"Where'd he go?" Petra asked, looking around the keynote. Just a minute ago, they'd dramatically burst in (okay, they'd just run in, but a few people had actually turned to look at them when they had), and were now scanning the pre-show crowd for Ivor. Not surprisingly, they didn't spot him.
Jesse scanned the room again, this time spotting a door that was slightly ajar and swaying back and forth slightly. "Well, that door is ominously open by a small amount. He might've popped in there."
With anyone else, that would've sounded sarcastic. With Jesse, it sounded like she was making a helpful suggestion.
Everyone decided to take that suggestion and rushed towards the door, but Lukas suddenly frowned and came to a stop before any of them could just charge through the door. "What do we do once we catch him?" he asked, curiously.
Everyone came to a halt at that, giving each other slightly thoughtful looks. Just from the expressions on their face, Jesse was willing to bet that none of them– even Petra– had thought that far ahead.
When nobody spoke, Lukas continued, a bit more meekly, "There are a million ways to play this. But considering this isn't my fight... I'll follow your lead."
Absentmindedly, Jesse's hand travelled up to where her glass heart was hidden, thudding away rhythmically and providing a perfect beat for thought. "We ask politely for what's ours," she said, simply, with a small smile.
"And if he doesn't give it, we beat the tar out of him," Petra added, glowering at a random wood block making up the wall as if it was singlehandedly the thing at fault for making Ivor cheat her on the deal.
Everyone looked at Petra.
The redhead blinked a bit at them, the fury dancing in her eyes now replaced by confusion. "What?" she asked, simply.
"... well, anyway, sounds like a good idea," Lukas said, deciding to just skip over that odd little moment, "short, sweet, and to the point."
Axel shot Lukas a look.
Jesse just gave Lukas a grin, and she carefully eased the door open to avoid any earth-shattering squeaks. The moment it was wide enough, the five of them– six including Reuben– made their way down the stairs, the light immediately fading out as they entered the staircase. Jesse was almost tempted to pull her heart out to use as a light source.
Before she knew it, she'd reached the bottom of her staircase, she carefully poked her head out from behind the wall blocking her view of the rest of the basement– and immediately felt her eyes widened.
She felt the others doing the same behind her. Judging by the soft whistle Axel gave, the surprised inhalation of breath– not quite a gasp– from Olivia, the humming noise Lukas made, Petra's thoughtful "huh", and Reuben's surprised oink, they were having the same reaction.
They were currently staring at a basement filled with bookshelves, towering up an impressive amount and strung with dusty cobwebs. Potion bottles and glowstone lamps sporadically placed through the room provided soft illumination, and the occasional torch on the wall made the atmosphere even more spooky than it already was.
"What is all this?" Olivia asked, in a hushed voice, as if afraid something in the room was going to come alive and swallow them whole if they woke it up by being too loud.
Jesse considered the room for a moment longer. "Looks like a witch's house," she said softly. "Or an alchemist's library." She glanced up at the ceiling. "Wonder how nobody here's noticed it yet."
"I'll bet you anything the skull's in here," Petra muttered angrily, stepping into the basement a little more and giving it a little look. Part of Jesse was glad that they could at least get Petra's skull back, and another part of Jesse was glad that Ivor wasn't here right now– with how intensely Petra was glaring at some of his stuff, she was a little worried that he might end up getting, well, beaten up.
"And if we find anything else cool to steal along the way, so be it, right?" Axel asked casually, strolling deeper into the library and taking a look at a glimmering potion on the nearest shelf.
Petra's dark expression faded, and she gave the burly boy an admonishing look. "Axel, that's not what we're here to do."
"I did say to ask politely, Axel," Jesse pointed out. Of course, Axel being Axel, he was quick to counter.
"Well if he's not here, we can't ask," he countered, "so I say we take."
Petra shook her head, crossing her arms. "I want to beat the tar out of him, but I don't want to stoop to his level."
"Uh..." Lukas was glancing between Axel and Petra with wide eyes, looking more than a little nervous. Between Axel's being so large, and the strange intensity of Petra wanting revenge on people, he looked a bit worried. To be honest, so did Olivia. And to be VERY honest, Jesse was feeling a bit nervous too.
"Let's just focus on getting the skull and getting the heck out of here– we don't want to be stuck down here when the guy comes back," Jesse spoke up, mostly directing the comment at Axel.
Axel mock-scowled at that. "Nobody ever lets me have any fun."
"We let you hang out with us, don't we?" Jesse countered quickly, grinning. The grin faded a moment later as she glanced around the room. "The faster we find what we're looking for, the faster we can get the heck out of here."
The entire group nodded and quickly split up. Reuben snuffled and nudged Jesse's calf with his leg, in a comforting way. Jesse gave a little sigh and allowed her hand to stray back to her heart. "Yeah, I know," she murmured, keeping her voice low so that none of the others could catch it– the acoustics in the basement were pretty impressive. "This shouldn't be that bad, though. Just in, grab the skull, and out. Easy."
Reuben just snorted at that.
Jesse decided not to argue with the pig and moved off into the bookshelves, taking a closer look at one of the shelves– and blinking. One section of the books was completely crammed with fairytale books. Small, thin volumes that were undoubtedly filled with the more obscure ones, a huge, fat volume that Jesse was willing to be contained every single fairytale ever written, and one that was about the size of her hand but the thickness of a Harry Potter book. Even the public library didn't have all these books.
"Huh. Guess he really likes fairytales, then," Jesse murmured. Even though the Fairytale Curse was currently raging in effect, most of the fairytales were still well-written. And confession... when Jesse wasn't just poring over the Tin Soldier for the billionth time, desperately hoping that she'd missed one stray detail, she was reading the stories. They were fun to read.
Out of curiosity, Jesse reached up and grabbed the smallest-sized book, the one that was the size of her palm. She flipped to the first page, spotting the Table of Contents immediately. There was Cinderella, the Three Billy Goats Gruff, the Tin Soldier (her heartbeat sped up against her chest at that), Snow White, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the Snow Queen...
Shrugging, Jesse carefully put the book in her inventory. Ivor had an entire section of shelf filled with fairytale books. He wouldn't miss one that was a little bigger than her hand.
Moving on, she spotted Petra rifling through a nearby chest. She approached the redhead, who stood up looking at something appreciatively. "Oh, hello," she murmured to herself.
And then she lashed out with a golden sword, glinting in the light.
Jesse danced backwards a few steps, being careful to avoid the gleaming blade. Petra, catching the movement in her peripheral vision, turned to the shorter girl. "Too heavy," she said, a little distastefully, "and too soft."
Jesse gave the gold sword a small smile. "But super flashy."
"Yeah, I don't think this guy does much fighting." Petra paused, a darker expression on her face, before glancing up at Jesse thoughtfully. "You've still got that one stone sword, right?"
The black-haired girl gave her head an apologetic shake. "No, I had to give it to some butcher to save Reuben's life."
"Jeez..." Petra winced as she looked down at the small pink pig. "Oh well. Guess it was for a good cause. Here," and she switched her grip on the sword that she was holding it, hilt-up. Jesse looked at the sword, before hesitantly taking it from Petra. She immediately could see what Petra meant– the blade was definitely heavier than the stone sword.
But still way more manageable than those giant swords that people tried to sell her.
"Thanks. Again," Jesse said, putting the sword away obediently.
"You're welcome." A small quirk of Petra's lips into a small smile. "Don't lose that one."
Jesse returned the smile and walked into the next area, where Axel was staring around at the potions. Jesse trotted over to her friend. "Find anything?" she asked, keeping her voice low.
"I wanna steal that," Axel reached up and pointed at a potion. "And that." Another potion. He then glanced over at a mushroom in a pot. "I just want to touch that."
Repressing a grin at his antics, Jesse turned around– and almost bumped into a small pedestal, a potion resting on it. Unlike the other potions, though, this one's glow was more like a miasma, of gold and purple and gleaming silver. Not to mention, the glass was tinted differently. "Whoa, check it out," she whispered, blinking at it.
Axel let out a little gasp of amazement as he walked up to it. "You're not going to believe me, but I swear I had a dream about this." His eyes switched to the potion, shining greedily. Or maybe that was just the potion. "Okay, potion. I know this is a big step, but... I would be honored if you'd come home with me."
Jesse gave Axel a weird smile, nervously laughing a bit at the almost hypnotized voice he was using. "C'mon, Axel. Make yourself helpful and go find that skull."
"I am..."
And then he reached out and grabbed the potion anyway, sticking it in his pocket.
"... uh, no, you just did the literal opposite of what I just asked you to do. Besides," Jesse gestured at the now-empty space, "there's no way he's not going to notice that his fancy potion is missing."
"A good thief always covers his tracks," Axel replied, glancing around. He proceeded to grab a nearby potion bottle and set it in the space where the fancy one had been. Actually, if you didn't know what was there before– or if you didn't stop and stare– you wouldn't even notice the difference. "Fixed it!" he said, in a loud stage whisper, and moved off to go steal something else.
"Oh yeah, the perfect crime," Jesse mumbled, slightly sarcastically.
Moving on from that, Jesse walked over to where Olivia was carefully examining one of the larger bookshelves. "Find anything?" she repeated to Olivia, since her first attempt with Axel had ended... in him stealing something.
"Well, the guy's not a slouch when it comes to enchanting," Olivia replied, glancing over her shoulder, "this is some pretty advanced stuff." The dark-skinned girl looked over at Lukas, who was also nearby. "What about you, Lukas? Find anything?"
Lukas's shoulders tensed, and Jesse was pretty sure that if he'd been any different, he would've actively jumped a little in surprise as he turned to face them. "Oh. Uh..." he glanced over his shoulders at the shelves. "You guys want an instruction manual on 'How to Build a Creepy Villain Lair with Everyday Objects'?"
Jesse couldn't resist letting out a giggle at that, and even Olivia had to repress a snort. "Uh, no thanks."
Lukas gave Jesse a sheepish grin, one hand still in his left pocket, before Jesse glanced around. "I'm gonna look around and see if I can spot anything else."
"Look away," Olivia said, casually.
Jesse nodded and moved away, examining the shelves more carefully. Besides the one shelf filled with fairytale books, none of the titles actually rang a bell with her, but she still kept searching anyways.
The moment Jesse turned away to look at the books, Olivia pointed at Jesse and gave Lukas a pointed look. Her meaning was abundantly clear– just tell her!
Lukas paused, glancing over at Jesse as she squinted at the books, before giving his head a shake. Can't.
Dude, stop being a chicken. This was from Axel, who'd attracted his attention by flailing his arms (don't worry, he'd moved out of the way out of the potions, he wasn't in danger of knocking anything over) and was now crossing his arms and squinting at Lukas, before gesturing at Jesse. It's literally not that hard to tell her.
But... Lukas's hesitant glance was enough to point that out– that he was hesitating to tell her.
What are you guys talking about? Petra had entered the silent conversation, poking her head in and making confused gestures.
Lukas not telling Jesse about... y'know. Olivia shot Lukas a pointed look again. Last year.
Petra's eyes widened a little, and her mouth moved into a little 'oh'. Is that what you were talking about earlier, too?
Olivia nodded at Petra.
Axel crossed his arms. It's seriously not that hard. Just tell her.
But it's not that easy! Lukas threw his hands up in the air and shook his head furiously.
Petra rolled her eyes. Lukas, seriously. We're all here to back you up. She spread her arms. And it's not that hard anyways. What's the problem?
She thinks they– Lukas abruptly cut off the frantic motioning of his arms and shoved his hands deep into his pockets as Jesse turned back around, making a face and shaking her head a little.
"There are way too many titles that make no sense on this shelf."
"Really? Like what?" Lukas asked, quickly turning to face Jesse and ignoring the flat stares the others were giving him.
Jesse dramatically gave her head a little shake and rested the back of her hand on her head. "It's too scarring. I can't tell you," she declared. "The experience has scarred me for life."
Lukas smothered a grin. "Oh no, my dear lady, I shall avenge thee," he joked back, making Jesse break out of her dramatic little scene into a giggling fit.
"Sure. While you do that, I'm going to go see if Petra's Wither Skull's somewhere in this basement– I highly doubt he wants to carry it around all day. Imagine if the keynote security caught him with it."
"Ooh, good point..." Olivia thumbed her lip, glancing back at the shelf. "That said, he might've hidden it behind something. Who just leaves Wither Skulls in a chest where anyone can come stomping in and find it?"
"Oh, that's a good point. Alright, everyone, start looking for hidden triggers, levers, tripwires, anything," Jesse ordered (politely), moving off into the room again.
Lukas was about to follow her lead when he spotted Petra giving him an encouraging look. When he just stared at her in confusion, she gave a little roll of her eyes and gestured at Jesse, who thankfully wasn't paying Petra much attention. C'mon. You can do it.
We're not still talking about... last year, right?
Petra shook her head, the encouraging look still on her face. You know what I'm talking about. She's right there.
He shook his head back. Not right now. Later.
The redhead gave the blonde a flat look, before shrugging. Suit yourself.
Lukas gave her a weak smile and began to move off– before spotting a movement and glancing back over at Petra. She was clenching her fist in a small, restrained cheering motion. Rootin' for ya.
He gave her a slightly cheered-up thumbs up and moved off.
He didn't notice the encouraging grin fade into an almost sad smile.
Jesse reached over the shelf and took ahold of a lever that had been blocked from view before by the potion that Axel had used to replace the fancy one. Pulling it down with a solid clunking noise, the lever rattled a bit in her grip, implying that it had been used many times before.
A grinding sound made itself more obvious, and Olivia stepped back from the huge bookcase she'd been scrutinizing with a startled expression on her face, the bookcase sliding into the floor to reveal gray-brown blocks with what looked like faces in it, on the sides and below a weird block with glowing colors emitting from a small 'window' in the center. A double chest sat at its feet.
Jesse frowned. "What the heck is this stuff?"
"Soul Sand," Petra murmured, frowning at the blocks around the machine. "That stuff's everywhere in the Nether."
"What about the block in the middle?" Jesse asked, pointing at said block.
Petra frowned, narrowing her eyes at it. "Never seen one of those before..."
Olivia stepped closer to it, eyes glinting in the machine's light. She hesitantly reached up, as if to touch it. "It looks like a machine of some sort... maybe if I just... take a closer look..." Her hand came to a stop inches from the block, hovering so close that if she leaned forward the slightest amount she would touch it. "Do you feel that?" she asked, looking a little bewildered. "It's almost... pulsing."
"Don't touch that, Olivia!" Jesse gasped, stepping forward and tugging her friend backwards a step. Her glass heart had abruptly gone into overdrive, now hammering away inside her chest.
Olivia twisted to get a better look at Jesse, looking startled by the fear in her friend's voice. "I was just curious."
"Don't forget what we're here for," Jesse replied shakily, "find that skull."
Olivia nodded and backed away, allowing Jesse to approach the chest at the structure's feet. Carefully, Jesse reached down and pulled it open– before her eyes widened in surprise. "Soo... good news, weird news."
The others crowded around the chest as well, following her lead and peering into the chest. "I found the skull, but..."
Petra's expression darkened. "What the hell?" she muttered. "Why'd I risk my neck for that skull if he's got two of them already? He was in such a hurry to get it, too."
Lukas frowned, reaching up and tapping his bottom lip as he stared at the structure, Petra continuing uncertainly, "there's gotta be something bigger going on here. Something we just don't see."
"I think I know what's going on here," the blonde spoke suddenly, making them all look at him, and for once Jesse wasn't noticing that there was the smallest thing off with him, because he'd suddenly turned about six shades paler. Lukas raised his arm shakily and pointed at the structure, indicating the Soul Sand. "Soul Sand, plus three Wither Skulls..."
Jesse frowned. Lukas usually was so put-together. A little jokey and playful sometimes, sometimes serious, sometimes annoyed, but always very calm regardless.
But now he looked like he wanted to run and hide under his bed.
"That's the recipe for a Wither."
A/N: I shall be binge-updating until we're past what I consider the boring part. (I.E. up until after the Wither is created, depending on how long chapters are.)
Hmm, looks like the others know something Jesse doesn't.
And looks like Petra and Lukas know something ELSE. xD
Basically, Jesse is out of the loop of everything right now xD
Responses to reviews!
ItzJaiden: Once I updated the old version of Hybrid 10 times in a single day, so it's not that impressive. xD
Emily The Avenger: I'm glad you think so xD
LunarTheMooncake: Very incorrect, sadly xD / (shrugs) / Ah. (pats)
NoItsBecky: I said over 20. So more than 20. (Not every character.) / (shrugs) / Reverse Petra and Olivia and you've got that right.
Guest: Ahhh, so it is. Thanks for pointing that out xD
x.X. A.L. X.x