Basketball carefully slid a powerless Remote off of her head and onto a wooden table. On the ground nearby was a toolbox filled with various hardware tools, the same ones she had used to fix up Robot Flower after the lavapocalypse. "Ok, Remote," she muttered, setting the batteries on the ground. "Let's see if I can't fix you up."

She bent down and began to rummage around in her toolbox, looking for a screwdriver. While she did that, Grassy ambled over to her. He opened his mouth to greet his friend, but got distracted by the lifeless Remote lying on the table.

He gingerly tapped the mechanical mind's arm before noticing the two batteries on the ground. An idea sparked in his head and he picked up the power cells. He then climbed on the table, and after a second of figuring out which way was which, inserted them into Remote's casing.

Remote jumped off the table, startling Basketball. She whirled around, amazed that the robot was back on her feet. "What?"

"Grassy has helped!" Grassy explained cheerfully. Basketball started again, not having noticed him at first.

Remote took one look at Basketball and growled. "Tu n'auras plus le dessus sur moi, femme!" Without warning, she bolted.

BB turned to Grassy. "Grassy! Did you put her batteries back in?"

"Yeah! She looked dead, so Grassy recovered her!"

Looking at the young one's smile, she couldn't stay mad for long. She just sighed instead. "Right. Well, now I've got to catch her and fix her."

--------------------

8-Ball crossed a line through the last item on the list before double-checking it. "Well, guys, I think that's everything for the equipment we need. Do the blueprints look good?"

"I thought you said the blueprints were finished," Puffball complained.

"You can never be too sure. Pie and her... clones have already gone off with the posters I made, and Pen and Liy are retrieving the competing contestants... so I think we're set."

PB did a twirl in the air. "Wooo! TV, now's your time to shine. You ready, bud?"

The screen nodded. "I believe so. The blueprints are in my memory, so... here we go." He paused. "You may want to stand back."

Puffball and 8-Ball flew and rolled back. TV turned away from them, making sure there was sufficient space on the dead grass in front of him, and began to concentrate. The blueprints appeared on his screen, and mentally, he constructed in his mind how it should look in real life.

Slowly, but surely, a massive structure began to take shape in front of him.

--------------------

Catching Remote was easier said than done.

Remote was faster than she looked, and much more paranoid than usual. Any time Basketball and Grassy got within a hundred feet, she would sprint away again, leading to an endless game of back-and-forth. Even other objects who were good at running that Basketball asked for help, like Needle and Firey, couldn't quite match her speed.

Basketball finally flumped to the ground, panting heavily. Grassy climbed on top of her head. "Alright," she said between breaths. "This clearly isn't working. I don't know how we're supposed to catch her. Any ideas, Grassy?"

"Hmm..." Grassy put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Set a... trap?" he asked uncertainly. "But a friendly one! So she doesn't get hurt!"

"No, she doesn't trust anything right now. She wouldn't fall for any bait we set..." She suddenly sat back up, causing Grassy to slide off. "...but maybe we can ask for assistance from someone she trusts." Quickly, she ran the names of Remote's teammates through her mind. "Pen, Liy, and Pie are busy with something right now, I think. She wouldn't trust Tree after earlier, Bottle's too ditzy, and who knows what goes on inside Pillow's head. So that leaves-"

"Black Hole!" Grassy finished for her.

"I guess he's the only other Death Pacter left."

"No, Black Hole!" Grassy tapped her side to get her attention and pointed across the plains.

The one and only sentient cosmic entity himself was floating towards them, Remote somehow trapped in his accretion disk. "...oh."

"Quelle sorcellerie est-ce ??" Remote complained, struggling but failing to escape the gravity.

Black Hole stopped next to them. "Tree mentioned to me that Remote was acting weird. When she came near me, I snatched her up cause she looked like she wasn't back to normal yet. Weren't you the one working on her?"

"I was, and I was just about to come to you for help," Basketball explained. "This will save a lot of time. Thank you!"

"Anytime."

--------------------

Setting the toothbrush down, Basketball very carefully reconnected the last circuitboard to the rest of Remote's body. "That should be the last of the juice damage expunged, hopefully. If not, the only other solution I see is to..." She glanced guiltily at Black Hole, who hovered behind her. "...kill and recover her."

"Still not a fan of that option, but at least you've tried your best here."

Basketball gently clicked the batteries back in place, then replaced the cover as well and stood back. "Remote?" she said uncertainly.

The mechanical mind twitched, then slid off the table. She sat back up slowly, looking around with a confused expression on her face. "...what happened?"

Black Hole and Basketball simultaneously exhaled a sigh of relief. Grassy, however, immediately said, "You threw Rocky out of a window last night!"

"I what!?"

Golf Ball paced around the factory floor impatiently. "Come on, Pillow. Where are you?"

"Be more patient, GB," Tennis Ball scolded. "It's only been five minutes since you sent that signal to TV, asking him to retrieve Pillow."

"I know, but... I'm just so curious about how the flow of time really works. I need-" She stopped as they both heard the sound of footsteps descending the factory's staircase. "Aha! That must be them!"

Excited, she extended her legs up to the top of the stairwell, just in time to see TV walking downwards. "Hello, TV!" she greeted enthusiastically. But a moment's inspection revealed that a certain feather-filled friend was missing. "...where's Pillow?"

"She told me to give you this note." He handed a slip of paper to the scientist, who took it in her mouth (since her feet were several dozen feet below) and descended back to the factory floor, where she spat out the note. She began to read out loud eagerly.

"Dear Golf Ball. You want to know more about my ability to tell the future. Obviously, I can look ahead and know what you're going to ask ahead of time, so I've answered all you need to know in this note here. First of all, I can't see further than a few hours into the future, but nearly everything in between is as clear as day to me, if I wished to see it. When I looked forwards to our conversation before I wrote this note, I saw me telling you most of this information face-to-face. However, when I made the decision to save time and write this note instead of talking directly, the scene changed to you and Tennis Ball reading this note instead. That is all. - Pillow"

Both globules were silent for several moments, allowing TV to reach the floor before one of them spoke again. "Whew. That's a lot of information to take in," TB commented.

"T... Tennis Ball... do you know what this means?" GB got a joyful gleam in her eye. "Pillow has proved that time isn't rigid. The future actually depends on what choices we make, rather than our choices being pre-determined and unmovable. Our actions actually matter! Haha!"

As Golf Ball danced around with glee, Tennis Ball leaned in close to TV. "Golf Ball's always been worried about whether our choices in life actually mean something, or if everything is pre-determined," he explained quietly. "But she's never actually been able to prove or disprove either option until now. Next time you see Pillow, tell her thank you."

"She knew you would say that and told me to say 'you're welcome.'"

Tennis Ball laughed. "Right. Anyways, besides Pillow, you're the last object on our list who's powers we know about. But we know very little. Can you generate an item for us as a demonstration?"

"Wait, there's more on here," GB said, celebration already mostly over. She flipped the paper around. "P.S; TV can't generate anything right now, as his ability still needs to recharge after generating a massive arena a few minutes ago."

Both orbs turned to TV. "...what arena?"