Overtaken - a BFB/II2 fanfic (very slow updates)

Day One - Elimination

[ATTENTION! THIS IS THE FOURTH BOOK IN A SERIES I'VE WRITTEN!! YOU SHOULD READ THE OTHER THREE FIRST FOR CONTEXT!!!]

Beeping and whirring filled the control room of the Light Shimmers' ship as they traveled through space. It had been a few hours since they found their first lost youth, and despite the missing second one still looming over their heads, they were overjoyed nonetheless.

A sky blue shell - adorned with corn blue zig-zags, a triangular-shaped hole, and three shimmers inside - carefully inspected the equipment to make sure  everything was in working order. This included checking the energy logs, which was the primary method they used to search for their lost ones. They discovered something interesting on it.

"Sir?" the shimmers asked. The Prime Shimmer, who the blue egg had just addressed, turned on their throne to face them. "There's an odd reading on the energy log."

Prime floated down to the blue shimmers' level to glance at the screen. "How odd?"

The shimmers 'squinted' to get a better look. "It appears to be... portal energy, sir."

"What?!" the Prime Shimmer boomed, startling the other shimmers in the room. "But how can that be? We closed off this universe from multiverse travel ages ago!"

"We don't know, sir. But the energy log doesn't lie."

"Where and when is the origin of this reading?"

The blue egg took another look. "We got this reading a few hours ago, on Earth, sir. In fact, it came from the location of those objects who found one of our lost youth."

They both glanced down at the tiny, green-striped egg, who was watching the conversation happen with mild interest. The blue egg continued. "We must have missed it in all the chaos of the objects' arrival."

Prime returned to their throne. "Set a course to return to Earth immediately."

"Is this a good sort of course correction, or a bad one, sir?" The blue shimmers sounded slightly nervous.

The giant purple egg hmmed. "We don't know yet. But we need to find out how those objects have a  portal to another universe. Figure out which universe that portal is connected to, by the way," they added.

"Yes sir."

The Prime Shimmer thought hard. "Let's hope that those objects don't have any hidden malicious intents..."

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August 1st, 2020, a few hours later

Tennis Ball blinked as the rays of sun hit his eyes, startling him awake. He yawned and stretched, moving out of the sunlight's path. Despite having robotic arms for several months now, thanks to the ingenuity of Test Tube, he still wasn't quite used to the sensation of stretching them. It wasn't unpleasant, though.

He glanced next to him and saw that Golf Ball was still asleep on the burnt grass. It was about mid-morning, but she was a late sleeper. Trying not to disturb her, TB tiptoed away until he was sure she wouldn't wake.

He looked around to see several other contestants up and about, chatting to each other. For reasons unknown, Four was standing on top of a tree, frozen and unblinking. TB spotted Lightbulb around as well, playing rock paper scissors with Marker.

Which reminded him that he wanted to ask Fan something. Turning around, Tennis Ball walked through the nearby portal that led to the IIverse - a silly name for the universe which housed the competition of Inanimate Insanity 2, but nobody could think of a better name, so it just stuck.