"Wait," Cheesy wheezed, slowing to a stop after a few minutes of everyone sprinting at top speed. "Wait, wait... I need... a break."

"But we have to catch-"

Tennis Ball rested a mechanical hand on Test Tube's shoulder. "I want to catch up to Golf Ball as much as you do. But trust me when I say this place is like a maze sometimes. If we don't know where she is, there's no point in just running in a straight line; let's catch our breaths first."

Slowly, Test Tube came to a halt and sighed. "Yeah... yeah, you're right."

The others either stopped normally, leaned against something, or just straight-up collapsed to the ground. "Mnrg," Yin mumbled. "Yang, we're out of shape." Yang didn't even have the breath to respond. For a few moments, the only sounds were raindrops gently pattering against the roads, buildings, and objects.

"So..." Barf Bag inhaled deeply. "What do we do, now that we've lost her? Wait." She paused. "Are we lost?"

TB shook his head. "We'll be fine. When I say this place is like a maze, I just mean it's huge, and a lot of buildings look alike. But I'm remembering more and more of these streets the longer we spend here. Plus-" He pointed northwards, where an infinitely tall tower was stretching into the night sky. "-the summit of Yoyle Mountain is a really good landmark to help navigate, since it's directly north of the city."

"Like a compass needle," noted Test Tube.

Cheesy and Lollipop each raised a hand. "I vote we start calling it the Compass Needy," the two of them spoke in unison. "Jinx! Double jinx! Triple j-"

"Enough jinxing!!" Coiny interrupted loudly. "I don't always believe in that stuff, but after tonight..." He shuddered. "I'm starting to think this place really is cursed."

Test Tube opened her mouth to lecture them all about jinxing not being real, remembered what happened the last time she'd said that, and snapped it shut again.

From underneath a nearby building's awning, Pie raised a finger. "Since we're still figuring everything out, I suggest we spend a few minutes to find some umbrellas. The rain has been light all day, but I'm starting to feel pretty soggy now."

"I would also really like an umbrella," Lollipop commented, removing her scarf to wring out the rainwater. Cheesy, Barf Bag, and Test Tube nodded in agreement.

Coiny tapped his chin. "Well, I know that the Nice Business building has a trunk full of umbrellas by its front door. Pencil, that's close by, right?"

"Should be." Pencil looked at the Compass Needy, then checked their surroundings. "Yup," she confirmed. "We were backtracking while running, so it should only be about five minutes away."

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

"OH, IT'S ONLY FIVE MINUTES AWAY!" Yang mocked in a falsetto voice as he entered the Nice Business building. "THAT TOOK US FIFTEEN MINUTES!"

"Oh, come on, Yin-Yang. At least I got the direction right," Pencil shot back.

"Still ten extra minutes in the rain," muttered Lollipop. She went right over to the middle of the room and turned on the space heater sitting there, immediately relaxing some. "Ah... that's better. Glad this old thing still works."

The others filed in one by one and began to sit by the heater. "That is a lot better," Barf Bag agreed. "I can feel myself drying already."

Test Tube coughed. "I'm satisfied to be out of the weather and all, but while we rest, shouldn't we discuss how to find Golf Ball?"

"How, though?" Yin wondered. "BY SEARCHING THE WHOLE CITY! Yang, you saw the size of this place from the hilltop — it's ginormous!"

"Yin's right," Pencil agreed sadly. "There's no way we can look through this entire place with how many buildings there are. The sheer amount of roads alone would be a daunting task, but add in a massive number of buildings — any of which she could hide in — and it makes it basically impossible."

"Then..." Pie tapped her fingers against the floor absently. Anybody who knew her well would know that it was a sign of some rare anxiety from the pastry. But nobody there knew her that well. "...maybe we could try looking in the parts of the city Golf Ball knows the best."

"What good would that do?"

She shrugged. "I'm willing to bet Bozo has GB's memories. Maybe she'd be drawn to certain places."

Lollipop shook her head. "Or maybe she won't be. We know virtually nothing about Bozo, besides her origin and that she's made of purely negative emotions. For all we know, she's hiding out in some completely random house halfway across town."

Rubbing his eyes, TB exhaled heavily. "Well, it's the only possible lead we have on her now. So we'll just have to hope it's true."

"You know," interrupted Cheesy, "I wish I could add my two cents to this conversation, but something's not making sense. We're somehow a cent short!"

Test Tube blinked in confusion. "Cheesy, what in the multiverse are you on about?"

He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder so that it was pointing towards the door. "What I'm trying to say is, Coiny's missing."

Everyone stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment before suddenly realizing that he was right. There were only eight of them in the room. "Where... where did he go?" Barf Bag wondered aloud. "I could have sworn he was with us when we were walking here."

"He was lagging behind a bit," noted Pencil.

TT gasped. "Jeepers! Could... could Bozo have gotten him?"

"No way." Pie shook her head. "We would have seen her, or at least heard something."

"BUT NONE OF YOU EVEN NOTICED HE WAS GONE UNTIL NOW, SO..."

Nobody had a response to that. "Dang," Lollipop eventually said, coughing into her fist. "You know something's gone wrong when Yang brings up a valid point."

"HAHA, WHO'S THE SMART ONE NOW?" Yang jeered, crossing his arms smugly. Even Yin didn't try to counter him, ashamed at not having noticed Coiny's disappearance earlier.

Tennis Ball got up and started to walk to the door. "Well, now we've got to look for Golf Ball and Coiny- wait, where's Cheesy?"

"Out here!" called a voice from outside. "I grabbed an umbrella while you guys were wallowing in guilt. Let's go alre- ACK!" There was a thump. "AAAH! HELP!"

Lollipop's eyes widened. "Cheesy!!" she shouted, sprinting out the door. The other six immediately followed her, with Barf Bag, Pie, and Test Tube grabbing umbrellas for themselves on the way out.

They stumbled into the rain to find the purple sweet staring at a lone umbrella lying on the ground. There wasn't any sign of the comedian. "Cheesy..." she mumbled, dumbfounded.

Hesitantly, Barf Bag stepped forwards and placed a hand on Lollipop's shoulder. "It's alright. He might not be dead!"

"And if he is, we can ask MePhone to just recover him later!" Yin piped up.

"Assuming the others have managed to fix that problem," Test Tube pointed out. "We've got no idea what's going on over there!"

TB gripped his umbrella tightly. "That is an entirely different issue. Right now, we need to focus on finding Bozo... er, Golf Ball again. And if we're going by Pie's theory, I think I know where we should look first."

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

"I meant to ask earlier, but what even happened to the entrance here?" asked Pie as they entered the science museum once more. The building's two wooden doors lay on the ground as if they were rugs.

Pencil glanced down. "I think that was 8-Ball?" she replied, trying to remember. "According to Bubble, when they and a couple of others were trying to figure out how to free the rest of us from the humans' ship, they all came in here, and apparently he just... bowled through the doors."

"Yup." Tennis Ball nodded. "That was 8-Ball."

"Hey, did anybody turn these lights off when we left last time?"

Everyone looked at Barf Bag, who was pointing down the secret stairwell they discovered earlier that night. "They turned on automatically, although I think I saw a light switch at the bottom before," responded Test Tube. "But I'm pretty sure we were all in too much of a hurry."

"Well they're off now. But something's still lit up down there."

They all crowded around the entrance to see a warm glow emanating from the bottom of an otherwise dark staircase. "Someone's been here," TB muttered. "Do you think..."

"Only one way to find out."

"I'm gonna use a golf club on that bozo brain for hurting my friend," growled Lollipop, pushing to the front and descending the steps first. The others followed her single-file.

As they went lower and lower, the first thing they noticed was the rising temperature. "Is it just me, or is it hotter down here than it was before?" Yin asked.

"I noticed that too," agreed Test Tube. "But what could possibly be... oh. Golly..."

She and the others reached the hexagonal room at the bottom, where a wave of dry heat hit them. The device embedded in the opposite wall was wide open, and its inside was glowing a bright orange, the air around it shimmering from the high temperature. "Jeez, that's fierce," Pie spoke, raising her arms to protect her face.

Barf Bag hurried over and heaved the massive metal door shut, instantly preventing any more heat from escaping. The room grew somewhat darker, but the window in the door allowed enough orange to shine through and still mostly light up the place. "Phew," she sighed. "What even is this thing? Some sort of incinerator?"

"I'm just glad it's shut." Test Tube wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead. "Now, where was that light switch..."

As Testy examined the walls, BB glanced around the small room. Besides the oven or whatever in the wall, nothing else seemed to have changed... but wait. A glimmer caught her eye. She squinted and managed to identify the outline of something new behind one of the shelves.

The something moved slightly into the light. Barf Bag gasped; it was Golf Ball/Bozo. What's more, she was holding something sharp and pointing it at Lollipop, looking ready to pounce. "LOOK OUT!!" she yelled, lunging forwards at the same time Bozo did. BB managed to tackle Lollipop to the ground just in time, and Bozo sailed over their heads.

Hearing the cry, the others turned and witnessed the lunges in action. For Test Tube, time seemed to slow for a moment. The light of the furnace illuminated Bozo as she soared through the air, and TT was able to see everything. The globule had affixed something resembling a metal lance to her left arm. The weapon had a copper gleam to it that was all too familiar to those who were friends with Coiny, and the end of the lance that was connected to the robotic part of the arm was more yellow than normal. Of course, TT thought to herself. Cheese; the perfect bonding agent...

Unfortunately for Yin-Yang, they happened to be right behind Lollipop, which meant that Bozo's momentum was more than enough to skewer her lance straight through their chest. They stared down at it, dumbfounded. "Ow," they croaked in unison, before Bozo violently wrenched the weapon out. They stumbled to the floor, lifeless.

"RUN!!" Tennis Ball yelled, grabbing the bewildered Test Tube and bounding up the stairs as fast as his clumsy legs would allow him. The other four were close behind, wasting no time.

Pencil burst out of the stairwell and into the museum's ground floor first, having pushed past the others on the way up. TB and TT were next, and they found the woodsicle pushing against the pedestal holding the dodecahedron. "Help me close this thing!"

TB let go of Test Tube and joined Pencil in straining against the centuries-old mechanism as Pie and Lollipop exited the staircase. Barf Bag followed, but right at the top step, she felt something wrap around one of her legs and yank it out from under her, causing her to face-plant. "Ow!" She turned and saw the silhouette of Bozo way at the bottom of the passageway, outlined by the fiery glow of the furnace. The globule's right hand was around her leg, a long, metal wire trailing from it all the way down to her robotic arm.

The line suddenly went taut, and Barf Bag felt herself being dragged towards the orb of death. "GAH! HELP ME!!" she shouted, clawing at the ground for something to hold onto.

Everyone else's eyes widened at this. Lollipop was the closest object. She hesitated; but only for a split second. "Screw it," she muttered, before jumping towards the passage's entrance and latching onto Barfy's arms. "Gotcha! Now-"

Down below, Bozo activated the motor that would automatically reel her arm wire in. It pulled hard and yanked the two girls into the stairwell before either of them had any time to react. "Barf Bag!!" Pie cried out in a rare moment of panic.

"They're already gone! Let's just close this thing already!!" Pencil yelled frantically. Together, the four of them heaved as hard as they could against the pedestal, and after a moment, something clicked and it finally grinded back into place, sealing off the secret corridor with a resounding THUD.

The room suddenly became very quiet. Everyone remaining sat down hard, trying to process whatever had just happened. "...goodness," Test Tube whispered after several moments. "That was..."

"...intense," Tennis Ball completed. "I should've known Golf Ball likes her incinerators..."

Pie looked down at her hands. "Death prevention... ha. I..."

"Hey, it's ok." Pencil placed a tentative hand on the pastry's shoulder. "I know your goal is to always keep others alive, but it... it's not your fault. Bozo surprised all of us... there wasn't much you could do there."

"We've got an advantage now, though."

The three girls looked at Tennis Ball, who was wearing a determined expression. "She may have caught us off-guard earlier. But now we know where she is, and what's more, she's cornered. We outnumber her, and know what to expect. We..." He breathed in deeply. "We can still bring Golf Ball back."

"How though?" questioned Pie.

Test Tube tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Let's see... we know Bozo took control because of a mixture of negative emotions and bad experiences. Perhaps... we can make Geebs dominant again by reminding her of some of her good experiences!"

Pencil snorted. "Are you suggesting we use the power of friendship to save her? That has got to be the most 'anime protagonist' thing I've ever heard."

"I'm just spitballing here."

"To build on that," TB chimed in, "Bozo usually returns when GB is particularly distressed. Maybe we should try to get her to calm down. Relaxing music like lo-fi beats always helps me."

"Doesn't Golf Ball enjoy the scent of lavender?"

"I highly doubt there's any flowers left in the city."

An image popped into Pencil's mind. "Hold on, you might be onto something there."

"What, the lavender?"

"No!! Down in that secret room, I saw a rack of syringes with a bunch of different, weird liquids inside each one. One of them was labeled 'sleeping potion.' That sounds like it'd be pretty calming to me."

Tennis Ball nodded. "That could definitely work. If Bozo was forcibly put to sleep, there's a chance she'd wake up as Golf Ball again."

"At the very least, it'd give us time to... tie her up, or something," added Pie. "In case she stays as Bozo."

Pencil scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "But there's a problem. Like I said... that stuff's down there. With her."

"That hopefully shouldn't be much of an issue." Test Tube counted on her fingers. "There's four of us, and one of her. Well, technically two of her, but you know what I mean. Two or three of us can restrain her while someone else injects her with the... sleeping potion." She shuddered involuntarily. "Urg. As a woman of science, the word 'potion' feels weird on my tongue."

Pie raised her hand. "I should inject her. My filling is quite volatile and doesn't take much to explode, so it would probably be a bad idea to have me help hold Bozo down."

"Good thinking. Now..." TT turned towards the dodecahedron. "...how did we open the keypad panel for this doo-hickey last time?"

Shrugging, Pencil circled the object. "Coiny was the one who heard something. But I don't think he was messing with it before..."

The four of them began to closely inspect the pedestal, looking for some way to reactivate the old machine. Tennis Ball stepped up on it and glanced at the shape's point sticking up from the top, noticing something odd. From afar, the spike looked like it had a sharp tip, like a pin. But now that he was up close, he could clearly see that the tip was actually filed down to a small but flat surface. Experimentally, he rested a mechanical hand on it and pushed down.

Click. Pencil jumped a little as the panel in front of her slid open to reveal the keypad. "There it is! What did you do?"

"I pressed down on the spike's tip," replied TB as he climbed down. "It's not as sharp as it looks." After a moment of thought, the globule typed in the first three digits of the passcode, then paused. He met the eyes of the other three objects. "She does have a weapon. Are you guys sure you're ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Pencil responded, Pie and Test Tube nodding with her.

TB nodded back before entering the final digit. "So am I," he said as the dodecahedron's pedestal began to grind back. "She's not going to catch me by surprise again."

A streak of orange shot out of the passageway before it was even fully open, and a copper spike impaled Tennis Ball straight through his middle, the tip emerging from the other side. "Ŝ̴̪̈́u̴̟̜̞̝͗́̓͌̇͜͜R̵̯̜̭̉̇͐̾̚͘p̴̛͔̱̳̈́͑̆͒R̴̟̼̲͙̗͇͖̎̎͂ȋ̴̼̣̣̞͂̍͐̈́S̵͈̗̩͉̞͕̪͐̿̆̇̑͘̕ė̵̜̔͒̚͝͝,̷̹̠͉̈́͜" came the warped voice of Bozo from a few steps down.

Everything that happened next was a blur. Pencil tackled Bozo just as the latter yanked her arm spike from Tennis Ball's corpse, and the two objects went tumbling down the museum's secret stairwell, lights flicking on as they passed them. Test Tube and Pie rushed down as fast as they could.

Pencil and Bozo rolled into the hexagonal room at the bottom and slammed into a shelf, causing it to topple over. They both rolled out of the way, but before Bozo could recover properly, Pencil grabbed her from behind and wrapped the globule in a bear hug. "Hurry!!" she yelled at the other two as they reached the bottom. "She's strong!"

Test Tube grabbed Bozo from the front, which slowed her struggling slightly, but they'd underestimated the ball's strength. "Stupid mechanical arms!" Testy complained, gripping tighter. "Why did I have to build those things to be so strong??"

"Ļ̶̯̤̫͖͋ȩ̶̦͉̗̥͊̿͝Ṭ̶̝̐͆̆ ̵̛́͜m̴̛̦̥͔̺̂͋̌̏͒Ȅ̴̖̤̣̝̊̃̿̑̉ ̵̳̬̺̭̱̋͌̐g̷̯̖̦̠̣̹̏̓̑̅Ơ̷̠̼̤̹̙͖͆͗̂!̵̣̣̣̲̳͙̆"

As that trio grappled for control, Pie hastily scanned the walls. "Syringes, syringes, syringes... there's so much stuff in here. Where are they?"

Bozo somehow managed to wriggle her right arm free and smacked Test Tube sharply across her face. The glass container instinctively let go and staggered backwards, bonking her head against a nearby wall and cracking her rim in the process. She slid to a sitting position on the floor, dazed.

Reaching backwards with her now-free hand, Bozo managed to locate Pencil's wooden neck and grabbed it, beginning to squeeze. Pencil's eyes bulged but she didn't let up on the constraining embrace. "Pie!" she squeaked.

"I'm trying!" Pie replied, increasing the speed of her search.

Something cracked as Bozo tightened her grasp. Pencil would've grunted in pain if she wasn't already out of air. "G̸̦̠͓̬̤̥̃͌̏̌͘̕i̷͎̤̠͙̖̽̿̈́͒̓́V̷͎̼̟̋́͒e̶̹̺̟̗̫̓̂̇͆ ̵̨̯̦͍̹̀̈́͑Ǘ̷̠͈̰̥̖͋̈͊́̂ṕ̷̮̮̥̺̠̏̾̅̚͝,̴̧̢̰̦̒" she heard the distorted voice say. She tried to hold on, but her vision was going black, and she could feel her grip loosening as the strength left her.

The vice-like hold on her neck suddenly slackened and fell away completely. Pencil collapsed to the ground and gasped as sweet, sweet air began to fill her 'lungs' once more. Her sight quickly returning, she saw Bozo step back in surprise, now missing her right hand in addition to her left one. Test Tube stood to the side, breathing heavily and holding a large scythe in her shaking hands. It was red and black all over, and longer than Test Tube was tall. There was an extra hook on the back of the main blade, and the bottom end of the handle was sharp. In her woozy state, Pencil didn't question the weapon, but would later learn that TT had pulled it off of one of the room's shelves.

Bozo hissed and turned to the damaged vial, lifting up the copper lance welded to her left arm. Test Tube flinched and raised the scythe in defense, ready to block an attack.

But an attack never came. Bozo froze in surprise at something. Her face transformed from dark gray dimples to the standard black features that most objects had, which were painted in an expression of shock. Then the globule's eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she slumped to the floor, revealing Pie wielding an empty syringe behind her. "I found it," she announced redundantly.

Test Tube exhaled deeply in relief and dropped the scythe, putting an arm out to lean against the nearest wall for support. She wasn't sure she could have actually effectively blocked anything; that backhanded slap had seriously dazed her, and she had trouble opening her right eye.

Then she looked at Pencil and immediately felt guilty for thinking about her own pains. The poor girl was half sitting, half lying on the floor nearby, gently holding her neck while she breathed raggedly.

"Oh golly," TT spoke quietly. She carefully stepped forwards and sat down next to the woodsicle. "Pencil, are... are you alright?"

Pencil let out a half-hearted chuckle of disbelief. "No," she answered simply, her voice slightly raspy. She then looked at Test Tube and winced. "Ouch. You're... not looking so hot, either. The back of... your rim is cracked, and... so's the glass under your right eye." She had to speak slowly, taking small breaths after every couple words.

The scientist gently touched her damaged outer layer. "I guess that explains why I can't open it at the moment. The cracks must be preventing it..."

"What do you two need?" asked a concerned Pie. She had a look of sympathy on her face. "I came out that whole scuffle unscathed, so I can get any-"

"Water," Pencil croaked immediately.

Testy tapped her eye. "Some gauze would be nice. Or anything that I can use as a bandage."

Glancing down, Pie rummaged through the pile of junk by her feet. "I think I saw- aha." She pulled out a first aid kit and slid it over. "That should work. I don't know if there's any faucets in the museum, Pencil, so I'll find a container and leave it out in the rain for a bit."

The writing utensil nodded as Pie started to climb the stairwell. While TT opened up the medical kit and pulled out a roll of gauze, Pencil looked at the sleeping form of Golf Ball. "What are we going... to tell her?" she wondered.

"Hm?"

"Well..." Pencil gestured at the furnace, which was still alight on the inside. "All this. How... do we break it to her? That she killed... six of us. Coiny, Cheesy, Yin-Yang, Barf Bag, Lollipop... Tennis Ball."

Test Tube paused in the middle of tying a knot. "Mmm. That might not be pretty. But, at the risk of sounding insincere... they'll all be fine. If the recovery problem hasn't already been fixed when we get back tomorrow, we'll figure out something."

Shaking her head, Pencil replied, "They might be fine, but... what about her? How... how would you react... if you just... murdered your best friend like that. Or betrayed them."

TT knew she'd never betray Fan like that, but did her best to give an answer anyway. "That wasn't her, though."

Pencil was silent for a moment. "But... it was a part of her. One that she's... been trying to suppress for years. She may have not been... in control, but... what if she still... feels guilty that she couldn't stop it? What if... what if she thinks... 'How bad could I be if... if I couldn't control it?'" She was starting to raise her voice a little. "Wh-what if that guilt stays with her, and... and she starts to think that if she didn't hold back... she'd be a terrible person again? What if she-"

She ran out of breath, inhaled deeply, too deeply, and started to cough, which only made her throat hurt more in turn. Unable to do anything to help, Test Tube patiently waited for the woodsicle to recover before softly whispering, "That... I-I've never been good at social stuff, but... that sounded like you were projecting."

Pencil miserably buried her hands in her face. "I don't know... I'm just really confused at the moment. I'm... still trying to process everything that just happened."

"Me too, but... hey, it's not all bad!" Testy quickly took a second to complete her bandage wrappings before turning back to Pencil. "Tada!" she cheered, trying to smile. "Check it out! I look like a pirate now!"

Lifting her head, Pencil let out an involuntary snort of laughter at seeing the makeshift eye patch Test Tube had fashioned out of gauze. "Heh," she chuckled. "Captain Tube. What role would I be in your pirate crew?"

"First mate's reserved for Fan... or maybe Golf Ball." Test Tube tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Lightbulb would be third mate, and Tennis Ball might be fourth. How's fifth mate sound to you?"

"Aye, I'll settle for fifth. If that's even a thing."

"Probability says that it exists somewhere in the multiverse."

Hearing footsteps, the two turned to see Pie reach the bottom of the staircase, heaving something large behind her. "Ah, third-point-first-fourth mate Pie!" Test Tube called out in a mock pirate accent. "How is the stormy weather outside on the deck treatin' ye?"

Pie stopped and stared at her. "Clearly, I've missed something."

TT and Pencil laughed, the latter being careful not to laugh too hard. It felt good to release some tension after such a stressful night. Pie smiled before setting down the object she was holding. "While looking for a container, I found this, uh... giant spool of... golden thread. On one of the floors."

This time, it was their turn to stare at her in confusion. "I don't know why it's in a science museum," the pastry elaborated, shrugging. "But I got it just in case... Golf Ball wakes up as Bozo."

"Mmm." Test Tube nodded. "Good idea. Better safe than sorry."

Pencil glanced at GB's sleeping form again, then spotted something next to her. She leaned over and picked up a magenta scarf. "Oh jeez. Lollipop's scarf..." she muttered.

The other two girls grew quiet. "We haven't seen her body yet, or Barf Bag's, have we?" asked Test Tube.

Pie suddenly spotted something that looked like a piece of a broken white stick poking out from underneath a table nearby. She decided not to bring any attention to it.

Almost hesitantly, Pencil lifted the scarf up and very carefully wrapped it around her damaged neck. She didn't know how bad it looked, but she suddenly felt self-conscious. That's better.

"We... should probably get some sleep," sighed Pie. "It's late, and it's been a... long day. To put it mildly."

"We'll arrive at the BFB grounds tomorrow, right?" TT questioned, picking up Yin-Yang's cube with the intention of returning it to them when they eventually got recovered.

Pencil nodded. "Now that we're in the city... I know for a fact that it's only... an hour and a half's walk away, starting from the eastern edge."

"Good. I think I've had enough walking for a lifetime."

"I'm sleeping upstairs," Pie commented. She bent down and lifted up Golf Ball's unconscious body, careful to avoid the enormous metal lance on her left arm. "If I spend any longer in this room, I'm almost certain some random device is going to combust for no reason."

"Oh, there's a reason for everything!" Test Tube began to ramble about the inner workings of the universe as she trailed up the stairs after the pastry. Pencil got up and was about to follow, but spotted a book lying on the ground. She picked it up. "Goikian History..." the woodsicle murmured. "Who knew one book could cause so much trouble."

She was about to put it down again but paused. Despite Golf Ball's request to the others about keeping anything IDFB-related secret, she had always silently wondered about the humans. Seekayaitch's and Emwhyaitch's brief history lesson, given to her and a few others the first time they were aboard the twins' ship, really piqued her interest, and the writing utensil often spent many nights in the EXIT theorizing about the details of the biological virus that plagued Yoyleland so long ago.

After another moment of pondering, Pencil shrugged and tucked the book under her arm. A little bit of reading later on couldn't hurt. She'd just have to make sure Golf Ball never saw it.



~ End of day four ~















I've had the idea for this chapter in my mind for many, many months. Glad I was able to finally make it :)