Day 2 - Failed rescue attempt with hurt!Techno and hurt!Tubbo
Other characters: Awesamdude, Eret
Other tags: Dream smp setting, rescuing Michael arc (spoilers for most recent lore), canon divergence, blood & injury
Summary: Sam does not go into his cell as quietly
Techno knew better than to think they had won simply because they got Sam outnumbered.
When push comes to shove, the only real deciding factor in battle is often desperation. An army of less than a hundred men could turn the tide against battalions if those men were unwilling to die. Nobody would ask the surviving soldiers if they had fought with honor. All they wanted to know is who had claimed the blood-soaked ground in the end.
And Sam was desperate. Techno supposed he couldn't blame him, it wasn't as if his back hadn't tensed at the mention of throwing the warden into his own prison. After a grand total of two visits, Technoblade had already firmly decided he'd rather not set foot in that place again, and on a much more personal level the idea of locking somebody up in there did not appeal to him much - never mind the karmic retribution it would spell out.
Moral objections aside though, Techno felt secure in leaving the decision up to his two fellow Revengers and if they were in favor he'd not object. This was Tubbo's call to make, Techno knew. Intricacies could be figured out later.
But Sam knew the prison better than anyone, Sam was desperate. And numbers meant nothing to a man forced into a corner.
Techno should know better, yet he still fell for the sense of false security an unarmored, barehanded opponent could cause.
"Don't move," Tubbo told Sam, trying to figure out the redstone wires set into the wall. Distantly, Techno wished Phil was with them. He had some experience with these constructions. For his own part, he'd never bothered with them beyond the occasional vault door or automatic harvesting system, and even those Techno neglected in favor of just harvesting by hand.
Sam watched his precious mechanization be messed with, not offering a word of advice. Techno supposed they shouldn't expect his help in imprisoning himself. He stood back and exchanged a glance with Eret, who seemed to be in a similar state of unease. This had all been going a little too smoothly for his liking, from finding Sam's island to forcing him to relinquish his items and now this. They should reach the main cell soon. Sam didn't look worried enough for somebody minutes away from being locked up forever.
"Does it need another keycard?" Tubbo demanded, half-turning while Sam pretended to need to think on it.
"It shouldn't." Sam stepped closer to the wall. "You can try the master key though, there's an automatic override installed into all of them."
"Which one is that?" Tubbo held them up like a deck of cards and Sam took another step, away from Eret and Techno. He went to point out the card they needed, then promptly shoved his elbow into the wall to press a secret button in the blackstone.
Techno didn't have time to react but luckily Eret did. She shoved him forward when the floor started to open up at an alarming speed and Techno was still stumbling to regain his footing as it disappeared beneath him. He fell, but not before being able to grab onto the edge of the pit, chest slamming into the side painfully and leaving him hanging precariously over the abyss. Techno didn't need to look down to see the swirling mass of lava below, he could feel its heat against the lower half of his body.
Had Eret been a second later to intervene, he'd be swimming in it.
They'd managed to jump back themself, but were stuck on the other side unable to get across. Unable to help as Sam wasted no time in trying to overpower the one person still in a position to do anything.
"Sam, what the fuck!" Tubbo pulled out the first weapon his hands could reach, the enchanted netherite axe glowing in the prison's dim lighting.
Techno had already started pulling himself up, hoping Tubbo could hold out for a bit on his own. "Eret, get Michael!"
"On it!" A moment later his footsteps were receding down the hallway.
Claws scrambling for purchase, Techno couldn't manage to haul himself onto the solid ground. Not with the weight of his full armor, his several weapons, and extra supplies all hanging onto him. It sucked a lot, but he'd have to cut some loose. First he got rid of the chest plate, the only piece of armor he could easily rip loose with one free hand. Then he tore the belt off that had his satchel and rocket launcher attached, letting it drop into the lava. The thought of simply throwing them up and onto the floor crossed his mind, but he didn't want to risk Sam wielding his own stuff against them. Orphan Obliterator was his only remaining weapon, secured in its separate baldric latched across his shoulder.
When he finally got up Techno was winded - both from having the air knocked out of him earlier and the actual effort it took to pull up his own body weight - but he ignored it in favor of joining the fight.
Sam was bleeding from one of his four legs, Tubbo having managed to injure him. But now the creeper was grappling with him over the axe, catching the handle to tear it from Tubbo's hands. Tubbo wasn't letting go, if anything he was pulling back just as strongly. And Sam noticed this too.
He lurched to the side and slammed Tubbo into the wall.
The side of Tubbo's skull connected with the blackstone. He crumpled to the ground, a stain of blood smeared in his wake. His hold on the axe fell away and Sam raised it above him, not shying back from delivering a fatal blow.
A desperate man has no inhibitions. Sam had not blinked when murdering Ranboo, he would not blink this time.
Techno charged, not quick enough to sink his sword in Sam's back but catching him in the side at least before he could turn around. Techno had fought this man prior, under circumstances where they were both more prepared. Sam had always had a controlled, defensive style of fighting - when not backed into a corner. Recklessness made even the dullest of blades lethal when wielded correctly. The odds weren't as uneven as Techno would have liked them to be.
Something he got to experience for himself when Sam whirled around and without losing any of his momenta swung the axe at him. With no shield nor chest plate, Techno was forced to deflect with his gauntlet, a tactic which might have paid off against a sword but not the axe. The curved edge dug into his shoulder and dragged downward towards his neck. Techno kicked Sam off, but not before the weapon grazed his collarbone.
Blood started pouring from the wound immediately, the warmth of it seeping into Techno's sleeves. If Sam had nicked a major artery, he was in trouble. Something he could worry about later, he thought, as he put himself between Sam and Tubbo who was still unconscious on the floor.
"I'm curious to know what the big plan is here?" Techno asked, almost amused. "Drop us into lava, kill another teenager and hope that nobody would mind you murdered three people?"
"You were going to lock me up without good reason, I think I'm justified."
"Wow… pot, meet kettle." Techno adjusted his stance, the sword's hilt now slick in his hand due to the blood. "This is the end of the line Sam. If you stop now we can still talk about a vacation in that nice cozy cell of yours."
"I'll pass."
Sam moved first, not hindered any by the injured leg. Their weapons met a few times, but Techno couldn't circle around him properly in the tightness of the hallway - forced to only attack front to front. And in doing so, deliver blows Sam could easily catch.
(giving his body more than enough time to experience the consequences of losing too much blood. He had to finish this fast if he wanted to keep the advantage)
Taking the risk, he stepped out of the way on Sam's next approach, hoping to slip past him. It worked and his sword cut cleanly through the creeper's large body, carving it open. Not fatal, but serious enough to end the fight. However, it did mean Sam was on the other end of the hallway. And he hadn't turned around.
Instead, he was bending down to pick up one of the fallen keycards.
Tubbo was moving again, eyes only half open as the hit probably had left him dazed. But he caught onto what Sam was doing remarkably quickly. He'd only just pulled out his golden hoe and lunged across the floor, burying the tool deep within Sam's other leg moments before he managed to activate the second hidden mechanism.
With the distinct sound of an ender pearl being used, the warden disappeared into thin air.
Tubbo's hoe clanked onto the ground, no longer stuck in Sam's flesh. They stared at it, helpless.
Tubbo slammed his fist into the wall. "Fuck!"
Techno sank onto the ground as well, grasping one hand over his still bleeding shoulder to stop the outpour. In their current condition, there was no way they could give chase. If Sam's stasis chamber was on his island-
"Call them, now." Tubbo was staring at him. His hands were shaking, too badly for him to operate his own communicator.
"Tubbo-"
"Now!"
Technoblade did, even if he already knew the likely outcome. Eret picked up on the third ring.
"I'm almost there," was the first thing out of their mouth. Techno could hear the splashing of water as they moved the oars and he pulled the device away from his ear, putting it on speaker mode. "Are you two alright?"
"Sam got away," he said.
"What?!"
Tubbo leaned his back against the wall. "Please just tell me Michael is still there. Eret, I swear I can't- I can't do this again, just… Tell me he's still there."
Stage one: Denial.
Eret must have gotten to land judging by the sound of her feet struggling through the sand. Her breathes came out in short huffs, meaning she was running. Techno knew it would already be too late.
"He's… No, Sam couldn't have gone far, we can find them. Guys, we can still-"
"Don't go after him alone, it's too risky," Techno told him. "We can't join you." He looked down at the gaping wound in his shoulder and Tubbo pulling his knees up to his chest, body shaking. "Not yet, we're gonna need a while."
"I'm not letting him get away with this," Eret said before hanging up.
In the silence that fell on them after, it was hard for Techno to pretend he couldn't hear the sobs Tubbo was muffling by burying his face into his own arms, fingers clenched around his elbows.
"Eret's right," Techno said. "We'll find them."
Tubbo didn't answer. Some grief could not be consoled with words.
But Techno knew they wouldn't give up until actions had done the trick.
