And now, we've reached episode seven.

Midnight: Part 2 of our crossover begins now!

Episode 7: Access Denied

At this point, we were just randomly portal hopping in the hopes we'd find our way home.

We hopped out of the lapis portal with helmets on, protecting us from drowning. The sudden rush of water that pushed us through the exit didn't seem to follow until the other Ivor was suddenly thrown into the similar looking portal on the other side. I could only hope this one wasn't also mainly ocean.

"Ahhh, not again…!" Petra yelled as we threw off our helmets and followed him in.

After emerging from one of the emerald frames, we were only waiting on Jesse.

Somehow, a squid got a little too attached to him, he must have fallen in the water before running through.

"Get it off me! Get it off!"

Not being able to see where he was going, he ran into a quartz portal, much to Petra's annoyance.

I had to admit, the squid on his head was hilarious.

We sprinted through the next emerald portal, in a desperate attempt to escape the monsters in pursuit.

And an entire swarm of bats had the same idea.

They circled around our group, just as panicked as we were, and most of us didn't even realize that the Jesses had taken off down the hallway.

Eventually the bats dispersed, but then we had to find the leaders again and weren't able to rescue them from tripping and falling into another portal.

At first, everything seemed normal when we casually walked out of the pink portal.

But then we turned around and saw that rather than the other Order's blond friend returning, one of the finely dressed gentlemen from the town had followed us.

Zenna shoved him back through and grabbed her Lukas on the other side.

Needless to say, he was more than a little confused.

"What just happened?!"

The other Petra stormed away with a groan, while both Ivors laughed.

The shepherd from the village in the next portal got a little carried away with his sheep, and about 60% of them came through the portal with us.

As we struggled to find a way to return them all, Ivor, who had apparently gotten trampled underneath them, popped up from the herd with a yell.

Lukas and I just looked at him with matching grins, pretty much everyone else had glares on their faces.

Oh well, it was revenge.

It took a lot of time to get used to the changed gravity in yet another green portal, but it took even more to realize we climbed through the portal sideways.

To an outsider, it would've looked like we were standing on the wall for a few seconds before normal gravity decided to kick in and dragged us to the floor in a pile.

The other Jesse watched us fall and didn't give us even a hint of a warning.

Maybe the metal armor made things worse, but by the time we got through the snowstorm, I was practically numb.

Although, I guess it also wasn't helped by the fact that I was unfortunate enough to have fallen through a thin layer of ice covering a lake and nearly drowned and/or succumbed to hypothermia.

Lukas had been saved, though.

The Ivors were next to follow, and Zenna's threw a snowball aimed at his Lukas, but missed and hit my Petra instead.

With a glare that could melt the snow covering all of us, she turned around.

"Ow!"

I could tell she was most likely going to kill someone when she found out who did it, and all other witnesses pointed at the Ivor responsible.

The Jesses finally made their way through, mine grabbed Petra's hand and they went off together.

"Come on!"

I can't even begin to tell you what we were thinking when we went through the portal made of netherrack that was very clearly on fire.

Maybe we thought it would take us to the Nether and we could find our way home from there.

What we found instead was a lake of lava, an entire kingdom somehow built in such a hostile environment when literally everything was trying to kill them, and discovered the true explosive power of a swarm of fire creepers.

It was the last one that propelled us through the portal, our clothes and hair singed, barely escaping with our lives.

"That was crazy!" The other Jesse shouted once we were all up.

"Yeah, why would there even be a Fire World?" My Jesse agreed.

I suddenly gasped.

Lukas was spinning in circles, trying to figure out what was happening, not being able to see that his butt was on fire.

I was able to keep myself from laughing just long enough to help him out.

"Thanks, Midnight." He sighed, pulling out a journal as his lookalike was just putting his away. There must have been an extra journal in Cassie's mansion for both of them to have one.

"Marked that one down as 'Fire World'."

"Wow, so creative." The sarcasm in Petra's voice was so obvious I almost didn't feel the need to point out just how obvious it was.

"How'd you come up with that gem of a name?" The same could be said for the other Petra.

"Uh, did I miss something here?"

"Yeah, what's up with you two?" What do you think, Jesse?

"What's up with me? What's up? I'm tired of all this useless portal-hopping trying to find our way home!"

Jesse folded his arms. "That doesn't sound like the Petra I know. She loves fighting against impossible odds."

I had to admit, I was growing tired of the portal hopping, too. It was fun at first, but then every wrong portal became a tedious trek trying to find the exit with all of our limbs still attached.

"When I have to, sure." She agreed at first, but continued her argument. "But I don't want to fight just for the sake of fighting!"

There was a small trail of smoke coming from behind Lukas.

"Lukas, you're on fire again!" This time he was able to get it under control without assistance, but this only seemed to anger both Petras further.

"See… ugh, this is what I'm talking about. We're stuck in a rut, go through a portal, avoid dying long enough to get back to this stupid hallway…"

"Wash, rinse, repeat… yes. It would be nice if whoever made these left some sort of signs. Guideposts." The other Ivor agreed as he looked back at the portal we just came through.

"Now that you mention it… some of these do look more dangerous than others. Like the one we just came through?"

"I mean, the frame is on fire, so I'm not entirely sure what we were expecting there." I spoke up. Zenna smirked, clearly thinking the same thing. Why neither of us said anything before we went through would forever be a mystery.

Both Petras stormed off.

"Petra? Where are you going?" The other Ivor asked.

"There may not be guideposts, but someone must be able to tell us how to navigate these stupid portals." There was, not that anyone outside of Zenna and I would know that. The problem was that half of them were far below the line of being trustworthy.

They stopped in front of Crown Mesa's portal on a random hunch that would actually turn out to be correct. "Okay, this one's redstone. Redstone means smart people. Hopefully smart enough to help us find our way home."

"But what if no one's smart enough? We have to think through everything here, Petra." I reasoned.

"Yeah! We could just find ourselves at another…" Lukas shuddered. "Another Psycho Pumpkin Mansion."

"Well, I'm willing to take that shot."

Are you? Are you really?

No, of course she's not. She may not be our Petra, but obviously she's not serious.

"So what are you saying here, huh? That you've made up your mind? You're just going to go through this portal and that's it?"

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm just saying that I'm tired of the Jesses calling the shots. Every. Single. Time."

The hall went quiet.

"I know what I'm doing." No you don't. "This is for everyone's own good!"

"If you really knew what was for our own good, we'd be back home by now."

Seeing the growing tension between the four of them, the other Lukas decided to step in. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everybody, calm down! I'm sure Jesse didn't really mean that. Right, Jesse?"

All eyes were on the leaders.

"No way, I meant exactly what I said."

Huh?

Did we forget to mention that everyone's exhausted?

Yeah, but still.

Just cause you usually choose to play Jesse as a nice person doesn't mean he always is.

"Yeah, well, so did I."

"Forget this, I'm outta here!"

And without another word, both Petras went through the portal.

"Needless to say, that could've gone a lot better." Had to agree with Zenna, especially because that entire argument and Jesse's final response came completely out of left field.

"Okay, my bad. I may not have been my 'best self' back there…" Jesse admitted.

"You were mean. And insensitive. And wrong." I tapped Lukas on the shoulder.

"Lukas, I think they get it. You don't need to rub it in."

"But… we can't just let them walk away, right?" Ivor asked.

"No… no, we can't. Come on, you guys. Let's go find them."

They had a large head start, but we would catch up to them eventually. That's what I told myself as we went through the redstone portal after them.

I actually managed to land on my feet and absolutely didn't almost trip, what are you talking about?

"Any of you guys see either Petra?"

"They didn't have that big of a head start, so they can't be too far."

"Hang on. I'm going to write down our entry point." Both Lukases pulled out their respective journals. I tried to sneak a peek at mine's, but he was smart in keeping it away from me.

He was also taller than me. So that didn't help me any.

"Hey Lukas, I've been meaning to ask you, what's that?" The other Jesse asked his Lukas.

"Oh! Ah, it's just a… y'know, a book I picked up back at the White Pumpkin's place. It's all about different biomes and stuff."

Really? Because according to Slab later on, it's got 'feelings' in there.

Couldn't imagine who those feelings could be directed towards.

I glanced at Zenna and grinned. If she really was her world's counterpart to me, then…

Oh, don't think that means you're safe.

I kissed him already, so I never thought I was safe from that anyway.

There was no response.

"So, what's next on the agenda anyway?"

Neither Jesse said anything.

Noticing this, Ivor answered the question for them. "Probably best if we just play it by ear for now, I suppose."

Then we finally noticed the different colored sand marking out a pathway that stretched for what seemed like miles on either side.

"It looks like some sort of road."

A really crappy road, maybe.

Shut it.

"A road, huh? Is that natural?" I truthfully couldn't tell if that was a rhetorical question or not, but…

"Nope."

"Well, if I were Petra, here on my own, and saw a road… I'd probably follow it."

"Lukas has a good point. I bet if we follow the road, we'll find them."

And so we set off, the mesa we were in not having much to see. Just sand, clay, dead bushes, and cacti. And did I mention sand?

We spotted them in the distance, crouched behind a small hill and looking at something just out of sight. The Jesses ran to go check up on them.

Then, Petra drew her sword and leapt down, a fight ensuing with a chipped zombie. She was soon followed by the other three, and with a small struggle, they managed to kill it.

We all went to see what the problem was.

"It was just one zombie, what was the problem?" The other Ivor asked as we approached. The leaders and warriors put their sword away.

"Nuh uh. That thing was, like, 'Super Zombie.' Stronger, tougher, faster." Petra started. "I hope there's not something wrong with me."

Knowing full well what I was getting myself into, I let out a laugh. "I dunno Petra, maybe you've just lost a step?"

She walked right up to me and punched me in the arm. Hard. "Do I seem any weaker to you?" She glared, with no real heat behind it.

"Uh, no?" I winced.

What'd you think was gonna happen?

I didn't think Petra hit that hard.

Petra did, in fact, hit that hard.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with you, Petra. That was definitely the zombie." Jesse spoke up.

"Super strong zombies? What in the world is up with that?" The other Lukas asked, definitely confused by this world's odd quirk.

As though on cue, more of them approached. As in, an army's worth. PAMA must have sent them to figure out what happened to the first one.

Everyone who had an actual weapon pulled it out. Thankfully, I was smart enough to make a new axe a few worlds ago, just in time to nearly run out of arrows.

"Well. That seems about right."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'd really like to figure out a better way to handle these super zombies." At some point, our group started backing away from them.

And then the other Jesse tripped on thin air and fell on his back.

He got back up just as quickly though, right as we were backed into a wall.

Then the zombies stopped dead in their tracks.

"Did we do that?"

"With what?" I started. "The power of our imaginations?"

As though to make sure they weren't just trying to truck us, the other Lukas poked the zombie directly in front of him with his sword. Then the other Jesse went to investigate the chips on the back of their heads.

"What on earth is that thing?"

"Definitely seems like redstone… right?" I added that last part as a bit of an afterthought, not really paying much attention at this point.

Jesse wondered if the redstone chips were what made the zombies so blank, and Lukas was about to say something in response before the most ear grating noise apart from nails on a chalkboard could be heard. In fact, I'd rather be in a room with someone scratching an entire chalkboard rather than listen to whatever noise the zombies were making.

"I don't know what they're doing exactly, but it is definitely time to get out of here." I could hardly hear Jesse, also partially because my ears were covered.

"Great plan!" I called.

"Fine by me!" Lukas yelled immediately after.

We were going to sneak around, or maybe through, the small horde of chipped zombies, but then the noise stopped and they turned around, going back the way they came.

"They're leaving? Just like that?"

"They're going back the way we came from…"

After some discussion, it was eventually decided that we would follow them back to wherever they were going, in the hopes that they would lead us to the exit, or to someone who knew where it was.

Finally, we reached Crown Mesa, but it was seemingly empty, despite a population sign claiming otherwise.

"Well, guess this is the 'advanced civilization' we were looking for." Jesse turned around, looking at Petra. "Is it everything you hoped for, Petra?"

She gave him a flat look in return.

There were a few redstone blocks near a house, and some chipped chickens in a pen, zombies in a different one, but other than that, there wasn't much to see.

Then there was a person walking past us, also chipped, but no one was able to see it. The Jesses went to go talk to him and told the rest of us to hang back.

Of course, you know the drill by now. I had to take the opportunity to talk to Lukas.

"Hey Lukas." I greeted casually. It'd been a couple portals since we were just able to sit and talk for a moment.

"Oh, hey." He was writing something in his journal. Maybe it was feeling related, or perhaps it was just about the strange new world we found ourselves in.

"Whatcha writing about?" I tried. I'd asked the question before, when I was half dead from the cold, but still.

"Nothin'." He said with a small grin, proving that it was not, in fact, nothing.

"Aw, come on. Not even a little hint about it?" I pretended to pout, though he, of course, saw right through it. As he always did.

"Nope. You'll just have to wait and see when I'm done with it."

I groaned, but was cut off when Jesse suddenly yelped and caught our attention.

Both of them looked terrified about something.

"Conversation go any better up close? We couldn't really hear from back there."

When we received no answer, the other Lukas asked them, "Did he tell you… anything?"

And then Harper was seen quickly ducking into a house.

"Come on. Whoever they are, maybe they've got some answers."

We waited behind while the other Jesse went to go see what was going on. After a bit, we followed him up as Harper continued to wonder about what was happening.

"Out with it! Who are you people? What's going on here?"

Jesse put his hands up. "Easy, we just ended up here by mistake." Which was… technically true?

"'Mistake'?" She repeated. "Oh boy is this the biggest mistake of your life." She accepted the answer though, admitting to being alone for a while and asking us if we'd met the citizens yet.

But then she noticed a group of them outside and bailed.

There were 10 of them total, equal in number to our large group. There were only supposed to be four, but…

"Is this what you were scared of? There are only 10 of them and 11 of- Hey, where'd she go?"

"Well, they're definitely not ignoring us anymore…" Petra noted as the group of people began climbing the stairs into the house.

"Jesse…? What do we do here?"

"Just- act like they do! Blend in!"

"Uh, how?" The answer was… somewhat obvious, but I had to ask anyway.

"Try to… look vacant!" It was clear to just about everyone that neither of the leaders knew what they were doing, but we tried our best anyway. Except Ivor. And the other Ivor.

"It's not working. Uh… make the sound they make!"

Lukas interpreted this as just… How do I even describe what he did?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I guess that works.

Yeah, he did… that, much to everyone else's confusion.

Of course, as hilarious as it was, it didn't work.

"You are not from this place." The controlled citizens confirmed.

"Uh, I don't know what to tell you, but we're definitely from here." The other Jesse tried, and failed, to lie. Both leaders, we discovered, were terrible liars.

"PAMA knows this to be untrue. PAMA sees all."

One of them grabbed Petra by her arm just as they continued. "A decision has been made. PAMA has questions." She punched the person in the face, only for them to not even react to it.

"You will come to PAMA."

"We're not going anywhere with you." Jesse chose to be defiant. The controlled citizens… didn't take this very well.

"Oh… guess they're used to getting their way, then." I muttered.

"Alright, gang, let's try not to hurt anybody, too badly…"

We didn't really stand a chance to begin with, as they were also powered up by the chips. And then Jesse tried to run, only to be knocked out with one punch.

By that point, we simply surrendered, knowing there was no way to beat them at this point.

"You will be made useful."

And there you have it!

Midnight: You're going to work on the portal side stories soon, right?

...

Midnight: You're going to work on the portal side stories soon, right?

As soon as I figure out what I'm going to do for every portal. Except the ice one, I already know what I'm doing there.

Midnight: I haven't read this yet so I'm going to assume it's not something I'm going to like.

Depends. You get to spend more time with Lukas, but at a price.

Midnight: A price?

Well anyways, that's all for now, see you next time!

Midnight: Not again-!

-LegendEmpress