Ring, ring, went Lightbulb's phone as she tried to call Fan across universes. She and the other ten survivors of Hotel OJ's collapse were traveling southwards in mostly silence as the silhouette of a certain mansion slowly grew larger and larger on the horizon. The sun was high in the sky, but despite that, everyone could feel the warmth on their backs gradually recede as they walked farther and farther away from the mysterious heat source.

Click. "Ugh," Lightbulb complained as the attempted call ended automatically. "The connection is not having a good day. Third time's the charm, though!"

The normally quiet rings were clearly audible through the lack of any noise other than footsteps. Usually, the objects would have something or several something to chat about, even if they didn't know each other too well (several of the objects from Goiky were still getting properly acquainted with MePhone's group). But the destruction of the hotel had dampened the mood quite a bit... minus Lightbulb's, of course. Grassy also managed to keep his spirits high by attempting to teach Rocky pattycake while they both sat atop Basketball's rubbery head.

Lightbulb's phone clicked again, but it was a different type of click. A voice came from the speaker, garbled by static but still recognizable as Fan's. "Hello?"

"Hiya Fan!" Lightbulb answered cheerfully, catching her companions' attentions. "Finally got through to you. How's it hanging?"

"What *grzzzzt* can't *grzzzzt* lots of static."

"Jeez, I think the connection needs a therapist or something," LB muttered. She repeated, more slowly this time, "I SAID, how's it hanging?"

"Oh. Decent? *grzzzzt*hing's changed, reall*grzzzzt*"

Paintbrush leaned towards the receiver. "Fan, can you hear me? Something weird has happened over here, and we wanted to tell you about it."

The reply came after a second. "*grzzzzt*o ahead, but *grzzzzt* bad connecti*grzzzzt*"

Painty opened their mouth to start telling the story, but Lightbulb beat them to it. "So basically..."

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

"Sorry, can you repeat all of that, but more slowly?" Fan spoke into his receiver. "The connection is absolutely terrible today. It's mostly static!"

A pause. "Earlier today, the hote*grzzzzt* heat source *grzzzzt* burst into fla*grzzzzt* we're going to P*grzzzzt*"

Fan sighed. "I don't think this is working. Can you just text me what happened instead?"

"What? We can't *grzzzzt*"

"I SAID, just text me-"

Bad connection, his phone suddenly said in a monotone text-to-speech voice. Ending call to save data.

"Wait no don't do that-"

Click. Fan emitted a frustrated sigh.





Nearby, Microphone had overheard some of the conversation. Well, not much; but the fact that Fan and Lightbulb's connection was full of static was odd. Is that just for their connection? she wondered. Or is the problem the phone connection between universes?

She decided to scoot away from Fan until she found a spot away from any of the other objects dotted around the plains. Once her Gain had been properly set, she hissed, "Psst, Taco. Are you there?"

After a moment, a reply came through, but like Microphone had worried, it was filled with static and hard to understand. "I'm *grzzzzzzzzt*ything new?"

"Uh, I can't properly hear you, hang on." She tried twiddling with the Gain dial. "Try again."

"Wh-" Her fishy friend was almost immediately cut out by a particularly large burst of white noise before the connection went completely silent. Mic scratched her head absently. So the problem with the connection wasn't limited to only Fan and Lightbulb. But what was causing it?

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

"Fanboy? Helloooooooo? Didja really just hang up on me?" Lightbulb spoke uselessly into her phone.

"Lightbulb, stop," interrupted Paintbrush. "I don't think there's any more point in trying."

LB pouted at her friend and placed her hands on her hips. "Whaddya mean, no more point? Ya want me to give up or something? No way! I give everything my all!"

"And I appreciate that about you, but the connection is just too weak right now for some reason. Maybe you can try again later."

Puffball floated down from the sky in front of the duo. "I agree. Plus, we're already here."

They stopped and looked up. They'd been so engrossed in trying to contact Fan, they both failed to notice that Purgatory mansion was now looming directly in front of them.

The others paused as well to take a moment and check out the building. If it were night, it would have appeared large, foreboding, and possibly threatening. In the daylight, however, it simply appeared large.

For most objects, anyway. Basketball shivered, even though it was quite hot out, causing Grassy and Rocky to hop off her head. "I don't like this place," she said. "There's something about it."

"Well, of course there's something about it," Lightbulb scoffed. "It's haunted!"

"What."

Pickle rolled his eyes at Lightbulb's comment. "Please. It can't ACTUALLY be haunted."

"Well, SOMETHING happened there when Painty and I visited for a challenge!"

"You guys are scaredy cats. Let's just walk in," Firey said confidentially, strolling towards the front door. Lightbulb, Puffball, Pickle, and Paintbrush followed behind, as well as Basketball - albeit reluctantly - with Grassy and Rocky in tow. Paper guided OJ to the door, as OJ hadn't spoken or really reacted to anything since the hotel fell. Bottle was last in line.

Firey made it to the entrance and reached out for the doorknob. He awkwardly grappled with it for a bit because of his bandaged hands but eventually managed to get a grip. "I bet there's gonna be absolutely nothing here, and you guys are worried for nothing," he chuckled.

He threw the door open and came face-to-face with a ghost.





"Ugh. The cell service is, like, even worse than normal today," complained Bow. "It takes like five whole minutes to upload my post!"

Marshmallow looked up from her doodles and rolled her eyes. "Well, that tends to be the case here," she replied sarcastically.

"I know that! But it's waaaaaaaaay worse today!"

"Sure, sure."

A high-pitched scream suddenly reached their ears, one of fright more than anything else. Marsh and Bow locked eyes, both of them recognizing it. "Was that..." Marsh began.

"...Dough?" Bow finished.

As if summoned, Dough soared through the walls of the room and towards the duo, accidentally overshooting and passing right through Bow. "HELP!" he cried. His bland voice only sounded mildly concerned, but his facial expression and body language more than made up for it. "STRANGER DANGER! THE MANSION'S BEING INVADED!!"

"Dough, you... you're a ghost, remember?" Bow said flatly. "Nothing can hurt you."

He blinked. "Oh yeah."

Strangers? thought Marsh. Oh gosh, has MePhone found me or something?

Bow almost seemed to read her mind. "Ah, I'm sure whoever it is, Marshy Marsh, they're of no worry. Let's go say hiii!"

"Alright..."

Somewhat reluctantly, she got up and followed the two phantoms out the door (Bow and Dough had gotten into the habit of generally using doors to enter and leave rooms out of respect for Marsh and Apple), strolling through the hallway and out onto the balcony that viewed the first floor foyer and the mansion's front entrance. Standing in the doorway of the aforementioned entrance was what appeared to be a ball of flames with a bewildered expression on its face. "I'm not that scary," they heard it say as it glanced down at its bandaged hands. "...am I?"

"Not really," said a familiar voice from somewhere unseen. The speaker revealed themselves as they pushed past the fire and into the mansion. "Yikes, this place is a mess."

Pickle? a baffled Marshmallow thought, recognizing the green veggie. Her confusion instantly increased when the next object came inside. "Paintbrush??" she exclaimed.

Painty jumped and swiveled around, looking for a moment like they'd heard a ghost (haha). "Paintbrush! Up here!" Marsh called again.

They finally looked up at the balcony and their mouth dropped open in shock. "Marshmallow??"

The girl turned to run down the stairs and embrace her old friend in a hug. "Marshmallow!" Paintbrush said again, this time gleefully. "It's been MONTHS! Is this where you disappeared to?"

"Yeah, I've been staying here ever since I left the competition."

"But... why?" They both pulled away and Marsh saw that Painty had a hurt expression. "You didn't even say goodbye..."

She winced and closed her eyes in shame. "Gosh, Painty, I'm really sorry about that. I should've said something, but my mind was still filled with a flurry of other things, I didn't even..." She shook her head. "Well, I left the competition because-"

"Because of me!"

Startled, Paintbrush looked behind Marshmallow to see a ghost waving at them. "Hi, guys!" she said.

"BOW!?" Paintbrush, Paper, and Pickle cried. Even OJ finally snapped out of his funk and gawked at the pink poltergeist. By this time, everyone except for Basketball had filed into the mansion's foyer and was spreading out a little. "I don't- how are you- what?" Paper stuttered.

Bow grinned and floated down to their level, Dough soundlessly trailing behind. "It's so good to see y'all again!" she cited happily, spreading her hands apart dramatically. "Welcome to my crib, Purgatory Mansion - the place objects go when they die and can't be brought back! Who are all these new fellas?"

"I'm Puffball," PB greeted, grinning back. "Glad to meet another pink, flying object. This is Firey, Grassy, Rocky, Bottle, and Ba-" She paused. "Well, Basketball's still standing outside for some reason. We're from another universe!"

"Coolio... wait, whaaa?"

Paper scratched the back of his head, letting out a nervous chuckle. "It's a long story. Looks like we both have a lot of explaining to do. Not to mention what happened to the hotel..."

"Hey, Bow?" a new voice spoke. Everyone turned to see a dark red fruit enter the room from another hallway. "Do you know if we have any- oh!" It froze when it saw the crowd in the foyer. "Uh, hello."

Pickle's mouth somehow dropped open even wider. "Apple? You're here too?"

"Wait, wait wait wait." OJ stepped forwards and did a full 360 in the middle of the room, taking in the cobwebs, boarded-up windows, and other general decay of the mansion. "Apple, you left my hotel for... this place?"

Apple glanced around once before responding with little confidence. "...yeah?"

OJ shook his head. "I feel seriously insulted."

"Hey, I just wanted to make amendings with Marshy Marsh!"

"Make amends," Marshmallow corrected her.

"Yeah, that!"

"There's way too much going on right now," Firey muttered. "Can someone show me to the kitchen? I'm really hungry after all that walking."

Dough raised his hand. "I can. I'll you show all the pears."

"Uh, oddly specific but ok." Firey followed him through a side hallway.

The others began to split off into groups, or wander into the mansion on their own. Lightbulb, Puffball, and Rocky did just that, while Pickle followed Firey, and Apple began to tell OJ and Paper what had happened between her and Marsh and how that led to her eventually leaving the hotel.

Basketball - having seen that the ghosts appeared to be friendly - finally stepped over the threshold and joined Grassy, where he, Bottle, and Paintbrush were listening to Bow about how she became a ghost with Marshmallow occasionally chipping in.

"So you became a ghost because MePhone was dead when you died," Paintbrush clarified.

"Yupperdoodles! And as far as Dough and I know, we're both trapped here for aaaaaaaaaaaaallll eternity. So it's really freaking cool to have some new visitors for once!"

Marsh asked the BFB contestants, "What about you guys? How does recovery, or permadeath or... whatever, work in your world? You do have recovery, right?"

"We do. It's a very strange method, but there's no permanent deaths, thank goodness," replied Basketball.

Bottle nodded. "Yeah, although there was a sort of 'afterlife' at one point! It was called the dead zo-"

Grassy and Basketball simultaneously clapped a hand and a foot over Bottle's mouth. "Shh!" Grassy shushed, holding a finger to his lips. "Stinky Golf Ball said not to talk about that, remember?

"Oops." The glass container's words were extremely muffled. "My bad."

Painty and Marsh blinked at this, but Bow just said, "Well, whoever this Golf Ball is, she sounds like such a downer."

"Oh, you wouldn't believe it!" Baskie barked, removing her foot from Bottle so she could stomp it on the ground. "She's so incredibly bossy. I first noticed in episode one, when she..."

As she started to ramble, Marshmallow made a furtive glance towards Bow and whispered, "I think you may have just opened a big can of worms."

"Exactly my purpose," Bow whispered back. "I feed on drama."

"That explains a lot."















Speaking of Golf Ball... it's been a while since we've checked on Team 3. Whaddya say we go see what they're up to next chapter?