The Power of Two

Episode 10: Chop 'Til You Drop

Remote liked her team, but the one thing that they still lacked was the comradery.

They weren't constantly arguing like the Yellow Team or dividing amongst each other like the Blue Team, but to Remote, they still didn't feel like a complete team.

Basketball and Grassy spent all their time with each other, Puffball almost always disappeared once the challenge was over, and nobody knew what Winner's deal was.

Her closest allies were Pen, Black Hole, and Barf Bag. She had a preexisting relationship with Black Hole thanks to Death P.A.C.T., and the same was technically true with Pen, but Remote could always tell that he never truly felt a part of the team.

That led to where they were now; a team meeting at the Bathroom Plaza.

"So, what're we doing here?" Winner asked from their spot at the picnic table, "You got some kind of announcement for us?"

Remote stood proudly in front of her team, who were all very much confused. Winner, Pen, Barf Bag, and Basketball sat at the picnic table, looking at her expectantly. Puffball and Black Hole hovered not far from the group. Grassy sat on the ground in his own world, occasionally tuning back into the conversation.

"I think that we need to work better as a team," Remote declared, smacking her fist in her hand, "so I thought we could all do some trust exercises before the next challenge."

"Trust exercises?" a confused Barf Bag repeated, "Why would we need that?"

"Our team has already lost twice," Remote said, "and while we have been working fine so far, we should be closer."

"How close do you want us to be?" Basketball asked as Grassy climbed up her side and sat on her head.

"I thought that we were doing pretty good." Black Hole added.

Remote smiled at her faceless friend, "We are, but we could be doing better. We work okay together, but we aren't in sync."

"So, what do trust issues have to do with that?" Pen questioned, looking like he was ready to abandon the meeting.

"I fear that not being on the same page could lead to another loss," Remote explained before frowning, "we already lost Cake and Rocky. I don't want anyone else to be eliminated."

"I get that, I do," Basketball sympathized, "but I feel we run the risk of making things worse through these exercises."

"Also, I just don't want to," Puffball piped up, her blunt words juxtaposed by a magical-sounding voice.

"I'm sort of in the same boat there," Winner sucked their teeth, raising their arm to chime in, "not for nothing, Remote, you seem like a great gal, but I don't know you guys all that well. I'm sort of the newbie here."

Remote smiled softly at her teammate, placing a tender hand on their shoulder, "I don't want you to feel like that, Winner. I don't want anyone to feel like they don't belong."

The Green Team exchanged glances with each other before Barf Bag spoke up, "Okay, Remote, we'll give it try."

And so the Green Team reluctantly agreed to put themselves through Remote's rigorous trust exercises. Little did any of them (except Remote, of course) know, but these exercises would turn out to be a gauntlet of activities that Remote's mechanical mind deemed "good for building trust".

First, they tried trust falls, none of which went well. Pen caught Barf Bag, but had stood too far back and caught a face full of throw-up for his troubles. Basketball caught Grassy without a hitch, but when Remote made them switch places? You can imagine how that ended up. Black Hole sat out, much to the relief of the others. The only one that had no failures was Puffball catching Winner, which was more just Winner falling on top of her.