"Wow, so that temple we went to was built by the... 'very old group of builders'?" Jesse asked, passing the flint and steel down to her lower arms as she looked up at the potionologist curiously.
"Well, at least she didn't say it," Otto murmured.
Ivor nodded rapidly, eyes still fixed on the flint and steel. "That's my suspicion," he spoke, "but it's what's inside the temple that interests me even more! You see, if these builders truly existed, and if you found their temple... that means we're one step closer to finding the 'Eversource'!"
Unnoticed by everything else, whose eyes were fixated on the screen, Hadrian, Mevia, Otto, Harper, Cassie, Soren, Isa, Milo, and Reginald blinked at the screen, before all of their heads turned so that they were staring at the little crowned chicken clucking away in Isa's lap. Isa let out a low sigh. "Of course," she muttered under her breath, softly enough so that the rest of the audience couldn't catch it.
Onscreen, Petra chuckled and elbowed Lukas in the ribs, making the ocelot hybrid wince a bit and rub the spot where she'd nudged him. "Looks like you came back just in time, Lukas."
"The Ever... what now?" Jesse asked, arching her eyebrow at Ivor curiously and tilting her head to one side.
"The Eversource!" Ivor repeated.
"That doesn't... explain anything," Jace said slowly, turning so that he was staring at Ivor.
Jesse stifled a laugh at this sardonic comment.
Onscreen, Lukas arched his eyebrow as well. "You, uh... gonna actually explain it any more than that?" he asked hesitantly.
Several members of the audience snorted at this.
"The Eversource is said to be an object of incredible power possessed by the Old Builders," Ivor began rather impatiently.
"Annnnd there it is," Harper mumbled, the seven of them wincing a bit upon hearing the name and causing several more curious looks to be cast in their direction.
"It was some sort of treasure, or artifact, that gave them an endless supply of precious materials! Think about it, Jesse! That temple must've been its hiding place!" Ivor finished the statement onscreen.
Milo's eyes flickered to Benedict. "Or not." (He was quiet enough that the real Ivor couldn't catch it.)
"Wow... 'Old Builders'," Petra said musingly, reaching a hand up to touch her lips, "you learn something new every day."
"They're going to be saying 'Old Builders' in this quite a lot, aren't they?" Hadrian grouched to Mevia and Otto quietly. Cassie, Isa, Soren, and Harper were sitting too far away for them to catch it.
Jesse nodded, looking back at the flint and steel with a serious look on her face. "Okay, this flint and steel thing might have the 'Old Builder' enchantment..."
Cue more winces from the seven members, although they were able to pull it off subtly enough that most of the other members of the audience didn't spot it this time. Jesse did, though, and her eyes narrowed a bit as she mentally filed away who'd winced in her head for later.
"... but how do you know that's where the Eversource thing is?"
Ivor looked Jesse dead in the eye, his own expression deadly serious. "I've travelled near and far, Jesse. That temple, that flint and steel... it's the only firm proof that I've ever seen of the Old Builders."
Petra nodded a bit, a thoughtful look coming over her face. "That does seem like a pretty solid bet." She grinned at the other two hybrids. "'Old Builders'-"
More winces.
"- 'Eversources', ancient mysteries... you know I'm in."
"Giant crab in Moana," Jace whispered playfully.
Petra punched him on the shoulder, making him grin and wince a bit as he rubbed his now-sore shoulder.
Ivor hopped up and down again (earning him a snicker from Magnus and Gabriel, although the real Ivor was getting far too excited to even give a damn about it), excitement entering his facial expression as Jesse and Lukas nodded agreement. "Excellent! I'll pack my adventuring things immediately!" And he ran off before any of them could possibly object to the suggestion. (Well, suggestion... that implied that they had a choice in the matter of whether or not he could come.)
Real-Petra cringed. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."
Onscreen, Petra's face fell. She obviously shared the same sentiment with Real-Petra. "Wait a minute- he's coming?"
"Sounds like you guys have a lot to get to. I guess I'll take off-?" Lukas suggested, moving for the exit.
Petra's arm shot up and blocked his path, making the ocelot hybrid grin teasingly at the redhead. "Nope! You're coming with. I need the biggest buffer I can have between me and Ivor."
Jesse laughed at that, the screen blacking out a moment later.
Reginald leaned over to whisper into Isa's ear. "They're going after the Eversource. What do we do?"
Isa frowned, before giving her head a little shake. "There's not much we can do. Just keep them from finding out that she's here for as long as possible, I suppose. Other than that... I don't know."
The screen faded back in to three ocelots, prowling around in the jungle.
"Hey, it's Maya, Gill, and Lukas!" Axel exclaimed, raising an arm to point at the screen. "Hey guys!"
Maya gave vent to a very unladylike snort, burying her head in Gill's shoulder to try to stifle it. Gill was shaking his head with amusement, while Lukas sent the burly boy a mock-glare. Axel simply grinned back.
Ivor leaped over a small hillock, causing the ocelots to scatter, grinning widely. "Adventure! Haha!"
"Did he just say that? I can't believe he just said that," Magnus whispered to Ellegaard, who was making a very funny face to keep from laughing.
"Oh shut up," Ivor grumbled in their direction.
"Lukas," Petra said to Lukas as Ivor ran ahead again, "I know it's daytime, but watch our backs, okay?" Lukas nodded and smiled at her, slowing down to drop back a bit behind the rest of the group. Petra leaned over and whispered into Jesse's ear, "I can't believe we're bringing Ivor with us. I mean, it's nice that he's excited... but he's not the first person I'd choose as 'adventuring companion'."
The screen switched to show Ivor doing a little sort of march-dance ahead of them.
Jesse somehow managed to not snort as she furiously repressed her laughter, although her face was turning bright red from the amount of energy it was taking her. Ellegaard was not quite as diplomatic, letting out a loud one as she buried her face in Magnus's chest, the Rogue shaking so hard with laughter that it was nearly silent. Gabriel was doubled over and snickering quietly, while Soren was shaking so hard he'd nearly fallen off the couch, gripping the couch arm for support.
Honestly, they probably deserved to get that pillow that got chucked at them for some reason or another.
Onscreen, Jesse gave a little shrug, giving a faint smile. "Well, we can't argue that when it comes to all the ancient history and treasure, Ivor sure knows a LOT about it. Also, he has experience. Order of the Stone, and all that."
"Eh, true. Fair enough."
"These trees are enormous!" Ivor suddenly announced, throwing his hands into the air in excitement. "I love it so much!"
Magnus, Soren, Gabriel, and Ellegaard dissolved back into a fit of giggles. Harper carefully kept her face composed, but the way the edge of her mouth twitched upwards belayed how amused she felt at the fact.
Jesse actually casually picked Reuben up and hid her face behind the pig at this point to keep from giggling too severely, which was causing more giggling from the rest of the audience, which was setting the black-haired girl off even more. Ivor huffed and leaned back into his chair, scowling at the screen, being careful not to let anyone else see how amused he was becoming.
Onscreen, Jesse smirked a little and glanced back at the Blaze and ocelot hybrid, who were both smothering giggles to the best of their ability. Petra in particular looked rather amused. Jesse's smirk widened as she turned back around to the front.
"He just..." Petra managed once her laughing fit had abated, "really gets on my nerves sometimes."
The screen switched to show that they'd reached the temple, which in the daytime looked less intimidating, yet somehow even more impressive.
"That's... wow, that's even cooler than I thought at first," Lukas said, goggling at the screen with wide eyes.
"Remarkable!" Ivor exclaimed onscreen, putting his hands on the hips and grinning at the temple. "Look at this architecture! So old! So exquisite!"
Jesse shrugged. "He does have a point about that."
Soren hummed his agreement to Jesse's statement.
"This is just like how I dreamed it would be!" A beat, before he spoke thoughtfully. "Except for less cake... my dreams usually involve cake."
Axel gasped. "Mine too!"
Jace very carefully swallowed a laugh.
"Nice to see you smiling," Jesse said as she walked up to Ivor, resting her hand on his shoulder with a grin.
Ivor's eyes widened, his smile falling off his face, and he whipped back around to face the front. "I'm not smiling."
Jesse let go of his shoulder and literally bent over at the waist, her shoulders shaking minutely from the effort it was taking to hide her giggles, the spider hybrid's hands moving to cover her face. Petra took off her helmet and tugged her bandana over her face, starting to shake as well, and Lukas grabbed his tail and buried his face in it.
The giggles that had begun to infect the audience began to turn into uproarious laughter at the sight of their reactions onscreen.
Jesse finally straightened back up, her face so straight that it was clear that she was hiding a smile at this point. "This place looks a lot different in the daytime," she noted as they started walking into the temple. And indeed, with daylight streaming into the temple, it didn't look nearly as imposing.
"Okay, be careful what you touch. There could be traps everywhere," Ivor instructed, although he was still hopping around in excitement like a bunny hyped up on sugar.
The image of Ivor with bunny ears was too much for Real-Jesse, whose eyes glazed over a bit as she focused all of her attention on stopping the giggles that were building up in her throat, shoulders shaking from the effort.
"I'm sure that if we didn't trigger any the last time around, we're not going to trigger any this time," Onscreen-Jesse teased, as Ivor continued hopping around.
"Petra! Blonde guy! ... Lukas! Yes, Lukas! Are you as excited as I am?"
Petra grinned teasingly up at Ivor, who was still bouncing around. "I'm not sure that's possible," she told him jokingly.
"Yeah, right now Ivor's worse than Axel when he got all hyped up on sugar that one time in the lab-"
Lukas's comment made the three hybrids suddenly shudder in the middle of what they were doing, all six of Jesse's hands clenching into fists, a spray of sparks spitting off of Petra, and Lukas's hair rising on end. Ivor gave them a surprised look. "Have your memories not all come back yet?" he wondered, raising an eyebrow.
Jesse shook her head. "No, not quite. They keep coming in little flashes whenever something triggers it, but it's not quite back yet," she replied, her shoulders relaxing a bit.
"Ah, I see."
Jesse nodded again and moved away from them, before pausing. The screen switched to show a makeshift staircase. "Ah, hold up- there's some sort of room up there!" she exclaimed, moving to look at some vines on the wall near the makeshift staircase.
Ivor, Petra, and Lukas crowded around her as the spider hybrid twisted to look at them, a faintly excited grin coming over her face. "This looks promising, I'm gonna head up," she told them.
Ivor nodded vigorously. "Fantastic! We'll follow right behind you!"
Jesse nodded and turned back to the wall, taking a step back, before tensing her knees and leaping into the air. All eight of her limbs slammed onto the wall, making solid contact, before she propelled herself up the wall rapidly.
"No matter how many times she does that, it doesn't get any less cool," Nell said cheerfully.
"You said it," Axel agreed.
The screen switched to show Jesse shoving aside some vines as she walked into a different, hidden room. There was an elaborate design on the wall, with a pressure plate on the ground in front of it. Besides that and a few more openings in the other walls, it appeared to be empty.
"So, you think this Eversource is up here?" she called down to Ivor, looking around the room a bit.
"Hard to say, Jesse!" Ivor called from where he was presumably still standing on the ground below. "As the story goes, the Old Builders feared its potential, so they hid it away in a place where it would never be found."
Jesse frowned a bit at that. "Well, then this can't really be the hiding place, we found this room in like, five minutes," she mumbled under her breath, seemingly to herself. "Right, R-" she stopped, a strange expression coming over her face, before a sadder one came over it. "... right, I- I forgot for a moment," she murmured, turning away to keep searching.
Several of the audience members exchanged sad looks.
"I'll keep you company, if you'd like," and Jesse jumped out of her skin as the narrator suddenly started speaking again. Not that she was the only one; several other audience members jumped a bit as well.
"Notch-DAMN it, don't do that!" she hissed, looking up at the ceiling angrily. "Nearly scared the pants off me."
"Well, I mean, I'm sure Lukas would like to see you like that."
Lukas's face turned fifty shades of red. "I- what-" he spluttered, his arm tightening around Jesse and making the smaller female squeak involuntarily. Petra's face also turned bright red, and her head snapped around to stare at the stuttering blonde on the floor. Jace's cheeks heated up, and he put a hand to his forehead. Ivor's face flushed as he put a hand over his mouth, blinking several times in embarrassment.
About every other member of the audience had a similar reaction, turning various shades of pink or red and finding some reason to avoid looking at the screen directly. Hadrian developed a supreme interest in his lap, Mevia had found something on her nails, and Cassie was developing an interest in Winslow's' fur.
Real-Jesse just blinked innocently, having not gotten the gist of it.
Onscreen, Jesse seemed to have the same sentiment as Real-Jesse, straightening up and staring at the ceiling with a confused look. "... what?" she asked, seeming actually bemused.
"Yeah, what- why's everyone blushing?" Jesse asked, looking around.
"You'll learn when you're older," Ivor mumbled around his hand, his face still red as he stared at something utterly fascinating on the carpet.
"Ivor, I'm seventeen."
A long pause as everyone remembered this rather pertinent fact.
"... oh yeah." A long pause. "You'll have plenty of time to learn about it, anyway."
Jesse just gave them all a weird look and turned back to the screen. "Uh... oooooookay then."
"... never mind."
Onscreen-Jesse just arched an eyebrow at the ceiling. "... suuuure. Whatever you say," she said after a moment. Her tone indicated that she didn't believe the narrator one bit.
"Well, anyways- If you don't feel like talking to yourself, I'll be here," the narrator said in a conciliatory tone, after a few seconds of awkward silence.
"Right, thanks. So instead of talking to nobody in particular, I'm talking to an imaginary voice in my head. Much better," Jesse snarked a bit, rubbing her head with a sigh.
"What's Jesse doing up there?" Ivor's voice floated up to the room on top again, sounding rather impatient this time.
"Didn't he say they were right behind her?" Dan pointed out, tilting his head curiously.
"Ah- alright, shoo, they don't need to think I'm crazy," Jesse said, uncrossing her arms and flailing furiously at the ceiling. A beat. "Well, crazier than I already am, I mean."
Several people snorted at this, gradually getting over the rather embarrassing moment that had just occurred.
"Alright, alright. I'll get out of your hair." A silence fell over the room as Jesse approached the pressure plate curiously, rolling her eyes a bit at the narrator's intrusion.
"Well... this looks promising." With that, Jesse reached one foot out and stepped on it, making a lot of clicking sounds from pistons sound as the design on the wall, gold and quartz, slid forward to face Jesse, before the center of the 'doorway' slid back into the wall again.
"Jesse? What did you find?" Ivor's head finally emerged from the area where the makeshift staircase was, his eyes widening upon seeing what Jesse had discovered. The screen switched to show Jesse examining the strange design with interest.
"Wow, what's this?" she asked at last, looking the design up and down curiously.
Lukas emerged from the staircase as well, approaching the design/doorway thing and touching his lip thoughtfully. "Some kind of... portal?" he hummed musingly.
"Here we go," Otto murmured.
A/N: (laughs) There we go, this is getting good! Next time on Hybrid: Cinematic Mode, watch Aiden as he steals and then Ivor nearly plummets to his doom.
RQTC: For when they're in Sky City, should Jesse talk to the Founder or go with Milo? I honestly like both paths quite a lot, so it's up to you guys. When referring to it to showing the votes, I'll be referring to the different paths as 'Founder's Path' and 'Build Club Path'. Lemme know what you guys want in the comments!
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (grins) Yeah, I'm very protective of my friends. / (laughs) Yeah, I am a bit of a nerd.
the indecisive bird: (laughs) Nope, just the title. / Uhh... nope. I don't plan any of my stories (not the majority of it, anyways- usually just the beginning, random events in the middle, and the end), and they turn out... fine? I think? xD / Well I don't know what type of person you'd like to hang out with, so xD / Probably because A) they're builders and B) they're old xD Creative name, right? xD / Hm, that gives me an idea for dialogue change for Episode 7 (grins)
Emily The Avenger: (grins)
NinaNaranja: Eee, thanks :3 You're completely right. / (laughs)
AquaK13: (cracks up) / Thank you! And I'm glad to hear that you guys think I have funny moments xD / Yay!
Rabbits rule: Pretty much xD / Thanks, Aboun!
CrystalTearsofFaith: Oh my Notch I know, right xD
LunarStarsMoons: I love fluff. :3 / Yep! That's true. / I'm glad to hear that :3
RapidSammi: Uhhh.. (gives you allergy medication instead) I'm pretty sure that would be better...
Beli0304: Thanks! / Yay :3
J.M.M: (grins)
LittleAngelbun: (carefully opens box) Oh. Yummy! (eats one)
Darkbeast Dend: (laughs) I didn't know you jumped when Ivor yelled, but good to know. / Aww, I'm glad to hear that my story caused you start playing MCSM! xD
SofiaTheWriter88: (laughs) No. xD / Ahh, I see. / Thank you! / Ahh, I see. Don't worry about it.
x.X. A.L. X.x
