~Experimental~ /~A TPOT AU~\

~Part 12~ Investigation Process

Basketball now has her hands tied, (I guess her feet? Eh, whatever..) She has to take care of Grassy all by herself because of Snowball's disappearance / death and had to comfort Golf Ball, even though she wouldn't consider GB a friend, at the very least, a frenemy.

Grassy isn't taking Snowball's disappearance to well, he'd had been drawing vaguely depressing stuff, especially drawing two circular shadows. Basketball knew one was Snowball, but she can't figure out who the other circle shadow is, Grassy can't explain it.

When Basketball was cleaning up the crayons Grassy left, Black Hole, Nickel, and Book approached her, all three are frightened. "You three okay?" Basketball asked them in concern. Black Hole didn't have the heart to tell her who the killer/kidnapper is, and talked to both Nickel and Book about it, despite Book's wishes.

"We...Need your help.." Black Hole said. "We have some idea on who's... Causing the disappearances around here..." "Who is it then?" Basketball asked. "We...uh...C-can't tell you.. It's for you're own good.." Black Hole responded, leaving Basketball confused but going along with it.

Basketball then noticed how hurt Book is, who's still leaning against Nickel almost weakly. She let the three into her Above Ground Factory in the hotel to help Book out and explain what happened.

"So...um.. What happened?. . ." Basketball asked, while she patches up Book's scarred cover and pages. "Our team members went through a tough battle with the killer, and...Yeah...there's no saving them, even if we tried..." Nickel explained. 

"And especially since we don't have a recovery center, and we don't know if Two recovers like Four does..." Black Hole added, his voice sounding sad from the lack of choices.

"Why don't you guys just tell me who 'the killer' is??" Basketball objected, almost done patching Book up. "It might break you, we don't want to take that risk.." Black Hole responded calmly. 

"Well, how about I go down there and collect evidence to see who the killer really is?" Basketball retorted, finishing Book's patches. "If you guys need me, I'll go to GB's factory and see what happened." 

"No! Please don't!" Book exclaimed. "It won't be that bad." Basketball responded calmly, grabbing plastic bags and sample tools. "It's a bad idea," Black Hole warned. "We don't want another causality.."

"You guys are just paranoid, I'll be fine." Basketball said, leaving the the three alone in her lab.

"She's gonna die..." Nickel muttered.

~

Tennis Ball left the factory, still cleaning his fuzz of with a small, wet towel. He went past Basketball, who's about to enter the factory. 'Shit... new victim...' TB thought, grimacing since he doesn't want to kill Basketball yet, but now he has to, just to keep his secret.

Once Basketball descended the stairs of the factory, her eyes widened upon seeing the bloodbath that is the main room of the factory, making her heart rate spike. She then noticed a large pile of brightly colored, glowing ball like blobs.

She then heard small, high-pitched groans of pain. Her eyes adjusted in the dimly lit room, seeing Naily against the wall, her left leg twisted and broken as silver blood stained her metal face and her legs.

"N-Naily?!?" Basketball called, swiftly approaching up to her, crouching down to meet her level. "Wh-what happened?!" "T-. . .Te-. . ." Naily stuttered, can't even utter one or two words, only the sounds of her heavy, shaky breathing echoed through the factory.

Naily's body then tensed up, her breathing quickened as she pointed behind Basketball.

Basketball turned, seeing a sinister silhouette of Tennis Ball. Basketball's heart raced, her body frozen. "T-. . .Tennis Ball. . .?" She spoke in a shaky, fearful voice.

TB said nothing, he just slowly walked towards Basketball. "R-run...." Naily said breathlessly to Basketball.

Basketball leaped up and ran away from TB, though she isn't fast enough. TB threw the stained knife at Basketball, ending up having the knife lodged in her back, making her deflate slightly as bright orange blood leaked from her wound. Basketball fell to the floor, dead, much to Naily's dismay.

TB walked over to Basketball's slightly deflated corpse, removing the knife from her body. "You shouldn't have come in my lab..." TB said, leaving Naily shivering.

-693 words-