IDFB: Continued - an IDFB fanfic [COMPLETED]

IDFB 12a: The Hunt Is On 🍃

August 20th, 2016

The chirping of crickets filled in the silence of the warm, summery night air. Naturally, however, it had to be ruined when two objects materialized from thin air and scared away all the insects.

"-I swear, your jobs for me are getting weirder and weirder," Pillow continued from the first half of a cut-off sentence. "I mean, using some wall teleporter clone thing to transport a board game inside a giant metal box? Just how bizarre can you get?" Pillow snorted. "Not to mention going to Nearby Yoyleland and burying a jar of-"

"I promise you, both of those had a good reason," One protested. "Besides, you only need to do two more things, and they're both super easy and not weird at-"

"WAIT." This time, it was Pillow's turn to interrupt. She whirled around and gave One a strange look. "That other teleportation device has been in the science museum the whole time, hasn't it? Well, before you took it. Why can't we use that to free the rest of the trapped objects from the box that we just sent something in to?" She didn't sound mad, just genuinely confused.

"That's because some of them will play an important part very soon." One scrunched up their face. "At least, very soon from your perspective. Time travel is confusing sometimes, even for me."

Since there was no changing the number's mind, Pillow decided to just accept it for now. She looked around to gather her bearings - they were right next to the Hand Powered Recovery Center, which was sitting in its customary puddle of glue. She could tell that this was sometime in the past - the FreeSmart Supervan was still parked in front of it, and Golf Ball's seismograph was missing. "What do I need to do?" Pillow asked.

"Simple. Recover Woody."

"Woody? Wow. I haven't seen him in a long time." But Pillow obliged, typing in the balsa slab's name and cranking the handle.

Ding! Woody slid out of the machine, face-first on the ground. But before Pillow could say anything to him, One clapped their hands yet again, and Woody vanished, along with the van. GB's seismograph reappeared on the other side of the HPRC. Otherwise, it was still nighttime. "Your final task: recover Golf Ball and Tennis Ball," One said, with an air of finality. "They've been dead for far too long."

"Alright." Pillow turned towards the machine, but One spoke up again. "And Pillow?"

She turned back. "Yeah?"

"Don't tell anyone about me." They clapped their hands twice, one last time, and vanished into the ether.

Pillow stared at the spot where they had been, then looked at the HPRC, suddenly wondering if she had imagined everything that just happened with One. But after pulling out her notepad and flipping through the pages, she confirmed that it was real and that she wasn't going insane.

Something bumped against her leg. She looked down to see Rocky standing there, with his trademark grin plastered over his face. "Aww, hello, little one. How's it going?"

Rocky stayed quiet.

"Right, I forgot you don't really talk." Looking back up to the HPRC, Pillow raised her hand and quickly entered Golf Ball's name and cranked the handle. Ding!

"Urg..." Golf Ball stood up. Her brow furrowed angrily, and she opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Tennis Ball being recovered and knocking her over.

They both got up again. TB glanced around, then back at the HPRC. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened!" Golf Ball barked furiously. "That lowlife Pencil pushed both of us into my incinerator! I know she's mean, but I still can't believe this!"