"Let's go see if we can find if the White Pumpkin has a lair- sort of like a home base, if you may," Jesse offered.

Petra nodded, before going to inspect the walls.

Jesse sat down in a chair, staring off into space but not really seeing anything except for things on the far walls. How had she ever gotten so wrapped up in this? How had she ever gotten wrapped up in this sick murder mystery?

Guess that's what comes from being an adventurer.

Jesse let out a soft sigh, staring at the huge White Pumpkin portrait on the opposite wall.

White Pumpkin... portrait...

Jesse's eyes scanned the paintings on the wall. The only one that was really in reach for walking in normally (and I don't mean as a spider hybrid, I mean just stroll in casually) was the huge White Pumpkin portrait. And it was long. Long and vertical.

All of the vertical paintings so far... had concealed a secret passageway...

Pushing herself off the couch, she strolled over to it, looking up at the face of the White Pumpkin. "I won't deny that this'll be fun," Jesse sighed, drawing her fist back, before driving it as violently through the painting as possible, smashing the painting into little splinters that fell all over the floor, making Stampy jump up as if he'd just been set on fire, Lizzie whirl around, Dan leap up, and Stacy whip to face Jesse, her face falling into an almost comical shocked expression as the huge painting vanished to reveal... a tunnel. A very big secret passageway.

"Huh, that WAS fun," Jesse said, smiling at the splintered remains of the White Pumpkin's portrait.

Petra whistled, putting her hands on her hips. "Wow. Another secret passageway, huh?"

Jesse crept in, looking around. Not too far ahead was a set of iron doors. Next to it were three picture frames- in it were a spiderweb, a poison-tipped arrow, and then a sand block.

Jesse's eyes narrowed, and three arms reached out and simultaneously took them all out of the picture frames at once, looking through the items as the others came up behind them. Reaching out, she put the tipped arrow in the first frame, the one closest to the door- making one of the three locks click.

"Strike one," Jesse hummed, before putting the sand block in the middle. The second lock click as it disengaged. "Strike two." And then the third lock disengaged as Jesse slipped the spiderweb into the last picture frame, making the door spring open. Had Jesse been standing any closer, the door and her face would've gotten a rather painful greeting. "Strike three, and you're out!"

"You are a dork," Petra said, faintly jokingly, although her eyes were filled with a concealed irritation that still came through in her voice. Jesse gave her Blaze hybrid friend a worried look, but Petra refused to meet her in the eyes.

Walking through the doors, Jesse was confronted by a rather large hole in the ground.

"Oh wow!" Stampy said, sounding impressed, "you got it open!"

"Yeah," Petra nodded, turning and putting her hands on her hips, "you guys should stay here- it could be dangerous."

"Nooo, I totally want to follow you into your friend's creepy secret passageways," Stacy said, sarcastically.

"Ugh- seriously?!" Petra said, sounding quite offended, "you really think LUKAS did it?!"

"You haven't proven he didn't yet," Stacy shot back.

Jesse put all her hands up in a surrendering motion. "Hey- cool it! We're all in this together, aren't we?" she asked, making her voice sound as placating as possible. Petra shot her a small grin.

Lizzie put her hands on her hips. "Depends- are you on the White Pumpk- I mean... 'Lukas' side, or ours?"

Petra's grin fell right off her face. "Ugh. You know what? They're not worth it. Come on." And she whirled around, walking to the edge of the hole and staring down into it, fuming. You could tell, because there was literally steam rising from her, and a couple flames were starting to flicker across her shoulders.

Jesse frowned at them apologetically. "I- sorry. It's late. We've gotten almost zero sleep. We're all pretty stressed out," she said, hoping they'd accept it.

Dan recognized the proffered olive branch. "Sure. C'mon guys, let's go wait in the living room." And he turned around and trotted back, the others following a little behind.

The moment they were out of earshot, Jesse went over and looked down into the whole, standing next to Petra. "That's deep. Guess it leads down to... whatever the White Pumpkin calls 'home.' Wonder how he gets down there-"

"Maybe," Petra snapped, "in addition to walking through walls, he can FLY for all we know. Ugh!"

And she whirled away, glaring at nothing in particular as Jesse blinked, a bit taken aback by the outburst. A moment passed, before Petra said, a bit more kindly than before, "It's just... I'm really worried about Lukas. Those people think they're all safe, but the White Pumpkin is still running around and he could strike again at any minute! Not to mention, those people out there have been so ungrateful, so petty-"

Jesse reached out and squeezed Petra's shoulder, cutting off her rant midsentence. "Hey, Petra, I understand. Okay? I'm with you." And she gave her friend a reassuring smile.

Petra deflated under Jesse's hands, and the steam stopped spitting off of her. Her armor also cooled from uncomfortably hot to rather warm. "You're right. I know you're right... phoof..." she let out a loud huffing sound. "Sorry, Jesse. I just really needed to get that off my chest."

She suddenly found her being hugged by the spider hybrid. "Uh- J-Jess-"

"You look like you needed a hug. So you're getting a hug."

"U-uh, thanks, Jesse," and Petra's gold eyes cooled even more, her arms going around her friend. "Thanks, Jesse," she repeated.

"No problem. Now," and Jesse released Petra, putting one hand on her hip, green-and-red eyes sparkling, "Race you down there."

Petra blinked. And then grinned. "Oh, you're ON."

Jesse dropped to all eights, crawled over the edge... and went right on going, rushing down as fast as possible. Petra hopped into empty space, hovering down as fast as possible.

The last ten feet, Jesse decided to take a risk and just dropped ten feet, landing on her feet expertly and with no damage whatsoever. "Done!" Jesse called.

"D- aw, man," Petra groaned, landing on her feet as Jesse chuckled at her friend slightly, in the dark, slightly creepy tunnel. Petra looked up at Jesse, a faint smile coming over her face. "Thanks. I needed that."

Jesse reached out and gave her friend's shoulder another squeeze. "You're most certainly welcome, Petra."

A/N: Jetra friend fluff for those few people who ship it.

No new reviews (pouts)

x.X. A.L. X.x.