Kratogenesis

It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over (XV)

After consulting Pen and Eraser, Blocky went back to Loser. "Hey, dork!" Blocky snickered. "Remember when I said I was sorry?"

"Yeah, I do. I hypnotized you to make you say that." Loser looked back at Blocky. He'd had no reason to doubt the effectiveness of his power so far...

"It was all an act! " Blocky lifted him again, showing off his sharp teeth in the process.

As Blocky did that, Pen and Eraser moved forward, with the intention of dealing with the cubic pest once and for all.

However, Loser saw the two approaching him and quickly dealt with Pen, hypnotizing him. It worked: Pen melted into a puddle of ink, but he still had to deal with Eraser. "Eraser!" He put his hands in the air, announcing an apparent surrender. "I'm sorry."

Eraser looked at him. That's where Loser was about to strike: he lit his eyes and proceeded to hypnotize him. It worked! Eraser stopped advancing... But then he continued.

Loser gasped. "Wait! How did you..."

"Don't you get it? Erasers don't have brains!" Eraser made sure to get his point across by putting emphasis on every single word.

Blocky lifted Loser in the air, allowing Eraser to push him away like a volleyball.

The sound of Eraser's hand smacking Loser's cubic body was followed by a piercing sound of glass shattering. Loser stood up, stunned by what had just happened. "My precious stained glass! No!" He looked at the splinters of glass, then got back out, chuckling. "Blocky, Eraser. I still have my pawns! Don't think this is over–"

Just as Loser was in the middle of his supposedly intimidating battle cry, the door opened. It was Clock. "Pawns? Are you sure about that?" He simpered. Clock went through the opening, followed by everyone else in the team. Tennis Ball noticed that Basketball was there, too. The door closed.

"What's the matter, Clock? Make it snappy. I gotta whoop some butts here."

"Remember when I asked you to make me fall asleep? I heard what you said right after that!"

"You must have misheard, then!" Loser dismissed Clock's revelation as just the result of a misunderstanding.

"Golf Ball's bugs prove it." Clock then took out some speakers and put on the incriminating sentence.

By the time it was over, Loser's self-confidence took a hard blow, as he found out that neither he nor anyone else in the team ever bothered to remove the bugs in the house. He was sweating, as everyone under his control snapped out of it.

"It seemed appropriate that I would let everyone in the team know, including Basketball." Clock looked like he was pointing out the obvious.

Loser sat on the floor, as his legs were beginning to feel like noodles. "Oh no..."

"How could you do that, Loser?!" Pin was disgusted by Loser's behavior.

"I thought I could trust you!" Cake, who had thought of himself as Loser's most loyal follower, started crying. "When I was struggling with my mental health, you came in my life like a harbor during a storm... But now? It's like the harbor never existed in the first place!" Cake went toward Tennis Ball and continued sobbing on him.

Tennis Ball stroked Cake's frosting, trying the best he could to console him. "There, there."

"I thought you could protect me from the outside dangers, but it looks like you had to mess that up!" Eggy was offended, just like Pin.

"No, wait! I can explain!" Loser put his hands in the air, this time for real. "Everything in my bedroom was donated to me! I didn't spend anything!" He was grinning nervously.

Needle took out some papers. "I helped Clock index every transaction you made in the last thirty days."

If Loser wasn't toast before, he was done for at that moment. "Darn it. I knew I should have thrown the receipts away." He tried to hypnotize Needle, but it didn't work, as he didn't have enough self-confidence to do that. He then stood up and stumbled his way towards Needle. Just as he was close to grabbing the papers to destroy them, his legs felt weak again, making him fall to the ground. The guilt had finally caught him. He had flashbacks about his team life, and whimpered as he realized that he couldn't live such moments anymore.

"Independence, perseverance, and dignity. That was our motto, what you stood for." Cake had managed to hold his tears back for a moment. "That's what you hammered us. But now, I can see that you represent none of those things!" He looked at Loser, trying not to erupt in a crying session again.

Loser dragged up to Cake and held on tight to his ankle. "Cake... Please..."

"I'm sorry, Loser." Cake sighed. "But after what you've done, you're dead to me." He freed himself from Loser's grasp and walked back to Tennis Ball.

Loser, who hadn't tried to apply any resistance to Cake's moves, lay on the floor. After a long moment of silence, he understood that they were right.

"So, Loser..." Basketball looked at Golf Ball. "...Was a con artist the whole time?!"

Pen turned back to his normal shape, feeling somewhat groggy. "Wha? What happened?"

"Oh, nothing. Just Loser watching his reputation go down the drain." Blocky chuckled.

"As of this moment..." Cake sighed, trying to keep his tears back for longer. "The Losers are no more."

"Hey, you can't..." Loser lifted his arms from the ground, as if to stop Cake from dissolving the team, but after a few brief seconds, he gave up, slamming his arms back on the ground. "Nevermind."

Pin took out her personal diary and drew a blanket. When she was done, the blanket appeared in real life and covered Loser.

Golf Ball looked at everyone who was standing. "So... You guys in the mood for some sweet sugary goodness?"

"Oh yeah!" Eraser popped in. "My team was having scones for breakfast. I'll ask Yellow Face if there are any scones left."

Eraser went back to his team house. After consulting Yellow Face, he ran back, smiling. "There's a bunch left for all of us!"

Everyone sat by Free Food's long table and watched as Yellow Face, Stapy and Foldy placed some baskets full of scones. Not much time had passed before everyone munched on the scones.