Unrecognizable

~Chapter Twelve~

However, Mumbo didn't exactly get a chance to voice them as the next thing he knew, Xisuma called out something Mumbo didn't quite catch and his whole body suddenly seemed to be on fire.

Ouch

A ringing filled his ears and the Hermit flinched. After a moment, though, it subsided along with the pain. It was silent. Almost too silent, and Mumbo was about to worry that his hearing had been damaged when X's voice travelled to him from seemingly the other side of the room. "Mumbo... I think it worked!" When X came back over to let the Hermit out, he was smiling brightly behind his helmet-- or he appeared to be, at least, Mumbo couldn't exactly see very well past the bee-like helmet. X opened the door and Mumbo quickly stumbled out, not having been so relieved to be in a somewhat open space in his many lives.

X handed Mumbo back his communicator and the two walked back over to the other cell, where a very familiar figure stood motionless, its eyes closed. Something Mumbo noticed was that his lookalike seemed to be emanating an almost orange, gold glow. How strange; nothing else seemed to do that. It appeared that Xisuma had noticed that as well, as the admin said next to him, "Hey, is it glowing?"

Mumbo nodded. "I think so. I wonder why; maybe it's because it's a person and not an apple?" X seemed to tense up and Mumbo turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "What, you don't think I'm right?"

X quickly shook his head. "No, that's not it. You are probably right, actually. My point was that, uh, are we sure this will work? The most complex thing we've made was an apple-- this is an entire human. What if it doesn't work, and stays in this.... half-alive state forever?"

Mumbo hadn't thought of that, but now that he thought about it, X could be right. Or maybe not, as the second Mumbo opened his mouth to respond, the glow around the form in the cell disappeared. The two turned to it, backing up just a bit. Suddenly, the figures eyes opened, revealing amber eyelids with silver streaks. The pupils were dilated in a way that made it seem like the figure was surprised or even scared. The form's eyes settled on the two Hermits standing outside of the cell and it immediately jumped into motion. It stumbled backwards against the wall of the cell, then turned around. It then flailed forward against the cell door, evidently trying to escape, its eyes wide.

Mumbo and X stood in shocked silence. Mumbo wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting, but this was definitely not it. As Mumbo said, "Should we... let it out?" X simultaneously muttered, "Well that answers that question..." The two Hermits stood uncomfortably still as the figure in the cell seemed to calm down, backing up with slightly less wild eyes. It stared into the distance, propping itself up against the wall of the cell for quite some time before looking back at the two. Its mouth opened and a strikingly familiar voice came out.

"...hello." The figure sounded so much like Mumbo that it was almost scary. "Explanation." The word was less of a question and more of a statement; this creation was demanding an explanation. 

And Mumbo had no idea how to give one.

Luckily, Xisuma was on the case. In about sixty seconds, the admin had managed to sum up everything that was going on, from Mumbo building the machine, to the apple cloning, to the creation of... the creation... itself. Mumbo really needed to give him a name at some point. 

After a few more minutes of explaining and talking to the Mumbo lookalike, X pulled Mumbo to the side. "I think we should let him out," Xisuma suggested. Mumbo nodded in agreement; the redstoner was just about to suggest that. The npc-- it was the simplest thing Mumbo could refer to it-him?-them? as-- seemed to calm down quite a bit, and Mumbo was at least eighty percent sure that it wouldn't try to run off and get it and/or anyone else hurt.