Triple Life [3rd Life SMP]

31. Attack

"It's crooked," Bdubs said.

Etho sighed as he stared at the item frame he had placed on the wall. "It's not crooked."

"Yeah it is! Cleo, look, isn't it crooked?"

"I'm not getting involved in this," she called from the loft she was decorating higher up in their home. An ice spike had been an interesting choice but Etho didn't regret it. He liked how the height allowed them to climb up and survey their surroundings. And the novelty of it just made it fun.

"The frame's fine, it's straight," Etho said. "Trust me, I'm an expert."

"Expert in what?" Bdubs demanded. "Straightness?"

"He definitely isn't that," Cleo said.

Bdubs wheezed and Etho rolled his eyes, then stepped back further from the frame to inspect it.

"I'm telling you, it's tilted just a smidge too far," Bdubs said.

"Yeah? Then come over here and fix it," Etho said.

"I can't, I'll just mess it up. You have the dainty hands, you do it."

Etho reached out to lightly brush his fingers against the frame without shifting it, then stepped aside again.

"Perfect!" Bdubs declared.

Etho had to resist the urge to laugh. "What are we putting in this anyway? Your clock?"

"Hell no, this clock is way too valuable to just leave in an item frame. No, I just thought it'd be funny to display that clownfish you caught the other day."

Etho supposed he didn't have any better uses for that thing. He went to get it from the chest he had thrown it into, and as he did, there were simultaneous beeps from all of their communicators.

Cleo groaned and Bdubs shouted, "Who's dying now?!"

"I bet BigB dragged his team after Grian's crew," Cleo suggested, looking down from the upper floor.

Bdubs got his communicator out and Etho got the clownfish from the chest, taking it over to the item frame.

"Ohh, it was Impulse," Bdubs said.

"What happened?" Etho asked in concern. He placed the fish carefully in the frame and turned back around to see Bdubs looking worried.

"Fell in lava," Bdubs replied. "Poor guy, that had to hurt. Hope he gets lots of snuggles from Martyn and Mumbo."

"So that's... wait a second." Cleo slid down the ladder and walked over to them, clicking something on her own communicator. "He's red now."

"Oh man, he is." Etho stared at her, then toward the door as he thought. "He's red, Mumbo is yellow, and Martyn's green."

"Got a variety pack going on over there," Bdubs said.

"And they live practically right next door," Cleo said. "We need to be very careful."

"I'm not done setting up that underwater escape route yet. They could corner us. We have a few pieces of TNT, but..." Etho shook his head, worried. Only Impulse would be able to attack them at first. But due to the rules, as soon as Etho or one of his partners fought back, everyone on Impulse's team could join in. He would have to approach any conflict carefully.

"You were with Impulse last time," Cleo said, setting her hands on Bdubs's shoulders. "What do you think he'll do? Try to kill immediately? Or plan something out?"

"I... I don't know," Bdubs replied. "He's good with redstone, he might try to trap someone's base. But if he died to lava, he'll probably want to get his stuff back first. But maybe that's what he wants us to think, and he's actually gonna attack as soon as he can. I just don't know what to expect. He's adaptable."