Some of the hermits had gathered in a park near Sahara to view a meteor shower, it was Grian's idea and he had invited Mumbo, Iskall, Doc, Scar, Xisuma, and Ren, all of them talking and laughing with each other.
"There's one!" Grian yells as something streaks across the sky. The other Hermits look up and notice something off.
"Is it just me or is it heading this way?" Doc says looking up. The others look more closely and start to run. Once they get to a safe distance they stop and watch, As the meteor grows closer they begin to notice how it's emitting blood-red particles.
As the meteor hit the ground where they had been standing moments before, a shower of red sparks where shot in all directions and a shard was dislodged and hurled straight at Grian's chest. Upon seeing this Mumbo shoves Grian out of the way taking the hit himself, the shard burying itself into his shoulder. He falls to the ground unmoving.
"Mumbo!" Iskall yells over the sounds of the others.
"We have to move him." Ren says hurriedly, "Getting hit in the shoulder like that shouldn't be enough to knock him out,"
"Ok, stop panicking," Xisuma says mostly to Grian, "We need to get him to his base. Ren, you go get a boat, Grian, Iskall when Ren gets back you two take Mumbo to his base, Doc, Scar you two gather information about what this meteor is made of, I'll meet you at his base with medical supplies.
At this, the hermits broke off to do their tasks all worried for their friend.
...
"Now what? Grian asks after Xisuma had finished helping Mumbo, "You took the shard out of his arm and healed him so why isn't he moving? What if he never wakes up, this is all my fault." At this, he buries his head in his hands.
Xisuma walks around the bed that Mumbo was kneeling next to the small hermit. "I don't know how this happened, he should be fine the shard only hit muscle nothing vital was hit. He's probably just passed out from the shock. Nobody blames you, how could you have known that the rock would hit right where we were. Once Doc and Scar get back we'll know more and be able to fix this."
"Are you sure that he won't blame me?"
"Yah man, once Scar and Doc get back we can figure out what happened," Ren says with Iskall nodding in agreement. This greatly helped Grian's mental state and he stopped blaming himself.
After what seemed like hours of waiting but was really only thirty minutes Doc and Scar enter the room and with serious looks sit down and start explaining what they had found out. "So the meteor is some kind of Machine or something it's still made of rock but if you put a Redstone torch nearby it will start glowing and releasing the particles that we saw," Doc explains to Grian and Xisuma, Ren had gone back to his base and would be back in the morning to check up and see if they needed his help and Iskall was getting food for the rest of them.
"Ok, one question how did you get to a Redstone torch?" Grian asks.
"Oh easy, I set one down by mistake," Scar says rubbing the back of his neck. "We decided to put signs telling people to not go in that general area until we can move it, preferably to Area77."
"What else did you find out?" Iskall asks as he hands Grian a bowl of soup.
"Well, it made Doc's cybernetics go a bit haywire. His eye was flashing like crazy."
Doc cuts in saying. "The sparks it was emitting changed color depending on who was there the sparks where green for me and silver for Scar."
"It also remained charged or something for a few minutes after we removed the torch. Which is why I wanted to try this." Scar stands pulling out a torch and places it next to Mumbo.
Those in the room hold their breath praying that this won't do anything, but alas such hope was futile as seconds later Mumbo slowly opened his eyes.
Grian let out a squeak of surprise "Mumbo how do you feel. I'm so sorry."
"I'm ok? Didn't I push you to the ground and then what happened? I-I can't remember what happened beyond that," Mumbo says shakily pushing himself up so he's sitting on the bed.
"When you pushed Grian out of the way your shoulder got hit and you fell unconscious. We couldn't get you to wake up, until... well, he put down a Redstone torch and now you're awake," Xisuma says.
"Are you implying that I'm being powered by Redstone," Mumbo asks mostly joking but when Xisuma nods his face falls and he collapsed back onto the bed. "Oh gosh, I didn't think. What?" As Doc and Scar begin to explain what happened Xisuma noticed that Grian was shaking and looking around nervously.
"Grian, can you come here for a moment," Xisuma asks beckoning him over, leavening Mumbo's treehouse for a moment. "Are you ok? You seem on edge,"
"I don't know, so much has happened and I can't process what's happened yet, I guess I'm still on edge from earlier," Grian says yawning.
"Ok, come on," Xisuma says pulling Grian back inside. "Due to the time nearing three in the morning we are going to end this here for the night and come back tomorrow morning," After checking that this was ok with Mumbo. Xisuma, Scar, and Doc left for their respective bases.
"So I'm thinking, sleepover?" Iskall says grinning.
"You guys don't have to stay," Mumbo starts believing that the others didn't really want to stay, but was swiftly cut off by Grian.
"Nonsense, we want to stay." And that was that the Architects piled on to either side Mumbos bed, grabbed some blankets and within moments they were all fast asleep, save for Mumbo who couldn't seem to fall into the realms of sleep.
Now when one can't fall asleep you will start to think and Mumbo was no exception. At around the three-hour mark, Mumbo concluded that the reason for his Insomnia was the torch that was 'apparently' powering him. Now, this did take quite a while to realize due to a couple of reasons, One he was absolutely exhausted, Two he's a spoon and he didn't realize the Redstone has something to do with his inability to sleep. To at least do something but stay lying in bed staring at the ceiling, Mumbo tries to stand up and promptly falls to the floor, with a small yelp.
"Mumbo?" Grian asks voice laced with sleep.
"Grian," Mumbo says sitting up and looking at his friend.
"Iskall… What? You already said each other's names. How'd you end up on the floor?"
At this Mumbo looks down and says, "I can't sleep so I tried to get some food and my legs went slower than the rest of me,"
"Do you need some help? Iskall asks standing up.
"I'm fine, thanks," Mumbo says as he slowly stands using his bed as support.
"Mumbo, do you think the reason you can't sleep is because of the Redstone," Grian asks as he pushes Mumbo down into a seated position.
"I think so, Didn't Scar say that it remained 'charged' after it was removed," Mumbo answers looking over to the torch.
"Maybe that's how you'll rest? By being charged?" Iskall says excitedly.
"Well the sun is rising so Xisuma, Doc, Ren, and Scar should be here soon." Grian points out. "Do you still want food?"
"Yeah," Mumbo answered a bit distractedly.
"Ok then I'll go get some," Grian said running to the water elevator.
"You good man?" Iskall asks.
"I don't know, moving feels weird like, it's not smooth. It feels a little jerky."
"Move your arm so your arm is straight out in front of you then bend it in and then back too straight," Iskall watches as Mumbo moves his arm, "I see what you mean your arm shudders as you move, ask Doc when he gets here."
"Ask me what?" Doc says entering with Grian who had forgotten the food and Xisuma.
"My arm shudders a bit when I move it," Mumbo says while moving his arm so Doc can see.
"Hm, not sure why that's happening, did you ever move the torch?" Doc asks.
"No" Mumbo answers.
"It might be lagging a bit," Iskall said with a snap. "When I got my eye it would lag a little as it calibrated,"
"Yeah, my cybernetics did that," Doc agrees. "If it's that it'll last about three days."
"Hey, sorry we're late," Scar says as he walks in with Ren. Doc fills Scar in on what had happened in the time that he was gone.
"Hey I'm glad you're awake, I just stopped by to see if you were good," After checking that everyone was good and didn't need food or anything else Ren took his leave to work on Hippie land.
"Ok. Mumbo we're going to do a few tests. If that's ok with you?" Scar asks as he sits in a chair by Mumbo who was sitting on his bed.
"That's fine. The sooner we can get an answer to what's happening the better," Mumbo replies.
Scar nods then stands up. "I'm going to break the torch and then we're we're going to see how long you can last,"
The torch is broken and Mumbo doesn't instantly pass out. So they continue on. Grian starts to drag Mumbo on to his feet and after persuading, bribing and threatening to remove the mustache. Mumbo eventually relents to the idea of going to Grian's base. The other's agree to this as there is far less Redstone that could potentially interfere with the tests at Grian's than where they currently are.
Doc and Scar Insisted that they travel by boat instead of elytra. For the simple reason that they didn't know how long Mumbo would stay charged for an if he fell into the water they would have a difficult time fishing him out. So there they were making their way across the ocean in three boats Doc and Scar in one Mumbo and Grian in the second and Iskall and Xisuma in the third.
After reaching Grian's base they talked, went up to the Roof of the ludicrously tall building, came down to the ground floor and ate lunch. About ten minutes after eating Mumbo started feeling lightheaded which lead to him throwing up.
"Mumbo! Are you ok?" Doc asks as he moves Mumbo away from the sick. That's in the process of being cleaned up.
"I guess so, I feel fine now, honestly. I'm just getting tired. I just couldn't keep it down, it didn't feel right like I couldn't digest it," Mumbo murmurs as he passes out. The others move him to Grian's bed and go out of the room to talk.
"Ok that took around six hours, so after being next to a torch and charging for about three hours, so however long he gets charged for is about doubled, that's not good so he should Keep a torch in his bag. anything else before we get him?" Scar asks as he gets out a torch.
"If it turns out that he can't eat the same foods as we can we might have to find something else for him to eat," Iskall points out.
"If that is the case we will. Ok, I'm going to wake him up now," Grian says taking the torch and placing next to Mumbo.
"I hate that," Mumbo mutters as he sits up.
"How are you feeling?" Doc asks as he helps Mumbo stand.
"I'm fine. Can I get some food?"
"Do you think you'll be able to not throw up?" Iskall asks as he attempts to find food in Grian's mess of a storage system.
"I don't think I will," Mumbo says shrugging.
"Okay, then what do you want?" Grian says as he hands Iskall his food box and shows Mumbo what he has.
"I'm, not sure? None of that looks like food?" Mumbo says confusion laced in his voice.
At this Scar moves forward, "What do you mean, 'looks like food'?"
"It doesn't look like something you should eat. Like how rocks don't look like something you should eat."
"Does this look more like something you should eat," Scar says handing Mumbo a bit of Redstone in a bowl and a spoon.
"Um, a little."
"Try it,"
At the prompting of the others, Mumbo shakily brings the bowl up and eats a bit of the Redstone. "It tastes ok the textures a bit weird though," After saying this Mumbo finishes the dust as they others discuss what to do about the meteor.
"I think we need to tell the others, I'm going to call everyone and have them meet up. Doc, Scar I need you two to get more data in the meteor. Grian can you go and get Ren." Xisuma says as he sends a message out to everyone. "We're going to meet outside of itrade, in three hours. Mumbo, Iskall stay here I want to do a few more tests.
