How to take down an empire with voices in your head

26. The L'manburg Crater

Tubbo and Techno walked- well ran, side by side. They had asked which way Ranboo left the burger joint and carried on in that general direction. Hopefully, they were going to find Ranboo before the Eggpire did.

"What about Punz?" Techno glanced back at Mc Puffy's, looking torn between two thoughts. "He's not gonna try and do anything, right?"

"No, it's Niki and Puffy," Tubbo said with a shrug too tense to be considered one, "and Ranboo's the focus right now."

So the two continued to search, trudging along the path and spitting up now and then. Eventually, Tubbo was met with the windy area of the L'manburg crater. 

'Could Ranboo have run this far?' Tubbo looked to the bottom of the terraformed chaos, 'It's possible.'

When he heard shuffling behind him he whipped around quickly, preparing to greet Ranboo with a smile. "Hello Ranboo, you alright big man?"

Ranboo only mumbled something to himself, voice sounding terribly strained. Tubbo paused at this, looking up at the other. Then he saw the new look Ranboo had adorned, making Tubbo take a step back and furrowed his brows in confusion. "What the hell's with your eyes Ranboo?"

Tubbo's eyes widened as Ranboo pulled a sword out of his inventory, 'What the-'

He was yanked back, almost stumbling onto the floor as he watched the sword dig into the ground.

He turned to see whoever's hands were pulling on his shoulder, feeling relieved to be faced with Tommy.

"-alright? What the fuck is going on?" Tubbo suddenly became aware of the other's voice, he must've been so focused on Ranboo that his head blocked Tommy out.

"I don't know, I just found him and now he's swinging a sword at us!" Tubbo threw his hands up as they both backed away from Ranboo. Tommy was hesitant about pulling out his shield, overlooking Ranboo with a frown, "What do you mean you found him?"

"He ran off after he woke up," Tubbo said, grimacing as Ranboo's grip on the weapon tightened. "He was out because Phil stabbed him with a sword."

Tommy froze for a second, his stature stiffening. He wrinkled his brows as he spoke, "What? The fuck do you mean?"

"Phil's been taken by the Eggpire." Again the words visibly affected Tommy, but he was quick to shrug it off as Ranboo's sword almost came to his leg, blocking it at the last second as he let out a gasp.

"Shit-" he mumbled, looking at Tubbo to see what they could do about Ranboo. They couldn't hurt Ranboo, yeah, definitely not. Tubbo got the same feeling from when he was fighting the Eggpire, frowning at the sight of Ranboo. But then the two heard a mischievous giggle from behind them, whipping around to see Badboyhalo.

"Oh hello you two," he greeted them, his wide smile felt sickening to them. He took notice of Ranboo, tilting his head, "Or, you three. Heard a lot of shouting here."

"Dammit," Tubbo said under his breath. 'Because this is what was needed right now.' He pulled out his axe, backing up from being in between both Bad and Ranboo- that would be stupid. Tommy followed, keeping his shield up. "What the heck do we do Tubs?"

Bad's eyes, well, more like white glowing holes in his void of a face, switched to Ranboo, observing him. He took a step back when Ranboo moved forward, being careful. But of course, something was going on with Ranboo, so he started saying things to Bad, which made no sense but somehow Bad understood.

"How the fuck do you understand that?" Tommy asked, brows furrowed. Bad looked at him, a serious expression on his face, "The Egg understands- not me. It's endermen- apparently."