Jesse put her hands on her knees as she tried to drag air into her lungs, but then she heard a snigger. Looking up to see another griefer on the roof, who was waving an egg, she dodged left as it hit the ground, cracking to reveal a tiny baby chicken. She didn't stop there, and scrambled into a nearby alley, heaving as she tried to breathe properly. Axel popped in, Reuben tucked under one arm. He was grinning. "Did you see that?"
Jesse turned, the screen showing the ruined city, one of the partially destroyed buildings having what appeared to be a dancing griefer chucking TNT down into the city, where it exploded. "Utter chaos, man."
Jesse simply let out a loud gasp in return.
Ellegaard gestured at the screen, shooting a glare at Magnus. "See?! Even HE agrees it's chaos!"
"I think he meant it as a nice thing, though," Jace said.
This made everyone turn to stare at Axel with a bemused look. He shrugged back, looking just as bemused. "What?"
"Well, there you have it, Jesse!" Axel said with a grin, taking her gasp as awe or something, "Boom Town in all it's glory! What do you think?"
"I think it's the worst place on the planet!" Ellegaard exclaimed. Although several of the people in the room chose not to actually say anything, it was pretty clear from their facial expressions that they agreed wholeheartedly. Well, it was hard to tell with Jesse, actually- she was just watching this with interest.
Onscreen-Jesse just gasped again.
"Er... is she in shock?" Cassie asked.
"It's like I've finally come home. These are my people."
"Well then," Magnus said, grinning at the boy sitting on the floor, "remind me to take you there sometime after this is all over."
Axel beamed.
The sheer ridiculousness of this statement seemed to snap onscreen-Jesse out of her 'shock' or whatever had just happened to her. "AUGH! Axel!" she cried out, "how does anyone LIVE here?!"
As if proving her point, a loud BOOM went off in the background, making the floor of the living room tremble.
"They're adventurous, Jesse!" Axel said cheerfully, putting his arms into the air. "It's awesome!"
"Awesome is not the word I would use," Petra said, flatly.
"Axel, you'd think a poisonous potato was awesome if it had TNT strapped to it!" Jesse responded, throwing her hands into the air.
Magnus, Axel, and the gladiators all looked at each other with a gasp, eyes widening.
"NO," everyone in the room chorused immediately.
Onscreen, Axel developed this thoughtful look on his face. "... well, can't deny that."
Jesse giggled a bit at this, before spotting a banner of the amulet and pulling out said amulet. The green gem was glowing brightly.
"Dude, it's freaking glowing!" Axel exclaimed.
"Huh... I think I know what it means!" Jesse's eyes widened, before she started rotating in little circles. "And look! It glows brighter when I move in a certain direction..." She began to follow the glow, staring intently at the amulet.
"Maybe a little to the left?" Axel suggested. "No, the right. I mean your left. Right. I mean, you're right. About left."
"What?" Hadrian, Mevia, and Otto chorused flatly.
"What in the world are you articulating, Axel," Jesse joked onscreen, making both Axels crack a huge grin. "And... hm!" She pointed the amulet, being careful not to move the cloak too much. The screen switched to show a huge black tower with the middle part practically blown out.
Olivia's jaw dropped open. "Uhh... is that safe?" she asked, a bit faintly.
Magnus thought about this for a second. "Uhh, nope. Not really."
"You live th- wait, what am I saying. Of course you live there," Dan sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead.
"And I'm willing to bet money that THAT'S where we'll find Magnus," Jesse said, with another hum.
A blue-haired girl with her hair in pigtails, a pink t-shirt, and a black mask on jumped from the building she'd been standing on, making the three of them turn to look at her. "Hey there, new people."
"Uh oh," Magnus said.
"Uh oh? What do you mean by 'uh oh'?" Jace asked, voice beginning to show a hint of alarm to it.
Jesse blinked as the girl landed on the ground. "You, ah... you said you know where Magnus is? All the griefers here in Boom Town wanna find Magnus, y'know."
The raven-haired girl casually slipped the amulet back into her back pocket. "Do you really?" she asked conversationally. You'd be excused for thinking that the other girl had just asked her if she wanted a cup of tea or something.
"Yep," the girl said, popping the 'p'.
"What's going on?" Another griefer appeared. And then another one.
"Nohr found some noobs with a thingy that can find Magnus," yet another griefer responded, all of them beginning to advance on the vulnerable group.
Jesse's eye twitched in irritation, the cloak rippling a bit as though she'd raised her arms, before she facepalmed quietly.
NOHR whipped back around to the other griefers with a glare. "Bunch of scavengers! This drop is mine!" she snarled.
Jesse let out a long sigh, making everyone look at her. "Since we're new to Boom Town," she began, in a light voice that was still somehow dripping with sarcasm, "I bet you think we're all scared and incredibly awed by your amazing griefing skills and expertise and expect us to be cowed into doing whatever you want."
"Huh. Who knew you had it in ya. And here I thought you were just a wallflower," Magnus hummed.
Onscreen Jesse let out a light hum. "Well, we're not. We're in a hurry, and I would love for something to be easy, just this freakin' once. And because of that, I have just one thing to say to you all."
She remained silent for a moment, before lifting one hand and waving cheerfully, giving them a bright yet sarcastic smile. "Bye!"
A huge strand of string launched out from underneath the cloak, hitting the roof of a damaged house. She grabbed ahold of Axel, who seized Reuben, and then retracted the string. The two of them zipped into the air, before Jesse released the string, they flew through the air, and then slammed down onto the roof of the house hard enough to make several shingles clatter off the roof.
The audience winced sympathetically.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry, Axel-!"
"Ow, OW! That's my hand-"
Jesse winced and rubbed her head. "Haha, sorry, Axel."
The boy reached over Petra and Jace to clap Jesse on the shoulder, nearly knocking her into the coffee table again. "No problem, Jesse."
Below them, the griefers could be heard shouting, and Jesse let out another sigh. "Wonderful," she muttered.
"Since when did you get so snappy?" Axel wondered, straightening up and dusting himself off.
"Since we're in a hurry to save the world."
"Good point."
Jesse sprinted away from the place where the griefers were, Axel following. A moment later, his foot slipped on a shingle, and he yelped as he wobbled before toppling off the roof.
"Oh no!" Olivia yelled.
Time slowed down onscreen as Reuben let out a terrified squeal, and Axel glanced at the pig before tossing Reuben up into the air, his body flashing white as he squinted his eyes shut, a hard look coming over his face. He blasted himself sideways, tumbling onto the ground harshly, but he'd barely even landed before lunging back to his feet, running back over, and catching Reuben, staggering a step as he was slightly off balance.
"Whoa! Nice moves there, Axel!" Jesse cheered.
Onscreen-Jesse poked her head over the roof. "Ouch," she called down to him. "You alright?"
He nodded up at her. "Yeah. Split up for now, you'll move faster without me on the roof."
"Got it!" And Jesse was off again, running until she reached a spot where there were no rooftops anywhere nearby. Instead of coming to a stop, she simply lowered her body and barreled forward, before she tensed her knees and jumped off the roof. She landed a moment later, crouching and rolling forward in a perfect parkour roll before running towards the black spire.
She didn't get much farther when Nohr suddenly popped out of a doorway near her.
"What in- how did she get there?" Maya wondered, looking bewildered.
Gill wiggled his fingers at Maya. "Magic," he joked.
She slugged him on the shoulder with a playful scowl.
"Hey, know what the best time of year is visit Boom Town?" she asked, grinning.
Jesse let out another sigh and sent a rather deadpan glare at the blue-haired girl. "Lemme guess, fall?"
"Nope. Winter. Good idea, though!" And Nohr flipped a lever.
The sandstone beneath Jesse gave way, and the girl yelped as she dropped into a deep hole, landing on her butt. "No way out of there, dingus!" Nohr cackled, pulling a ladder out of her pocket.
"What does dingus even mean?" Lizzie wondered.
"It's used to refer to something someone cannot or does not wish to refer to specifically," Harper responded, eyes still fixed on the screen.
"... ah."
"That's where you're wrong," Jesse murmured, before shooting another string of silk to the top of the hole. With a flick of her wrist, she rappelled towards it, before flipping over the edge of the hole and landing running away as fast as she could.
"Hey!" Nohr shouted after her.
Jesse stuck her tongue out at Nohr over her shoulder. "Who's the noob now?" she shouted over her shoulder, before skidding a stop as Axel joined back up with her.
"Axel!" Jesse exclaimed, sounding incredibly relieved.
"Jesse!" he panted out. "Quick, toss me the amulet!"
Jesse gave him a surprised look. Axel made a frustrated little sound and gestured his arms in a flailing motion. "I mean, you're surrounded by griefers, they'll tear you apart to get it!" he exclaimed. True to his word, there were griefers approaching in the distance, although they were still way too far away to see them properly.
"C'mon, Jesse," Axel mumbled, more to himself even though he was still perfectly audible to everyone, "don't you trust me?"
Onscreen Jesse immediately nodded, fished the amulet out of her pocket, and gently slapped it into his hand. "Don't lose it, 'kay?" she asked, giving him a lopsided grin.
Axel perked up immediately. Olivia gave him a grin, and Petra let out this soft sigh of relief.
Onscreen Axel returned the grin. "Don't worry about me. I got this. You just worry about you, and keep 'em distracted."
"Gotcha. Good luck," and she gave him a thumbs up.
Axel sprinted off in a different direction, Reuben following him after giving Jesse one last worried look. She playfully saluted to the pig, who still watched her for a moment before bolting off.
"There she is!"
Jesse turned to see a group of griefers running towards her. She let out this agitated sigh. "Well, I did need to get some exercise..." That being said, she ran full tilt at a nearby wall, before reaching a spot only inches away from it and explosively jumping upwards, grabbing ahold of the wall and scrambling up it without any trouble, eight limbs propelling her up the wall at a rapid clip.
"That is seriously cool," Stacy said suddenly. Jesse blinked at the girl.
"Oh... thank you?"
"Hey! At the top!"
Vaulting over the ledge of the roof, she nearly tripped over a rather large pile of abandoned eggs on the ground.
"Alright, Jesse! Get some payback!" Olivia exclaimed, pumping her fists a bit.
Jesse grinned and scooped up the eggs. "I love a good table-turning. Egg-cellent."
There was a short pause where everyone tried to process the awful pun she just made, before Lukas simply banged his head on the coffee table. "Jesse, are you kidding me..." he groaned.
Jesse was pinching the bridge of her own nose, looking as though she had a rather acute headache. "I- no- why did I just-" she muttered under her breath.
Onscreen, Jesse made a face. "Oh... Notch, I can't believe I just said that..."
Two griefers poked their heads over a staircase, and Jesse immediately pivoted and hurled one of the eggs at the nearest griefer. It smacked him square in the chest and knocked him backwards into the other one, and both fell off the side of the stairs.
"Bulls-eye!" Stampy exclaimed.
Jesse kept throwing eggs at the griefers, knocking them all back before bolting up the next set of stairs, although all too soon they were right back on her tail again. Reaching the top of the stairs, she found herself standing next to a block of TNT that was placed near a small fire.
"Yes! More explosions!" Facemeat cheered.
A grin formed on both Jesse's faces. "Well, hel-lo, opportunity," and she snatched up the block of TNT and held the string close to the fire. It sparked, and she ran back towards the stairs, looking at the long line of griefers running and shoving to try to get up to her.
"Sorry," she called down, before shoving the TNT down at them.
One of the griefers, who was wearing a white mask, barely had any time to look up and widen his eyes at it before it exploded, sending griefers flying everywhere and demolishing the staircase. Jesse was blasted backwards by the blast so that her back slammed into the floor. With a soft groan, she pushed herself back to her feet and shook her head, before dropping to all eights and scrambling across the ground at a much faster clip than running would've achieved.
The screen switched so that she reached a bridge that lead straight to the spire, with two iron doors opening into the spire, Axel and Reuben standing there on the bridge.
"Well, at least you all made it in one piece. After that, it should be a straight shot," Lukas said mildly.
Jesse and Petra both turned in perfect unison to stare at Lukas with completely deadpan looks, even as Magnus gave a faintly awkward cough. Lukas blinked before his own expression went deadpan. "I... just jinxed it, didn't I."
"Yes. Yes you did."
"It's not that bad; if they can get past my booby traps, it should be a straight shot..." Magnus said, faintly defensively.
This time, Jace, Petra, Olivia, Jesse, and Lukas all turned in perfect unison to stare at Magnus. He blinked at them before realizing what he'd just said.
"... oh."
Onscreen, Reuben turned around with a cheerful oink.
"Jesse, you made it!" And then Axel literally lifted Jesse off the ground into a hug, the much-smaller girl letting out a rather squeaky laugh from where she was now being lifted awkwardly off the ground.
She patted him on the back slightly. "Whoa, good to see you too, big guy!" she chuckled, before he set her back down on the ground, her tilting her head back to get a good look at him. "You have the amulet?"
"'Course. Me and the pig, we totally rocked it!" Axel said, pulling out said amulet and handing it back to Jesse, Reuben nuzzling Jesse's side and making the girl chuckle.
"... one second." Jesse crouched down and pulled the arrowhead out of his leg carefully, making the creeper hybrid give a little hiss of pain, before tossing it to the side and pulling some silk out of her hand, quickly wrapping a small length of it around his leg. The screen switched to show Axel with this warm smile on his face, although Jesse was oblivious to it.
"You really care about people, don't you?" Hadrian asked the black-haired girl lightly.
She nodded with a small smile in his direction. "Yeah. Like I've said before. I'll do anything for my friends."
Axel silently and suddenly reached around Jace and Petra and Olivia to give Jesse a tight hug, making the girl go "Oh" very softly in surprise.
"And... there ya go, you should be good," and Jesse sat back on her heels and gave the makeshift bandage a grin.
"Thanks, Jesse."
Jesse grinned up at Axel and bounced to her feet. "No problem. Anyway, let's get in."
Axel tried the door, but it just rattled a bit without budging. "Huh. Maybe it's, I dunno, locked or something. That's a thing people do to important doors, right?"
This made several audience members laugh a bit.
"Yes, people tend to do that when they want to keep people out," Jesse said, sounding faintly amused. She then stepped closer to the iron door and knocked firmly on it neatly.
"Is that going to work?" Lukas asked, raising his eyebrow.
Jesse had just knocked the fourth time when the doors banged open, making both her and Axel jump in surprise and Reuben let out a loud squeal. At least it was inwards and not outwards; or else it would've ended up making contact with Jesses face.
"Okay, never mind. Shows what I know," Lukas said, putting his hands up in the air in surrender.
"Okay," Axel said with a faintly grudging smile, "so knocking worked. For once."
"I guess so. Let's get inside, shall we?"
The both of them trotted inside the spire slowly, looking around as they peered into the darkness of the spire. Reuben stopped next to them.
Suddenly, some trapdoors beneath them swung open, and the two of them screamed as they plummeted into the darkness, Reuben falling into Jesse's arms. The spider hybrid looked down before squeezing Reuben tightly to her chest in a hug, the screen turning black.
"Wait, what? What just happened?" Lizzie asked, looking disoriented.
"Like I said," Magnus said plainly, "booby traps."
"Do NOT tell me they're going to fall straight into a pool of lava," Petra said flatly, Olivia letting out a groan at the thought.
Magnus thought about this for a few seconds. "... eh, probably not?"
Jesse put her head in her hands and slowly shook it. "That is... not comforting."
"You probably should do something about that 'kingdom' of yours," Harper spoke, giving the Rogue a concerned look. "How many people die there on a daily basis?"
Magnus shook his head. "None, usually. The most we have a month is four, unless there's some sort of accident. My griefers might be deadly, but they do know what they're doing."
"That one guy suicide-bombed himself-!"
"Okay, except for that guy. I don't know what he was thinking."
"What counts as an accident in Boom Town? The buildings are on FIRE!" Ellegaard exclaimed.
"I am not going to answer that, Ellie."
Jace turned to look at them. "Can we please watch this? I think Jesse would like to be assured that she's not going to die simply because she went to Boom Town instead of Redstonia."
"Yes, that would be a nice thing to know, indeed," Jesse groaned, head still buried her hands. Lukas gave her a gentle pat on the back.
A/N: Boom Town makes my hands cramp, lol xD
RQTC: Have you ever solved Einstein's Riddle before? It's actually surprisingly easy if you think about it carefully, I solved it in 17 minutes xD
LunarStarsMoon: (laughs) And indeed, to both of those things xD
AquaK13: (cracks up)
LittleAngelbun: That's literally the only line of the theme song that I remember worth beans xD
Emily The Avenger: Hahaha! That's gold xD
Guest: (laughs) That's Lukas's fault for bringing it up in the first place.
Darkbeast Dend: Yes, I did know Dragonhearted was made by Sparklez x3 and I'm glad you like it!
Idon'tlikecheese: Yep xD
Meow Shadow: Hehe xD
EthanDaCabbage: (grins)
x.X. A.L. X.x
