"I'll introduce you to my friends, first," Jace said, and he took his sister by the hand and started towing the spider hybrid over. "They're actually pretty nice when you get to meet them..."

The first person they came to was the blonde girl from earlier. Jace waved his hand in a little wave. "Hey, Nell. I think you two've already met. This is my twin sister, Jesse."

Nell's eyes widened, and she hopped off the block she was sitting on. "Whoa, it's the chick from Spleef! You were like, amazing." And then a slightly apologetic expression came over her face. "And I am so super sorry about your friend and your dad."

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting- is that..." Jace looked at Jesse, quirking his eyebrow.

"... oh! No, Ivor's more like my... ah... adopted dad, I guess you could say," Jesse said, feeling her cheeks flush. "He came around a lot after you got... y'know. Taken away."

Jace's eyes widened, and his mouth formed into a silent 'o'.

Nell coughed, drawing both of their attention back to the blonde. "I- I get that you're probs upset... especially since you had no idea what was going on..."

"Oh, speaking of which," Jesse said, straightening up, all six of her arms flickering, "have you seen any of them around lately?"

Nell winced, rubbing her head. "Nope, sorry. They're like, probably in the mines. And that's on me... such bad karma... bad karma." She put her hands to her temples, before leveling them. "I will never do that to one of your friends again, 'cause... man, I do NOT want to be on either of your bad sides." And she swiveled from Jesse to Jace.

She then put a hand on her hip and looked at Jesse. "I gotta say you keep playing like that, and you'll be, like, Tim status."

Jesse blinked. "... Tim who?"

"Tim!" Nell repeated, which really didn't explain anything.

Jace cleared his throat, drawing his sister's attention back to him almost possessively. "Yeah, sorry- forgot to mention; Tim is this guy who's pretty much... a legend, here in town? He's the only person so far to have won the games, and got his entire team back home. I mean, that's great for him and all, but... man, would it be awesome to actually meet him..." He cleared his throat and rubbed his head when he saw his sister giving him a look for fanboying. "Ah. Yeah. Sorry. But yeah, he's the guy on the platform picture over there."

"Yeah!" Nell agreed, "he like, WON! Like you could! People could already be talking!"

"Yeah, you're pretty awesome, sis," Jace agreed, patting his sister on the shoulder.

"Er... thanks, I guess," Jesse said, feeling a little overwhelmed. "But... I'm not exactly here to be a 'Tim'... I'm just trying to get home."

Nell threw her arms into the air, almost smacking Jesse in the face by accident. "But that's exactly what makes you Tim status! Tim didn't wanna be Tim either! He got his whole- team- home!"

Jesse blinked again, as Nell's hands lowered to rub her head again. "Listen, I still feel super bad about taking out your friend and dad... I owe you, so if you ever need, like, anything, you come and ask, cha?"

"Thanks, Nell." And Jace put his hand on Jesse's shoulder and started leading her along. "C'mon, I'll take you to meet Em."

Jesse blinked. "Who's Em?"

Jace steered her around to face... oh, gravel... the burly girl with brown hair in green. "Um... hey," Jesse said timidly.

Em gave her a dark look. "You're the one who eliminated one of the only decent members on my team- and he's the other one!" Em pointed at Jace.

Jace flushed. "Uh... thanks?"

Jesse winced. "I'm really sorry about that... I had no idea what I was getting into. Could we... I dunno... move past that?" she asked, still incredibly timidly.

Em glared at her. "No! I will eliminate you next round and make you suffer."

"If you do that, I will bite you," Jace said lazily. But Jesse saw the way his jaw tightened infinitesimally and his eyes flickered red.

Em's glare softened a little bit. "... fine. I'll just eliminate you next round."

That really didn't make Jesse feel any better.

"Next round," Em continued, "if I don't get you... one of the gladiators will."

Jesse gave her a thumbs up with all six of her arms, giving the much bigger girl a small, nervous smile. "Good luck, Em! I know that the best person will win."

Em hesitated, and twisted her head to look at the spider hybrid. "... seriously? You know you're looking at the best person..."

Jesse shrugged mildly. "Well then you'll win."

Em squinted at the black-haired spider hybrid for a moment, before abruptly continuing, "I feel kinda bad for you. Most of you were snatched against our wills, but you were tricked into coming here willingly. That Old Builder should've told you that these games are impossible."

Jesse hesitated, before adding, meekly, "Well, Tim won..."

"Yeah... Tim..." Em said, aimlessly, before standing back up. "Yeah, well- good luck with getting home."

Jesse blinked as Em walked up, before looking at Jace. "Is she always like that?"

Jace thought about it. "... sometimes? She's really quite nice when you get to know her... a-anyway, I'll introduce you to some of the gladiators, how about it? Maybe they can help us get Luke and Ivor-"

"Lukas and Ivor," Jesse corrected automatically.

"Yeah, them- maybe the gladiators can help get 'em back," Jace said, bracingly, spreading his arms out wide. "How about it, then, sis?"

Jesse raised an eyebrow, and stood up on her tiptoes. "Well, lead the way then, bro."

Jace grinned, putting an arm around her, and started leading the girl towards one of the green buildings on the side of the road.

A/N: Lukas and Ivor might be back sometime in the next chapter, or the chapter after that.

What's this? Your story has leveled up to 150 chapters!

But seriously, 150 chapters and over 30,000 reads?

You guys are the freaking best!

rebekahtpe: Lol xD Freaking out on the inside, Rebekah.

NoItsBecky: I might actually have her do that once Ivor and Lukas get back... xD

RattlesnaketheSandWing: And there you have it! He's asked!

LittleAngelbun: Lol xD

RapidSammi: Naw thanks :)

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