Take-Over: A BFB/TPOT AU

Chapter 31: Surprises

APE

"Well, I didn't expect THIS to happen!"

4 was looking at Blocky, who was in his space, a look of confusion meeting 4's gaze. 4 was everything but negative about this. Blocky had been infected by Evil Leafy and was considered immune, until well, Lollipop decided to drop a weight on him. This caused him to be respawned by 4, and for Evil Leafy's control to be gone. This interested 4 even more about the virus, while X was standing to the side, trying to share their excitement. Although X cared for 4, they also cared for the contestants, and thought that 4 was taking this too far. These objects have seen many things, and they didn't need to live through this.

"Uh, 4?"

"Yes X?"

"Don't you think you're taking this too far?"

"...What are you talking about? This challenge won't be interesting unless we, spice it up a little bit. Besides, we can just recover them, it's fine."

"Yeah, but it's not like they forget what happens 4. That will still be there."

"Oh, please X, they've all died before, what is the new thing they're experiencing?"

"W-well, I think-"

"Exactly. You THINK it, but it's fine. They're fine, we're fine, chill!"

"If you say so..."

"Geez X, I didn't know you cared for these guys this much?"

"It just feels wrong to treat somebody like this, like their lives are a game."

"...It isn't?"

"Wait, you thought it was?!"

"X, their whole life, their popularity, it came from this game! Did anybody care about them outside of the show? Plus, they're like an NPC! They can just respawn!"

"I... Can't believe you thought that all this time."

"Hmm? What's wrong X? You seem-"

"THEY HAVE FEELINGS! They feel the same things we do!"

"Ugh, come on X, you can't be serious. You know that it's fine, they still live in the end."

"It's still wrong to see them like chess pieces! You should-"

"X, you're really testing my patience right now...!"

4 raised their hand in a threatening motion, and X closed their mouth. Although they would like to speak out more, they also didn't want to be ended again. X gulped nervously and faced them with a given up look. 4 nodded and lowered their hand. They turned to face the screen, looking at the teams. They gave a grin at the progress but was still disappointed with how slow the virus was spreading. There was still a team that didn't have an infected member, and out of all the eliminated contestants, only 28% of them were infected! If only there was a way to speed up the process without letting the eliminated rejoin... That's it! They saw a team with two infected people close in proximity with a group of people nearby and decided to teleport both of them to the group. Somebody is bound to get infected!

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"Hey look! It's Remote and Pillow! Hey guys!"

Pen was running towards his teammates, happy to find them in the same place. Bottle walked with Pie behind her, as happy as Pen was to find them. However, Pie sensed something wrong. The two were twitching and looking at Pen with an unusually aggressive look. Pen didn't notice though but stopped so that the other two could catch up with him.

"Bottle, wait. Stop for a minute."

"Huh? What's wrong Pie?"

"Don't you sense something wrong? They don't look fine..."