Ivor shook his head with a faintly disgruntled expression on his face as he added some glistering potion to the water bottle on the stand. Immediately, the liquid vibrated before turning pale green. "Honestly. Would you children all stop injuring each other?" he asked, sharply but not really angrily.

Gill would've replied indignantly, but he was doing his best to not let his burned hands touch anything. The skin of his palms were a brilliant red and shiny, and covered with blisters.

Jesse glanced at Lukas as if he was going to answer, but he was still staring in a certain direction resolutely, as if trying not to look at her. He had that same expression that he'd been wearing back in the armor room, but it was still as indecipherable as a computer code to her. She followed his gaze to see him staring at Gill with that odd expression.

She poked him after a minute. "You alright?" she asked.

He started, turning a bit to face her again. "Wh-? Yeah. I'm fine," he replied, cheeks flushing slightly in embarrassment, although why he was embarrassed was beyond her. "What's up?"

Gill coughed something that sounded suspiciously like "Ishipit" as he tried to figure out where to put his hands.

Ivor huffed a bit at that and pulled the two green potion bottles off the stand without another word, before handing one to Gill and one to- to her surprise- Jesse.

She blinked down at the liquid in it as Gill tipped the bottle back and chugged the contents down in a few gulps, before back up at him, blinking innocently up at the black-haired man.

Ivor gestured at her hand- which, honestly, she'd forgotten about. It was actually a bit of a surprise to look down and see the white bandage wrapped around her hand- and then her cheek. "You've got that... burn," his eyes lingered on the bandage on her hand for a moment, long enough for Jesse to realize that she hadn't fooled the man with her story about burning it on the furnace- after all, he had seen her last night, and she'd had the bandage on at that point- "and that bruise to contend with."

"Oh..." Jesse looked down at the bottle, before back up at Ivor, giving him a small smile. "Um, thanks, D-" She stopped herself in her tracks when he raised his eyebrow infinitesimally at her. Her cheeks turned slightly warm. "Ivor."

She didn't notice Lukas glancing at her as she tipped the bottle back and swallowed the contents.

Within seconds, the bruise on her cheek had disappeared completely, and the dull stinging of pain from the cuts on her knuckles had faded away. Jesse smiled at the hand, flexing it, before giving Ivor a cheerful smile and a nod.

His eyes softened a bit, but before anything else could be said a small explosion and a loud yelp could be heard from outside the library.

All of their eyes went to the ceiling, before to each other. Lukas jumped up after another few seconds and dashed up the steps, the rest of the small group following.

They emerged from the staircase to see Magnus doubled over and cackling, while Stacy was spitting mouthfuls of slime onto the floor. Ellegaard had a hand over her eyes in irritation, but there was a small smile twitching on her face anyway.

Now that they saw both women, actually, both Ellegaard and Stacy were covered in the green stuff. Stacy's clothing was practically dripping with slime, and her hair was saturated with it. Ellegaard seemed to have thrown her arms up over her face in time, because it just looked like she was wearing a hat of the slime.

"Where the heck did you even find a chest that shoots slime in people's faces?!" Stacy exclaimed, swatting her hands once and sending a small waterfall of slime onto the floor.

Magnus rubbed his hands together with evil glee, eyes practically sparkling with excitement. Sparkling, I tell you. "Oh, it was actually in another chest in one of the extra bedrooms. The mechanism that kept all the prank items secret was amazing~" His voice trailed off into a sing-songy voice.

Ellegaard shook her head in amusement. "Well, good for you, terrible for the rest of us. Except maybe Axel. Now, I'm going to go towel off and then find Harper and Olivia."

Jesse was doing her best to keep a straight face- Ellegaard looked very amusing with a slime hat on. "You do that. Meanwhile, Gill, Lukas, and Ivor are going to help Magnus clean up the slime in this section of the hallway."

The three males that she'd named swiveled to look at her in perfect unison. "We are?" they chorused.

Jesse's lips twitched again. "Yes. You are," she said, elbowing Lukas in the ribs.

"... okay..." Lukas reluctantly agreed.

"Good. And I will help Stacy get a different outfit, seeing as she is now... soaked in slime," Jesse said, looking at Stacy and poking the girl gently on the shoulder. With a gentle squelching sound, upon pulling her hand away, a string of slime trailed from her finger before snapping and leaving a blob of slime on her finger.

"Yes, that- that would be nice," Stacy said, giving her now-slimy clothing a disgusted look.

"Fantastic. Let's go!" And, grabbing onto Stacy's sleeve automatically- and almost immediately regretting it the moment she felt the cold, slimy... um, slime touch her palm, she dashed off down the hallway, nearly dragging the brunette down the hallway herself.

Ellegaard shook her head in amusement and went off to go clean herself up as well. Gill turned around to ask Magnus a question, before pausing and then letting out a long sigh. "... perfect."

Lukas twisted around to see what he meant.

The Rogue was nowhere to be seen. It was as if he'd simply vanished from existence.

The three remaining boys all exchanged a look at the mess, before Ivor sighed and turned around to head back to the basement. "I'll go get some mops..."


"Are you okay?"

Unsurprisingly, Cassie got no response from the brown-haired boy with celery-green eyes who'd currently been glowering at the opposite wall for the past ten minutes in perfect silence. She hadn't exactly been expecting one. She'd even taken him up to the farthest corner of the house, where there were a few cobwebs and at least a clear centimeter of dust, to get some silence and hopefully calm him down.

Winslow was playing with one of the tapestries on the wall at Aiden's feet. Usually, whenever Winslow was there, any awkward silence was perfectly bearable.

But now, the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Finally, she sighed and crossed her arms. "You know, you can't just lash out like that all the time. In the past... day alone, you've caused two separate injuries that could've been supremely harmful if things had even gone the slightest bit differently."

Internally, she grinned grimly at herself. She was being such a hypocrite...

The silence continued stretching out. Cassie was just about to continue when the boy (Aaron? No, Aiden- that was his name) let out a long sigh, crossing his arms. "Yeah. I know," he said briefly. A short pause as he shook his head. "I don't even really know why I've been doing it lately. I'm just mad... I guess."

"Well, if that's you when you're 'just mad', then I don't wanna see you when you're all fired up and ready to breathe fire," Cassie joked.

To her surprise, Aiden actually snorted a bit, a grin momentarily sneaking its way over his face, before catching himself and looking away again.

The silence was broken again when Winslow accidentally yanked the tapestry down over Aiden's head.

"Oh! Winslow!" Cassie stifled a laugh and adopted a scolding tone as she attempted to help Aiden pull off the tapestry. "I'm so sorry, he doesn't usually... do... that..." She trailed off slowly, eyes having caught sight of something hiding behind the tapestry.

Aiden popped his head through the tapestry, his eyes actually glimmering a bit with amusement. "It's-" He cut himself off, having caught sight of it himself. "... fine."

Detangling himself from the tapestry, he stepped closer to the solid wooden door that had been disguised behind the tapestry. There was a minute of silence before Aiden glanced at Cassie. "Er... should we find out what's in here?"

The redhead shrugged and reached for the door. "Eh, I don't see why not. It's probably a good idea to scout it out before telling the others about i-"

As she opened the door, her attention distracted as she looked at Aiden, Winslow suddenly let out a loud yowl, all of his fur standing on end. Aiden instinctively lunged forward and tackled Cassie out of the way of the door as a spinning blade came spitting out of the doorway and embedded itself in the wall opposite them. If Cassie hadn't moved, it probably would've decapitated her.

"Um..." Cassie looked up from where she was now lying on her back, mouth having gone dry with fear. "That happened."

Aiden was panting a bit, eyes wide with shock. "Yeah," he replied breathlessly. Then- "Still wanna check it out?"

Cassie considered this, the momentary shock of fear that had left her paralyzed on the floor fading away and being replaced by curiosity.

Then again, curiosity did kill the cat...

Satisfaction brought him back.

"Sure," and she was about to get up before realizing something. She looked to heaven, feeling her cheeks beginning to warm. "Er, Aiden?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you get off me, please?"

Aiden opened his mouth to say something, looked down, and quickly scrambled to get off her. "S-sorry," he muttered.

Cassie was about to continue into the room, before spotting something on his cheeks and squinting. "Are you blushing?" she demanded to know after a moment, a smile twitching on her lips.

"No. Shut up," Aiden muttered back, the blush growing extremely acute.

She snickered and moved through the doorway, looking back at him while still staying alert about any more possible traps. "Aw, don't worry about it. Anyway, let's take a look at what's in this-" She was cut off by her own surprise, feeling her eyebrows shoot up and her mouth fall open. "... room."

Aiden poked his own head in, before his eyes widened, and he moved to stand inside. "Whoa."

The room was a huge library. Literally, the library towered up at least two floors, and was the size of the dining room and the living room combined. Not only that, every surface excluding the ceiling and the floor was composed of bookshelves, with a single armchair in the center of the room, under this ginormous glowstone lamp.

"This is the most comprehensive library I've seen... ever," Cassie breathed, cautiously continuing into the room. "Like, I haven't even seen half of these books! Decibels... Movie Mode... Storm Without Rain... Elements... The First Guests..." Her fingers brushed some of the spines. "And she's got at least two copies of all these books- like, wow!"

Aiden looked around the library cautiously. "It's nice... but why was it hidden behind a tapestry and then guarded by a spinning knife blade to boot?" he mused, anger having been completely forgotten.

"I dunno... oh, hello, what's this?" Cassie leaned closer to one of the shelves, having spotted this tiny, almost unseeable golden plaque.

N.I.B.

"N.I.B.," Cassie reported, after squinting at it for a full minute- her eyesight was terrible. (Hence why she wore glasses... duh)

Aiden arched his eyebrow. "What's that stand for?"

"I have no idea..." Cassie gave the library one last reluctant look. "Wanna tell the others about this place now?"

Aiden glanced up and around at the books another look himself. "... yeah, sure," he decided, before the two of them trotted out the door.


"Still have another twenty minutes until lunch is ready?" Olivia wondered, checking her watch.

"Yeah, Clutch and Slab are working on the food. They don't look it, but Clutch is an exceptional cook... and at least Slab doesn't end up burning everything," Harper hummed, as Ellegaard trotted out of her room with dry hair and the brown suit that they'd seen in the episode on.

She jerked her thumb back at her room as explanation upon seeing their expressions. "It's soaking wet. I'm letting it dry."

"Ah." A short, slightly awkward pause. "Should we go exploring the place, then?"

Ellegaard hummed a bit. "Well, I don't see why not."

The three women started walking through the hallways, carefully avoiding the topic of the episodes and instead discussing redstone extensively. They eventually found themselves in the basement, where Ivor was fiddling with the potion stands.

"Oh." Ellegaard pulled herself up short. "Ivor."

The black-haired man's hand jerked to the side in shock, dropping a handful of Blaze powder on the floor. He let out a loud sigh of relief upon seeing that none of it had landed in the potion before looking up at the three women. "Give me some warning before you do that next time- you know how I am when I start working on a potion," he grumbled, his hand resting on his heart.

Despite herself, the redstone engineer snorted. "I sure do." Turning to Harper and Olivia, she explained, "Whenever Ivor started working on a potion, he'd get so absorbed in his work that he'd literally forget to eat, sleep, or, um, perform other human bodily functions." At the chuckles this answer received, she grinned.

Ivor just grumbled and grabbed another handful of Blaze powder. "Mm. Anyway, what were you doing down here?"

"Exploring; we still have another fifteen minutes," Olivia replied, checking her watch.

Harper nodded absentmindedly in agreement, having started poking through the shelves. She stopped at this redstone-trimmed bookcase. "Um... "The Guide to Forging for Newbs" by... TheRealRedForges. And there's a trademark at the end of the name."

A small, thoughtful frown came over her face, and she reached up to pull it out.

The minute the book came halfway out, there was a dull clunking sound, and Ivor set down his Blaze Powder as Harper took a step back, the shelf rising up into the ceiling and revealing a huge room with pure obsidian walls, except for the doors that lead into other, separate rooms.

"Whoa," Ellegaard said slowly, stepping into the room, Olivia and Harper following a few steps behind and Ivor trailing after them. The room had a small corner with a glass wall that kept it barred off. Ivor rapped on the glass with his knuckles, arching his eyebrow at the sound of it sounding much more solid than normal glass. "Hm. This seems incredibly difficult to break."

Near the ceiling, there was a little mini-minecart track with a mini-minecart going around on it. The group watched it for a minute, before the group slowly split up to go poke through each of the five doors.

Ellegaard poked through the sets of armor in her room. "Um, there's seven sets of armor in here!" she called behind her. "They have little descriptions next to them on the walls." She gave the descriptions a quick glance over, muttering to herself quietly like she usually did. Actually, now that she thought about it, a lot of people who worked with redstone tended to talk to themselves. "'Capable of going 1000 miles an hour', 'Strength boost capable of breaking bedrock', 'unbreakable red diamond armor', 'imitation abilities', 'jumping abilities', 'Dementor armor', and- ouch," she winced a bit at the brightness of the last set of armor. "Gah, this is just painfully white. I can't even see the damn description plate..."

Olivia poked her head into the next room. "Hey... it's like Soren's grinder, only a lot smaller. And there's a bunch of spawners near the ceiling, and then they drop down into the grinder... actually, that's pretty clever, now that I think about it. A lot more efficient, too."

"Hm, this just looks like some sort of resting room," Harper hummed as she looked into the third room. "A bunch of beds, and some chests with some food in it. The food's still unspoiled, too."

"This last room is a weapon room of sorts," Ivor called out to the others. "And the weapons are all in glass cases, with names and descriptions... uh, 'The Redstone Sword - ignites redstone that it comes in contact with', 'The Redstone Bow - same function as The Redstone Sword', 'Thanatos - causes instant death to all it hits. Armor and health regardless', Fury's Cry - causes all who sees it to have fear settle deep in their hearts. Unbreakable, has no weight and acts like Captain America's shield', whoever Captain America is- um, 'Letus - Unbreakable, lightweight, comes back to Red in the shape of a Redstone Block ring and can turn into a Redstone Block ring. Kills all it touches if the user wants it to'." He paused a bit. "... well, some of these are a bit morbid."

Ellegaard had moved from her armor room into the second-to-last one. "Er, this room's a vault!" she announced. "It consists of diamonds, gold, and emerald... ooh! And redstone and obsidian!" she finished, sounding a bit more excited.

Olivia pushed open the last door, before staggering back at the wave of heat that practically hit her in the face. The walls and floor of this room were also pure black, except for this literal wall of lava on the opposite wall. There was another waterfall in the corner, making steam rise up in faint spirals towards the ceiling, and a bunch of chests on the floor. There were also minecarts rushing in and out of the room, dropping things off and taking some away.

Olivia pulled back. "What is this place?" she wondered, looking around it again.

Ivor stopped by the glass wall and leaned closer to the small plaque that was stuck to the wall. "I think this is called 'The Redstone Rooms'..." He squinted at the plaque for a moment before reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alternatively 'Redstone Heaven'."

There was a short silence. He turned to look at the three women. Ellegaard and Olivia had their hands clasped at their mouths, eyes sparkling as they surveyed the room with renewed interest, and Harper's eyes were practically glowing as she looked around.

He let out a soft sigh and shook his head, but he was grinning anyway. "Of course that would be your reactions." He leaned away from the plaque and gave the room another look-around. "... well... should we head up to lunch and let the others know about this place, then?"

"... yeah, okay."

And the whole group trotted out of the room, only pausing long enough to shut the door again, before traipsing up the stairs to the dining room.


A/N: Oh, this ain't the last we'll see of these places and items (grins evilly) And we're gonna come back in full detail.

RQTC: Are you a social butterfly or an awkward potato?

Awkward, awkward potato. I'm so awkward I'm buried six feet under ground.

Guest: (hands you banana) Here you go.

TheLadyIanite: Whoops, sorry. (laughs) Have a chapter.

LittleAngelbun: (high-five)

DarkPrincess2001: A very accurate description of the situation xD

RapidSammi: Heehee :3

AquaK13: Yeah... / hehehe xD / I know, right?

LunarStarsMoon: (laughs) / And thanks!

the indecisive bird: (cracks up) / (hums) Okay, cool.

Emily The Avenger: (laughs) Well, I'm glad you like the chapter.

Darkbeast Dend: (shrugs) Been good.

Rabbits rule: (keeps petting Jess) / If it did, that's good I guess xD

Luna96: (Yay!) / Ahhhh. xD

sailor. mikuchan: (thumbs up) Lucky xD

x.X. A.L. X.x