Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 2c: Pitfalls and Barriers

"The second contest is an obstacle course; you have an hour to complete it. When you get to the end, you will try to get as much water into your team tank as you can in the remaining amount of time. At the end of the hour, whichever team has more water wins."

The Announcer would explain to a cast of characters that were in varying degrees of anger from the fact that there was more of this to deal with. "And yes, whoever is the first to finish the course gets a Win Token. Now go-" "Hang on! There's more!" Golf Ball suddenly interrupted; Blocky groaned. "Who cares about what *you* have to say?" He'd remark. "You guys should." The bossy-bot replied. "A member of your team is still missing. We tried recovering them in case they were dead, but we couldn't; that means they're still out there somewhere." "And?" Blocky shrugged. "So what?" Eraser joined in. "So what?" Golf Ball sarcastically repeated. "If you don't find them in the next hour, your team automatically *LOSES*!" "WHAT?" Blocky and the gang were about to argue over just how ludicrous and unfair it was, but Golf Ball didn't care. "Now GO!"

The Squishy Cherries obviously got going immediately, but the little additional snag meant that the Squashy Grapes couldn't go with them; Blocky and his clique were *going* to chase after them, only to be stopped by Leafy and Match. "Stop right there!" Leafy shouted. "None of us are going until we find TD!" "Who *cares* about TD?" Blocky replied. "And who cares about what you have to say? C'mon! Let's go!" "Like, didn't you hear what GB said?" Match replied. "It won't, like, matter if you guys complete it if Teardrop isn't, like, found." "And finding that drop of water won't matter if no one's at the obstacle course to complete it!" Eraser aggressively shoved Match out of the way and made his way through. Leafy groaned. "Fine! But only one of us goes through the course; the rest of us should focus on- Hey!" Blocky and the rest were already well on their way before she could finish her sentence.

Firey, being the fastest runner out of all of them, was quick to take the lead in the initial stretch of the course; things started to get challenging however when the path just gave way to a sheer cliff face, one which the flame almost fell into. "Woah!" He just barely came to a stop at its edge, only for Coiny to shove him in on accident. Allegedly. "What was *THAT* for?" Pin shouted at him. "I know you hate him, or something, but he's your teammate! We shouldn't be sabotaging ourselves like that!" "It was an accident! Sheesh!" Coiny defended himself. "Besides, he *totally* had it coming." Meanwhile, Firey eventually reached the bottom and landed on a waiting room for failures. "Oh, come on!" He'd groan.

The surviving Cherries eventually found a narrow pathway that bridged the gap and quickly got to crossing it, the only exception being Spongy; despite his lead over the Grapes, his slow speed meant that Blocky's crew eventually caught up to him. "There's someone from the other team!" Eraser shouted. "GET HIM!" Spongy obviously couldn't put up much of a fight after that. The three pranksters then easily went to cross the passage as well; still solidly behind the Squishy Cherries, but definitely still in the running.

After the winding bridge across was another straightaway, but this one had an unexpected surprise waiting for them. With the push of a pressure plate from Flower (who had taken the lead at that point), something began to rise out from the floor; first a little bump, then a hurdle, then soon enough a great wall that threatened to completely block off anyone that remained behind. The Cherries would manage to get to it before the problem got out of hand. "Weaker jumpers first, people!" Pin ordered, though Flower would simply keep on going as if she didn't hear anything. "We gotta have as many people as possible over that thing so we have more chances!" "Doesn't matter if none of us have enough time!" Coiny exclaimed as he just leapt over the hurdle and quickly moved on. "Yeah, I agree." Pencil jumped over with less zeal. "I'm totally not gonna help with lifting up that fat TB." "I'm not *THAT* fat!" Tennis Ball shouted. Pin grumbled and complained, but eventually they all managed to get across, leaving the now-tall wall as a problem for Blocky and friends. "Aw, come on!" The cube shouted upon seeing the great obstacle upon them.

While the Cherries got to work on climbing the second wall that awaited them so soon afterwards, and the other Grapes thought about how to get over the first one, Ice Cube, Leafy, and Match (and also Woody, but he was mostly just standing there) were off on the shore, trying to find Teardrop. "This was where we last saw her, right?" Leafy asked. "Like, yeah." Match nodded. "Last time I saw her, she was, like, with us during the last challenge." "Well, she can't be *that* far from here!" Leafy started shouting. "TD! WHERE ARE YOU?" "WHERE ARE YOU, TD?" Match would do the same, and so did Icy. None would respond, save for the crashing of the waves and the blowing of the breeze.

Flower and Coiny were a good way up the climbing wall, only to be knocked off by a surprise hit sending them plummeting. "Aw, seriously?" Coiny complained after a particularly nasty impact; Flower also let off some steam, though had some rather less eloquent words to describe it. While they and the others continued their attempts, Pin and Tennis Ball thought about how to get their armless fellows across as well. "You think someone like Coiny can just throw you up?" "I don't think so." Tennis Ball remarked. "I measured everyone's strength as part of an experiment, and I don't think they're *that* strong." "But we can't just leave you and Rocky behind, can we?" Pin asked. "That'd just be a waste of manpower. How about we just have them carry you instead?" "Carrying *that* much weight on one hand while climbing with the other?" Tennis Ball shook his head. "You're basically gonna have *less* people making it up." While they continued deliberating over what to do, Rocky would simply make his way over to the path around the climbing wall, a path that everyone just completely failed to see upon sighting that daunting climbing wall.

Blocky had just about exhausted himself after repeatedly jumping for the past few minutes. "There's just no getting over that thing! We're *done*!" He'd groan. "If only that *Leafy* didn't get in our way, we could've beaten this course by now!" Meanwhile, Eraser had a funny idea while looking at Pen. "Hm." He'd then suddenly pick him up, completely taking the writing utensil by surprise. "HEY! What're you- GAH!" The eraser then threw him like a javelin at high speed, crashing into the wall and causing it to topple. "Huh." Blocky stood in awe at the now-open path before him. "That works, I guess."

Ice Cube, Leafy, and Match continued screaming at the top of their lungs, hoping Teardrop would *eventually* hear them and come back home; though it'd eventually tire them out, they knew just what the stakes were and made themselves keep going. All that shouting was starting to get to Woody, however, and there eventually came a point where he just couldn't take it anymore. The trio's tireless tries to triangulate Teardrop's thereabouts threw that tree trimming to thunderous tripe talkativeness, which just about immediately brought everyone else to silence. "Like, what is *that*?" Match complained. "Oh no! Woody!" Leafy rushed on over to him. "I completely forgot about him!" "Like, seriously?" Match folded her arms. "You care about him?" "I care about everybody!" Leafy tried her hardest to calm him down, but to no avail; if anything, it just seemed to make things worse.

(Somewhat) fortunately for them, however, it was finally more than enough to cause Teardrop to surface out of the water. She'd immediately make her way over to the two and immediately give Woody a hard slap to the face, which immediately quieted him down. "Hey!" Leafy frowned. "That wasn't nice!" Match sighed. "Look, we finally, like, got her." She replied. "Now let's go, like, *super* fast." The now-four of them got to doing just that, with Leafy explaining things to Teardrop along the way.

Blocky and Eraser eventually made it to the climbing wall, where they'd be greeted by a Coiny that had just failed yet *another* attempt to summit it. "Aw, *seriously*?" He'd shout as he went back for another round. "Hey!" Blocky exclaimed. "We may still have a chance after all!"

Meanwhile, Bubble, Pin, and Tennis Ball had eventually found the same path around the climbing wall that Rocky had; they made their way down the lift that came soon after, then came across what seemed to be an even *bigger* threat than either wall. As Rocky quickly went through the course a little while ago, he'd pushed down another pressure plate and jumped over a gap. That pressure plate triggered a mechanism that started lowering a ceiling from above, eventually going down far enough to make any future attempts at the jump nigh-impossibly difficult. "Oh, great!" Pin grumbled. "How are we supposed to get past *that*?" "Oi think Oi can just about manage that." Bubble remarked. "Hup!" She'd take a stab at it, having nothing to lose; her light weight and a lucky breeze helped push her along, and she just about managed to squeeze through the tiny opening that remained, allowing her to push on further. "Well, we can't do *that*, can we?" Pin remarked. "I dunno, maybe if we tried really hard..." Tennis Ball's attempts to lighten up the situation fell on deaf ears as Pencil had arrived at the scene; being the first to conquer the climbing and on a rush to make up for time lost, she'd aggressively shove Pin and Tennis Ball out of the way (causing the latter to plummet and the former to stagger) and would make the leap of faith, just barely getting across as well after ducking.

The rest of the hour kept on going; more and more people wound up stuck at the climbing wall, but eventually they'd start getting through and would start going through the rest of the obstacle course. Blocky and Eraser were the first, eventually getting to the part where Pin got stuck. "Oh, *great*." She'd complain. "Now you guys are-" The two of them didn't even give her time to finish before they knocked her off. They'd give the jump their best shot, but only Eraser would end up making the cut. Flower and Coiny would be up next, and only the latter would make it through as well. The four remaining Grapes (Woody obviously just stayed at the start) eventually had their go as well, with Leafy and Ice Cube arriving *much* later as the former just couldn't leave the latter behind; only Leafy and Teardrop would manage to overcome that horrific jump, and Ice Cube would end up shattering upon impact.

Eventually, the remaining contestants would come across the penultimate obstacle before them. "Oh noio!" Bubble exclaimed. "What're we supposed to do now?" "Bubble, can't you read?" Pencil asked. "It says we gotta find a needle in a haystack to continue." "Whot's a needle?" Bubble asked. "Not a clue." Pencil shrugged. "Something weird, I guess; it definitely isn't *that* stuff, though. Must be the hay." She'd point at the several haystacks before them; a place seemingly perfect for one of them, however, had only a pool of what looked to be vomit. "Ew!" Bubble exclaimed. The two eventually got to searching, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Eraser. "Oh noio!" Bubble shouted. "What is it *now*, Bubble?" Pencil sighed. "Eroiser's here! We gotta-" Bubble couldn't say any more before she was popped. "He *is* on the other team, I suppose." Pencil reckoned. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" She'd charge towards Eraser, only to be pushed off. "Haha!" The totally *manly* Eraser laughed triumphantly as he saw Pencil plummet to what was surely her demise. "Right, what was I supposed to do here?"

Eraser wouldn't be given enough time to answer that question, as Coiny would arrive soon after and catch *him* by surprise, causing him to follow after Pencil; the coin creature would then read the sign, start digging through a haystack, and eventually find his needle. As he stared at the metallic object he now had in his hands, there was a sudden feeling in his gut, a feeling that he just didn't know how to describe. He figured that that was just what winning felt like, however; he presented the needle to the scanner, which allowed him to move on to the final part of the contest. Awaiting him was a tank full of vomit and Rocky with a strange green coin in his head. "Gross!" Coiny exclaimed. "*You* did all that? That's disgusting! You have to *pay*." He'd then promptly take the coin from his head. "Ooh! A mini-me!"

Leafy and Teardrop eventually found their needles as well and made it to the end, and tried their hardest to fill their team's tank with water with the remaining time. There just wasn't enough left on the clock, however.

"Beep. Time's up." The Announcer announced. "The Squashy Grapes win again." "Yeah!" Coiny exclaimed.

-

Snowball woke up to find himself imprisoned.

All around him were four walls, a ceiling and a floor of nothing but cold metal. The place was dark, cramped, and miserable. And worst of all, he had no idea how he ended up there. He had no idea about a lot of things, though.

"Uh... Guys?" He'd try to ask around, as if anyone was around to hear him. "Where am I?"