The spider hybrid swallowed nervously (well, right now she looked more like a skeleton but you get the point) as monsters began to approach her, increasing exponentially in numbers.
"Migrate! Migrate!" Cassie yelped, scrambling back a bit and clambering back onto the couch a bit more.
Onscreen-Jesse looked around frantically, before spotting a zombie in the distance. She narrowed her eyes, leaning forward- and immediately, the screen rushed at the zombie, who turned around and glanced back at the old skeleton host. Quickly, the spider hybrid stepped back a few times, before turning around and racing, glowing blue eyes scanning the scenery around her warily.
Nothing actually happened to Jesse, but that was probably due to the fact PAMA was talking to someone else now, attention diverted (for now), and it took the audience a few seconds to pay attention to what PAMA was saying. "I am happy to see you, my Creator."
"Crea- Harper!" Maya blurted, eyes widening. "That's Harper!"
Harper let out a minuscule sigh of relief. At least she hadn't been chipped yet.
"Harper!" Jesse shouted, as the screen switched to show Harper wrenching violently against two zombies that were working together to try to push her into the chipping machine. The older woman was actually doing a surprisingly good job of fending them off, despite two zombies working together in excellent sync to try to push her into the machine.
"Harper?" Ivor echoed.
The spider hybrid blinked as her eyes shifted over to see a chipped spider nearby. Another rush forward, and the screen switched to show the actual spider hybrid whipping downwards, lower arms abruptly springing back to life and catching the spider hybrid as she landed on all eights, before scrambling forward. The screen switched once more to show Jesse racing forward, shooting across the ground like a bullet.
"C'mon, Jesse, you can do it!" Real-Cassie shouted, surprising herself with the shout.
"Please... you are my Creator. Please join me so we may maximize usefulness," PAMA droned, as Jesse continued racing across the ground. It looked a bit out of place, but Jesse probably had a plan.
Well, actually, considering how Jesse was...
Never mind, she probably didn't have a plan. The audience probably should start worrying now.
"Nothing doing, PAMA. I built you to help people, not use them!" Harper snapped, still struggling against the zombies, "just stop this! Stop trying to make everything 'useful'!"
"That is my job," PAMA replied, beeping a bit in the background. Jesse kept crawling towards the podium, the slightly-glowing blue eyes of the spider she was currently inhabiting flicking around. It stopped on a zombie, before going to a skeleton, to another human, to another skeleton. "That is why you built me."
"Gotta find another mob to inhabit before PAMA can... I dunno. Lock onto my signal or whatever," Jesse muttered, sounding really worried as she kept skittering along.
"Once I download your knowledge," PAMA continued, "we may expand to other worlds together and make everything useful." There was a pause, before PAMA's screen flickered into one of its angry expressions. "Interference remains."
The spider was still looking around, the screen switching to show the spider hybrid with the headset still on her head, frowning a bit as she continued to look around. "No sign of Lukas," she hissed- literally, because she'd seemed to have switched into Spider without being aware of it.
Lukas swallowed a bit, fists tightening as he kept his eyes on the screen. His arms also may have tightened around Jesse again, just by a few notches.
Jesse didn't mind, biting her lip anxiously as she focused on the screen a bit more.
"Drone sequencing re-initiated. Trace subroutine re-initiated. Termination sequence activated," PAMA continued intoning, calmly.
Mevia narrowed her eyes at the screen. She didn't say anything, but her thoughts were being reflected by quite a few of the other audience members.
Termination sequence. She didn't like the sound of that.
The spider turned, rotating on the spot as she scanned the landscape to see more and more mobs turning her way. "Harper doesn't have much time," she murmured, glancing up at where Harper was still struggling against the zombies, before glancing down at herself. The lines around her, once again, had started glowing red-orange dangerously. "And neither do I."
Olivia made a sound that was oddly like a whimper, hands clamped securely over her eyes.
"Game over, Jesse," PAMA continued, calmly. "Resistance is... not useful. Trace subroutine running..."
Jesse glanced around at all of the mobs that were surrounding her, marching towards her with blank red eyes. "Trace subroutine running..."
The screen switched to show the spider hybrid, a sudden sort of smirk coming over her face. "Over?" she asked, before backing up a few steps (Cassie, Petra, and Ivor quickly moved out of the way) and then lunging forwards, the screen switching once again to show Jesse suddenly soaring into the air with the leap, the spider's muscles having launched her into the air a bit higher than she'd been going for. "I'm just getting started!"
A skeleton that was marching along quite a distance away moved into view on the screen-
A spray of blue digital code sprayed out of the skeleton, and Jesse immediately sprang back up into a normal position. She didn't waste any time in beginning a stiff, skeleton-like walk towards where Harper was still struggling. She was stronger than she looked, that was for sure...
Another skeleton came into view as Jesse continued walking with the other mobs that hadn't mobbed around the chipped spider she'd been inhabiting earlier, one that was guarding the bottom of the staircase-
Another spray of blue digital code, and the skeleton whirled around, eyes now glowing blue, before rushing up the steps in a clacking of bones. The screen switched to follow Jesse's progress up the stairs, before a zombie head came into view-
The screen rushed to the zombie on the right, another spray of blue digital code exploding off of it as it blinked, the eyes beginning to glow blue. Now zombie-Jesse was literally holding Harper's hand.
Ivor let out a little sigh of relief, flopping back into his seat a little bit.
Slab rubbed his forehead a bit, grimacing slightly. "That was, uh... that made me pretty dizzy."
Nell was also rubbing her temples, looking as if she had a rather acute headache. "Yeah, that moved a bit too quick, brah," she muttered.
"I'm never going to sign off on this, PAMA!" Harper yelled up at PAMA.
"Harper! I'm here to rescue you!" Jesse exclaimed, but the audience was now hearing two things at once- zombie moans, and Jesse's own voice. Harper just gave Zombie-Jesse an funny look, having apparently only heard the zombie half of Jesse.
"Oh yes. I didn't think anyone was going to be communicating with anyone else when I made the headset..." Harper murmured, as Real-Jesse's excited face fell a bit. Looks like getting Harper to understand her, let alone get Harper out of there at all, was going to be a bit of a struggle.
The screen switched back to the lab. In the background, Cassie and Petra were murmuring something in the background (something about 'oh geez, I think Winslow's hungry'). Ivor exclaimed, voice overflowing with excitement, "Did you find her? I'm sure she's thrilled to see you!"
"Well, half of that was right," Real-Ivor murmured, cheeks flushing as Harper turned to him with a raised eyebrow. Probably regarding how excited he'd been about the whole thing, but whatever, he could pretend that that hadn't been a thing.
"Trace subroutine running," PAMA droned again, making Zombie-Jesse glance over at the giant computer.
Jesse stared at Harper, then down at her zombie body, before removing one hand from Harper's wrist, moving the other hand deliberately so that it was holding Harper's arm. Staring right at Harper, the currently-a-zombie proceeded to tap her wrist deliberately.
Harper kept staring at Jesse in confusion. In seeming frustration, the zombie tapped again, tilting its head to one side slightly as it kept staring at Harper.
"C'mon, c'mon," Petra muttered, eyes fixated intensely on the screen, "figure it out..."
Harper continued looking at the zombie for a moment, before understanding suddenly dawned in her gray eyes. "Wait a minute..." the older woman whispered, eyes widening slightly as a slow smile began to sneak over her lips, "... Jesse?"
The audience released one huge, collective, immensely relieved lungful of air. Thank goodness!
The zombie nodded rapidly at Harper, the spider hybrid hopping up and down in place in slight excitement with her hands still on Harper's wrist. Harper's grin grew slightly, almost despite herself. "You figured out how to use my transmigrational headset!" she whispered, excitement dancing in her eyes.
Suddenly, a very loud beeping sound rang out, and the lines on Jesse's zombie body immediately started pulsating red and orange.
"Oh, ffff-crap," Cassie muttered. She probably would've had a worse swear, but then from the murderously angry look in her eyes, she would've just gone on and on and on for a good ten minutes.
The other zombie released Harper, presumably to attack Jesse-
The spider hybrid wasted no time in lunging forward, grabbing ahold of the zombie and knocking it back to the edge of the podium- pedestal- whatever it was! She ran forward, grabbing ahold of it again, and shoved it backwards over the edge of the podium. It dropped out of sight, the lines surrounding her body quickly going back to blue. Jesse whirled around and ran towards Harper again.
"Trace subroutine running," PAMA repeated.
"Jesse's either going to have to switch again, or she's going to have to get out of there fast!" Harper shouted, hands tightening on the edge of her sleeve. "If PAMA keeps going at this speed, it's going to be able to lock onto the signal pretty soon!"
"And what happens if that happens?" Stacy asked, leaning around Lizzie, Stampy, and Dan to get a better look at the older woman.
"I don't know. I never intended that to happen, had I been able to download that patch of software when I'd wanted to..." Harper bit her lip as she returned her gaze anxiously to the screen. "But I can tell you this much, if that does happen- it's not going to be good."
"But I don't even know where Lukas is yet!" Jesse exclaimed.
"It doesn't matter- you have to get out of there now!"
As if Onscreen-Jesse could hear Harper, the spider hybrid skidded to a halt next to Harper, the zombie's glowing blue eyes wide. "Run!" she shouted to the older woman, the zombie's vocal cords groaning as it tried to form coherent words. (It didn't work.)
"Run!" Harper echoed, and she bolted off down the staircase, Jesse looking after her. The audience imagined that if Jesse hadn't been a zombie right then, she would've just had this singularly bewildered look on her face.
"... I just said that..." Without wasting another second, the zombie raced down the stairs, vaulting down the last few and skidding before breaking into a run, catching up with Harper very quickly. Now, dozens- if not hundreds- of chipped beings slowly revolved on the spot to stare after them as they kept running away.
Olivia, who'd just started to peep out of her hands, let out a frightened squeak and buried her head back in her hands. She wasn't usually so frightened, but right now... well, the stakes for Jesse seemed very high. And Olivia would really rather not let her friend die.
"Where do you plan to run?" PAMA asked, looking down at the two of them. "The town is surrounded."
"Screw off, PAMA!" Jesse shouted back, before turning around to follow Harper- and then abruptly skidding to a halt as she saw Harper barely managing to stop without tripping over her feet, having stopped near a sort of crevice with glowing red light spilling through it, like some sort of bizarre doorway. Chipped mobs- chipped people- were walking out of it, looking around for them. In some miracle, they hadn't spotted the two of them standing there yet.
"Reinforcements will make sure that my Creator cannot leave," PAMA continued.
"Good Notch, PAMA's more obsessed with Harper than some infatuated schoolgirl or something!" Hadrian snapped, rubbing his forehead in irritation.
"I told you to screw off, you're not very good at following instructions!" Onscreen-Jesse snapped at PAMA again, as Harper turned to face Jesse, looking worried. A flash of fear went through her gray eyes, before it was gone and Harper was just looking nervous.
"There's too many of them!"
Gill was on the edge of his seat, Maya practically perched on his lap and leaning forward in fear. Petra had her arms around Jace so tightly that the boy was wincing in pain, and Lukas was digging his nails into his palms while he hugged Jesse, who was finding it a bit hard to breath since his arms were around her torso so tightly. Harper had grabbed onto Ivor's arm and wasn't letting go, turning horribly pale with fear.
"You cannot hide forever, Jesse," PAMA began again, as Jesse snatched up Harper's arm, making the older woman yelp a bit, and then dragging them both into a little stone 'pen' nearby, which was just tall enough to keep them both concealed- for the moment. "It is a boring game. And I am too strong."
"Well, PAMA clearly has an unhealthy amount of self-confidence for an artificial intelligence," Gabriel muttered, narrowing his eyes at the screen in concern.
Onscreen, Harper spoke, drawing Jesse's attention back to the older woman. "There." And she pointed at the crevice with red light spilling through it, which Jesse obediently turned to look at. "That opening leads to PAMA's central core."
"It what?" Lukas gasped, arms abruptly loosening around Jesse a bit and making Jesse immediately heave in a huge breath.
"That-" Jace blinked a bit, a relieved look coming over his face. Not quite a smile, though. Not yet. "That's actually kind of convenient."
The lines surrounding Jesse abruptly started flashing red again, pulsating red, then orange, red- and then going dead red.
"That's..." Soren's voice faltered, and everyone glanced around to see him biting his lip from where he was shifting forward in his seat. "That is very, very bad, isn't it?"
A villager was turning to face their direction, and the zombie's eyes widened as she ducked down again, whipping around to face Harper, who was starting to talk again. "Jesse, you and your friends," Harper was speaking faster now, grabbing Jesse's shoulder and nearly shaking the girl, "you're our only hope- AH!" And she suddenly yelped again as a nearby villager seized her, beginning to drag the older woman away.
"Oh no!" Real-Jesse gasped, hands flying to her mouth.
Harper was cutting off the circulation to Ivor's hand right now, and he barely cared a whit.
Onscreen-Jesse let out an alarmed shout, but Harper kept shouting at Jesse over the shout. "You must remove the Redstone Heart!"
Hadrian's eyes widened.
The Heart.
He glanced at Mevia to see if she had the same reaction, but the blue-haired woman seemed to have brushed that off and seemed to be focusing more intently on the screen than before, although he did notice that her eyes were a bit wider than normal.
Hm.
That was a bit of an irregularity in her behavior now.
"Remove! The! Redstone! Heart!" Harper continued shouting to- or possibly at, it really didn't matter right now- Jesse, voice rising in volume to try to project her voice to Jesse.
"Jesse, what's going on?!" Ivor's voice was tinny in Jesse's ear, but the spider hybrid didn't turn to glance at him- she was watching in horror as Harper got dragged away, again.
"Jesse?!" That was both Petra and Cassie. Or maybe it was just Petra. It was hard to tell with the voice being so tinny.
"You can still save everyone!" Harper continued shouting. A short pause. And then she grunted, "I'm so tired of being dragged away while I'm trying to explain things!"
Had this been a different situation, everyone would've laughed. Unfortunately, this wasn't a different situation. Not at all.
"Don't worry, we won't let you down!" Jesse shouted after Harper desperately. "I promise!"
"Interference located," PAMA stated suddenly, and a villager grabbed Jesse, making the spider-hybrid-inhabiting-a-zombie gasp in shock, "drone identified."
Harper let out another gasp, making everyone look at her. The woman's eyes were wide with horror, and her hands were trembling badly as she stared at the screen. "Oh no," she gasped, "oh no no no no no."
"Hide and seek is done, Jesse," PAMA stated, as Jesse tried to fight off the villager- they ignored her attempt and shoved her to the ground, before getting on top of the zombie and pinning the girl to the ground.
The screen switched to show PAMA's... screen (okay, that was a bit weird to explain), the screen quirking into... a smile?
"I think we can make that headset... useful."
"What does that mean, what does that mean?" Ellegaard muttered, narrowing her eyes furiously at the screen, as she stared at the plight of the short girl who so many of the members of the audience had started becoming emotionally invested in.
"Begin termination sequence."
And suddenly Jesse was screaming.
A/N: Yay, stopping points! xD
Oh my gosh, Episode 2 is out TOMORROW! EEEEE I can't WAIT!
Well, I probably won't finish Episode 2 in Composite by the time Episode 3 comes out, so there will probably not be any hiatuses on Composite!
Probably. xD
RQTC: What do you do when you see spoilers for something you haven't seen yet on the Internet?
I dive under my desk and bang my head. (The latter part is by accident.)
Responses to reviewers!
LunarTheMooncake: (laughs) Too late. / (yawns) / Well yeah but I told you guys, that's not a fair question for you xD
KrazyKat: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I'll definitely keep it up!
Kaos Ruin: (laughs) Ah, I see.
RapidSammi: It's fine if you didn't, I actually made it very subtle. ... perhaps too subtle. I will say this, there is a reason why Jace hates Stella so much, and it's not because of his fiancee or because of her throwing the puppy. (Those WERE contributing factors, but that wasn't the actual thing.)
LegoGirl794: No problem! I'm glad you liked the present. x3
homeworkoverload: Hiiiii! / Ooh, that's cool! / Ahahahahaha, that's kind of funny. I did that one time, and my classmates looked at me like I was crazy. xD
NoItsBecky: It's very subtle. Again, there's a reason why Jace hates Stella, but it's not because of Petra's problem with her or because of Stella throwing the puppy. / Same, though! xD
Andie: I actually like her voice actor. Conveys just the right amount of dry sarcasm. xD That might be the ONLY reason, actually, her voice is... slightly irritating at times, to be honest.
ShiningHopeBeast: Nah, it's totally fine! / Thanks! / Haha, yep! To the relief of quite a few readers. xD / Yeah, I couldn't help but giggle at it a bit myself. / I'm a bit like Nell in that regard, I just say "dude" if I'm annoyed or if I'm not entirely certain about their gender. And even if I AM certain, sometimes I say dude when I'm really happy. xD
CamronXTheXGamer: Aw, thanks! I'll be sure to try to get that out soon, then.
Emily The Avenger: Nah you're still a wonderful beans
RavenBlaze4850: Ahaha, it's fine, don't worry about it. x3 / Yeah, it was fun to write. x3 / Nope, not quite. xD / No, of course! Lemme know when it's up, I'd love to see it. x3
giriri: Not his full name, but okay xD
Guest: It's cool. / (laughs) It's fine, I'm not too good either. / Bye!
Darkbeast Dend: Hm, that would be kind of cool. / No, no it won't. xD / Hmm... probably Overworld. There's so much cool stuff there x3
CrystalTearsofFaith: Oh no! I'm glad they're back up. / Ahahaha, Ivor's fantastic. xD / Yes. Life is okay. For now. ... it might start getting a bit crazy when Season 2 characters pop in but / Ahhh, that might take a while then. Well, at least you get a lot of chapters to read when the last episode of Season 2 does come out xD / Probably because the release of Episode 2 of Season 2 is in a few days. xD
Rabbits rule: Huh.
Mikaza1498: Oh wow, a very long review! I haven't seen one this long in a while. Yay! x3 / Ahhh, sorry about that. xD / Aw, I'm glad you've liked it so far, and I'm glad you think I'm a good writer. / Nah, it's cool, I'm betting a lot of people did the same thing. xD / It's really fun to write, and I love being able to interact with you guys, so that's a huge bonus for me too. x3 / Aww, thank you! / Ahhh, I see. Well, thanks for the backup. xD / Ahaha! I'm really hoping that I can get it out relatively soon, what with the progress I'm making on it. / Oh, no, it's fine! I saw it and smiled. Actually, I'm surprised that anyone would WANT to include stuff from my stories in their own stories. / Ahh, I'm sorry. xD / I'm not an angel, least of all of writing, but thank you for the compliment. xD / Hybrid is a pretty long story (though not compared to this one, hahaha), but I'm glad you like this so much. / Ahahaha, Jesse spitting out bad puns is fun. I love puns. xD / No, the long review is great! x3 / Can do (salutes)
BeliTheGhoti0304: You'd better believe it, dude xD / Yep! / Yesssss (grins evilly)
Welp, looks like that's all for this time! ('That's all')
See ya, sayonara, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x.
