The secret that the scroll held would soon be revealed, and Golf Ball was proud to be showing it off to everyone. "I have found out what this says!" Golf Ball exclaimed, everyone on the edge of excitement. "These aren't words or some hidden language. So-"
"I don't know what it says." Golf Ball mutters. Everyone still hears her and freak out. Golf Ball throws the scroll and it lands on Tennis Ball. He decides to take a look at it. He realizes that the top of the scroll is ripped, like something is missing. And the symbols, as Golf Ball said, they don't look like a secret language, but more like keys on a map. Wait-
"Guys-" Tennis Ball tries to grab their attention, but not only is he not the best at public speaking, but he is getting pushed around and no one is paying attention because they couldn't find out where Dream Island could be. Bubble is popped in the midst of the chaos by Blocky as he tries to protect Woody. Pen is pushed into Tennis Ball.
"TB! What are we going to do?" Pen asks. "We couldn't find out where Dream Island could be. It wasn't even some map that could lead us-".
Tennis Ball has had enough of this craziness. He steps on top of the counter where people would normally take their orders. "EVERYONE!!! STOP!!!" He yells his voice cracking a bit. Everyone stops, but Pencil chuckles a bit because of the voice crack. Leafy looks at her, only for Pencil to look annoyed back.
"Guys stop this madness." Tennis Ball pleads. "I figured it out! GB is right, this isn't some message we have to try to figure out; they're keys on a map, that tells you where trees or mountains are. It's a map!" Some people scoff a bit, but the majority believe him. He decides to continue. "The top and left side have been ripped off, so this is only the corner of a map, but that means we could try to find the other parts of this map. But I don't think that's important right now. What's important is-".
"What are you saying? Of course learning this is a map is important!" Pencil interrupts. "I thought you were smart." Tennis Ball just rolls his eyes and keeps his hypotheses to himself. Everyone is chattering about this revelation about Dream Island's whereabouts. Needle comes in with no one else.
Pin runs up to her. "I thought you went to recover Firey, Icy, and Snowball! What happened?" Everyone else starts nodding to these questions.
"The Recovery Centers," Needle started, "they've been destroyed! All of them. Even the Bubble Recovery Center!". Pencil and Match look at Needle with fear. "I don't know what happened, all I know is we need to go find somewhere that sells them.".
Coiny snaps his fingers. "I've got a plan!" He announces. "Me, Pin, TD, Spongy, and Needy-".
"Don't call me Needy!" Needle slaps Coiny.
"Us WOAH Bunchers will go find a new Recovery Center. Pencil, Match and... Leafy, will go looking for one part of the map." Pencil glares at Leafy, and she wants to say something, but gets cut off by Coiny continuing. "Pen, Eraser, Rocky, and Tennis Ball, you guys can go find another piece of the map. That leaves Blocky, Woody, and Flower to find the last piece.".
"What about ME!?!" Golf Ball asks. "What am I going to do?"
"What you do best staying in one spot and 'managing the team'." Coiny teases her.
Golf Ball gets angrier. "But I couldn't even do THAT!!! You did the job assigning part for me!!!".
Coiny pats Golf Ball on the back. "Well then, I guess you got a little bit of a break. But seriously, we need someone to stay at a 'home base' type of place to communicate with all the teams while we are busy doing the task that was assigned to us.". Golf Ball can't really get mad by his points. She just 'humph's and starts to set up some communication equipment.
***
"Well, are we all good to go WOAH Bunchers?" Needle asks. Coiny, Pin, Spongy, and Rocky nod. Needle walks away before realizing something was off. "Wait, Rocky!?!" Needle picks Rocky up. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Eraser, Pen, and TB!".
"T-D is miss-ing Nee-dle." Pin 'points' out.
"Where could she have gone?" Coiny asks, even though it was pretty obvious.
Teardrop sneaks into a jug of water. She gets in just before Eraser puts it in to a boat. "DO we really need to be the ones to search in the Goiky Canal? Why can't someone else do that?" He asks, clearly annoyed at this chore. "I would have preferred the desert.".
"Don't stress bro!" Pen chimes in putting his hand on Eraser's shoulder. "We got partnered with TB. This should be a piece of cake, just like the ones I brought for the trip out there." Pen pulls out a box of chocolate cake.
Teardrop's stomach rumbles as she realizes how hungry she is. She hasn't eaten anything for a while and that cake sounded really good about now. But she couldn't be spotted, not yet. Tennis Ball tripped into the room with a handful of small gadgets and parts. Pen and Eraser help him up and get some of the small gadgets. "What are these for?" Eraser asks, holding a small olive green fish looking device.
Instead of answering right away, Tennis Ball takes everything out of the boat. He then throws the fish device onto the floor. It expands turning into Golf Ball's Robotic Fish Monster. "I fixed up this wonderful tech that GB made and even added a few modifications to it. GB doesn't know I have this, so we shouldn't exactly tell her, but this will be great to explore the Goiky Canal much easier.
Pen looks in awe as Eraser shrugs and starts taking the supplies that were in the boat into the Robotic Fish Monster. The inside looked a little smaller then last time, but since it was the three of them plus some supplies, it should be fun. Eraser noticed that Tennis Ball also had some of Basketball's Breathable Bubbles. "Those are just in case we need to go outside of the Fish Monster to grab anything!" Tennis Ball had old them earlier.
Meanwhile, Coiny, Pin, Needle, Rocky, Spongy, Blocky, Woody, GB, and Flower all went over to the ticket booth to get tickets to ride, WOAH Bunch getting train tickets, and the others getting bus tickets. "I'm getting one in case one of the teams needs help." Golf Ball explained when asked why she was getting a ticket. Pencil, Match, and Leafy walked passed them to get a newly made FreeSmart SuperVan.
"What do you think *you're* doing?" Pencil asks Leafy suspiciously when Leafy tries to get in the van.
"Umm, coming with you guys like I'm supposed to-" Leafy tries to explain but is cut off by Pencil, "Only FreeSmart members can sit in the SuperVan. You'll have to be on the roof or the trunk." Leafy sighs and heads into the trunk because she'd be blown away on the roof.
Pencil starts to sigh in relief and drive them towards the Desert where they were assigned to look for the missing map piece. She gets a solemn look on her face and turns to Match. "Do you think I'm being a bit rough on her? I mean, I know it's been weird talking to her after being freed from the EXIT, but I shouldn't keep a grudge because I don't want to thank her. She helped me and I'm starting to believe that being passive aggressive isn't working the way it should."
Match just looks at Pencil before looking through the window deciding not to say anything, as it's probably for the best. Leafy cries in relief a bit as she listened to what Pencil said, but she knew that wouldn't be the same person when they reached their destination.
Meanwhile in Golf Ball's Underground Factory, Tennis Ball, Pen, and Eraser were ready to head off themselves. "Hold on." Tennis Ball muttered as he clicked open the first door and drove into the tiny room between two doors. He closed the first one and opened the second, and the swam into the depths of the Goiky Canal. Teardrop continues to hide in the water jug, vowing to herself to only come out when it's time.
WOAH Bunch, Flower, Blocky, and Woody waited for their respective vehicles to be ready to board. Coiny sees an old Steam Train and takes Pin and Needle and tosses them into it, Spongy and Rocky hopping in willingly. Flower sees the local Bus is ready to board. "Come on guys! We need to get on now!" Flower exclaims as she throws Blocky in. Woody slowly walks in. Blocky can tell that Woody is sad, but he decides not to bother him at the moment. The Bus heads off down the road into the sunset.
Coiny finally figures out how to start the Steam Train and it sets off a bit slower then anticipated towards Yellow Face's Warehouse. "Yellow Face sells all sorts of stuff!" Needle explained. "I'm sure he has a Recovery Center in their somewhere. It's our best shot at finding one!". The group does a quick 'YEAH!!!' and they continue to travel as the sun continued to set down.
End of the whole first chapter.