Petra stared at the little chicken with the adorable crown with deadpan eyes. "What."

"No way," Lukas said, putting his hands on his hips.

Jesse shrugged at the denial. "It makes sense, though, doesn't it? The spawn eggs are all over the place. And where else do you get eggs from but-"

"A chicken," Ivor finished Jesse's sentence for her, putting his hands on his hips with a rather impressed look, "Yes, it's so simple!"

Jesse nodded at that. "So the chicken lays the eggs, the egg makes monsters, and the loot from the monsters made Sky City!" she said, clapping her hands together. And then staring at her lower arms bemusedly.

Ivor looked at the chicken, interestedly. "Hmm, we're still taking the Eversource, right?" he asked, thoughtfully, looking at his pupil.

Lukas gave her mentor a look. "The chicken that the entire city depends on?! Are we sure that's a good idea?" he asked, incredulously.

"What are you talking about?" Milo argued, "we need to bring it to the people. With it, we'll finally be free of the Founder!"

"It's cute!" And Jesse leaned over and patted it gently on the back, making the chicken make little clucking sounds in contentment.

Petra crossed her arms, her brow raising as her lips twitched with amusement. "Yeah, THAT'S what you notice about it," she said, smirking slightly at the spider hybrid.

"Well it is!" Jesse said defensively, as she went on patting the chicken gently.

Before anyone could say anything else, Petra was kicked aside with a yell, then Ivor, Lukas dodged out of the way, and finally Milo was kicked out of the way as a blur of gold and black flurried in through them, before the Founder stood in front of Jesse, in a martial arts pose, as the Blaze Rods came up behind them.

Jesse arched her eyebrow and stood up, the chicken clucking contentedly on the ground next to her. "Would've been nice to know that you're a martial artist," she hummed thoughtfully.

"I knew it! I knew you were here to steal from me!" the Founder hissed, eyes practically glowing with fury.

Jesse looked at the chicken, still clucking on the ground next to her, then back at the Founder. "All I was doing was petting a chicken... let's just talk about this, okay?"

"I'm not sure there's anything to talk about," the Founder hissed, still in her martial-arts position.

"It's just like I told you, Founder," Aiden declared, "they're here to steal the Eversource!"

Jesse threw her arms in the air, making the chicken let out a squawk of alarm. "What was I doing?! I was just petting the chicken!" she complained loudly.

Lukas's tail was flicking as he 'coughed', although Jesse was pretty sure she could see more than a little amusement in his eyes.

"Aiden warned me that you were a pack of thieves," the Founder practically growled, straightening up, "and here you are, prepared to make off with the one thing our City depends on to survive!"

Jesse decided to stop protesting about the whole thing, even as Aiden wandered off in her peripheral vision.

"Boy," and suddenly Jesse looked over, eyes widening as she saw Aiden reaching into a chest labelled 'CREEPERS', "when you put it like that, I almost feel bad."

And he turned around, tossing the creeper egg casually. "Yep. 'Fraid I'M going to be taking the chicken. It's mine, now."

"What?" And Isa looked shaken. "This is outrageous!"

Aiden just grinned nastily, Jesse leaning down and whispering to the Eversource, "Eversource! Um... uh... Evie, okay? I'm just gonna call you Evie. Evie, run over there, okay?"

'Evie' just clucked up at her, blankly.

"Now!" and Jesse hissed, raising all six arms and hissing malevolently, red eye flashing. Evie squawked loudly and ran off, making Jesse whip out her sword and turn back as Aiden chucked the egg at Jesse. Jesse lunged sideways, as the egg burst to reveal a green-skinned creeper.

"Why didn't we ask Axel to come along," Jesse groaned, lunging back to her feet, as the Founder whipped out two swords to face the creeper- which exploded in her face.

Jesse let out a shout of alarm as the Founder cried out, her swords going over the edge and the Founder almost following, grabbing onto the edge tightly. "Oh! No, no no no no!" she cried out, clinging to the dirt edge as she kicked and struggled to pull herself back up..

Jesse turned as Lukas let out a yell. She turned back, seeing Lukas slashing with his claws and catching Aiden in the cheek, shoving back and forth. "I've got Aiden, save the Founder!" he shouted, shoving back.

Jesse nodded, sheathing her sword, and ran forward, diving forward and catching hold of the woman just as she fell, her lower arms propelling her backwards as Jesse heaved the woman back to safety, both standing rather close to the edge.

The Founder looked shaken, but she nodded at Jesse shakily. "Thank you..." she said, gratefully, "thank you."

Jesse nodded, just as Lukas let out a yell and went flying past Jesse- straight into open air.

Jesse screamed, just as time slowed down and Lukas stared at her, mouth open, eyes wide, and suddenly she was back in the Witherstorm, being held by that tentacle, and she could barely breathe because her ribs were being squeezed, crushed by that tentacle, and she was screaming, screaming, screaming, her throat hurt and burned and Lukas suddenly wasn't Lukas anymore, he was Reuben, he was falling, he was falling! Jesse raised her arm to fire a web to catch him- she couldn't miss- she wasn't going to miss, not this time, she couldn't have a repeat of what happened then, no no no no no no-!

And suddenly something hit her in the back, sending Jesse tumbling right into the Founder and knocking them both over the edge, Jesse pivoting midair to see what had just happened-

And Aiden was smirking, a wicked grin on his marred face, a line of red scratches running down his cheek that stood out on his face as Jesse and Lukas and the Founder were falling, falling, because Jesse hadn't been fast enough.

Because Jesse was never fast enough.

A/N: Anyone else wanna murder Aiden in this scene? (raises hand)

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