Jesse clambered up onto the dirt tower and looked over at Isa. "Well, we've got a city to save. Ready?" she gave the Founder a friendly grin.
Isa nodded firmly. "I believe so. And when I get up there-" her dark green eyes hardened. "- I am going to tear those Blaze Rods limb from limb."
Gill, Maya, and Aiden surreptitiously scooted away as far away from the Founder as they could.
"That's what I wanna hear!" Jesse joked.
Well, at least, she was probably joking.
Maybe she wasn't.
... she might've been serious.
The two of them started turning towards the dirt tower again, when Isa cleared her throat. Jesse twisted around to get a good look at the Founder, who looked faintly awkward. "Oh, and... Jesse? I appreciate what you did up there." A short, awkward pause. "Trying to save me, I mean," she clarified.
"Yes, that was very kind of you," Real-Isa said quietly, managing a shy smile at Jesse.
"No problem," Jesse said cheerily. "Always happy to help a friend in need."
Onscreen, Jesse gave Isa another friendly smile as rain began to drip down, before the two of them started stacking dirt blocks beneath them, hopping up slowly.
The screen sped up a minute later, the two of them towering into the sky in fast-forward, practically blurring from how quickly they were moving, before the screen finally slowed down to show them drawing level with the bridge and Ivor's skull-lava-thing.
Jesse quickly flicked her wrist, shooting a web, before grabbing Isa by the waist (making the Founder yelp in surprise), before retracting the two of them onto the bridge, doing a swing and a flip onto the bridge.
Magnus blinked, the image of Jesse doing a neat swing-and-flip onto a block back at the Death Bowl flashing into his head. "Talk about déjà vu."
"Sorry, probably should've warned you before I just grabbed you out of the blue like that," Jesse apologized, setting the Founder onto the bridge, before something caught her eye and she let out a gasp.
Real-Isa flinched, Reginald's shoulders stiffened, and Milo's jaw tightened as they stared at the screen, trying to comprehend what they were seeing. The rest of the audience dissolved into gasps of shock, Maya's hands going to her mouth.
Great sections of Sky City were destroyed, water pouring off the edges in rough waterfalls. They were too far to see it clearly, and the rain was coming down in a dark sky so heavily that it made seeing a little difficult, but one thing that was abundantly clear were the Ghasts floating around the city like bizarre balloons. A whipcrack of lightning made the entire audience flinch a bit as thunder practically exploded in their ears.
"We have to get over there, now!" Jesse shouted to Isa over the rain and the thunder, the Founder nodding back as she squinted at Jesse through the rain. With that, the two of them charged down the bridge towards Sky City.
"Waaah!" Jesse slipped and fell forward, the dirt bridge having become incredibly muddy from the heavy rain. Isa tripped forward as well, landing right on top of Jesse and making the two of them grunt in pain.
Isa winced a bit. "Ahhh, I'm sorry, Jesse."
"It's fine, it's not like you were doing it on purpose," Jesse waved it off. "Besides, I slipped first."
A loud sound rang out in the air, sounding like a crying child (albeit a rather angry one).
It was a sound the entire audience had heard before.
Onscreen-Jesse, who had been starting to get back up, froze, Isa freezing from where she was trying to get up as well. Slowly, and in nearly perfect unison, the two girls raised their head.
A Ghast stared back at them.
"Hold on!" Jesse yelled to Isa, the Founder looking startled before latching her arms around Jesse's neck in a tight hug.
She'd barely done so when the spider hybrid practically shot forward like a bullet, making the woman yelp in shock as a fireball demolished the bridge behind them. Jesse glanced up and back to see the Ghast slowly revolving on the spot to face them, and her head snapped back forward.
Lukas let out a relieved sigh. "That was close."
"Maybe a little too close," Reginald murmured. (Isa nodded in agreement.)
Jesse let the Founder slowly clamber off of her, looking over at Isa. "That was insane... you okay?" she asked.
Isa wasn't looking at her, her hands going to her mouth in fright as she let out a soft, anguished sound. "What have they done...?" she whispered, sounding frightened.
Jesse turned to see what she meant... and her eyes widened. The screen switched to pan over Sky City, showing that fire was consuming several areas. Zombies were roaming everywhere, creepers were chasing after citizens, citizens were fleeing left and right for their lives... it was chaos. Honestly, it might've been worse than Boom Town, and knowing what Boom Town's like, that's hard to top.
There was a loud yell, and Jesse whipped around to see a guard get knocked down by a zombie, more of them approaching.
"Crap!" Petra yelled, summarizing the situation quite accurately.
"He needs our help!" Isa shouted, her dark green eyes narrowing. The spider hybrid nodded and drew her sword in agreement, before charging forward. Isa drew two of her own swords as Jesse leaped in front of the guard and slashed her sword in a wide, cutting arc. The zombie went down in a puff of smoke. A loud battle cry rang out, and Isa flipped over Jesse's head and landed right in the middle of the horde of zombies, cutting one down as she landed before whirling around in a circle and cutting down another few.
Jesse slashed the head right off another zombie as Isa whipped around to face the guard, her dark-green eyes hardening, face going back to her usual mask of composure. "What is going on here?" she asked.
A guard threw his hands up in the air. "The city is under attack by monster, ma'am!" he exclaimed, voice rising an octave in fear. "Everywhere! They seem to be coming from inside the palace itself!"
Jesse's eyes scanned the city and spotted the Blaze Rods with bows and arrows. Maya narrowed her eyes and pulled the arrow back, before letting it fly. It skewered a creeper that was about to detonate in a citizen's face, making it dissolve into smoke before it could do so. Gill was fumbling around in a chest and throwing other spawn eggs, spawning iron golems near the citizens who seemed to need it the most, but he was having trouble finding the right eggs, if his mindless rummaging seemed to be any indication.
Isa blinked a bit at that, although several of the other audience members didn't seem quite as surprised.
"Aiden..." Jesse muttered, eyes hooding over in irritation, before she turned to Isa. "C'mon, we have to stop him."
Isa shook her head, despair shining in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jesse, but... I have to save my people," she apologized.
Milo made a soft sound, but when everyone looked at him he didn't elaborate on the sound.
Jesse nodded with understanding, staring at Isa seriously. "You... take care of yourself out there, okay?" she asked, firmly and a little awkwardly.
"And you as well," Isa replied, before Jesse turned away and ran through the city.
Another explosion of lightning smashed through the sky, drowning out the sounds of battle and screaming, before someone shouted. "Jesse, you're alive!"
The spider hybrid turned to see Milo flailing a sword furiously in a bizarre wave. "Please, can you help us?" And he smashed through a zombie that was approaching him and a few other citizens that were cowering behind him.
"Hang tight, Milo!" and the spider hybrid adjusted her path and charged at a group of skeletons, who all raised their bows to fire at her.
"Jesse, look out!" Stampy squealed, forgetting that onscreen-her couldn't hear him.
All the skeletons fired their arrows- the audience gasped-
Jesse then did something that was completely and wholly inexplicable. Nor would she ever be able to replicate what she did. It appeared she just did it out of pure instinct.
Jesse jerked the sword out of her hand, a string of silk following it from where it had been sticking, before letting go of her hand holding the sword and giving the bizarre yo-yo-like object in her hand a sharp swing, the sword flicking in a long, swinging arc in front of her.
The five arrows that fired- for that was how many that were coming at her- all screeched off of the blade and clattered to the ground harmlessly.
Lukas let out an impressed whistle. Jace blinked, a silly grin spreading over his face. "My Notch!" he exclaimed. "How did you do that?"
The black-haired girl was staring at the screen, an odd grin of her own spreading over her face. "I... I don't know," she replied honestly.
The skeletons readied more arrows, but never got to fire them. With two, well-placed slashes, the five skeletons went down in puffs of smoke.
Milo came out of the building he'd been taking refuge in, holding his sword tightly, as a spider jockey came towards them. Milo drew his sword back, before charging at the spider jockey, lashing out with his sword and smashing the blade into it. He knocked the skeleton over before raising the sword above his head and bringing it down in a sharp swing, and with that, the skeleton exploded into dust.
The spider tilted its head at Jesse, who blinked at it, before slowly lowering her sword. "Go and tell your friends to stop attacking, all right?" she hissed (subtitles popped up on the screen to indicate what she was saying) at it.
The spider 'nodded', before creeping away rapidly.
"Good to see you," Milo said, hustling over to Jesse, a smile on his face, before it grew more serious. "But with all seriousness, how are you alive? I saw you go over the edge..." He glanced over at Isa, who was taking down a horde of zombies with little trouble. "Both of you!"
Jesse thought about how to phrase this, before apparently deciding it wasn't the time to break the news to him gently and cutting right to the chase, "Quick version: you know how you all thought it was the big white void or abyss or whatever beneath you? Turns out there's land."
Hadrian snorted a bit, unexpectedly. "That's... one way to break it to them."
Milo's eyes widened in surprise. "You speak truthfully, my friend?" he asked. "That... that is amazing."
"Yes... it is," Isa nodded in agreement.
Real-Milo glanced at her in surprise.
A fireball soared over their heads, and the blonde innkeeper looked back down at Jesse and gave her a sheepish look. "I can't wait to hear all about it later," he told her.
"I have to get to the palace," Jesse said, pointing at the entrance to said palace.
Milo nodded, his hand tightening on his sword. "Thank you, my friend. I will see you on the other side." A determined grin spread over his face. "That's a promise."
"Watch your back, okay?" Jesse replied, giving him a nod, before veering back out of the alleyway and racing towards the steps of the palace- before skidding to a stop, astonishment coming over her face. "Petra!" she stated, sounding shocked.
"What? What about Petra?" Jace asked, jolting straight upright and accidentally jerking Petra with him.
The screen switched to show Petra standing in the center of her very own little firestorm, gold eyes glowing red-hot with heat. A circle of flames surrounded her, sending sparks flitting into the air and burning through most of the monsters that were trying to attack her. Her sword was wreathed in flames, and her gold armor was glowing so intensely that the rain seemed be dissolving into a halo of water vapor around her.
"Wow," Sparklez summarized, goggling at the screen. "That is... um, that is amazing."
"I know, right?" Lukas agreed, staring at the screen himself.
"She's amazing," Jace said, although it sounded more as if he were speaking to himself. Petra grinned and turned back to the screen, choosing to pretend that she hadn't caught that.
"Jesse!" Petra shouted, spotting the spider hybrid. "You're alive?!"
Jesse waved furiously to Petra, before her eyes flicked upwards, and she dove sideways, a Ghast sending a fireball in her direction. As she got back to her feet, she heard three simultaneous angry-child-cries, and slowly turned to her left to see three Ghasts staring at her.
Cassie swore so violently that even Winslow looked appalled.
"Well, crap," Jesse stated, as all three of them shot fireballs at her simultaneously- before someone plowed into her side and bowled Jesse out of the way and into a little crevice, therefore saving her life but probably giving her a bruise.
The audience winced a little bit.
"I'm glad you're alright," Ivor sighed with relief, getting off Jesse but giving her a relieved half-smile.
Jesse let out a laughing sigh of relief. "I... wow. Thanks, Ivor."
"It's no trouble," Ivor replied, letting out his own, rather relieved sigh.
Onscreen-Ivor's face grew incredibly serious. "Aiden's taken over the palace- he's holed up inside the throne room tossing those damned spawn eggs everywhere. No one can get inside."
Real-Aiden flinched a little bit but said nothing. Had he really gotten that bad?
"We have to stop him..." Jesse said, mostly to herself. Ivor heard though, and his dark blue eyes lit up in realization. He whipped out several bottles- the ones Jesse had tossed back to him back in the dungeon- and held them out.
"I know- Jesse, take one of these!"
"Oh, yeah," and Gabriel relaxed a bit from where he'd tensed up. "One of Ivor's potions would definitely help in this situation."
The spider hybrid's green-and-red eyes also lit up in realization as she glanced through them, before back up at Ivor. "Lemme try a Potion of Speed!"
"Here!" and he tossed said potion to her. Jesse's lower arm shot out and caught the bottle, her free middle set uncorking the bottle before moving up to her mouth and pouring the contents of the bottle into her mouth in a smooth, swift motion.
Ivor had been blinking, when suddenly everything slowed down. Jesse looked around to see that everything was moving so slowly that she probably could've gone and crafted six swords, come right back to this spot, and everything would've barely moved.
The spider hybrid got to her feet and began to walk through the fighting, past the fleeing citizens, the sounds she could no longer hear, and cut down a few monsters that were about to get to certain citizens, and had just about drawn level with the Blaze Rods when the potion wore off.
Gill blinked at her. "Jesse!" he exclaimed. "You're alive? Didn't you get knocked off of Sky City?"
Jesse gave her shoulders a little shrug, a faint smile on her face. "Eh, I'm pretty tough to kill."
Maya shot another arrow before turning back to the spider hybrid. "We've been doing our best to keep all these monsters away from the citizens, but... well, there's a lot of them," she muttered, before something caught her eye and she hastily turned and fired an arrow away into the mob.
"Yeah, where did all of them come from... did Aiden throw all of them out here?" Jesse frowned, looking over her shoulder in the direction of the fighting.
"Uh, no," Gill sheepishly rubbed the back of his head at Jesse's questioning look. "Aiden told us to throw spawn eggs out here, which we weren't planning on doing... but then I knocked over one of the chests holding all the monster spawn eggs and... yeah..."
Gill put his head in his hands.
Jesse looked around, spotting a chest at the bottom of the staircase, the box having smashed apart. "... ah."
Stacy arched her eyebrow, a smile unwillingly tugging at the corners of her lips. "I'm, uh... I'm not sure whether to facepalm or laugh, there."
"Enough small-talk- you've got to stop Aiden," Maya spoke, still firing arrows away into the crowd with an anxious expression. "I mean, we knew he wasn't exactly sane after all that Witherstorm stuff... but I never imagined that it'd get this bad."
Aiden winced again, as did Jesse.
Her guess had been right on the money.
"We thought maybe if we played along, things would get better fast..." Gill shook his head. "Only they didn't. Things only got worse. Fast."
Jesse nodded seriously, the spider hybrid beginning to run past them. "I'll get Aiden to stop. I promise!" she shouted the last two words, before racing down the hallway.
The screen blacked out.
Soren took a shaky breath. "I... guess some stuff's going to go down now."
"Perhaps not the most eloquent way of putting it," Harper murmured, looking both amused and sick to her stomach, if one could be both at the same time, "but quite accurate."
The screen came back in to Jesse shifting the throne room's doors open. Aiden was sitting on the Founder's throne almost lazily, glaring at Reginald with an almost lazy look on his face. He was snapping back at Reginald, their voices mingling together in an indecipherable mess.
"Here we go," Mevia muttered under her breath so that only Otto and Hadrian could hear.
The spider hybrid took a deep, shaky breath, before her eyes hardened with determination. She slammed the throne room door shut behind her, the sound of the door slamming ringing out in the room and making both of their heads snap over to her in shock, but Jesse wasn't looking at Reginald.
She was staring Aiden down.
"This is between you and me, Aiden!" she yelled at him, voice filled with an authority that made the entire audience balk a bit in surprise, because they had never imagined that the girl could sound this commanding. "Leave Reginald out of it!"
She slowly raised her sword so that it was in a both defensive and offensive position. "I think it's about time we finish this, don't you?"
A/N: My god, I'm so excited now. xD Like, legitimately, I can't stop grinning like a maniac while writing this.
Oh, guess what? I now have over 30 stories and a bunch of planned series on my plate after this story is over (although the series may start before that, but yeah xD). I plan well. xD
RQTC: Does anyone want to guess who the narrator is? (Not a lot of people are going to be able to guess...) If you want hints, just comment!
the indecisive bird: I know it, but I can't stop xD / (nods) I see. / Alright, I'll figure that out as soon as possible!
pensuka: No one's taking that bet xD
LunarStarsMoons: Ahhh x3 Yeah, I see why you'd hate being sick. / Yeah, it got a little intense for me to write. / (nods) I see... what's your Twitter? (I have one too, so xD)
Jack638: (laughs) Nice. Same here, tbh xD xD xD / (nods) Okeydokey, cool! / Yeah, Jace is great... but the scientist sucks. xD
CrystalTearsofFaith: Ahh, I see. What's your Twitter? I have one, so... yeah xD / YEP
Immapotato101: Ehh, sure? / Yep :3 / Remember how the memory chip represses their memories? Whenever something triggers a memory (for example, the sight of something similar, or a smell, or a certain event), the memory 'busts out' of the part of the memory that has been suppressed.
homeworkoverload: No, it's not one of the Authors, either. They're not nearly as horny as the narrator is xD / (nods) I see. / Go for it! / But to your dismay this isn't your day, for the happy fun time has begun to fade! / Nah, it's cool x3
DarkPrincess2001: Yep! x3
Luna96: I don't know, I don't use it very often... / Oh, yeah, that'll be pretty interesting xD And that's one of the episodes I have significant changes in, so yee!
RapidSammi: Eeee :3 / Yeah, that's not a great moment for any of them. To watch or to experience. / (laughs) Don't read it at school, then. / (grins)
BeliTheGhoti0304: (laughs) Yeah, it's not a great memory. / (laughs) Same here. / (laughs) Nice.
Darkbeast Dend: My favorite game is MCSM. / Fidget spinners are cool, but I don't have any, so...
RebekahTPE: Alright, cool :3 / Yes, Tumblr is spelled right. / Okay, I'll work on that ASAP! / (laughs) Shhh, it's a secret xD / Yep xD / I think I'm aiming for more like 200, since the extra scenes keep adding extras and we're already over 10 chapters over the amount that the first Hybrid was at at this point :3 / (laughs) / I haven't had either, so neither? xD / Penny. Penny is awesome. / Yes, yes it is xD
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: When you literally have memorized this incredibly long username... xD / Yay :3
LegoGirl794: (shrugs) Understandable.
sailor . mikuchan: (nods) Alright.
RavenBlaze4850: Very true. / Also very true xD / (laughs) / Ooh, I have Twitter too xD / (nods) I'll keep that in mind.
LittleAngelbun: Oh, you have an account here? / (nods) I see.
SofiaTheWriter88: Yeah, it wasn't exactly easy to write :/ / Nice :3 / (cracks up) Wow, I... never realized that!
Emily The Avenger: Nope. / (laughs) Yes, very true.
InsaneAcrobat: Indeed xD / (laughs) / Aw, no, I don't mind long reviews at all. :3
Rabbits rule: YES. / A glomp is NOT sexual, it is the action of one person lovingly (and dramatically) attacking another with a hug. A glomp is often predatory and lies somewhere in the grey area between a caring embrace, and a flying leap to tackle someone. / (laughs) Yeah I died when I wrote that sentence. / Okey :3 / Thanks!
J.M.M: (shrugs)
And that's all for this time! (Wow that was a lot). See ya next time!
x.X. A.L. X.x
