Chapter Text
Spoke had set his stasis in the nether, using one without water, since it would have evaporated immediately. Him and his friends had spent around the past hour, basically bullying Leowo0k and his less-than-impressive gang of Lawmen. They killed person after person, until only Leo and a small group were left to attack their sky base. Of course, they dealt with that too – but not before setting up a stasis, incase they needed it. And once he felt himself being teleported away, he assumed it was an attack. Maybe Leo had.. Somehow found their nether stasis and managed to get to it in time. Maybe it was Jumperwho who wanted to interrogate him personally about the armor pieces. The face he saw next was one he never thought he’d see again.
The first thing he noticed was that it wasn’t the stasis he set up in the nether. It was something set up deep in the ocean, a stasis he’d completely forgotten about prior. There was nothing there of use, just his now used stasis, an obsidian box with a water elevator exit that had been blocked up, and the former leader of the invis mafia. Ashswag.
Last time Spoke had seen Ash, Spoke had spared his life, beliving it was the only way to end the cycle of villain after villain. So far, it had worked out pretty well. That was until the Law came up. Spoke could tell from the get-go that they weren’t some, justice-obsessed police force that wanted to genuinely bring happiness to all players. It was clear as glass. Their first, biggest feat was sending 1,000 players to their death just so Lettuce could have one singular person imprisoned, letting the other one escape – even though Spoke had broken that same person out of prison, and honestly it wasn’t even difficult. For a prisoner with as high of a reputation as Wemmbu, they sure didn’t bother to secure the prison all that much. I mean, for goodness sake, Spoke had literally set up a miniature camp-out where Wemmbu’s solitary confinement cell was. It was honestly embarrassing how bad it was.
But eventually, Spoke got what he needed from Wemmbu, even if he still had to give something in return despite quite literally saving him from his executioner. It was whatever, though. Spoke had his own things to worry about right now. Like how he’d just gotten trapped in an obsidian box with his arch nemesis… well, ex arch nemesis, I guess, since Leo existed now.
Ash spoke first. “I told you, didn’t I? That you’d turn out exactly like me.” His tone was the same as when he still led the mafia. The comparison made spoke hold his sword just a little tighter. “You may deny it now, all you want, but Mapicc will find out what you did to Jamato. And once he figures out you lied to him, time and time again, he’ll turn on you. And once that happens.. I’ll be here.”
“Mapicc would never do that,” Spoke said, disregarding everything else Ash said. “He would never betray me, and I sure as hell won’t turn out like you. You– you-” Spoke stumbled over his words, but never ended up finishing his sentence. Spoke looked up again, tempted for just a second to splash a strength potion and kill Ash here, so he couldn’t do whatever it was he was planning. This guy was always up to something, and Spoke was honestly sick of finding out what that was. Despite him having spared him previously, this was the final straw. Spoke moved a strength pot to his hot bar – just in case, he told himself, even though he knew, chances were, that he’d be using it regardless of what Ash said here. Ash said nothing in return, instead laughed that infuriating laugh that made Spoke want to rip out Ash’s tongue.
Ash dropped a paper to his feet, and immediately Spoke potted himself with strength II and jumped at him, but of course Ash just had to stasis out right before the hit landed. Spoke’s sword collided with the obsidian floor with a clink, leaving nothing else in the room except for Spoke and the paper Ash had dropped. Spoke took a breath, trying to calm himself. He really, really hated that guy. Spoke was better than him. He’d never turn out to be who Ash was – never, not once, not in a million years, impossible. Spoke stayed in that position for only a couple more seconds, before another of his stasis chambers was pulled. This time, Spoke didn’t recognize where he was, although it was pretty easy to put two and two together – that someone had gotten hold of his stasis in the nether and managed to separate it from Mappic’s and Zam’s. That meant they still had their pearls, and could kill them at any time if Spoke tried attacking them. That was why he didn’t use the Strength he already had potted – well, as well as the fact that there were three people in full netherite that could probably two-shot him, but the previous sounded cooler.
Spoke had to force himself to take a breath, glancing at the players and then the base they were in. They weren’t speaking, and Spoke couldn’t tell whether to be mad or relieved. He begun to try guessing who they were – the only person coming to mind was Leo. It couldn’t be Ash, considering the players didn’t have mafia trims and he was literally just with Ash, and it probably wasn’t Jamato, considering he knew better than to interfere with Spoke at the moment, and Jamato didn’t really have friends that would help him do this; at least not that Spoke could recall. The base honestly looked kind of like a beehive.
For some reason, he didn’t even think it could be JumperWho until she un-invis’d in front of him. She said something about teaming up, Leo, blah blah blah… to be honest, Spoke wasn’t really listening to her. He already knew he’d say no, so listening right now was pointless.
His attention was, instead, focused on a piece of paper in his inventory with coordinates written on it. The paper Ash had dropped to him.
***
Spoke didn't even mean to pick it up. It must've been automatically put into his inventory when he splashed himself with Strength, the paper having taken the pot's place in his inventory.
Well, he couldn't drop it now. Jumper was still in front of him, and if he got rid of it, he was sure she'd pick it up. The coords on that paper were probably something Spoke didn't want anyone seeing, not even himself. Ash was wrong; he'd never ever need his help. Mapicc would never turn against spoke. It just wasn't possible. Spoke would keep what happened between him and Jamato under wraps, for as long as it took until he took care of the problem permanently.
"You - you're the one that destroyed all the traps, you're the one that built that like, arrow, and like the, all the redstone torches.. and you're the one that did the beacons. That led me to Leo." Spoke said, making sure not to stay silent for too long. His revelation earned just an "Mhm" from Jumper, who was still smiling at him. "You also fought Leo though. You guys are supposed to be teammates."
"Yeah, we're supposed to."
At one of BAT's bases, Spoke had found it to be the remnants of a battleground, with small craters littering the ground, hinting that Leo had fought someone; as TNT carting was his main fighting style. At the time, he didn't know who it was between. That must have been why Leo took lawmen instead of spies to attack Spoke. Something still didn't add up, though.
"I feel like in any other.. situation, I still feel like you would still be trying to kill me - I mean, we don't have the best history. No?"
Jumper paused for a moment, before responding. "I tracked you through the nether, and when you came through, I saw you put pearls in a stasis with Zam and Mapicc. It really- it really wasn't that hard to track you, Spoke. I mean, it's not as difficult as you might think."
She didn't even answer Spoke's question. "Jumper. You just pulled my ender pearl! You just teleported me here! You have no more, there's no more pearls for you to use against me. What are you saying? If your goal is to kill me, you missed it! Are you serious?"
"I mean, I realized when.. after I took your guys' pearls and everything, I realized.. I needed your help, essentially." He didn't expect that. Out of all the things Jumper may have said here, that was not one of the things he thought it would be.
"You need my help? After all the - no, okay. Keep going, keep going." Spoke said. She knew just as well as he did that they weren't the bestest of friends in the past. If Jumper was willing to waste a pearl, which she could've easily used against Spoke, just to ask for help; she was worth at least hearing out.
"I mean, we obviously have one thing in common right now. And that is.. Leo. We both want Leo dead. I mean, for different reasons of course - you have your reasons, but at least for me, the spies are my top priority. There has been more spies dead than ever. He's been using them as just soldiers. Not as, you know, what they're intended to be for." Spoke honestly had to admit, she had a point. But Spoke wasn't struggling in any way. He'd just fought off Leo's little.. law men, got away with it too. Spoke didn't need Jumper's help, and honestly didn't even want it. With their history, it was easy for Spoke to dislike Jumper, to distrust her word. And he did, too.
"I've been doing fine all by myself. Like, why would I want to try to kill Leo with you? With Leo's old teammate? Why would I work with Leo's old teammate, to kill him?" Spoke said, to which Jumper replied "Spoke, unfortunately you are gonna have to trust me here."
"I don't think you understand, I already have a plan in the works that will 100% kill Leo. But um-" Spoke began, but she cut him off. "Well, how's your luck been so far? You've been trying to kill Leo, for.. now, and it's been very unsuccessful." Now, Jumper was just pissing him off. She clearly doubted Spoke's plan would work, which was - by the way - none of her business.
"I appreciate the new base you built for me, um.. I will make this my new headquarters, and if you wanna contact me... uh, don't. So you can.. what is this, an elevator?" Spoke asked, stepping onto the square design in the middle of the building, looking up to what seemed to be the sky. "Are we underground? Did you - is this a bunker?"
"This is a bunker." Jumper said slowly.
"Well, uh.. you guys can see yourself out. Alright?" Spoke said. He just wanted her out now, this was a waste of time when he could be doing much more important things. Like trapping people.
"I mean, sure, but I mean.. I'll expect a call. It's gonna happen. I'll be around," she said, pressing the button next to what Spoke correctly guessed was the elevator. The blocks began to move up, and Jumper left Spoke in the bunker, alone.
***
Spoke didn't need Jumper's help anyway.
He handled it fine on his own, and his traps were enough to hold off Leo. Mapicc and PrinceZam were safe in the base. That was, until Zam and Mapicc came to the Birch forest where Spoke's deadliest traps. They managed to fight off the entire group of players, even stashing their loot in the chests under the trap. They interrogated a lawman that seemed less than impressive of where Leow0ok was, and fought off the people in his settlement.
Once the chungies were killed, that's where Jumper came back, to save Zam. She argued with Leo and Spoke initiated the fight again, to which Leo escaped. They argued again, and Spoke could tell he was losing the support of his friends on not teaming with Jumper. Zam kept asking why Spoke didn't tell them about Jumper having their ender pearls, to which he had to make up some bullshit about being scared. Spoke couldn't have them second-guessing him when his plan to kill Leo was working so well.
The sand trap didn't exactly fail, but the plan to have Jumper's spies be the ones trapped certainly did. Of course Leo just HAD to attack right then. It wasn't difficult to take care of them, not that Spoke was even there for it. Jumper pulled his stasis again and showed him a railgun Leo had been making.
She could've not shown him that. She could have let him die to Leo in the ambush, but she didn't.
So maybe teaming with her wouldn't be that bad.