Sam had told everyone they could leave, but Fundy had other things on his mind. He had made sure Eret wasn't in the crowd somehow,- Sam didn't know he was also a bad guy, so the mix up seemed reasonable to Fundy, who was definitely not paranoid- and now had to decide for himself where to go and what to do until they met up. He didn't really want to be alone, but he had all of the armor he needed for the trip, and the rest of the supplies would probably be at his house, easy to get quickly. Time to spare then?

He spotted Tubbo in the crowd pretty quickly, hanging around the Bee guy, Tommy, Niki, some other Hermits, and- Techno and Philza? Techno and Philza left pretty quickly after a few words as Fundy walked over, so he didn't get to ask them about Ranboo, but he was sure it was fine. Either that or they were hiding their fear pretty damn well. Fundy shook off the thought as he got closer.

"Hey Tubbo, could I pull you to the side for a second?" Fundy asked quickly, giving Tubbo no time to respond before tugging his arm to the side. The others in the group gave him a weird look but didn't say anything, continuing their conversation about forests or something?

"What is it, Fundy?" Tubbo asked quickly. He saw the slight worry on Fundy's face and jumped to conclusions. "Still worried about Eret? If so then we have plenty of people and you don't really-"

Fundy interrupted, "Yes- wait no-, wait maybe-. No no this isn't about that." He stuttered a bit.

Tubbo raised an eyebrow and let Fundy continue, while a little bee landed on his finger.

"It's about- wait, is that a bee?" Fundy stopped his sentence to ask.

"Yeah! X-I-suma over there said I could hold her for a while!" Tubbo smiled.

"Ok.. well never mind about that. I was wondering if you were all prepared or if you needed help with anything?"

"Well Techno and Philza said I could go to their place and get some stuff in a bit, but I have some time to spare before then."

"Well I was wondering if we should get respawn crystals? Some people mentioned they'd be helpful but no one actually offered to get them."

"Yeah that's a good idea! But where do we get them?"

"Well Sapnap mentioned he died the first time right? Or I heard that somewhere at least, there's been a lot of new information in these past days getting me mixed up." Fundy mumbled, "We could ask him where he got them?"

Tubbo nodded, "I should first give bubbles back to Mr. Void." He said. Fundy nodded, and started to look for Sapnap in the crowd while Tubbo walked back to carefully give the Bee back to X.

It was easy to spot him, leaning on the wall of the prison, in no rush to go anywhere or do anything. Fundy was slightly relieved George was already gone, meaning he wouldn't have to talk to him too.

Tubbo quickly sped back and they both walked over to the fire guy with his hands in his pocket.

"Hey Sapnap." Fundy said with a wave.

"Hello!" Tubbo smiled too, keeping a little bit more distance.

Sapnap glanced towards him and smiled, "Hey Fundy, Tubbo! Have you two figured out a cure yet?" He asked in a bit of a joking voice.

"Eh- no, we'll have time on the way for that." Fundy quickly said, "We were actually here to ask a question."

Sapnap stayed quiet to let him continue.

"You died when hunting Dream the first time right? I think you told us, but there's been so much information over the last few days I might have gotten it mixed up or something. It was you right?"

Sapnap glanced away for a split second, "Yeah."

"So you had a respawn crystal!" Fundy exclaimed, "I'm pretty much all prepared, and I thought I could get some for the whole group for extra safety. Where did you get yours on such short notice?"

"Oh that's a good idea. Antfrost got them somehow right before we left really quickly, but he never told me how." Sapnap thought for a second, "I actually don't have much to do either. Mind if I tag along too, to help?"

"Yea yea!" Fundy said. Tubbo nodded too.

Fundy turned around to try to spot Antfrost in the crowd, before Sapnap interrupted him, tapping his shoulder to point him in the direction. The three walked over to the group of Antfrost, Velvet, B-dubs, and Scar. They heard bits of the conversation, something about cats and potions maybe, but didn't really care. On closer inspection, Scar actually had a cat on his shoulders.

"Hey mind if we steal Antfrost for a second?" Sapnap asked quickly, hardly waiting for a quick "Sure," from Velvet before dragging Ant off to the side.

"Uhm hey guys?" Antfrost said, obviously confused. "What's going on?"

"We need your help with the goods cat man!" Tubbo said quickly, pointing his finger in Ant's face. Fundy facepalmed.

"We want to get respawn crystals for the group. We wanted to know where you got them for everyone the first time on such short notice." Fundy said, a little impatient.

"Oh well uhm-" Ant started slowly. He glanced back at Velvet, Scar, and B-dubs to see them talking amongst themselves and thankfully paying no attention to him.

He lowered his voice and took a step back. "I may have-" he coughed and went even quieter. "-gotten them by sort of not so allowed means..."

"You stole them!?" Fundy whisper-yelled. Tubbo and Sapnap stayed quiet, wanting to see how this would play out.

"Well...... borrowed without asking or intent to give them back?" Antfrost shrugged sheepishly.

"This is why the lab never gives me respect!" Fundy said, throwing his hands in the air.

"I'm surrounded by idiots, children, and thieves!" He exclaimed, putting his head in his hands.

Tubbo glanced away, Antfrost was about to apologize, and Sapnap was about to argue, before Fundy started to mumble. "God this is such a bad idea..." Fundy rubbed his temple and opened his eyes with a sigh "...but I think I know where we can get some more."

"Really?" Sapnap asked with suspicion. Tubbo looked back up at Fundy, really curious.

There was a pause of silence.

"The lab has some extras for emergencies and the field workers.-" Fundy started.

"So you're just going to grab some from there?" Antfrost asked. This seemed like a pretty easy task, and Ant didn't get why Fundy was overreacting so much.

"That's the problem." Fundy sighed, "You have to register for them a few weeks before, and you sort of need a high ranking to even have a chance, that means..." he trailed off.

Sapnap smiled, "Well this is going to be way more interesting of a day than I thought!" He said, completely forgetting that Fundy had just called him an idiot seconds ago.

"Wait what?" Tubbo asked.

Fundy glanced in both directions before continuing, "We're going to need a distraction, a small magic bag of holding to get them, a lock pick, and if one of you guys could knock out a scientist inside so I could- borrow a keycard myself, that would make this much quicker." Fundy said in a hushed tone.

"I would love to stay and help with this disaster of a heist you're planning, but I have to get to my shop so Velvet doesn't steal everything from it." Ant said, pointing with his thumb behind him to Velvet who was now holding Scar's cat in his arms.

Fundy nodded, "See you around 3 then," He waved.

"You might want to talk to Bad about this though. He could probably help and shadow traveling would probably come in handy with this stuff."

Sapnap nodded, "Good idea!"

"Good luck guys!" Ant waved as he started to walk away. Once Ant noticed Velvet was holding Jellie, he ran much faster.

"You're replacing me, Velvet!?" Ant shouted, making a pouty face.

"I have decided to live with Jellie instead, she is much kinder and better with conversations." Velvet teased, hugging Jellie even more to prove his point.

"Nooooo! You can't have my Jellie!" Scar protested. Jellie jumped from Velvet's arm to the floor and immediately rubbed against Scar's leg, proving his point.

Ant shifted into a cat and jumped into Velvet's arms in a force of habit. He slightly dug his claws into the hoodie sleeve enough for Velvet to feel the sharp pricks.

"Ok ok jeez point taken!" Velvet said. Ant recoiled his claws and sat happily in Velvet's arms.

"Woah you can turn into a cat, that's awesome!" Scar said in awe.

They kept the conversation going as they left towards the potions shop, and Fundy, Tubbo, and Sapnap turned their attention away, trying to look for the other simp duo around the place.

"How hard is it to spot a guy with a bright blue box on his head?" Fundy asked, looking around the crowd.

"Or a 9 foot demon guy with glowing eyes?" Sapnap continued, even though Bad probably wasn't 9 feet at the moment.

There was a loud thud behind them as they stood on their toes to look over the crowd, followed by some laughing.

"I think I found them guys." Tubbo said, staring straight ahead in the direction. It was right next to the prison, a bit around the corner and out of the way of everyone else. It made sense why they didn't see them in the crowd now. The noise was the only thing that gave them away.

Fundy facepalmed again.

There was Skeppy and another guy in a red sweater on the ground, sort of laughing- sort of in pain. Bad looked annoyed to the side, standing up, and helped up the guy in the red sweater first while Skeppy got up on his own. The man in green next to him was laughing hysterically at the scene.

"Geppy! I told you to use the wall to balance!" Bad yelled. Skeppy was also laughing a ton after standing up and using the wall to hold himself up

"Well I am now?" Skeppy giggled. Bad didn't look too amused, but if you looked closely you could probably see the hidden smile behind his glowing eyes.

"Grian you have to do it again! You almost got it!" The guy in green said in between laughing.

"Maybe let's not-" Bad started.

"No, no, I can balance this time!" Grian exclaimed, shaking off his wings to get the dust out.

"Yeah Bad we got this!" Skeppy encouraged.

"Should we stop them?" Sapnap whispered, so only Tubbo and Fundy could hear. Very surprisingly, none of the others had noticed them standing there sort of behind the wall yet.

"No no, I want to see how this plays out." Tubbo whispered.

They watched quietly as Skeppy bent down, and the green guy- who Fundy recognized as an old friend, Iskall- helped Grian up onto Skeppy's box head. His wings flapped to keep him steady and Skeppy held onto the wall to keep his head as level as he could. Bad stood to the side, just far enough not to get hit if they were to fall, again.

After a few seconds of wobbling and near slipping, they finally got it totally steady. Grian had balanced on top of Skeppy's head and Skeppy was standing strong upwards. Iskall quickly ran in front of them with his phone and snapped a picture.

"That's going to the hermit chat! I'll send it to you too if you'd like too?" Iskall asked with a thick swedish accent.

"Yes!" Skeppy exclaimed.

And at that, Skeppy lost balance, and so did Grian.

Without thinking, Grian started to flap his wings harder as he felt his foot slip and managed to get into the air as Skeppy fell forwards onto the ground.

"You ok Skeppy?" Iskall asked with a chuckle.

"Just peachy!" Skeppy said very sarcastically, not even bothering to try to get up yet.

Bad laughed a little as he walked a few feet over to help him up. He reached out his hand and pulled Skeppy to his feet.

"You muffin head." He said with a sigh, that carried a loving smile if you paid attention.

Fundy found this as good enough time as any to intervene, and walked over, letting his presence and the others' known.

"Hey guys!" Fundy said as he walked over. Tubbo and Sapnap followed him.

"Oh hey!" Bad waved politely.

"Fundy?! Good to see you bro! Long time no see!" Iskall said.

"Yeah man, how ya been?" Fundy smiled.

"Pretty good, you?"

"Eh ok, but that's why we're here, we need to ask Bad for a favor."

"Hmm?" Bad asked. He was still holding Skeppy's hand unconsciously, only realising then, and letting go to step forwards.

"We need help getting into a place, and Ant said you'd probably be helpful because you can shadow travel."

"For what?" Bad asked.

"Uhm-...."

Sapnap stepped to the side towards Skeppy while Fundy tried to explain they were going to steal, without actually saying the words in front of the Hermits, and Tubbo walked over to the Hermits to say hi.

"You still have the extra Hell gear right?" Sapnap asked.

"Yeah, I forgot to bring it, so it's at my place right now." Skeppy confirmed.

"Ok good, just making sure."

Sapnap paused before he spoke again.

"Have you told Bad about-..." Sapnap trailed off, knowing Skeppy understood.

"No not yet. The crowd didn't seem right, and then I don't really know the Hermits well-" He also trailed off.

Sapnap nodded, "Just know, that when you took forever to get the meeting here today, Bad was worried sick. He cares about you dude."

Skeppy sighed and nodded.

"Do you have a picture of Skeppy falling over?" Tubbo asked Iskall and Grian off to the side.

"Several, how many do you want?" Iskall asked in a fake serious voice.

"All of them." Tubbo had an evil grin on. Iskall and Grian nodded as they exchanged numbers and names, treating it like a formal business meeting.

"So yeah- could you help us get some supplies from the lab quickly for everyone? I think it would go smoother if you could just slide under doors and unlock them for us."

The groups had ended the quick little talks and had walked back over.

"I'm not sure," Bad said, glancing at Skeppy and the Hermits, "I have to show these guys the Earth portal with Skeppy right now-"

"It's ok Bad; I can do it if you need to help them." Skeppy interrupted, his smile mirroring onto the screen.

"Really Geppy? You don't w- need me to help?" Bad asked.

"I think they need your help more, and we can meet up at the Earth portal right after." Skeppy insisted.

Bad looked towards Fundy, Tubbo, and Sapnap. "Will it be quick?"

They all nodded like little angels, which was pretty much an obvious no.

Bad sighed. "Ok I'll help."

"Wooo!" Fundy cheered. "Ok we should get going now then. The faster this goes the better."

Right as he said that, Niki and her entourage of Hermits walked around the building into view of everyone.

"Oh hey guys!" She waved. "Sorry if I was interrupting something, I'm just heading over to my shops right now."

"Oh no it's fine, we were just about to split anyway!" Tubbo said cheerily.

Niki nodded and hummed in response. "Tommy was actually looking for you Tubbo, around the corner. He and Wilbur are probably still talking, so you can probably catch them before they leave."

"Oh thanks for telling me!" Tubbo said.

"Oh Bad and Skeppy! Aren't you going to the Earth portal? The cafe and flower shop are near there if you want to go together?" Niki asked kindly.

"Oh I'm actually heading with these guys to do something quickly." Bad said, putting his hand on the back of his neck.

"I can come," Skeppy smiled casually. Niki nodded and their groups combined, the Hermits waving to each other and saying hi.

"Bye Geppy! And Hermit friends!"

"Bye!" Grian waved as he turned to follow the pretty large group heading in the direction of the portal.

"We'll send Skeppy the pictures and he can give them to you, they're hilarious!" Iskall waved.

"Bye Badboy!" Skeppy waved. All of them continued on leaving Fundy, Tubbo, Sapnap, and Bad alone, who were walking in the opposite direction a few feet.

"So what now? And also where are we going? You didn't explain very much." Bad asked. Maybe he should stop joining mysterious groups and plans without an idea of what was going on. This was like- a repeating thing now.

"We're going to the lab to get some respawn crystals for the group. Since we can't really get them on such short notice,-" Fundy coughed and lowered his voice, "-we have to temporarily borrow them without permission."

"Oh ok." Bad shrugged, "So what's the plan?"

"Wait, Bad? You're not against us stealing?" Sapnap asked.

"No? Why would I be? I let you and Skeppy go to Hell to "get supplies", didn't I?" Bad said with air quotes.

"You knew?" Sapnap asked. He didn't think Bad was one for stealing, but it wasn't an unwelcome surprise. Made convincing him to steal easier at least.

"I figured, but I was too tired to protest, and you two can hold your own."

"Thanks Bad." Sapnap said. It felt nice to know Bad still trusted him, even though he was an idiot sometimes.

"Ok, so-" Fundy started to get back on track, "-the plan is to get in, get the crystals, and get out. We'll need a distraction for the guards, a bag to hold the crystals since they'll spot us easily if we're just holding them, and a way to get through the locked doors."

"Oh! I know a distraction!" Tubbo exclaimed.

The group eyed him suspiciously, letting him continue. Next thing they knew, he had somehow dragged them to the back of the prison where two people remained.

"TUBBO! BIG MAN, I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU!" Tommy yelled, running over to give Tubbo a huge hug. Wilbur looked just as tired as Fundy felt about this.

"Uhm-" Sapnap mumbled.

"Are we sure about this?" The shadow next to him asked. Bad had retreated into the shadows of the building once again. It was probably smart, seeing how energetic Tubbo and Tommy were together.

"Hey Fundy!" Wilbur waved. "What brings you the humble abode of the back of this place again?

Fundy sighed, "Tubbo, explain."

"We need a distraction to get into the lab unnoticed, and I thought Tommy could help!" Tubbo smiled.

"What do you need to get into the lab for?" Wilbur asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We need respawn crystals," Sapnap said.

"Well he is annoying enough to be a distraction." Wilbur chuckled.

"Hey!"

"But I think I should come along to keep an eye on him. I can stand outside and make sure everyone goes smoothly from outside?" Wiblur asked.

"Oh uhm- Thanks Wilbur!" Fundy said.

"So are we going to make an actual plan or just waltz in there?" Bad asked, still in the shadows.

"Badboyhalo?!" Wiblur asked, stepping backwards in shock.

"Hi!"

"Oh jeezus I didn't see you there!"

"Sorry." Bad smiled nervously as he jumped out.

Fundy had grabbed a stick and started to trace things in the dirt.

"Ok, Tommy can distract the guard over here, just long enough for us to grab his keycard and make our way to the back. There's some bushes and trees over here that Wilbur can hide behind to keep watch, that gives a clear view of the side of the building we'll be on." Fundy instructed, drawing in the dirt. It was a little surprising that he knew the back of the place so well, and that he had a plan in mere seconds of getting the team together. Definitely not sus at all.

"The rest of us can go through this door with the key card and make our way through the building keeping to the left side. Any normal doors, Bad can slip under and unlock from the other, any secure doors, Sapnap can melt them with fire hands or whatever.-"

"Wait what!?" Sapnap asked, interrupting the plan.

"Yeah, what Fundy?" Tubbo repeated.

"Fire Hands?" Tommy asked. He was still totally out of the loop on a lot of this.

"You burned that napkin at the cafe, can't you just heat your hands up a bit and melt the circuit to the passcode doors?"

"Oh uhm-"

"Napkin?" Tommy asked, being ignored again.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Fundy?" Tubbo asked. They had all seen the rage for fire at the cafe, and Tubbo saw it pretty closely with the napkin the first time around too. This did not seem like the smartest thing to do.

"It's the only idea we got. Otherwise we can't get through the passcode doors and this whole thing is ruined!"

There was a pause of silence among the group.

"I can do it." Sapnap spoke.

"Are you sure?" Bad asked. He and Wilbur had only seen the fire outside of the cafe after the big meeting, but even that was enough to see Sapnap hadn't really mastered it yet.

"Yes." Sapnap said sturdily. He had made his decision.

"Ok then back to plan." Fundy continued. He was oddly calm about the situation. "Sapnap will melt the passcode doors and Bad slips under the normal locks, and then we can all make it to the room with the crystals which the keycard will hopefully give us access to. If it doesn't, then an axe will have to do." Fundy strugged, "We get the crystals, and use the window in the room next to it to get out, undetected."

Ok seriously how did this guy know the exact structure of this place so well?!

"Wait, why don't we just use the window to get in and out?" Tubbo asked innocently.

"They're super reinforced and can only be opened from the inside. Believe me, I've tried. I swear they spend more money on those things than I make in a year from the place."

"That it then? Should we get going?" Wilbur asked.

"I guess so!" Sapnap said.

"Oh my goodness lets get this over with." Bad sighed.

"YEAH! STEALING SHIT WITH THE BROSSS!" Tommy high fived Tubbo, who didn't say anything, but looked excited. And nervous. Nervous-cited.

"Let's get some respawn crystals!" Fundy smiled.

"Ok but which way is the Lab? I sort of got turned around and confused." Tubbo asked.

"You just had to ruin the moment, Tubbo!" Fundy whined.

"Wait, we were having a moment?" Bad asked.

"Lol the furry's mad." Tommy laughed.

Fundy sighed while everyone laughed around him. This was going to be great!

Or terrible, but who's to say?

-------

Oooookkk! Thanks for reading, even if this is kinda just a transition chapter. The next one's going to be a big one, or at least one that I've been waiting to write for a really long time, that I'm going to screw up somehow because all of my cool ideas are buried in 67 pages of notes total on 2 different docs. We'll see I guess! Thanks for sticking around if you've gotten this far, and sorry the updates are slower than they used to be. School's been a nightmare, and for the first time all year I have missing assignments. Yesterday was a full day of breakdowns, the one day I had 2 hard tests. It's really been a pain, but I'll be free soon and then I can do this more, which will be way more fun! So yeah sorry for that ramble, but thanks a ton and have a good day or night! (And take care of yourself! If I have to start doing it then you do too!)

Ok no, I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've gotta to 4000 words, so I'm just going to keep adding words until I hit it. Let's see.... hmm? Well how about I ask you guys to vote on a something? I had an idea a while back to give Badboyhalo wings, but I'm not sure if it fits anymore. It wouldn't add too much to the story or change the plot, but it might be a fun detail to add? Tell me in the comments whether I should add them or not. Thanks, bye! (4029 words!)