Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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March 13th, 2024: TPOT 10.
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"BAAAARRFF BAAAG! Where ARRREEE you?!” Needle called out, Tennis Ball following along with her, looking around for any sign of her. Soft shuffling came from a bush further from the two, with Barf Bag peeking out and watching them with an unnerving look. "She's been missing since we recovered her..." Tennis Ball remarked, giving a worried glance at Needle, who returned the look back.

"Maybe she's hiding because of the OUTBREAK SHE CAUSED!" Black hole quickly interjected, hovering down near TB and Needle. Tennis Ball glared up at him, "YOU made us try the lava in the first place!" He snapped back, stomping his foot down. Hearing the commotion, Bell and Winner silently approached behind Needle, watching.

"I was just preventing—!"

"WE KNOW!" The four cut off Black Hole immediately.

"Speaking of which!" Marker exclaimed, trotting over to The Recovery Center, one hand on his side, while the other reached for the Recovery Center buttons, rapidly pressing the buttons to recover Team 'Just Not.'

𝙱 𝙾 𝙾 𝙺.
𝙱 𝙾 𝙼 𝙱 𝚈.
𝙽 𝙸 𝙲 𝙺 𝙴 𝙻.
𝙿 𝙸 𝙻 𝙻 𝙾 𝚆.
𝙿 𝚁 𝙸 𝙲 𝙴 𝚃 𝙰 𝙶.
:-)

Nickel and Pillow both stood up, while Nickel turned and blew raspberries at her. "Stay back, murderer!" He scowled. "I just did what I needed to do to win the challenge!" She smiled proudly, one hand at her side. Bell swung down next to Pillow, "By the way, you lost the challenge." Pillow's eyes went wide, in shock. "So did Teardrop, who also died." Bell added on, to which Pillow was even more shocked.

"Wait—so my research was...WRONG?!" Her body stiffened up in disbelief. "SILLY BILLY, BRRUUGGH!" Nickel yelled out, approaching her. "It's all YOUR fault that we LOST, GAAHH!" He slid closer to Pillow, jabbing his foot at her side in frustration. "Looks like DEATH didn't work out with them either." Black Hole added, mouthless Fanny and Marker at his side.

"Well, YOUR solution got me stuck HERE, BLACKHOLE!" Snowball—or what mostly remained of the melted Snowball yelled out from the top of the Gelatin's Steakhouse roof. "Gaty gave me a vomit covered steak..."
A flashback of the aftermath events of the last episode, Gaty approaches the zombieified Snowball and feeds him a vomit steak, "...and then just LEFT me here!" then slid away, leaving him alone afterward.

Grassy jumps up to Snowball, picking up a small chunk of him and then holding him up in the air. "But Grassy has your back, buddy!" He cheered, smiling brightly. Contrasting to the frowning Snowball, "Now I'M an armless WIMP! HELP!" He yelled out.

"Sorry to interrupt this fight, but uh," Winner spoke up, back turned from the other contestants, facing something in the distance. "Can we focus on something more important?" They directed to the moon on Earth's grounds. "The MOON now has a GIANT HOLE IN IT!" They exclaimed, Grassy walking up next to them, still holding the smaller Snowball. "I'm Grassy!" He cheered.

"This is SERIOUS!" They turned over to Grassy, getting slightly agitated with him, only to be ignored. Plopping Snowball over his head. "And now I'm SNOWY GRASSY!" He lightly waved his arms.

Soon, arguments dispersed through the other contestants, minus Gaty, who was just sitting around smiling, Grassy, Marker, Eraser, Tennis Ball, and Pillow. Two; the show's alien host teleported to the contestants from all the commotion going on, being a bit startled. "Whoa, WHOA, WHOOOOA! You guys need to calm down!" They shouted, arguments from the contestants had quickly died out as their attentions turned towards the algebralian. "And I'll help out in the only way I know how!" Two held out their arm, a slice of sparkling cake materializing into their hand. "With some ♪ CaAaAaAke! ♪"

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♪ 𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘛𝘸𝘰! ♪
♪ 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘢–
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"You CANNOT be serious right now?!" A distant voice was heard, causing a pause in the 'Cake at Stake' theme. Confused heads turned at each other, assuming some object among the group had yelled. "Who was that?" Bell squinted her eyes, moving towards the algebralian. Tree glanced at Fanny, who gave an irritated glance in return.

"YOU CAN'T JUZT BLAME 𝘔𝘌 FOR THIZ!" Another voice was heard, Two sighed, pinching the bridge of where the so-called nose would be. "I'll go see what that is. Stay put, all of you." They teleported away from the group of contestants. Silence filled between the objects, glancing at one another before shrugging, walking off to somewhere else.

__________________________________________________

Two popped into the air with a cartoonish sound, now in a different area. The screen panned over to three unrecognizable objects; a yellow star, a lamp, and a red party horn. Two hummed, how odd.. they didn't look like any of the contestants at all. They quietly floated over to the three.

The arguments became slightly more coherent as the algebralian moved closer. Clearing their throat, they extended their hand out to the star object, "Ah, excus—AGH!" With the star's quick reaction time, they quickly spun around and punched Two in their face; catching them off guard, causing the host to stumble back with a hand over their eye.

"Gnarpi!! u can't punch randum ppl!! 3:" The red partyhorn scolded the star—now known as 'Gnarpy.' They helped Two up, a small sense of strange recognition flickered in the partyhorn's eyes, but was shortly forgotten as Two quickly thanked them and tried to speak up.

But one again, another voice had interrupted them before they could even start speaking. "Uh, number person? Do you know where we are?" A silver desk lamp with a yellow lampshade approached from behind Gnarpy, eyes looking around at the severely unfamiliar territory. A taunting grin spread across Gnarpy's face as they nudged the lamp.

"You BRAINLEZZ lamp!" Gnarpy cackled, "ANY ZORP WOULD KNOW THAT'Z THE NUMBER TWO!" Lamp glared at Gnarpy while deliberately brushing his arm. There was a small moment of silence, seeing the green light for Two to speak again.

"Well, Yes! Two 𝘪𝘴 my name after all!" They chuckled. "But you three failed debuters are supposed to be up there!" Two's arm extended towards a room window, pointing and tapping where all the other 24 failed debuters reside. "No worries though, I can teleport you three up there swiftly!" They exclaimed, retracting their arm and bringing over the three.

"𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘈𝘭𝘨𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯." Another voice, much sinister and with a heavier accent, was heard behind both the Lamp and Gnarpy, all four turning their attention to the white beret object–the only noticeable difference between the objects was only having a bright red left eye with a small yellow dot, resembling a pupil.

Two, slightly unaware of the shifting mood between the now fourth object, retracted their other arm. "Well, if you four aren't a part of my show, then how'd?—" Two paused when the partyhorn tapped on their arm, crouching down to whisper something to them

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"Uh-huh?"

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"You four aren't from here?" They pointed a finger at the three, shocked and confused.

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"Universe-wise?"

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"Conscious elevator kicking you out?"

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"We've also met bef?— Oh no wonder you looked familiar!" Two blinked, then leaned back to the Partyhorn.

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"Wait– repeat that again?"

ʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳʷʰⁱˢᵖᵉʳ

"Keep an eye on Folly and Gnarpy?"

"HEY!"
"𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴.."

"Well, then!" Two floated back from Partyhorn, now in the air. "I'd can definitely help figure out your traveling issues, but I haven't even started Cake at Stake yet!" Two worryingly checked their watch. The four objects glanced at each other, confused.

The Lamp spoke up, "Uh, What is Cake at Stake?"
____________________
♪–ke, ♪
♪ decorate it, take it
to the players who
are safe, ♪
♪ that's how you know
it's Cake at Stake (stake,
stake) ♪
♪ Cake at Stake! ♪
____________________

"That."

"...Ah."

Two snapped their fingers, teleporting themself, the four objects, and team 'Just Not' onto the rooftop. Their attention turned to the broken roof, where bits of dried glue were left. Hand at their side, they spoke up slightly disappointed. "Shame those failed debuters are free from the roof! Really livened the place up!" They exclaimed, tapping their finger close to their face.

"ahm.. y were dey?—"

"But thanks to Yellow Face's negligence to the Moon fixing a few rounds back—" Two turned the attention to the moon, with now a huge hole and cracks around it. A distance 'hey!' Could be heard from below, then the far sound of a door opening.

Gnarpy blinked, squinting up at the moon. "Zince when waz the moon zo much clozer?" They glanced at Lamp and Partyhorn, trying to ignore the curious and confused gazes on them from the contestants. "It..might be a different way 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 Earth works?" Lamp turned to Gnarpy, "Though I'd hate agreeing with you it's, surely odd to look at.."

"FINALLY, you're agreeing on me with zome—"

Yellow face slammed the door open, a yelp coming the Star object, startled, stumbled back and slipped off the roof. A faint thud was heard. "IT WAS MY WHOLE TEAM!" He shouted, glaring at the host.

"K."

Yellow face quietly slid back inside the hotel, shutting the door behind him after a moment of silence.

The three objects glance at the edge of the roof, where Gnarpy earlier had stood. "I'm–I'm sure xyr fine.." Lamp muttered, giving an uneasy grin to the partyhorn and Folly, then turning back to Two, who now held a shard of the moon in their hand. "Just Not, once you've got your piece of the moon, you can stick it on the roof to LEAVE YOUR MARK!" They explained to the team, sliding the first moon shard to Bomby.

"Bomby and Price-Tag, you are safe with 18,858 and 14,510 votes! Lucky you, wow wow!" Two winked, stepping aside to let them place their moon shards on the roof. "YIPPIE!" Bomby jumped up, clinging to the edge of the roof as he stuck his shard on the glue first. While Price-Tag struggled.

"NOPE‐IE! I–I can't reach! x0"

"I'm confused..." Pillow flipped through her notepad and reread her studies. "My research indicated that death would result in good luck...but we lost the challenge? And so did Teardrop?" She raised a brow, glancing around as Nickel approached her.

"BooHOO to your little RESEARCH!" He yelled, "Because of YOU! One of US is leaving and I HOPE. IT'S YOU! ...schmogily!"

"Is dat a catchphrase or sumthing?"
"Are they all 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 named after what object they are?" The Partyhorn and Lamp both glanced at each other. "Wait yeah, what 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 'schmogily' even mean??"

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴."
"..Says the 𝘰𝘯𝘦 literally named Folly."

Book stood beside Pillow, hands of her side all shes all smart and such. God I hate her/pos "Perhaps you should try researching other ways to get good luck! Maybe try a good deed or something?" She suggested carefully, though Pillow seemed disgusted by the idea.

"Yuck. Fine.." She rolled her eyes, strolling up to Price-Tag and snatching the moon shard, sticking it up on the roof easily for them. Stepping down as she stood in front of Two, blank faced.

"That is SOOOOO SWEET YOU DID THAT FOR PRICE-TAG PILLOWOH MY 𝘎𝘖𝘚𝘏 I LOVE IT SO SWEET BAHAHA I LOVE IT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—"

"Let's reward some kindness, because Pillow is safe with 14,476 votes!" Two gently placed a moon shard on Pillow's head; who barely reacted, glancing at Book. "Wow, see Pillow? Perhaps doing a good deed worked—" Book smiled, which faltered quickly as Pillow spat out fluff on her face and fell over. "Uh...I'll just do this for you, Pillow." Book took Pillow's moon shard, sliding back and placing it on the roof.

"Lampert..do u think we'll b able to go back home soon?" Partyhorn fiddled with their hands, kind of reminded them of Mozelle's small numb hands. Their worried gaze met with Lampert's uneasy one, unusual that Partyhorn is the tallest one in the group now. "Realistically–there might be a few complications, but I'm sure we'll be back soon enough. This new environment creeps me out, being honest." Lampert whispered the last sentence, having Partyhorn giggle.

"𝘏𝘰𝘸... 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥.." Folly chuckled, eye narrowing at Book holding her moon shard. The three then turned back at Nickel's gasp, alerting he's been eliminated.

"Wha—I'M OUT? NO! GUYS HELP! HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!"

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Cue TPOT Intro
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"How can I be OUT?! I'm the last remaining BEEP representative! I needed to make them proud–GOSH DANGIT!" Nickel complained to Bomby, while Two's hands started closing in on him. "IT'S PILLOW'S FAULT! GUYS, G-GET HER OUT! OR ELSE YOU'RE ALL DOOMED! GET HER OUUUUUUUT!" Nickel disappeared as Two's hands clasped shut.

Lampert's body slightly tensed. "I'm not so sure how I feel about...them now."

Two jumped down from the roof, hearing commotion start up once again. "GUYS! Cut this OUT! What's gotten IN to everyone?!" They exclaimed, worried for their contestants. "Well uh, we did just have an outbreak that nearly ended the whole world." Eraser strutted to Two, seemingly so casual mentioning the zombie outbreak in the previous challenge.

"SHHHHHHHHH! SH! SH! SHH! SHHHH! SH!" Two quickly shushed Eraser, pressing their pointer finger in his face repeatedly. Grassy held Snowball off his head and held him up, "GET ON WITH IT!" He shouted.

Two stepped back from Eraser, "You guys should be fighting:" They lowered their voice, speaking to all the contestants. "you're all friends! So I think it's time for bonds to be reformed!" Two smiled, making a heart shape with their hands. "And what better way than to help your friends FACE THEIR FEARS? For today's challenge, I'll be putting one member of your team to sleep, and giving them a NIGHTMARE!" Two pointed at the one shape on their finger.

"As a team, you'll have to save your teammate from their nightmare, and find a way to escape out of their head!" Two pointed to their head as the teams grouped up together. Raising their hand in the air, "Last to two teams free will be up for elimination! GO!" They snapped their fingers, all the contestants disappearing in thin air.

"Aannndd! You four!" Two snapped their fingers, teleporting Lampert, Folly, and Partyhorn back down on grounds with Two. Their face shifted to confusion, "Wait, onetwothree—are we missing someone?" They questioned, the three looking at each other then back at Two.

"Gnarpy; the star one, slipped off the roof when that...yellow face person opened the door." Lampert squinted, his arms pressed against his sides. "Is..death a thing here? Or are we never seeing xem again?"

"Well death is absolutely a thing here! We wouldn't have team 'Death P.A.C.T Again' if we didn't!" They winked, though Lampert's blank expression didn't change. "So, Gnarpy's gone? Just like that?" He glanced at Folly, reading her squinted up eye expression; she's definitely intrigued by xyr sudden death.

"Not for long! Follow me!" Two spun on their foot, motioning for the three to follow them towards the RECOVERY CENTER. Humming as their fingers wavered over the buttons, "Name again?"

"Gnarpy."

𝙶 𝙽 𝙰 𝚁 𝙿 𝙸 𝙴.
𝚃 𝚁 𝚈 𝙰 𝙶 𝙰 𝙸 𝙽.

"It's uh spelled wit a 'y'" Partyhorn peered behind Two, stepping aside and letting the object press the buttons.

𝙶 𝙽 𝙰 𝚁 𝙿 𝚈.
:-)

Gnarpy plopped on the ground, gasping for air, widened eyes as xe looked at four, quickly getting over xyr feet and dusting xyrself off; subtly brushing xyr act of fear being shown. While Two happily smiled and patted the RECOVERY CENTER. "So if any of your friends here drop dead, you can go on and bring them back to life right here! They beamed, then paused, expression dropping completely. "Wait, hold on." Two snapped their fingers, teleporting all five of them next to Robot Flower, who was laying on the ground.

"There better be a good reason for bothering me!" Two glared down at Robot Flower's screen, hands on their sides. The other four huddled around and glanced down as well.

"TWO! Our team's stuck in Robot Flower's head! We're in some kind of control room!" Basketball cried out, Snowball and Bell looking around the area while Grassy still held Snowball up. "Hmmm, interesting..." Two hummed, squinting their eyes and raising a brow.

"Yez, 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 interesting." Gnaepy rolled xyr eyes, glaring down at team 'The Strongest Team on Earth,' specifically Basketball.

"WHO EVEN ARE YOU?!" Basketball scolded at xem, then Two lightly shoved Gnarpy out of the way. "I guess Robot Flower can't have nightmares because she's a mechanical mind." Two stepped closer to her screen, glancing around at the team and the room.

"So–do we automatically win? Are we done?"

"Get us OUT of here, Two! You've seen Robot Flower lately, she's DEADLY!" Basketball panicked, Lampert, Gnarpy, Partyhorn took a few steps back from the robot. "𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤.." Folly murmured.

"I don't know, guys! Sounds like a NIGHTMARE to me!" Two grinned, shrugging as they rolled their eyes playful. "Once you escape Robot Flower's head, you'll be safe!" Muffled groans and yells were heard from inside the face. "Okay, back to you four, follow me!" Two happily led the four objects to the hotel lobby.

The five of them were met with a nicely lit red room, accompanied by some plants, paintings, couches, and a stand near the entrance. "This is the hotel!" Two cheered, sitting themselves on a couch, followed along by the other four on different sides. "Now, since I got the challenge out the way, let's talk about you guys. You don't mind explaining 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 happened that you four ended up here?" Two rested their hands at their side, waiting for someobject to speak up.

The Lamp sighed, "Well–all four of us were on this elevator.. doing our own thing y'know—Also wait, I should be clear. None of us here are objects in our universe, or humans."

"Well, you ARE the clozezt thing to an OBJECT, Lampert." Gnarpy sneered, crossing xyr arms; being slightly uncoordinated with xemself due to a lack of extra arms.

Lampert, barely changing his expression or moving, pointed a finger-gun at Gnarpy. "Xyr also an alien."

"That's awesome! I'm also an alien!" Two cheered, throwing their arms in the air. "Carry on."

"Okay, er, something in the elevator must've jammed.. because it stopped working, Gnarpy tried to fix it. That didn't work, Folly started getting hostile mentally with xem, xe started getting physically hostile and uh—"

Two, Folly, Partyhorn, Gnarpy, and Folly turned their attention to the continuous thudding sound behind them, watching Robot Flower repeatedly slam her back against the floor while trying to walk. "CUT IT OUT CUT IT OUT CUT. IT. OUUUUT!" She yelped, barely making it up the stairs as she flops around.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦...𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘴. 𝘜𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥.." Folly hummed in amusement. Two giggled with unease. "I'm sure they'll be fine!" Two waved a hand. "What were you saying?"

"Poob tried activating a floor to prevent the bug, then the elevator juzt kicked uz all out." Gnarpy spoke quicker, irritated from the amount of interruptions in the span of 13 minutes being here. "i didn't kno that wuld hapen!" Poob whined, deflating sadly into the sofa, frowning.

"Hmm..." Two's eyes scanned the room, a lightbulb practically dinging off their head. "Ooh! Does any elevator lead you back to your universe?" They slid over to the building's elevator. Maybe this can help you all?"

Folly's singular eye glanced the elevator up and down, "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺..𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘞𝘦'𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦, 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘩..." Folly spoke lowly, turning on her heel and away from the others. "Oohh—kay?" Two squinted their eyes. "I suppose I could place you guys in a room on one of the floors. Which one would three like, the third floor or the fourth floor?"

"y not the second flor?"

"That's where the kitchen is, where Four and X cook!"

"Four? Therez MORE of you???" Gnarpy hissed, glaring at the stairs leading upwards; Poob on the other hand, absolutely beaming. "..Yeah? What'd you think comes after me twice?"

"Is there a One?—"

"𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴..𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯, 𝘩𝘮." Folly watched from the window as the first team escaped the dream. Two snapped their fingers, teleporting in front of team 'Are You Okay.' Their sudden appearance startled Golfball, having her fall over.

"ARE YOU OKAY escaped from Pen's head, and are safe!" Pointing at Pen on the floor, then cheering. While Pen on the other hand, groans in disappointment, brings his arms closer to himself. TV changes his screen to a gradient of blue to white, with the time reading '12:59' on the left corner and the sun on the right. "That's good news, Pen. What's wrong?"

"So all that work was for NOTHING? I'm still in two hundred vigintillion dollars in debt!

While Eraser writes Pen a totally legitimate check for two hundred vigintillion dollars, Folly, Gnarpy, Lampert, and Poob all watched from the window. "wut do u think the prize is gunna be?" Poob looked down at Lampert, who was watching 'THE S!' team come in second.

"I don't know, most likely money or promised fame. Isn't that what they usually do in these types of competition shows?" Lampert took a step back from the window, watching Gnarpy stare at xyr own arms, squinting. "You have been squinting the whole time here."

"𝘟𝘺𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧...𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘹𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘢..𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵?" Folly tilted her body, the star giving her a side-eye glare. "Feelz like I've gone half deaf, half blind, AND amputated." Xe hissed. A uncomfortable silence set upon the four.

𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.

Gnarpy blinked, xyr attention focusing on the third team being safe. Taking a double take, xe pointed at the window. "Iz that a BLACK HOLE?!" The other three rushed up to the window, watching the black hole supposedly communicate with the mouthless fan. "They juzt let anybody onto thiz zhow apparently.." Xe muttered.

A loud thud broke their train of thoughts, "wut was that?!" Poob pressed their face right against the window, looking for any signs of the cause of the sound. "Probably nothing.." Lampert shrugged.

"And TEAM8s are SAFE!" Two directed to the dead pile of team8s and Robot Flower, pointing at them. "Well...they escaped the nightmare. I don't know if I'd call THIS safe but...oh well." Two shrugged. A white background with 'The Strongest Team on Earth' contestants icons were shown. "The Strongest Team on Earth have died in Robot Flower's head, meaning they are up for elimination." Below them, team 'JUST NOT' contestants icons slid up. "OH, and JUST NOT as well, but where—"

"I think they're still inside Book's nightmare, Two!" Golfball pointed her foot at the unconscious Book, they snapped their fingers, presumably teleporting inside of Book's nightmare. Golfball turned her attention to the four objects behind the window, glaring at them while Poob gave a friendly wave.

𝙿 𝙸 𝙽.
𝙱 𝙰 𝚁 𝙵 𝙱 𝙰 𝙶.
𝙱 𝙴 𝙻 𝙻.
𝙶 𝚁 𝙰 𝚂 𝚂 𝚈.
𝙳 𝙾 𝙽 𝚄 𝚃.
𝙱 𝙰 𝚂 𝙺 𝙴 𝚃 𝙱 𝙰 𝙻 𝙻.
𝙽 𝙴 𝙴 𝙳 𝙻 𝙴.
𝙶 𝙰 𝚃 𝚈.
𝚂 𝙽 𝙾 𝚆 𝙱 𝙰 𝙻 𝙻.
:-)

Tennis Ball swiftly recovered team8s and The Strongest Team on Earth (minus Robot Flower, to which Basketball told TB to wait on.) Snowball cheered as he has been reverted back to his full self. "BACK TO NORMAL! FINALLY!" He grinned, stretching as he could finally use his limbs again. "I preferred you as a pile!" Grassy beamed, standing next to SB.

____________________

"i'm starting to believe these stairs r colored like a rainbow." Poob reached up to the third floor, a yellow painted hallway, happily skipping down. While Gnarpy and Folly begrudgingly followed along, Lampert seemed lost in thought. "Two did zay we could rezt on the THIRD or the FOURTH floor, I zay we take thiz floor; if zomething happenz on the TOP floor, we have time to run, and if zomething happenz on the BOTTOM floor, we alzo have time to run!" Gnarpy grinned, putting xyr hands at xyr side.

"𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳? 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘯... 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨." Folly's voice hissed with venom, breaking Gnarpy's short-lived confidence. A small hum was heard from xem. "Then we jump out ze window." Xe shrugged, earning a concerned look from Poob.

"Guys." A monotone voice came from behind the three, turning to see Lampert; now glowing. "I have an idea, but unfortunately it involves a lot of Folly."

"More like a 'bright' idea! Hehehe!" Poob giggled.

...

Poob was now laying on the floor, clutching their leg, Gnarpy had probably kicked them in the leg.

"..Anyway, Folly. Is there any possibility you can latch onto someone in their dream that can help us?" Lampert twirled his lamp string, pulling it down and shutting his light. "If you can communicate with someone in 𝘰𝘶𝘳 universe, maybe they can bring us back home."

"Why'd you repeat your zentence in a different wording?"

"𝘏𝘮𝘩𝘮𝘩𝘮...𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯..𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦? 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘵.." She sneered, glaring up at Lampert. "Well, you wouldn't want to be that little beret forever, huh?" Gnarpy grinned, leaning against the smaller beret object. "I've overheard you and Zplit in a converzation awhile back! You'd HATE to zee me convince everyone here to call you 'beret' now, HA?"

After a long silence, Folly agreed with a sigh, stepping away from Gnarpy as xe fell over. "𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬...Я не знаю до конца, как работают кросс-сновидческие вселенные."
(...𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴-𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.)

Her voice hissed, shutting her eye as she focused. Her body puffing into a small black unmoving smoke, Gnarpy squinted, poking xyr finger at it. "You think it'z working?" Xe turned to Poob, giving xim a hopeful nod.

"What do YOU fou—uh, THREE think you're doing?!" Golfball leaped from the stairs, most likely overhearing their conversation, catching both Gnarpy and Poob off guard.

“..Uh, standing around?