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‘A while’ had passed. Then 30 minutes. Then an hour.
Spoke stood in front of the stasis chamber, his heart pounding fast.
He’s worried. Worried for his best friend. They were being hunted and they had to stay safe. So he might as well pull the pearl. Who knows, I might just save him some time and he’s coming back here. Or if he is fighting then he’d be saving magic anyway so like…yeah at this point I just gotta do it bro.
Spoke inhaled deeply and flipped the trapdoor close. The pearl disappeared, replaced with a frantically moving Mapicc, arrows studded onto his armour, shouting, before teleporting away in a flash of purple particles.
“No, we got to go, bro. We got to go—“
Leaving Spoke alone, standing in the stasis chamber, heart racing, mind racing. What. Mapicc. Mapicc. Oh my fucking god. What the fuck. What happened to Mapicc? Oh no. No. He can’t be dead right? Like. There wasn’t a death message. So he’s still alive. Please still be alive. Don’t die on me yet.
He left the chamber in an instant, his hands were shaking as he grabbed everything he needed out of the chests and flew out to Mapicc’s last known location.
———————————————-
It was in shambles. The front entrance had a crater-probably from a minecart. Leo’s work probably. Tch. Inside the castle, the floors had the same treatment. Blown up. And most ominous of all were all the loot. Scattered around the castle were piles of loot. There wasn’t a sure fire way to tell if they were…no, there’s no way he died. He would survive, no matter what. Right?
“Ooohh myyy gooood. Mapicc, you—”
Then his eyes caught something. Ice. Packed ice. And lilypads. Items that Spoke had given Mapicc before he left, and they were all piled up in a stack in a cobweb. His heart dropped. No, no, no, no, no. There’s no way that that’s Mapicc’s stuff right? Maybe he just dropped it to make space in his inventory and coincidentally it landed in the same pile of another player’s loot. Right?
…
Spoke’s heart raced as he looked around the room. For anything. Clues, hints, anything that would comfort and tell him that ‘Hey, Mapicc’s alive.’ Or for Mapicc to walk out from a corner, smirk at him and laugh, “Yo. You just got pranked, bro!” And Spoke would pretend like he didn’t care about Mapicc and that he was just being a nice friend.
But he does care. He cares so much in fact that he’d burn the entire world down just for Mapicc. He cares so much that—
Mapicc. Mapicc. Please. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. I still have so many things I want to do with you that you being dead won’t help. Okay, why am I hyperventilating right now? It’s not gonna help Mapicc. Contextual clues, Spoke. Contextual clues.
He scoured the area and found traces of packed ice. S-so he went here then—no, no. Mapicc did not end up in the web. Nope. Don’t think about it. He probably escaped. Wait what if he’s with Zam? Oh my god. Why didn’t I think of that? I’m so stupid, on god. Spoke stepped into the water, his riptide trident out. Then he equips an elytra and flies off.
———————————————-
Halfway to Zam’s base, Spoke noticed something felt off. Things were going too…smoothly in a sense and Spoke didn’t feel too good about that. It was unsettling. Especially since Leowook was still out there and hunting him. And holy—look at what he said.
Spoke paused to look behind him and he nearly fell out of the sky. His face paled and holy shit why is there so many invis people behind meeeee.
“That. Is not good. Not good at all. Leave me aloneee.”
Spoke riptided off a river, taking to the air again. This time accompanied by not very nice people. Wow. Shocker.
He looked behind again, this time heart thumped. Really hard. Why the fuck are they—oh yeah no, they have fucking firework rockets. Of course! Of course they have stuff I don’t! Fuck you Leo. (Somewhere, Leo sneezes lol)
Spoke dives back down into a river to use his trident to propel forward, his heart racing as he looked around for anything that could help him to get out of this predicament. He remembered something. I have to get to that ice biome. Uhh where’s the birch tree?
There.
He flew straight into the water, riptiding himself up as the invis players shot flame arrows at Spoke, setting him on fire, draining him to a measly 5 hearts. He bit into a golden carrot for saturation to regen his hearts.
Uh oh. No, no, no. Too low. Too close. Far too close.
As he flew over the snowy biome, his eyes drifted to a certain area of the nearly flat ground. TNT cannon time. He smirked as he chucked a wind charge at the button causing the machine to come to life, spewing TNT and lighting it, the slime block under it pushing the TNT up into the air using the piston causing the TNT to launch up.
Run. Ruuunnn. Spoke threw a pearl away from the TNT, teleporting out of the radius as he watched loot fall from the sky like rain.
svscows8 fell from a high place.
svscows8 left the game.
ne15000 fell from a high place.
ne15000 left the game.
.
.
.
.
Spoke trotted over to the cannon and checked the dispenser filled with TNT. I’ll take some just in case I need them. But as he did so, a figure watched him from a far, his armour equipped. A milk bucket in his hand.
As Spoke heard the slight clinking of armour, his head jerked up. One survived? What the fuck. But as the invis player got rid of invisibility, Spoke’s expression sours into one of disgust and anger.
“Leowook.”
“Hey Spoke.” Spoke bristled, hearing him speak so casually. As though they were still friends. As though Leo hadn’t sent spies out to try to kill him before. “How’s your progress on the Spokeishere Case been?”
Leo laughs, a cold, bitter laugh. “Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” He walks forward, his steps confident. Deliberate. And before Spoke could react, Leo had thrown an enderpearl straight at his feet, teleporting so close that his breath tickled Spoke’s face before immediately turning his face, placing down a rail, a minecart and shooting it on the spot.
If Spoke hadn’t had a totem in hand before Leo carted, if Spoke hadn’t been careful, he would’ve died.
The totem pops, Leo proceeds with another rail, a cart, boom. But Spoke had his guard up after the first one, he pearled back, barely avoiding the cart that had blasted a crater into the ground. Spoke gritted his teeth, not wanting to fight. Since he knew that he wasn’t equipped to fight in the first place, the battle would be one sided and—RIGHT! TNT.
Fighting fire with fire babyyy. Spoke lit a TNT and attached it to the end of his fishing rod. He parried the sword strike, his hand recoiling from the impact as he sprinted forward swung the fishing rod, the TNT flying straight at Leo.
Popped. Leo gritted his teeth, his frustration evident.
Before he left, he smiled grimly at Spoke, “I’ll be seeing you soon.” Before he disappeared in a trace of purple particles.
Spoke stood there, his chest heaving as he inhaled a big gulp of icy air. After a while, he scratched his head and sighed, relief crashing down on him. “I don’t want to see you again, bro.”
————————————————
Leowook stared at the TNT launcher, his face impassive, he signalled to a spy. A spy with the insignia of the law carved onto their shield.
“Blow it up.”
The invisible player did so.
As Leowook stared at the exploding machine, the sparks flaring, the area turning into a crater.
Better watch out next time, Spoke.
————————————————
Spoke dived into the sea, locating Zam’s base and entering it. The sight before him was disastrous. Cobwebs everywhere. This was definitely not how Zam’s base was. Spoke started to pace. His heart faltering as he saw the destruction. Some blocks were dug out as though to escape, Zam had been attacked. Why?
Oh my god bro like…how did this get worse? So not only is Mapicc gone but so is Zam and—
A sign behind the furnaces. Out of sight with only one word on it. ‘Lsw’.
What the FUCK is Lsw bro? Think Spoke, think. What has three letters that starts with L and ends with W? LAW. Right, the LAW. What the FUCK am I supposed to do about the LAW bro?
No no no, Spoke, calm down, maybe the reason why Zam accidentally wrote ‘Lsw’ is because he was in a rush, or that he was being jumped. So… does he want me to get him out? Yeah probably.
Spoke grumbles, “Yet another detour bro? I’ve had enough of this bruh.” He runs a hand through his void black hair. “Like bro, I’ve had to fight with Leo, run away from spies, what’s next, ostracize an entire army?”
Well yes but like…Whatever, we’ll deal with the implications of that later first I’ll get Zam out of prison.
Spoke riptided back up to the surface, his hair soaked, his clothes soggy. Spoke riptided off into the air, his elytra wings spreading as he flew off into the distance.
————————————————
So like…Spoke thought as he sat around a campfire in the trees, How do I find the LAW prison though? Is it just public knowledge or what? He waved his hand closed to the campfire, warming them up as he tried to formulate a plan. Maybe I can splash Invis on myself and ask a LAW soldier the location. No, that would be too suspicious. Maybe I can disguise myself as a LAW soldier. Oooh that would be cool.
Spoke packed up his things and extinguished the campfire, his movements calm and relaxed. Do I have a LAW shield or nah. Spoke checked his inventory and his eyebrows raised. He has one. From where? One of the spies that got banned near me?
…does that mean that Leowook and his spies are working with the LAW? Oh fuck so I’m so going to be continuously hunted huh? Fun.
Spoke sighed softly as he equipped the shield onto his offhand as he sorted through his remaining items. 6 stacks of TNT, some lily pads, barely any packed ice left and a bunch of other random stuff. Wow. Soooo stacked aren’t I? He placed down his enderchest and took out some potions of invisibility as well as some speed potions just in case he needed to escape.
Well, time to go to Capital City.
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A few hundred blocks away from Capital City, Spoke hid behind a tree, removing his armour. He stuffed alt into an inventory slot and put on full diamond armour to blend in before splashing invis onto himself.
Now I just need to find a Lawman. Shouldn’t be too difficult.
Hopefully.
A diamond-clad player with a LAW shield walked past
Welp, that was easy enough lol.
————————————————
He stared at the wild expanse of land, overgrown with weeds and a huge ravine. …what. Did I just…get lied to? Spoke kicked at an overgrown weed, causing the dirt to fly around. “FUUUCKKK.”
He had planned to leave, to go kill that player, to threaten them. But he just decided to snoop around the ravine and lo’ and behold: an imposing structure built of deepslate and iron. The moment Spoke got close, he got jumpscared by an elder guardian—ah. Mining fatigue. Of course. Spoke splashed Invis on again—it had worn off—and proceeded cautiously. His footsteps were soft, careful.
After a while of following the walls of the prison, he’d found the entrance. It was guarded. Of course. Two netherite players stood at the front entrance, intimidating with their netherite swords. Spoke rolled his eyes. Did they think that two guards were enough to protect this huge ass place? Please, that’s just stupid. This place is HUGE. I could just mine in from the back or the sides. But then again, I don’t think this place is for high risk prisoners so I guess it’s fine.
Spoke trudged back to an empty area of the wall, scanning the area before placing an enderchest down to grab a bucket of milk out of a shulker. Lucky.
He chugged it down, crouched and immediately went to mining the wall. When he was sure there was only a layer of deepslate left, he chucked a pearl through, glitching out onto the other side. Wow. For a place with some security, this is plain easy to get in.
He looked around, keeping his pickaxe and re-splashing another pot of invis to extend the time. He was in a hallway. Ookaayy. Spoke chucked another pearl through the other side of the hallway and found himself in a cell. What. So I have been lied to. I’m stuck—wait no I’m not. I have pearls. Spoke threw another one out of the cell, arriving into an open space surrounded by jail cells and in a dark corner, he saw Zam.
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Zam had been pacing around in the cell, his mind worried about Spoke, Mapicc, maybe even Wemmbu.
It’s been weeeeeekss since the LAW jumped him in his base as he was going in to store some items and then proceeded to throw him into a cell with barely any food to boot. Like, who does that? And now he was stuck with a rando Th3BlurpinStein, Fantst and Baablu
Then he heard the sound of pearls.
Pearls. Enderpearls oh my god! Someone’s here to save us!! Yayyy!!!
Zam turned straight to the sound, seeing a floating enderpearl. His mouth curling up to a smile as he saw the invis figure chug the milk bucket and revealed who they were.
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“Spoke!”
Spoke threw the bucket away, his face turning to face Zam’s wide smile as he heard the loud whisper. He smirks at Zam before breaking the cell door to let Zam out.
Upon hearing the commotion, however, the other inmate had begun to stir. “Spoke?” Baablu muttered while rubbing his eyes. His pink eyes reached Spoke’s voiding ones and it contained a desperation to get out. The same could be said for the other two. Spoke sighed inwardly but broke the cell doors all the same.
————————————————
Everyone else was gone. They’d left after escaping and thanking Spoke. That left Spoke with Zam. Spoke dropped a full set of diamond armour to Zam as he scoured his enderchest for a spare set of tools.
“…Soooo Spoke, you probably have a question to ask me right?”
Spoke didn’t reply immediately, still looking for materials. He took out the shulker box that contained the loot from that one spy that died near him and tossed it to Zam.
“Take those. And yes, Zam, do you know where Mapicc is? It’s been…3 days? And…he’s nowhere to be found. Where did you last see him? Have you conversed with him before you got sent here?”
Zam chuckled nervously as he organised his inventory, “Uhh, well…it was in an ice spike biome so like…”
“So not really?”
Zam looked down at his feet and shook his head slightly. “Not really.”
So what now? Where do I find Mapicc? How do I find Mapicc? Why can’t I find Mapicc? Don’t leave me alone like this, Mapicc. You’re my only friend. I would need you to stop me when I go too far, when I do too much wrong. I miss your scolding, Mapicc. Please…please just come back. Spoke knew, he knew he was on the verge of a breakdown. He could feel his heart ache, aching for a familiar touch, aching for Mapicc, his best friend, his closest buddy. Please just come back, Mapicc…
Suddenly, he was enveloped in a warm hug, a warm yellow hug. He only realised now that he’d been sobbing. As Zam whispered consoling words into Spoke’s ear, Spoke couldn’t help but cry freely.
————————————————
The crying had gone on for a few minutes. Afterwards, Spoke had wiped away his tears, washed his face with some clear water from the river close by and went back to normal like nothing had ever happened.
They traveled far away from the prison as the sun rose, stopping by an island to repair their elytras and tridents. They had bid their farewells and parted, not before Zam had looked at Spoke with worry and pity.
Spoke tousled his jet black hair as he looked into the horizon. Guess I could head back to base, y’know, to wait. Maybe Mapicc escaped and went back to find the base empty and is now worrying about me. I hope so. I should also, like, keep his stuff as well just in case he went out for materials while I was away. He’d want that. Probably. With that nice thought, Spoke riptided into the air and flew back.
————————————————
He was back at where this all started. The creaking forest. In the dark of night where he had bid farewell to Mapicc, where he had said goodbye, not knowing if he would ever meet him ever again. Spoke clicked the button near the root of a pale oak tree, making the door of the base open. He jumped in and landed onto the slime blocks that softened his fall. Every footstep echoed through the hallway as he walked down the nether brick stairs to the base.
As he reached the main chamber, his stance changed. Cautious, careful. Several emotions flashed through his face as he stepped closer; surprise, wary, confused, soft, sad, happy. All that.
Because there was an invis figure. An invis figure with Mapicc’s shield. His voice quivered as he spoke (see what I did there?).
“Mapicc?”
————————————————
Leowook smirked.
————————————————
Spoke took a few steps closer, his eyes wide, happy, jubilant. His mouth open in a wide smile. Relief exuded from his stance as he walked forward to tackle Mapicc, his Mapicc in a bear hug.
“Oh my god, Mapicc, do you how much you—”
He freezes. Then starts backing away, his whole figure shaking, a chill running through his entire body as he stared at the figure turning around to face him, a mocking smile on his face. Spoke paled, his pupils dilating into white glowing slits.
Oh.
He can’t seem to comprehend what’s happening. Where’s Mapicc? Where’s Mapicc? He’s not here? Where is he? Where’s my Mapicc? Where is my friend, my best friend? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He can’t be dead, he can’t be dead, he can’t be dead, he can’t, this is just some cruel joke. Yeah, that must be it. A joke. A joke…it’s such a cruel joke isn’t it, Leowook?
Spoke snapped, all sense lost. Grab his collar. Kill him. How dare he. Die. Die. Die. Die. DIE! He let out a snarl, like a growling monster and charged at Leo.
The entire floor pulled out from under him.
“FUUUCK.”
In a split second decision, he bit a chorus fruit, transporting him to an underground cave as he dug to a portal. He lit it, his hands shaking as he bit his lip, breaking skin and causing the taste of iron to flood his dry mouth. Mapicc was dead.
The portal lit up, he was then transported to the nether.
At the same time, Leo and his spies stared down the hole, Leo’s expression pensive, mocking, disgusted and annoyed. All at once. He’s as crafty as ever. Leo schooled his expression and signaled to everyone to pack up and leave. He looked back down the void trap, his eyes full of malice as he huffed and flew out and lit TNT into the base.
As both parties were gone, all that was left was blown up bits of rubble and ruins.
————————————————
As Spoke walked into the cold, quiet, Capital city, his expression was firm, his eyes dull, hollow. As he flew up to the top of the skyscraper, he looked down at the beautiful civilization, a pitying look in his eyes—after today, all that will be left is rubble. How pleasant. Spoke landed and immediately got to work, making a TNT cannon easily. As he looked down at the rows of shops and houses, his clear, sharp voice echoed in the quiet streets.
“Dear players of the Unstable SMP, I, Spokeishere, plan to nuke Capital City. You have 1 hour to evacuate the citizens, but anyone who tries to stop me will be swiftly eliminated. However, I only have one demand: prove to me that my best friend, Mapicc, isn’t dead. Show me that he’s been captured or that he’s somehow alive because otherwise, I will leave this entire server in ruins.”
The declaration rang in the air. The citizens took a look at Spoke and started panicking. Some Lawmen ran out of their posts to confront Spoke were met with a TNT to their face, their loot exploding forth and getting banned from the server. Spoke stared at the destruction he had brought with a smirk before placing more TNT and parrying a slash that came from the side. A bark of laughter escaped from Spoke’s mouth as he fought, blood coated his sword as he rampaged.
Oh what losing a friend could do to you.
At long last, an hour was up. Spoke flew up to the tower, his eyes flying over the craters in the city, his soulless white eyes moving to the handle of the lever as he smiled. He raised his hand, a sign of a final goodbye as he flicked the lever.
Spoke laughed. He smiled. Those were the only things he could do. His only friend was gone and he was laughing. How unironic. He stood atop the skyscraper, the city in ruins, blood coating his armour and sword. He seemed at peace. Somehow.
But that peace was interrupted by a slash of a mace. Wemmbu? Spoke thought as his totem popped. His eyes widened as he caught sight of maroon fur before he was whisked away by his stasis. What the fuck.
————————————————
“What were you doing, Spoke?”
That voice. That naggy, impatient voice. Spoke’s head snapped up, his focus closing around the figure clad in netherite. His sharp red eyes pierced straight into Spoke’s. “Mapicc?”
Spoke reached out a trembling hand reaching for Mapicc’s, scared. Scared that Mapicc was just Leo in disguise, scared that he’d leave again, scared that he’d be alone again. His hand made contact with Mapicc’s, pulling him close as Spoke’s true feelings spilled forth.
“Mapicc, you idiot! You dumb, fucking idiot! I thought I told you to stay safe! Oh my god! Do you know how worried I was bro? Like I thought you were dead!” Spoke shook Mapicc, hard. Spoke glared at Mapicc straight in the eyes; “Never, NEVER, leave me again, Mapicc.”
At that moment, Spokeishere was just a normal teenage guy who was meeting his best friend after a long time apart. He hugged and sobbed quietly in Mapicc’s arms as Zam watched from the corner, his mouth smiling at the two best friends.
Poor Mapicc, he was so confused, his brows furrowed in confusion as he nodded and grinned, “A’ite bro.”
“Sorry.” Mapicc added, patting Spoke’s back.
“Never—hic—again, Mapicc.”
“Yeah, yeah, you cry baby.”