Chapter Text
── ⋆⋅彡⋅⋆ ──
Mane paced back and forth in the cave, his tail lashing nervously. Could Flame possibly know where he lived now? If he did, he can just come and jump him. Even though Flame isn't in the best form after what happened, but still. The reason why it made Mane so uneasy to fight his brother is because..well, he didn't really want to. Flame doesn't know what he's been doing while gone for a year, why was he hiding.
He didn't leave Flame's base with the kindest words, but still he is his-
No. Snap.Out.Of.It.
"I don't care.." he growled. And he repeated it hundreds of times in his head, till he convinced himself. He picked up his blindfold and put it back on.
There were two options;
One, move somewhere else. But that was kind of lame.
And two, jump Flame before he can do so.
Actually there was a third option. Stay and wait. But Mane was not willing to take that risk, so he decided to go with the second option.
It would be really easy. Flame is weakened, Mane knows exactly where he is. The winner of the fight was obvious to Mane, even now as he was just walking through the jungle.
It all seemed..too easy..Or -nahh, he wasn't going to complain.
"HEY, YOU!" An unfamiliar voice yelled at him from behind. Mane spun around to see three players.
"Give us all your items or else we're gonna kill you." One of them said, with that dumb voice changer all chunguses have on this server.
"Uhm, I don't have anything," Mane said, not drawing his sword yet. He wasn't looking for wasting his resources he saved for the fight with Flame.
"You are wearing a netherite armor!" the second one pointed out.
"What?" Mane acted confused. "No, this is leather armor. It's colored."
"Stop lying!" the first one stepped forward, drawing his sword.
"I'm not." He needed something to avoid fighting these guys, but what..-
"Look what we have," the third one suddenly spoke, drawing out a mace.
Those guys had a mace? They probably didn't even know how to use it.
"How did you get your hands on a mace?" Mane glanced between the player and the mace in confusion.
"Don't worry about that," second one laughed. The player that held the mace wind charged up and aimed the mace at Mane who shielded up and blocked the attack.
"What the-" the other one backed away in confusion.
Maybe it was worth fighting those players after all. I mean -a mace that is basically free. Mane wouldn't mind wasting his potions if it was for a weapon like that.
To save your time a bit..the fight went really quickly. Turns out, all three of them were (very unexpectedly) quick drops. The mace wielder was first one to drop, what gave Mane an advantage and he used the mace against the other two. After the fight he sorted out the items, taking in shulker boxes the armor and some pots those players had. He was defintly ready to fight Flame now.
He put the stuff back in his ender chest, and just then he noticed something.
The mace.
It was called...Gambit..?
He knew only one person who named his mace like that. Wemmbu. But there was no way. Despite Wemmbu being who he is, he wouldn't let some random noobs steal his mace.
Right. Maybe he overestimated him a bit.
This must be Wemmbu's mace.
Mane used to have a mace. Even after he disappeared and allat. Things happened though and..he doesn't have it anymore...
Okay, whatever. He put Gambit in his ender chest. He needs to continue walking so he gets to Flame's base before the sun sets.
── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──
Flame needed to track down Wemmbu. Find him.
How you're asking? Well Flame have a pretty decent idea where Wemmbu would be for sure. You see, Wemmbu doesn't have any 'base', instead he kind of just roams around the server.
But there was one singular place Flame just KNEW Wemmbu would show up at, eventually.
Capital city.
And yes -Wemmbu was banished from there, but Flame knew that he must be getting resources somehow beside fighting players. That led to the conclusion that he probably goes invis to go to Capital City, most likely using a voice changer too.
Now, Flame was still not in the best state, but it's been worse. He got this.
.
.
.
.
Before he stepped foot into Capital City himself, he went invis too, just to avoid any fights. He decided to wait at the corner one of the potion shops.
He waited there for maybe like..two hours..and was really getting tired. But just as he was about to give up, an invis player actually showed up.
"Yo," they said, using a voice changer as Flame predicted.
"What can I get for ya?" The shopkeeper said.
"Uhm, like some strenght pots and fire res. You can shove in some invis too."
"What do you have to pay with?" The other player began preparing the potions.
Invis guy pulled out two shulkers from his e-chest and placed them down. Flame could only guess what's in them, but probably some armor and spare tools.
"Okay, here you go," the shopkeeper handed him the shulkers with pots.
Invis player placed them down and checked if everything is in there, and without any other word he walked away.
Now it was Flame's chance to talk to him.
As still invisible Wemmbu walked past by Flame, he hit him as he put on his armor.
"What the-" Wemmbu turned around, confused.
Flame guessed Wemmbu don't know who he is, since he was using a trimless armor. He pointed at some corner of a street, showing the other one to follow him.
It seemed like Wemmbu hesitated for a second, but then just followed. When Flame was sure they were far enough for anybody to hear or spot them, he spoke without using any voice changer, but stayed invis.
"Wemmbu," he said.
Wemmbu probably recognized his voice immediately, as he turned off his voice changer.
"Flame? What are you doing."
"You found Mane?" Flame said bluntly.
"Why do you want to know?" Wemmbu titled his head, innocence seeping in his voice but Flame knew him well enough to know that he was anything but innocent.
"Bro answer the question and stop bullshitting," Flame frowned.
"Fine fine.." Wemmbu chuckled, almost mockingly on how easily Flame got frustrated. "Yea, I did."
"You talked to him?"
"Uh-huh," Wemmbu nodded.
"And what did you talk about..?" Flame pushed further.
"That's personal matters." Wemmbu said simply.
Of course he would say something like that. I mean, why would he tell Flame anything. Gosh, this Wemmbu kid is so annoying. He could try again, but there was no point in finding out what did they talk about.
"Where is he at?" he asked instead.
"I can give you the cords," Wemmbu shrugged.
Huh..So he's willing to give him Mane's location but not what they had a little chat about..? This guys is so weird.
After Flame was given the coordinates he noticed his invis was running out. He said quick bye to Wemmbu and left, heading back to his base.
At the base he tried to get together everything he know so far. So why not write it in a book.
1. cords to Mane's base
2. wemmbu is definitly planning something
3. he himself is NOT in a state to fight anybody properly
4. might be as well as cooked if he doesn't make a plan
He closed the book and groaned, putting it in of the his chests. Flame was unsure what to do, even forgot the original idea of why he even wanted Mane's base cords. I mean realistically, what can he really do with that information. Waltz in there and what? It won't help him find out what is Wemmbu onto.
Most of the time he always makes a plan somehow. But now? He didn't know what to do.
── ⋆⋅✦⋅⋆ ──
The world around Wemmbu felt quite. Too quite. Not in a way that there were no players, but everything just seemed so..distant. He flew with his elytra toward the spawn, potting invis and then headed to Capital City.
He wasn't planning on it originally, but was more from a habit to go there once in a while to get more potions or other resources he might need.
When he walked down the path a few players said something to him. Like asking who he is or cursing him out for no reason. But he didn't really register any of that, simply ignoring everybody.
At the potion shop he asked for what he needed and paid with some gear he had from killing players. Just the casual.
As he was leaving though, a player suddenly hit him from nowhere and that was the moment he snapped back to the real world around him. He turned around sharply looking for whoever dared to do that.
"What the-" In front of him stood an invisible player with no trims so Wemmbu couldn't tell who it is. They pointed somewhere in the distance, and Wemmbu guessed they want to talk to him. But who is it -and why would he even trust some random invis pla-
...whatever. If something goes wrong, Wemmbu still has his orbitals.
So he followed the mysterious player, and when they were far enough from anybody who could overhear them, they spoke up.
"Wemmbu." Without any voice changer Wemmbu knew who that was.
"Flame? What are you doing." Wemmbu said, a bit confused but also annoyed.
"You found Mane?" Flame asked.
Aaahh, so this is what it is all about. Of course. Why else would Flame spy on him or whatever weird shit he did.
"Why do you want to know?" Wemmbu said as innocently as possible.
But Flame was clearly not buying that stupid tone of his voice. "Bro answer the question and stop bullshitting."
"Fine fine.." he chuckled. "Yea, I did."
"You talked to him?" Flame asked not even trying to hide how curious he is.
"Uh-huh," Wemmbu nodded.
"And what did you talk about..?"
"Personal matters," Wemmbu said immediately. He thought that maybe he responded way to quickly. But Flame didn't comment on it.
"Where is he at?"
It was probably for the better if Wemmbu just gives him the location, maybe then he would leave him alone with this. "I can give you cords."
As he gave him the cords, Flame was in a rush to leave for whatever reason. But that was good for Wemmbu.
.
.
.
"Yo, Egg?" Wemmbu looked around as he stood at the top of the hill.
There was silence for a moment, but then from behind him..
"I've been lurking in the shadows..."
Wemmbu turned around and let out a laugh. "Bro, what are you saying."
"..I see it all, Wemmbu..." Eggchan said voice low.
Wemmbu just rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Yeah, okay."
"So," Egg began. "What's the plan? Like how do you wanna attack Mane?"
Wemmbu stared at him for a moment. "How do you..-" he trailed off. "Riightt.." he narrowed his eyes. "Don't worry about it." He scoffed.
"Wemmbu." Eggchan sounded more serious this time. Like genuinely now.
"What?"
They looked at each other for a few seconds, what felt like an entirety for Wemmbu. It was the strange look Egg gave him only a couple of times before, like he knew exactly what was up. And that scared Wemmbu the most.
He couldn't take it anymore and broke the eye contact looking somewhere down the hill. "I don't need your help with this."
Egg raised a brow. "You sure?"
"Yes." Wemmbu retorted sharply. A bit harsher than he intended and he quickly realized his mistake. "Just go do your thing-" he said, quieter, "and leave me do this alone."
His friend didn't protest. "I mean, okay," he shrugged. "I shall go back to the shadows then.." He slowly started backing away down the hill, almost tripping over and then disappeared somewhere into a cave.
Wemmbu exhaled. He should get going.