Harper jumped with a rather large flinching motion, throwing all the chips back into the chest with a loud yell of shock (which in turn made half the audience jump), making Jesse jump back herself and grab at the cloak automatically, in an attempt to keep it somewhat shut.
"Whoa- that was, uh," Magnus blinked, recovering from the sudden shock Harper had given them all just now. "That was, uh... a bit of an overreaction."
"Kind of like how you nearly blowing Jesse up back in the Death Bowl was a bit of an overreaction?" Petra asked, drily.
"... I see your point."
Onscreen, Harper darted back a few steps, her gray eyes darting around everywhere, before she looked back at Jesse, her shoulders trembling slightly. "Th-that you... PAMA?" she asked, shakily.
The spider hybrid merely frowned at the question, a blank expression on her face. "Who?"
"Hey, you asked us about a 'PAMA' back when we first met," Maya exclaimed, snapping her fingers as that occurred to her. "Does that have something to do with this?"
"... oh, yeah... she di-" Jesse suddenly paused, eyes widening as something hit her. (Not literally, of course. Mentally.) "... Harper, does 'PAMA' stand for something?"
Harper blinked, taken aback by the abrupt question. "I... yes, how did you know?" she asked, sounding rather surprised.
"What does it stand for?" Jesse asked immediately, actually turning around so that her eyes were fixed directly on Harper, even as Lukas blinked a bit, his cheeks turning faintly pink from having his face pretty much buried in Jesse's chest right now.
"Prototype: Autonomous Management Agent..." Harper said slowly, taken aback by the sheer anxiety on Jesse's face.
Jesse felt the blood drain from her face. She hadn't realized she'd just slid to the floor until Lukas was shaking her, voice rising in panic as he called her name, and Jace was reaching over to keep her from just toppling over and Reuben was nudging her in concern.
"Jesse, are you okay?!" Petra exclaimed, her hand stalling in midair as she reached for the short girl.
"That... I recognize that name, that- that was- that 'Red' dude told me- not to underestimate..." Jesse managed, feeling a little faint.
Glances were exchanged.
Harper could feel her stomach tightening a bit.
'Red' had definitely not been wrong.
Onscreen, Harper looked taken aback by the monosyllabic answer. "Okay then," she said, glancing around the room again as if there were more people there, regaining her composure rather quickly, before facing Jesse and pointing at her accusingly, eyes narrowing. "Okay. Who sent you?"
Jesse gave a slow blink at that. "... myself?"
Most of the audience couldn't help but just outright laugh at that innocent reply Jesse gave. With anyone else, it would've sounded sarcastic or just outright rebellious, but with Jesse it just sounded as if she were legitimately confused.
Harper blinked at Jesse again, and the spider hybrid slowly moved her uppermost set of arms up in surrender, blinking at Harper slowly. "Um... would you calm down, please?" she asked meekly, after a moment or two of silence, "you're kind of freaking me out a bit."
Harper threw her arms into the air, making a soft sound of frustration. "You're freaked out?!" she exclaimed. "How do you think I'm doing?!"
Real-Jesse frowned a bit, tilting her head. "... feeling incredibly confused?" she asked, after a moment.
Real-Harper hummed thoughtfully, averting her eyes to the ceiling for a few moments. "Mmmm, that's most likely the case"
Jesse kept her hands up in surrender, tilting her head slightly as she kept regarding Harper curiously, as if she were some strange new thing she'd never seen before. Harper's eyes narrowed as she lifted her arm and pointed her again, although this time it was a more hesitant sort of movement. "Hang on... you're serious," she said, slowly.
The spider hybrid nodded slowly. Harper squinted at Jesse, slowly approaching until she was close enough that Jesse looked a bit uncomfortable. "Okay... eyes, not red, NOT red... well, except for-"
She suddenly stopped, blinking rapidly, before walking forward again, this time getting close enough that their noses were nearly touching, even with Jesse leaning back a bit in surprise.
The audience blinked.
"Uhhh, Harper? What exactly are you doing?" Dan asked, slowly.
"Hey, things are different in this version of the future, remember? How'm I supposed to know?" Harper asked, giving him a slightly bewildered look.
"Oh. Yeah."
Onscreen, Harper narrowed her eyes at Jesse for a moment, before stepping back, an expression of utter bewilderment on her face. Her eyes flickered to the cloak that was currently concealing Jesse's arms, before going back to Jesse's green-and-red eyes. "... Jesse?"
Jesse blinked, stepping back a bit with a wary look coming over her face. "H-how do you...?"
Harper's mouth suddenly dropped open. The screen switched to show Ivor, Petra, Lukas, and Cassie (and Winslow on her shoulder) quickly walking up the steps and moving to stand a few feet behind the spider hybrid. "And they're- you're all- this should be- it's impossible!" she spluttered, looking utterly baffled by now.
"Why's it impossible?" Hadrian asked, frowning at the screen.
Harper gave him a deadpan look. "Did I not just literally explain this to Dan over there?" she nearly drawled, lifting an arm to point at Dan (his hair was pale orange now).
Onscreen, the spider hybrid blinked a bit, before turning to glance over her shoulder at her friends, expecting the utterly confused looks Ivor, Petra, and Lukas were giving her- before she stopped on Cassie.
Cassie's expression wasn't exactly cold.
More along the lines of downright glacial.
Cassie's green eyes were practically colder than icebergs in her eyes, her face frozen in an expression of quiet anger, disappointment, recognition, and... well, almost hope, really. Her emotions might've just been tossed into a blender with about three-fourths of the blender getting filled with ice cubes.
"Whoa," and Aiden blinked, glancing at Real-Cassie, expecting her to look a bit surprised too.
Instead, to his slight surprise, she had a significantly more mild version of the expression on her face, staring at the screen almost coldly.
Real-Harper winced a bit, averting her eyes again.
Onscreen, Harper's eyes flickered between Jesse and Cassie, before her eyes hardened and she glared at them. "Okay, is this some sort of joke? Who are you people? What's going on here?"
"It's a very poor joke if I've ever seen one," Cassie seethed back, eyes beginning to turn red slowly.
Harper looked at Cassie for a moment, before averting her gaze from Cassie to stare at Petra, Ivor, and Lukas curiously. "I've seen Cassie and Jesse before... but not you three."
Jesse blinked at Cassie, tilting her head, before giving her a bit of a funny look. "Hey... you worked at the Bureau of Amalgamology, didn't you? Petra and Lukas are hybrids, too. Shouldn't you know 'em, then?"
Harper blinked at Jesse again (quite a lot of blinking going on here). "Did the memory chip malfunction?" she asked after a moment, simply looking somewhat bemused now.
"She did work at the Bureau of Amalgamology," Cassie said coldly, "but she wasn't there when Petra and Lukas were 'created', for lack of a better term. The Old Builders-" Harper winced at the name, and possibly at the way Cassie nearly spit it out as if it were poison or something, "didn't stick around for very long."
Onscreen, Ivor's mouth dropped open. Real-Ivor looked just as shocked, if not slightly more shocked. "You're-" he turned around, staring at Cassie with wide eyes. "You're an Old- I mean- Ancient Architect?!" he blurted out, looking almost excited, really. Most of his expression was just shock, though- mainly due to the fact that he'd been sitting next to an Old Builder/Ancient Architect for 7 episodes now.
"... yes. Yes, I am," Harper said at last, giving a faint smile. Had anyone been looking closely, though, she looked almost sick right now.
Cassie crossed her arms a bit, a slight scowl coming over her face. Aiden (and Jesse, this girl notices everything) were the only two people to really notice, since all eyes were focused on Harper right now.
"... well- um-" Jesse said, in an attempt to break the completely awkward silence that had fallen over the room, "I know this might sound a little... weird, but we came here through a portal."
Harper looked rather interested at that. (Both Real and Onscreen.) "A portal? A PORTAL portal? Really?"
"No, obviously she meant a chicken portal," Hadrian muttered sarcastically.
Mevia made a bit of a face, leaning over to Hadrian. "Mmm, that one needs work, Hadrian," she whispered to him.
"What's wrong with chickens?" Isa asked, sounding slightly offended as she tightened her arms around Benedict. (Olivia also frowned; there was nothing wrong with chickens.)
Onscreen, Jesse nodded a bit, Cassie saying nothing and merely crossing her arms. Winslow let out a soft meow that went completely unnoticed.
"Okay," Harper said, unsteadily, putting her hands to her head and beginning to pace around the floor, "okay okay okay okay uh, been alone for a while so this is a lot to take in right now..." She hesitated a bit, while the others moved off to go do their own thing- Petra just sat down on the floor with a completely bewildered look, while Lukas took a look around the room with his ears and tail twitching; Ivor went ahead and started poking through a chest, while Cassie just leaned against a wall, still aiming a death glare in Harper's direction.
(Real-Harper couldn't help but wince a little bit; this girl could seriously hold grudges.)
"The people..." Harper began, hesitantly, "the citizens of Crown Mesa- you've met them, right?"
"Sort of? If by 'meeting' them you mean seen the fact that they have red eyes and a chip on the back of their head and then getting scared out of your wits upon seeing them, then yes," Jesse replied, somewhat sarcastically. Her voice softened into a concerned one moments later. "Out with it, what's going on with these people? What is up with this TOWN?"
Harper reached out and put a hand on Jesse's shoulder, making the spider hybrid tense up a little, before relaxing. Not much, but she did relax. "It's probably hard to understand right now, but if you meet any more people, please- don't hurt them," the white-haired woman said, sounding extremely sincere, "they're my friends."
Jesse just blinked at her for a moment, before slowly inclining her head forward in a nod. "O-okay... I won't hurt them..."
"Thank you," Harper said, sounding extremely grateful, "they're good people, I promise..." She trailed off a second later, before she started backwards, eyes widening as her hand almost jumped off of Jesse's shoulder. "Oh, oh no, oh no no no no I've wasted too much time."
"Err... that does not sound good," Axel said, frowning.
"What do you mean," Olivia said slowly, glancing at Harper worriedly, "you've 'wasted too much time'?"
Real-Harper just swallowed a bit. She was starting to look sick to her stomach.
Onscreen, Cassie just scowled at Harper, eyes still harder than ice. (Real-Cassie winced a bit at that, although Harper definitely had a bit more of a reaction.) "Yeah?"
Lukas suddenly interrupted, voice having gone a full octave higher. "Um... Jesse?" he asked, ears slowly flattening on his head almost fearfully.
Jesse turned to look at Lukas, before trotting over to the window he was looking out of- and then freezing.
The screen switched to show five people with glowing red eyes marching towards the house, in downright creepy sync. "We've got company!" Lukas squeaked, the ocelot hybrid stepping back a bit.
"Ohh, jeez, that's not good," and Jesse winced.
"How so? There's only five of them, and there are six of you," Milo asked, curiously.
"If a regular zombie was that hard to beat with that chip on the back of the head..." Jesse began, glancing fearfully at Lukas.
Lukas paled noticeably, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. "Then how are we supposed to beat five people with those things on the back of their heads... especially considering we're not supposed to hurt them?"
The entire audience paled noticeably. Isa looked a bit as if she might faint.
"That's..." Clutch frowned. "That's very, very bad."
Onscreen, Jesse stepped back, looking a bit nervous. "Ohhh dear." She turned around to face the room- and then blinked.
The screen switched to show that the room was now empty.
"Wait- what?" Em exclaimed, blinking at the screen. "Where'd she go?"
Harper touched her mouth thoughtfully. "Hm, I know that this house in particular doesn't really have an exit, save for the door and the windows... ah, I think I might've jumped out the window with an invisibility potion. That's the only one I know for sure I was going to take with me on that little excursion.
Ivor looked a little as if he might kiss Harper on the spot.
"Hey- where'd she go?" Jesse wondered, looking around in a bemused way.
Cassie muttered something under her breath. The only things that the spider hybrid could catch (and therefore, the audience was able to hear) was something about "never reliable" and "should've said something". Jesse stared at Cassie for a minute, as if debating whether or not to ask her about it, before deciding she'd probably end up on the wrong end of Cassie's axe if she voiced the thoughts. So, wisely, she decided to keep her mouth shut.
"What was that about?" Gill asked the redhead curiously, glancing in her direction.
"I don't want to talk about it," Cassie said dismissively.
Facemeat frowned a bit. "But... Facemeat heard something about-"
"Let me rephrase that," Cassie repeated, turning to glare at Facemeat, "I don't. Want. To talk about it."
Facemeat, who was easily at least two or three feet taller than Cassie, much more muscled, more visibly well armed, and definitely scary looking, took one look at Cassie's cold glare...
And decided to just shut his mouth.
"Well..." Petra let out a low sigh. "They're definitely not ignoring us anymore."
"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" Jace mumbled, under his breath but loud enough so that only the group sitting around him on the floor could hear him.
"Definitely a bad thing."
"Yeah... not good, dude."
"Very bad."
"I'd have to say it's a terrible thing."
"Uh, yeah. It's bad."
A soft oink from Reuben.
"Just checking," Jace uttered back, slowly turning around to regard the screen with a significantly more uneasy look.
A/N: Late chapter is late and I'm tired. Sorry... I hate painting irl, can I just say that? Especially with acrylic paint. Especially on a huge piece of paper.
Oh... and applying scumble and glaze. Did I mention that I hate that?
RQTC: MCSM SEASON 2 IS OUT! DID YOU HEAR?! (No, obviously you didn't xD)
Too bad I might have to wait to play it... no spoilers until then, y'hear?
LunarStarsMoons: x3 / Thanks! / Hahaha, really? x3 It's always movies. Movies without a fail. But some music as well.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Awww :3 / YEP!
AquaK13: (coughs a bit) xD / Yep x3 / Hahahahaha xD / Hmm, I see. / x3
giriri: Ahhh, is that so?
RapidSammi: Yep x3 / (laughs) / Ahhh.
sailor . mikuchan: I see.
LittleAngelbun: Cool x3
Toni42: Indeed x3
J.M.M.: x3
Infernius Flashfire: (laughs) / No, haven't heard those. I might check 'em out sometime, then. / Ahhh, true. x3
Emily The Avenger: Shelter by Porter Robinson. I didn't even watch the video the first time and I cried. xD / Nahhh, it's fine x3
Jack: (laughs) That's good, though. / 'Lovely' xD / (shrugs) It's fine x3
the indecisive bird: Professor Layton games just kick you in the feels and you don't regret it one ounce though xD / Yep xD / AHAHAHAHA YEP xD / Lololol xD
Darkbeast Dend: (laughs) True.
Savannah-the-Caracal: Ah, then I'll have to have a look.
no: ... because it actually has a point in the story?
aman: ... so then don't read the story, if you don't like it... xD
Boggie443: (laughs)
Welp, that's all for this chapter! Bai!
x.X. A.L. X.x
