Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDI 8a: Cycle of Misery

"Alright, you guys; gather around."

Golf Ball's voice was something the contestants hadn't heard in a good while, but it was just as annoying to them as it was the last time it unfortunately graced their ears. Regardless of what they thought, however, a host's order was one to be followed.

"GB!" Tennis Ball was more excited about it than most. "Been a while, huh?" "Again, it hasn't been *that* long." Golf Ball dismissed him. "What have you been up to?" The big clumsy one continued asking questions. "Just more of the same." The smaller dimpled one answered briefly. "Anyways, you guys know the whole gist; you don't wanna be annoyed by me any longer, and to be perfectly honest, I feel the same way. So let's just get to it." She'd then pass a little bag over to TB. "Here." She'd mutter as if it was just the most natural thing in the world. "Huh?" Tennis Ball stared at the bag, shaking it around to start guessing about what could be inside. "What *is* this?" He'd ask. "You know." Golf Ball remarked. "Your prizes for winning." Tennis Ball nodded and turned to the other Cherries. "Prizes, guys!" "Ooh!" Firey was excited. "A reward? I love rewards!" "Let me see that." Pin quickly went over to do just that; she'd immediately open up the bag and fish one of the things out, only to be puzzled by what she saw. It was a strange little cylinder, one with strange markings etched all throughout, and a smaller point that ruined its perfect shape. "Huh?" She'd raise an eyebrow. "What's this?" "Oh, I know that!" Tennis Ball raised his foot. "That's a battery; that can be used to power all sorts of things!" "Loike what?" Bubble asked. "You guys should come over to the Factory one of these days." Tennis Ball continued. "I could show you all sorts of-"

"TB!" Golf Ball shouted. "Don't you *dare*; if I even so much as get a *hint* that you let anyone else inside..." She'd sigh and shake her head. "Whatever. Moving on; Another Name, it's time for Cake at Stake. Just... go."

-

The four Another Namers clearly weren't all too happy to be there.

Golf Ball yawned. "You guys already look like you're down a member, so I suppose you guys know what's up." She'd remark. "That is, if you guys are smart enough to remember." "Hey!" Eraser interjected. "What's *that* supposed to mean?" Golf Ball turned to him, weakly smiling. "I dunno." She'd quip. "What do *you* think? That is, if you can even do that." "Grr!" The eraser would be quick to get up and start charging towards her, only to suddenly end up frozen the moment he took his first step; before anyone could blink, he'd quickly be dragged by some mysterious force back to his seat, unable to move even an inch off it. "Yikes!" Pencil shouted. "I do *not* wanna be here anymore, you guys can just-" She'd try to get away as well, only for much the same to occur. "What is *happening*?" Coiny asked. "YEAH!" Flower shouted. "You better explain what's going on, you bossy-bot, or I'll *CRUSH* you!" "Just a little modification I made in my spare time." Golf Ball was generous enough to answer. "Relax; it only activates when you guys panic too much. You'll automatically be allowed to go once Cake at Stake is over. Speaking of which..."

She'd turn to the cake that had mysteriously appeared while everyone wasn't looking. "The cake this time is another one of my own creation; I took some notes from all of your... reactions." She'd blink. "Hopefully you'll be more receptive to it this time." Eraser scoffed. "If it's something *you* made, it's automatically-" He'd then wince with no sensible explanation. "Right." Golf Ball shook her head. "Just get to voting; I'm sure you're all *just* as enthusiastic to get it over with as I am."

"Well, you know who I'm voting for." Coiny remarked. "Yourself?" Golf Ball joked; her rare attempt at humor would fall on deaf ears. "Pencil's the whole reason we lost; if she just stopped whining about this whole 'team leader' nonsense and just let me do my thing, we could've gotten it done *instantly*!" Pencil scoffed, folding her arms. "As if. I was nice enough to let you go on your own afterwards, and we *still* ended up losing." "Only because you delayed us so much!" Coiny groaned. "This dumb conflict is coming to an end now; you're almost as much of a dumb jerk as Firey, so I'm voting for you!" Pencil grumbled. "I'm voting for *you*." She'd reply. "If that's the game you wanna play, then so be it." "Hah!" Coiny shouted. "Not if I have anything to say about it; I use my Win Token!"

Awkward silence.

"...You don't have a Win Token." Golf Ball replied. "*What*?" Coiny shouted. "Why does everyone keep saying that I don't have one?" "...Because you don't." The diminutive dictator replied. "Yeah." Pencil nodded in agreement. "I don't think I've ever seen you get a Win Token in my entire life." "Uh, that's because you were too busy making us lose when it happened!" Coiny shouted. "I won it all the way back in the second episode!" Golf Ball raised an eyebrow, and Pencil did the same. "That was, like, a million years ago; you could pretty much say that *anything* happened then. You could say that you were actually smart back in the day, and you'd also have no way to prove it." "GRR!" Coiny shouted. "Whatever, you're derailing this conversation, just like everything else; I *have* a Win Token! I have it right here!" He'd take out the green token in question and wave it around. "That's an impressive counterfeit." Golf Ball remarked. "But I'm not fooled." "Are you *KIDDING* me?" Coiny shouted. "How would I even try to count... counter... count-"

Golf Ball sighed and turned to the two people that hadn't voted yet. "C'mon, you guys." She'd say to them. "I'm sure you don't wanna hear any more of this." Eraser scoffed. "You know what?" He'd begin. "Just because you said it, I'm gonna *not* vote, just so you have to-" Once again, he'd wince. "Alright. Alright." He'd groan. "First off, Coiny, you *still* haven't made up for that whole thing back at the balance beam." "That was, like, a million years ago!" Coiny shouted back. "I'm surprised you could even remember that *that* happened!" "So you'll be voting for Coiny, then?" Pencil remarked. "*Finally*. I've been waiting for so long for him to get his-" "Nah." Eraser interrupted. "I don't really like him, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really like *you*, either. You and your gossiping friend have been a pain for as long as I can remember." Pencil scoffed. "Funny, that." She'd remarked. "I could say the same about you." "Whatever." Eraser rolled his eyes. "You guys are both pretty annoying, but somehow, *Flower* manages to be the most annoying of all. The number of times I've heard her talk about herself, or force someone to call her beautiful, or tried to get me to beat someone up for not doing that, is insane! She *has* to go." "WHAT?" Flower shouted. "Well, I'm voting for *YOU* too!"

"Alright, that's everyone." Golf Ball interrupted. "We've gotten all four votes, and we have a four-way tie; that's... interesting." She'd then fall silent for a moment to recall a thing or two. "The previous Cake at Stake had a three-way tie, and the one before *that*; the odds of all of that happening in a row are... unlikely, to say the least." She'd pause for a moment to breathe. "And if one of the other two teams ends up losing on the next challenge, we could have the possibility of continuing it with a *five-way* tie, now that'd be something-" Eraser groaned. "Boring! I don't care about what you think is interesting!" "And I don't care about what *you* think. If that's even possible." Eraser obviously took offense to that, but the small ball rolled on past that. "Anyway, here are your ties." She'd kick the ties (which were just... there, don't question it) over to each of them. "You know the drill; go."

Coiny, Eraser, and Pencil were easily able to break their ties, but Flower... just couldn't quite do it. "HUH?" She'd be absolutely bewildered; she *swears* she's trying her absolute hardest to split it in twain, but the thing just kept on stretching and expanding and not even the slightest, smallest tear would appear. Upon seeing her struggle, Eraser would explode into laughter. "*That's* how strong you are?" He'd struggle to speak up while laughing so much. "No wonder you wanted me to beat people up so badly!" Pencil couldn't help but chuckle as well. "The one and only Flower can't even rip a tie?" She'd remark. "That's *definitely* something people wanna hear." "You don't understand!" Flower shouted. "Something's off about this tie; look!" She'd try and throw it to someone else, but no one would catch it. "If you're trying to give it to someone else, that mean's you've failed." Golf Ball replied. "And you know what that means."

"GRR!" Flower shouted. "I demand another tiebreaker!" "No." Golf Ball flatly rejected. "I think that last one made things clear enough." "If you try and eliminate me, I'll *CRUSH* you with my Announcer Crusher!" Flower continued. "It was meant for that speaker thing, but you look like you're even *more* fragile!" "Oh?" Golf Ball looked up. "That's what this is? Funny; when I first saw it, I thought it was so poorly designed and constructed that I couldn't see it as anything but a terrible decoration." The flower had just about had it; with a single push of a button, the Crusher would start descending upon the little ball. Despite the very obvious looming threat of death, however, she wouldn't even blink. All she'd do was lightly tap her foot, and... the Crusher would immediately stop. "H-Huh?" Flower was bewildered; before she could react any further, the Sender Scoop Thrower was already in motion, and the last thing anyone would hear of her was her screaming as she made her way to the TLC.

-

Golf Ball would find the Announcer talking to a newly-recovered Rocky.

She wouldn't be able to hear much of it, but whatever it was probably wasn't anything important, as Rocky didn't seem to care one bit and vomited on the machine not long after she entered the scene. After the speaker box took a moment to wipe the vomit off him (through a process that is too niche to actually be described), he'd make his way over to his co-host. "Well, how was it?" Golf Ball sighed. "I did everything you told me to." She'd state. "I built you your big room, that detector, *and* I even hosted Cake at Stake. I'm tired, I'm exhausted, and all I wanna do *now* is continue work on my recovery centers." "Uh, yeah." The Announcer replied. "I don't think we will be needing your work on that any more, just like I said." Golf Ball blinked. "Yeah, I *did* see you recovered Rocky." She'd reply. "That's neat and all, but recovery centers that can deal with one contestant are easy enough at this point-" "No." The Announcer interrupted. "I saw your plans for a recovery center that can recover anyone, made my own modifications, and have made good progress on it." He'd turn to the big metal box that made all the magic happen. "It should be fully ready and usable over the next few days."

Golf Ball blinked. "I..." "What?" The speaker box turned to her again. "Are you not thankful? I did your job, that would have likely made you spend countless hours of your time." GB grumbled. "I don't care about any of that." She'd reply. "That's not what concerns me when it comes to this; I do stuff like this because-" "Well, I care." The Announcer interrupted. "Hosting this competition is tricky, even for two people; we need to be as efficient as possible, or else it will all fall apart faster than we can realize." He'd pause for a moment to think. "Speaking of which, I was thinking we could have you host even more of the Battle. What do you think?"

Golf Ball was getting nowhere with this.