Tubbo really liked bees.
He walked onto the roof and took a breath of fresh air. His hive buzzed out to greet him. He laughed as the bees buzzed around him, bumping into him on occasion. He set down a small bowl of sugar water and watched the bees buzz around it and drink. He sat on the ledge of the roof. It was fenced in, but there was just enough room for him to dangle his legs off the edge.
It was rare for him to get a break this long. Usually, Tommy was dragging him this way and that during their workdays. Tubbo watched the people below him. It was around six, and he'd brought chips up with him so he could chill out with the bees. Almost everyone was staying late tonight- Dream was going to take all of them out for dinner later.
There was an air of calm as he ate his chips. Usually, calm was interrupted by an emergency, so Tubbo was still a bit on edge. He hummed and looked around. His bees buzzed around him, happy to just be there.
He stretched and yawned and then ate a few chips. He thought about what he was planning on doing later- hanging out with Tommy, mostly. He was thinking about setting up some game servers for the heroes to play on.
"It's just been so chill today, you know?" Tubbo said to the bees. They buzzed around him.
"It has." A voice said from behind him. Tubbo nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around to see Karl, in his signature multi-colored hoodie. "I think it won't be anymore though."
"Well, why's that?" Tubbo said with a frown. He stood up, his chips abandoned. "What's going on?"
"We got a report there was suspicious activity on the docks or something. Wilbur called all hands on deck for it- he got a message or something. Seems important. Meet everyone down in the lobby." Karl said, starting back down the stair
"Everyone?" Tubbo asked. It must be serious if everyone was going.
"Yep, the whole staff. Sap and Finn and Fundy and Me, too." Karl laughed. "Don't know how much help we can be other than just... crowd control."
Tubbo nodded and Karl went down the stairs. He started telling his bees where to meet up with him. All hands on deck meant he'd need most of them, too.
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Tommy was in the kitchen with Dream and George when the alert went off. It rang through the cafeteria. The trio looked at each other with curiosity. Everyone's eyes went to George. He'd been there the longest.
"What? Don't expect me to know. The last time that alarm was used was back when villains did something unexpected and we needed a quick meeting,"
There were a few seconds. You could almost see the cogs turning in their heads. Tommy was the first to realize what the alarm probably meant.
"Oh, we all need to meet up!" Tommy announced. The others came to the same realization quickly. Usually, they were smarter than this, but they weren't really thinking about work at that moment. They'd been talking about cooking, which Tommy was not good at.
Tommy had been saying that he once tried to make rice with Gatorade and the other two had been losing it, laughing at his description of the rice.
After they got back in the work mindset, the trio was on it immediately. Dream vaulted over the counter while the other two just used the door next to it. They all ran through the door of the cafe towards the lobby.
Tommy fell back a bit. He hadn't felt the best, lately. It felt he'd hit a wall- he wasn't making any progress in training and his brain felt like it frizzed out all the time. He shook it off and ran into the lobby.
They ran in and saw Wilbur, Philza, and Techno crowded around in the back of the room. Finn was typing away furiously at his computer.
"What's up?" asked Dream, looking around at the situation.
"We've got a group mission to go on- all of us. Wil just got a message and Finn just got an anonymous tip pointing to an attack at the docks. Wil thinks it may be the Assembly group," Phil said. "Karl, go get Tubbo. He's taking lunch on the roof." Karl gave a nod and started up the stairs.
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The trio had been in the lobby, just enjoying the sun that came through the glass windows and chatting. Finn was typing Wilbur had been trying to get as much sun as he could- he'd read sun helped illnesses and he may have not been sick, but he was hoping it could help the symptoms he'd been feeling.
Phil fixed Wilbur with a worried glance. Wilbur had noticed Phil had been sending him quite a few of these glances lately. Wilbur had probably flashed a red flag without even knowing, but Phil must have picked up on it. He'd have to be more careful.
They'd been sitting in silence, watching people walk by the Hub. It was calm. Finn's Everyone was a bit tense- as we've mentioned before, calm never stays in Illosia
Then Finn's phone rang. Everyone seemed to relax a bit like they were waiting for something to ruin this. Finn picked it up.
"Uh-huh... alright... Oh. Oh, okay." Finn looked up at the heroes before hanging up. "The docks. The Assembly gave us a tip, or it was a prank. Not likely though, we've kept all of this stuff top secret. They're going to attack at dusk."
"Oh shit," Phil said. The Sleepy Bois all stood up and started moving, getting ready to head out.
Wilbur's phone, which had been left on the chair he was at, buzzed. He walked it over and picked it up.
-unknown number-
one image attached
Wilbur frowned and opened the message. It was Niki's calling card.
-unknown number-
it may be best to bring the whole gang, no?
you don't want another... incident to happen, id suggest more backup.
It could happen to one of your friends, i don't know! :)
-You Have Blocked This Number-
"Shit, fuck..." Wilbur murmured. Phil looked up from where he was strapping on his sandals
"You alright over there, Wilbur?" He could tell something was up, because his next line was, "Oh. What's happened?"
"Just got a message from one of them. They make it seem like it's gonna be big. Finn, call an emergency meeting."
"On it." Phil hit a small button on the edge of the counter and an alarm flashed through the Hub.
A few seconds later, the others came running into the room.
A minute after that, Fundy, Karl, and Tubbo came down.
Philza got up on a chair to try and shush everyone.
"MATES!" A wave of silence fell over the crowd. "Thank you. We've gotten word that there's going to be an attack at the docks, and it's going to be bad. We need all hands on deck for this."
There was a murmur of agreement and Wilbur spoke up.
"We have about an hour until dusk. Everyone, get your stuff and meet up..." He paused, trying to think of a good place around town.
"At the clocktower!" Fundy spoke up.
"Yeah, there," Wilbur said.
The group all disassembled and started getting ready. No one noticed Fundy pull out his phone and send some texts.
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On the other side of town, Skeppy got a message. He read over it and thrust it towards bad.
"That's Punz's symbol... Oh fudge, they're going to attack the clocktower?" Bad looked up. "We've got an hour, we gotta get there!"
And so they got their stuff and started walking.
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The storm was approaching, the trap had been laid.
Now it's a question of if our heroes could survive it or not.
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A/N
Next chapter... will be filler lol. 5k special bc we'll have hit it by the time I get it out.
It's gonna be character descriptions,,, I'm in the mood to describe things with a lot of words.
THEN we'll hit what i have nicknamed "the storm."
Shit's gonna get real, tensions are gonna boil over.
Someone will punch Mr. Tommyinnit.
I am more excited about writing one of these things than the other.
-ace :)