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This mess is Iskall’s fault. Who else would give a challenge to rob a Vex of his Diamonds. Mumbo shudders as he crawls through a vent in town hall. It’s all cramped, dusty and just awful.
This is going to end poorly. He just knows it.
Pausing he glances at the communicator’s screen, it has the coordinates pulled up already and he’s in place.
The plan is to hollow out the Diamond throne and then escape. Hopefully without being caught.
Scar’s working on his base… more specifically his chest monster. Xisuma was tired of the shulkers lagging out the server. So Hermits Helping Hermits is cleaning Scar’s chest monster.
So most of the people who work at city hall are over there. Or are working on their bases.
It’s this perfect time.
So he starts mining up.
“ What are you doing ?” A voice asks in his ear.
Yelping Mumbo jumps, “Who’s there!”
“ Oh it’s no one… just a voice… ”
“Wait… your one of Scar’s vex friends aren’t you.”
The voice giggles, “ You could say that, I’m Bad Times. I’m a construct. Made to protect him, his cat, and now his Diamond Hoard .”
Mumbo nods. “Of course I’ll just be going then.” He ducks to crawl back into the tunnel. “No need to worry about me…” he trails off as something freezing cold wraps around his waist.
“ Oh I don’t think so ,” BadTimes laughs, “ See you broke the rules. I have to do something to you. Show people you tried to take the Diamonds .”
BadTimes pulls Mumbo up through the floor and into the main hall.
“ Hm, now what to do with you .” He hums.
The air next to Mumbo’s ears grows cold.
“ Oh I know! You’re always turning people into things… why don’t I turn you into something .” BadTimes hums. A cold invisible hand rests on the back of Mumbo’s neck. “ What should you be, a fish, perhaps a bug… no, a Rat. I think that will do nicely. Yes, Yes, a Little rat. ”
As Bad Times starts muttering about all the things he’ll need for a pet rat Mumbo stumbles to the ground. The room’s spinning and getting taller. Fingernails curve into tiny claws. A tail sprouts. Ears move to the top of his head.
Then he blacks out.
When he comes to, he's laying on a hammock. It's a cozy little hammock. Squeaking he pokes his nose over the edge. He’s in a cage. It’s a large cage but still.
Not happy with the thought of being contained, Mumbo clumsily rises to all fours. The hammock sways as he crawls to the opening… that’s a long way to the platform.
He squeaks. Just a little cry for help and attention. It works. Xisuma’s by the side of the cage in an instant.
“Hey Mumbo,” The admin murmurs as he opens the cage. His helmet obscures how he’s feeling. He reaches in with one hand and places it next to the hammock.
Mumbo carefully steps out onto Xisuma’s hand. Xisuma starts to pull him out then looks around then stops, “I think you should stay in here for now. Things are a bit heated…”
Mumbo squeaks.
“You should figure out how to move around.” Xisuma murmurs, “I’ll bring you some food in a bit.”
Then the cage is closed again and He’s left to his own devices.
Looking out at the hermits he can see how staying in the cage might be the best choice. Scar and Cub are in full vex mode. Cub looking through books on vex magic, and Scar arguing with thin air that must be BadTimes. Iskall, Grian, Stress and Ren are there as well, Stress looking, well stressed as she and Iskall look through potion books. Grian’s on his comm asking old watcher friends if they know any way to help, and Ren’s distracting Jellie.
Mumbo chuffs as he digs around in the shavings at the bottom of the cage. There’s a few wooden toys scattered around. A cardboard box with some paper and a water bottle.
Just how long will he be here. X will fix this… right. All this stuff isn’t needed.
Looking up Mumbo can barely catch a glimpse of the hammock.
After a moment of consideration he starts scampering up the ramps and over to the edge of the platform next to the hammock, it’s more like a nest but he’s calling it a hammock.
It’s still a bit far from the platform.
Not willing to risk jumping for it he scampers up to the side of the cage and squeaks. Ren walks over and looks in, “Hey man. What’s up?”
Mumbo raises a paw and points at the hammock.
“You want to get in there?” Ren murmurs, “Oh you can’t reach it.” Reaching up on top of the cage he unhooks it and moves it over. “How’s that?”
Mumbo easily hops in and chitters his thanks.
Ren smiles and goes back to preventing Jellie from investigating the new cage and hermit turned rat.
________
“Ok, but why did you use a permanent spell,” Scar groans.
BadTimes shrugs, “Felt like it.”
Scar groans and rubs his for head, “This is fine we can fix this…”
——————
Xisuma’s boots click on the floors as he brings in a little bowl of apples for Mumbo. He glances over to where potion brewing has begun.
They’ll get Mumbo back to normal, but Vex magic is a tricky thing to undo at the best of times. This will take many weeks and a lot of planning to properly fix.
Mumbo’s waiting for him as he opens the cage door. Tiny claws prick at his skin as Mumbo scampers over the exposed skin on his arm.
“Where are you going?” He laughs as Mumbo stops on his shoulder. He gets chittered at, as Mumbo settles down to just sit on his shoulder.
——————
It’s always strange to be changed by Vex magic. Especially compared to glitches and The machines Mumbo makes. Those always have some sort of learning curve to get a feel for the animal, or monster, but Vex magic leaves you feeling like you were born that way. Albeit A little wobbly at first. Ask Ren about his time as RenCat.
A slight upside to being stuck as a small rodent. It could be much worse. As it is he doesn’t feel much different then what he’s used to.
He’s just tired. There’s been a lot going on outside of the cage, and he’s had things to master.
The general consensus is it’ll take a while to get back to normal so he’d better get comfortable.
—————
It’s a few days into the whole, being a rat thing and Mumbo’s over it. It’s boring, and he misses his opposable thumbs. Redstone poisoning would be fatally toxic add this size so even helping is out of the question.
A problem that keeps popping up is Jellie. She, probably, wouldn’t try to hunt Mumbo down. But she does like chasing things and a rat is just perfect.
Many hermits had had an unexpected surprise of a small black rat run right up to their shoulders as a curious Jellie chases after. No one is happy about that.
So Mumbo’s set up was moved to the auction space underneath Townhall. It’s safer, able to be Jellie-proofed, and it’s not supper trafficked. So Mumbo can get in some much needed alone time.
—————
Eventually, a few weeks latter, They finally find a way to undo the spell. Mumbos set on the floor as Scar starts to unravel the complex spell holding him as a rat. It’s slow going but he’s turning back to human.
Bit by Bit.