Onscreen, Jesse looked down at herself with a sigh. "Okay... no extra legs or limbs or anything in sight. So I definitely can't be a spider hybrid. Definitely not. Nope. No possible way." She stared down at herself, before slowly her hands moved to pat herself on the sides. "And... yet, I'm checking anyway. I'm not a spider hybrid, so there's no need to..."
She paused. "... to..."
"What? Did she find something?" Magnus asked, leaning forward. The redstone engineer smacked him on the back of the head, making him go "Ow" and glare at her. "Why don't you wait and see?" she responded, ignoring his glare.
This time, as she patted herself down, her hands moved more slowly, and her dungarees stretched a little bit. "... yep, no doubt about it, there are some bumps there. ... they're not... too noticeable... right, Reuben?" The black-haired girl looked up at the pig, who squealed and shook his head.
"They really aren't," Stacy pointed out. "I think the only reason she noticed them was because she started patting herself down."
"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling, too," Jesse hummed thoughtfully."
She looked back down at herself. "... well, I sure hope it stays that way."
She took a deep breath, before stooping down and scooping Reuben up, descending the ladder and landing back on the ground, setting the little pink pig back down as well.
Olivia smiled at her. "Got everything?"
Jesse nodded and folded her hands behind her back. "Yeah," she said, with a bright-looking smile.
"She's faking it."
Everyone glanced at Otto, who simply put his hand up in surrender. "I'm only saying..."
"Let's roll," Axel said, waving his hand a bit. Olivia rolled her eyes at the large burly male, a smile playing across her mouth. "Yeah, dude- roll," she responded teasingly.
Jesse laughed at this and rolled her eyes, the smile relaxing into a more natural one. "Let's go," she chuckled teasingly, before the four of them set off.
"I heard a pretty juicy rumor about the building competition, but you guys have to promise not to say anything," Axel warned them. Olivia shrugged at this. "Okay."
"Also, it's in two parts, each part more exciting than the last-"
Jesse shoved him gently with a laugh. "Spit it out, Axel!"
"Are you and Jace that close in real life?" Jesse asked the burly boy, turning from where she was sitting to see him. He looked over at her and nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I guess we're that close in this 'alternative path' thing, too."
Jesse tilted her head, before nodding and smiling at him. "I think I'm okay with that."
Axel and Olivia exchanged faintly surprised looks at this.
"Part one. The special guest at this year's Endercon is none other than Gabriel the Warrior him-freaking-self!" Axel declared, waving his arms in the air.
"You idiot!" Aiden laughed, "those posters were all over town for weeks!"
Olivia glared back at him. "Well, we didn't know that! Jace- and I guess Jesse- and I live in the woods, we don't go into town all that much."
Jesse's eyes widened. "Whoooaaaaa!" she dragged out the 'whoa', before asking, eyes sparkling, "what's part two?"
"Part two. According to my sources-"
The Ocelots snorted.
"The winner of the building competition's gonna get to meet him!"
Jesse's mouth fell open, and Olivia gasped.
"It doesn't mean anything if we lose," Axel continued, almost dismissively, "but if we win... oh man, this would make up for all the losing."
"Yeah, right! There's no way you're gonna-"
"Aiden, was it? For the love of Notch, be quiet!" Ivor snapped at the boy.
Jesse nodded in agreement to Axel's comment. "Meeting Gabriel would be a dream and an honor."
"Thank you, my friend," Gabriel said with a nod in the two Jesse's direction. The girl simply shrugged with a smile, while Jace grinned back.
"Totally," Olivia nodded, "he's awesome- it'd be amazing to meet him."
She paused, looking around, before looking back at Axel. "Soo, does this 'source' of yours make posters for a living?"
The screen switched to show Endercon posters and signs about tickets being sold out. Aiden snorted, but said nothing when literally two-thirds of the audience shot him looks.
"Yeah," Axel admitted sheepishly, "my source, uhh... doesn't, um... exist. You guys are my only friends."
"Guys," Jesse jogged them both with her elbow, smiling, "let's stay focused... we have a competition to win."
Olivia sighed at this. "We never win. And this year we've got Reuben with us. We basically have no chance."
Jesse blinked at the pink pig, before leaning over to look at the dark-skinned girl sitting next to Axel. "What does that have to do with it?" she asked, curiously.
Onscreen, Jesse seemed to be deep in thought. "... wait a second- wait a second- we're thinking about this all wrong," she said abruptly.
"How's that?" Olivia asked, coming to a stop in the forest, looking around at each other.
"The point of the building competition isn't just to build- something. You have to do something to get noticed by the judges!" Jesse exclaimed, flinging her arms wide.
"Oh, here comes the great idea!" Jace joked, making Jesse snort a bit next to him.
Olivia put her hands onto her hips. "Okay then... so, how do we do this?"
"We don't just build something functional- we build something fun!" Jesse said cheerfully.
Soren hummed thoughtfully. "Not a bad idea. Judges do tend to go for creative builds."
"After finishing the fireworks machine, like we planned, we build something really cool on top of it!" Jesse exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"You're a cheerful person, aren't you?" Cassie asked the girl. Jesse twisted to see her and gave her a shrug and a grin. "Well, I try to be."
"You might be onto something," Olivia said, grinning at Jesse.
Axel spoke up himself, drawing the group's attention to him. "If we want to get a reaction out of the judges... you build something scary. So I say we build a creeper-"
Olivia nearly cut him off. "Wouldn't an Enderman be better? I'm more scared of Endermen than creepers."
"They both have their moments... both pretty scary," Axel murmured thoughtfully.
"Go for the Endermen!" Soren exclaimed, nearly falling out of his chair. Magnus gently punched him on the shoulder. "No, no, go with the creeper!"
"Okay," Jesse spoke up, "let's go for the Enderman."
Soren pumped his fist and gave off a near-silent "yessss" which had most of the audience smothering smiles at this.
"Awww... Olivia's thing?" Axel complained. Olivia put one hand on her hip and raised her eyebrow at him, smiling. "Are you whining?" she asked him teasingly.
"No," Axel responded defensively, "I was saying 'awwwwesome'."
Jesse snickered playfully at him. "Suuuure ya were," she said, her grin not fading even when he playfully shoved her.
"Think we've got everything we need?" Olivia asked, putting one hand on her hip.
Jesse tilted her head thoughtfully, eyes narrowing. "Mmm, it wouldn't hurt to grab a little more."
"Let's get to grabbin', then!" Axel declared.
Everyone put their hands into the center of a circle automatically. "Okay... 'dare to prepare' on three. No, wait, 'preparing is daring', nope, that's the same- you know what, forget it. 'Team' on three. One, two, three-"
Olivia and Jesse shouted "TEAM!" while Axel, having gotten a bit muddled up, called out "Prepare!" All of them grinned at each other before running off into the forest.
The screen switched to show Jesse, slowing her run into the forest with her grin slowly fading into a more concerned look. She looked down at herself again with a worried sigh.
She stayed in that position for a moment, before furiously shaking her head. "Nope nope nope. Stop the stressing, Jesse!" She pumped her fists and jumped up and down a couple times, looking down at Reuben. "C'mon, Reuben- we should get some more wool!"
And the two of them dashed off into the forest.
The camera switched to Olivia punching through a tree. She drew her fist back, before slamming through it. The block flipped into the air, and seemingly on instinct, the girl reached up with both hands and caught it.
Immediately, her slightly slouchy posture erected itself, her arms sprang perfectly stiff, and she shuddered violently. Olivia stood there for a moment, staring at the block, blinking bemusedly at it.
"... this feels nice. Why does this feel nice? You know what, I'm just- nope," and she slowly unlocked her arms and placed the block in her pocket before walking offscreen, putting her hands up in surrender and shaking her head. "Nope, nope, nope."
There was a moment where Ellegaard sucked in a deep breath, eyes widening. "Oh- oh."
Axel came onscreen, his own grin fading. He took a shaky breath, before slowly pulling one sleeve up.
Everyone's jaw fell open at the sight of Axel's arm- it was a strange, mottled green color.
"Okay... it's still there. Okay. Okay!" The burly boy's voice had actually risen an octave. "This is- this is fine. I'll just keep this on and- and I'll be totally fine. Yeah."
Yanking his hoodie sleeve back down and taking another deep breath, he went marching through the forest.
The camera switched again to show LUKAS onscreen, dropping a little behind MAYA, GILL, and AIDEN, who were laughing about something and shoving each other around gently.
"Whoa- hey, that's us!" Maya exclaimed, raising one hand to point at the screen in surprise.
Lukas reached up to rub his head with a wry smile- and then froze. His eyes widened in shock. He slowed to a stop, his hand still resting on his head. Slowly, he rubbed his head again.
"Hey, Lukas, you okay?"
He blinked to see Aiden and the others turning to see him, pausing where they were on the path.
"Y-yeah." The blonde forced a small smile. "Sorry. Just... lost in thought is all. Haha." He started walking after his friends again, his hair momentarily twitching before he disappeared offscreen.
"Did I just imagine that, or-"
Petra was cut off by Lukas's bewildered comment. "Did my hair just twitch...? No. You didn't imagine that..."
PETRA appeared onscreen, staring down at something with squinty eyes. "... okay." She took a deep breath and reached up with her right hand and rubbed her temple. "I am okay with my eyes being gold. However," and the screen zoomed out to reveal her arm, which had a strange gold tint to it. "I kinda draw the line here at a gold arm."
Most of the audience stared, before turning to look at Petra. Petra's expression was no less disturbed than the one she had onscreen.
She poked at it with her free hand, face becoming even more bothered by this. There was a full minute of silence where she stared at her arm before reaching up and tugging down her long sleeve-glove-thing over it, covering up the gold-tinted arm. "Okay... this is okay. It's not a big deal. Today is just... one of those days."
She stood up and swung her pickaxe up so it rested on her shoulder, before taking a deep breath and trotting out of the cave.
The screen faded out to black.
"I wonder what's going to happen next..." Cassie mused.
"Yeah, and what's going on with Lukas and Petra," Axel murmured, leaning his cheek into his hand. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that Jesse's a spider, Olivia's an Enderman, and I'm a creeper... but beyond that, I'm not entirely sure."
Mumbled assent from the rest of the audience.
A/N: Yeahh! Can't wait for the next scene x3
So far this is what the votes look like:
Lukesse: 10, Magnugaard: 5, Aidassie: 4, DanCat: 1, Jetra: 6, Luktra: 8 (one vote is a bromance vote), Harvor: 8, Jesskas (M!Jesse x Lukas): 1, Maya x Gill: 3, Axelivia: 4, Danzie: 4, Stampcy: 2, Aidesse (F!Jesse x Aiden): 2 (one is a bromance vote), Hadrevia: 2, Misa (Milo x Isa): 1, CassieSparklez: 1
The ship has to have at least 7 votes to be considered to be included in the story; so keep that in mind! Lukesse, Luktra, and Harvor are the only ones being considered so far. So if there's a ship you forgot to include the previous time, VOTE! xD
Voting will end upon reaching the next chapter, because that's when there's a very shippy moment during the actual chapter of Hybrid, and also because it's chapter 5 xD
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (laughs) Glad you like it!
Luna96: I see that xD
LunarStarsMoons: Cool :3 and... Misa is Milo x Isa xD
RapidSammi: I'm glad you like it! :3
NightShipper: Haha xD I'm glad you like it. I wonder if you'll be able to do it, haha xD
rebekahtpe: Um... right arm? I'm right handed, but I guess I could always get a prosthetic, haha xD
NoItsBecky: Quite a LOT of people like Luktra, actually xD And... I don't know xD
Emily The Avenger: Coolio :3
EthanDaCabbage: No problem :3
mEEplePeoPLe: (laughs) Sure thing
JustinBieberFan: Coolio, got it x3
IShipMagnegaard: Gotcha :3
Hybrid Fangirl: I'm glad you liked Hybrid so much! Nice to welcome you aboard :3 Thank you for the suggestion and the long review xD I like long reviews.
x.X. A.L. X.x
