Chapter Text
Pearl follows Cub into the room holding the most recently captive infected. Also the most lucid one. Hopefully one they can get answers from.
“Hello,” Cub greets him, tone friendly.
He turns to look at them, staring at them with an unblinking stare. He tilts his head slightly.
“Can you talk?” Pearl asks. It slowly nods and she continues, “do you want to talk?” It only stares at her in response.
“We just have a few questions to ask you,” Cub says upon his silence. It tilts its head to the side, but doesn’t verbally respond. Cub continued anyways, “why are you doing all of this?”
“Because everyone should understand the gift the mycelium gives us,” it replies, eyes unblinking as it smiles.
“And what is that gift?”
“Everything.”
Pearl frowns, “‘everything’?”
It nods, “we have everything we’d ever need.”
“Can you give examples?” Cub prompts, completely focused on the infected in front of them.
He shakes his head, “Father and Mother would like to tell you themselves.”
They both freeze, Cub responding after a moment, “mother?”
He nods, “they want to welcome you themselves. To show you how great joining us will be.”
“Do you mean mother as in Mother Spore?” Pearl tries, dread filling her at just the thought.
“Mother Spore and Father Spore would like to speak to you themselves,” he repeats.
“Can you tell us anything about them?”
He shakes his head, “speak to them yourselves.”
“We can’t exactly do that,” Cub mutters under his breath. He sighs, “I suppose that is all, for now.”
The infected looks up at him as he stands, “you should go speak to Father,” Cub turns around, but immediately stiffens as it continues, “he wants to speak to you… Cub.”
“How do you know my name?”
“You need to speak to him.”
“I don’t think you’ll get any other answer from him,” Pearl says, placing a hand on Cub’s shoulder.
After a moment he slowly nods, turning back around, “call for a meeting with the others. We need to tell them about this Mother Spore.”
“Of course,” Pearl replies, taking out her phone to send a message to the group chat, calling for an emergency meeting. She makes her way to the meeting room while Cub gathers something. He arrives not long after she does, just as Pearl sets up the video call. All they need now is the go ahead from the others.
It feels like an eternity, but probably only several minutes, before they connect. Pearl stills in her pen tapping.
“We got as many people as we could under short notice,” Mumbo starts. “What’s up?”
Cub grimaces, “nothing good.”
Grian freezes, “what happened?”
Pearl gestures to the notes on her clipboard, “we were talking to one of the infected when they said something interesting.”
Cub nods and continues, “towards the end of the talk, they mentioned a Mother Spore.”
Grian drops his pen, it rattling against the table, loud in comparison to the dead silence. Bdubs soon breaks it, “Mother Spore!?”
Pearl nods, “they refused to tell us anything about this Mother Spore, but they seem to be seen in as high of regard as Father Spore.”
Mumbo swallows, “so there’s another leader?”
“It seems that way,” Cub agrees.
“Did this… infected say anything else besides them existing?” Grian asks, trying to hide his nerves, but Pearl sees right through him.
“Unfortunately, no. They just kept repeating that their ‘Mother and Father’ would like to speak to us themselves. They refused to say anything else,” Cub replies. Grian hums and looks away, expression troubled.
“There are a few ways we can take this Mother Spore’s silence,” Pearl continues. “The two most likely options are that they’re either plotting their next move or possible appearance, or that they’re just running whatever place all the infected are staying at while Father Spore ‘recruits.’”
“This is rather bad news,” Xisuma agrees.
“So we have absolutely no information?” Mumbo asks, his worry clear as day.
Cub nods, “I’ll try asking them more later, but it’s unlikely we’ll get a different response. You’ll have to tread more cautiously from now on.”
“Including keeping this on the down low,” Pearl adds. “If Mother Spore is as strong as Father Spore, then they can be a kind of trump card. Something up the resistance’s sleeves to use in an emergency. We can use us knowing already to our advantage in that case.”
“Of course,” Mumbo replies.