"Jesse?!" The spider hybrid was suddenly yanked sideways with a little yelp, the screen shifting enough to show Ivor frantically checking her over, dark blue eyes filled with alarm as he gently checked over her. "Are you hurt?"

"I- no, I'm fine, D- Ivor," Jesse said, sounding startled by the near ferocity of the check-over.

"Whoa," Ellegaard blinked, "I haven't seen Ivor this worried since Soren nearly got killed by that horde of Ghasts." She glanced at Ivor, but the potionologist was watching the screen, carefully avoiding her gaze.

"Good... it was just one zombie," and Ivor's expression grew more serious now, calming down and looking up from Jesse's feet to Jesse's eyes, "what was the problem?"

Lukas shook his head rapidly- fast enough that his ears flopped around a bit. "No, no, no- that thing was like- I dunno- 'Super Zombie' or something."

Petra blinked at that. "Oh. Huh."

"I mean, it's better than calling them 'the-zombie-with-the-red-glowy-thing-on-its-head'," Magnus said, shrugging a little.

Dan made a face at that. "Yeah, that's a terrible name."

Onscreen, Jesse scrunched her face up a bit in thought. "... the name could use some work," she told him, after a moment.

Several members of the audience snorted at that, the slightly nerve-wracking mood that had settled over them all lightening at the slight joke she'd just made.

"Oh, hush," Lukas made a face, looking rather uncomfortable now. "It was stronger, tougher, faster... Ohhh I hope there's not something wrong with me."

"No, no, you're fine, Lukas- that was all the zombie right there," and the spider hybrid scratched her head a bit, looking at a bit of a loss for ideas. "Maybe this world's... thing is that the monsters are all super-buff?" she asked, after a moment of thought.

Petra rubbed her left arm, eyes gleaming a bit as she narrowed them thoughtfully. "Hmmm... maybe?" she said, slowly.

Cassie shrugged a bit as well, nodding a bit as Winslow slinked around on her shoulders. "It definitely seems possible," she said after a minute of thought. "Definitely more likely than supernatural interference or something."

"Oh, man, we had so much trouble with just one of the things," Lukas said, making a slight face at the very thought of it, "I can't even begin to imagine how we might fight a whole horde of them."

Jesse was looking around when she spotted something. Her eyes widened and promptly drained of blood, turning the same shade of white that snow was. "Um... speaking of which..." she said, voice slowly rising in pitch at the end.

"Theeeeere's a horde of Super-Zombies behind them, isn't there?" Mevia deadpanned.

The others turned to see what Jesse was looking at, and the screen switched to show- yep- a whole horde of Super-Zombies, lurching towards the group in creepy sync.

"Why the hell are they- okay, that's just bloody creepy," Cassie said, shuddering a bit.

"Oh Notch, yeah," Lukas winced a bit, shifting backwards nervously. Jesse didn't complain about that at all herself.

"I'm never talking again," Lukas sulked, unsheathing his claws rapidly once again.

Real-Lukas groaned and put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, I think I jinxed it," he mumbled, voice muffled by his hands.

"Happens to the best of us, don't worry about it," and Jesse patted him on the back sympathetically. (She had to bend her arm around a bit, since she was pretty much sitting in his lap right now, but she managed it.)

"I don't know about you guys," Petra called out as she unsheathed her sword, flames immediately flaring to life and dancing along the metal as she glanced at the others anxiously, "but I'd like to find a better way to deal with these 'super zombies'."

Cassie whipped out her axe, Winslow worming under the redhead's beanie and curling up tightly beneath it. The redhead looked over at Jesse, concern dancing in her eyes. "Um, Jesse?"

The spider hybrid backed up a little, anxiety dancing in her eyes. "Uhh, what are you looking at me for? I don't know how to handle the super zombies!" she squeaked, backing up a little more, the entire group slowly retreating- until their backs smacked straight into sandstone.

"They're cornered!" Axel cried out, as if this wasn't obvious to everyone in the room.

The zombies' rotting hands, extended outwards, were inches from their faces... centimeters...

"Oh Notch, oh Notch, oh Notch," Gill whimpered a bit, scrambling backwards.

"We'd better not freaking die," Petra said with a growl, but the way her voice was quivering slightly betrayed how nervous she was getting.

Suddenly, their arms dropped, and all of the zombies dropped their heads forward limply, all of their eyes still glowing a luminous red.

Slab let out a relieved sigh, and Nell mopped her brow a little bit in relief.

There was a short, tense silence as the four of them stared at the 'super-zombies'. "That was... unexpected," Lukas voiced what literally everyone was thinking, reaching out tentatively with his sword and gently poking one of the zombies, which just swayed in place slightly.

Harper's eyes narrowed.

So PAMA had decided to spare them.

But wh-

Her eyes widened again.

Oh.

Oh.

Onscreen, Jesse carefully edged to one side and pointed at the flashing red chip on the back of every single zombies' heads. "What in the name of Notch is that thing?" she asked flatly, before looking back down and glancing over at their current redstone expert. "Cassie?"

Cassie adjusted her glasses as she trotted over to have a look at it, frowning intently at it. "Hm... I don't think I've seen anything like this before. It definitely is a redstone thing... but what exactly, I have no clue."

"Is someone controlling the zombies, maybe?" Jesse suggested.

Everyone looked at her.

"What? I-it makes sense, right? If it was a regular zombie, it'd just be doing its best to get at my brains, but because it isn't just trying to get at our brains like a regular zombie..."

"... someone must be controlling them. Keeping them from- you know- trying to eat our brains," Lukas finished, realization dawning on his face.

"But... who would control zombies? What purpose would they even have to control them?" Mevia wondered, frowning a bit. "I mean, if you're going to control anything, go for something stronger or more powerful."

Harper felt a little faint right about now.

Not who.

What.

"Fascinating," Ivor hummed, leaning forward to have a look at it as well.

Jesse tentatively reached out to poke the zombie as well. It just swayed in place a bit, completely blankly. "Maybe the redstone-y things are what make the zombies so... blank," she mused.

Lukas had been writing this down in his journal, which he now tucked back into his pocket. "Makes sense to me. I'm starting to wonder if we should-"

What he'd been wondering they should do, they'd never know, because abruptly, the zombies threw their heads back, a high-pitched, echoing ringing sound blasting out, static an underlying background noise to the thing.

Real-Jesse clamped her hands over her ears, wincing. "Ow!"

She wasn't the only one to have that reaction- Lukas had yanked his jacket up over his head in an attempt to shut out the sound. Jace had his fingers in his ears, while Petra had tugged the bandana down over her ears and was screwing up her face in an effort to shut out the noise. Axel had yanked his hood up over his head, while Olivia's hat was tugged down over her ears. Reuben was worming under Jace's leg to try to escape from the sound.

Soren was furiously shaking his head, as if trying to shake the sound out of his ears. Gabriel had his hands pressed tight against his ears, while Ellegaard had automatically buried her head in Magnus's chest, the Rogue holding her with one arm and doing his best to shut out the name with his free arm (which, as you can probably guess, was not exactly working out for him). Ivor was pressing himself into the armchair, his hands pressed to his ears, while Harper had tugged down her hat over her ears.

Maya had grabbed the pillow Lukas had whacked Gill with earlier and wrapped it around her ears, while Gill had followed Luka's example and yanked his jacket over his head. Winslow was pressing his ears down with his paws, while Cassie had her head buried in Aiden's neck and Aiden had his face screwed up in concentration, blocking out the noise to the best of his abilities without his hands.

Stampy's hood was covering his ears as he yanked it down, Sparklez holding his head as if he had a headache (well, no one could blame him, this sound was definitely migraine-inducing), while Dan had followed Gill and Lukas's example and tugged his jacket over his head. Lizzie had pulled her arms out of her sleeves enough to stuff wads of fabric against her ears. Stacy just had to plug her ears using her fingers.

Slab, Clutch, and Facemeat all just had their hands clamped against their ears tightly to block out the noise (although Slab had a pair of couch cushions in his hand), while Em was grabbing at her own ears. Nell had grabbed a couple of couch cushions and was clamping them over her ears. Hadrian was almost growling audibly at the sound, while Otto was wincing and Mevia just squeezed her eyes shut.

"AUGH!" Lukas yelled onscreen, as Jesse furiously shook her head, his hands yanking the ocelot ears down. "What IS that?!"

Cassie was clutching her head as well. "It's- like it's in my head!" she screamed back.

Jesse was clawing at her head a bit, when her eyes abruptly snapped open, and the screen zoomed into her eye.

"Oh- a flashback?!" Cassie exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" Axel yelled back.

When it zoomed out this time, though, Jesse was just standing upright in a dark sort of cavern, her eyes wide. Around her, moving images and snatches of sound flew by. It was hard to keep up, but the audience could definitely spot-

Jace and Jesse, racing around the room, laughing like little maniacs as they pretty much ran in circles.

Little-Cassie chatting away to Jesse, who was smiling and nodding away with a somewhat blank look on her face.

Little-Lukas tackling Jesse in a tight hug, the spider hybrid giggling a bit as he did so.

The little spider hybrid diving out of the way of a wooden sword, before pelting at Ivor like a fluffy-haired bullet.

Suddenly, the screen zoomed back out, right as the staticky, ringing background abruptly ceased, Jesse's hands dropping from her head as she panted a bit, trying to catch her breath from the sudden memory.

Sensing that the noise had ceased, everyone slowly removed their hands from their ears.

"Did that noise cause the flashback?" Jesse asked cautiously. "I mean... it didn't start until the noise started. And it ended right when the sound stopped."

Harper's eyes narrowed as she considered that for a moment.

If Jesse had a memory chip...

... yes, that could be it...!

"You know," Ivor was saying when Harper quickly started paying attention again, sounding mildly impressed, "I wouldn't be all that surprised if it were true."

Onscreen, the zombies swung an abrupt 180-degree turn, and started lurching away in creepy sync again.

The entire audience blinked.

"Wait, they're just... leaving?" Em asked, slowly. "What was the point of all that, then?"

"I'm sure we'll find out if we keep watching," Lizzie said, leaning forward a bit.

Ivor simply looked utterly nonplussed at the sight of the zombies lurching away in creepy synchronization. "They're... leaving? Just like that?" he asked, slowly.

Cassie tilted her head to one side slightly, eyes narrowing. "They're... headed back the way they came from," she said, after a few moments.

Lukas's tail flicked a bit as he stared thoughtfully after the retreating zombies. "This might sound crazy," he hummed, after a moment, "but I feel like they're trying to lead us somewhere."

"You're right. That does sound crazy."

Lukas rolled his eyes and playfully smacked Petra on the back of the head for the offhand statement, Jesse squinting at the zombies thoughtfully with her arms hanging limply at her sides. "... Mmm, alright, let's go," she decided, "I'm starting to think that there's somebody behind this. And I wanna find out who." With that, she started walking after the zombies- not briskly or anything, mind you, but she was still walking after them.

"You're just going to follow the creepy red-eyed mindless zombies?" Petra asked, brow crinkling. "Are we sure that's a good idea?"

"Well, we're not going to find out what's going on by just standing on this here road, are we?" Jesse asked, gesturing vaguely at the screen.

Mevia smiled suddenly. "You sounded like a cowboy right there."

Jesse grinned a bit and tilted her head innocently, adopting a Texan accent. "Well, howdy there stranger, what brings ya round t'these parts?" she drawled, smiling cheerfully.

Lukas couldn't help but just chuckle a bit at that. Mevia's lips curved up into a smile and she started giggling. Like actually giggling. (Otto and Harper exchanged startled looks at that.)

"But, really," Jesse said, her smile fading after a moment or two, "There has to be somebody behind this. Somebody who's put these chips on the back of the super zombie's heads."

Harper mumbled something under her breath. Ivor wasn't certain, but he could've sworn that she'd just said "You're not wrong there."

Cassie shrugged nonchalantly at that, putting her axe back away and trotting after Jesse. Winslow poked his head out from under her now rather-tattered and rather lumpy beanie. "Aight. I'm cool with that."

Ivor glanced after Cassie, before simply lifting his shoulders into a shrug and following after Jesse.

Several people giggled at that, Ivor simply crossing his arms and scowling at them, his cheeks flushing slightly.

Petra, Lukas, and Ivor exchanged looks, before Petra shrugged a bit and jogged after Jesse to catch up to her. "So, then, let's get moving," she said, sounding faintly enthusiastic. Lukas looked much less enthused, but he still followed after Jesse.

And the five of them began to walk after the small horde of zombies that were still lurching along in perfect unison, making sure to keep a safe distance away the whole time.

"That's incredibly creepy, by the way," Jesse spoke up.

Lukas shuddered a little, allowing his arm to tighten around the short girl next to him. "Oh yeah, you don't have to tell us twice."


A/N: Short, but I didn't know what to do for the chapter. Sorry.

No one's got all the references yet? Seriously?

MooncakeT: Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Unfortunately, that's not all of them, but you still did a good job! :3

giriri: Indeed. / Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, but you missed one. VERY close, though- one more to go.

RapidSammi: (grins) / The 'D' thing...? / (chuckles)

Dr . MKNoble: Yes and yes x3 / It's fine, don't worry!

AquaK13: x3 / I already did mine a while back, actually xD / Nope, sorry.

LittleAngelbun: Yes, yes, yes, I think you're right, so yes, nope but close, yes, and yes! x3 / Take a look at 4 and 5 again. There is an egg called Jason in 5's reference x3

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: x3 / Reference 5 is not Telltale, but the last one is. / Yes. / Yes. / Ahh, well good job x3

LunarStarsMoons: Thanks... :3

x.X. A.L. X.x