February 1st, 2010
Pencil absently flipped the Win Token she'd won earlier that day through her fingers as she waited for the Announcer to finish explaining the second contest. She had spectated the Squashy Grapes' Cake At Stake just before, and it was immensely satisfying to watch Spongy become the first contestant eliminated. Things are still changing, she thought.
"...Cherries, you are missing a team member," she heard the Announcer say. Despite not being on the Cherries anymore, Pencil perked up and listened more closely. "If you don't find that team member in the next hour, your team automatically loses."
Yes! She pumped her fist. I knew it! Blocky almost got eaten by that fish monster last episode, so the Cherries are gonna have to waste a bunch of time finding him!
Announcer beckoned a giant green O over, and the contest began.
59:59
59:58
59:57...
Needle immediately broke into a sprint and almost took the lead, beaten only by Snowball. More FreeSmarters began to run, but Pin shouted, "Squishy Cherries! Stop!"
All the Cherries came to a halt. "We have to decide who will find Blocky and who will run the course."
"We'll find Blocky!" Pen and Eraser harmonized.
"Leafy, you go too. And... Tennis Ball! Go with them!"
"But Golf Ball and I are a duo..."
"So? Just go already!"
Reluctantly, TB turned to follow the others to the edge of the Goiky Canal. "Golf Ball!" he called out behind him. "Don't wait up, okay?"
Although TB couldn't see her anymore, GB nodded. "It would be a tactical disadvantage to wait. I shall do my best up ahead!"
Pin rolled her eyes at this as she passed the gray globule. Picking up speed, she ran past several other objects, dodging around them with relative ease. She slowed briefly after seeing Pencil, Match, and Bubble just leisurely strolling down the path. What's THEIR deal?
52:15
A few more minutes of running brought her to a wall slowly rising from the ground. She leapt with all her might in an attempt to get over it, but at the last second, Teardrop flipped her over mid-air, causing her point to dig into the top of the wall and stick there. "Ack! I'm stuck!"
"Sorry, Pin," apologized Coiny, who had been right behind her. He clambered over and kept going. As Woody and Golf Ball approached Pin, she complained, "Please don't tell me Woody will have to climb me!"
Woody nervously reached out, but Pin shoved him hard before he could do anything. The balsa slab slid backwards; Golf Ball successfully jumped over him, but Rocky didn't. As Woody collided with him and spun off the edge of the obstacle course, Rocky flew into the air and conveniently landed on the other side of Pin's wall. "Of course," Pin muttered.
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46:21
"Hey, I didn't know Pin had, like, an upside-down growth spurt," noted Match as she, Pencil, and Bubble caught up to the thumbtack's wall.
"Oh no." Pencil rushed over to the barrier, looking at it from every angle. "No, no, no, no, no!" she muttered quietly to herself. "I can't believe I forgot that Pin got stuck here! ARGH!"
From behind her, Golf Ball stepped up. "Finally, someone else is here. Get me over that wall!"
"Oh, I'll get you over that wall, alright," a new voice spoke. Everyone turned to see Flower sprint towards Golf Ball at top speed and violently kick her into the air. "Hi-YAH!"
The globule slammed into the barrier, which did absolutely nothing. Flower shrugged. "Welp, I tried. Now YOU guys have to get ME over the wall."
The three FreeSmarters present all shook their heads simultaneously. "Noiver," countered Bubble. "Yoi're too mean!"
"If you don't help me, I'll... I'll kill all of you!"
"You wouldn't!"
"Oh, yeah?!" Flower leapt forwards and extended her pointer finger, dramatically popping Bubble. Everyone else gasped. "Now get me over that thing before I push the rest of you off!!"
Pencil gritted her teeth, but conceded; Flower was strong, and probably could have actually beaten both her and Match in a fight. "Fiiiiiine." Reluctantly, she climbed on top of Match and let Flower use them both as ladders to get over Pin's barrier. "Later, losers!" Flower jeered as she ran away, out of sight.
The two woodsicles glanced at each other. "We're going to regret that later, aren't we?"
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42:40
Up ahead, Flower slowed to a stop as she reached a rock-climbing wall. Needle was scaling the wall while Ice Cube and Rocky watched from below, unable to climb. "ICE CUBE!" the plant shouted, nearly scaring her poor teammate to death. "Where's everybody else?"
Not wanting to get punted, Icy stammered out an answer. "Firey, Coiny, and Teardrop are already past the rock wall! Needle keeps falling! I-I don't know where anyone else is!!"
An obnoxiously loud SLAM came from above, and a second later, Needle landed on the ground. "Aw, seriously?" she protested.
"Needle!" Flower turned to her. "You have arms! Get me over this wall!"
Needle shook her head. "What?! Why not?? We're on the same team!"
"I'll only help you if you ask nicely."
"Grr!!" Enraged (but what's new?), Flower grabbed Rocky and threw him as hard as she could at Needle. He bounced right off her and soared away, while the force of the toss knocked Needle off the edge and into the Failure's Waiting Room.
Flower stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, before looking at the rock wall. "I guess I'll have to do this myself..."
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39:18
"Jump, jump, jump! The higher we are, the-"
"Match, jumping isn't gonna work."
"Aw, come on, Pencil! You won't know if you don't, like, at least try!"
"I just know it won't work."
As the woodsicles bickered, Golf Ball spotted a group of objects approaching them. "Hey!" she yelled, causing Pencil and Match to perk up. "TB, there you are! Help me over!"
Tennis Ball, flanked by Leafy and Pen, nodded. But before he had a chance, Pencil grabbed the fuzzy sphere and yeeted him at the wall Pin was stuck on. His weight caused the barrier to bend, crack, and finally snap, taking Pin and Pen with it into the Failure's Waiting Room.
"Hey!" barked GB. "Don't be so reckless with my friend!"
Pencil ignored her, instead choosing to grab Match's arm and start rushing ahead. "Woah! Like, what gives?"
"We're really far behind! We've gotta go, super fast, to make up for lost time!"
The duo made it to the rock-climbing wall in record time, the globules and Leafy right behind them. Flower fell to the ground in front of everyone with an oof, having been knocked off by a boxing glove. "More people? Good! Someone help me up!"
"I'll help you, Flower!" Leafy replied enthusiastically. "You too, Icy!"
"Not with Flower!"
"Oh... uh, how about you, then, Golf Ball?"
GB nodded. "Your arms will be very useful."
Nodding back, Leafy plopped GB down on her head, then helped push Flower up the wall. Pencil completely ignored all of this and pulled Match around the side path. "Woah, Pencil!" exclaimed Match. "How'd you, like, know this was here?"
"Cause I'm SuperSmart!" Pencil replied. Cause I watched this episode in the future, she thought. Then: Wait, is it I *watched* it, or I *will* watch it? Time travel is confusing.
As Leafy assisted her pals, Tennis Ball noticed the side route. "Ice Cube, look!" he said, nudging her.
"Oh! Yay!" she exclaimed. They followed the woodsicles.
Above them, Leafy threw Golf Ball and Flower to the top of the rock wall. "Yes!" Flower cheered. "High five!"
"I don't have hands," informed Golf Ball.
"High foot, then! Whatever!"
GB grumbled as she reluctantly held out her foot. Leafy pulled herself up and joined them. "Let's go!"
The three of them jumped onto the elevator nearby, which took them back to ground level. They hopped off just as Tennis Ball and Ice Cube passed by. "We didn't fall too far behind!"
They continued. Up ahead, Pencil and Match could be seen leaping through a narrowing gap across from a large pitfall. Icy leapt next and slid through, but Tennis Ball barely missed the jump. Looking back, Match saw it happen. "Poor TB. But, he's not on our team, so, eh."
Reaching the ski lift first, Pencil climbed on, then jumped ahead to the next one. "Match, cmon, we gotta hurry!"
"But why do we need to jump from chair to chair? Can't we just, like, relax on one?"
"Look up."
Both of them glanced towards the sky to see a small, gray speck far above them. "See that? That's Rocky, plummeting towards Earth at a million miles an hour. He's going to land on this lift and break it, and if we're on it when he does, we're going down, too. Capiche?"
Match started to copy Pencil's actions.
A little ways back, Golf Ball and Ice Cube had just climbed onto a seat of their own, with Flower just behind them. "Ice Cube, listen up," GB started. "Now that Tennis Ball and Leafy have fallen off, we are the only members of our team still in this. If we want to win, we will have to work together, and we will probably have to work hard. Whatever comes next, will you be willing to do exactly as I say?"
Icy nodded. "Good. Let's win this."
They hopped off the ski lift moments before Rocky finally got to their level and tore through the lift's lines. Flower, the last object still aboard, shrieked as she plummeted into the pit below.
Rushing forwards, the two armless teammates reached the final obstacle – finding a needle in a haystack. Pencil and Match were both sifting through a pile of straw already, while Firey and Teardrop could be seen at the end, next to FreeSmart's bucket. Teardrop had already started filling it, but Firey wasn't helping, choosing instead to just fiddle with his recently-acquired Win Token.
Walking to the nearest stack, Ice Cube cautiously poked her foot in and immediately stabbed herself on a needle. She winced and pulled her leg out, careful not to dislodge the sharp implement. "Golf Ball! I found one!" she called out.
"What?!" shrieked Match and Pencil, but Golf Ball just gestured for Icy to go to the gate. She obliged, held up her prize, and the two walked in together. "Ah man, Match, we gotta find ourselves a needle! Fast!!"
(spoiler alert: they don't find a needle fast lol)
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00:02
00:01
00:00
"Beep. Time's up."
At hearing the Announcer's voice, Pencil threw down her bucket and collapsed to the ground, exhausted. "Uhhhhhhggg."
Announcer hopped over to the two team's buckets and inspected them closely. As he did that, Match, Teardrop, Icy, and GB also dropped their buckets. Firey simply looked up, having not actually done any work. "Hmmm. These containers are very close to having the same amount of water. It's hard to tell, but... I think FreeSmart barely wins."
Teardrop exhaled in relief, while Golf Ball and Icy stamped their feet in frustration. "Rats. We worked so hard! We should have had that!"
"Given the circumstances, you two did very well and should be proud of yourselves. But nonetheless, you still lost. Again. So, viewers, choose someone on the Squishy Cherries to vote..."
While the Announcer rambled to the viewers about voting, Pencil lifted herself just high enough to look at Fiery. "Match and I... lost so much time... finding... a needle..." She had to breathe deeply between each word. "Why... didn't you... help Teardrop?"
"Water's my poison! It was too dangerous to handle!"
Pencil shot him a murderous glare and uttered, "You're... dead... to me," before proceeding to pass out.
[Current Win Token count: Pencil x1, Firey x1]