Chapter Text
It took half a minute of knocking on his door before he woke up, then another ten seconds for him to realise what he was hearing.
“Be there in a minute!” the admin called out, voice groggy and warped by his half-mask. He rubbed his eyes with his palms, not too happy to be awake. Then again, it had to be serious if people came to wake him up at – he checked the clock on his communicator, the light almost blindingly bright – a quarter past two at night.
“Urgh… okay then… I’ll get out… it’s fine, it’s fine,” he murmured to himself as he sat up, before putting on his bunny slippers and bathrobe. He didn’t exactly care about what whomever was behind the door would think, he was tired as hell and he would show that. If the bags under his eyes didn’t betray it, his general appearance would.
And so he dragged himself to the door, bunny slippers and green bathrobe and loosely braided hair and all. Without much ceremony he opened it up, squinting at the sudden bright torchlight.
“Scar...? What’s up?” he groaned, suppressing a yawn. He felt like he could fall asleep standing right there and then, but Xisuma forced himself to stay awake, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Well, we got something you ought to see. The drones picked up an... interesting development, to say the least.” His voice had a hint of worry in it as he spoke, and the admin felt part of his tiredness be replaced by adrenalin. Virtually any development would mean progress.
“Lead the way.”
The duo walked through the tunnels of the bunker, and Xisuma’s heart raced faster the closer he got. He didn’t want to bring up his hopes too much, but maybe, just maybe this could be the thing that lead them to the missing Hermit. Gods knew they could all use good news for once.
The video room was only lit by the glow of the monitors, and the smell of too strong coffee was everywhere. Doc was sitting behind the control panel, eyes sweeping over the various video feeds. They all showed different places, all of which Xisuma recognised, either from having been there or from having seen them earlier.
“Evening, Doc.” Xisuma stepped inside, followed closely by Scar, who closed the door behind them. The cyborg nodded in greeting, then pointed to the monitor in the top right corner.
“Thanks for being here this quickly. That’s the one you’ll want to take a look at.”
The admin turned to the monitors, quietly observing what was going on on the monitor. It looked like… Mumbo’s base? Okay then. That seems normal enough, I- What’s that door? Hmm… Just the fact that the redstoner had a secret door somewhere was not a cause for concern, really. He would bet most if not all Hermits had one somewhere.
“Now, keep watching, I’m going to zoom in for you,” Doc simply stated, and Xisuma frowned. Zoom in? The fragment restarted just a little bit before the door would open, and it was focussed on there as well now. A second later there was movement on screen once more, as the door opened and Mumbo came out. Still, nothing special, but…
His eyes widened when he noticed.
“Wait, are those cobwebs?!”
“That’s exactly what we woke you up for,” Scar confirmed. “I think we may have a mole.”
Xisuma rubbed his forehead, a grunt of displeasure rolling over his lips. This could help them, or this could screw them over very hard.
“The good news is that it’s Mumbo,” shrugged Doc. “We all know how that went last time.” The admin hummed in agreement, eyes finding the monitor again.
“Where is he now?” Behind him, fingers danced over a keyboard, and the monitor flickered between images a few times.
“Last we got, he went… There. To his bedroom, so it may be safe to assume he’s asleep. I can check, but it’ll take a few minutes for the drone to reach the right position again.” The cyborg started typing further, and very briefly, Xisuma was glad that he had a base that was more underground. No spying drones there.
“Right. Before we do anything else, we need to figure out what is in that room, and then decide what we’re gonna do about it.” The admin sighed. So far for a good night’s rest. “If Mumbo’s asleep, this is the best moment to check. Scar, can you go get False? I want her there.”
The landscaper nodded, then hurried out of the room.
“I’m gonna have to get my helmet, aren’t I?” he asked out loud as he stared after him.
“Some armour and boots don’t seem like a bad idea either,” Doc responded. “Go get changed, I’ll give you a sign when all’s clear.”
“Yeah, I should.” It took him a second to get moving. “Thanks, Doc.”
This was going to be a long night.
With a cloak wrapped around her, she stood waiting on the platform of the Elytra course. Under it, she wore a not-so-modest amount of diamond armour, and her trusty sword hung from her side. She doubted an infiltration mission would turn out in a fight, but False liked being prepared for things like that. She even had a shield tucked away in her inventory. She would swap out the cloak and chestplate out for an elytra when then would leave, but for now, the little bit of extra warmth was nice.
As she heard rockets being fired in the quiet of the night, she looked up, sharp eyes searching for the source of the sound. It didn’t take long at all for her to find the glint of diamond armour coming over the Sahara building. That had to be X, no one else would be flying here this time of night. Her theory was confirmed when he landed next to her.
“Did Scar tell you what we’re possibly dealing with already?” he asked after greeting her.
“Yeah, he brought me up to speed on things. I just hope this is all some kind of misunderstanding, cause that would be great.” While talking, she accessed her inventory and re-equipped her elytra, putting her cloak and chestplate away. False stretched as the weight disappeared from her shoulders, enjoying the freedom the elytra gave.
“Me too, False. Me too. But let’s not bring our hopes up too much, we don’t know what they have been doing in the shadows.” He placed a lot of emphasis on the word, and she knew who he meant by it. She nodded pensively, before taking a rocket in her hands.
“Shall we, then? We don’t know how long he plans on sleeping, so we shouldn’t waste time.” She adjusted her goggles so that they would keep the wind out of her eyes as she flew.
“Let’s go.”
Where Xisuma opted to jump in the air and time his rocket well, False dove off the platform head first, unfurling her elytra just before hitting the ground. She pulled up hard, and started following after the admin, opting to use her rockets sparingly. Less rockets meant less noise, and less noise meant less chance of someone waking up because of it.
The duo flew side by side, mostly checking around for anything suspicious. Given that most of their journey went either above sea or around a currently uninhabited base, though, there wasn’t much to be noticed, except for the one drowned that tried being aggressive by tossing his trident out of the water. He also missed by a mile, given that they were flying high and the mob could not throw that far at all.
And then the giant glass and concrete structure that was Mumbo’s base came into sight. It was quiet, all farms having been turned off for the night. The only movement came from the polar bears in the winter section of the storage system, and the occasional chicken that was wandering around. The latter certainly had to be the product of one prank or the other.
As they approached, they switched from using rockets to just gliding down slowly. Doc had shown Xisuma exactly where the door should be, and both of them knew the general layout of the base, so in theory this should be a quick in and out mission. The only thing they weren’t entirely sure about was how to open the door, but they would figure it out somehow. And worse case, there were always silk touch pickaxes.
“Coast seems clear, let’s go for it.” Xisuma spoke loud enough for her to barely hear him over the sound of the wind and no louder, but it was fine by her. She stuck a thumb up, and dove further forwards, making some speed before her landing manoeuvre. Seconds later, the admin followed her lead, and landed smoothly, switching between flying and walking effortlessly.
False looked around, hand on the hilt of her sword and ready for action. She was looking out for enemies as Xisuma went and searched for the door from the video.
It was more the redstone torch laying burnt out on the floor than the landscape itself which eventually pointed them in the right direction. The top bit seemed a little bit smushed together where something had seemingly hit it, and that was all the admin needed to figure it out.
“Over here,” he whispered, and False came sneaking over.
“Let’s see what happens if I just…” He took some redstone from his inventory and rubbed it on the torch, that immediately started to glow again. Then, after carefully looking at how the rocks jutted out, he put the torch on the floor on a specific spot, close to where it had laid on the ground.
For half a second, nothing happened. Then pistons fired, the torch got pushed over, and the wall split open, revealing a room full of cobwebs and a lectern.
“Well, that does not look shady at all,” she stated, peering into the now no longer hidden room. “I’m going in.”
Before Xisuma could stop her, and before the door closed, she went in, making a beeline for the book on the lectern. The spider theme of this whole situation continued here as well. For a second, she checked around the book for traps, and then opened it.
False read the first line once, then again, and only after that went on with the rest. An uneasy, sinking feeling slowly settled in her stomach as she read on, first the terms, then the requests. Simple, harmless at first. Every time just a little bit bigger, a little bit more. Her mind was racing as she made the connection with the myth, suddenly realising that in this case, Mumbo was the older brother in the story. And she knew where this path would lead him, if he didn’t realise it in time.
Not knowing how much time she had, she pulled out a notebook, and started copying the text in the book as fast and precise as she could. It was a good thing to have, although it would have to mostly remain a secret or there would be trouble.
When she finished, False took care to put everything back as she had found it. And now to get out of here. Luckily, the way out was less hidden than the way in, and the button was in plain sight. What was also in plain sight where the small spiders, some of which were definitely looking at her.
“Nope. Nope, nope, nope!” False hit the button, and started moving out the moment the pistons started moving.
As she walked through the door, she could not shake the feeling that by the simple act of having been here, reading those pages, she had just doomed Grian.