They ran out of the building, mixing with the panicking crowd. Jesse was doing her best to get past them, but then she had to contend with the chickens. Oh, how many chickens there were.
"Outta my way, you chickens!" she cried desperately.
A loud rumbling sound, and Jesse peeked to see the dome roof shattering, collapsing, as a humongous black cloud with waving tentacles rose from the wreckage of the keynote. With a start, Jesse realized that was the Wither. And yep- three heads, with huge teeth, and glowing indigo eyes.
Jesse gasped as THREE tractor beams started shining, catching people in the beams and sucking them up, absorbing them as if they were blocks.
And then indigo light landed on her, making the raven-haired girl gasp as she started to rise into the air, a part of the bridge coming with her. Jesse grabbed onto the stone bridge, screaming. "Guys! Help! I'm up here!" she screamed, but no one could hear her- her grip slipped-
A desperate stabbing out with her hand, and a huge strand of silk caught the ground a little in front of her, sticking solidly. She stopped rising, and she concentrated on the string, which started retracting, but far too slow against the pull of the Wither.
So, she grabbed ahold of the string, and started pulling herself forward. Slowly, her head emerged from the beam, and then her torso-
She toppled out the rest of the way, and smacked onto her back before flopping onto her belly.
"Holy Notch that hurt," she moaned, struggling to her feet, before running through the crowd, some of them screaming as they were sucked up in the tractor beam. She spotted Lukas and his jacket. "Lukas!" she shouted, sprinting over to him.
The blonde whirled to face her, face white, body shaking, eyes wide. "Holy crap!" he cried. "Oh man, if I was still in that basement..."
Jesse shuddered as her brain decided to be far too imaginative.
"Thanks, Jesse," Lukas said sincerely, looking at her with gratefulness shining in his eyes, "I wouldn't be here without you."
"Jesse!" And both looked over to see Petra, Olivia, Axel, and Reuben crouching under a booth's roof.
They ran over, but the moment they got there, a tractor beam sucked it up, making everyone shriek and run away.
"Wait! Wait! We have to stick together!" Jesse cried out.
A scream. Jesse whirled on her heel.
Petra was rising into the air, flailing her arms desperately. "Help me!" she yelled out.
Jesse jumped into the air, fingers wrapping tightly around her friend's wrist and her other hand wrapping around a fencepost. But the fencepost was starting to wobble, even as Jesse struggled to hang on. "I can't... hold on-" She cut herself off with a scream as the fencepost broke, and she rose into the air-
A hand flailed to reach her, and Jesse focused and fired, a strand of silk barely missing Gabriel's face. He grabbed it and pulled down, drawing Jesse back down to arm's reach, before grabbing onto her hand and pulling.
The tractor beam moved away, and they all toppled to the ground, Jesse scraping the silk off her hand.
"Thanks!" Jesse thanked the male sincerely, and he nodded.
The others ran back over, faces white. Jesse did a quick headcount. "Do we have everyone?" she asked, desperately.
"We must run to my fortress! We'll be better protected there!" Gabriel shouted out, before starting to run. They ran past the Enderman fireworks launcher at the entrance, Petra saying to Jesse gratefully, "Thanks for that just now, Jesse."
"Yeah, well, now we're even," Jesse joked a bit, but the joke fell flat as she gasped, the Wither starting to follow them and sending a flaming skull flying at them.
Petra tackled them all sideways. "Incoming!" And they tumbled to the ground rather painfully.
Scrambling to their feet, they all ran as fast as they could. The others were out of the gate before Jesse, and that was why the gate started closing.
"Why in Notch's sake would they close the gates? This dumb thing can FLY!" Jesse cried, running faster, but she wasn't going to make it-
She tripped forward, feeling the seams of her shirt rip- R.I.P. to her shirt, it was one of her favorites- and she chanced a look at her midriff. A gasp tore through her as she saw four new arms.
Four.
The hands caught her, and she could feel the impact. God, she could feel it, it was- it was weird!
She focused up ahead, the gate almost closed-
A burst of energy, and Jesse started using all eight of her limbs to propel herself across the ground, shooting out from the tiny space between the gate and the ground moments before it slammed closed, following her friends.
As she looked, she saw her friends had had similar ideas according to their, uh, 'talents'- Olivia was starting to bleep out of sight and back in at different distances, although she kept stumbling and at one point she actually faceplanted- it was obvious the whole thing was a bit dizzying for her. Petra was flying, although it was more like short distances of acute gliding. Axel had scooped Reuben up, and was sprinting away from the Witherstorm at a speed that humans probably couldn't reach. Even Lukas was on his hands and legs, using all fours to run, although he did fall a couple times, and Jesse could see the hints of a couple of what looked like cat ears poking out of his hair. They kept tripping, as did Jesse.
And usually she probably would've worried about it, freaked, really, except for the fact that SHE was one of these.. 'hybrids'... and also now was really NOT the time to do it and freak. So she didn't.
As they ran through the now-burning forest, Jesse didn't even chance a glance around her- she just tore through the forest, and soon she was where her friends were.
They barely had time to exchange a nod when a black tentacle shot at them, all of them scattering to avoid a hit.
Jesse got back to her feet, stumbling a little, before summoning all her energy and taking a huge leap over the tentacle that slammed down to block her path. She cleared it, stumbled, and rushed into the temple.
Gabriel furiously toggled levers as they ran down the stairs. "The inner chamber is made of obsidian- we should be untouchable in there!" he cried out, as the doors slid open.
They charged in, even as light flooded into the room. "Hurry!" Gabriel shouted, drawing his sword, "if you can get through the portal, you'll be safe!"
Axel rushed through the unlit portal, but then paused when nothing happened. "Something's not right here!"
Jesse patted her pockets down- and then again. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "Oh crap," she cried, "I must've dropped the flint and steel earlier- I can't find it!"
All of them shared a panicked look, before Petra bit the inside of her cheek- you could tell by the way her cheek dimpled- and held her palm out. Fire spat out of her palm and hit the obsidian, making purple swirls explode into being in the portal.
"Petra-" Axel began, eyes wide.
"Look, I know, that was freaky, but we don't have time to worry about it right now!" Petra almost screamed desperately, "get in, now!"
Axel scooped Reuben up after about a second's hesitation and charged through, Olivia being the next to follow.
The others would've followed, except that a scream rang out in the air. Jesse whipped around to see Gabriel ensnared by a tentacle. "Gabriel!" She ran back and began to do tug of war with the tentacle. As Gabriel began to fly out the exit, Jesse's other arms twitched, reminding her of their existence. She looked down, before using them and wrapping them around his arms, before she managed to yank him out of the tentacle's grip, the tentacle retreating rather than following Gabriel.
"Thank you," he said, surprisingly looking rather unsurprised about Jesse's six arms- I mean, even JESSE was surprised- but then he turned back, expression growing more somber as he took in the people being sucked into the Wither's grip. "There are so many of them... I can't- I can't save them all... I can't stop them by myself. We have to find the others."
"The.. others?" Jesse asked, although she was pretty sure she knew what he meant already.
"Soren's been missing for years," Gabriel continued, confirming that she'd understood him correctly, "but the others. You must seek them out." He reached into his pocket and held out a glowing amulet, with four different colored bars- red, green, cyan, and white. The cyan gem was glowing, but the others weren't. "Take this amulet, and guard it with your life."
Jesse took it. "Wh-what do I do with it?" she asked.
"Take it through the portal, and then-"
He was interrupted by a tentacle smashing through the roof, one of the heads peering in. Jesse shuddered at the sight of it, as a tentacle pushed them apart, Jesse having to dive away from it. Petra let out a yell, and Jesse twisted to see her friend getting knocked away by another huge, black tentacle.
She charged towards the tentacle and flailed with the sword with all her might, knocking into the tentacle, although it didn't seem to do a lot. Lukas let out a scream as he quaked on the raised area, eyes wide and ears flattened against his head. Petra ran up and sliced a tentacle away from him, Jesse joining the redhead and the blonde a moment later.
"You two, go through the portal and meet up with the others. I'll stay behind to do whatever I can," Petra ordered the two of them.
She started to run away, but paused when they didn't move. "Guys, GO! Now!"
"I'll stay with you-" Jesse began, but Petra cut her off.
"No. The others NEED you, Jesse," Petra responded firmly. "I'll meet you guys at the temple!"
Gabriel yelled again, and they whirled to see him caught in a tractor beam. Jesse and Petra instinctively charged towards him, but another tractor beam caught Petra.
"No!" Jesse yelled, whirling back to Lukas. "Lukas!"
She stopped when she saw him shaking where he stood, eyes so wide they were the size of dinner plates.
She bit her lip, looking frantically between the both of them, and ran for Petra, grabbing her friend's leg and yanking her down.
"Thanks, Jesse. Gabriel's still up there-" Petra started shouting.
Jesse turned and fired using her palm, but right then a tentacle came thudding down and she started, making the string fly wildly off the target.
Jesse gritted her teeth scraped it off, getting ready to try again, as Gabriel shouted, "Jesse! Go!"
"No!" Jesse repeated, running for him and raising her palm to try again-
In the corner of her peripheral vision, she saw a wild flash of black-
A huge black tentacle hit her in the ribs, making her gasp as all the breath was knocked out of her body and her arms flail out to try to catch herself, as she felt herself slam into Lukas and topple backwards into an icy hot sensation as the whole world turned purple and glowing and then black.
A/N: Wow. Just... wow. Twice in another hour. I really love this story, don't I?
But, holy crap, action scene! And it didn't massively screw up!
Kaos Ruin: Not really. I know, I've counted. It's not even half the amount. But yeah, I'm probably going to try to avoid making the reviews like ten feet long. If I can. :)
rebekahtpe: A random review indeed, but I do like those things too. And thanks!
x.X. A.L. X.x.