A City of Secrets and Masks

-Eight- Over the Months

Skeppy really didn't do much else. He continued his street show, slowly adding in acts related to knife throwing. He wasn't as focused on trying to become a vigilante as Bad was, which was ironic because Skeppy was the one who brought it up.

That's not to say Skeppy wasn't trying, though. He slowly turned his street shows into small, public practice sessions. He also went to the gym with Bad everyday, and he went on his own time as well. Skeppy was doing things on a smaller scale.

By the time the five months had passed, Bad was just about ready to start working. Skeppy had been ready for five months, but he'd held it off thus far. The anticipation was building for both of them. They were oh so excited to be going on their first mission.

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Sapnap did manage to get a job at the Hub. He got a nice place at the front desk with Finn, occasionally doing some guard work with Fundy. He still got an earful from George about quitting without a backup plan, though. 

Sap liked his new job- the system was easy to learn, he had a fair bit of free time to do whatever he wanted, and he got free lunch. He was adamant that the food from the cafeteria wasn't as bad as everyone said it was. Everyone else told him he had no sense of taste. 

There were a lot more benefits to the Hub than he thought there would be. He got full access to the gym, the records, and (technically) the armory. The heroes pushed back against that last part, making sure he knew he couldn't take anything. They didn't mind him looking, though.

Dream spent most of the first few months doing two things. The first thing was re-doing all of the hub's systems, so things could actually be found. This took him a while- he had to rewrite the entire system from scratch.

 The second was panicking about Technoblade. Dream made an effort to avoid him, but Techno always seemed to pop up and scare the shit out of Dream without even trying. Techno just seemed mildly confused about why his "Hello!" would make the new coder jump.

It was hard, at first, when the mere thought of Techno and him being alone in the same room would send shivers down Dream's spine. It got better quickly, though. He realized The Blade, the man who'd haunted him for many years had no idea who he was.

That was a good thing, but if he had to be honest, it kinda hurt. He was hoping to have left some sort of psychological impact on the city's main protector after the events that caused Dream to have to leave his city.

Once Dream got more comfortable in his new position, he found a new role in the Hub. He took over the kitchen. It was just an extra thing to do when he got bored, at first, but soon after he started, everyone was begging him to keep going. The previous chef (it was George) started taking mini-lessons from Dream.

George was a bit salty about having his secondary job taken, but he didn't really mind once the lessons started. He was actually glad to have a bit more free time- he repurposed that into time with Wilbur.

He and Wilbur worked together to try and figure out what was going on with the attacks. Wilbur was good at puzzling things out and figuring out what had happened at what times. George was good at knowing where info was and getting it to people.

The pair worked together every spare moment of their work days, and some moments of their personal days as well. At first, it seemed like they were making progress. Then the trail dropped off. It was unfortunate, but George figured it would just be like many of the other cold cases he'd seen through the years. Wilbur kept on it, though. George still supported him, but pulled back a bit.

If a case went cold, it would either heat up again eventually or die off. George thought it'd be the first one. No, he didn't think. Even without his foresight, he knew.

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He would be right. The Assembly was just waiting. They made a couple moves so far, but they were plotting out a big one.

They got some more blood and a few sources of blood. A few of the members were iffy about the ethics of all of this, but they were overruled. Despite having a member nicknamed The King, they were democratic about it.

They didn't get to meet up often. Most communication came from coded letters passed between each hidden drop boxes.

They did get some good news throughout all of this. Another one of their members had infiltrated the Hub. Karl Jacobs, formerly know as KJ for privacy, was in and actively spying. That meant they had two sets of eyes and ears on the inside.

They'd set their goal a while ago, and they were so, so close to it. The Assembly as a group buzzed with nervous energy whenever they managed to meet. They'd started leaving calling cards after they borrowed some blood. They were at that late-term stage where they would need the media to know them.

They were sure people would want to know who they were when they completed their goals. Some, (M, mostly,) had mentioned starting autobiographies to publish later. They were sure the people would buy them. How could you not want to know your saviors? To know why they did what they did?

Well, the people wouldn't see them as saviors in the beginning, but they'd get there.

It was all just a matter of precise moves and time.

And oh, did the Assembly have time. They had all of the time in the world, much unlike the Guardians. It was truly unfortunate that it had to happen this way, but their time?

It was running out.

A/N

oooh timeskip

any oneshots I write with this fic will be from this time period until further notice lol. (shameless plug to my oneshot book lmao)

also pog??? 2k reads!?!? Ty!!! It's not a big milestone, but I'm gonna do a bonus chapter for it anyways. Expect that soon.

That's all for today! hope you enjoyed and see you in the next (bonus) chapter :)

-Ace