The screen faded back in to show Jesse from above, slowly walking into a room that was literally glowing red, the glass floor showing thousands, and thousands, and thousands of lines of redstone, and repeaters, and various other pathways, and the spider hybrid actually seemed mesmerized by the sheer amount of redstone piled up in that room for a moment, because she actually paused to stop and stare at it for a moment, before shaking her head a little and raising her head.
In the center of the huge cavern, rising through the floor, was a sort of pedestal-like structure with a single, glowing, red block on the top. The block was intricately carved with designs that were almost reminiscent of stained glass. The red block had an intense white core among the red glow, yet every few seconds the light seemed to be pulsing.
No... beating. The block's light was emitting a soft, thumping sound with each 'beat' of the light, which pounded away in a rhythmic, almost hypnotic fashion.
Hadrian's eyes widened slightly at the sight of that.
The Redstone Heart.
He glanced over at Mevia, but to his outright surprise Mevia didn't even seem fazed at the sight of the Redstone Heart. Actually, her eyes had narrowed a little, so she had had a reaction... but it seemed like she was more concerned about the short black-haired girl walking towards the Redstone Heart.
Perhaps he should address that.
"Oh... huh. So that's the Redstone Heart," Real-Jesse hummed, leaning forward slightly to inspect it a bit more. "It's..."
A beat as she paused thoughtfully.
"... Actually, it's rather pretty."
"Yes... quite beautiful," Ivor hummed thoughtfully, tilting his head to one side.
"But dangerous too, right?" Lukas frowned. (Jesse's shoulders relaxed slightly. It had been a while since he'd said anything, and she'd been starting to get a little concerned.)
"Actually, not really," Harper said, shrugging slightly. When several members of the audience twisted to give her a slightly bemused look, she just shrugged a bit, looking more surprised than anything else. "It's really only a power source. When it's not powering anything destructive, it's actually quite harmless."
"Oh." Stampy turned around and regarded the screen for a moment. "I suppose that makes sense."
The spider hybrid's gaze went from the structure in the center of the cavern to the three towers surrounding the structure holding the Redstone Heart. Atop each tower was a single redstone block that was emitting a beam of light that connected to the main, glowing block. Presumably like some sort of backup power. Maybe even stemming directly from the Redstone Heart.
"The three spires," she whispered, tiptoeing forward with what looked like the utmost care.
Suddenly, a loud bloop! rang out in the near-silent (except for some rather faint, ethereal background music) cavern, making the spider hybrid (and the entire audience, for that matter) jump half a foot into the air as PAMA's face came over a huge screen that the audience hadn't noticed before. "Greetings, Jesse. I, of course, have been expecting you."
There was a short pause, before PAMA continued, in an almost grudging way, if the computer even had emotions, "though I will admit I am surprised at how quickly you gained access. My defenses are significant. Your resistance to me is... illogical."
Jesse simply crossed her arms to that, scowling up at the huge computer. It might've just been the red light the cavern emitted in general, but it seemed as if her right eye was starting to turn red again. "Yeah, well, I had help getting here. My friends made sure of that." A determined smirk quirked over her lips. "Thanks to them, I'm here to put you out of commission."
"Your bravery is an impressive quality."
Real-Jesse made a slight face. "Coming from PAMA, I'm not sure I want to hear that."
Privately, most of the other audience members agreed.
"I look forward to studying that aspect of your personality... once you have been made useful." The telltale "..." appeared on the screen, the one that showed that PAMA was thinking, before it flickered back to PAMA's almost... curious face. "Out of simple curiosity... how did you plan to deactivate me?"
Jesse took a deep breath, letting her eyes flutter shut... before folding her hands behind her back and letting her eyes flash open, glowing red themselves as the most poisonously sweet smile that the audience had ever seen came over Jesse's face. Actually, it was honestly surprising that that expression came to be on Jesse's face, because as I think we've established earlier, Jesse's pretty much one of the sweetest human beings to ever exist. "That's for me to know, and you to find out," she said, in the most innocent yet somehow venomously girlish voice that any of them had ever seen.
Jace took a deep breath, feeling his heart starting to pound away even harder in his ribcage. "Ohhh, here we go..."
"Then I look forward to making you useful, and finding out for myself."
A smirk flashed over Jesse's face, her now-sharp canines showing. "We'll see about that!" And she dropped to all eights and started scuttling along rapidly for the nearest two spires. PAMA's face flickered into a displeased one.
"You can do it, Jesse!" Lizzie shouted, pumping her fist into the air encouragingly.
Several loud zombie groans rang out, and Jesse's head swivelled to the right to show three zombies leaping down from- somewhere- to block her path to the spire. Then a swish pan to the left, where three spiders vaulted over the spire and landed in front of it, hissing defensively.
"Go for the spiders!" Gill shouted, making Maya flinch a bit- he'd just shouted in her ear. "Since she's a spider hybrid they might be easier to handle!"
"Especially considering the strength of the super-zombies," Mevia added, thoughtfully.
Onscreen-Jesse's head rotated from the zombies, to the spiders... before she changed her path and angled for the left, scuttling at full-speed for the spiders. "Out of my way!" she hissed in anger, chest humming slightly.
One spider ignored the command, tensing its legs and jumped. Jesse's eyes narrowed, and the spider hybrid suddenly used her forward momentum to throw herself onto her uppermost set of arms, arcing through the air in a handstand, just for a moment- before slamming onto her back and drawing in her arms and legs so she was curled into a ball, right as the spider landed right on top of her, hissing dangerously.
Lukas's arms tightened around Jesse so much that it forced a squeak out of her, and Stacy let out an incoherent gasp.
Jesse suddenly lashed out with all eight of her legs, using the forward momentum that hadn't completely been dispelled to throw the spider into the air and over the edge of the glass walkway.
"Woohoo!" Ellegaard cheered in excitement, springing up and inadvertently making the three other Order members on the couch bounce violently, "yes!"
Noticing the amused looks they sent her (plus, you know, the rest of the audience), she quickly cleared her throat and sat back down, in a much more proper position, although nobody really was fooled. Especially not by the way her eyes were sparkling in excitement.
Also, when they returned their attention to the screen, she immediately went into a more relaxed position.
"Sorry!" Jesse added, in her own hiss, before flipping back to her feet and continuing to skitter right towards the spire. A spider tensed its legs and began to prepare to lunge at her. Jesse's eyes flickered between one spider, and then the other, which was the one tensing its legs, before throwing herself to the side and rolling over, the spider soaring straight over her and sailing straight into the chasm. Jesse whipped back to her feet so fast that the audience nearly got whiplash from it and, whipping out her sword, lashed out at the next spider. The sword smacked into it with a meaty smack and knocked it onto its back at the base of the spire.
Not even hesitating, Jesse raced towards it, still upright, before leaping into the air, stomping down on it with what looked like quite a bit of strength, before using its desperate kick to launch herself onto the top of the spire.
"Whoa!" Nell bounced up and down, making Em roll her eyes slightly. If you were looking closely, the blonde's eyes were really sparkling. "That was so awesome!"
Glancing down as a sort of afterthought, Jesse quickly reached into her pocket and fumbled the bucket out, nearly dropping it on her foot as she did her best to pull it out. "Your end is inevitable, Jesse," PAMA spoke again, frowning at her in the background and making Jesse frown at it in what looked more like irritation than anything else.
"You sure about that?"
And she upended the bucket over the spire.
Soren let out a sigh of relief. "One down, two to go."
"That didn't look too hard," Otto murmured, sounding slightly relieved.
"Don't jinx it," all of the teenagers chorused in perfect unison.
Water poured off of the top of the spire, splashing all over Jesse's feet, and made the light connecting the spire to the Redstone Heart flicker and die, the lights flickering badly and almost winking out altogether as the entire cavern rumbled, the light flickering enough to reveal a strange squiggle for a mouth on PAMA's face as a 'sad' eyebrow came onto the screen as well. The screen flickered to show three triangle signs with an exclamation point inside each, one of the triangle signs glowing red, before PAMA's face flickered back on.
To his (and a few members of the audience's) surprise, Aiden found himself sticking his fingers into his mouth and giving a loud, encouraging wolf-whistle.
"You are very good at being a nuisance," PAMA intoned, "but not enough."
"I'll take that as a compliment!" Jesse responded, leaping down from the spire before even finishing the statement and racing towards the other spire, which was blocked by the zombies. Dodging down under one zombie's swing, she pivoted, whipping into an upright position, and slammed her palms into the zombie's chest, hard.
The zombie staggered unevenly before toppling over the edge of the platform, plummeting out of sight quite rapidly.
"Woo!" and Magnus pumped his fists into the air in excitement. Unlike Ellegaard, he had no qualms about embarrassing himself, not in front of these guys.
Pivoting again, Jesse lashed out with her sword, hitting the next zombie so hard that it staggered back, knocking into the other one and resulting in the two zombies teetering near the edge, close enough that a single shove would've knocked them off.
Without even hesitating, the spider hybrid completed the process by dropping to all eights, tensing her legs... and lunging forward.
She slammed straight into the first zombie that she'd whacked, knocking it and its partner straight over the edge, before using the force of her shove to catapult her backwards and away from the edge herself. Catching herself on all eights, although she nearly turned a little too far and landed flat on her back, she scuttled towards the spire rapidly.
(Lukas might've relaxed his grip on Jesse with a low sigh at that.)
"You are too insignificant to worry me," PAMA stated as she quickly ascended the side of the spire, ignoring the small staircase that had formed and instead crawling straight up.
"Don't count out the little people!" Jesse snapped back from where she was now perched on top of the spire, splashing the contents of this bucket on the spire. The lights abruptly flickered again, the cavern rumbling dangerously once again as the beam of light emitting from this spire faltered and died, the light in the cavern pulsating so badly that had they been watching at night, the room would've been plunged into complete darkness.
"You have inflicted... minor damage on me. Owie," PAMA said, the weird sad-squiggly-mouth face coming onto the screen again, flickering back to what appeared to be a warning screen- two of the triangles now glowing red dangerously.
"That's our Jesse!" Ivor nearly shouted, grinning like a madman, and most of the audience was so relieved and excited by this turn of events and were giving their own (somewhat halfhearted, since they were so relieved about everything right now) cheers, that they didn't even notice Ivor's little slip-up with 'our Jesse' (although Jesse certainly did, and judging by the faint smile on Lukas's face, he noticed it as well).
Jesse lunged down from the spire again, landing squarely on all eights and skittering towards the last spire with barely a pause in her movements, which was the farthest from the entrance to the cavern. "Is my defeat still inevitable, you great big hunk of metal?" the spider hybrid asked, in a much more normal tone of voice. Maybe she was tired of shouting everything. (I know I'd be.)
"Your defeat is still inevitable," PAMA replied simply.
Olivia shook her head. "Well... Jesse tends to do the impossible on a daily basis, so..." she trailed off, a sheepish grin coming over her face, before she randomly gestured a little at the screen.
Axel, Gill, Magnus, and Aiden may have all snorted a little at that.
Rather than getting annoyed by that, Jesse let out the softest little chuckle, her annoyed look fading slightly. "If only I had a bar of gold for every time I've heard that before..."
"You will relinquish your water," a new voice suddenly spoke, robotic and harsh and almost somewhat alien.
Yet a somehow familiar voice as well.
The spider hybrid abruptly skidded to a halt at the voice, eyes widening, before her head snapped up to the last spire and she looked up.
The screen moved rapidly from Jesse to the spire to show-
Em sucked in a deep breath at that, Ivor actually gasped a little bit, Harper felt her face turn all shades of pale, Otto visibly winced, and Mevia's eyes widened a little bit. "Oh."
She paused, before giving her head the slightest shake. "That's not good."
Had Harper not been staring at the screen in the middle of a maelstrom of emotions, she probably would've looked around at Mevia in slight surprise, but the sight of what was on the screen just had her frozen in place staring at the screen.
Because standing a little ways above Jesse, on the spire, with a pair of her own glowing, dull red eyes glaring down almost blankly at Jesse, was Harper.
A/N: Perfect spot to end! And yes, I know I said I wouldn't update for a week... well, this is what happens when you forget your laptop at home, folks; you work on the library computers during the free period.
Ooh, next chapter, and the chapters after that.
That's when this gets REALLY fun.
(For me. You're really going to hate me after I write the part after next chapter, although I might end up making the whole thing one big long chapter after next chapter.)
RQTC: Who likes popcorn?
Meeeeee!
Responses to reviews!
MissyMattingly: Aw, thank you!
Kaos Ruin: I'll probably still eating them haha / Oh... yeah. You're not going to like the chapter after next. Actually you'll probably get really really mad at me. xD / (laughs) Yes, I know.
LegoGirl794: Aww, I know how you feel. Don't worry, updates won't be as sparse as I expected... for a while, anyways.
EnderKitty68: (smiles for some reason)
CrystalTearsofFaith: (shrugs slightly and smiles a bit for some reason)
AquaK13: Yeah. That's not even the most intense p- woops spoilers. / Hahahaha, yes. xD / Indeed he is, indeed he is xD / Friendship! / Haha, if I can improve my skill at drawing backgrounds in time. / Yeeeeaaaa, okay, I'll make the video. x3 / Yaise! / Bye!
RapidSammi: Nah, fam, it's fine, it's gonna start kicking me in the face soon as well. / If you're anything younger than a junior right now... buckle in for junior year.
andie: Ah, okay.
PoptartCrumbs: (laughs) I know how you feel, dude. I know how you feel. / Yussss :3
LunarTheMooncake: Because I have to update when I can... / Hahaha. Yeah... fun.
CamronXTheXGAmer: (laughs) / Ahhh, yeah, that sucks. 7th grade is easy in retrospect, though. / No you cannot, I'm sorry. xD / Ah, nice! / ? Sorry, I'm not sure what you were asking?
BeliTheGhoti0304: Hehehe, it was actually inspired by the official Minecraft Handbook (which I don't have anymore but I remember seeing a page like that when I did have it). Lolololol / Yeah, I will be VERY busy. But, ah... on the what I know what I'm doing... hahaha... / (laughs) I'm glad you liked it! / Of course, I'll have the video up asap.
homeworkoverload: I just started today, actually. / Yeah, go ahead! The more the merrier! / Aw, you missed me? Yeah, that always sucks.
Rabbits rule: First, you have a boyfriend? I didn't have a boyfriend until freshman year. Like, I'm genuinely surprised. Second (pulls out my chainsaw) what is his name and where can i find him
ShinginHopeBeast: Yeah, it's a little hard to muffle/stifle laughter/giggles/chuckles/etc. more than the ones I listed here. I want my stories to be readable, for the most part; I don't want to put a word like 'bivouacked' (yes, that is a word) and have people have to look it up, if at all possible.
A Random Guest: This is fantastic! Thanks so much :3
Mikaza1498: Thank you! I'm hoping it will go well as well, but that depends on how good I can get at doing backgrounds, because right now, uh, hoo boy. / I will most likely post them on my DeviantArt, but I'll also probably post them on my main website as well. / I'm glad you liked the chapter! / Ahahaha, yes... that'll be fun. And I would never forget you guys. / If you're referring to Toni42, he's a guy xD
RavenBlaze4850: Haha, yep! / Yeah, that's... that's gonna be great xD / No, just the official Minecraft handbook, lol / It's not going to be fine with that, either... / Yeah, of course! I always want to work on these things. / Yay!
RWBYSTRQ: Yes, yes I do xD
DarkbeastDend: Ah, gotcha.
InsaneAcrobat: Haha, no, I... really need to make a note for someone to let y'all know if that happens. And if I'd 'become an adult of mature pursuits', trust me, I would definitely have let you guys know first. / Oh, wow. That's good! / Petra's actually in a bit of a weaker state right now from PAMA getting into her brain, so too much physical exertion beyond a human body (for example, running, maybe fighting off some monsters) like her hybrid abilities, and she might end up dropping right out of the sky. / (grins slightly) / Hahaha, yeah, PAMA's kind of stupid sometimes. / Nope! I just started playing Minecraft again recently, and I still don't play that often.
Welp, that's all for now. See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
