Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 6c: Power of Two

"Guess what?"

All the remaining contestants quickly rushed to see what the Announcer was gonna announce. "The eliminated contestants will be getting a chance to rejoin the Battle for Dream Island." Reception was... mixed. "*What*?" Coiny was agitated. "You're telling me it's gonna take *longer* for me to win Dream Island?" "Yeah." Match nodded. "Like, those guys already had their chance, and they, like, wasted it." The speaker box cared very little about their petty complaints, however. "There will be not one, but two eliminated contestants rejoining today, and there will be a challenge to see who it will be." He'd then turn to face the opposite direction. "Here they come now."

A giant, ominous, floating net then arrived, carrying all the eliminated contestants; it'd drop them off then promptly go back the way it came, disappearing into the unknown once more. Pen quickly rushed over to his so-called pals, smiling. "Hey, guys!" He'd exclaim. "I'm so glad you guys are back! I've got so much to talk to you about!" Blocky and the rest aren't too pleased, however. "Spongy! Hey!" Pin waved her arms. "See? It wasn't *that* bad, was it?" Spongy did nothing but groan.

"Enough talking, you two." The Announcer interrupted. "Time to see who gets to rejoin the competition." "Well?" Eraser interjected. "How *do* we get to rejoin?" "I was getting to that, sheesh." The talking speaker thing replied.

"You may have noticed that there is a basket behind each of you." The five eliminated contestants turned around and were shocked to see the aforementioned five baskets. "There is also a large basket filled with loaves of bread." They turned around ago, and the same ordeal happened. "When this hourglass runs out..." You get the point. "Whoever has the most leaves of bread in their basket re-enters the game. Go."

Of course, everyone was immediately ecstatic and jumped at the chance to break out of wherever they were being held in; except for Woody, who barely even registered that anything was happening and was reluctant to take a step forward. Blocky was the most passionate about the whole thing and did the first haul. "Blocky is ahead at four loaves." Everyone else started to get bread as well. "Snowball and Eraser are just behind him." "Woo!" Pen exclaimed. "C'mon, Eraser! You can do this!"

Tennis Ball was initially just watching the commotion going on, when he noticed a certain somebody hanging around in the background. "GB?" He'd raise an eyebrow; Golf Ball was just... sitting around. She was all on her own, sitting on a raised platform all to herself, doing not much of anything besides watching the show. He briefly considered making his way over to her; asking her how she's been, what was up with her the last time they met, all that sort of stuff. But he found himself just... incapable of doing it. All he could do was stare. Stare and be helpless.

Blocky, Eraser, and Snowball went and did their second hauls long before the other two were even halfway done with their first; they'd each have eight, four, and six loaves respectively. The cube was just about to finish his third when someone started to catch up. "Wow!" The Announcer announced. "Spongy is bringing in a dozen loaves at once; he is now in the lead." "What? That's crazy!" Pin exclaimed. She then saw the rest of her team giving her strange looks, to which she'd awkwardly chuckled. "In a good way, obviously."

Woody was about to *finally* take his first dump, when Blocky suddenly charged at him, kicked the bread out of his hands, then threw his own loaves towards his basket; all five of them would somehow manage to make it in. "Woo!" He'd exclaim. "Bonus points!" He'd then go off to grab more bread as Woody imploded in the background. As he went to get another armful, however, he'd suddenly feel some mysterious force dragging him in. "H-Huh?" Before he knew it, he'd fallen into the bread pile. And he just kept on sinking further. "W-What on *EARTH* is going here! HELP!" Nobody cared, however; it wasn't like any of them could help.

Eraser and Snowball kept on hauling bread with little to no fanfare. Woody *finally* got his first loaf on his basket, then promptly became one with the bread upon trying to get his second. "Haha." The Announcer remarked. "Woody's drowning as well." "Hey!" Leafy frowned. "Drowning isn't funny!"

Eraser and Snowball did yet another haul, much to nobody's surprise. "Spongy brings in a baker's dozen this time." The Announcer announced. "This raises him to first place."

Once again, Eraser and Snowball did their usual thing; finally, however, things would be somewhat different. As the lump of snow went to get another armful, he'd start hearing a muffled voice from within the bread. "Blocky?" Snowball tried to listen in. "What're you doing in there? Are you pulling another- GAH!" Not watching his balance whatsoever (and not knowing that was even *something* to look out for), he'd end up falling into the basket and drowning as well. Eraser would do his haul just fine, and wouldn't even notice that there were way fewer people in the running than there were at the start.

Time continued on, and the two remaining contestants kept on bringing more and more bread to their baskets; Eraser kept on making more hauls but with fewer loaves, while Spongy focused on bringing in as many as possible with each batch. The one that did nothing but destroy briefly considered just taking the loaves from everyone else, but ultimately decided that it wasn't really needed.

"Time's almost up." The Announcer announced. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Boop." "Wow!" Bubble was shocked. "That speaker box can count down from five!"

"Well, it looks like Spongy and Eraser have the highest and second-highest scores, respectively." The speaker box continued. "They will be rejoining the game." "Why's there *two* contestants rejoining the game, anyway?" Pencil asked. "One is already outrageous enough. But *two*?" "Well, if you actually took the time to actually look around instead of complaining, you would see there are only four of you in a team." The Announcer replied. "Grr!" Pencil folded her arms in anger. "The Cherries also have four; two contestants will be rejoining in order to make the teams equal again."

The giant net from before would pick up the basket and carry it off into the unknown, which nobody really cared about. "Eraser, Spongy, welcome back to the Battle for Dream Island." "Awesome!" Eraser exclaimed. "Yay." Spongy similarly shared their sentiments. "Choose which of the two teams available you would like to join: the Squishy Cherries or Another Name." "Well, I'm *definitely* not going to the Cherries." Eraser folded his arms, looking at the team in question with disgust. "I had to fight to get out of there once, and I'm not doing it again. But..." He'd then glance at Another Name, particularly at Coiny, who'd stare back at him. Eraser groaned. "Whatever, I can stomach him more; Another Name it is." He'd then walk on over to them.

"And Spongy joins the Cherries." The Announcer announced; the fat wall of cheese made his way over to them, though it was somewhat clear that he wasn't really all too happy about it. "Hey..." Pin awkwardly smiled. "No hard feelings?" "Hmph." Spongy angrily scoffed.

"Teams, take the time to welcome your new contestant." The Announcer continued. "We will be beginning our next challenge shortly."

-

"Golf Ball, what are you doing?"

GB didn't bother to turn around and look; the dull, monotone, robotic voice of the speaker box was entirely unique, anyway. She'd sigh. "Since when did *you* care?" The bossy-bot asked. "You've been avoiding your responsibilities more and more." The Announcer replied. "You have been neglecting your duties as co-host." Golf Ball grumbled. "Trust me, this *whole* thing is for the show." "Well?" The metal box asked. "What is it?" "I don't know if you've heard of this, considering..." Golf Ball considered finishing that thought, but she'd just shake her head. "But the contestants have been complaining an awful lot about this 'dying' thing; you keep putting them through all these challenges where there's a risk of getting them killed." She'd finally work up the nerve to turn and look at that soulless machine. "You ever think about toning it down a bit? I know what I said about them needing to learn and all, but there's a point where it becomes *too* much."

The speaker box remained silent, which was pretty much exactly what the bozo brain expected. "Figures." She'd scoff and turn back to whatever she was doing. "So I've been working on a recovery center that can recover them all; it's a pain to work on, but figuring this out means I don't have to work on a new one every time someone different ends up kicking the bucket." "Ooh?" The Announcer suddenly became interested. "Let me see." The speaker box tried to get a closer look, only to get met with being pushed away by Golf Ball's foot. "No." She'd flatly state. "You're already interrupting my work as is. I need my full attention on this technological marvel." "You must." The machine thingy asserted. "And what if I don't?" GB asked. "If you don't, I will cry." The speaker box replied; Golf Ball scoffed. "You don't have feelings." "And I cry acid." The dimpled one yet again turned to him. "No you don't-"

"Wah." Golf Ball barely had enough time to swerve and avoid the large drop of acid that was suddenly launched from the speaker box. It'd end up completely soaking the exposed internals of her experimental recovery center; it already didn't work then, and it *definitely* didn't work now. "Are you..." She briefly tried to stop herself from snapping. "Look at what you did!" She'd shout. "Well, I'm sorry." The Announcer continued. Golf Ball shook her head. "Apologies aren't gonna-" "I'm sorry that you're so bossy that you didn't let me have a quick peek." GB seethed. "Just... get out." "I can help, you know." The speaker box interjected. Golf Ball briefly considered it, but was quick to reject it. "You don't want my help, sure." The machine responded. "But you need it." Golf Ball blinked. "I need a lot of things." She replied. "I need a co-host that *isn't* some terrible, good-for-nothing machine that hides secrets. But you don't see me complaining about it." The Announcer remained silent for a moment. "Well, you don't see me complaining about that." Though he only had one specific way of talking, and that didn't really give off a lot of emotion, somehow it managed to make it sting *more*.

"Whatever. It's not like you actually have a choice, anyway." The speaker box then suddenly wedged himself in-between Golf Ball and her work. "Huh?" GB was... obviously not too pleased about this arrangement. "But this is *my* project!" "It's ours." The Announcer clarified. "Well, it was ours. Now it's mine." "You can't do that!" Golf Ball shouted. "You don't even know anything about it; it's *my* project!" "Irrelevant." The unusual talking rectangle interrupted. "I can easily scan it and pick up where you left off." "It's still *my* project!" Golf Ball continued on her tirade. "I can get it done quicker, and *better*, than you can. I have all the-" "Shush. Sheesh." The robot interrupted yet again. "You have done far too much talking for one day; get back to hosting, as you should be doing."

"I..." Golf Ball *heavily* considered continuing her complaints, but she knew full well that it just wasn't going anywhere. "But... *You're* the one hosting." "So are you." The Announcer replied. "That's what you agreed to, isn't it?" "I..." GB sighed; she wasn't one to back down, to give up, but... It's not like anyone would know, right? Anyone important, anyway.

Golf Ball finally turned away and headed off; just as she was about to disappear entirely, she'd take one last look at the speaker box, already hard at work doing... whatever it was speaker boxes do. Taxes, maybe? Golf Ball remained fixed like that for a moment, mulling over something, then sighed and went to leave.

The work will pay off eventually.