"I always liked stories where the hero has no idea that they're destined for greatness. The sort of heroes who are living their lives, and assume that nothing exciting will ever happen to them."
Jesse knelt down, grinning at Reuben gently. "Give me a dragon roar, Reuben," she coaxed, somewhat playfully as she reached out and patted the Ender Dragon head, the pig's back, ignoring the way that the wings bumped into her hands and kept her from actually making much contact with him.
The pig let out a loud screeching oink, making her laugh a bit. "That'll do, Reuben. That'll do."
"Those are the kind of heroes in this story. They started as just a bunch of friends in a treehouse, looking up to their idols who had come before them."
"Would you rather fight a hundred chicken-sized zombies," Olivia turned around, giving Jesse a lopsided grin- especially since her right eye was brighter than the other, "or ten zombie-sized chickens."
"Yes, I'm ready." Axel shook his head a bit at Olivia's nitpickiness, rubbing his arm a bit. "Waiting on you guys!"
"Hey, Jesse. Guys," Petra nodded a bit, pickaxe resting neatly on her shoulder and a cool grin on her face. Her usual sleeve-glove-thing covered her left arm, as usual, and her gold eyes glinted a bit.
Lukas rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, hair twitching infinitesimally. "No hard feelings, guys," he said, pleasantly enough. "If you're cool with Petra, you're cool with us."
"But when disaster struck, and an evil monstrosity threatened to destroy the world, those friends discovered that destiny had bigger plans for them. And that heroes can come from the most humble of beginnings."
Jesse increased her speed, now full-out sprinting for the gate, but it looked like she wasn't going to make it. Her foot suddenly caught, and she tripped forward-
Her six arms lashing out automatically and stopping her faceplanting into the stone path.
"They travelled the world to battle that monster, facing obstacles and sacrifices every step of the way."
Jesse whipped off the cloak, red eye flashing as string shot out of her hands and tagged the TNT flying at her from the cannon. Desperately, she thrashed it away from herself, before detaching the string and lunging for the next one.
The spider hybrid handed the cloak over to Soren, narrowing her eyes at the Endermen peppering Wool World. Abruptly, her torso snapped forward, her hands slamming into the ground as her lower body- namely, her legs- rotated 180 degrees so it looked like that part of her body was doing a crab walk. Her lowermost set of arms also rotated, fangs shooting out of her mouth and eyes turning bright red.
Jesse's mouth fell open as she stared at the wall towering above her, holes and caves and strange, hovering chunks of land composing the entire thing. Waterfalls poured everywhere, and the wall towered up and up and up until they disappeared through the clouds altogether.
The spider hybrid leaped into the air, enchanted sword flashing with a miasma of color as it plunged down at the Command Block, eyes glowing bloodred as she did so.
"It wasn't easy, but they had each other. And working together, they struck it down and saved everyone."
"It's Magnus! We totally got caught by Magnus!" Axel's smile dropped off his face a moment later, and he sheepishly rubbed his head as he reconsidered what he'd just said, as he noticed the spider hybrid glancing over at him with a both deadpan yet slightly anxious expression on her face. "And... I think we're gonna die now."
"You got me away from the Witherstorm," the Blaze hybrid spoke, her eyes oddly dim, "but I'm worried you didn't get me away soon enough." And she pulled up her sleeve to reveal a nearly silver Blaze Rod, a strange, sickly purple spreading from the center of her arm and infecting her veins, angry red and purple and strange little specks decorating her arm.
Lukas shook his head, looking down at the ground uncertainly. "You have to have noticed," he began again, starting to get rather worked up, "the- the lack of energy, the labored breathing... there's something wrong, okay?! Something big. It's not fooling anyone." He paused, shoulders dropping a bit as his eyes narrowed in concern. "At least, not me."
"How are we supposed to do this?" Olivia shook her head, a note of despair creeping into her voice as she shook her head. Her glowing, purple eye dimmed, especially noticeable with the literally ink-black skin around that eye. "We're nobody."
Jesse raised one of her upper arms into the air and pumped it in a cheering motion, a grin coming over her face. "For Reuben!"
A resounding ROAR of cheering rose from the crowd, making Jesse wince and step back a bit with a small grin.
"Soon, they were the most famous people in the whole world. And their legend..."
"I suppose I still have much to learn," Milo mused, the blonde innkeeper giving Jesse a weak, slightly grudging smile, "Thank you, Jesse."
"I don't understand yet," Isa said simply, brushing back a lock of her black hair that was held back with the golden circlet that marked her as the Founder, "but... I trust you."
"Their fame..."
"I don't want to forget anyone ever again," Jesse said softly, so quietly that she was almost perfectly inaudible. "I'm not forgetting you again."
Cassie was frozen in Jesse's hug for a moment, before she squeezed her eyes shut and forced tears to trickle out of her eyes, the two girls slowly sinking to the ground in a tight hug.
"Just continued to grow as they explored more worlds..."
"Okay, eyes, not red, not red... well, except-" Harper suddenly paused, blinking a few times before walking up to Jesse and leaning forward so that she was right up in Jesse's face, enough that the spider hybrid automatically leaned back a bit warily. The woman froze there for a moment, before stepping back and giving Jesse an uncertain, confused look.
"... Jesse?"
"Venturing into the great unknown."
Jesse froze in place, eyes widening.
Standing not too far away was a boy with chocolate-brown hair, a pair of brown wolf ears... and Jesse's green eyes.
And in the final cage in the room made of obsidian... a boy with red hair. Pale brown eyes that were filled with life. Cute little pig ears resting in his hair.
"Reuben?"
"And that's- sorry, Axel, am I boring you?" Lukas suddenly cut off in reading his manuscript, shooting Axel a slightly joking glare.
Jesse, who had been quietly muffling laughter for the past ten minutes while Lukas read the book and eyeing Axel while his head lolled back a little in his sleep, burst into fits of laughter and fell off the stair she was sitting on, her lower arms snapping out to catch her.
Axel startled awake with a snort, the creeper hybrid's pupils dilating wildly between almost taking up the whites of his eyes to just a little too big as he hastily adjusted his rumpled flannel. "Huh-what-wait-hunh?" he said a little too quickly, trying to pretend he'd been awake.
Olivia rolled her eyes with a grin, the purple one looking a little sickening from how the pinker iris slid around the eye. In recent years she'd let her hair grow out into curly waves. Sometimes she'd put them in a ponytail. "Look, I knew you did this at the library when we were kids, but I thought hearing about yourself would be fun-"
"It is, I was just resting my eyes for a moment-"
"I mean, you were also kinda snoring, Axel," Jace replied, adjusting Reuben's t-shirt for him.
(The pig hybrid squirmed; he hated when any of them treated him like a kid.
Even though he was a kid.)
"Was not-"
"Was too."
"You really were, Axel," Cassie muttered from where she was sitting on the stairs, somewhat near Jace and Jesse. Those two, for some reason, were very chill with her (despite what she had done) and never flinched when she spoke.
Speaking of which, here came Lukas's flinch, but he disguised it and narrowed his eyes at Axel, ears flicking. "Look, I get that my writing's boring, but ya don't have to fall asleep," he scolded, even though his lips were curling up at the ends despite how hard he tried to keep them from doing so.
Then Olivia snorted and he also broke down into chuckles.
"I guess it's a good note. Maybe I'm running on for too long in some bits?"
"You did spend an unnaturally long time on the part where we dismantled the Bureau," Olivia said, after a moment and an encouraging nod from Jesse.
"And on Harper and Ivor's wedding," Jace added, eyes brightening.
"And on the part where I insisted going to visit Hadrian and Mevia and make sure they weren't killing everything," Jesse pointed out."
Cassie thought about it, before nodding. "And you were a bit too short on the part where Aiden's been contacting you two repeatedly."
"Well, I don't ever respond," Lukas muttered, jotting down these notes. "Maybe I'll ask Ivor and Harper's accounts once they get back from their honeymoon... I guess this one needs some more editing."
Jesse smiled at him. "Well, don't feel so down about it. At least you've got proper feedback and not my three scribbles of 'i like this' in the margins," she grinned.
He grinned back, before shutting the notebook. "I was hoping to have this done by Founding Day, but... maybe next year."
"Maybe," Jesse said encouragingly.
"I liked it!" Reuben said cheerily. "Though I missed a pretty big chunk of it when Jace took me to the bathroom."
During the 'White Pumpkin' reveal, Jace had casually told Reuben that he needed to use the bathroom, and would Reuben please come with him so he could hurry back? Despite that, they'd managed to miss the White Pumpkin's being revealed (and the chunk where Cassie had, in fact, attempted to also murder Jesse)- at Cassie's request.
She'd pulled the New Order aside once and pleaded them (pleaded!) to not tell Reuben that she'd been the White Pumpkin- not until she was ready to face it again herself. It had taken some convincing from Jesse, but they'd all reluctantly agreed.
Despite that, Reuben was now nearly thirteen, and Cassie had still never breathed a word to him about it. Jesse would have to have a word with her, because if Cassie had it her way, she would never be able to face that part of herself again. Cassie couldn't even start to get angry anymore without her starting to sink into a bit of an anxiety attack at herself.
At the possibility that she'd lose control of herself again, at the possibility she'd break again.
Jesse hadn't even able to bring her to see Hadrian and Mevia again. Mevia actually had started to begrudgingly like Jesse, weirdly enough, and Hadrian had developed a habit of calling Jesse 'cookie.'
Due to the fact that Jesse had once made them cookies as a 'housewarming gift', them having built a house in Giant Chicken World, Jesse had the feeling that Hadrian was trying to subliminally hint that he wanted them to bake cookies again.
Jesse was still trying to decide if she felt up for that.
The door to the Hall slid open, and Olivia lit up a little bit, adjusting her red lab coat so it was on straight. "Oh! Jesse- your intern."
Radar walked up to them. Despite being 19 (Jesse had refused him multiple times on the basis that he was just a kid- never mind that she'd been 17 when she'd defeated the Witherstorm- until he'd sent over his resume and Jesse had realized that, no, Radar was technically an adult), the boy still felt like a teenager. H
e was short (though not shorter than Jesse, to her irritation- why was everyone taller than her?) and thin, wearing a green zippered hoodie over a sweatervest and tie.
Jace had once speculated that Radar wanted to look professional but also got cold easily, so he'd grabbed a hoodie to wear. He'd tried to hound Radar to show him his closet and choice of clothes so they could go shopping, but Radar had nervously laughed and distracted Jace by throwing a ball down the street.
"Oh gosh. Wow. I- um- I didn't think you'd all be here," Radar said, a little flush creeping across his cheeks. "Um, Olivia- ma'am. Axel, sir. Lukas, sir. Cassie, ma'am. Jace, sir..."
Jesse laughed as Reuben squealed and ran over to his 'babysitter' (oftentimes Radar helped keep an eye on Reuben- to the point where they'd started joking that Radar was babysitting the not-technically-a-kid-anymore). "Radar!"
Radar beamed at him. "Hey- hey, Reuben."
"Radar, I've told you- you don't have to be so formal around us, remember? Cut it out with all the sir and ma'am stuff,"
"I kinda liked it," Axel said cheerfully, earning a dig in the ribs from Olivia's elbow even though she was also grinning.
"Right- right-o," Radar squeaked, before grinning and whispering "awesome" under his breath.
Cassie nodded, a small smile creeping over her face. She had a bit of a soft spot for the intern and would teach him how to use an axe at every opportunity.
Radar and Reuben were actually starting to get pretty good with hand-to-hand combat and basic weapon use. "Hey, Ray. How's the planning going?"
"Pretty good, though all forms for the events are due tonight, so there's gonna be an influx of requests and stuff since a lot of the business owners like to wait until the last second," and Radar allowed his eyes a tiny roll at that.
Jesse chuckled- Radar was better at organization than she and Cassie were, so having someone around to help her keep stuff in check was always helpful.
Notch knew the others weren't around to do it.
She shook off the bitter thought and cracked a small smile at him. "Anyway, what's up, Radar?"
He cleared his throat, having realized that he'd gotten a bit off track from what he'd probably originally come here for. "Oh, yeah- I got a message from Petra that she's on her way to the mines. You know- for that adventure you scheduled?" Radar asked helpfully.
Jesse felt more than saw Lukas, Axel, and Olivia stiffen and exchange looks behind her, and her heart sank as she felt the incoming dilemma rushing in. She could practically hear Petra's disappointed voice already.
Oh boy.
a/n: hai. :3
i'm back. :333
x.X. A.L. X.x
