Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 6b

Firey and Tennis Ball spent the rest of the day planning.

The plan was simple at first: TB could very easily carry the weight of the Announcer (though he'd need a bit of help in strapping the bag onto him), so he was to do exactly that and head back to wherever he came from during the night, evading the prying eyes of whoever might be looking. Then he and Golf Ball would work together on rebuilding the thing, and... they'd figure it out from there. Simple stuff, no fuss.

But, like most plans put into motion, there was gonna be at least one snag that was gonna pretty much ruin things. The flame, having had nobody but himself to keep him company for quite a few days now, wasn't all too comfortable with the idea that he was gonna have to be all alone once again. It was nice to finally have someone to talk to, even if it was about things that he ultimately had not a single clue about. There's also the fact that there were *clearly* things going on, and he didn't really like being the one to be left behind in all that.

As the fuzzball got prepared for the long journey ahead of him, the fire would be constantly interjecting, begging him to please, please, *please* let him come along, let him provide additional help. After all, he's the only one of the three that had... you know. Tennis Ball would be stern, however, and refuse him every single time; he knew very well what was gonna happen between him and GB once they arrived, and considering how everyone's patience was already so thin, he'd rather not deal with all that.

But given that Firey was his sole illuminating light throughout the night, remaining close by as he figured out the best way to pack things without causing some inadvertent issues, he'd have every chance in the world to persuade him to think otherwise. Given who he was raised by, Tennis Ball should've been easily able to shrug it off. But given the circumstances...

Trying to bring the flame along brought all sorts of obvious problems. Go during the night, and it'll be *painfully* obvious where they were for miles around; go during the day, and it was pretty much the same situation. Grumbling and muttering to himself, he decided that making the journey at daytime would be the best course of action; envisioning how a set of eyes up above would see them down at the surface, he reckoned that they could *somewhat* hide in the bright light, or whatever. TB was in that vague general color that allowed him to blend in with the grass, and Firey wouldn't stand out from the omnipresent sunlight. They'd go in the morning, find somewhere to hide at night, and eventually make it back to base... *hopefully* in one piece.

Obviously, if they wanted to get there ASAP, they had to be well-rested; all that energy had to be stored up in order for them to stay awake and alert, to be able to respond to any threats as soon as they arrived. Firey, though known to be jumpy, would be *very* excited to do something with someone once more, and so would bring himself to doze off as much as he didn't feel like it.

But, as many people probably know, *wanting* to go to sleep isn't exactly the same as actually doing it.

An hour or two (hard to tell without a clock or watch or something) had passed, and the flame was still wide awake. He decided to check up on Tennis Ball, wanting to see if he had managed despite the uncomfortable circumstances; looking out into the cramped corners of his shelter, however, he'd find no sign of the ball. He'd quickly move to go outside, but all that talk about future plans and whatnot had made him worried, made him afraid. It felt like *anything* could've happened in the intervening time, perhaps caused TB to disappear...

But he'd eventually build up the courage to exit the shelter; if there *was* something to be afraid of, it was likely expecting him to be cowering in fear. Much to his relief he'd find TB, sitting on the grass and *definitely* still awake.

"Hey, uh... TB?" Firey weakly asked, nervously looking around. The fuzzball in question looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" The sphere asked. "Shouldn't *you*?" The fire asked back. The clumsy one sighed. "Yeah, I was getting to it." He'd reply. "Couldn't get to it, though; decided to climb up to clear my head." The flame nodded. "Okay." He'd respond. "Just, uh... come back down when you're gonna sleep, okay? You know, gotta stay hidden and all." "Of course." With the sport globule's curt reply, that should've been it.