It started raining seconds after the chime sounded.
Tommy couldn't see outside, but the sound of rain pattering against the roof was enough to let him know that it was happening. He paced his room, clenching and unclenching his fists. Minx was supposed to be here by now.
His door opened and he whipped around, a smile on his face. It quickly faded, though.
Punz laughed. "Were you waiting for someone?" He and Karl stood in the door. Karl looked a bit guilty, but Punz had a triumphant smirk on his face. "Come here."
Tommy took a step back and let out a cry. The air around him became crushing as Punz increased the gravity around him. All of his breath was pushed out of his lungs and he couldn't inhale.
"Punz!" Karl said, a bit shocked.
"What?" Punz said. Tommy felt the pressure release from around him. He gasped, drawing in as much air as possible before falling into sputtering coughs.
Karl looked to Punz and then to Tommy. "I-I'll take care of him. Fundy would be upset if you damaged the merchandise..."
Punz scoffed. "Fine." Karl entered the room and gently grabbed Tommy's arm. He started to pull away but paused as a sense of calm washed over him.
"I'm so sorry about this, Tommy..." Karl said. Something clicked into place- He's messing with my emotions, making me... Tommy tried to place what emotion he was feeling, but it didn't come to him.
He was tugged out of the room and didn't have the energy or will to fight back. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he wanted to fight, but he just... couldn't.
He did manage to look around and see the halls. He got a general idea of where he was going. Punz shoved him in an elevator and they went down. Time blurred together- they went down four floors. Tommy was put in a small, padded, white room.
When Karl let go of his arm, his anger came back full force, giving him a bit of whiplash.
"LET ME GO!!" He said, lunging at Punz who was in the doorway. Punz quickly shut the door. Tommy collided with the padded backside of the door. He banged on it, yelling.
It was silent. No one said anything in response. His throat felt like it was tightening and hot tears filled his eyes, threatening to spill over.
This was bad. Tommy assumed they'd figured out about him and Minx's plans. Tommy punched the padded wall again. As far as she would know, he would have just gone missing. The tears spilled over as a memory of Tubbo's smile flashed in his head.
Was he ever going to be able to see his friend again?
Would he be able to see the people he thought of as family again?
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Minx shrieked as her door was thrown open. Fundy came in with a snarl of a grin on his face.
"What's the scream for, Minx?" Fundy said, his eyes telling her that he already knew.
"Get out of my fucking room, motherfucker!" Minx screamed. She tried to run past him, trying to conserve her energy for the later battle. Fundy grabbed her arm. His grip was like iron. The fox's claws cut through her sleeve and drew blood.
"Neither of us will be going anywhere until this siege is over." He pulled her back farther. Minx tried to struggle away. Fundy's claws only dug deeper into her forearm.
She inhaled sharply. This had not been her plan. She was just supposed to get Tommy and get him out. How had Fundy found out about this?
Fundy laughed. Scott stuck his head in. "He has a mind reader, Minx. Or am I just that forgettable?"
"Scott, you bastard!" Minx said. She should have thought of him.
"Enough." Fundy butted in. Minx looked at him- he was grinning. "You only really have one use for us now-" Fundy pulled out a needle of black liquid. It almost seemed to glint in the light. "Test Subject Number Three's a bit of a long name. How do you like Third?"
Minx's eyes widened. "You wouldn't." Her anger turned to fear, and that petrified her. She froze like a deer in headlights.
"Oh, Minx, I'm not Eret. I've got a much more... Flexible set of morals." The needle drew closer to her flesh. "You should be honored- the first person to have the true version of Mute injected."
She watched the needle with wide eyes as it touched her bicep. It wasn't piercing, but it was so close. She was so close to losing her power.
Tears burned their way out of her eyes. Anything but this, please, anything.
"STOP!" called a voice from the doorway. Fundy froze. "Remove the needle and let her go!"
Surprisingly, Fundy did as the voice asked. Minx watched as he took a step away from her. Only then did Minx feel comfortable enough to look up at her savior.
Niki stood there, Scott passed out on the ground behind her. Minx gasped. Fundy shook his head wildly as if trying to get her commands out of it.
Minx remembered who she was and what she could do. She teleported over to Niki.
"Are you alright?" Niki asked, checking Minx's arms.
"I'm fine, none of it was actually injected."
"Good, good. We've got to get down to the Lab- they took Tommy down there. Eret's trying to get to him, but he'll need us."
"Hold on, you're... betraying the rest?" Minx said. She shut the door on Fundy and grabbed a chair from a bit down the hall. She shoved it under the doorknob, jamming it.
Niki waited for Minx to finish before nodding. "Come on, we need to go."
The two women ran down the hallway to the stairs. They slid down the banister and pushed open the door to the lab.
Eret waited for them there. He gave a small wave. He looked disheveled- his crown and sunglasses were askew.
Karl's unconscious body gave a reason. There had been a fight. Punz was battling a clone of Eret.
"The kid's in that room-" Eret pointed to a heavy-looking door. "I think they were drawing blood. Harvey rushed out with something red in his hands. It was either blood or organs."
"Alright, you finish up here. We'll get Tommy." Minx said. Both she and Niki ran over to the door.
It was locked. "Shit!" Niki said, banging on the door. "TOMMY?"
There was a pause. Then a soft knock came from the bottom of the door. He was alive. From the sound of it, barely. "We're gonna go get someone who can unlock this," Minx said. There was another, even fainter knock from the bottom of the door.
They met up with Eret at the bottom of the stairs. Punz was knocked out as well, so they got up to the top floor without issue. Minx grabbed both of their hands and closed her eyes, using most of her energy to get them to the outside- to the heroes.
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The siege started with the rain. Tubbo and Wilbur were both near the back- their powers weren't the most useful for this type of combat, especially with Wil's power on the fritz.
The heroes didn't actually attack first. A sheet of familiar purple haze covered the battleground. Everyone put some sort of mask on. They wouldn't be fooled that easily. Not again.
Lightning struck in the middle of the courtyard. Everyone was momentarily blinded. When the heroes could see again, they spotted four figures on the stairs to the entrance.
"We outnumber them! Techno, Sapnap, Skeppy, and I can take them!" Dream called out. "George, Bad! Back us up! Phil, do some recon!"
Phil took off and began to fly around. It was harder than normal- the storm's winds tried to push him this way and that. He managed to get balanced and swooped around the place.
Tubbo watched him and then turned his eyes back down to the combat which had started. He didn't know the names of most of these villains- there was one with an orange and green mask, one with a baseball cap and headphones, one with a beanie, and Spifey.
Skeppy took on Spifey. They clashed, fist on fist. Neither of them seemed very good at fighting like this. They were fairly evenly matched.
Techno went head to head with the masked one. The masked villain was fast and good with his sword. Techno was barely able to keep up, never mind using any openings.
Dream fought the beanied man. He seemed less able at combat but used his power to his advantage. His weapon, a twin pair of daggers, seemed like liquid in his hands. He got a few surprise hits on Dream when his daggers went right through Dream's swords.
Sapnap went against the man with the headphones and the cap. They quickly realized they were both elementals, and the battle devolved into fire versus lighting. It was very showy on both ends.
Tubbo and Wilbur stood in the back, watching. Bad and George looked for openings and tossed projectiles into the fray- they were somewhat focused. That's why Tubbo and Wilbur noticed first the three figures who teleported into the fray.
The three figures- Eret, Minx, and Niki, flicked in and out before getting a truly solid form. Tubbo got into a fighting stance with his bees. Wilbur followed suit.
Minx caught sight of him and burst into a grin. She ran over, dragging the other two with her. "Tubbo!" She stage whispered, not wanting to draw the attention of the other heroes.
Wilbur tensed at the sight of Niki, but she gave a wave and a small smile. "We're switching sides. Can either of you unlock a door?"
"Uhm," Tubbo said.
"Tommy's locked up- we need to get him out," Eret explained. Tubbo inhaled sharply.
"I can't unlock shit, but Wilbur may be able to use sound waves or something to get it open," Tubbo said, talking just a bit too fast.
Wilbur nodded. "I should be able to do that, at least. Even with my powers fucked up." He looked directly at Niki. She looked away.
"I'm going to take the heroes. You two... stay near." Minx said. Then she grabbed Tubbo and Wilbur's hands, and just like that, they were in the basement. Tubbo blinked until his eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lighting. The door in front of them was large and steel.
"Tommy? Are you still in there, you twat?" Minx asked. Despite the insult, her voice was concerned.
There was not a knock on the door this time.
"Open it, hurry!" Tubbo said. Wilbur nodded and held out a hand.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he sent vibrations through the door, trying to get the lock. It clicked. He sighed. It used to be so much easier.
Tubbo rushed forward and tossed open the door.
Tommy was passed out on the ground right in front of it. Dread pooled in Tubbo's stomach. He was pale but breathing. He was still breathing. Barely.
Tubbo kneeled and shook his friend. Tommy didn't stir. All the adults hovered around, trying to figure out what to do.
Tears threatened to fall but Tubbo blinked hard and they didn't. "Tommy..." he murmured. His friend was, unsurprisingly, silent.
There were a few seconds when everyone was watching Tubbo and Tommy. No one had thought their reunion would look like this.
Everyone was silent.
That was shattered by a gasp from Wilbur. A certain clawed hand grabbed his arm. There was no time to react as Fundy stuck a needle of Mute into him.
Fundy laughed wildly. "It's kind of fitting that you're the first and last test subject, Wilbur."
The fluid was injected quickly. Fundy must have learned his lesson from Minx. He didn't try and draw it out this time. Wilbur froze, terrified.
Fundy pulled the needle out and Wilbur pulled away. He held his hands up and Fundy growled and put his hands to his head.
Then Fundy collapsed, Wilbur, having used the last of his power to knock him out.
Wilbur took a shaky inhale. It would be fine, right? He'd be fine, right?
He wasn't actually going to lose this power that he loved so much...
Right?
There was no time for these thoughts- Punz had started stirring. Tubbo picked up his friend, struggling a bit due to the height difference. Minx grabbed Wilbur and Tommy's wrists. Wilbur found himself fighting to not pull away.
He ended up losing that battle, but only when they had been teleported back to the surface. Wilbur's vision faded in and out. His breath was frantic. The corners of his vision started disappearing. His veins were on fire. He could feel the Mute creeping through them. He could feel it.
"Is he alright-" Eret started. Wilbur passed out on his feet. Eret barely caught him. "Well, that answers that."
"He got Muted... I think that was an anxiety attack." Niki said. She knelt down and checked his pulse. "Mhm, his pulse is very fast."
"Ah, I shouldn't have grabbed his arm like that. Not right after Fundy did." Minx said, a pitying look on her face.
Philza saw the new faces around Tubbo and swooped down. "Tubbo! Are you alrigh-" He saw Tommy. "How the fuck... Nevermind!"
"Phil! Great timing! Here's the rundown- these guys are good now, we went and got Tommy, and Wilbur got..." Tubbo paused. "Wilbur can tell that story when he feels like it. Anyways, we need to retreat. We've done what we need to here."
Phil paused to take in all of what Tubbo had said before nodding and taking off again. He flew a short way to George.
"Retreat time. Tubbo got him. Call them out."
George gave a nod and called out a retreat command. Tubbo sent his bees to go swarm Harvey so Techno could get away. Techno then went and helped Skeppy fight off Spifey, then they helped Dream, and finally, they all went and gave Sapnap an assist against Jack.
They didn't manage to incapacitate any of the villains, though, so it was a running retreat as they fled the courtyard.
The group ran a couple of blocks before their pace slowed. Dream stopped them a bit later to do a headcount.
"We're four more than we were when we came out here..." He said. Dream looked back over everyone and spotted the villains. "YOU!" He pointed directly at them.
Tubbo slid in front of them. "They've switched sides. We can debrief everyone when we get back."
Dream looked them over, still a bit suspicious. "But we-"
"Please, Dream." Tubbo looked directly at where Dream's eyes would be. "I'm tired and I just want to get Tommy and Wilbur better again."
"...Fine." Dream said. He kept leading them on.
They were quite the parade as they walked through the town. A bunch of battered, bruised, and, in some cases, broken, group of heroes on display for everyone to see.
Things got blurry for Tubbo around here. He remembers getting back, seeing Finn... There's a vague memory of getting carried up the stairs after falling half asleep in the lobby.
Then the warm embrace of a blanket and one of the medroom's chairs.
And then sleep.
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A/N
There's the reunion everyone wanted! Is it as good as you thought it would be?
hahahha wilbur pain pog??? he's my favorite,,, yet i do this to him,,,
hope you enjoyed!! this was a super fun chapter to write!
See yall next time!!!!
-Ace !!!