Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 5a: Double-Crossing

"Hi, GB!"

Golf Ball didn't even bother to look up from whatever she was up to; something or other to do with machinery, most likely. "Cake at Stake isn't quite ready yet." She'd immediately respond. "Just sit around and wait for-" She'd then fully register just *who* she was talking to. "Leafy?" She'd glance up ever so slightly. "Mhm!" Leafy smiled. "You can recognize me just by my voice? That's pretty skillful." "Don't flatter me." Golf Ball sighed. "What're you doing here? You're not up for elimination. Is it just muscle memory by this point?" "We *did* end up here pretty often, huh?" Leafy chuckled. "No, no; I came here to ask you something, actually." "Well, what is it?" Golf Ball was getting a bit irritated by that point. "You've had *all* the time in the world to ask." "Well, I just thought about how we all got cake as part of the Final 15, and..." "I'm not gonna reward you guys with cake every time." GB interrupted. "It's expensive, apparently; every time I ask why, he keeps redirecting things to something else." "Oh, uh..." Leafy frowned. "We could at least get *something* as a reward every time we survive an elimination?" Golf Ball thought about it for a moment. "...Isn't being in the competition a reward on its own?" "Well, yeah. I suppose." Leafy nodded. "But maybe we could get a little something else, don't you think? Something for a job well done?"

Golf Ball let out a deep sigh; it *did* provide them with pretty good incentives. "Alright." She'd get up. "Wait here." Leafy would do just that as she went up and away to her Factory; a few minutes passed, and the diminutive co-host would return, now dragging a little bag with one foot. She'd throw it over to Leafy, who'd be a bit befuddled. "There." GB said, as if that cleared up anything. The leaf kept staring at the bag. "A bag?" She'd raise an eyebrow. "And it's just one, too; are we supposed to just share it between-" "It's *inside* the bag, obviously." Golf Ball interrupted as she got back to doing her thing. Leafy couldn't help but be a bit flustered as she finally looked inside; there were a variety of small, gray polyhedra that were cut up into little pieces that were stuck together through some arcane means. Fiddling with one of them, she saw that a group of these pieces can be rotated and moved about an axis. "What *are* these?" Leafy asked. "They're, uh..." Golf Ball struggled to remember for a little bit, which was kinda embarrassing; not even she could instantly recall all the many, *many* items she had hoarded over the years. "Puzzle things. Something to fidget with while waiting around. "Ooh!" Leafy would do exactly that. "That's pretty neat!" She'd exclaim. "Thanks!"

"HEY!" Flower had been eavesdropping for the past who knows how long, and had grown frustrated over what she'd heard, as she was wont to do. She'd rush up to the scene. "GB, I want a prize too!" "No." Golf Ball flatly responded. "WHY NOT?" Flower screamed. "Your team won second place." GB maintained her cool. "You didn't do too bad, but you didn't do too well either. If you want a prize, you gotta earn it." "I've had to suffer through your dumb competition for so long already!" Flower complained. "That should be enough for a prize!" "No, not really." GB remarked. "If you don't give me a prize right now, I'll *crush* you!" "Well, then you'll *never* get one, then." Golf Ball quipped in a rare attempt at humor. "GRR!"

Flower was just about to follow up on that threat when the Announcer would suddenly appear, stepping in between them. "It's time for Cake at Stake for the Cherries."

-

The Squishy Cherries took a bit longer to get to the Cake at Stake place, not being used to going there.

"There's five of you now. There will only be four later." The Announcer announced. "Okay. So, um, I forgot to buy a cake. So I had to make something." The aforementioned something then appeared. "It's a chunk of ice." "What? That's crazy!" Pin exclaimed. "Yeah." Firey agreed. "You're telling me you couldn't get *something* that was *close* to a cake?" "We had a contest about baking cakes *right* before this." Tennis Ball added. "Why couldn't we just use one of those?" "Well, um, we already ate it all as part of the judging." The speaker box replied. "That's not true." Tennis Ball replied. "I saw that-" "Whatever." The speaker thing continued on. "So, yeah. If you remain ice chunk-less, you leave BFDI." The Announcer continued; he'd then turn to the big block of ice, only to find something, or someone, that didn't quite belong. "Ice Cube, what are you doing here? You're not in this team." The offending Ice Cube was quickly flung away before she could make her case.

"Moving on." The speaker box moved on. "Pin, you have a Win Token; would you like to use it now?" "Uh, no." Pin replied. "I mean, there's nothing mean I did that I can think of that would make people want to vote me." "Okay then." The machine thingy replied. "No Win Token for you. Tennis Ball, you also have one; do you want to use it?" "Yeah, no." TB answered. "There's no reason anyone would wanna vote for me either." "Alright then." The Announcer replied. "Now, get voting."

"Alright, guys." Pin quickly brought everyone's attention to her. "So that there isn't any arguing between us, let's discuss among ourselves and decide who to vote for unanimously; that way, there isn't any confusion or anger, as we can make our case as to why." Everyone else would be in varying degrees of agreement. "In my opinion, I think we should vote for Spongy. He just isn't-" "Hey!" Spongy interjected. "Why do you want *me* to go?" Pin sighed. "I was *just* getting to that." She'd reply. "As I was saying, you aren't really-" "It's because I'm fat and stinky, isn't it?" Spongy interrupted further. "You know, you guys could've helped me with that instead of kicking me out immediately." "Spongy, *stop*." Pin was getting impatient. "What made you think that this has to do with-" "You can't make me stop!" Spongy kept on going. "I'm tired of going unheard just because of what I can't change. I've tried my hardest to pull my weight and do my part for the team, and I'm not gonna get pushed away *again*!"

"...I'm not dealing with this." Pin let out a deep sigh. "Spongy, no one's saying you're not a good part of our team; your efforts are *very* much appreciated, regardless of how it might seem or how you see it." She'd stop for a moment, waiting to see if she was gonna get interrupted again. "Ideally, I would ensure that *none* of us get out; that we as a team stick around to the very end, and we all win together. But one of us *has* to go, so..." She'd sigh. "I've weighed out all the options, Spongy, and this *just* is the least bad option." "And why *is* that?" Spongy asked. "Why is getting rid of me the 'least bad option'?" Pin sighed yet again. "Most of the contests so far have had to do with being able to withstand physical challenges; staying on a balance beam, building a boat and sailing it, going through an obstacle course, and so on." She'd explain. "A lot of those things involve getting it done as quickly as possible, and doing so effectively; with your large weight and lack of arms, that just isn't... feasible."

"Well, what about TB?" Spongy asked. "He's big and doesn't have arms either." "Yeah, that's fair." Pin conceded. "What's *that* supposed to mean?" That clumsy Tennis Ball interjected, but he fell on deaf ears. "But he more than makes up for it with his smarts; he's been the brains behind this whole team, and has been a great help when it comes to coordinating things." "I'm pretty smart too!" Spongy replied. "Well, you haven't exactly done a great job of showing it." Pin remarked. "You were one of the ones that didn't turn in their test." "Blocky pushed me!" Spongy kept defending himself, but Pin was growing tired of it by the second. "Look. I'm sorry; you're just as important and valuable to the team as the rest of us, but *one* of us has to go." She'd then turn the Announcer. "I'm voting for Spongy." "Me too." Tennis Ball added. "This can't be real!" Spongy exclaimed. "Firey, Bubble, don't vote for me!" "Well, uh..." Bubble frowned. "Look, Spongy, I really can't help but agree with them." Firey stepped in. "I'm sure you're a great guy, and you're doing all that you can just like the rest of us, but someone *does* have to go, and out of everyone..." He'd sigh. "I gotta vote for you too."

"That's a majority." The Announcer announced. "Sorry, Spongy." The sender scoop thrower then proceeded to ready him up for flinging, and the sponge couldn't get out of the way in time; he'd be flung, but his massive weight threw everything off and caused him to fall *just* a tiny bit short. The last thing Bubble would see was the large yellow mass falling towards her before she got popped.

-

"Hey, Pin!"

Coiny just couldn't help but gloat. "How does it feel to *suck*?" Pin groaned. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, Mr. Dirt Cake." She'd fire back. "You could've just as easily been on our shoes." "Well, we weren't, were we?" Coiny chuckled. "You just got lucky." Pin remarked. "Luck can get you to a lot of places, but it'll get you nowhere good; it takes actual skill and ingenuity in order to-" "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Coiny didn't care one bit about what she had to say. "We'll see about *that*." Pin became more and more irritated the longer she had to talk to that coin creature, so she decided to just cut her losses and leave.

A little while later, Tennis Ball would catch up to the thumbtack. "So, what's the plan?" He'd ask. "Shouldn't we be gathering everyone up for another meeting? Talk about how there's three teams now?" "Yeah, yeah." Pin nodded. "In a minute. I'm just..." She'd let out a deep sigh. "What's wrong?" TB asked. "You can probably guess." Pin replied. "Ah, c'mon." Tennis Ball tried his hardest to work up a smile. "It's okay if we lose every once in a while; I mean, our team is still full of heavy hitters! I'm sure it's just a fluke and it won't happen again." Pin frowned. "Maybe. She remarked. "But still... Of all the times it could've happened, it's the *one* time that it could be used against me." Tennis Ball fell silent for a little bit.

"...This isn't about *Coiny*, is it?" He'd ask; Pin seethed. "That annoying..." She'd stop herself just before she'd snap completely. "Who does he even think he is? He's been nothing but trouble from day one; he's done nothing of value, always makes things worse for everybody, and yet he thinks he *deserves* that victory!" She'd allow herself one angry stomp of the ground. Tennis Ball frowned. "Pin, calm down." He'd try to interject. "It's *obviously* nothing; we'll undo whatever he's gained today soon enough. We'll be-" "We better!" Pin interrupted. "If we lose our edge now, if we keep on losing, they'll use that as further ammunition! They'll use it as an excuse to keep doing what they're doing! We *better* recover from this!" She'd pause. "We better..." She'd contemplate things for a minute. "*I* better." She'd more confidently declare. "I'm the team leader, I'm the one that keeps things in order." She'd then look at Tennis Ball. "You go ahead and get everyone else. I need some... time." Tennis Ball nodded and quickly headed off; meanwhile, Pin would sit down and stare into the boundless blue sky.

Only one way to make sure of it.