The Battle: Hearts or Friendship?

Chapter 9: The Deadly Deal and Team

Shoutout to @Clockwork_Bird for giving me a suggestion for this chapter!!

(Branzy's POV)

I woke up the next morning with a brain cluttered with chaotic memories from yesterday. And sitting up only made that worse. But once that settled, I swung my feet over and got out of bed to go check how Clown was doing. As I opened his door, I noticed he was already awake, as I was met with a menacing smile from the jester's mask.
                 "Heyyyy Clown! How are you feeling?" I asked him.
                 "Much better than yesterday," he told me as he munched on a golden apple. "Still in quite a bit of pain though, but I'm sure it'll go away soon." Clown reassured me.
                  "But you still need to heal, it takes time! Sure it might not take you that long, since you're used to it, but you still need to rest, see?" I told the jester, who attempted to rise from his bed, but quickly laid back down, wincing from the pain.
                   "Yeah-I'll be fine though-at least in a couple days! But you don't need to wor-" He was cut off by a ding coming from my communicator. As I opened the small object, the screen popped up, a message appearing. It read,

[Spokeishere whispered to you: Hey Branzy, I got something to ask you]

As I typed back to him, saying, [Sure, what do you need?], Clown asked, "What's that about? Who's messaging you?" He nudged his head toward my communicator, causing him to wince slightly.
                    "Spoke said he wants to ask me something so I just responded back to-oh!" The communicator dinged again.

[Spokeishere whispered to you: I know we haven't met yet, but would you like to be a part of a team?]

I stared blankly at the message, mulling the thought over until finally typing again.

[You whisper to Spokeishere: Sure! Do I need to meet someone somewhere or are we just a team?]
...
...
...
[Spokeishere whispered to you: Meet me at spawn.]

I shut down the floating message screen as I told Clown with a sigh, "Spoke wants me to meet him at spawn. He wants me to join this team of some sort, so I'm going to go and meet him, but you sure you don't need anything else?"
                 "I might need one more thing from you actually." Clown told me, turning to look at me, or at least that was what it looked like.
                 "What do you need? Golden apple? Healing potion? More wraps or bandages?" I asked.
Clown told me with a sigh as he said, "No, I don't need any of that, but thanks for asking. What I wanted to say was that you're not going alone to meet Spoke."
I looked at the masked man with a confused look as I asked, "What? Why? I thought Spoke wasn't dangerous?"
                    "No, not really, at least for now he isn't, but how do you know you're not getting ambushed, or going to get killed? What if others are going to be there to kill you?" Clown told me, concerned.
                   "So what are you trying to say then, Clown?" I asked.
                   "I'm going with you."
I held my breath as Clown's words sank into meaning.
                   "I-what? No! You can't go Clown! You're still healing, you're still hurt! You don't have to go, I'll be fine! I'm just going to meet up with Spoke, I should be fine." I told him, gazing at the injured jester, who had now gotten out of his bed.
Clown stood up as he returned my gaze and said with a sigh, "Fine. But I want to know anything that might concern the both of us at the least."
                    "Okay, I'll be back later, I also left some of the materials for the funhouse in the living room if you get the chance to look at them, without hurting yourself!" I told Clown, who had basically leaped toward the door, landing on his feet as his knees slightly gave away. I left Clown alone, just hoping he wouldn't hurt himself, as I left his house and set off towards spawn to meet with Spoke.