Xisuma is walking past the nether portal next to town hall when Iskall, Grian, Ren, and False are warped in from the Minecraft Championships, "How'd it go?" He asks as they regain their balance.
"We didn't win," Grian chirps slightly disappointed as he flutters up onto a wall.
"That's too bad," Xisuma frowns then seemingly remembers something important, "Iskall, Grian, can you two follow me?"
The pair look over at each other, then nod, bidding farewell to False and an exhausted-looking Ren. The full moon had unfortunately been during the championships so he didn't really have a chance to sleep during it. They follow Xisuma up the stairs to the town hall and into the room Mumbo was staying in.
Doc is crouched next to the bed and is inspecting Mumbo's leg's. He murmurs a muffled greeting and continues what he was doing.
Iskall gasps as they walk in, "What happened?"
In a similar response, Grian squawks before hopping up to Mumbo and looking at him worriedly.
Seeing that he wouldn't be able to finish his inspection Doc wraps up, nods to Xisuma, and leaves the room.
Mumbo grins slightly and gives a jerky wave, "Hi, how was the championship?"
"Mumbo. That doesn't matter what happened to you?" Grian asks, concern filling his voice.
"Um, the meteor has started affecting me and it decided that I should be a robot. It's got my arms and legs so far," Mumbo explains as he lifts his arm showing them the robotic structure.
Iskall lets a low whistle and carefully taps the arm, "That is one heck of a design. The detail work is incredible. I think it's almost comparable to Biffa's."
Mumbo laughs, "Why don't you guys tell me about what happened at the championship?"
"We lost, but we probably were the funniest group," Iskall explains then continues, "After the battle box game, it was almost night time so we all took a break. Everyone was eating dinner together when the sun went down-"
Here they dissolve into laughter and can't regain composure so Grian takes over the explanation, "The sunset and it was a full moon. We were inside so we couldn't tell what phase of the moon was in. During dinner, Ren got really hyper and jumpy so it wasn't really that much of a surprise that he shifted."
—
All the competitors were sitting down eating dinner. For the most part, they have stayed with their teams with only a few people sitting with others. Per usual Tommy has migrated over to the sleepy boys and is slumped over the table completely worn out from the day's games. Techno and Wilbur are stacking random things on top of his head and Philza is watching rather amused at their antics.
The hermits are gathered next to each other and are talking quietly. Over the course of the meal, Ren's tail starts wagging faster and faster as he seemingly gains energy. This naturally draws people's attention and a couple of giggles. A few minutes later Ren lets out a quiet growl.
Grian looks over Ruffling his feathers, "You good?"
"Check the moon phase," He grumbles as he rubs his jaw.
Pulling her communicator out False checks the phase, "It's going to be full tonight."
Ren leans over the table, "I'm going outside if I'm not back in an hour come looking."
The others nod and watch him leave. About thirty minutes later one of the admins darts inside looking completely frazzled, "Did anyone bring a dog?" He asks clearly panicking
Grian stretches his wings out, "Does it have brown fur?"
"Uh, yes," The admin murmurs as he pulls up some security footage.
"That's Ren," Grian says bluntly, "It's the full moon. He's not dangerous or anything. He just gets kinda stupid when he's like this."
The dining hall's door shudders slightly as the sound of paws on wood echoes throughout the silent building. Then the whining starts.
False rolls her eyes, gets up, and lets him in. Ren wags his tail and gently nudges her leg with his nose before trotting off to go say hi to all the 'new' people.
Most of the people smile and pat his head and pet him when he comes by.
Dream grins and gently rubs between Ren's ears, "Cute."
George looks over grinning, "I can turn you back into a dog," He suggests slyly as he pulls out a crystal that's glowing slightly.
"I don't particularly want to repeat that, so no," Dream says as he adjusts his mask, pushing it up slightly.
As he slowly pads his way around the tables Ren ends up next to Techno's team, he wanders around the table and receives pats from everyone except for Tommy who is completely passed out by this point and is leaning against Philza.
Ren stares at him for a moment before running over to Iskall and looking up at them expectantly.
Looking down Iskall grins widely, "Is this what you want?" As they say this they form a large slime ball and manipulate it so it's essentially a rubber ball.
Ren barks happily and trots back over to Tommy's table where he drops the green ball and gently paws at Tommy's leg until he wakes up and looks down, gives him a pat and throws the ball for him.
In the end, everyone ends up playing with him for a few hours before they head to the campsites that have been set up for them.
—
Grian finishes the story with Iskall occasionally interjecting. Mumbo sits quietly then starts laughing, his legs folding up to his chest.
"And everyone was chill with that?" He asks, doubting the story slightly.
"Well I don't think anyone liked Ren running around the campgrounds all night," Grin mutters as he flutters up to the footboard of the bed.
A quiet knock sounds at the door and Stress carefully pokes her head in, "Hey, Iskall I have two somebody's who want to see you," as she says this she lets Vee and Echo bounce over to Iskall. Who picks them up and gently deposits them into their pocket after giving them hugs.
They spend a few more hours talking with Mumbo before heading back to their bases.
.............
Mumbo slumps down in his bed as a knock sounds at the door. He mutters, "Come in."
Doc is at the door looking very worried, "It looks like the meteor is going to flare in a few hours, it'll probably finish off you being affected."
His face drains of color, "Oh, dear."
Nodding Doc sits down next to him, "Do you want to power down while this happens? I don't know if it'll be painful."
The room is filled with a slight humming noise, "That's probably smart," He decides.
Doc carefully snuffs out the redstone torch, "I'll stick around."
Mumbo smiles at Doc and after a while of talking they start playing some card games. A few hours in and Mumbo is completely exhausted and powers down. The alert is sent through the chat. A few people ask if he's alright so Doc explains what will happen.
Doc sets down a chest and places iron, glass, redstone, and some other various materials that might be of use as he transforms. His communicator pings letting him know the meteor was extremely active and is starting the next stage of Mumbo's transformation, the metal of his arms is creeping up onto his shoulders.
Something odd happens as Doc curls into a corner to watch what happens. His communicator receives a message from a garbled source, it reads; You all care for each other and can recognize when someone needs help adjusting. As such, I'll give you the mercy of not watching what happens next.
As Doc reads the final words his mind fills with haze and he falls unconscious. The next thing he knows is Bdubs frantically shaking him awake. He hisses, not one of his quiet ones but a loud bone-chilling I'm about to blow you up one. When he finds his words he apologizes to Beef who had stumbled and tripped over his hooves in fear. Mumbo was still lying on the bed powered down.
Doc shows Bdubs the message he had received and gets up to take a look at Mumbo. Bdubs goes to show Xisuma the message and to get Iskall and Grian to see Mumbo. The now full robot looks to be functional and as Doc inspects his torso he finds a small switch, looking over at Beef who shrugs, he flicks it. Nothing happens for a moment then a small panel flicks open. As he inspects it he finds a small slot. Eyes widening with realization Doc places the torch in. The panel slides shut with a soft click. Doc looks down at his communicator hoping that Bdubs would return soon with Iskall and Grian.
A few minutes pass then Mumbo wakes, he slowly tries to sit up once he makes it he looks over at Doc and tries to speak, all that comes out is a garbled mess of sounds.
"Right, vocal cords," Doc mutters, "Try to connect to my frequency."
Mumbo looks up at Doc, his eyes turning from red to blue. He shakes his head then shrugs.
"You don't know how?" Doc guesses, "When Iskall gets here we can do a forced connection... Oh, it's not safe without a third person capable of making the link."
Mumbo nods then starts inspecting his torso. It's solid iron and in between the plating bits of soft light peak out. The way the plates are put together makes it almost look delicate. As he goes through inspecting his torso he taps Doc's shoulder so he turns to look at him. Once he has his attention Mumbo attempts to say something before giving up and pointing to his face.
"Your face? It looks the same. It's kinda like how Biffa has his head, the metal wraps around your face. You do have a little bit of metal across your cheekbones."
At that moment a knock sounds and Iskall and Grian stumble into the room. Doc immediately pulls Iskall off to the side to explain what he wanted to do.
Grian sits down in a chair next to where Mumbo is laying, "How are you doing?"
Mumbo opens his mouth then closes it, his eyes shifting to bright pink.
"Can you not talk?"
Mumbo shakes his head in confirmation.
"Do you mind if I take a look at it?"
He looks off considering for a moment, his eyes fading back to red. He nods and allows Grian to inspect his throat.
Grian pokes at it for a minute before sitting back, "I've never seen anything like that."
"I'm not surprised," Doc says as he walks back in, "The design isn't natural, it's nothing like what could be created today. Even Biffa has areas that cause him issues with joint movements, he doesn't have anything of the sort."
Doc looks over at Iskall and makes the connection to their frequency. Allowing them to talk to each other telepathically. Doc walks over to Mumbo and forcibly opens a link with him. As he does this Mumbos's eyes turn white. Iskall takes a step forward as Doc swiftly activates his voice box.
"Did it work?" Mumbo asks slowly, then grins when everyone nods his eyes turning bright yellow.
..........
A few hours have passed since Doc had activated Mumbo's voice box. Joe Hills popped in on his way to his office. He gave Mumbo a mirror.
Mumbo pokes at his Face, wincing slightly when the cold metal from his fingers makes contact with his face. As he inspects his face something starts changing. Small dots pop up around his face. His eyes flash purple in confusion. The small freckles as he determines suddenly light up, it looks like redstone being activated.
He jerks back confused. The freckles slowly fade from bright red to a duller red. He lets out a sigh as he carefully places the mirror down. Iskall and Grian have left for Iskall's base to deal with Vee and Echo. Doc was off grabbing Xisuma so he could help Mumbo figure out how to walk. So for the time being he's alone.
He leans forwards towards his legs, he hasn't really had a chance to inspect what had happened to them as he's been wrapped up in a blanket the entire time. As he slides the blanket off a quiet clunk sounds when he moves. As he inspects the limbs he notices something odd, on the outside of one of his ankles there is a small gear shape stamped into the metal.
"That's odd," He mumbles to himself as he pulls himself up. He could move his arms around with relative ease but he still has trouble moving his legs consciously.
Xisuma knocks on the door and pushes it open, "Mumbo, I need you to do something."
"Ok, what is it?"
Xisuma steps forwards and carefully pulls Mumbo up, "Walk with me."
"Uh, I don't think this is a good idea," Mumbo stammers struggling to keep his footing.
"We're staying in this room and I won't let you fall," Xisuma bargains as he holds Mumbo up.
Mumbo relents and allows Xisuma to help him walk around the room. After three hours of work, he can't make it two steps without falling.
Xisuma makes a humming noise, "Let me call Doc," As he does this Mumbo sits in a chair. Xisuma sets his communicator down after a moment, "He's coming to take a look at the wires, he said something about some looking loose when he did his inspection."
About a minute later Doc enters the room, "Xisuma if you can get him back onto the bed," Once he's back on the bed Doc rolls the shorts he's wearing up slightly so he can access a panel. Once the panel is open Doc pokes around for a moment, "Your wires are loose, it looks slightly flawed by the knees. It should only take a few minutes to fix."
From a nearby table Doc's communicator buzzes loudly, he asks Xisuma to read to the message, "It's not from a hermit, the source is all garbled. Uh, it says; How dare you disrespect his work."
"That's the second time I've gotten something like that. I think it's the meteor," Doc mutters as he slides a tool into the open panel.
"Doc, he sent another one," Xisuma murmurs.
"What's it say?" Doc asks as he reattaches some wires.
"I will allow you to fix your friend but there will be consequences," Xisuma reads, "Doc, this doesn't seem safe anymore."
"Doc, you should stop," Mumbo says as he looks at the creeper.
Doc lets out a bone-chilling hiss, "I won't stop, you need your legs to work."
Xisuma stands up, "Doc, we don't know what will happen."
"I can't stop you Doc, but you don't need to do this we can find another way."
"I've already fixed most of the wires. Whatever's happening will happen regardless of what I do now. The meteor sent the warning too late."
Mumbo looks over at Xisuma, "I wonder how the meteor even got into the communicator network."
Xisuma shrugs, "It's probably got something to do with all the computers and stuff surrounding it."
By this point, Doc is finished fixing the wires. As he slides the final panel closed, his eye flickers off and his arm powers down.
Doc's communicator buzzes with a new message and Xisuma reads it off so everyone can hear, "I warned you. As for how I'm doing this, your new robotic friend here has access to your communicator network, he wasn't using it so I took it over. Since my warning came too late and therefore it wasn't fair. I will relent with some sympathy and simply turn off your creeper friends' technology bits for a while," Xisuma looks up and rushes over to Doc, "Doc, are you alright?"
The creeper looks up and blinks at Xisuma before stumbling to all fours and slinks into a dark corner. Xisuma looks over and decides to let him stay in the corner for a while as he checks on Mumbo.
...........
A week later and Doc is back to normal, and Mumbo has yet to figure out how to walk so Xisuma makes the decision to call a certain someone, "Hey, Biffa."
"Xisuma? Is everything alright?" Biffa asks as he picks his communicator up.
He lets out a sigh, "Something really bad happened, we need your help."
"Why don't you tell me what happened?"
Xisuma lets out a breath that he had been holding, "It's a long story. Last season a meteor hit and it started doing really weird things to people. It transformed them. It turned Scar into a Vex and Ren into a werewolf," As Xisuma explains what happened, with the meteor Biffa listens and occasionally asks a few questions.
"That's absolutely crazy," He mutters, "Don't get me wrong I completely believe you. So, what do you need help with?"
"It's Mumbo, he was affected a week ago and the meteor turned him into a robot. He's having problems with walking."
Biffa hums, "No problems with his arms?"
"No problems there."
"That happens sometimes with new people, I can come and help fix it if you want me to."
"Could you? That would be fantastic."
"Is there any chance that I would get affected?"
"Hang on for a sec, let me see... No, as long as you don't stay for too long you'll be fine."
"And if I want to stay, would you let me?"
"Of course we would."
And with that, the conversation ends and they arrange for Biffa to return to Hermitcraft.
"Mumbo? Can I ask you something?" Doc asks as he helps him stand up.
"Uh, ok."
"Can you access the communicator that's built-in?"
"I don't think so. I think the meteor is keeping control of it," Mumbo answers as he crumples to the ground.
Doc hisses helping Mumbo up into a chair, "Meteor, if you're listening why are you doing this to us?"
A few minutes later Doc's communicator pings with two Messages, The first one is from Xisuma stating that Biffa would get to hermitcraft by evening. The second is the response from the meteor, "You ask why I'm doing this. Simply, I want others to feel my pain. I was forced into a horrific form, everyone knew it was me and didn't treat me any differently, but I was different. I have spared you from the pain of transforming, I was given no such kindness.
After I was cursed I swore revenge on the Vex and failed. So I decided to practice what little magic I had left as I floated around in space. Over time my magic grew stronger and stronger and I ended up here. I could tell there was a high concentration of Vex magic, so I started affecting people to show the Vex that even their puppets weren't safe."
As Doc reads off the meteor's message he winces, "That's never a good sign."
Mumbo nods shaking slightly, "You should go show that to Cub."
"I'll do that," Doc nods, walking out of the room and towards a portal.
After a while, Biffa is teleported in, and after a few minutes of freaking out about Xisuma's appearance the pair head over to town hall to help Mumbo.
As he arrives Mumbo waves good-naturedly and gives him a wave, "Hello Biffa."
"Hey, Mumbo," He says as he sits down next to him, "Can I take a look at your legs?"
"Um, ok?" Mumbo murmurs as he carefully moves so Biffa could take a look.
Biffa mutters something under his breath as he inspects his legs, "I'm going to do something, then I want you to try and walk."
Mumbo nods his eyes changing from red to a soft purplish-blue.
Sitting on the floor Biffa taps at Mumbo's knees, as he does this he explains, "The problem you're getting with walking is probably to do with reflexes. If we can get that online I won't have to try to hack into your system."
At this Mumbo shutters and leans away from the cyborg. After a few more minutes of trying Mumbo finally gets walking again. He thanks Biffa profusely as they walk around the shopping district.
They're walking down the stairs when Grian flutters out of the nether portal, "Mumbo! You're walking."
He grins, "I finally got it, thanks to Biffa that is."
Biffa rolls his eyes, "Please you did most of the work, it was just a matter of finding a pressure point."
"But, still, you're the one who figured that out," Mumbo points out.
Biffa shrugs before double checking Mumbo's legs. After ensuring that he would be fine he wanders towards the road connecting the shopping district and Xisuma's base.
Grinning Grian hops up onto a fence and looks Mumbo in the eye, "I made something on your base and I think you'll like it."
"That is a terrifying thought."
As Mumbo equips his elytra he wanders what has been Built on his base. As the massive tower comes into View Mumbo's eyes turn pink with bits of yellow seeping in.
At the very top of his tower, there is a charot.
Notes:
That's A wrap for this one folks, I hope y'all have enjoyed and have a wonderful day/night.
Color Key for Mumbo's eyes
Red is neutral,
Blue is worried and sad,
pink is annoyance or frustration
light pink is, embarrassed or flustered
Bright green is jealous,
Black is anger,
Yellow is happy,
white is surprise
purple is confused,
dark Green is disgust.
Ok, i know that I've YEETED the possibility for others to be affected, but if you can supply someone and give them a valid reason to be on the hermitcraft server for an extended amount of time I'll put 'em in the story. (Tommy and Techno already have a reason) I also have to watch said person.
Bdubs is next to be affected I was thinking of turning him into a phantom, so if anyone has a different suggestion or a suggestion of what kind of traits he can get from that, I would love to hear it.