"Oh my god, is that the one and only Phil'Za Minecraft?" Skeppy immediately called out as they entered into the now rather crowded bakery, he rushed forward and wrapped his crystalline arms around the shorter king.

Phil seemed alarmed at first, but as he realized who had ran towards him, he laughed and reciprocated the embrace, "Aw, Skeppy, mate. What are the odds of seeing you here?" Phil chuckled, patting him firmly on the back and he backed out of his rather lung crushing hug.

"Oh come on Skeppy, don't asphyxiate the old man," Techno called out behind the two, earning him a furrowed brow and a smirk from Phil.

"I don't know what that fuckin' means, Nerd," Skeppy said confidently.

"Hey!" Techno laughed, "Only I can call people nerds," Techno insisted.

"Well I'm not calling other people a nerd, Techno, I'm calling you a nerd." That earned Skeppy a rather painful sounding slap on the back, "Wait! That was that for!"

Techno shrugged with a smug look on his face, "Hand slipped."

Skeppy scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning back to Phil with a smile on his face, "Anyways, before we were rudely interrupted by your son, sir," Skeppy said sarcastically, narrowly avoiding being hit again, "How's it going? I heard you all are on a bit of a quest!"

Behind the group, Wilbur cleared his throat before Phil could respond, dragging all the eyes in the room back to him, beside him the Tabaxi and now an elf-looking woman stood beside him, the woman clearly a little fed up with the rowdiness in her shop.

"Oh-" Skeppy's voice faded off, looking between Phil, Techno, and the new elf woman, "Yeah..." Skeppy said with a guilty chuckle as he scratches the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about the bread.."

Her expression quickly turned from a stone-faced, rather menacing look to a much softer smile as she laughed, "Oh, it's really alright, I'm just glad none got hurt," she insisted.

Skeppy nodded, "Yeah," he said awkwardly, "Is there something you want me to do to make it up to you?" he asked earnestly.

"Oh no, it's alright," she insisted.

"Are you sure, ma'am?" Phil asked from behind him, "I'll gladly pay for any repercussions he caused," beside him, Techno sent Wilbur a smug and knowing smile, who just rolled his eyes, but Techno was pretty sure he could see just the smallest smile.

"Oh yes, I'm sure," she insisted, "Oh, and my name's Niki," She added on, seeming to notice how Phil addressed her.

"Pleasure to meet you, Niki," Phil said warmly.

"Likewise, to all of you."

Wilbur spoke up from beside Wilbur, "Niki here is an old friend of mine," he said, "Niki and I traveled together for some time before we ended up here, I continued across the ocean but Niki here stayed around."

Niki nodded, "We met not too long after Wil had left him home, right?" She said, looking back up to Wilbur who nodded. "Yeah, and this here is Fundy," Niki introduced, motioning to the Tabaxi who half the group had already met in the alleyway, "He wandered in not long after I had settled down in this place, and he's my business partner, I bake on this side and on the other side of the divider wall there, Fundy sells potions," Niki told them.

Fundy did a little bow beside her which made Niki smile at him, "Pleased to meet you all."

"Well," Skeppy started, "I'm Skeppy, and somewhere in here-" he looked around till his eyes landed on a little kenku in the back and red robes who was sitting pleasantly near the door of the crowded room, "That's Bad," he introduced.

The kenku perked up at the mention of his name and he hopped over to his friend, giving the group a friendly wave. "We travel around the continents for little jobs here and there," Bad told the group.

"I actually used to work in Phil here's palace as Techno's assigned friend," Skeppy told the group, which earned him an eye roll from Techno who muttered "Whatever," under his breath. "Eventually I left to do my own exploring where I incidentally met back up with Bad and we haven't stopped traveling since," Skeppy said proudly, throwing his arm around his bird friend.

"And I'm Phil," The king introduced, "I've been traveling with Techno, Wilbur, and a group of others to beyond the capital city," seeming on command, the quaint bell that rang whenever someone entered the shop sounded off. All eyes quickly turned to the door to see who was entering.

"Haha, yes! Thank you, Deo!" A new voice called out excitedly, running through the door without looking and running square into Wilbur.

"Oh sit-" The blond cursed, "I'm so sorry sir-" He started but stopped himself abruptly as he looked up to see who he actually ran into, "Oh, it's just you," the familiar kid said, completely changing his tone as he narrowed his eyes up at Wilbur.

Wilbur cackled and Phil rested his head in his hands and sighed, "Well speak of the devil and he shall arrive as the saying goes," Phil says with a small laugh.

Two more people filtered in behind the kid; Tubbo and Deo squeezed themselves behind Tommy, looking throughout the bakery. "Is this some kind of intervention?" Tubbo asked, making Deo and Tommy chuckle.

"Well, that blond there is my son, Tommy, and his companion Tubbo, and Deo as well," Phil told the group. Everyone exchanged their greeting as Deo poked up above the group.

"I think Dream, Subpoena, George, and Big Q are heading back from the docks now, I just told them to meet me in the town center."

"Ah," Phil nodded, he looked back at Skeppy and Niki, "That's the rest of our group," he informed them.

"That's quite the group you've got there," Bad noted, giving everyone in the group a wave.

"Tommy's grown up," Skeppy noted.

"Oh, I forgot that you ever met him, Skeppy," Phil said, "You left just a month or so after he arrived, didn't you?"

Skeppy nodded. Phil called Tommy over through the crowd, he dragged Tubbo over with him as he turned to look Skeppy and Bad up and down.

"Who the fuck are you?" Tommy asked blatantly, earning him a look from his father.

Skeppy narrowed his eyes, "I could ask you the same fucking thing you little shi-" Techno cut him off quickly, clearly seeing where that was about to go.

"Uh- Tommy, this is Skeppy, he used to work in the palace-" Techno tried to explain.

"They paid me money to be his friend because he's sad-" Skeppy insisted, making Techno shake his head with a small smile.

"This is slander I have lots of friends-" Even Phil laughed at that, he patted his son on the back with a smirk and nodded.

"If you insisted, Techno," Phil commented, not giving him a chance to respond as he walked towards the door with Deo to scout out the rest.

Tommy laughed evilly but Tubbo looked between Skeppy, Techno, and Tommy and narrowed his eyes, "So like me?"

Tommy choked and whipped his head towards Tubbo which in turn made the other two laugh maniacally. "Whatever," Tommy muttered, crossing his arms as Tubbo patted his shoulder, a small, knowing look on his face.

The smalltalk continued for a few minutes, everyone just talking over each other in a conglomerate mess of voices until the little bell over the shop door rang again, quickly stealing everyone's attention.

Deo poked his head through the door, giving everyone a small wave, "The rest are here," he said, then slipped back out the door.

Everyone else quickly followed and they went around and did introductions as Dream, Subpoena, George, Big Q, Jack, and Eret all introduced themselves as did everyone else who needed to once more.

"I'm friends with the innkeeper if you all would like for me to get you rooms so you can get a fresh start tomorrow," Niki told the group.

Everyone looked to Phil, who thought for a moment, seemingly doing some quick calculations, when shrugged, "That would be lovely if they can fit us, Niki, we have groups that can huddle together," Phil told her with a smile.

She nodded, "You can come with me so we get the rooms right and everyone else can just hang around here until then," she instructed.

Phil nodded, "Sounds good to me," He looked over the group, "Eret, Wil, and Deo, you three are in charge, please no one go too far from here," he said, giving the group a wave as he walked off with Niki.

Groups split up once more, and Techno was grabbed by Skeppy and Bad. The two asked him to step away from the group with them, and he complied, walking to get away from the noise.

The three strolled around together in comfortable silence, Skeppy and Techno just glad to be in each other's company and Bad in Skeppy's. They wandered some ways off, back towards the docks as the sun was seemingly starting to drop on the horizon.

Bad and Skeppy led him to a little clearing that seemed like it would have a nice view of the sunset as the three sat down.

"Well," Techno started, "It's been a pleasure to see you again, Skeppy, and it's nice to meet you, Bad."

The two nodded, "I've missed you, Techno," Skeppy said warmly.

"I've missed you as well, Skeppy," Techno told him, "Maybe when this is all over, I can come back and travel around with you two."

They nodded, "What even are you doing all the way out here? And why so big of a party? It can't be that important?" Skeppy asked.

Techno sighed, "If you were anyone else, I wouldn't tell you," Techno told him, "But since it's you, I will; I know it was years ago now, but when you worked in the palace, did Phil ever mention some kind of prophecy type thing?"

Skeppy thought back for a moment, "Maybe? I feel like he was always alluding to something but I don't remember if I was ever told exactly what."

"Well, that's all coming down now. I've been researching, there's someone out there with a corrupted magic source who's been using it as a weapon of mass destruction. They've been destroying villages all around the continents, and Phil is afraid they're going for the capital, which would be like the dam breaking, if they take the capital this entire continent, and maybe the rest of the world, would be in imminent danger," Techno told him starkly.

Skeppy took in what Techno was saying, slowly nodding along as he spoke. He sat back, "So you're going to stop it?"

"That's the plan. I haven't told Phil about everything I've learned yet, I've been holding back because I don't want him to do something irrational out of fear of losing someone, and no one else knows the severity of what we're going into."

"Why doesn't Phil just assemble his brothers? They're literally the protectors of the fae wilds, it's their job to handle things like this," Skeppy pointed out.

Techno paused, "Something is happening, Skeppy. To Phil and his brothers, whether they would like to admit it or not. They're all losing control over the fae and in turn, they're getting weaker. They all blame each other, accusing everyone of using too much of the magic on their own personal projects or for their own gain, but in reality, they're all scared," Techno told him.

"Phil is the only one of his brother's who has actually taken action, he figured out that it's the corrupted magic that's literally warping the world around us," Techno told him, "The rest are bored with this world, they don't care what happens to it."

"So your little army is the final line of defense?" Skeppy asked.

"Yeah..." Techno confirmed.

"Then why don't me and Bad join you guys? You need all the help you can get, and you know me, well I trained with you, and Phil, and hell, Bad here isn't half bad either, we can help you, Techno!" Skeppy insisted.

Techno took a deep breath as he contemplated, "Skeppy, we've been warned about this mission, it isn't going to end well for everyone and I don't want something bad to happen to you or Bad, I already have to watch out for Tommy and Wilbur and Phil," He tried to explain.

"Nope, I'm not giving you an option anymore, Techno. I just got you back and I'm not letting you go away this quickly," Skeppy insisted.

"Skeppy, no. That exactly why-"

"Nope, as official watchman of the first prince of 'Za or whatever the fuck my title was, you're not getting rid of me." Behind him, Bad nodded excitedly.

"We're healers, Techno, how many of those do you have?" Bad added in.

"Skeppy couldn't put a bandage on correctly if his life depended on it," Techno snorted.

"I've changed!" Skeppy insisted dramatically, before repeating it again, more seriously, "I've changed, Techno. I want to help you and I'm going to whether I have to follow behind you in shadow or ride beside you in the light of day."

Techno sighed and dropped his head down, and slowly responded, "Alright."