Chapter Text
Parrot led Hummer through twisting corridors and way too many doors to count. He explained that it was purposefully confusing in case they were found. The residents would know the way to the safe rooms and nether portals, but any invaders wouldn't.
Hummer had to admit; Parrot was smart. He could understand how he and Wifies had been friends.
"Here," Parrot said, gesturing to a door. "This is Nether Room Five; it should take you to their base."
"Thanks," Hummer said, walking to the portal.
"Just take the main tunnel until you get to the fork and—y'know what, I'll just come with you," Parrot cut himself off, shaking his head. "Their base is a bit of a maze too; you'll get lost."
Hummer didn't appreciate the implication that he couldn't figure it out by himself, but honestly, he probably couldn't, so he accepted the help.
Wifies had always been the logical-smart one of the two of them. While Hummer could name every species and subspecies of fish in the sea, their diet and habitat, Wifies could find his way out of a solid bedrock box with only his mind. Hummer loved to watch him figure his way out of a puzzle or problem. There was something so… enticing about the way his brow would furrow when the issue was particularly difficult, and the way his eyes lit up when he solved it.
Parrot guided them through the nether and finally out into a large ice spikes biome surrounding an even larger snowy mountain. At the top was a castle-like structure built with spiraling towers made of obsidian around a blue and black building in the center.
Hummer frowned. This looked like it was going to take too long.
"Do we seriously have to go through all that, dude?" Theo whispered to Parrot.
"I'm messaging Wato," Parrot replied.
Thank Levi. Hummer did not have the time nor patience to deal with what appeared to be a giant escape room.
Soon after, a player came flying down the mountain, landing perfectly in front of them.
"Who's this?" The person asked, nodding towards Hummer.
"That's—" Theo stopped, turning to Hummer with an expression of mild horror. "I never asked your name, did I?"
"Hummer," Hummer said hastily. Now that he was out of adrenaline, anxiety was starting to set in. He didn't like being around so many new people. "I'm looking for Wifies."
The player—presumably Wato—looked surprised at that. "You know he's banned here, right?"
"Yes," Hummer answered, fiddling with his shirt cuffs. "I was working on something with him, and he disappeared. Do you know if there's anywhere he might be? Any worlds he frequents?"
Wato frowned. "We have some places. I'll check them real quick. Stay here."
They disappeared, the leave message popping up in chat. They were only gone a few moments before appearing again.
Wato shook their head as they reappeared. "Nothing. He's not anywhere."
Hummer felt himself deflate. He'd been so ready to hear that Wifies was fine, hiding out in some other world.
Had something bad really happened to him? The thought had been circling Hummer's mind like a hungry shark. Levi wouldn't hurt him, but what if something else had? The image of Wifies, alone and scared, somewhere he couldn't find, gripped his heart with such intense fear that he almost burst into tears right there.
Parrot put a hesitant hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of his teary panic.
"We'll… we'll find him, dude. Don't worry." He assured Hummer.
Hummer nodded, trying to brush off the breathless fear that threatened to consume him.
Wato opened their mouth, paused, then said, "I'll go get Ken. We should go over what we know."
Hummer nodded, the realization only hitting him after Wato had flown off. They were going to help him.
Hummer didn't know how much to tell them. On the one hand, if they believed him about Levi, they would have a better picture of the kind of danger that Wifies could be in (not that Levi would hurt him), but if they didn't…
Hummer couldn't afford not to be taken seriously. Wifies depended on it.
He was going to tell them, he decided. They needed to have the full picture. Even if they didn't believe him.
Wato came back soon with another player, presumably "Ken."
"I'm Kenadian," They said breifly as they landed. "Let's go somewhere more secure, I don't like being this out in the open with Cindercrest and everything."
Parrot nodded, and they followed Kenadian and Wato up the mountain and around the side of the giant fortress to an out of place block of blue ice. Kenadian broke it and motioned for all of them to follow, dropping into a dark room.
Hummer heard the click of buttons and realized that they were everywhere in the room, and it must be a combination lock.
A piston door on the side opened when Wato finished pressing the buttons and they went through, revealing an obsidian room with a map table in the middle.
"This is our planning room, but it'll do for now," Wato explained. "Tell us everything."
Hummer fidgeted. This was make or break. Would they believe him?
"Wifies reached out to me," He started, hesitating. "He was looking for information on Le—the Leviathan, trying to see if h—it was real."
"Why'd he reach out to you?" Theo asked.
"I—uh—I'm sort of an expert in the feild. I've done a lot of research." Hummer explained, stuttering. "We worked together for about a month before I mentioned the Leviathan server."
"The Leviathan server?" Kenadian asked, forehead crinkling. "What's that?"
How had no one heard of this? A mystery for another time, Hummer decided, turning to answer Kenadian. "It's a server owned by Arronax, the 'leading expert' on Le— the Leviathan. She supposedly 'solved it.'"
"You don't think she did?" Wato's brow furrowed as he noticed Hummer's word choice.
"Both Wifies and I thought her 'solution' had a few holes," Hummer explained quickly. "We ended up getting banned after drowning there, but Wifies had the idea to search other hardcore servers, since those had the highest rate of Le-Leviathan sightings.
"This one was actually the first one he thought of, since apparently it has the highest number, but he's banned, so we went to another one. And…"
Hummer paused. Logically, he needed to tell them everything. It was the only way they'd be able to help.
But Hummer had never been the logical one.
"We drowned again," He continued. "I respawned in an unfamiliar world, but Wifies just disappeared. I don't know his home world, but he clearly left at some point, since he left a message on my main world. I don't know where he is."
Wato frowned as everyone mulled the story over.
"I knew I actually saw something!" Theo declared suddenly.
"What?" Hummer asked.
"When I was a pirate, I was sent to get some loot from an ocean temple," Theo explained. "And I swore I saw something! But Parrot here didn't believe me." He pouted at Parrot, who rolled his eyes back, though he was smiling.
They had a nice friendship, Hummer decided. He wondered what Wifies was like with all these people.
"We should check out that world you spawned in," Kenadian said. "That's the main thing that stands out to me."
"Also the drowning," Wato added. "What was with that?"
"Well—um—we thought it might increase our chances of a sighting," Hummer answered haltingly.
Wato frowned but didn't question it. "I say we check out your spawn world. Wifies wouldn't have stayed in his home world for very long if he did spawn there, so that's our best bet.
Hummer took a deep breath. He was doing fine. It was fine. They had a plan. Everything was fine.
"Do you still have access to the world you spawned in?" Parrot asked.
"Er—Yeah," Hummer said, clumsily pulling it up. "We can check it out now if you want."
Parrot nodded, and the others followed suit.
"Okay, uh, give me a moment." Hummer fumbled with the join key.
He finally got it and warped to the unfamiliar world.
This time, though, as the others joined, he noticed something he hadn't in his initial rush to get to his world.
The spawn coordinates were exactly twenty thousand, twenty thousand.
And they were in a deep ocean.