An Enderman teleported in a small spray of purple and pink sparks so that it was literally right behind Jesse, although it wasn't facing the group. Jesse was frozen in place for a single, chilling moment, having apparently sensed it appearing behind her, before slowly revolving on the spot to face the black back facing her, slowly raising her head, black hair drifting away from her wide green-and-red eyes as she tilted her head back.
It turned around to face the group, and most of them slapped their hands over their eyes automatically and rushed away. Olivia, however, remained standing there, staring at the Enderman and frozen in place. The Enderman stared back at Olivia, tilting its head at her as if in confusion.
"Oh my Notch oh my Notch oh my Notch," Stampy was practically squeaking, his back pressed into the seat cushions as he tried to get away from the screen, head turned away so that he was looking at the screen out of the literal corners of his eyes. Not that he was the only one; most of the other members of the audience had started doing it out of habit. Even Nell, who was usually pretty calm and cool, had her face half-hidden behind Em, and Slab had his hands over his eyes.
Onscreen, Jesse doubled back slowly, doing just what many members of the audience were doing, and slowly took Olivia's hand. The Enderman hybrid blinked as if shaking herself out of it, and slowly followed Jesse as the two of them retreated to a safe distance, the Enderman watching Olivia for another moment before losing interest and bleeping out of sight.
Jesse and Olivia moved to crouch behind one of the black structures, Olivia still looking a bit dazed, purple eye practically glowing as she stared at the hordes of Endermen.
"What's up with Goggles- ow!" and Magnus glared at Ellegaard, who'd just stomped on his foot.
"Hush!" she told him sharply. "We'll find out if we keep watching!"
"Would you save your lover's spats for when we're not watching the episodes?!" Mevia hissed, voice rising into a near-hysterical whisper-shriek.
Magnus and Ellegaard glared at her, both of their faces pomegranate red. "W-we're not-!" Magnus began, spluttering.
"It's not-!" Ellegaard began herself.
Gabriel and Soren simultaneously elbowed the one they happened to be sitting next to, making them both wince, rub their sides, and glare at Gabriel or Soren respectively.
"What do we call that?" Lukas whispered onscreen, voice quivering slightly as he stared with wide eyes at the Endermen roaming the landscape. "A- a herd of Endermen? A 'flock'? A 'swarm'?"
"A haunting," Olivia said, still sounding dazed as her gaze was fixated on the Endermen in front of them. All of them glanced at the now-extremely-tall girl, who was still staring at the scene with a slightly open mouth in a dazed shock.
Soren pointed at the screen, eyes widening a bit. "Hey, that's what I usually call it!"
Jesse shivered a bit onscreen as she looked back at the 'haunting' of Endermen. "Call it whatever you want. As long as we don't look at them, we'll be fine," she whispered back.
"Yeah," Lukas gasped breathlessly, still staring at the Endermen in a state of shock, "yeah."
They all looked at Olivia, who usually tried to get them back on the generally right track, but the girl was still staring at the tall black monsters in some sort of daze, so Axel looked at Jesse instead. "Which way are we headed, Jesse?" he asked.
The black-haired girl pulled the amulet out again, the white-glow illuminating her face. However, moments later, the glow started flickering out. Jesse winced as she looked at the amulet. "I guess since the amulet can't locate people in the Nether or the End, it makes sense that it wouldn't work in the Nether or the End," she sighed as she gave it an experimental shake, the amulet flickering out entirely a second or two later.
Lukas started laughing, making everyone look at him. "Great. Whoo, man," he stated, faint sarcasm tinging his voice, and growing heavier by the second as his tail and ears started twitching rapidly, "so, we were trapped, and now, we're lost. So, we go from, uh, a death machine, that nearly drowns-and-or-crushes us, and we land- here." He flailed his arms wildly at the surrounding landscape. "In the End. Which, is the right name for it, since, incredibly, we don't even know where we're going!"
"Way to keep the spirit up, Lukas," Jesse said sardonically from where she was leaning against him, although she did seem a bit troubled herself.
Onscreen, Jesse cupped her elbows, shoulders hunching. "Well... at least we're alive. We just have to keep on going until we get to Soren," she said finally, staring at the floor uncomfortably.
"I'm not a leader, and I'm not good at leading or taking charge. Yet, somehow, I manage to become the makeshift leader of this whole thing, and I have no idea what to even do," Jesse mused. "... yeah, no wonder I look like someone just slapped me in the-" She abruptly cut herself off and went silent. Several members of the audience exchanged raised eyebrows at this.
Lukas deflated a bit onscreen upon seeing Jesse's defeated position, ears flopping a bit. "Let's face it, Jesse, we might never find this guy," he said, in a softer voice than before.
Behind him, Axel raised his hand to point at something. "There he is."
The screen switched to show, sure enough, a figure with ginger hair climbing an extremely long staircase in the distance.
Gabriel blinked at this. "Oh. Well."
Lukas blinked onscreen at this as well. "Did that just happen?"
Jesse nodded in agreement, topmost set of hands going to her chin and crossing over her chest, the lowest set setting themselves on her hips, and the middle set put away the amulet again, since it was rendered effectively useless in the End. "That was cliché," she murmured, although she sounded faintly amused by this.
Petra nodded, crossing her own arms. "Yes, but... convenient."
"I can't believe that just happened," Lukas mumbled, surprised. A more hopeful look was coming over his expression. "That was... like we just... I dunno, conjured him."
Jesse looked at Lukas for a few moments, before looking away, reaching up with one set of hands and touching her collarbone with a faintly uncomfortable expression.
Lukas leaned forward and set his chin on his palm. "Judging by one of Jesse's earlier... uhh, 'flashbacks', Jesse must've been the only one who saw their respective Order member after they went to defeat the Ender Dragon. This must've caused some... um... rather uncomfortable situations between us," he mused.
Isa watched the screen for a minute or so, Benedict sitting in her lap and clucking away cheerfully, before saying, in a conversational but faintly impressed tone, "You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were true."
"Wonder where he's going," Olivia hummed thoughtfully onscreen, finally having gotten her attention diverted from the Endermen surrounding the area.
"Only one way to find out... we gotta follow him," Jesse said authoritatively, looking from Soren back to her friends.
"Everyone follow me," Petra said, beginning to walk to the front of the group, "I'll get us to the other side of all these Endermen, just stay behind me and we'll-" she burst into a coughing fit, doubling over for a moment, before recovering, "we'll be fine."
Nell winced. "That, uhh... that doesn't exactly seem like the most radical idea, brah." Petra winced in her own turn.
Lukas winced a bit. "That... doesn't sound like a good idea..." he said tentatively, before moving forward to the front himself, "actually, you know what? I'll just go."
Both Jesse and Petra looked at the ocelot hybrid in surprise, before Jesse tentatively moved to stand behind the ocelot hybrid. He glanced back at her, brow creasing in concern. "Give me a chance," he said, quietly enough that no one else heard it. "Just say the word, and I'll do it."
The spider hybrid looked at him for another moment, before turning back to everyone else, putting her hands on her hips authoritatively. "Everyone, follow Lukas. And if all else fails, Olivia, I'm relying on you to get us out of here."
The Enderman hybrid nodded stoutly at Jesse, who turned back just in time to catch Onscreen-Lukas's grateful smile and nod, before he turned around to face the hordes of Endermen. "C'mon!" he called, before dropping to all fours and padding through the crowd of Endermen.
Jesse fell forward onto all eights and crept after him, keeping her gaze on Lukas's feet as she started moving through the crowd of Endermen. Glancing back, she spotted Petra pull up the hood of the red cloak and cover her head, Axel drop to all fours and start moving along, keeping his eyes down, Reuben galloping after her, and Olivia bleeping out of sight. In this manner, stopping once in a while whenever getting far too close to an Enderman for comfort, they managed to reach some sort of platform, with an extremely long staircase right behind them.
"Nice moves back there, Lukas," Petra said as she flipped back her hood, smiling faintly at Lukas. The ocelot hybrid smiled back, although the smile faded a moment later as he actually got a good look at Petra.
"Thanks..." and he turned back to Jesse, smiling as his ears pricked up, "You too, Jesse. Thanks for giving me a shot."
The whole group turned in unison to look at the staircase. It was pretty obvious that it was going to be a terribly long climb.
"Couldn't you have built an underground fortress?" Jace complained, turning to look at the builder.
Soren shrugged. "It's less dramatic."
"Great," grumbled Axel, "we're gonna die and it won't even be exciting."
Olivia gave him a weird look, arching her eyebrow, her weird daze forgotten. "What, from the stairs? If Jesse can survive Magnus going wacko on her-"
This made several members of the audience snort in amusement.
"- then I'm pretty sure we can survive a long staircase."
The spider hybrid gave the two of them a rather sheepish look, rubbing the back of her neck. "Honestly? I think I'd rather face wacko-Magnus."
Jesse snickered at that.
A/N: Pffff xD
RQTC: Winslow, Benedict, or Reuben?
Reuben. He's the best pet ever. He's loyal, smart, and always happy to see Jesse at the end of a long day- friend. It should be 'friend', not 'pet'.
(goes to publish next chapter)
(sees views)
OVER 8,000 VIEWS.
IN THE TWO OR THREE WEEKS THIS FIC HAS BEEN UP, I HAVE RECEIVED OVER 8,000 VIEWS.
Oh my Notch, guys, seriously... thank you.
Emily The Avenger: Hehehe xD
MissyMattingly: High five!
Darkbeast Dend: Hey, that's cool, I like Soren too :3 But Ivor is best xD / And it's fine; as long as you don't do it again it's fine. :3
Kaos Ruin: But, seeing as I'm planning the story, I know how he's thinking during certain moments... and it... really wasn't that nice. / I still like Soren, honestly. I have no idea why. I think I feel bad for him.
AquaK13: (laughs) Aw, well, you should get your sleep. / Yay! (high-five)
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (stares for a moment. Points at my favorite Order member (Ivor)) / Heehee (evil grin)
LittleAngelbun: I meant the old. And cool!
RapidSammi: (rubs head) Aww, thanks, Sammi-kun! / YAS! (high-fives you)
LunarStarsMoon: (shrugs) / (high-five)
Idon'tlikecheese: Cool :3
SofiaTheWriter88: I'm glad you like it! / Nice!
sailor. mikuchan: (stares at you. Points at my favorite Order member.)
DynamiteHunter6: (nods) Cool, cool. Cool beans. Cool-o-rama. xD
EthanDaCabbage: Uhh, Stampy, Lizzie and Aphmau.
x.X. A.L. X.x
