Golf Ball and Tennis Ball just got a divorce.
It's a new stage in the Battle for The Power of Two, and with it comes a sudden shake-up of the current teams; everyone still standing would get sorted into four shiny new teams of six (plus or minus one rounding error), which will last... a few episodes before they end up getting dissolved. To make an actually pretty short story even shorter, GB and TB were now on different teams. To make things even worse, the clumsier one ended up with Basketball, their sworn enemy, their long-time nemesis. How unfortunate.
At first, they thought they could just... pretend that didn't happen. Their... *partnership* goes far beyond some silly, arbitrary lines drawn in the sand, after all. They were cool, level heads that didn't give in to partisan voices that shouted about this and that, wanting recreation more than exploration. In fact, this might serve to be a pretty *good* thing; with their resources now spread between teams, efforts could be made towards bringing them together, gaining additional hands (and some feet) that they couldn't have done otherwise. And once that was done, that could set the precedent, could become the role model. Maybe everyone else would *finally* realize just how silly they've been all this time, put their minor differences and petty squabbles aside, and start working together in order to create a better world regardless of what some speaker box or algebralian might have to say about it.
But reality, as it often was, would start to quickly disappoint.
They'd just barely gotten started on drafting up their new plans for this new stage when their new obligations started knocking. Their new teammates would go down the stairs to Golf Ball's Underground Factory, demanding that they do this, they do that, they do whatever it takes to make their team win. They *are* the brains of the operation, aren't they?
They don't like thinking that their lack of arms were a disadvantage, but this was one of those times where that *really* seemed to be the case. They were just two balls, two peas in a pod, and everyone else was a bunch of hungry mouths, waiting to dine. They'd kick, they'd scream, they'd mess with things they shouldn't, and they'd stop at nothing until they finally relented, until they finally caved.
And so, they did what they feared all this time; they made a compromise.
Fortunately, the *smarter* one out of them was disturbed less frequently. The sheer gap in intelligence between her and her teammates seemed to be a help here, rather than a hindrance; their allergic response towards rationality and reason made them seek guidance from literally *anyone* else, leaving her by the wayside. Quite frankly, if *that* was how they were gonna behave, she was glad. GB was free to continue working as she pleased, doing whatever it takes to weather this storm, to persevere.
Tennis Ball wasn't having that much luck, however. He and his merry band of troublemakers always wanted his thoughts on this and that, and there wasn't enough time at all to go down the stairs, let alone talk with his better half about what to do. After much deliberation, a lot of hemming and hawing, they were able to get the musical ensemble to haul a large, inconspicuous bag up to ground level. With those resources, TB got to work on making a little place of his own. Golf Ball had her underground factory, Basketball had her *above*-ground factory, and now he had his... *on* the ground factory.
And that was the way things were for a while. The days kept ticking, the episodes kept passing. The contestants, having survived so much for so long already, would make it through this obstacle just like everything else. Their numbers continued to shrink, morale continued to drop, but that was the norm. All that mattered is that they were still alive. That they survived whatever was thrown at them. It didn't matter if they died in some horrific, comical way, like getting crushed by the moon or something; by the end of the episode, they'd be walking and talking, facing another day.
