Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 6a

Tennis Ball couldn't bring himself to look away from the screen.

If there's one thing he has learned is certain about the universe, one thing that can be confirmed with 100% accuracy to be true and accurate beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's that it *loves* to pull tricks on people. It'll sneak in a joke on your life when you least expect it, even if you've been waiting for it this entire time.

He's seen it in action so many times before. Plenty of experiments have ended with him and Golf Ball concluding that everything's gonna be just fine, then they look away for just a second, then it all collapses and bursts into flames in an instant. Plenty of times they think that nothing will be coming to bother them, that they can proceed with whatever they had in mind without being disturbed or taken out of their focus, only for a commotion to start as soon as they're ready to get started. Plenty of times they've waited for an expected result, the end goal of a process they've followed to the letter, and absolutely nothing happening instead, only for the reaction in question to show up once they start calling it quits.

Plenty of times did he think he could finally be happy, only to have that smile ripped away from his face.

The first time that happened, Tennis Ball was more than willing to consider it as just a fluke; statistical abnormalities will *inevitably* occur given a long enough time, perhaps even on your first attempt at something, and so you just have to account for that when doing your work. But then it happened again, then for a third time, then a few more, then hundreds more. At some point, the fuzzball would have to start wondering if it wasn't just cosmic coincidence, or his chronic clumsiness, but something that was just written into fate, embedded in the firmament itself. He's asked Golf Ball to look into it several times, *not* suggesting that the laws of the world have been rewritten or something, but there's *something* going on in their local area that's messing with their observations. Each and every time, the bossy-bot dismissed his concerns, stating that most of their other experiments work just fine, and that a certain degree of failure was to be expected in their work. Then they'd perhaps argue a bit more over where their priorities truly were, what their focus should be, but ultimately the smaller ball gains the larger victory.

TB finally gathered up the courage to get up and walk away; he'd only manage to do two steps before instinct quickly took over again and got him to look back. He set up the DDS so that it was lying on the wall, so that he could still see it from here. From his view, he could see that Teardrop was doing *just* fine, just as she'd been doing for the past 2,763 seconds. He looked away, then looked back again, then did that same routine a few dozen times. He *swears* that it's coming. It's bound to happen. Fortune hasn't been *this* kind to him, and why should that change now?

One final look, then he quickly dashed out of there.

-

Golf Ball was once again taking inventory.

The thoughts of Firey and his speaker box were still prevalent in her mind. She was always thinking of the best ways to coax him out of that hole, to get him over here, to have him serve her interests. But the living flame was both living and a flame, and she was just... herself; she recognized her limitations, as much as she hated them. And so, instead of fretting more about the futility of the task ahead of her, she distracted herself with something that *might* be of more value. More research into this enigmatic 'military' might serve them well. They, whoever they may be, have already provided quite a few useful items and tools to help her stay sane. Quite a few things utilized technology that was beyond even her; perhaps they were science-oriented folk, just like she was? It'd somewhat make sense; they were shunned, heavily focused on defending themselves, were hidden in underground facilities... They were a lot like her.