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“It had to be Ranboo, Tubbo. You know it had to be.” Jack Manifold said as he adjusted his glasses and ducked to search under another porch.
“I know, I know, but he would never do that!” Tubbo, meanwhile, was uselessly kicking piles of snow, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than anyone else. “Why would he do that?”
“Dunno, sounds like something you’ll have to bring up with him. Nothing under this one!” Jack called, marking something on a piece of paper. “We just have...Three more houses to clear. And also the entire rest of the SMP.”
Tubbo groaned and plopped down in the snow, rubbing his hands together for warmth.
“Why would anyone hide a nuke under a porch anyway, man?”
“Ask Ranboo, I guess.”
It had been less than half an hour- half an hour- since Tubbo’s nuke had been stolen. But he was pretty sure they had already combed every single inch of the place twice over. The explosive was definitely not in Snowchester. However, Jack had insisted on doing a "detailed search" for his " detective research," and had wanted Tubbo to come, so there they were, following their own footsteps in circles for the thousandth time. He could no longer feel his fingers through his three pairs of gloves. Also, he was getting quite tired of Jack’s accusations.
“Why does it "have to be" Ranboo, Jack?! We literally just found dirt. It could have been any enderman. There’s like, a thousand around here.”
The man lifted an eyebrow. “You think an enderman stole your nuke?”
“ No! I mean, maybe, it's possible I guess, but that’s not what I meant. There’s just a lot of endermen around here. They’re probably not connected to the crime at all.”
“That would be a lot of endermen to come around and place blocks in the…” Jack checked his communicator, “Like, twenty minutes we were gone.”
“What I’m saying is that we are wasting time when we could be thinking about other suspects!” Tubbo hissed, wringing his fingers. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared. Scared of what that weapon could do, of who it could hurt. Scared that he’d somehow managed to lose something that important. Scared that it was Ranboo who’d stolen it, scared that his platonic husband had been lying to him all along. Scared that he would lose yet another friend, scared that-
Tubbo was knocked out of his trance by Jack snapping in his face.
“You okay there, Tubbo?”
He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and choked out, “Y-yeah. I’m good.”
“Good, cause we need you to be alert while we investigate. Speaking of which, can you search-”
“I’m going to go see Michael.” Tubbo stood abruptly, cutting the man off.
“But-!” Jack Manifold sighed as Tubbo quickly walked back to the house, not even bothering to look back at him. “Alright, but check around for anything suspicious on your way!”
“What, in my house?” He called back incredulously, almost laughing, “You think they’d hide the bomb in my house?” And with that, he reached the porch, leaped up the stairs, and disappeared inside his house without another word. Jack rubbed his forehead to push back an oncoming headache. He was beginning to worry that this investigation might not be as easy as he’d made it sound.
Funnily enough, it would have been quite easy if Tubbo had taken Jack’s advice. Because unbeknownst to them, a shadowed figure was, at that very moment, standing in a shadowed corner of Tubbo’s basement. Clutching in their arms a large, armed nuke. The wood creaked above their head as Tubbo walked over them, obliviously climbing the ladder to his son’s room. Silently, the stranger unwrapped a hand from the weapon, snapped their fingers, and then disappeared in a little flash of green and purple light.