The moment the word begin left Puffball's mouth, the seven competitors of the Mind Games jumped into action.

Match was the first to strike, turning to her left and blasting fire towards Leafy at a speed which would have impressed even Four, had he been there to witness it. Fortunately for Leafy, she barely managed to soar away in time, using the air under her to propel her straight upwards. Match's flames continued past her and nearly hit Donut, who had to dive out of the way.

Gelatin lifted a large chunk of metal into the air and began to sprint across the arena, pulling the metal behind him. Barf Bag raised her hands, simultaneously raising a wave of water to envelop Gelatin, but he wove his metal in front of him like a shield and brute forced his way through.

While Marker encased himself in a stone suit and went for Match, the first thing Woody did was retreat behind a tree and expand its width so that it actually covered him. Carefully climbing to the top, he peeped out of the golden leaves and waited for an opportunity. He was scared, sure. He usually was. But his teammates had encouraged him to compete in the Mind Games, as a way to possibly help boost his confidence, and hell if he was gonna let them down.

"Looks like we're off to a grEIGHT start!" Saw cheered from her stand. "There's already so much going on..."

The deafening noise of the crowd's various cheers, hoots, and whistles barraged Woody as he surveyed the rest of the arena. On the edges of their respective sections, Marker and Match seemed to be equally matched (hah) - Match's fireballs weren't doing anything against Marker's stone armor, but she was faster than he was and dodging all of his hits. Barf Bag had finally caused Gelatin to wipe out with her wave, and Donut was advancing on both of them, using his telekinesis to bring a two floating plastic boxes with him.

But... where was Leafy?

Woody suddenly felt that prickling on the back of his "neck" that meant he was being watched. He leapt out of his tree just in time to avoid being violently blown out of it by an unusually strong gust of wind. Thankfully, he managed not to fall flat on his face.

"Ooo, looks like Leafy almost managed a sneak attack on Woody down there!" Puffball noted.

From above and behind him, Leafy smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Woody! But I won't hurt you. I'll just try to tire you out!" She sent another gust of wind at Woody and he scrambled out of the way. She floated after him.

In Barf Bag's section, Gelatin broke the surface of the water and spluttered, "Man! I'm all soggy again!"

Barfy shrugged. "Sorry."

She then proceeded to wrap him up in a giant watery fist. "Nice water formations from Barf Bag," 8-Ball commented monotonously.

Gelatin struggled for a second, before remembering his metal chunk and lobbing it at Barf Bag. She tried to block it with some ice, but it broke right through and she was forced to dodge out of the way. Her concentration loosened and Gelatin freed himself, rapidly trying to swim back to his metal-filled section.

There he found Donut waiting for him with two plastic boxes in tow. He threw one at Jelly, who sidestepped it and countered with sending a sheet of iron flying at the pastry. Donut deflected it with his other box, giving Gelatin enough time to mentally lift up several more shards of metal from the ground. Donut glanced at them and gulped. "Oh, boy."

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

Nearby, Leafy's strategy was working. Woody hadn't been hurt in the slightest, but he was starting to get fatigued from running in circles and sometimes managing to block her blows of air with overgrown grass or bushes. Her having the high "ground" put him at a serious disadvantage.

Ground... Woody skidded to a halt. The solution was so simple, he was surprised he hadn't thought of it earlier. Finally turning to face Leafy as she prepared another sphere of spinning air to lob at him, he willed a vine to shoot up from the ground and grab Leafy.

A vine did just that and rapidly wrapped itself around her right leg, effectively attaching her to the ground. The unexpected tether threw off her aim completely and her shot went wild. That gave Woody the time to grow two more vines off the ground and take control of her hands. She struggled, and he faltered, but continued after a second, tightening the vines around her so that she was constricted but not hurt.

Woody stepped back and waited. After a moment, it was clear that Leafy wouldn't be able to free herself anytime soon. "Yes!!" he cheered, pumping his fist in the air.

8-Ball noticed. "Huh! An impressive move from Woody. He's managed to completely ground and immobilize Leafy."

But the celebration was short-lived. There was a movement in the corner of Woody's eye, and a decent-sized rock sailed past his face, missing him by inches. Another glimpse to his right revealed Marker advancing on him, hands wrapped in stone gauntlets. Behind him, there was a small tower of stone, inside of which Woody could only guess to be Match, covered head to toe in rock.

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

Over on the other side of the arena, Donut was desperately defending himself against Gelatin. The latter now had a ring of metal scraps speedily spinning around him, while simultaneously propelling more and more at the former. Donut could barely block each shard in time, nearly getting decapitated more than once. "Careful, Donut!" Puffball spoke into her microphone, almost tauntingly. "It doesn't look like that plastic block of yours can take many more hits!"

With a jolt, he realized she was right. Several chunks of his plastic block was missing and he realized he probably wouldn't be in the competition for much longer.

But before Donut could give that much thought, a watery lasso whipped out from behind Gelatin and looped around the jello, tightening instantly. Surprised, Gelatin let his magnetic accretion disc drop. "What- hey!"

Donut took the opportunity to telekinetically shove what remained of his plastic at his opponent. At the last second, Gelatin saw it coming and ducked. The block sailed over his head and slammed into Barf Bag instead, pushing her back into the water that she had just emerged from. Her lasso around Gelatin dissolved.

"Oh gosh," he stammered, stepping to the side to look behind Gelatin. "S-sorry, Barfy! Are you alright?"

Barf Bag clambered back onto the shore and spat out a stream of water. "Yeah, I'm fine. That was just unexpected."

Donut breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately, he wished he'd kept that breath as the rest of his air was crushed out of him without warning. Distracted by BB, he hadn't noticed Gelatin getting up again, and now a thick metal band was wrapped around his torso.

Barf Bag's eyes widened, but before she could do anything, Gelatin did the same to her, trapping her arms by her side with a strip of iron. Then, clapping his hands, Gelatin brought his two captives together. The metal bands clanged when hitting each other and stuck.

Breathing out, then chuckling, Gelatin leisurely strolled up to the trapped duo and booped them both on the nose. "Thought you could beat me, eh?~" he teased. "Well, not today, because I am the best 'metalbender' in the world!!"

"Pretty sure you're the only one in the world," Donut commented, rolling his eyes. To this, Gelatin just winked and skipped away to see who else was still fighting.

He felt a struggle behind him. "It's no use," he told Barf Bag. "I can tell we're not getting out of these bands until he lets us out."

"Oh, well." The struggling ceased. "That was still a lot of fun, though!"

"...yeah, actually. I didn't think it would be so at first, but..." Donut smiled. "That was cool. I mean, I'm now terrified of Gelatin, but still."

"That makes two of us, lol."

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

"Things are getting intense!" Saw shouted. "Barf Bag, Donut, Leafy, and Match have all been restrained, although I could see Leafy possibly breaking out of her vines soon. Gelatin is advancing on Marker and Woody, the latter of which is doing his best to survive!"

It was true. While Leafy had actively tried not to hurt Woody, Marker wasn't doing the same. Woody tried to do what he did with Leafy, wrapping vines and elongating grass blades around the art tool, but Marker's stone was too hard to keep down; he kept tearing right through everything thrown at him. Once again, Woody was growing too tired to continue for long.

Something grabbed his hand, and he was suddenly wrenched away from a boulder that definitely would have crushed him. He then felt something hard and inflexible tightly wrapping around him, rendering his arms trapped.

Gelatin stepped out from behind a tree, with more metal floating in the air behind him. "Sorry, Woodster," he apologized, "but this is my fight now." (Woody couldn't have been more relieved.) Marker, seeing his new enemy, lifted several rocks from the earth below and prepared to attack.

But before either of them had a chance to make a move, something exploded behind Marker. He whipped around to see a ring of fire billowing out from the center point of the explosion. Both contestants yelled in surprise and created walls of their respective elements to shield them from the worst of it. Poor Woody wasn't able to move away in time and was burnt to ash, as was Leafy's vine restraints (but not Leafy herself; she was still floating in the air and just out of reach).

Match emerged from the smoke of the inferno and roared with fury, exhaling a gout of flame from her throat. "Wow!" 8-Ball deadpanned. "Seems like Match isn't done just yet. And with her viney shackles being burnt away, Leafy is back in the fight too!"

Glowering at Marker, Match held out a hand towards him, spouting a powerful stream of fire from her palm. Marker's rock wall protected him, but only for as long as he stayed where he was. Gelatin peeped out from behind his own metal wall, but Match opened her other hand and blasted fire at him as well, causing him to yelp and retreat to safety again.

As for Leafy, she hovered upwards and buffeted Match with winds, but the woodsicle had strong footing. She wasn't budging. What's more, when she looked at Leafy and opened her mouth, another jet of blazing yellow flame shot at the lemon leaf, forcing her to nimbly dodge and weave through the air.

"Unbelievable!" cried Puffball. She, 8-Ball, and Saw were equally stunned. "Match is somehow managing to keep ALL THREE of her opponents at bay with an inferno of fury! I've never seen anything like this before!"

In the stands, Pillow swallowed one more peanut and held out the bag to Stapy. "Here."

"I already told you, I don't want any. Or, well, your abilities told you-"

"I know," she interrupted. "I just need you to hold them for a sec."

He decided to take the bag. "Okay..."

Back down in the arena, Gelatin was having a particularly rough time. While Leafy could dodge and Marker's stone barrier could probably withstand lava, the ferocious intensity of Match's fire was taking toll on his own wall. It was turning red-hot and beginning to melt, and the hotter it got, the harder it became to keep it in place. Gelatin wiped sweat that was both formed from heat and exertion out of his eyes.

Suddenly, he felt something loosen greatly and realized that his magnetic powers no longer applied to the 'metal' in front of him; it had melted too much. He leapt out of the way, and just in time, too - the flames tore a hole through his barrier and would have absolutely obliterated him had he still been standing there. He landed in a clump of overgrown grass next to Woody's remains, plus the metal band the balsa slab was previously restrained with.

Match, seeing him dive away, began to move her left hand and the fire that spewed from it towards where he lay. Marker used this momentary distraction to place a well-timed attack. Curling his hand into a fist, he punched it up. The ground underneath Match responded, instantly jutting out of the ground before she had time to react. The force launched her far into the sky, causing her waves of fire to suddenly cut out and also making the crowd gasp.

She reached the apex of her 'flight,' hovered comically in the air for a moment, then began to plummet towards the crowd below. Various objects shrieked and scrambled out of their seats, not wanting to be hit; while others did the same, but with the purpose of trying to catch the falling firestarter.

The only peaceful one nearby was Pillow. Calmly, she stood up and held out her arms just in time to neatly save Match. "Nice, like, snatch," Match complimented dizzily before burping out a small puff of smoke and promptly passing out.

Stapy stared at her while she gently set Match on the floor and sat back down into her seat. "I have a newfound respect for you and your powers."

Pillow smiled. "I knew you'd say that."

"Should've seen that coming..."

"I saw it coming."

"Shut."

An exclamation from Saw drew their attention back to the arena. Marker had been flinging rocks with his mind to try and swat Leafy out of the air, but she was far too nimble.

Finally, though, he tried something else. Closing his eyes to focus, Marker quickly raised his open hand upwards. A mess of dirt and stone exploded from the ground, and out came a large pillar of rock, roughly hand-shaped. Opening his eyes again, he thrust his regular hand forwards in a grabbing motion and his rocky self copied the action, neatly grabbing Leafy out of the air. "Uh oh," she said simply.

Marker yanked his hand down and plunged it into the dirt below him. With impressive speed, the larger hand did the same, slamming into the ground with an earth-shaking THUD. When the dust cleared, Leafy was lying face-down in a pile of earthy rubble, alive but knocked out cold.

A sudden silence settled upon the whole scene. Objects in the crowd looked around the arena. Was it over?

Then. Movement in the overgrown grass. Green against green. Without warning, a single metal band shot out of the clumps of plants and folded itself around Marker, startling him. The speed at which it hit him was enough to knock him over.

Gelatin emerged from the grass triumphantly and sauntered over to the purple drawing implement, who stared at him in disbelief. "What- I- I thought Match killed you!" he protested. "She melted your wall! How did you survive? And how do you still have metal?"

The lime jello put his hands on his hips and smirked. "I reused the bit that was around Woody before he lost. And as for the survival part, it's called 'dodging.' Ever heard of it?"

Marker fell dead silent.

Up in the commentator's stands, Puffball was the first to recover her wits. She floated close to her microphone, leaned in, and shouted, "LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A WINNER!!"

And the crowd went wild.





"That was INCREDIBLE!!" Naily gushed, now completely awed by Gelatin. "It looked like something out of an anime!"

"Yeah, I am pretty cool, aren't I?" Gelatin agreed.

It was about half an hour after the battle ended. Gelatin, the other fighters, and several other contestants (most notably, various members of TIC, Free Food, The Losers, BEEP, and iance) were all together in a lounge-type room built underneath one of the bleachers. Book had recovered Woody when the fight ended, and Leafy and Match woke up not long after. Loser patted Leafy on the back in sympathy once she felt better. Most of the recommended characters had drifted away to wherever they came from, but some stayed behind, hoping to get a chance to talk to one of the fighters when they emerged.

"Seriously, though," Gelatin said, turning to Barf Bag and Donut. "It was great battling against you guys. And I'm not just saying that because I won."

"We had fun too!" Barf Bag agreed enthusiastically.

Donut nodded. "I do appreciate you not actually killing me before Barfy intervened."

"Oh, I totally would have killed you," said Gelatin offhandedly. Donut shuddered.

Match and Pencil passed the members of Team Ice Cube on their way over to Marker, who was chatting with Fries and Yellow Face. They paused when the duo approached. "What do you want?" Fries asked gruffly.

"Well, I just, like, wanted to apologize for how I acted in the arena," Match started to explain. "I don't know what, like, came over me, but I never wanted to hurt you. All my showing off before I exploded was just that. So..." She extended a hand. "No hard feelings?"

"Of course not!" Marker exclaimed, quickly grabbing her hand and shaking it. "I was there for the fun, and worse sometimes happens in Four's contests, anyway, so I'm not fazed!"

Match beamed brightly. "Awesome! Now if you'll, like, excuse me, I gotta go apologize to Woody for accidentally burning him to a crisp." She and Pencil turned on their heels and walked towards BEEP, the members of which were congratulating Woody for being brave enough to have joined the fight.

The mention of Woody reminded Fries of something. He excused himself as well, then followed the two woodsicles to where BEEP was and politely waited for Match to finish apologizing before approaching the balsa slab. "Hey, Woody, well done out there," he complimented. "When I saw how you could manipulate plants like that, I got an idea."

Woody looked at him curiously, which Fries took as a sign to continue. "Do you know what my power is?" A head shake. "Well, Golf Ball and Tennis Ball discovered with me that I can amplify other objects' abilities to a pretty extreme extent. I was wondering if I could help you regrow all the dead grass and trees outside?"

"Hey, that sounds like a great idea!" Nickel piped up. "I've gotten tired of feeling only coarse, dead grass under my feet when walking around."

Balloony and Cloudy nodded agreement, and Woody looked excited at the idea. "Yah!" he cheered.

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

Another five or so minutes later, and most of the contestants (plus some various recommended characters) were gathered outside, standing in the middle of the plains that were the BFB contesting grounds. Surrounding them, for at least half a mile's radius, was a sea of gray, dead grass, with charred trees in the distance that once used to look as if they were golden.

Fries looked at Woody. "You ready? Remember, if you start to get tired, let me know, but that hopefully shouldn't happen."

Woody nodded. As Fries set a hand on his shoulder, the slab of balsa knelt down and placed both his hands on the ground. He concentrated hard, trying to fill his mind with the image of healthy grass, green and growing. Woody pushed his power into the earth.

It passed through quite easily. The grass immediately surrounding Woody and Fries had begun to grow rapidly, and within seconds, it looked brand-new, as if the lavapocalypse had never happened.

He pushed harder, imagining his energy spreading underground like a twisting system of roots. The radius of growing grass spread quicker and quicker, changing the blades underneath the nearby objects' feet from dull and lifeless to green and growing. When the outer edge reached the husks of trees in the former forest, those husks almost instantly dissolved into ash; and from those ashes, new saplings arose from their cradle of dirt in more than one shade of gold. Each of them reached adulthood in record time.

But he wasn't done yet. All his life, Woody had been terrified of anything and everything he encountered - sharp objects, bubbles, even his own shadow. His time on BEEP and victory over Gabop in episode 14 boosted his confidence somewhat, but there were still many things that scared him. Right now, though... he could sense that Fries still had lots and lots of energy left to give. He had never felt so strong and unafraid.

So Woody pushed himself to the limit. Drawing one last massive pool of energy from Fries, he forced as much power as he could handle into the earth, filling it with life. All around the field, newly-grown flowers suddenly popped out of the dirt and bloomed, bursting with color and variety; red roses, yellow poppies, purple lavenders, blue cornflowers, orange marigolds, white azaleas, and - of course - pink petalled flowers with yellow centers. And so many more.

Many of the spectating objects' mouths dropped open in wonder and amazement. Woody let his newfound connection with nature slowly wane, the flow of energy in his arms coming to a halt, before standing up. He expected to be beyond fatigued, but he felt completely fine. Fries had more energy than either of them had realized.

Speaking of Fries, his face had broken out into a massive grin. It usually took a lot to make him smile like that. "That... was amazing." He turned to Woody and raised his hand. "Great job."

"Yah!" Woody agreed, feeling a smile form on his own face and enthusiastically accepting the high-five.

There was still an air of mystery behind the powers that thirty-two of the contestants had recently required. Nobody knew why or his they got them, and the one object that could possibly tell them the answer - Lightning - was still unconscious down in Golf Ball's factory.

Despite that, though, things were looking up.













The sun had set, and mostly everyone was asleep. Only two objects still stirred, meeting each other at the edge of the rejuvenated golden forest.

Cake stopped pacing in circles the moment he spotted Loser approaching. "Oh, thank you for meeting me here, Loser. I don't know what to do!"

"Hey, calm down," Loser soothed. "You sounded pretty stressed earlier when you wanted to meet me in private, and you sound the same now. What's wrong?"

"Just look!"

Cake turned and placed his foot at the base of the nearest tree. After a second, the tree... changed. Loser wasn't sure what was different at first, but a quick comparison between it and the other trees revealed that this tree had lost a lot of its color. Loser watched in bewilderment as it shriveled and shrunk until it was nothing more than a rotted husk.

He blinked. Cake removed his foot and put it back on the ground. "I have powers like the others," he whispered, frightened, "but why? And why is it so... terrible?"

Loser slowly shook his head. "I don't know, but... I have something to show you, too."

He held out his hand, and a gust of wind blew from it, buffeting the thing that used to be a tree a minute ago. Cake gasped. "You... you have powers too? B-but how? Neither of us were in the mansion when that weird ball of energy hit it last night!"

"Well, yes, but actually... no?" Loser rubbed the back of his head. "I couldn't control air yesterday or this morning. But I discovered by accident that I could do it a bit earlier, after I'd patted Leafy on the back for being in the games. I think I inadvertently... stole them from her."

Cake gawped at him. "What?? You gotta return them!"

"I will, I will! But... I don't know how yet."

Something suddenly clicked in Loser's head. Last night, when the mansion had collapsed...

~ The yellow cuboid stepped up to the mansion and put his hand on the front door's handle when a wall of light suddenly pushed him backwards. He tumbled down the front steps and landed on his feet. "What the heck? ~

"Cake..." he started. "Last night, you touched that sphere of energy... right?"

~ A shimmering sphere of... something was surrounding the mansion. Cake went up and touched the barrier, but it blasted him backwards as well. He landed right next to Loser. ~

"Y... yeah, I did."

"I think... I think that's what gave us powers, too. Even though we weren't inside the mansion with the others when it collapsed."

They were both silent for a moment. "Hey," Loser said. He considered putting a hand on Cake's shoulder, but decided against it, given his apparent ability. "Can you do me a favor?" Cake nodded. "Don't tell anyone else about your power, alright? If they figure out you got yours by touching... whatever that energy orb was, then they'll realize I got a power too. And I don't want anyone to know just yet. I have to figure out how to return Leafy's power to her first."

Cake nodded again. "Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense."

They stood in silence for another moment. "Well," Cake said awkwardly, "I think I need to sleep now."

"Me too... good night."

"Good night. Sleep well!"

"I will."





But Loser did not sleep well.

It wasn't anything physical. His bed of recently-created grass was quite comfortable, and it was peaceful outside. Inside his mind, however, he kept recreating the scene where he used Leafy's airbending. It was only for a short moment at the time, but somehow, it was an exhilarating feeling. The feeling of power.

He wanted more.

Finally, he rose. Slowly, carefully, as to not disturb any of the other members of The Losers sleeping nearby. He tip-toed away until he was sure he wouldn't wake them, then walked normally (but still quietly) over to the nearest other contestant - Basketball. Loser reached out, then hesitated. Was he really about to willingly do this? Rob someone else's power for a taste of it?

The answer was yes.

Gently, ever-so-gently, Loser rested his hand on Baskie's shoulder. The sports globule didn't stir, and Loser breathed a silent sigh of relief. He then closed his eyes and concentrated, imagining the power flowing from her body and into his own.

It came surprisingly easily. He opened his eyes, the process having only taken a few seconds. Removing his hand, Loser tried to remember what Basketball had said earlier that day about the way she used her ability. Something about a dial in her mind?

He tried it, and suddenly began to slowly float upwards, gravity no longer applying to him. The rush of energy he felt was incredible. Individually, the other contestants' powers were strong. But if he could get all of them...

Quickly, but still staying silent, he reapplied normal gravity to himself and speedily began walking to other contestants nearby, first taking Barf Bag's power, then Balloony's, then Marker's. However, Marker almost woke up. Loser jerked his hand away as Marker shifted around, murmuring something sleepily, before returning to a deep slumber.

Loser stood up and began to walk back to where he had been 'resting' before, deciding to try and actually sleep; nearly getting caught by Marker had jolted some sense back into him, and if he took too many abilities at once, the others would likely get suspicious. That was fine with him. After all, he was now five times more powerful than the average contestant.

If he played his cards right, he could eventually be infinitely more powerful than all of them combined.

















hell yeah motivation for Powerless has returned

also, last chapter, when I emphasized that only the 32 contestants who were in the mansion when it collapsed were the ones with powers... yeah I obviously misled yall about that LOL

this chapter was really fun to write!! it came out longer than I expected (in terms of word count) but that's ok



the balance of power begins to shift ;)