-
Pin woke up, her head against the dark grass. She sat up, looking around, hoping maybe Four was back. No, of course not.
She grabbed a piece of chalk, nearing a wall that had 'DAYS' scrawled on it in white chalk. She scratched a line through the 4 marks that had been made before.
Sweeping the dust from her body, she lay the chalk down, walking to the patio. A stack of all the food they had was there, Pin shuddered seeing the remains of Eggy there.
Blocky grabbed Bell by the string as she slept, dragging her to where Eggy was still staring at where Four should've been.
SMASH
She blinked, realising how she had just been standing idly. Hunger struck her, and she instinctively reached for one of the yellow pieces, eating it as quickly as she could've. It tasted terrible, but it was better than starving.
Pin walked away from the pile of rations, immediately feeling overwhelmed by hunger yet again. She fell down on the dark ground, looking at the sky. "When's Four coming baaaaaack..."
Four, huh? Never have I seen an object like this before.
I must run... some tests.
Pin jumped up suddenly, almost knocking an approaching Leafy over. "Oh, I'm so sorry Leafy, I-"
Leafy shushed Pin, looking slightly concerned but slightly forgiving too. "It's alright, Pin." The plant paused. "Did you hear the whispers too?" She leant in, being fairly secretive.
"Ye- yeah. The one about-"
Leafy blinked. "I thought I was the only one. Who do you think it was? Who... isn't here right now?"
The red tack looked around. "E-eggy?"
The lemon leaf laughed. "Really? The one who Blocky killed?" She gestured to the burnt corpse of Blocky. "I would say, good riddance, people who murder shouldn't be alive themselves."
Pin stared straight at Leafy, silent for a second or two. "But you-"
"Anyways, how about we see the rest of the living Losers, huh? Check on how they're doing and stuff..."
She's acting suspiciously happy...
Even after all the death and panic.
Maybe she's part of Four disappearing?
Maybe...
"Come on Pin!" Leafy waved to her, smiling. "I'm not gonna stand here waving all day, my hand will fall off."
Pin paced forward, so she could keep up with Leafy. She saw the Losers, Cake, Needle, Coiny and Firey, who were still in a one-sided tournament of RPS and Clock, distancing himself away from the team and picking pieces of grass from the ground.
"Leafy, maybe-" But Leafy had already ran off to greet the other Losers. Pin sighed. She decided to not interact with Clock, he probably wanted to be alone, especially when he had been dead for 5 whole episodes.
"Hey Cake!" Pin sat next to the dessert, who was looking fairly anxious. "Is something bothering you?"
Cake nodded. "It's just... Eggy died because she was food and people were hungry, right?" Pin made a noise of agreement. "Is this-" "Its just, im so scared of being eaten- or anyone else being eaten- there are so many of us, and what if the others get hungry? What if you get hungry? I don't want to die like Eggy did-"
"You won't, Cake, I'll make absolute sure of that. Blocky killed Eggy, and guess what happened to him?"
The image of Blocky killing Eggy flashed in Pin's mind, and she internally shuddered.
"If anyone wants to kill you, they'll have to get through all of us.." She gestured to everyone in their team. "..first. Loser's spirit too."
"LOSER ISNT DEAD YOU KNOW!" Firey yelled
-
"I just don't get- when our whole AIM is to prevent death, she would just... run like that??" Tree tugged at his leaves. They were slowly slipping into an orange-brown gradient, and they were slowly weakening their hold on his branches. If he lost all his leaves now, when Four couldn't recover him, what could he actually do?
Black hole hovered close to him, but not so close as otherwise Tree would be lost in his dark void. "I can't really explain why either. You and Pie were close friends, right?" Tree nodded. "Yeah, that's the point. We've been friends since this competition started - since Four randomly appeared after you tried killing everyone." Tree couldn't see it, but Black hole held a very awkward expression.
"And then for her to just get up and... leave?!" Tree felt like he was just going in circles. He was about to start again before Remote interrupted him.
"You know, a true friend wouldn't mind if their other friend went and did something else. You don't always have to be together all the time. 'Together forever' doesn't always mean it physically." Her deadpan voice told him.
"I don't have friends." Pillow said. No one responded.
"Take it like this." Remote took out a whiteboard. "Friends are like water." She drew 'FRIENDS' on the board, then an equal sign with water next to it. "You need them, however..." Remote rubbed out the diagram. "You can do without them for a few days."
"That's a terrible analogy." Bottle said, with a smile on his face. "I bet Liy could make a better one."
"Remember Bottle, we don't speak about Liy anymore. It's not like we have to, though." Black hole told the glass container.
"Hehehe! Why not? She's not dead forever! I hope..." Bottle questioned the mysterious entity.
"We're getting a little off topic here." Tree muttered, but he appeared to be ignored. He sighed, walking off.
However, there wasn't really anywhere to walk. The pool he usually dived into to cool off wasn't there anymore, and Four of course hadn't bothered to fix it. They probably would've made that a challenge anyways.
Suddenly, he felt his leafy head plant into the monotone ground, alongside the clatter of something mechanical. He spat out a tuft of burnt grass before looking to see what had made him fall. Suddenly, he was face to face with a rather annoyed, blue mechanical fan.
"I HATE PEOPLE WHO DON'T LOOK WHERE THEY ARE GOING!!" Fanny yelled, right into Tree's face. "THAT MEANS I HATE YOU!"
Tree shook his leaves around a little. "But I didn't even see you. I think you-"
"UHM. YES YOU DID?" Tree realised that Fanny's head had detached from her blue body and was on the ground. "YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT DOESN'T. EVEN. MATTER!! NOW THROW ME TO IANCE."
"But I don't want you dying from the impact-"
"UNLESS YOU WANT TO-" Fanny paused. "Just do it."
"Uhm... really odd thing to ask for but... okay?" Tree picked up Fanny by the head, tossing her over to where he thought iance was. He saw her soar into the sky, then hitting the ground with a thud. He shuddered slightly.
-
Get... off of me, you piece of corn...
That I won't do, my blue friend.
I'm not your friend. Where's X?
X was getting in my way. I had to... dispose of them.
You... killed them?
Oh, and why's that so bad? Just stay still, it'll make it easier.
What's that... is that a syringe?!
Yes, it is. And if you don't want to be in intense pain the moment you wake back up again, i'd suggest you stop moving.
What... what did you do to my powers?
-
"Golf ball? Goooollfff baalll?" Tennis ball called out his science partner's name. "Golf ball, where are you? Surely you didn't miss off the party just for repairs.." He slowly stepped down the stairs, passing the whirring gears and the mysterious liquids that dripped infinitely into nowhere. "Golf ball, come on. There's something important going on outside." The stairs finally ended, and Tennis ball took in all the sights.
There was an outstretched lift, which was slightly burnt from the last time Golf ball used it. Papers were strewn about, some with scribbles on it and a couple pens in random locations. Multiple vials, some spilt, were unorganised on a counter. A generator whirred in the background, sending power through messy wiring. Multiple pieces of a broken recovery center were stacked neatly in the corner, and a deprecated garbage chute was torn open.
"Golf ball? Seriously, where are you." Tennis ball glanced at one of the papers, detailing a formula that even he couldn't comprehend. Mostly because it was written as a massive scribble. He shrugged, grabbing an empty coffee cup and throwing it into the incinerator. "Golf ball, respond if you don't want me to do some cleaning up." He waited for the dimpled ball's response.
"Yeah, uhm, maybe don't do that..." Golf ball rose from the stack of papers, sending them into an even more disorganised mess. A long rope was wrapped around her head which trailed around the factory, as well as a lamp. She had green night vision goggles on, and looked very dazed.
"Can you at least turn off the lights..." Golf ball used her mechanical arm to take off her goggles. "Ugh... and knock next time."
"Golf ball! I was really concerned about you, you look like you've been up all week!"
"I HAVE BEEN UP ALL WEEK!" Golf ball yelled, startling the fuzzy green ball. "I've been getting... mysterious signals recently." She walked up to her computer, clicking through a couple files, before arriving upon a screenshot of something. Clicking again, it displayed what normally was a silent radio station... making some noise.
"This radio station can't be accessed casually, from phone or whatever you use to communicate with the outside world. It's normally just static, has been static for years, but just a few days ago.." Golf ball clicked on an audio file, which played a number of unintelligible sounds. "I've tried translating it, but it's just nonsense words put together." She clicked on another file, which Tennis ball could only pick a couple words from.
"Insanity... again... steve... universal... connection.. control."
"See? It just makes no sense. I've been trying to figure it out, but... nothing."
"Anyways, I know you weren't here for that. What's going on on the surface?" Golf ball questioned the larger ball.
"...Four's missing."
-
Four felt themself falling back to Goiky. Their mind was whirling, and they couldn't move from command of their own mind. They didn't even feel like they were in their own mind. Space flew past them, the stars formed as white smears against a black background. Everything was starting to not matter to them anymore. X was dead. Dead. Not alive anymore. The corn prick wasn't even lying to them, especially when they saw the crooked edges of a shape inside of a creased box.
As the clouds and dark grass came into view, Four felt their own mind become weaker and weaker. Slowly, they were being overpowered by some sort of violet energy. Their vision was going purple, and they felt their own control slip away from their blue body.
CRASH
"Yo! Four's back!" Gelatin called out.
"Gelatin, now is NOT the time for your stupid jokes." Donut lectured the green glob. "Whatever. Guess I'll be the first to recover Blocky then!"
"What?" Donut looked over, flicking his chocolate icing slightly. He ran over to where Gelatin was.
It turned out Four was actually there, but they were lying on the ground, still. Donut noticed a significant crater had been marked into the ground where Four had landed.
"Gelatin wait!" Donut grabbed his arm, tugging him back. "I- I don't think it's safe." He gestured to Four, who still lay on the ground.
"Pshh, of course it is!" Gelatin looked around, before grabbing Naily. "We just need to poke him!" "PUT ME DOWN-" Gelatin threw Naily at Four, before Four vomited all, well, most of the EXIT. Pencil, Bracelety, Liy, Stapy, 8-ball, Firey Jr, Match and Spongy.
Stapy screamed in joy, leaping towards Foldy as the two were reunited at last. Pencil and Match looked around for their alliance, but they were unusually absent. Had someone killed them both? The two hugged each other. "Freedom at last!" Pencil exclaimed. "Like, you mean Freesmart!" Match corrected her. The two laughed, but then...
A blast of white, concentrated energy was launched into the sky. Four's hand fell down, and dropped Naily. Well, the burnt body of Naily. She fell to the ground, her motionless legs sprawling out. Four's eyes flashed purple, before launching a massive beam of energy at Rocky, splitting him in half and revealing a large amount of crystals in his body.
Black hole moved in the way of his team, protecting them from any energetic blows coming their way.
"What's going on? Why is four so..." Tree realised the number had taken out a button, and was about to click it. "BLACK HOLE, MOVE-"
BZZZ
"Oh my... Pillow.."
"Right, let's go. Follow me." Black hole zoomed forward, pulling the remainder of the team, excluding Pen and Pie with him. He then dropped them down, gently so bottle wouldn't smash, before flying off. Tree got up, breathing in panicked breaths. "Wh- how- HUH?" A leaf fell from his head. "What... the fuck." He looked up, the sun almost blinding him. "Why would Four do such a thing.."
"Come on, it was bound to happen!" Bottle had a crack at the base of his glass body. "Four wasn't very sane in the first place, eh?"
Tree ignored Bottle, instead looking at remote. She was twitching, garbled static coming out of her mouth.
"Remote, are you..."
Remote locked eyes with Tree, before her eyes flashed purple.
"Downloading bomb."