"Hey, Leafy! It's been so long. Welcome [back!]" - Coiny, BFB 11



The next morning

"So, how exactly does your power work?" Balloony asked Eraser. They were sitting next to Cloudy's collection together, with tiny Woody sitting on Balloony's head. He was careful not to move too much so that the balsa slab could stay there.

Eraser shrugged. "It's a bit weird. On the surface, I swear that Woody is speaking English. But if I listen harder, I can hear his regular wah-wahs; I just somehow... understand them."

"Wah wah... (Well, I-I'm glad that someone can finally really understand me,)" Woody said nervously, clutching his emerald.

"Yeah, it's nice." Eraser chuckled. "I can't believe I ever used to think you were uncool. Naily told me what you did in episode 14 - that takes some guts, bro!"

Woody smiled. "Wait, what exactly happened?" Balloony wondered. "I died when Woody found his emerald, so I don't know-"

Naily teleported to them, making all three objects jump in surprise. "It was AWESOME, Balloony! After the lava got you..." She launched into her tale with gusto.

Meanwhile, from a dozen feet away, Lollipop groaned as she lay on the field's dead grass. "Seriously, people. Could you please try to be a little quieter? I've got a killer headache right now."

"That's your own fault from drinking too much," Eraser commented.

Lollipop groaned again, but couldn't deny that. Then an idea struck her. "Hmm..." She sat up and slowly raised her hands, trying to concentrate through her migraine.

A wobbly semi-circle of energy materialized and surrounded the group of four. Naily continued to blabber on, not caring. "Drat," Lollipop muttered. "It's not soundproof. A shame." She let the barrier fall and closed her eyes again.

"IF YOU WANT YOURSELF PROTECTED FROM LOUD NOISES, THEN MAYBE TRY OUT OUR REVOLUTIONARY EARMUFFS!"

The new, constantly loud voice caused Lollipop to wince and crack open a single eye. Yellow Face was standing patiently next to her. "It's scary that you're actually making me consider buying one of your horrendous products."

Someone cleared their throat. Groaning for the third time, Lollipop shifted over to see Tennis Ball. She almost did a double take when she saw him with arms, then remembered last night's events. "What do you want?"

"I was hoping you could spare some of your time to tell me about your, er, ability." TB continued to explain as he pulled out a notebook. "GB and I are trying to learn as much as we can."

Lollipop waved him away. "I'll participate in your studies later. Right now, I have a splitting headache to take care of."

"Fair enough." Tennis Ball stashed his writing pad away and walked off, finally allowing Lollipop some peace and quiet, as Eraser and the others had gone somewhere else as well. She closed her eyes and-

She opened them again. Yellow Face hadn't moved an inch. "Are you really still here?"

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

Golf Ball muttered to herself as she scratched down 'super strength' next to Bottle's name. "...yet she still seems as fragile as ever. Heh, almost like a glass cannon..."

She spotted Book across the field and briskly strode toward her. "Oh, hello GB," the dictionary said when she noticed the scientist.

"You were at the party. Do you know if you have an ability?" Golf Ball asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yes, actually! I can recover dead objects if I write their name on my pages!"

GB gasped. "That's great! I was worried about us not having a source of recovery until Four returned. Do your best to not die until then!"

"Always good advice."

"Do you know if there are any limitations to this yet? Side effects?"

Book shook her head. "I've recovered four or five others now and haven't felt any different."

GB wrote this down. "If you've recovered any objects with a power, did they retain their abilities?"

"I haven't recovered anyone with powers yet."

"Alright." Golf Ball looked up. "Thank you for your time! At some point later on, I will likely call you down into my factory for further testing."

"You're welcome. I should be free at basically any time, since... well... my team doesn't really wanna talk to me anymore."

Golf Ball wasn't sure what to say to that, so she simply coughed and briskly walked away before the silence got too awkward.

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

Flower glumly watched Basketball as she messed around with her powers. The orange sphere had discovered earlier that day that she could manipulate the gravity levels of other objects - both inanimate and living - and now she, Blocky, Grassy, and 8-Ball were bouncing around like they were on the moon.

The plant thought for a moment, then got up and slowly walked towards the quartet. 8-Ball noticed her first. "Oh, hello there."

"Hey..." Flower coughed. "Uh, I was wondering if I was able to... join you? You guys look like you're having fun.."

Basketball landed on her feet and turned around. "I think I could-"

"I don't know," Blocky interrupted. He glanced at Flower suspiciously. "I've known her longer than you have, and she's not the nicest contestant."

Flower sighed. "Come on. I'm trying to make up for that!"

"Not sure I can believe that."

"Why, you..."

Flower took a step forwards, but Blocky didn't flinch. In fact, he just smiled. "See? You still have violent tendencies. Now, stay away from us and Grassy and head back to your crummy team."

"Arg!" Flower took another step and raised her fist. Blocky's grin vanished, instantly replaced with a look of anger. "Don't even try me."

Basketball tried to mediate from the sidelines. "Blocky, don't you think you're being a bit harsh?"

"Not going to lie, I kind of want to see this fight."

"8-Ball!!"

Flower's vision began to turn red. She had been better at controlling her anger recently, but something about Blocky was ticking her off more than usual. She clenched her fists and prepared to throw hands.

A gust of wind blew in from somewhere, and Blocky's expression of anger quickly turned into one of fear. He took a step backwards, then thought better of it and stood his ground. "Blocky, stop!" Basketball yelled. "You're not going to win against that!"

Huh? Flower wondered through her furious haze.

"Your Fanny act isn't scaring me!" Blocky said, clearly nervous but still deciding to stay put.

"What in the world are you talking about?"

Blocky slowly lowered his hands, none of them noticing yet that one of them had changed. "What do you mean? Your petals are spinning like crazy! They're like electric saw blades!"

Perplexed, Flower's anger died away as she reached out to touch one of her petals, but somehow cut herself. She jerked her finger away as the wind began to die down. "No way."

"They were definitely spinning like Fanny's blades," 8-Ball confirmed. He glanced at Blocky and his brow furrowed. "Uh, Blocky..."

"What?"

"Your arm is... I don't even know."

"What? What is it??" Everyone else looked at his right arm and gasped. From the elbow to the hand, it had transformed into some sort of blaster weapon. "Woah! This is... wow! Hang on."

He quickly raised it at Flower and fired. A large red laser shot out of the cannon and blasted her in the face, obliterating her completely. He lowered his smoking arm. "That. Is. So cool! I can pull so many pranks with this!"

8-Ball and Grassy cheered. Oh, dear, Basketball thought to herself.









~~~~~~~~~~









SURPRISE! After exactly 8 months of no updates, Powerless is finally back!!

It feels weird to be writing this again, but I'm really happy to be doing it. And you don't have to worry about me not being prepared this time.



Plus, school will be easier for me until it's over, and my summer isn't as free as I would have liked but definitely an improvement.

(Please note that planned out does not mean all the chapters are written yet. I'll be writing them whenever I feel like it.) I haven't even revealed all of the powers yet lol. Looking forward to seeing what you guys will think!

- Jabe