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“Help!”
The most noticeable trait of Hypno’s voice was that everyone heard it.
Nothing was on their comms, the man himself was nowhere near anyone. At least he wasn't in their little group of five playing TCG; Skizz has turned his head enough times for them to confirm that.
His voice was just… there.
It took way too long for Jevin to realise that he was speaking to them telepathically, “Hypno…?”
The seer doesn't use it often and if he did, there was probably a good reason for it; the first sign that something was wrong in hindsight.
Jevin was more worried at how much energy this must be taking considering Hypno was obviously nowhere close to them to realise.
“Oh thank goodness,” The relief in his voice was instantaneous, “I really didn’t know if that was going to work, but none of my messages were going through.”
Wels slowly put down the cards in his hands, still looking to the sky like everyone else, “Where are you?”
“And what help do you need?” Cleo adds with a hit of suspicion.
“And we can’t do this later? I think I’m gonna win.” Ren finishes, his tail wagging behind him in anticipation. On the other side of the arena, Wels scoffs good naturedly and continues his turn, promptly taking out the wolf’s third Hermit.
Can’t say Jevin didn’t see that one coming, from more than just how the game was turning out.
The slime nods to Wels in appreciation, both of them well aware that telepathic Hypno should be dealt with immediately. For everyone’s sake.
Ren drops his cards with a sigh, “Or we can go right now.” Skizz pats his back while Cleo cheers for the knight’s victory, “So where’re we going?”
“My base please.”
Well, they’re here. Turning heads to find the very person who called them over.
You’d think the decent thing to do was greet your guests, right? Or at least come out to greet them after hearing them shout his name enough times.
Cleo would think so.
Jevin is the first to eventually give up shouting and walks to the door; his translucent body giving all of them a full view of the slime’s confusion (Looking at an expression from the back sounds as weird as it looks. Trust her.) as it remains locked no matter how many times he tries to push it.
“We should be worried now, right?” Ren asks carefully, looking to the rest of them for an answer they couldn’t give.
Hypno’s voice fortunately comes shouting through their heads just after, “Sorry! Had to distract her.”
From Cleo’s peripheral view, Wels mouths “‘her'?” which Skizz responds with a shrug.
“She doesn’t like it when you shout apparently, so keep it down.” He continues.
Which is not what any of them does as they barrage the seer with questions; the wince he makes obviously visible even when they can’t see him.
“Any reason you’re not coming out or letting us in?” Wels’ question rings loudest and was the one Hypno answers.
With much hesitance.
“I’m… stuck.”
Well that explained things. And added more questions.
“Stuck. Like can’t get out?”
“If there was another meaning I would like to know.”
Skizz cuts in with his own question, “How did you trap yourself in your own house?!”
And if a voice could sound any more exasperated, it did, “ How bout you try asking her? ”
“That’s another thing; who’s her?!”
The mechanical sound of moving parts has the five of them tense as the house itself answers by revealing guns aiming at them from above and Cleo could almost feel the audible smack Hypno makes from his hand against his forehead.
“Oh. Her.”
The shooting comes immediately after and the Hermits run for the hills.
Far enough away, Wels quickly builds a stone wall which they all hide behind, squeezing as close as possible to avoid getting shot.
The wall grows larger with other materials after the barrage.
“Of course we get a sentient AI arc…” Jevin mumbles as he pats mud onto the barrier.
Being the frenemies that they were, Cleo's instinctive reply was an immediate and obnoxious, “Fun!”
The few choice words he returns to her with a deadpan stare despite server rules was worth it.
Finally deeming the place safe, they all take a breather and Ren takes the moment to speak up, “Should we get X? This seems like an Xisuma solution.”
“No!” Hypno's panicked voice comes in before any of them could reply, “No Xisuma, or Doc, or anyone who has any kind of mechanical parts. She hacked my comm, I don't want to find out if she can hack anything else.”
So they’re up against a house with guns—that Cleo has no idea how it’s possible in a vanilla server—that wouldn’t let Hypno out (for reasons she would like to know), with—she checks the tab list—no help from anyone else.
What was the goal here again?
“Find a way to get me out for starters.” Hypno reads her mind. Quite literally. Stop it. She swears she hears him laugh, “We can work our way from there.”
Next to her, Skizz nods his head, “Okay, we can do that.” He leaves the safety of the wall and slowly makes his way to the house, from the side rather than the front, hands raised in peace, “So what happens if I just…”
Instantly, the array turns to him when he gets too close, “Nope! Okay!”
No amount of shouting on their part would save the man from his inevitable death.
Five different tries to enter and way too many respawns later, the five Hermits gather behind their wall once again; a little more battered and bruised than when they started.
Ren dares to peek over the wall and instantly retreats when a bullet nearly scrapes his ear. He'll admit that a worried whine escaped his throat.
He turns his head to the others, “So, new plan?”
The wolf isn't so surprised to be answered with head shakes and shrugs. Darn machinery didn't seem to have any blind spots.
Jevin in particular still has his chin resting on two fingers, deep in thought till he looks up into the air, “How much do you like your house?”
“I live here.”
“Alright, so tnt is off the table.”
“Please don’t blow up my house.”
Cleo feigns a sigh, overdramatically caressing a hand on her cheek, “It would have been so much easier.”
He could bunk with one of them for the duration of rebuilding his house. As compensation for doing it in the first place!
“No.”
Spoilsport.
Wels gives out a real sigh, “It’s too bad we can't go from the tunnel at my base.”
Wait what?
Somehow the knight was oblivious to the many faces staring at him, too caught up with thinking of ideas. Only lifting his head up upon realising the pin drop silence around him, “What?”
“Wels…” Skizz starts slowly, “You have a tunnel? Into Hypno’s?”
“Yes…?”
“And you didn’t think of mentioning it BEFORE?!”
If Wels was embarrassed about the notion, he didn’t show it, “I mean… if Hypno hasn’t come out from there yet, then it must be blocked too right?”
His outburst dies down, “Oh yeah… when you put it that way.”
“Yeah…” Hypno adds in with a nervous laugh, “It’s not like I completely forgot about that…”
If any of them could glare at the seer right now they would.
But not right now cause right now they’ve got some serious brainstorming to do and the knowledge of the tunnel is giving him some ideas.
“Hypno, stay where you are.” Ren starts, “The rest of you listen up…”
Hypno was in the kitchen when the rumble was felt throughout his base; the plan had started.
Whatever the plan was. He wasn't given much other than, keep the house distracted. So there he was; in his kitchen playing chess with his house.
And damn it she was good.
Now that some obvious chaos was starting, he’s hoping to get a little more insight. Hopefully nothing to do with the exploding of his house.
It might have him trapped but it’s still his base.
With his bandana back on, he starts hearing voices both physically and mentally once he gets closer to his storage room where he finds the other five Hermits currently in the server scrambling up the stairs from Wels’ tunnel.
Behind them an explosion of debris as trigger-happy shooting attempts to take them out.
Skizz rushes in first, collapsing onto the floor and breathing heavily. The others come in after him with less dramatisation.
In the middle of it all, Ren rips out the glasses on his face and Wels takes the liberty to smash it with his boot when the wolf throws it to the ground.
“Visors are digital too,” Ren confirms, trying to catch his breath, the last bit of chaos fading behind him, “Noted.”
Jevin flicks a fleck of flame off his melting arm, “Dude, I didn’t even know your glasses could do that.”
“There are apparently a lot of things my visors could do that I didn't know.”
The seer helps Skizz off the floor, “What did it do?”
In perfect unisonance, “Don’t ask.”
But all five were already thinking about it and flashes of clamping ears and burning lasers and blinding eyes were mixing in with panicked running and loud shooting and— too much.
Hypno tightens his bandana and the sights die down.
A new sound has him turning to the tunnel where the house builds itself a wall, closing up only the exit they had and effectively trapping them inside.
If this was their plan then it was a horrible one.
“I thought you were breaking me out. Not breaking yourselves in.”
“We were,” Cleo agreed, “But then we realised we should just go to the source.”
Scratch that, they may be on to something.
Once again, a possible solution he completely forgot about…
He didn’t have time for lamenting, the others had started pulling out bows, swords and armour, passing some to him to put on.
“So suit up!” Skizz says cheerfully, “We’re going hunting.”
Wordlessly, he gears up and leads them to a door going down, down, down below into the darkness.
He smirks, “Let’s go.”
The deeper they went the more uneasy Wels feels. It’s been too easy.
Nothing had bothered to stop their decent. Considering the house doesn’t like when they talk loud, it’s safe to assume she’s heard their plans already. Why not stop them? What was she waiting for?
“Seems to me like she’s gathering all her defences to protect the motherboard.” Hypno’s voice cuts into the silence so suddenly they all jump. Even got a scream from Skizz.
“Not cool, man!”
The seer just smiles.
“Alright,” Wels continues the conversation Hypno decided to make out loud, “So this is her final stand.”
“Oh, like a final boss fight!” Ren quips in.
Well, better that they were fighting together then than Hypno doing this alone.
“Let’s hope we win this one then.” Jevin concludes as the stairs reach its end, leading them into a dark room not even the lantern the slime hybrid was holding could light up the entire place.
Fortunately the poor light didn’t need to.
And no, not because half of them could see in the dark.
Bright white lights flood the room, nearly blinding their eyes. Once adjusted, the main machine towers over them, guns at the ready.
If they were going with Ren’s analogy, the boss music would have started right about now.
The battle was fast and chaotic, and Wels couldn’t tell exactly what happened in the heat of the moment. Bullets grazed against shields and flesh; drawn bows shot arrows penetrating into metal walls; human voices shouted over mechanical beeps and boops.
One thing was for sure.
“Hypno, what did you build this with?” Cleo hissed, pulling out a bullet wedged into her arm.
The machine was faster than they could keep up.
“Redstone and metal,” The seer rolls behind Cleo and her shield, peeking out enough to release another arrow, “What do you want me to answer?”
And had a shell like steel.
A boosted jump with the help of Ren has Jevin stabbing the machine with his sword, slicing it down like cake with a satisfying ‘screech’, “Well it doesn’t feel that way!”
They were wearing out quickly.
“We’re doing damage nonetheless,” Skizz cheers, “One final push guys!”
And Wels could only hope they could hold on a little longer.
Ren releases another arrow then swears, “All out.” He looks to Cleo who shakes her head. It only takes a second before he joins Jevin on the frontlines.
Skizz was right though. One big hit and it’s over.
They just need something that can deal that maximum damage.
Maybe something heavy they can throw at it…
Something like…
“Skizz!” Said person instantly looks at him, “Throw me!”
And doesn’t think twice, “With pleasure!”
Wels was flying even before he could process what was happening and curls himself into a ball right before he hits the machine, the weight of his armour doing the rest of the work for him. Electric burns that shoot up his body makes him regret the impulsive decision, but hearing the machine shut down right before he respawns makes it all worth it.
He’s gonna have to lay off his armour for a while though…
For the record, they all had to respawn. That was how big the explosion was.
Yet miraculously, Hypno’s house managed to keep its walls.
For the most part.
Skizz takes the role of snapping out the seer out of the mental pause his brain is going through as the others go through the remains of his living room, picking up whatever was left behind and fixing it to the best of their abilities.
Unfortunately, he doesn't think he's doing the best job with his role, snapping his fingers in front of the black clad blond once again with no result.
“Look at it this way,” Cleo steps in, patching up a hole in the floor, “Your house is still intact at least.”
“The inside… not as much.”
The zombie sends a deadpan stare towards Wels who smiles innocently, “Just stating facts.”
“I'm never using technology ever again.” Hypno finally says.
“Hard pass,” Jevin straightens the cat tower, “I’d like to be able to talk to you while you’re not around.”
“Find another way then.” Despite the claim, the seer’s smile doesn’t escape Skizz. Maybe the slime should have done his job instead.
Ren comes into the house not long after, a tray of drinks in hand, and places them onto the newly made table, “Well my friends, I think we all learned a valuable lesson today.”
“Yeah, never trust Hypno with your tech.” Jevin immediately concludes.
“That's… no not really.”
Hypno tries next, a smile creeping up his face, “Skizz is crazy strong?”
“Actually—”
Skizz doesn’t give him the time to finish, “Or Wels is ridiculously light. Do we have to feed you buddy?”
“What I wanted to say—”
“I’m fine, thank you very much.” Wels answers, smiling just as wide as the others as he immediately turns to Cleo, “I think we all know that the lesson here is to let Cleo do the planning the next time.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Wels.”
“Eh, worth a shot.”
“Guys… c’mon!” Ren whines, but he’s smiling just as much so no one bothers to stop giving new lessons, each one sillier than the next.
All in all, Skizz would consider this a productive evening. Another day full of fun and games with friends where he got nothing of importance done!
He can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.