Where Is Your Rider (OFFICIAL WATTPAD UPLOAD)

Chapter 26

"We're almost there!" Skeppy shouted from the cockpit. "How're you holding up?"

"Fine!" Tubbo yelled over the roar of the wind, gritting his teeth against the pain in his feet as he clung to the winch cables wrapped around the baby Ohm's body, kneeling on its smooth chitin armor plates.

Well, fine wasn't exactly the right word.

In reality, this was probably the worst day of his life, Tubbo thought to himself, shivering against the wind. He was cold as shit, his feet felt like they'd been fried in boiling oil, and he was sore everywhere. His glider was wrecked, too, and his wounded hand hurt like a bitch.

All in all, as Tommy would probably say, this was one goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation.

At least setting Skeppy's crushed leg had been relatively simple. The helicopter was still in flyable condition—albeit very beat up—and the baby Ohm was alright, dangling in the makeshift harness they'd rigged up, trilling anxiously.

"Yeah," Tubbo mumbled, rubbing the Ohm's shell. "Me too, buddy."

He could see Manberg in the distance, and he blinked in alarm. He squinted, trying to get a better look, and then he gasped in horror.

"Oh my god," he mumbled, gazing at the smoke and flames trailing off the moving city.

It looked terrible. The city had stopped moving, the massive treads broken in multiple places. Several of the lower levels had collapsed completely and others were well on the way, and the domed glass roof of the plaza at the top glowed with fire like a lantern, pouring smoke into the dim predawn sky as malfunctioning firework dispensers unloaded their contents into the air around the city.

He instantly knew what had done the damage.

"Goddamn it," Tubbo mumbled to himself in horror, his grip on the winch cables tightening. "He said he threw it away!"

He'd known about the explosives.

Tubbo had known about the explosives rigged into every inch of Manberg's superstructure. Wilbur had claimed it was a last resort, just a final contingency plan in case something really bad happened. He'd said he'd thrown that detonator away a long time ago, back when Tubbo had woken up in the field hospital swathed in bandages.

And he'd lied.

What the hell possessed him to set the bombs off like that?

"Ooh, looks like shit really hit the fan," Skeppy called. "We're not far ahead of the Ohmu, kid, are you sure about this? If they don't stop—"

"I know, I know!" Tubbo yelled. "Set me down just ahead of Manberg!"

He took a deep breath. If he was wrong about this and the Ohmu didn't stop...

...He decided not to think about it.

A purple glow started to swell in the maw of the cannon, and Tubbo's panic spiked; were they too late—

—BOOM.

Instead of arcing forwards in one contained beam, the purple energy from the cannon exploded outwards like a supernova, ripping through the city like a knife through paper.

Tubbo yelped in alarm, watching the massive mushroom cloud of smoke billow into the dawn sky.

The baby Ohm trilled.