Where Is Your Rider (OFFICIAL WATTPAD UPLOAD)

Chapter 12

"TAKE OFF!" Eret shouted. "TAKE OFF, GODDAMN IT!"

Tubbo yelped, grabbing onto the wall as the bomber jolted and started to lift off the ground. Quackity looked shocked, standing frozen in front of the closed door. Eret was clinging to the wall with panic in their blind eyes—clearly struggling to keep their bearings—and Ranboo was gripping one of the railings, visibly shaking.

The back of his neck was gashed open, slick with blood.

Quackity finally unfroze, whirling around and storming up to the cockpit. "Foolish, bring the fucking bomber back to the city to get Tommy and Wilbur!"

Tubbo watched him go, and then his eyes flitted back to Ranboo.

Horrible guilt gnawed at his heart, like there were rats trapped inside him, chewing their way out through his guts. Tubbo rushed over to him, struggling to hold down tears.

"Ranboo," he mumbled, reaching up to cup his boyfriend's masked face. "Ranboo talk to me, please tell me you're okay—"

Ranboo flinched away from him.

There was blood on his mask, too, a faint red mist that stood out on the white half, and he was trembling, eyes wide with some kind of twisted, shattered horror and exhaustion that made the rats sink their teeth deep into Tubbo's heart.

He looked awful.

"Don't do this again," Tubbo begged. "Please. Please. Don't shut me out. Don't—"

"D—don't touch me," Ranboo mumbled.

Tubbo balked. "Ranboo—"

"I said DON'T TOUCH ME!" Ranboo snarled, his eyes lighting up purple with rage as he slammed Tubbo backwards against the wall by his collar.

Tubbo wheezed as the air was driven out of him, and terror flashed through him. Ranboo must've seen it on his face, because he awkwardly dropped him, tears brimming in his wide, ever-so-expressive eyes.

He stumbled backwards into the wall, slumping against it and sliding down while he fumbled with some bandages for his neck.

The intercom crackled.

"Tubbo get your ass up on the wing!" Quackity yelled. "We're here; we need you to help lay down some covering fire and distract Punz!"

"Fine," Tubbo spat.

He tried to stroke Ranboo's hair. Ranboo jerked away like a frightened animal.

Tubbo scrambled up the ladder and out the roof hatch. The engines roared under his feet as he drew his pistol, and down below on a rooftop, Wilbur was locked in combat with...

...Yep, that was definitely Punz. Tubbo growled under his breath.

Punz was a mercenary, and a powerful one at that. He was smart, too, and he'd once been a friend of Wilbur's—that is, until Schlatt had started paying him. Everyone knew Punz only ever joined a cause for the money, since he had the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair.

The man's allegiance was easy to gain, for the right price. The problem was keeping it.

Currently the man was beating the absolute hell out of Wilbur—despite looking a bit worse for wear himself—with a wild look in his eyes, trying to knock the metal pipe Wilbur was using in replacement of his usual rapier out of his hand. Tubbo aimed and fired, not to kill but to startle.

Punz jolted away, fear flashing in his eyes as the bullet ripped a hole in his cloak. Wilbur snarled and bolted, leaping through the open door, but to Tubbo's horror, Punz followed him, leaping at the door. Tubbo rushed over in a panic and stuck his head through the roof hatch, just in time to watch Ranboo catch Punz by the neck mid-leap and slam him against the floor, fury blazing in his eyes.