David and his grandfather gathered all they could into 2 suitcases, and went into Oscar’s horribly parked van since it was bigger than Cole’s car.
Everyone but Cole sat in the back to warm up David, as Cole had to drive. Usually being walking distance, the caravan swiftly dropped Ball off to the Science Commision.
“Please stay safe Ball,” David weakly breathed with his eyes shut. The van door slid open.
“I survived falling into the atmosphere from space. I believe I will be alright,” Ball said.
David opened his eyes in surprise of what she just said, but she was gone before he could say anything to her.
Ball walked into the front entrance of the Science Commision. She didn't usually come in this way as most of the time guests came through the main entrance.
It was dim, and had an eerie aura of red that she couldn’t exactly find a source to. Around the front desk was two stairwells, so she walked up one to a balcony.
There was a door to the second floor corridor, but it was shut. Instead of regretting that she hadn’t brought anyone, she simply turned around and pushed one of the faintly used waiting chairs to the door.
Using it as a vantage point, she climbed to the back of the chair and stood on the lever handle. It popped open, so she jumped back down and pushed it wide open.
In the corridor beyond was the floor she usually resided in. It was defeningly empty.
Ball tensed up, even at night there was some buzz of work being done or late night science laughter. Now it seemed like the air had been sucked out of the building.
She turned to her right, and silently followed the hall down. She recalled her first walk through this place. Her eyes followed the edges of the walls and the ceilings, and it seemed like to no end would such a sight cease to amaze her. Those edges, those lines…
Ball entered the computer room again, as the door was open. She could see through the chairs someone standing a little further away. She wanted to rush to whoever it was but she stopped at the sound of voices.
“Please don’t,” It was Johnson. The fear in his voice was hard to listen to, “I didn’t do this! And I didn’t authorize it! She is her own person with her own will! L-l-let me make it up to you, I promise! It’s the last time I swear.”
He was surrounded by prisms with spiked clubs. Ball could easily see them from her height, but not most of Johnson.
“We’re bored with Earth Drake,” Eins said.
“We’ll be borrowing all of your activator, since you won’t, like, be needing it anymore,” said Zwei.
“What for?” Johnson asked.
The prisms began to chuckle.
“It’s a perfectly good explosive,” Drei said, “Wouldn’t want it to go to waste.”
Zwei tuned their face around to look directly at Ball. Ball felt suddenly out in the open.
“Would you look at that,” Zwei said. The other 2 prisms turned their faces around too.
“Ball..” Drake breathed.
“Just the bozo we wanted to kill,” Drei said.
The prisms detached their legs, curling them up into wheels. They rolled over to her as she began to rush away. Johnson clumsily trudged after them.
Ball originally wanted to exit through the door she entered through, but more aliens had begun to come through that way.
She ran on down the hall hoping to find some way the doors would open up in her favor.
By the time he was in the hall the aliens had turned to stop him, they were also joined by more prisms that he didn't know. He tripped forward over these foreign aids as they grabbed his legs and pulled back.
“We're letting Ball go?!” Drei yelled at them, upset.
“We aren't letting anyone go,” Zwei said.
“She's just a kid, leave her alone!” Johnson tried getting back up but the foreign aid stood on top of him to weigh him down. Eins Zwei and Drei ignored him.
“We'll know exactly where Ball goes by what doors are open. Stars forbid she'll ever leave a door closed in case of an emergency exit,” Eins said.
Ball continued to rush for the staircase on the other end of the building. When she finally got to it, the door was closed as always. She stared at the closed door, her mind blank.
She could see the prisms rushing down the hall to get her. Without any other way to go she headed a little down the hall, and to her left.
She knew there was no way to the first floor than in the hall she had just exited. All other halls went to labs or offices… or so she thought.
The double doors that connected the Science Commision to the Science Museum was open, as new robot themed items were being placed as of recent. Ball headed into the Science Museum, as the sound of wheels creeped near. She shuddered to think of what she would see if she turned around.
The door was attached to the outside of the Museum's stairwell, so Ball went down them to the first floor. She could hear the footsteps of her pursuers getting closer.
Around the room was a closed entrance to the outside, a hall to her left and a bunch of devices sitting on shelves. She couldn't hide under the shelves, and she didn't dare try to go for the door in fear of it being locked.
The hall to her left had a line of tall potted plants decorating the area. Footsteps echoed close like a shiver, so Ball hid behind one of the potted plants. The aliens came down from the stairs.
2 of them raced away further down the hall while Drei stayed behind. Drei held his club with the 2 of his front hands. He glanced around the room looking for any hint she was hidden there.
He noticed her obvious shadow behind the potted plant.
“Where are you bozo?” Drei said, joking that he didn't know where she was. Ball heard this twang of sarcasm, and could barely contain her fright.
“You can't hide forever. You took away my prized experiment. You need punishment, and I have the first of many to give to you,” Drei readied his bat and swung at the potted plant, once, twice, by the third time it shattered, leaving Ball exposed. She looked left to the hall where the other prisms went. They had returned, making a blockade to keep her from running. It almost seemed as though they had just appeared there.
“No! Please!” Was all she could muster. It was a terrible cry for help. Ball was shivering now, and all she could do was watch in horror as they ambushed her. The prisms started beating her with their spiked clubs.
Up against the wall she simply fell to her side and tried to get back up on her feet. After every hit she only had milliseconds to gear up for the next one. In some cases 2 hits happened at once. It seemed to last forever, until some time later the prisms were done with her.
Drei took his spiked bat, and hit her hard enough to roll her down the hall.
When Ball woke, she was staring at the ceiling in the middle of this hall. The aliens were gone, and so was her smoothness.
After Ball got back on her feet, she looked down to a million little dimples that now seemed to surround her entire body. They were all neatly spaced apart, and there wasn't a crack on her.
Ball didn't understand. She was hit with spiked clubs, how did this happen? It didn’t make any sense. She still had to keep going. She was still alive and maybe if she hadn't passed out she wouldn't be.
As she clumsily climbed the stairs she couldn't forget the stings of those clubs. She felt as though the spikes had found a seam in her plastic and it was starting to split. This of course was just pain, and not actually happening to her.
She limped on through the hall she had escaped. Down it she could see Johnson sitting against the wall. She just had to see him, so she kept trudging on until she was at his leg.
Looking up at him, he didn’t seem so, lively. He too had been brutally beaten by the spiked clubs, and was now oozing from all of his punctures. Ball could not look at him, she instead looked to the floor.
A moment later the man heaved in a breath. Drake Johnson gently put his hand out on the top of Ball’s head. Every breath seemed more like a choke.
“Ball… Listen..” He took a moment to relax before forcing himself awake with a start, “They’re going to blow up Yoyleland. They're blowing it up with the activator and c-chaos. If I don’t come back this time..” He inhaled, “I’m sorry. If..” He paused for a long moment, “If I do come. I don’t” He started to shiver, “I don’t wanna know what.. what else, they want. They can’t have me no more,” Johnson slowly took his hand off of Ball’s head. He then put it forward in front of her.
Ball looked up at him for a moment.
His nose was broken, his left cheek was pierced open, and his right eye was disfigured and stuck shut. As she looked up at Drake, she put out her foot out into his hand. Johnson shook it firmly, released, and dropped his arm slowly down. He rotated his head right to look down the hall. He then sighed, relaxing.
Ball waited for him to do something, but he just continued to stare off to the right. She looked at his gored chest. It did not rise.
He's dead…
He had been dead in her presence before, but perhaps not to this degree. There was a possibility that he really wasn't coming back this time. The very first time Ball saw him dead she didn't feel much for him. Now she still didn't know how to feel.
“Why do I not cry when things come to such a level as this?” She said aloud. It almost seemed to echo, so she looked around to see if anything had stirred afterward. Nothing did, so she looked back to Johnson.
“Am I broken? Is my heart stale? That I feel not what is appropriate?” She asked him, “Or is it that I really never loved you…?” She looked at the floor in an awkward sideways manner. A possible lack of love for a dead man was something to be disappointed in.
She looked back up at him.
“Who are you anyway, Drake Johnson? Why should I care?” She paused for a moment before answering her own question. She practically shivered, “You are my m-y dad.. my father.”
She stared at his face, as it looked down to the right.
“Or were you me? Was I your father?” She paused again, as if waiting for an answer.
"I suppose it does not matter anymore. I am just like most daughters I suppose; we have something in common and something not. Now that I am without you, I can only hope to be better than you… You changed who you wanted to be too late. Now it is my turn to try and be a good Ball, even if I am not a father," She felt a little silly for trying to give a speech, but she held her ground, "Goodbye dad," She said finally she began to walk down the hall to the right, but paused to say one last thing, "If you cannot be a good man, be a good ghoul."
She then continued on down the corridor. When she got to the door that led to the lobby she looked back again. It almost seemed like Johnson was looking at her.
Finally she left and exited the front door. Waiting for her was the Creed van parallel parked properly in front of the Science Commision. The van door opened and Ball jumped in. Oscar was sitting in the middle seat to the left while David and Dora sat in the back.
Ball jumped up to the right middle seat.
"What happened to you!?" Oscar looked at her in shock. He went to touch her but couldn't bare to possibly hurt her.
"Johnson is dead. Luckily I survived the attack," Ball said. She looked up to David and Dora. They were wrapped up in a blanket, and were gazing at her with their line eyes blankly.
"Johnson's dead?" David began to worry. He relied on Johnson for his health.
"I am afraid so. And we cannot hope to see him recover. The aliens no longer respect our lives. They plan to blow us all up," She looked at the crumbs on the car floor.
"Blow us up?" David's grandfather covered his mouth. He was still sitting in the driver's seat.
"That is what Johnson told me when he died. They are going to blow up Yoyleland with chaos and activator. We need to get out of here if we have any chance of surviving!" Ball shouted at them.
"So you mean right now?" David asked.
"Yes! We must pick up Oscar's friends and leave Yoyleland immediately!" Ball said.
"If you say so," David's grandfather shrugged his shoulders and turned the car back on.