Jesse looked between the blonde, then at the redhead. The blonde, and the redhead. Blonde, red. Ocelot, Blaze.
Putting away all her weapons, she danced on the balls of her feet, and then she closed her eyes and mentally apologized.
And then she charged.
Slamming full-force into Petra, she sent the both of them flying through a waterfall, a sheet of water soaking Jesse and Petra as they both crashed to the floor.
Petra spasmed with a scream of pain as electricity arced all over her, before the chip went flying backwards and the Blaze hybrid collapsed to the ground, literally steaming and smoking, holding a fiery sword that died down, eyes no longer that dull red but back to their beautiful gold.
"Jesse?" Petra asked, choking and spitting out some water, "that- that was awful."
Jesse had no time to even feel relieved- there was a shout from behind her, and she whipped around to see Ivor furiously pointing over Cassie's shoulder as she slammed spiders away. Jesse's head swiveled to see Lukas walking towards Harper, who was holding a bucket. A determined look came onto her face, and she chucked the bucket over Lukas's head, where it landed with a clank on the ground.
"I'm coming!" Jesse shouted, running towards Harper.
Lukas moved- and he moved fast. He jerked the dark-skinned woman over to the wall, hopping onto a spider and locking in place as he held a struggling Harper.
"No!" Jesse yelled, skidding around and starting towards the wall.
"Use the headset, Jesse!" Harper barked in a commanding tone, making the spider hybrid automatically skid to a stop as she looked up at her, "and don't forget to the last cauldron!"
She chucked down something small and red, which Jesse automatically reached out and caught in her lower arms. Upon looking at it, she realized it was a small rose. "And one more thing," Harper added, "get the rose to Harry!"
Jesse blinked at the rose. "'Harry?'"
"Come on!" Cassie yelled, voice rising until it was almost a squeak, as Ivor helped Petra to her feet, "do something!"
Jesse looked around, and ran for the bucket, scooping it up. "Okay, okay okay!" and she dumped the whole thing into the last cauldron, slopping some water over the edges and over her sleeves, but she didn't care, she was looking frantically at the still-mind controlled spiders that were creeping towards her, and then she was turning for the wall of water in front of the doors, scooping up the rose that was on the floor, dropping to all eights, and scrambling through the wave of water, getting even more soaked in the process.
Stopping just a foot away from the water, she turned and looked over her shoulder. All of the spiders had stopped in their tracks, staring at Jesse through the wall of water. Turning back around, Jesse dropped to all eights again and darted through the double doors, whirling on her heel, standing up, and slamming the doors shut.
Lukas was still chipped.
Lukas was...
Jesse stood there, tears beginning to blur her vision, and she just stood there, fists clenched, head resting against the wood of the door. Her best friend- one of her closest friends in the world- and she hadn't been able to save him. She wasn't fast enough.
Even with all the training she had, she'd never been fast enough.
"Harper and Lukas?" Ivor's voice was uncharacteristically soft, hand on her shoulder. She didn't even jump.
Jesse just lifted her head off the door and shook her head slightly.
"Darn it," Petra said, from where she was sitting on the floor. Her red hair was slick and shiny from the water, and she was almost curled into a little ball on the floor, looking pale and shaken.
There was a short silence as everyone stared at the floor, Jesse still staring at the door but not seeing it, not seeing anything but her friend's red eyes.
"Jesse, I'm- I'm sort of remembering something, from when I was... chipped. It seemed very important to PAMA," Petra spoke, all in a rush all of a sudden.
Jesse turned slightly, enough so that her red eye showed to all of them.
"Tall... glowing red lights, but, but I- I can't quite make out what they are..." Petra put a damp hand to her equally damp forehead. "It's... it's like a fuzzy dream, kind of... kind of giving me a headache, but, but I can try to remember it more clearly if you need me to..."
"Hey, take it easy," Jesse said, going over and putting a hand on her shoulder. "You... you've been through a lot. You're gonna need to rest, okay? When you're ready to think about it, you can go ahead... but don't if it's going to hurt you."
"Thanks, Jesse," Petra said, gratefully, as Jesse carefully pulled the Blaze hybrid to her feet.
Jesse took a deep, shuddering breath, crossing her lower arms. "O-okay, we might be down, but we're not out. Harper told us to find her.. headset, whatever that is. We just have to find whatever it is before PAMA chips Harper, and starts downloading her mind."
"What's so important about this Harper person?" Petra asked, blinking. Oh yeah, she hadn't been there when Harper had explained.
"She's an Old Builder," Jesse said simply. "She helped build the portal network, which hopefully means that she can help us get home."
Petra nodded, rubbing her head. "That's a pretty good reason to rescue somebody."
"Also Ivor has a crush on her," Cassie contributed.
Ivor's face turned rather hot pink. "What? No. Shut up."
All of the girls giggled, making Ivor's face turn even brighter pink.
"I'm sure Jesse wouldn't mind a mum," Cassie added, in a whisper.
Now Jesse's face was pink. Ivor stared at them in confusion as the two redheads giggled and Jesse crossed all of her arms with a slight, embarrassed huff. Apparently he hadn't heard.
"A-anyway," Jesse said, trying not to blush too much, "we're going to work with her to shut PAMA down, save her people, and hopefully, that'll free Lukas too."
Everyone nodded (even Winslow) in agreement with this plan.
Jesse turned to look over her shoulder- and stopped dead in her tracks. "Woah."
A/N: Stopping point!
Kaos Ruin: Looks like you were right!
NoItsBecky: Well... yes for hinted Lukesse. No for picking Lukas. And yes. Chara is the best Chara-cter indeed.
Choco: Actually probably not gonna dress up for Halloween, to be honest.
x.X. A.L. X.x.
