off-balance so that they nearly faceplanted. Lukas in particular was knocked clean off his feet onto the floor when Axel came through, tripped, and sprawled onto the blonde boy.

"Arghhh, Axel," Lukas grunted from where he was now under the much more burly boy. "I seriously don't want to go through this again..."

"Sorry, man."

Jesse snorted in amusement before looking around.

The room they were in was a dark one, illuminated only by torches and the glow of potions that sat on shelves, as well as a small gold brewing stand in one corner. Books lined the room, cramming onto the shelves and practically squeezing some of the books off.

"Why is it," Petra wondered, examining some of the potions, "that every potion or enchanting room that we've been to has tons of books, has creepy atmospheric lighting, and thousands of potions everywhere?"

Jesse casually perused the bookshelves, her back facing the redhead and shaking slightly as the blackette stifled a furious fit of giggles. She didn't dare turn around and look at the others- judging by their snickers, they would only make her explode. Ivor's offended snort didn't do anything to help matters, either.

"I think I heard something... be right back, guys."

A bit distracted now, Jesse looked up, just as a wooden door on the other side of the room opened, spilling torchlight into the room and revealing the person behind the door- a girl with chin-length black hair that was streaked with red wearing a black-and-white flannel over a plain black t-shirt. She wore a pair of faded jeans over a pair of dirty combat boots, her eyes were the color of emeralds (like mine, Jesse thought), and she had a brown leather bag slung over one shoulder.

She blinked at the six of them for a moment, her facial expression difficult to see in the dim light but her reflective emerald eyes showing up even in the dark. Jesse had to wonder how weird this looked. She decided she probably didn't want to know.

The girl finally and slowly raised her left hand, giving it a little wave.

"Um... hi."

A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of Minecraft: Hide and Seek Mode! If you're here from Hybrid, great! Welcome back! If you're here from someplace else... well, you can check out Hybrid, of course, but welcome as well! Please feel free to review what you think about the story so far!

To those of you who read Hybrid, though; I am going to reply to comments on the oneshot book I'm posting after this story. Sorry, I just felt like I should probably notify you to that. You can ignore it if you have no idea what Hybrid is.

Is everyone ready to meet the Authors next chapter?

x.X. A.L. X.x.