Let me level with you man, as someone guilty of the game

20. When the Chips are Down

"This is stupid-"

"We can't seriously go along with-"

"GUYS!"

Surprisingly, it was Ranboo who broke up the arguing. The rest of the collected vigilantes and villains paused, turning to stare expectantly at the tall boy. Ranboo fidgeted under the gaze of so many people, wringing his hands together in front of him. However, his expression was fierce and his jaw was set in a hard line.

"It's not our decision," Ranboo said plainly, looking over the group in front of him. The Blade - Techno had his arms crossed, a frown pulling at the corners of his lips.

"We can't just stand by while he-"

"You won't be standing by!" Tommy cried, running a slightly shaky hand through his already mussed hair. Techno glanced over at him, along with several other people, raising a cynical eyebrow.

"Right, we'll be 'waiting as backup,' so we don't 'get hurt.'"

"The quotation marks weren't really necessary."

"No one asked, Jester."

Tommy sighed raggedly, sweeping an arm out to encompass the entire assembled group. Niki stood near the counter of her cafe, fingers tapping rapidly along the counter. Puffy stood next to her, squeezing Niki's other hand gently. Phil and Techno were standing closer to the entrance, matching looks of disapproval on their faces as they looked between Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy. Even Jester and Kronos had shown up, sitting side by side in a pair of chairs they had pulled up from a nearby table. The whole atmosphere of the room was tense, and it felt like a weight was settling on Tommy's shoulders as he steeled himself to speak again.

But before he could, someone else interrupted him.

"What if we go in after you?"

Tommy paused, turning to look at the speaker with a frown. Kronos sat up a little straighter in his chair, meeting Tommy's stare head on now that he no longer wore his goggles.

"What?"

"What if we go in after you?" Kronos repeated, gesturing around at the group. "You go and give yourself up as a distraction, keeping the heroes' eyes away from us, and a second group sneaks in after you-"

"To get the records," Tubbo suddenly said, straightening as an idea seemed to spark. Kronos frowned, shrugging.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but sure."

"We can grab the records of Project Olympia," Tubbo continued, completely ignoring Kronos and instead turning to Ranboo and Tommy, eyes shining with a plan. "We can expose Dream and Schlatt for what they did, save Siren, and destroy the heroes' reputations all in one blow!"

Ranboo frowned, his eyebrows pulling together in thought. "The records for the Project are hidden pretty deep under the Tower, and only a hero can access it with a DNA code though."

Jester raised his hand, pulling everyone's attention back to him. He looked almost smug as he glanced over at Kronos, grinning.

"We happen to know a hero who might be willing to help, if given enough of a reason."

A slow smile began to spread across Kronos' face, his eyes twinkling as he turned back to face Tommy.