It took a while for everybody to get caught up again. Everything that the objects in Goiky just learned had to be re-explained to Fanny, and in turn, she updated them with the most recent events from the IIverse.

"This is very concerning," was the first thing Pencil said after Fanny concluded.

Fanny rolled her eyes. "No duh."

"And also... very strange," added Test Tube. "I'm finding it a smidge difficult to believe that the reason you're still in control of yourself is because you have more hatred than someone who literally has the word 'Evil' in their name."

"I hate the explanation, too. But it's the only one I can think of, unless you sciencey folk have a better idea..."

"There's a perfectly logical explanation behind everything. We just need to find it!"

Fan cut in. "As much as I'd love to learn more about this 'corruption' stuff — and I really do wanna know more — shouldn't we put our focus elsewhere? Such as trying to figure out how to stop Evil Leafy?"

"I may have a plan."

All nearby eyes turned to Golf Ball. "The beginnings of one, at least."

"Really?" Ruby was a little skeptical. "That fast?"

"My brain works faster than yours. Now, from what we know about the dead zone, we can't conceivably destroy it. The best thing we can do to get rid of it would be to sever its connections to our world again, more permanently this time."

She spotted Fan with his hand in the air. "Disabling the... uh..." He struggled to remember. "...the void machine. That worked last time, right? What if we just completely destroy it for good?"

GB wasn't sure whether to nod or shake her head. "Theoretically, yes. But, like we were discussing earlier, the Shimmer youth is an unpredictable factor in this equation. Now that the dead zone's connection has been reforged by the void machine, there is a chance that the youth's connection to any living infected objects could keep the dead zone attached to our dimension, even if the void machine is destroyed."

"That mostly sounds like conjecture," Pencil argued.

Tired, Golf Ball closed her eyes. "I know, Pencil. I know. But Evil Leafy almost got the best of everyone once. I don't want to take any chances this time."

"What are you suggesting we do, then?" wondered Fanny.

"We use you, of course."

"Pardon?"

"With Evil Leafy in control of the dead zone, she's infecting any objects that pass through it when jumping across universes, by whatever means. So what if we enter the dead zone from a completely different angle?" She nodded at Fanny's glowing red eyes. "You're directly connected to EL, and — by extension — the dead zone. My old mind machine that I used on Rocky is still down in my factory. I'm certain that Test Tube and I can tweak it to exploit Fanny's connection with the dead zone, and possibly let someone inside uninfected. Once there..." She spread her arms wide. "They pull the plug."

Fan blinked. "Mind machine?"

"Later," Test Tube promised.

GB noticed Pencil staring at her with a strange look. "What?"

"You... you still have that machine?"

"That is what I said, yes."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Three years... I had over three years' worth of audio diary entries from our time in Yoyle City, and then another year's worth of video entries on top of that. And you had me destroy it all. You had ALL of us destroy ANYTHING related to IDFB, so that nobody else could ever find out what almost happened." Slowly, she took two steps forward. "And now you're telling me, that despite everything the rest of us did to respect those wishes, you went and actually KEPT something from that time."

"I did," GB replied without a hint of shame in her voice. "But I locked it away. Out of sight, out of mind."

"Well, clearly not, given that we're thinking about it now!!"

"It doesn't matter anymore; I kept mementoes of IDFB hidden to avoid reminders of Bozo, but given what we're currently dealing with, reminders are impossible to avoid."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU, YOU HYPOCRITE!!" she burst. "I HATED YOU BACK THEN, BUT EVEN I STILL RESPECTED YOUR WISHES! YOU COULD AT LEAST- YOU COULD-" Pencil's brief shouts quickly devolved into a violent coughing fit. In all her anger, she'd completely forgotten about her damaged neck, and raising her voice had made her throat start feeling like it was on fire.

She stumbled to her knees, hacking and gasping, and Test Tube and Ruby rushed to steady her. TT shot GB a look, and the globule knew her friend well enough by now to read the expression: Let's talk about this later.

A sigh from Fanny. "I hate that plan. But even if it does somehow work, GB, there's a problem. You mentioned to us that your factory is full of other corrupted objects. And Pencil disabled the door to it. How are we supposed to get in, let alone get in without dying?"

"A valid concern. There's the deprecated garbage chute, but the entrance to that is miles away, and also very far up in the air..."

Somebody else trotted over. "Dunno what you're talking about," Naily chimed in, "but I overheard that last bit. You need to get into the factory? If I'm not mistaken, there should be a hole in the ceiling from when BEEP and I were trying to escape the lavapocalypse."

"Of course!" Golf Ball tried to snap her fingers before remembering that she'd lost both of her robotic hands. "I've been meaning to patch that puncture for quite some time now. Is the pit that leads to it still somewhere around here?"

"Yeah! I can lead you right to it. Problem is, it's a long fall until you hit dirt, and then another fall straight through the factory's ceiling."

"So we need someone who can fly..."

While pulling Pencil to her feet, Ruby glanced across the rain-soaked field, her gaze eventually settling on a familiar bolt of energy. "I think I might know a guy who can help with that."

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

Three objects carefully peered down through the acid-dug hole that led into the infested factory a few minutes later. Various objects from both universes could be seen below, scuttling about and moving materials from one area to another. "So, where is this 'mind machine' exactly, GB?" wondered Lightning.

Golf Ball closed her eyes, accessing her mental map of the building. "You will need to take Pie to the corner of the factory that is closest to the stairwell. There's a hidden pressure pad on the floor which will open a compartment in the wall. The mind machine is inside; it resembles two metal bowls connected by wires. Oh, and — this is vitally important — you must also bring me a toolbox. I have several scattered around, but they all contain mostly the same implements, so any one of them will do." She opened her eyes and stared at Lightning carefully. "Is that clear enough for you?"

"Crystal." The flier nodded, and from next to him, Pie gave a lazy thumbs up.

"Good. Now, get going. Don't forget that this is a stealth mission!"

Taking the pastry by the arm, Lightning lowered them both into the hole. After passing the ceiling, he began to carefully float high up through the air, trying not to alert the objects below.

"Look," Pie whispered, pointing downwards at a giant, rectangular structure that was being constructed. "What do you think they're building?"

Lightning took a moment to check it out. "I have no idea. It looks bad, though..." He froze upon seeing something else — a row of smaller, object-sized devices lined up against one of the factory's walls. "Wait a second. Are... are those recovery centers? I thought Golf Ball said she destroyed the human's instructions on how to build those!"

"But the mind machine was from the IDFB era, too, and she lied about that."

"Yeah..."

They passed the stairwell leading to the surface, and Lightning began to lower again until he could safely drop Pie at the corner she needed to be at. "You get the brain thingy-"

"Mind machine."

"-and I'll go quickly look for a toolbox. Don't make too much noise, ok? We don't want them to see us."

"Uhhhhh..."

Lightning turned around to see several objects staring at them from afar with an intense scarlet gaze. "Never mind, just be quick! I'll be back in a sec!"

"Don't kill any of them, okay?"

"No promises!!"

He zoomed off, startling the infected. Pie glanced at the factory's wall and immediately noticed that the secret compartment was already open. "That's not very hidden. What's the point of having a hidey-hole if you forget to close it?" She peered inside, seeing a mess of electronics and enough lavender incense to sink the Titanic. Sitting on top was what Golf Ball had described — the mind machine.

Making sure not to break anything, she carefully extracted what she needed just as a hand grabbed the back rim of her tin. Pie was yanked into the air and had to pull the machine close to her chest in order to avoid dropping it. "Time to go!" said the voice of Lightning. The clanking of a metal toolbox in his other hand was hard to hear over the angry shouts of many objects below. Projectiles began to soar towards them, and Lightning was forced to dodge and weave in order to avoid getting knocked out of the sky.

They made it through, but barely — a circular sawblade whizzed past the moment Lighting cleared the ceiling and lodged into a dirt wall, wobbling violently for several seconds. Golf Ball sighed from her dirt perch. "What part of 'stealth mission' did you not understand?"

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

Test Tube exhaled a sigh of relief when the three of them returned unscathed. And her mood brightened further upon seeing a strange device in Pie's hands. That can only be one thing. "Welcome back!" she exclaimed, rushing towards the trio once they had touched down. "That's the mind machine?"

"It is," confirmed Golf Ball, taking the device and toolbox from Pie and Lightning. "And I'd appreciate your help on tweaking it. It shouldn't be hard, it's just..." She wiggled her feet.

"Of course! Let's take it to the gazebo; we can work on it there without having to worry about the rain."

"Good thinking."

Ruby bounded over to them as they began walking, Pencil, Fan, and Fanny in tow. "There you are, Golf Ball!" the gemstone greeted. Evidently, even the situation they were all dealing with couldn't suppress her natural cheerfulness for long. "The Shimmers were talking to the human, and he told them some stuff that we thought you might want to know."

Despite Pencil's presence, GB was suddenly intensely interested. "Go on..."

"So you know how Emwhyaitch kidnapped one of their children? Well, apparently, they used the egg's light or whatever to create us!"

The others halted, both out of surprise, and because they had just reached the gazebo. "What?" uttered Test Tube.

Fan butted in. "When she said 'us,' she just meant the Goiky objects. And not all of them; only the original 20 BFDI contestants, apparently."

"I suspected as much," GB mumbled. Not appearing too affected, she sat down and opened her toolbox. "When the Shimmers told us that only Pencil, Eraser, and I had 'the light' within us, I noticed that we were the only three originals from our show present."

Lightning peeked out of the gazebo's entryway at the other objects scattered about the field. "Huh. You're right."

"How long is this going to take?" asked Fanny, leaning against a wall. "I hate waiting."

"Not too long, as Test Tube is going to help me out. But I would appreciate not having any distractions." She enunciated that last word more clearly, obviously referring to a few specific members in the room. Pencil grumbled and stepped outside. "However, there's more problems."

"Oh, what now?"

At this complaint, GB gave Fanny a look. "One: we have no idea what to expect in the dead zone. I will only be projecting my mind into there, and not my physical body, but there is still a considerable amount of risk.

"Aw, how come you get to go in?" whined Fan. "I wanna see the dead zone for myself!"

"Because I am the one that knows the most about this place. But — if you really want to volunteer yourself as a test subject to see if connecting someone up to Fanny will corrupt their mind with Evil Leafy's infection — then I'll gladly let you know when we're done working on the device."

Fan closed his mouth and smartly backed away. Lightning and Ruby also chose this moment to flee before Golf Ball 'volunteered' them too, making her sigh. "Come on, Geebs, that was a bit harsh," reprimanded Test Tube.

GB sighed again. "I'm aware, sorry. It's just— this whole thing is getting to me. And there's still the second problem. I want to bring you along with me."

"No need to worry about that, I'd follow you to the ends of the multiverse!"

"And I, you. But there's only two helmets."

"There's... two of us."

"Two of us, and Fanny. That makes three. Come on, Testy, this is simple math."

From just outside the gazebo, Pencil groaned. "Ugh. More complications. Where are you gonna get a third helmet from?"

"It doesn't have to be a traditional helmet. If it's made of metal, roughly circular, and can fit over our heads without immediately falling off, anything could work." As she spoke, GB's eyes drifted around the area, looking for something that matched. "Perhaps even a frying pan could be modified to our purposes, or something like a..."

She trailed off. Everyone else followed her gaze to discover that she was looking directly at Pie. Or, more specifically... "...something like a pie tin."

Pie glanced down at herself, realization dawning on her face. "Oh."

"Oh, indeed." Test Tube pursed her lips. "Pie..."

"You don't have to convince me." Pie sighed, already resigned to her fate. "The loss of one life is a tragedy, to be sure. But if my death can prevent many more from happening, then I'll willingly sacrifice-"

BOOSH! She combusted without warning, spraying blueberry filling over everything in the vicinity. The others stared at Fanny in shock, who set down her outstretched foot. "What? Someone was gonna have to do it eventually. And I hate speeches."

I guess updating every couple of months is the new norm 💀

sometimes I look back at IDFBC and think, "how the hell did I manage to write chapters for that book that were between 1k-3k words, every week, consistently, for eight fucking MONTHS"