"What the hell does THAT mean?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"I guess it means you're supposed to meet someone at the temple this evening? Doesn't take a genius." Petra replied sarcastically.

I gave her a dirty look. "I know that. But who could've sent it? And why?"

"I dunno. I bet it's something dangerous, though. You're not actually thinking of going alone, are you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes. I don't want to get you guys into danger." I replied, already knowing that she was going to argue.

"We manage to get into danger all the time, whether you're there or not. But...whatever. You get up and get your armor on, and I'll go tell Axel and Olivia about this whole thing." Petra decided.

"Lukas already knows?" I checked, noticing she hadn't mentioned him. "Yeah. He heard me shout when the frikkin' arrow almost hit me, and came to check on me."

She left the room, and I got out of bed. I quickly put my purple armor on, then grabbed both my usual sword and the new red one, and went downstairs. My friends were already waiting for me. Olivia and Lukas looked worried, Petra seemed slightly mad, and Axel just looked tired.

"So...Petra told you?" I asked.

"Yeah. And if you think for one second we're letting you walk into this by yourself, you're damn wrong." Axel announced. I sighed. "I figured as much."

"Who do you think sent it? It had'tve been someone we know, right?" Olivia asked.

"Not necessarily. A lot of people know who we are now." Lukas pointed out.

"Yeah, but that message seemed pretty threatening. We have made a few enemies here and there." I added.

"What about the Blaze Rods? I mean, I know they're probably still dealing with things in Terracity, but we know how much they like stirring up trouble." Olivia asked.

"Nah. This isn't how they work. And I doubt they're dumb enough to come after us again, at least so soon." Lukas replied.

"The Old Builders wouldn't do something like this either, even if they did manage to get out of the giant-chicken world." Axel mused.

"Is it possible that Cassie got out of her trap and came to this world...?" Petra asked nervously. "This IS kinda like something she would do."

"But she would know better than to leave a threatening message, right? I mean, you saw the invitations to her mansion." I said.

Olivia frowned, looking deep in thought. "Then who was it? I can't think of anyone else who would want to threaten us. Hell, we haven't made that many enemies. I mean, there's always the weirdos who are jealous or hate us for no reason, but no one I can think of would go this far."

"I think we can all agree that this is the setup to an ambush, right?" Axel asked.

"Right. Everything about this is setting off my 'danger' senses." Petra agreed.

"Well, nothing we can do right now. I think the best thing to do would be to just go about our day, and do as the message says this evening." I decided.

"But not alone. I don't want you getting killed, especially while we're not around." Petra said sternly, pointing at me.

I sighed. "Okay, okay. I get it."

-----------------

I approached the mountain temple, diamond sword in hand. There didn't appear to be anyone inside, but it was hard to tell from the dim lighting.

"Come on, guys. Let's check this out." I led the way into the temple, with the rest of the Order right behind me. Olivia squinted into the shadows casted by the fading light. "I don't see anyone in here..."

"Me neither. The time was pretty unspecific though. Maybe they're not here yet." Petra suggested.

As if in response to her remark, a loud CLICK sounded, and we turned around just in time to see a row of pistons lift blocks up from the floor, barricading the entrance.

"Ah! Up there!" Lukas exclaimed, pointing his drawn bow up at the domed ceiling. There, standing on conveniently placed blocks, were five people. I couldn't see their features very well, but they all looked around our age, and were all thoroughly armed.

"Crap. I think they have us cornered." Petra muttered. Right on cue, the group dropped down to the floor, still brandishing their weapons. Now I could see that there were three boys and two girls, and that they all were wearing elaborate armor.

Although I was certain I had never see any of them before, they still seemed vaguely familiar. Who were they? What did they want from me?

I quickly evaluated how dangerous they each might be. One of the girls was short and pretty, with primarily red armor and a handful of sharp throwing knives. The other girl was tall and had dark brown skin and short black hair. She looked somewhat aggressive, and held an enchanted iron sword. The boy standing next to her looked very similar, except he wore turquoisey-greenish armor.
Only one of them had a bow instead of a sword; a boy in blue and silver armor. He kept glancing at the last boy, who had light brown hair and wore blue, gold, and white armor.

It was difficult to tell who was in charge, but they all looked fairly hostile.

One of the boys, the light brown-haired one, made a motion with his hand, and the others spread out, surrounding us. The rest of the Order and I made a defensive circle, weapons at the ready.

"Told you she wouldn't come alone. You owe me an emerald, Jenni." The girl in the blue armor said.

"Aw, I was just kidding!" The other girl protested. "Well I wasn't. Pay up."

The second girl sighed, and tossed the green gem to her comrade. "Can we get to the point now?"

"Right. Listen up. We can do this the easy way, or we-" the first girl started.

"Jacqueline, shut up. We can do this without the over-clichéd lines. Just separate them, take 'em down, and finish our mission with no fuss." The boy with light brown hair ordered. The girl rolled her eyes, but didn't press the matter.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but we're not letting you so much as touch Jesse." Petra snapped, narrowing her eyes at the group. The brown-haired boy just grinned good-naturedly. "Good luck with that."

The five of them leapt into action, attacking with unmatched ferocity. The second girl went after Lukas and Olivia, while the blue-armored girl ran straight for Petra. She was followed by the other dark-skinned boy, though he didn't attack Petra with her. Instead he went for Axel, who seemed more than ready for a fight.

I found myself up against the other two boys, the first one (who seemed to be the leader), and the one in blue and silver armor. This second one didn't seem quite as aggressive as the others, and I decided to take advantage of that. I swung my sword towards him, but he ducked it and struck a blow of his own. I stuck my foot out, tripping him as he turned shoot an arrow. He fell to the ground with a shout, and I pivoted away, just in time to block a stab from the first boy.

By then, the second one was on his feet again. "Joss, I got it! Go help Jenni!" he shouted, gesturing at the girl fighting Olivia and Lukas. Olivia was trying to edge out of the fight, inching closer to the blocked-off door. The first boy hesitated for a second, then ran to stop her.

Having swapped out his bow for a diamond sword, the boy I was fighting prepared to attack again. I readied my sword, and dodged out of the way when he lunged for me. He turned quickly and swung again, but I was ready. His weapon clanged against my own, and I shoved him away as soon as our swords collided. He stumbled back slightly, then pulled a rope out of his inventory. Before I knew what was happening, the loop of cord had been thrown over me, too tight to get out of fast enough. I yelped in surprise and fell to the floor, having tripped over the extra coils of rope.

"You're a good fighter, I'll give you that." He admitted as he crouched next to me and wound the rope tighter. Once satisfied that I wasn't getting out of the tangle of knots, he stood and grabbed his sword again, heading back into the fight.

"Don't you dare hurt them!" I shouted. Petra was in an intense-looking swordfight with the blue-armored girl, and Lukas was firing arrows at the second girl while still avoiding the knives she was throwing at him. The leader boy had knocked Olivia's sword out of her hands, and had her pinned against the temple wall. The boy who had tied me up was now helping the dark-haired boy to keep Axel restrained. It didn't look good for the Order of the Stone.

The second girl (I had gathered that her name was Jenni) had almost run out of knives. One of Lukas's arrows grazed her side, and she squealed in fright, nearly tripping over her own feet. Lukas lunged forward, knocking the last knife out of her hand and throwing her to the floor. Unfortunately for him, she was stronger. She flipped him on his back and pinned him there, putting all her strength into keeping him down. Lukas struggled for a moment, but it was clear he wasn't going anywhere.

In a flash, Jenni got to her feet and snatched his bow from him, keeping him restrained with one foot planted on his chest and the other holding his arm down. She nocked an arrow into the bow and aimed it at his throat. "You keep wiggling and I shoot you." she warned.

"Lukas!" Petra shouted from across the room, which distracted her just long enough for the blue armor girl to snatch her sword. Petra shouted in frustration, but didn't have time to move before the other girl slammed her against the wall and held her there with an arm against her neck.

"You see that, ginger? One wrong move and your boyfriend gets an arrow through his neck. Jenni knows how to use a bow. He'll be dead before you can scream." The dark girl said in a low voice. Petra glared furiously, but didn't dare do anything else.

"Is that it? We got everyone?" the first boy asked. "Yeah. They're not going anywhere." The dark-skinned boy holding Axel down said confidently.

"What do you want from us? Why did you tell Jesse to come here?" Olivia shouted as I struggled in my bindings. Nope. That boy had known what he was doing: I didn't have a chance of getting out of these.

"We don't want anything from you. That's why we told her to come ALONE?" the dark girl snapped.

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't all shown up. We were willing to talk, but only with her." The leader boy said, nodding in my direction.

"Okay, why? You better not've put us through all that just to kill her!" Axel growled.

"No, we're not going to kill her. If we wanted to do that, we would've already. But..." Jenni trailed off, looking at the brown-haired boy.

The leader sighed, looking annoyed that he had to finish her statement. "But she is coming with us, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."

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Holy shit I forgot how short my chapters used to be lol