"NO!" Lukas yelled, bolting straight upright and accidentally performing something akin to the Heimlich Maneuver on Jesse, who let out a little gasp as, once again, all of the air was squashed right out of her lungs.
"Not Jesse, not Jesse-!" Olivia was screaming, muffled behind her hands, and most of the audience (if not all of them) were perched precariously on the edge of their seats, holding their breaths. Slab's arms were turning a bit black and blue from how hard Clutch and Facemeat were, well, clutching his arms.
Onscreen, Jesse was still screaming, furiously grabbing at the headset and trying to yank it off as the screen switched back to her spider hybrid self, the helmet's surface starting to get red-hot as she desperately tried to yank it off. The screen flickered back to show what Jesse was seeing, the vision of the headset starting to flicker red-
"Jesse!" someone was shouting, and Ivor and Petra ran over and started hauling on the headset, desperately trying to yank it off from both sides and having no success- Cassie was reaching into her pocket and pulling out her axe-
"Guys, let go!" she shouted, and, turning it so that the flat side of the axe was facing Jesse, the redhead waited until the other two quickly released the helmet- and then swung the axe.
The flat side of the axe slammed into the back of the helmet, managing to knock the thing loose and sending it flying off of Jesse's head, crashing into the opposite wall and then the floor with a nasty sort of crunch. It sat there for a minute, smoking dangerously, before detonating in a small cloud of smoke and debris.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, even Harper, who looked surprisingly okay with having her headset getting destroyed. Actually, she looked as if she probably preferred that it got destroyed, since something really really bad would've happened if it hadn't. Jesse turned and gave Cassie a weak but grateful smile. "Thanks for that," she said, a mix of gratitude and relief saturating her voice.
"Hey, no problem. You... you forgave me for..." Cassie paused, before taking a deep breath and glancing away. "Well, you know."
She paused.
"Also, I may have given you a slight concussion, so don't thank me yet."
At least half of the audience let out surprised laughs at that. That whole fiasco goes down, and she makes a joke.
Onscreen, Jesse had barely managed to shakily turn around, one hand reaching up and cradling the back of her head slightly, when Ivor was in front of her, checking her over so frantically it was almost as he was the one who'd been injured, though his hands were slightly red- the metal must've burned him a bit when he'd grabbed ahold and attempted to yank it off.
Nearby, Petra was looking rather pale and shaken, eyes still glowing gold in slight panic as she stared at Jesse, worry written all over her face. Her hands were steaming a bit too, but they looked completely unharmed otherwise. Probably since she was a Blaze hybrid. Beside her, Cassie's hands were practically throttling her axe, eyes filled with a raging panic and flickering between green and red as she struggled to calm down.
"T-thanks, guys," the spider hybrid eked out, panting slightly in fear.
"I-it sounded like you were talking to Harper," Petra said, brow furrowing in confusion as she stood there, hands trembling slightly. She shoved them into her pockets when she noticed. "A-and... PAMA?"
Onscreen-Jesse shuddered at the name, although Real-Jesse also winced a little bit at it herself. "Yeah, PAMA caught up to me. Not good. B-but, there's no time to waste, we need to get back to- to the door Harper just showed me, get inside PAMA's core-!" she blurted, looking downright panicked.
Cassie sheathed the axe again, although she looked as if it took her a small amount of effort- her eyes were still flickering from green and red. "But what happened to Harper?!"
The spider hybrid paused, before letting out a shaky breath. "I-" she paused again, as if trying to sort out all of her thoughts, "I-I think she's already been chipped."
Harper winced, frowning at that. Ivor noticed and patted her on the arm slightly in an effort to comfort her. I don't think it really worked, but she appreciated the attempt.
"But we can still end PAMA," Jesse finished, looking back up at the others with a determined look coming over her face.
"Without Harper?" Petra asked with a frown, absentmindedly patting out the still-steaming areas on her hands.
"Harper believes in us, and we're her last hope," Jesse said slowly, as if trying to recall what Harper had just told her, before her gaze hardened, and her hands tightened into fists- all of them. "We're everyone's last hope to stop PAMA. Harper wouldn't put her trust in us unless she knew what we were capable of."
"Or unless she was desperate," Hadrian muttered, unsurprisingly drawing several glares in his direction and receiving two elbows to the ribs this time- one from Otto, and one from Mevia, surprisingly.
"She showed me the entrance to PAMA's core... a-and she told me that we needed to remove something called..." She paused, brow furrowing. "The 'Redstone Heart'," she finished, as if a bit confused by the name.
Petra suddenly started, letting out a little gasp as sparks shot off her hands, gold eyes flaring back to life. "Whoa- that, that just brought back- a, a flash. Those red lights I mentioned before? There- there are three of them, redstone spires, and, and I think-" Petra bit her lip, squinting her eyes shut and rubbing her temples, trying to recall more. "I think they have something to do with the Heart."
"Yes. The Redstone Heart is sending and receiving signals to the three redstone spires, and-"
Harper was about to keep going, when Em quickly interjected, "Um, please explain what the redstone spires have to do with the Redstone Heart simply; I don't think the rest of us will get it if you don't."
All of the younger members of the audience (with the exception of Olivia and Stampy), and several of the older members as well, let out a relieved sigh at the request.
"Alright. The Redstone Heart sends and receives signals to and from the redstone spires, providing PAMA with 'backup health' in case the Redstone Heart gets taken out or damaged. If you destroy the spires, and remove the Heart, PAMA will be shut down."
There was a short, stunned silence, before Harper finished, "For good."
Petra hesitated for a few moments, before letting out a low growl and shaking her head, looking up at Jesse with a both frustrated and upset look on her face. "That's all I've got. Sorry."
"No..." Jesse shook her head and grinned, gently clapping Petra on the shoulder. "No, that's perfect, thank you!"
Ivor made a disappointed humming sound as something occurred to him. "But how are we supposed to destroy these spires, or- whatever we're looking for?"
Jesse walked over to the small stream of water in the corner of the lab, a small smile coming over her face. "I do hope you've noticed by now, D- Ivor," she corrected again, almost flawlessly this time (actually, most of the audience wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't seen the way her red eye flickered back nervously), "but PAMA's stuff doesn't tend to react well with water."
She stooped down and pulled out one of the buckets she'd borrowed earlier, scooping a bucketful of water up before turning around and carefully taking aim. A moment later, she fired a strand of string, slingshotting the bucket of water right into Ivor's hands with a minimal amount of spillage. The next one went to Petra, and Jesse was about to shoot the last one to Cassie when the red-haired girl shook her head. "Nah, I'm good. I've got my diamond axe!" And she playfully shook it a bit in Jesse's direction.
Gabriel couldn't help but let out a soft snort at that. Sometimes it was easy to forget that these guys... well, a lot of them were still practically children.
"Yes, quite the formidable weapon there, Rose," Jesse said teasingly, tucking the bucket away and giving the other girl a friendly sort of smile.
Cassie gently tapped the flat of the blade against Jesse's forehead, making Jesse shake her head and blink rapidly. (This made several more members of the audience grin; Jesse had just looked like a startled kitten.) "It got the headset off of ya," she said, grinning at Jesse in a way that seemed to show that she meant no harm.
"Fair enough." Jesse's smile twisted into a much, much more mischievous smirk. "Let's go wreck the heck out of PAMA."
The screen blacked out.
"Huh. I didn't know you could be mischievous." Axel reached over and gently poked Jesse in the cheek.
Jesse glanced over at him for a moment, remaining silent.
"I guess. But sometimes, I think about math, and something about subtraction just doesn't add up."
Lukas's faint smile at the joke fell off his face, and his face turned rather pale. "Oh no, Axel, what did you just-?" he began, but Jesse was beginning to smile pleasantly at them all.
"Y'know, Lukas, I'm not a hoarder, but I really just wanna keep you forever."
Lukas's cheeks turned a pleasant shade of pink at the pick-up line.
Now no longer being interrupted in her delivery of puns, Jesse continued serenely, smiling almost angelically, "Has anyone here tried to eat a clock? It's very time consuming."
Olivia half-groaned and half-laughed at the pun Jesse had just made. "Axel, you're great and I love you, but sometimes I just really hate you, you know that?"
"Did you just tell Axel you love him?" Gill suddenly chimed in, grinning like the Chesire Cat.
Axel's cheeks also flushed a little bit. Olivia shook her head, her own cheeks starting to turn rather pink. "He knows what I mean it's platonic-"
"Oh, are you sure about that?" Milo asked innocently, but if you actually looked over at the man his lips were twitching and he sounded a bit as if he was stifling giggles VERY furiously.
"You're one to talk with Isa," Olivia muttered, very much under her breath.
Jesse chimed in randomly, "If anyone's claustrophobic, you'll probably be more productive thinking outside the box."
This little chaotic scene would probably have gone on for a bit longer, except the screen started fading back in and Harper started shushing them, making them all quickly fall silent to not miss anything during the scene.
The screen finished fading back in outside of the town, which was still shrouded in night and filled with roaming, chipped mobs. Not too far away, Jesse poked her head over a small lump of ground, eyes flicking around. Upon spotting no dull red, glowing eyes facing in their direction, she crept over the lump of land on all eights (as per usual), whispering back to the others, "C'mon!"
The others tiptoed after her quickly, all of them managing to make it (although Ivor had to dive at the last second as a skeleton looked over in their direction) behind a low wall that hid them from view from all the chipped mobs.
"Where is the entrance to this 'PAMA Core', anyhow?" Ivor whispered, sitting back up and brushing a copious amount of sand off of his face and clothing.
Jesse let out a slightly exasperated sigh and glanced over the wall, giving all of the roaming chipped mobs an annoyed look. "On the other side of all these lovely mobs that wish to kill us."
"Oh. That's lovely. Of course that happens," Em muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Seriously, I think Jesse needs to get a break at least once in a while," Stampy murmured to Dan, who nodded in agreement. (When had his hair turned pink again?)
"That's convenient," Cassie remarked sarcastically.
The spider hybrid sighed, looking back to the other three with a slightly concerned sort of look on her face, "Okay... you guys have anything useful?" Not even a second later, she shuddered a bit. "Man, after this whole thing is over I don't think I ever want to hear the word useful. Ever again."
"I am in full agreement with Jesse here," Ellegaard sighed, rubbing her head.
Magnus patted Ellegaard on the head, making her swat him off halfheartedly with a reluctant sort of smile playing on her mouth.
Everyone reached into their pockets, rummaging around for a moment, before emptying the contents of their pockets onto the ground, ending up with a rather small collection of stuff. Jesse looked down, the screen going to the stuff on the ground. "Okay... we've got about six Ender Pearls, some redstone, some potions... a rose..." Jesse took a closer look at the rose. "... Ivor, isn't the rose I gave to Harry?"
Harper blinked a bit at that.
Ivor shrugged a bit. "I didn't think 'Harry' needed it anymore. Besides, I thought maybe I could return it to Harper."
Real-Ivor crossed his arms, loftily ignoring the way most of the audience was starting to giggle. Actually, he got the uncomfortable feeling that the only reason they hadn't yet commented on it was because they were focused on the episode.
Jesse regarded him for a moment, eyebrow rising slightly and a slight smile quirking over her mouth, before she shrugged. "Well, okay." She went back to looking through the stuff on the floor. "Some sticks... a button... a few blocks of TNT... aaaannnnnd that's it. Alrighty then."
She looked through the random collection of items at their knees, before leaning over and carefully picking up the two potion bottles, scrutinizing them and being extremely careful to not drop them.
Ivor let out a wistful sort of sigh. "These are my last two potions from home. A potion of invisibility... and a potion of leaping," he said, slightly sadly, "the rest I don't have anymore."
When he noticed the confused looks the three girls were sending him, he elaborated, "We lost them in Sheep World."
Hadrian laughed aloud, although it didn't seem to be for a sarcastic reason for once. "I remember that world. Wasn't there a sheep with a pink mustache-?"
"Yeah, and a giant egg riding a pig," Petra added, grinning a bit despite herself. "The pig's name was Dave or something."
"No, it started with a G," Jace corrected, also grinning a bit. "Um, Greg?"
"Curse you, sheep," Onscreen-Petra sighed, rubbing her temples slightly.
"If this was a different situation, I'd probably find that incredibly funny," Cassie deadpanned, sounding both faintly annoyed and rather amused, if one could be both at the same time.
Jesse gave him a solemn sort of nod and a small smile, carefully handing the bottles back to him. "Well, they might come in handy." She looked back down and immediately lifted the red block of explosive dynamite off of the ground, giving it a small grin. "Well, when is TNT not... helpful?"
"When Axel and Magnus use it to blow up the coffee table."
Sparklez covered his mouth and started making quite a lot of quiet choking sounds. It sounded a bit as though he were forcing back laughter, and he wasn't the only one. Petra had noticed Jace was biting his knuckles, and Jesse's eyes had glazed over from the effort of keeping her laughter back.
"Rhetorical question, Ivor," Jesse teased him, smirking slightly, looking back down at the stuff on the floor and picking up the button with one of her lower arms, "Okay, buttons can activate TNT. But we still need something to connect it together..."
She looked around again, twisting her head from side to side, before reaching out with both of her lowermost arms and scooping up the large amount of glowing redstone on the floor. "Alright, so we've got TNT, redstone dust, and a button."
"Okay, we're getting somewhere!" Maya said encouragingly, smiling at Jesse. She grinned back.
Onscreen, the spider hybrid glanced at the mobs. "Okay, so all I have to do... is lay down a trail of TNT, use the redstone dust as a fuse, stick a button to the end, push it, and boom! Path cleared!" She glanced over at Petra. "I know you can fly over everything, so that's fine on your count, and as long as Ivor and Cassie run, they can probably clear it with no problem."
Petra nodded, but she was staring at the stuff in Jesse's hands with a dubious look on her face. "That's great an all, but how are you going to lay down all of that TNT and redstone without super zombies attacking from every direction?"
"That's... a good point," Aiden mumbled, his slightly excited expression falling. "How are you going to lay down all that stuff?"
Jesse simply looked at the potions Ivor was holding, a mischievous smile spreading across her face for the second time in a span of less than ten minutes. "Well, those should do the trick."
Ivor looked down at the potions to see what she was looking at, before his own smirk spread over his face. "Ahh, I see where you're going..."
"Oh, yeah!" Cassie grinned. "Use a potion, get everything down, get the heck out of there. Easy!"
"Well, if we've decided what we're gonna do, I just have one question."
The spider hybrid glanced up at Cassie, who was crouching with Winslow perched on her shoulder like some sort of misshapen parrot. "Shoot."
"Can I film this? 'Cause it's gonna look pretty cool."
"... really, Cassie?"
Cassie shrugged nonchalantly at the deadpan look Ivor was sending her, and the amused one Soren was giving her. "Well, I mean, it is going to look cool."
Real-Jesse's eyes glazed back over again.
Lukas leaned over to get a better look at the shorter girl, whose face was completely blank. "... Jesse, you okay?"
"... I don't wanna start talking, 'cause I don't wanna start laughing," Jesse said weakly, eyes still glazed over with shoulders trembling a bit.
(Several members of the audience repressed a small sigh of relief, with the look on her face they'd been worried that she was about to start crying.)
Onscreen, Jesse looked as though she were barely able to keep from cracking up laughing. As it was, her face was practically buried in her hands, and her shoulders were trembling. "Please tell me you're not serious," she managed, through a small fit of the giggles.
"I'm not." A short pause. "Maybe."
Aiden chuckled a bit, Cassie smirking a bit at the boy next to her. Mevia carefully bit her lip, repressing her own laugh at the comment.
"That's reassuring," Petra managed, but she was starting to laugh, and it took her burying her head into her hands to keep her from just outright laughing.
Onscreen-Ivor let out an annoyed sort of sigh as he watched the three girls, who were now practically in stitches, covering their mouths with their hands to stifle their giggles to the best of their ability. "Children, the lot of you," he told them, but he was smiling in amusement at that little scene, which did quite a lot to soften the annoyed tone in his voice.
"Ivor's a softie."
"Am not!"
A/N: (laughs) Sometimes these guys are just huge dorks.
Also, sorry for a late update, but I was spending most of my day yesterday recording the Episode 2 gameplay, and, um
HOLY CRAP EPISODE 2 IS AMAZING?!
RQTC: Do you guys have any speculation for Composite, either for the parts that haven't happened yet or the whole thing, if you haven't read it?
EnderKitty68: Oh, wow! xD / Well, you were early for this one! Congrats! / Oh, yes, believe me. I'm not even making a separate story, when we reach Season 2 (Composite) I'm just including it in this story, haha. xD
LunarTheMooncake: (laughs) He's annoying but every once in a while, he makes a funny statement. xD / (laughs) / Ah, that makes sense.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Aaaahhh. xD
RWBYSTRQ: Oh wow xD
KaosRuin: Nope, I will never stop with the cliffhangers. xD
andie: Nah, I haven't forgotten. Just haven't found a good way to incorporate them without forcing it. / ?
PoptartCrumbs: (laughs) Well, here is the next chapter! / Ahhh, I see.
AwesomeEevee: Thank you very much! / Oh, wow, uh, no, that wouldn't have made any sense. The thing is, that would've more than doubled the length of the story, and also that has nothing to do with the AU. So I wouldn't have done that. / Aw, no, it's not a problem! / Alright, thanks! / (grins) Well, I'm glad you like it! / Alrighty then. :) / Okay, that's good! / Okie :)
homeworkoverload: Oh, nice! / (laughs) Yeah, I was gonna say. / (whistles) / Bye!
KrazyKat: Ahhhh, I know what you mean. xD
ThatJackaboy: Oh wow 0-0
LegoGirl794: Considering I just posted it today, yep xD
Rabbits rule: ... okay moving on
Guest: Huh... uh, yeah, roller coasters are cool.
Darkbeast Dend: Huh, okay.
RapidSammi: (laughs) That's a lot of 'aaah's xD
ShiningHopeBeast: Yes, indeed. / Oh, thank you! I didn't realize anyone here realized I had that art up, haha. xD / Huh... I'll see if I remember it. You can request it if you really want me to do it x3
Mikaza1498: Ah, I see. / (laughs) / No problem, I always respond if possible!
CamronXTheXGamer: Ahhh, I see.
RavenBlaze4850: (laughs) I hope that means you liked it. / Ah, yes, yes he did. / Mmmm, yes it will be. (smiles beatifically) / Ah, that's one of the calmest reactions I've seen so far. :3 / Yesyesyes! xD Alright, that's fine. Let me know when it's up :3
DarkPrincess2001: (laughs)
LittleAngelbun: Nah, it's fine. :3 / Oh, believe me, so am I (grins evilly)
Welp, that's all for this chapter. See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x.
