Jesse pulled out the amulet, everyone looking at her as she did so. The red and green gems were glowing, but suddenly the glow faded away. Lukas's eyes widened. "Oh... huh." Jesse frowned at the amulet and gave it a little shake, which did a grand total of... absolutely nothing.
Ellegaard's eyes narrowed in concern, Magnus sitting forward and watching the screen intently.
"Here, let me have a look," Lukas said, stepping forward and taking ahold of the amulet. He tried to tug it away, but Jesse's fingers tightened on it. The screen went back up to show that her eyes were hard.
Lukas tried to tug harder, but Jesse simply tugged right back, and soon the two hybrids were engaged in a full-blown game of tug-of-war.
"Maybe you're just holding it wrong," Lukas grunted, trying to yank it away. "Or maybe-" More sounds of exertion. "You just have to jiggle it a bit."
"It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid," Soren replied.
"Do you mind?"
"I just wanna see it."
"You can see it without touching."
"Not if you can't get it to work."
Jesse opened her mouth to respond, before pausing. A funny look came over her face, and she started to giggle at this. Lukas blinked at her in confusion before his own lips twitched up at the ends, and he started to titter. Their laughter was contagious, and most of the audience was either now in stitches or smothering a grin.
"T-this is so ridiculous," Jesse managed through her giggles, and the laughter between the two hybrids grew more infectious until they both let go of the amulet in favor of trying to stop laughing, laughing so hard they could barely breathe.
Axel looked at Olivia onscreen. The Enderman hybrid shrugged.
After a minute or so, Jesse and Lukas finally stopped laughing, letting out little sighs, before Jesse's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open into an 'o'. The screen switched to show that the white gem on the amulet had suddenly started to glow brightly.
"Soren!" all five hybrids chorused onscreen, unknowingly echoing the Order's exclamation.
"Find him, Jesse," Petra said, looking up at the spider hybrid, looking even paler in the white light the amulet was emitting, "maybe he can help us."
Jesse stooped to retrieve it with a quick nod, before holding it out and watching the glow as she paced around the floor. It brightened when she leaned down, holding the amulet closer to the floor. "He must be below us," Jesse hummed thoughtfully, as the amulet clinked on the floor gently.
"Hmm," Soren hummed, "it would seem so. Although I don't-" His eyes widened in comprehension, and his face went pale. "Oh."
"'Oh'? 'Oh'... what?" Jesse asked, twisting to see him, looking considerably less sad than she had before the giggling fit. "What's wrong?"
"Who knows how far down this goes?" Lukas wondered with a frown, crossing his arms. "We might end up digging until we hit bedrock or something. Guys, we're not really equipped for this."
Jesse twisted her lips together before shrugging. "Well, we might not be equipped for it, but it's the only idea we've got. Unless anyone has any other bright ideas?" She smiled at him as if to show she didn't mean any harm.
"Jesse's talking to you, Lukas," Olivia teased the blonde.
Lukas frowned, seeming not to have gotten the joke, his ocelot ears twitching. "I know, I- I just need a-"
"PAI-GOW!" and Axel interrupted loudly by punching the floor, leaving a small hole.
Jesse shrugged as she pocketed the amulet again. "Well, let's get to it, then!"
The screen sped up as they all started digging, until it was just Jesse digging deeper and deeper into the floor, leaving a small mock-staircase behind her, before reaching a dark tunnel. Pulling the amulet back out and holding the now-brightly-glowing gem above her, she hopped into the tunnel, looking around.
"Are we cool?" Axel called down.
As Jesse waved the amulet around quickly, millions of little red eyes flickered to life.
"Oh Notch, what's that behind her?" Stampy gasped. "Googlies?"
Jesse blinked before looking over at Stampy. "Come again?"
"Monsters," Stacy clarified before Stampy could explain. "It's Stampy's special term for 'monsters'."
"Ah." A short pause. "I'm gonna start saying that."
Lukas snorted, covering his mouth to try not to giggle.
"Looks... pretty good, I think. Dark, but other than that, nothing too bad..." Jesse called up to her friends, looking around, the red eyes barely visible behind her.
"Heading down, then," Lukas called down to Jesse, starting to use the mock-staircase Jesse had left, "don't look up! I need to work up the nerve..."
A squeak from behind her, and Jesse froze before slowly beginning to turn around. "Wait..."
"You tell me that now?!" Lukas exclaimed, having already made it a few steps down the staircase.
Jesse raised the amulet as she turned around fully, the light revealing a bat nest. Startled by the light of the amulet, the bats started screeching and flying around in a swarm, making Jesse shriek in shock. "Bats!"
The watchers all started screaming as well, Reuben squealing from where he was now perched in Jesse's lap. "WHY ARE WE SCREAMING?" Axel asked in a scream himself.
"Because it's bats!" Ellegaard shuddered. Magnus gave her a teasing grin.
"Aww, is Ellie afraid of the towtsy-wowtsy bats?"
"You're the one who nearly blew up the kitchen because there was a rat in the corner!" she retorted.
Magnus opened his mouth to make a rebuttal, paused, and then crossed his arms, cheeks turning pink. "Oh... shut up," he grumbled, choosing to ignore the giggles that were now going through the audience.
Jesse kept swatting at the bats, before the swarm finally reoriented themselves and flew away down the tunnel. Jesse let out a bit of a nervous shiver and started waving the amulet around again. After a moment, she finally called out, "Um... okay, safe now!"
Lukas landed on all fours on the ground a moment later, Olivia bleeping into sight. Axel free-fell with a scream before landing right on top of Lukas.
Real-Lukas winced. Axel reached over Olivia, Petra, Jace, and Jesse to pat him on the shoulder sympathetically.
Reuben nudged Jesse's leg as the Blaze hybrid hovered down unsteadily before tripping and nearly falling flat on her face upon landing on the ground.
Jesse's eyes immediately filled with concern, walking over to the Blaze hybrid. "Everyone okay?" she asked, Petra panting slightly with exertion from just hovering down.
"I slipped." Jesse frowned at Petra and arched her eyebrow, but the redhead didn't say anything else.
Concerned glances were shot Petra's way, the redhead ignoring them and staring resolutely at the screen.
Reluctantly, Jesse turned away, before spotting Lukas staring at Jesse, then at Petra worriedly, then back at Jesse, as if asking her to call it out.
Jesse glanced at Petra, who wasn't looking in their direction, before turning back and shaking her head as imperceptibly as she could. "Later," she mouthed. Lukas nodded in understanding.
"Oh good, so she IS going to tell us," Lukas sighed in relief.
"I'll keep your secret unless it's going to hurt you. Then screw keeping secrets," Jesse responded simply, patting him on the shoulder.
"What if it hurts you?" Jace wondered.
"Oh, I'm not that important," Jesse said dismissively. She didn't realize it, but everyone in the audience exchanged odd glances with one another at this dismissive comment.
"What's that smell?" Olivia wondered, making a face.
"I didn't know Enderman eyes can wrinkle up the way yours just did," Soren said, leaning forward to stare at the screen. His eyes were sparkling with interest.
Olivia simply shook her head, still watching intently. "Neither did I."
"Just... breathe through your mouth," Petra said, making her own little face at the smell.
Lukas jerked his head at Axel, his face completely blank. "Axel already does that."
"Hey..." and Axel glared at the ocelot hybrid.
"Well, you did fall on him," Lizzie mumbled.
Axel sent a pouty glare in her direction. "By accident."
"Let's just get out of here," Jesse said, although she had a smirk on her face as she watched the two boys glowering at each other. Turning around, she started walking down the tunnel, Reuben trotting right next to her as she held out the amulet. "Stay close, boy," she instructed him, the pig snorting and rubbing her leg with his head, making Real-Jesse grin and fondle the pig's ears.
They reached the end of the tunnel, and Jesse stepped over to the edge carefully, looking around. There were THOUSANDS of other tunnels, below and above them, dyed wool decorating the and about ninety-nine percent of them connected by dyed-wool staircases. Jesse squinted to see the bottom of the huge area, where a machine was smashing together every few seconds, far, far below.
Soren had gone extremely pale. "Uh-oh."
"What?" Axel asked, turning to look at Soren, "what's wrong? What's that?"
Olivia, Ellegaard, Harper, and Stampy had all gone pale right about now, too. Harper swallowed and shook her head slowly. "Something you all don't want to get caught in."
Jesse put the amulet back into her pocket again, the glow no longer needed due to the walls being lined with torches and being reasonably well lit. Lukas let out a gasp as the others reached the edge as well.
Olivia's eyes widened onscreen, and she stepped back a step, shouting something that the smashing machine drowned out.
"WHAT?" Lukas yelled in return, ears pricking up as he looked up at the now significantly-taller Olivia.
Olivia started backing away from the edge now. "WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" she shouted back over the smashing machine.
Axel frowned at Olivia in confusion. "We just got here!" he protested.
Olivia shook her head. "You don't understand!" she cried out loudly. The screen switched to one of the tunnels, which spat out a wave of water and took several skeletons with it. The skeletons fell into the machine far below, which slammed together and smashed them into pieces, leaving bones and arrows behind and falling into... whatever was beyond the smashing machine.
"This is a grinder!"
A/N: Stopping point! xD
Another short-ish chapter, but whatever xD
RQTC: Who's excited for the next chapter? xD
Guest: Hehe xD
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: It really is :3 And haha, yeah, same here. And yep x3
DynamiteHunter6: (laughs) Yeah, probably not.
Emily The Avenger: I know, right? xD
AquaK13: (glomps you) And haha xD
Darkbeast Dend: ... I... literally just updated an hour ago... besides, I do need to take a break from updating every once in a while...
x.X. A.L. X.x