Jesse's POV

"They're gone..." I sank down to my knees as I processed what just happened. Cassie Rose planted something on Reuben, Benedict, and Lluna to make them try and fight them, they got knocked out, and then she sent a revived version of the Witherstorm to distract her and her friends as the Wither Hoverer and PAMA were sent to take the kids behind their backs.

"Uh Sis...?"

"Cassie brought PAMA and the Witherstorm back to life..."

"Jesse..."

"Why is she going after us like this?"

"Jessica!"

"What?!"

"Um Addie!" J pointed toward the sky where Addie had been struck by PAMA's electric charge and was, now, unconscious and falling toward the stone street, rapidly.

"Oh Gravel!" I yelled.

I flicked my wrist to create an enderpearl, but as I wound up my arm to throw it at Addie to save her, she crashed into the street and left a skid mark in the stone.

When my brother and I went over to where she landed we saw that Addie landed on her stomach, her arm was twisted behind her back at an unnatural angle and scratches covered her arms and legs.

Just as we turned away, J gagging at the sight of her broken arm, we heard her moaning and a sickening 'Crack!' as her arm snapped back into place.

"Ok, that hurt so much worse than crashing through that tree." She emphasized with swiping hand motions before standing up, cracking her back, and dusting her shorts off before looking at us, "Are you guys OK? You look like you're about to puke."

"How in the heck did you survive that fall? That was like 10 times worse than the tree crash?!" J hollered loudly making Addie jump back a bit.

"Like I said earlier, immortality has its perks, I'm cursed to die eventually in the far far future, but, for now, I can't die apparently." She explained only earning a confused look from J, "My curse is a mystery sometimes, even to me."

"Now that we got that out of our system, what are we going to do about getting Reuben, Benedict, and Lluna back from Cassie Rose?" I asked placing a hand on J's shoulder.

"Don't you think we should make sure the people are OK?" He asked me.

"What about the kids?"

"We'll figure out a plan to get them back, but we need to make sure the others are OK."

"Alright..."

My brother and I ran down the street to where the others had been fighting the Wither Hoverer and saw that everyone had been able to get the people out with only a few injuries here and there.

"That thing was tough..." Medi said as she landed on the ground and diffused from Eryn.

"No kidding, we've never seen anything like that, even in our home world." Chai added as she pocketed her knife.

"Where are the little troublemakers?" Petra asked.

Jesse hesitated to tell them, but J answered for her,

"While the Hoverer distracted you guys here, Cassie sent PAMA to go behind and take them."

"Seriously?!"

"We have to get them back, what's the plan?" Lukas asked as he put a hand on Petra's shoulder to keep her from slashing something in anger.

"I've got an idea as to what's happening." Addie appeared out of nowhere.

"You really need to stop doing that!" J exclaimed.

"Sorry, it's kind of a natural thing for me."

"What's your idea?" Lukas asked.

"I think the reason Cassie took Reuben, Benedict, and Lluna is because when I changed them from animals to people, I infused them with some of my 'dark magic'." Addie responded putting her hands in quotation marks at the last part.

"What do you mean?" Jesse questioned looking nervous.

"My magic isn't really magic, but a kind of manipulation of the world's code."

"What is that supposed to mean?" J tilted his head in confusion.

"Everything works and is made up of special codes that help to make everything in the worlds function. Like how I was made using a section of your code." Jesse explained.

"Right. So my family's 'spell book' is really just a book of ways to manipulate codes without having to visit the source code."

"The source code being the Terminal Zone?" Petra asked.

"Yeah, I think the Terminal Zone was just an extension of the main source code."

"But what do the kids have to do with that?" Jesse asked a bit impatiently.

"Sorry, I can't help but elaborate, so anyways when I infused the kids with the manipulated code that I used to change their form, I sort of, unintentionally, gave them a way to access the source."

"So Cassie's going to be able to reach the source code and what, control it."

"Exactly, the world is beginning to glitch apart since you powered down the only remaining Admin when you defeated Romeo. Now the world is being 'rebooted' without someone to maintain it."

"But it's been months since that's happened and it's barely starting now?" Petra asked.

"Whatever the case may be, we're going to have to find the source code before Cassie does and disable its Admin controls."

"This all sounds great, but how exactly are we supposed to get to the source code if the Terminal Zone was destroyed." Lukas reminded everyone.

"Not necessarily, the Terminal Zone was an extended segment of the source code, so it still exists in the world that the code resides in."

"Which is where exactly?" Petra asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"It's called the Umbra World, it's where all the miscoded mobs are sent in order to prevent more frequent glitches from spreading."

"How are we going to get there?" Lukas asked.

"Technically, you and Jesse have already experienced the travel to that place..."

"When you shadow hop." Jesse finished as she and Lukas shivered at the memory of how it felt to be dragged through the darkness.

"Yep, so I'm going to need to do the same again, only with more people."

"Do you think guys could stay behind and guard Beacontown in case the glitches in the forest get close to town?" Jesse asked the Wattpaders.

"You can count on us." Aspen stated and she gave a thumbs up.

"Definitely." Lily added as her Pokémon got on either side around her.

"Alright guys, let's get to the source code." Jesse stated determinedly.

1137 Words

AN- Sorry for the uneventful chapter, but I've been pretty busy getting stuff ready since I'm literally posting this, and two tags, as I'm about to leave on a road trip to drive from San Diego to Austin Texas to visit some family for a week. So I'll be relatively inactive for the time being since I don't know there'll be internet where we're staying. See Y'all later, Bye!