Chapter 5

BDubs knew it was going to be hard trying to find where Etho and EvilX were hiding, but he neglected to remember how nerve wracking it would be with the added challenge of hearing his communicator go off every time someone died. Admittedly, it had only been the two times thus far, but checking and seeing they were both Etho made him want to go insane. The only boon they had, paradoxically, was the same curse keeping Etho stuck in that hell hole: that they were able to respawn in the same place they had died in. This at least meant that their progress wouldn't be undone at a moment's notice because someone died and got sent to their base halfway across the map in the opposite direction they were searching.

After he had checked his communicator to see the death message, "Ethoslab was slain by Ethoslab whilst trying to escape EvilXisuma"; BDubs decided he would stop watching chat completely. If someone died, he knew they would be fine, and he really didn't need to know how else Etho was going to suffer till they found him. Plus, he had Doc keeping an eye on Etho for him. And he had Beef by his side, plus the Big Eye crew supporting him. He just had to keep reminding himself he wasn't alone, it wasn't the jungle again, he had his people with him.

"Hey BDubs, you see anything yet?" called out Tango, flying by on his own elytra. BDubs startled in the straps of his elytra, and focused more on the ground below.

"I got nothin'!" he called back, swooping to the back of the formation the big eyes crew had made to check the area stretching from the girls' southernmost border to the northernmost border of Cleo and Joe's shared territory. They had decided to first fly over their assigned strip of the x coordinate line to see if there was anything obviously wrong from a bird's eye view. After that, depending on the results from the other search teams, they would dig down in strategic intervals to be as thorough as possible. They had calculated the size of the room based on the video feed before they had left, and so they planned on digging straight down every 9 blocks along the axis. As crazy as that was, they were hoping with forteen hermits all doing it at the same time equally spaced along the line, they would be able to find Etho within an hour or two. (This all assumed that EvilX hadn't been lying, but this was the only thing they had.)

Mumbo hated every decision that had led him to this moment. He hated every decision that others have made on his behalf that had led to this moment. (That was a lie, he blamed himself completely. Even though Grian had had the idea to institute him as the CEO of Boatem, it was still his final say as to whether he would actually complete the role assigned to him. It was his decision to step up to the plate and lead them at this critical time. Everything that was happening was entirely his fault.) As he watched, horrified, Etho having to stay strong without anyone by his side; Mumbo thought he would throw up. If he didn't faint first that was. (How pathetic of him, that he couldn't handle the consequences of his actions.) He stood miserable in front of the screen, promising himself the least he could do was watch every moment Etho was without help and in pain because of him.

Beside him, Xisuma frantically typed in his admin console, seemingly trying in vain to undo whatever EvilXisuma had done to the respawn mechanics. To his other side, TFC stood stoically, seemingly unaffected by what he was witnessing, though Mumbo was sure that if he looked over, he'd be able to see the disguised pain in TFC's eyes. Behind and a bit to the side of Xisuma was Joe, who's pain was obvious to see, but stood strong despite it. (Mumbo wondered why Joe was here at all, till he remembered how close Joe was to Xisuma). To TFC's other side stood Doc, who looked about one more Etho death from finding a way to crawl through the screen and detonating in EvilXisuma's face. And to Joe's other side stood Scar, sympathetic tears trailing down his face and holding himself in a way that Mumbo knew he did when he was particularly missing the comfort of Jellie the cat.

Mumbo watched as Etho poofed back into existence, arm that he had mangled looking noticeably more mangled than before.(Though there was something off about the restraints and his arm's relation to them that Mumbo couldn't place. It didn't help the camera's resolution wasn't quite perfect clarity, and a bit of a wide shot, so details were a little difficult to pick out. Though it didn't stop them from seeing the next part just fine.) Once Etho was back, EvilXisuma punched him in the face, hard enough they could see a tooth fly out of his mouth.

"You will regret that," stated EvilXisuma, just barely loud enough to be picked up by the camera. (Mumbo knows Etho would normally have replied with something like, 'you already said that', but, well…)

"Any updates Xisuma?" questioned Doc, still staring intently at the screen looking for any clues as to the whereabouts of the the torture room.

"He's still goin' strong Doc," replied Joe instead, peaking over Xisuma's shoulder to see what he was up to. "You got any new clues?"

Doc growled under his breath. "No." He sounded bitter to Mumbo, all acid and sharp edges.

"I can't tell, but there's something different about his arm I think," said Mumbo hesitantly, nervously watching as the rest of the group stared intently up at the screen to see what he meant.

Scar spoke up, "I think I see what you mean. His arm isn't quite aligned correctly with the chair arm, right?"

Mumbo nodded, pointing at Etho's arm on the screen where it seemed to almost intersect with the cuff and was bleeding profusely. "I don't know how, like if it was just a natural consequence of trying to move his arm in that direction as he died and respawned, or if it was just a one time fluke; but he seems to have gotten his wrist intersected with the cuff on the armrest and the stake from earlier seems off center."

As Mumbo was trying to explain, EvilXisuma had begun to focus on Etho's fingers, and starting on the opposite hand to the one they were observing, he began to break them individually. Mumbo was selfishly happy that he didn't have to focus on Etho's pain for a moment as he allowed himself to fully focus on the potential puzzle in front of him.

TFC suddenly spoke up, voice coming off as gruff. "Hrm, this is good and all, but it depends entirely on EvilXisuma not noticing this little update; which we've done a pretty poor job at not letting him on. What with him more than likely able to hear us, and all that." Doc muttered a quiet, "fuck" under his breath in response, and they all held their breath as they waited to see if EvilXisuma would say anything.

Instead of saying anything, he continued to methodically snap more of Etho's fingers, causing the group to flinch in varying amounts at each wet snap. However, as Mumbo was trying to take in details not relating to Etho's pain, he could tell that the mic was picking up EvilXisuma's muttering. But Mumbo didn't have the super amazing hearing that someone like Ren or Grian had; but he wondered if one of the other people in the group here had more sensitive hearing. "Anyone able to make out what he's saying?" muttered Mumbo.

Doc hissed a quiet affirmative, and muttered back, "Yesssss, but I need to focus. Please everyone be quiet, thanks." Everyone but Xisuma nodded back, who was too busy still trying to figure out what EvilXisuma had done to the code to notice anything else around him.

Mumbo did his best to both suffer the consequences of his actions, while at the same time he couldn't stand watching one of his fellow Hermits in that much pain. He could no longer distract himself, as he couldn't make out what EvilXisuma was saying, and there were only so many times he could try to determine how many pixels on the screen related to the walls were just stone or his imagination trying to give him impossible answers. EvilXisuma had finally finished with Etho's left hand, and he now moved to the right before he took a noticeable pause. Mumbo held his breath, hoping beyond hope that EvilXisuma somehow hadn't noticed Etho's weirdly placed hand. But that was an impossible wish after all.

"Well well well, how have you managed this then?" Evil Xisuma appeared to poke the part of the wrist that seemed to be poking part way out of the cuff. Mumbo couldn't help but notice that Etho seemed so gone that he barely flinched at what should have been an incredibly painful jostle. "I'm interested in seeing how you struggle with this." Evil X nodded at Etho. "Yes, I shall let you struggle. But we still have about 9 more bones to break, so on we go." With that, he kneeled in front of Etho and started snapping the fingers on Etho's right hand. Each wet snap ended with a muted whine and shudder from Etho, who seemed to have zoned out far enough that any reactions seemed mostly involuntary at this point. EvilXisuma seemed quiet for the first few snaps, before he went back to muttering in a just barely audible way. Mumbo could only assume that EvilXisuma was unaware that his mic sensitivity was set too high, and thought he was muttering in such a way as for those of them watching the stream would be unable to hear him. That, or it was an unconscious habit, and didn't even realize he was doing it. Either way, Mumbo continued hoping he would continue to do so, so that maybe he would let something slip and Doc could post it in chat.

Meanwhile Doc had been listening closely to what EvilX had been saying, but none of it thus far had led to a clue. Most of what he was muttering were curses and the terrible things he planned to do to Etho. Honestly Doc wished he couldn't hear what EvilX was saying, just so that he wasn't obligated to continue listening to see if that scum slipped up. But the chance of catching something important was too high, so he went back to diligently listening to the stream, mentally cursing at every suppressed gasp or whine or wet snap from Etho.

EvilXisuma made quick work of Etho's fingers, and seemingly tired of Etho's lack of responses decided he needed to kill him. However, because he was feeling particularly vindictive, he gutted Etho, guts spilling over his knees before he disappeared in a flash of red. Mumbo, morbidly curious how the game would register the death, looked down at his communicator. "Ethoslab was slain by EvilXisuma." He was selfishly grateful that the server messages were that generic. He watched further as Etho poofed back into the chair, though as before his killing blow hadn't followed him through respawn, but all his previous wounds did. Mumbo looked very carefully at Etho's wrists and saw that he had managed to get his wrist farther out, and the stake seemed almost completely out of his arm. Unfortunately for Etho, respawn managed to break him out of his trance, and he seemed far more present and aware (and in pain) for the moment. The only positive that Mumbo could see was that EvilXisuma seemed to have either turned off the speakers on his end, or was ignoring them completely. But Mumbo could only hope that either Doc would hear something soon, or the search parties would stumble across the hidden room soon; because he wasn't sure how much more of this he could watch.