"This is going to require some reconfiguring of the stats for sure..." the man in green sighed.

Jesse's eye twitched, and she raised her finger. "Okay. You're in charge. Lovely. Wonderful. Now, please explain what in the name of everything good and holy and alive in this world what the absolute frick is going on?!" she said, barely able to keep from yelling at the top of her lungs.

"What's going on here," the pale-blue-haired woman said, glaring at the spider hybrid, "is you just ruined our round of Spleef."

"Attacking competitors," the purple-suited man snapped, "Horrid!"

"And technically against the rules," the man in green added.

The pale-blue-haired woman sniffed. "Lashing out just because your friends were eliminated."

"Kind of 'sore loser' behavior, don't you think, sport?"

Jace frowned at the purple-suited man.

Jesse threw her arms in the air, ignoring the gasps as all six of them flared out. "Well, excuse me for being thrown into your little death game here, out of nowhere, falling from the effing sky, and then watching my d-" She closed her eyes, feeling something flicker through her. "... mentor. My best friend and mentor get killed right in front of my freaking eyes, and having no idea what in the name of Notch is going on. So, thank you for that extraordinarily terrible explanation of what the absolute frick is going on, you- you- you Old Builders!"

"Easy, easy," and a hand lazily patted on her shoulder, her brother's almost musical tone humming into her ear, making the spider hybrid stop seeing red and relax, her red eye going back to a faintly duller shade as she let out a loud, frustrated huff and continued, more calmly than before, "Okay, please tell me straight, then. What are these 'games' that you all keep going on about?"

The man in green spoke up, putting up his hands placatingly. "I think if we all just calm down, Jace and I can explain."

Jesse turned to her brother immediately, crossing all of her arms and arching her eyebrow at him. Every human being in the room standing behind them a bit seemed to be holding their breaths.

Jace was twisting his beanie in his hands, before he started speaking, quietly. "Your friends aren't dead."

Jesse's mouth fell open, and she was about to exclaim, when he put a finger on her mouth and she shut it immediately, knowing that he didn't want to be interrupted. "When people are eliminated in the games, they don't die, per se-"

"That would be wasteful!" the man in the purple suit snapped.

Jace shot him a look, as the pale-blue-haired woman spoke up, "Obviously! They come back and then we have them go work in the mines!"

"Jesse!"

Jesse spun on her heel, seeing Lukas at the bars, ocelot ears twitching and his tail bushy with fear, as one of the 'gladiators' grabbed ahold of him, Ivor's mouth falling open behind them. Jesse felt a rush of relief in her chest, but she didn't say anything, just staring at them as they were towed away.

"Your friends are alive and well."

"How?" Jesse asked, her head slowly turning to reveal her red eye first, "how are they alive?"

The purple suited man chuckled, "I'm not surprised that you're confused-"

Jace shot him a look and spoke over him, giving the purple-suited man an almost funny look. "It's called 'respawning'. When people 'die' in the games, they reappear in a respawn zone. However, the scientists they have-" Now he was definitely giving them a funny look- "... well, they can pretty much fix most things that go wrong with respawn zones."

"I hear it's still pretty painful, though," the woman spoke up, Jesse's head spinning to look at her again.

"Well sport," the purple-suited guy spoke, "now that you've come and interrupted our games, I'm sure our fans would LOVE to hear how to you got here. Spill."

Jesse glared at him. "... I don't think I've forgiven you, by the way. Like, at all," she hissed, all of her arms crossing, "but I'm sure you remember your little... um... lab, back in my world? Bureau of Amalgamology? Long story short, they were careless, we got out, did a bunch of crazy things, managed to end up in your mile-long portal network, and then found a staircase and fell right into the middle of your lovely games, and so help me, if I didn't feel like I was going numb right now, I think I'd be throwing every single thing in my inventory right at your head."

"You have a lovely temper, sis," Jace remarked drily.

"Why thank you, brother dear," Jesse retorted sardonically.

Petra made a sound that sounded faintly like a snort. A still remarkably annoyed snort, but a snort.

The man in the purple suit glared at Jesse. "You know what you are, champ? You're just a little gate crasher."

"Annnd what do we do with gate crashers?"

"Kill 'em, and send them to the mines," the guy Jesse had whacked said, darkly.

"Back off!" Two voices spoke in sync, Jace moving and putting a protective arm in front of his sister, his teeth showing to reveal sharp canines, and Harper and Cassie stepped through a doorway above them.

"Jesse's with me," Harper said simply. Cassie's face, having been rather calm, suddenly darkened.

The man in the purple suit sneered at the two females. "Well, if it isn't Harper... and my, my, little Cassie Rose, too... how's your aunt?"

Cassie seemed to snap, and suddenly she was lunging at the man in the purple suit, swinging her axe at his head-

"Whoa, Cassie!" Jesse exclaimed, and even though she was pretty ticked at the guy in the purple suit, she was utterly shocked at Cassie's sudden display of violence, and she shot a web and yanked Cassie to her in a hug from behind, wrapping all of her arms around the redhead, who was flailing her arms and kicking and trying to hit the man with her axe, face darker than a thunderstorm and eyes glowing blood red. "Let me at him!" she hissed, furiously.

A/N: Ooh, looks like Cassie has a pretty big bone to pick with the Old Builders! What do you think's up with that?

rebekahtpe: I do for now, because if I watch it I feel like I'm going to get dragged into yet ANOTHER fandom and I already have too many to contend with. xD But after I finish some more stories, I probably will :)

RattlesnaketheSandWing: Hehehe (rubs hands together)

RapidSammi: Aww, thanks :)

GuestPerson13: Aw, thanks! I'm glad you guys all like the story :)

LittleAngelbun: Lol xD

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