A bit of nervous tension was in the air as Team 5 (and Clock) soared through said air in what used to be the Grand Slams' hot air balloon (it still had the logo on it, though). In the distance, but slowly growing closer, was the looming form of the MeCloud.

Leafy noticed Bubble looking a little apprehensive. "You ok there?"

Bubble shrugged. "Not soire. Oi'm just a bit woirried about whoit we're going to foind up thoire."

"Well, Baseball, Balloon, and I have all been to the MeCloud before," Suitcase said. "It's not a bad place, besides... Cobs."

"Who is this guy, anyway?" Pin wondered. "It looks like we might not get there for a bit, so you may as well tell us what to expect."

Balloon nodded. "Yeah, what do you guys know about him that I don't?"

Sighing, Baseball spoke. "It's... a long story. But, I suppose we can summarize... do any of you remember that egg that Fan used to babysit all the time?"

Several of the BFB contestants nodded. "Wait, this is related to last night?" Clock asked. "I thought that that whole fiasco wasn't Cobs' fault after all."

"It technically was, in a roundabout way. Anyways, like Clock said, a lot of stuff happened last night. The egg began to hatch and made this... really annoying noise. Sort of like Four's screech, but not as hellish. Then it and Test Tube got abducted by an alien spaceship belonging to the egg's species."

Marker whistled. "That went from 0 to 100 real quick."

Suitcase decided to continue. "To make a long story short, we found a rocket and went up to the ship, where the Light Shimmers - that's what those aliens are called - told us about how they lost their youth. It was years ago, but... Cobs tried to steal them."

A collective gasp rose up from the group. "Or rather, some Meeple devices did. The Shimmers got all of their youth back except for two, and the egg Fan has been taking care of for the past few years was one of them. Nobody knows if Cobs actually has the second one or not, but... it was still a hard story to listen to." Her face hardened somewhat. "He is not a good man. Which is another reason that we have to make sure we get MePhone out of there."

It was quiet for a few seconds. "I've never hated someone more in my entire life," Fanny burst out, breaking the silence. "I mean, what type of person separates children from their families?"

"One who's hungry for power, I guess..."

An old memory suddenly popped to the forefront of Leafy's mind. "Uh, sorry if I'm being forgetful, but the egg was light green with darker green stripes, right? In a zig-zag pattern?"

Baseball nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

Leafy's stomach dropped. She'd never paid much attention to the egg, but she wished she had now. Her memory became clearer; it wasn't suppressed, but rather, wrapped up in other memories she wasn't very fond of. She opened her mouth to speak again, hesitated, and finally decided to go for it.

Then they crashed into the side of the MeCloud, the jolt throwing most of the team off.

Balloon sat up, rubbing his head. "I can't believe we managed to crash-land the same balloon on the same cloud twice."

"There goes our element of surprise," Fanny groaned.

"NOT NECESSARILY. WE COULD JUST WALK IN!" Yellow Face suggested.

Several of them stared at him like he was crazy. "No, no, he's got a point," Balloony pointed out. "Cobs likely doesn't know that we know that he has MePhone. We could go in and say that we're just..."

"Looking for a tour," Balloon offered. "He gave both our teams a tour when we and the Bright Lights came here last time."

"Exactly! Then one or two of us could sneak off and try to look for MePhone."

Baseball nodded. "That's a good idea. Suitcase did the same thing the first time we came here, when trying to get a battery for MePhone, and it almost worked."

"Almost?" TV queried.

Giving a nervous chuckle, Suitcase said, "Yeah, I freaked out a little at the end and got caught, so maybe I shouldn't go looking for him."

"I'll go, I guess," Fanny said. "I can just say 'I hate this place' and walk off."

"Good idea, using your catchphrase as an excuse."

"It's not an excuse."

TV stepped forward. "I will go with her as well. Perhaps I may be able to detect any security this place has in advance."

"Ok, but no more than two. Cobs would probably get suspicious otherwise. Also, I hate crowds."

Ding-dong! The main doors of the MeCloud slid open to allow the twelve objects inside. "Woah," Marker said, awestruck by the rows and rows of laptops, phones, watches, and other devices in the spacious front room. "This place is impressive."

"Greetings and salutations!" a familiar voice greeted. Steve Cobs himself stepped into the room, instantly grabbing the attention of all the others. For a split second, he looked surprised at the non-II objects, but he quickly recovered. "I... am Steve Cobs. And welcome to Meeple, where the future is sooooo yesterday. Looks like we have a mixture of familiar faces and unknown objects. How may I be of assistance?"

Baseball decided to take the lead. "Hey, uh, Mr. Cobs! Suitcase, Balloon, and I were talking about how, uh, how wonderful the MeCloud was to our new friends, and they wanted to visit! Do you still give tours?"

Cobs studied each one of them individually for a moment, before setting his eyes on Suitcase. "As long as Miss Briefcase doesn't attempt to steal something again, then I'll accept."

"D-don't worry about me!" Suitcase smiled worriedly. "I've learned my lesson!"

"Good. I'll be keeping an eye on you, just in case. Now, come along!"

Cobs turned on his heels and began to briskly walk away, forcing the others to follow, lest they be left behind. "Even if I didn't know about the aliens, I'd hate this guy already," Fanny whispered to Pin.

"Isn't that a surprise," Pin muttered back.

Their host led them through a long hallway where one of the walls was mostly glass. Dotted at points along the hallway were various generations of older laptops, locked up in display cases for visitors to view. "This is one of the oldest computers here," Cobs announced when they reached the end of the hallway. In the final display case was a battered, broken-looking, very clunky laptop. "I keep it around to remind myself of just how much progress I've made since."

He slowed a little. "By the way, how is that show of MePhone4's doing? I've been quite busy as of late, so I haven't had much time to look at the ratings for the most recent episodes. You're all lucky I had a small gap in my schedule to accept this impromptu tour."

"Oh." Balloon scratched the back of his head. "Well, I'm eliminated-"

"What a shame."

"-but I can try to explain what's..."

As Balloon did his best to distract Cobs, they passed a door labeled 'Employees Only.' TV gently nudged Fanny and silently pointed to it with an arrow on his screen. Fanny nodded, and the two of them quietly peeled away from the group.

They waited until everyone else had rounded the next corner to enter the door, quickly closing it behind them. On the other side was another, darker hallway with one door at the end and several others dotted along the sides. "Alright," Fanny whispered. "Do you detect any security?"

TV ran a quick scan of the area. "Not at the moment."

"Good. I would hate to be caught right now."

The two of them slowly strolled along the path, reading the signs on each door. Most were blank, but a couple actually had labels. Fanny jigged the doorknob on the one that read Cobs' Bedroom, but it was locked.

"Look!" TV whispered. Fanny glanced over to see him pointing at a door with a small window. They peered through to see an unconscious MePhone lying on the ground inside. She smiled. "Bingo."

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

"Oh, this is a good part!" Cobs said giddily as they entered a small room. He walked over to a table which had several watches with screens on top. "These are the latest versions of the Meeple watch! Able to tell time, call a friend, and access many other apps previously only able to be used on MePhones!"

"Watches are wannabes," Clock commented, unamused.

"Yeah, I... still don't really see the appeal," Balloon agreed.

Cobs frowned. "Well, then, maybe you'll like what's in this next room."

He opened a door and waved the others through. The space inside was large, rectangular, and mostly empty, save for a desk near the far side. The wall behind the desk was entirely glass, which allowed the sunlight to stream through and brighten up the room.

The moment everyone was inside, Cobs also entered and closed the door behind him. "What's this room for?" Balloony asked as the corn strode across the floor.

Cobs sat down in a swivel chair behind the desk and straightened himself. "This is my main office," he responded. "It's where I conduct most of my business. And it will be where I offer you lot a deal."

"OOH, I LOVE DEALS!" Yellow Face replied. "I CAN USUALLY RESPECT A GOOD BUSINESS MAN." Baseball gave him a sideways glance of concern.

The owner of Meeple leaned forwards, folding his hands together. "Let's cut to the chase. I know you know I have MePhone4 in... custody. I also know that you came here to get him back, not because you wanted a tour. So here's how this is going to work." He separated his hands. "The green egg that weird fanboy was toting around last time he was here? I want it. In exchange, I'll return your host to you."

Silence. Then: "WHAT?!" Balloon cried, outraged. "Absolutely not! We know what you did to the Shimmers, you monster. We're not handing over their other youth to you!"

"Yeah!" Leafy agreed. "They're not yours to own!"

Calmly, Cobs pressed a button on the underside of his desk. "Then I think I'll change the deal slightly."

A side door in the office opened and MePhoneX came out, followed by several unfamiliar devices. "Unless you give me the egg, you will not be getting your host back, nor will you be leaving this building."

"HEY! THAT'S NOT HOW DEALS WORK!" YF complained.

"Well, even if we wanted to give you the egg, we couldn't!" Clock shouted angrily. "The Shimmers came to the island last night. They already have their youth back, and I doubt you'd want to mess with them again!"

Cobs was deadly quiet for a moment. "Very well, then," he finally spoke, his voice strained. "MPX, MePods — take these ten trespassers into cells 2-5 and lock them up in pairs. If they try to resist, pop... Bubble? I don't know what you are. Pop that round, blue thing."

Leafy and Pin looked like they wanted to fight for a moment, but they let themselves get escorted out through the side door by the Meeple devices. The other eight soon followed.

They emerged into a partially dark hallway with several doors on either side, and another one at the end. Bubble happened to look inside one of the door's windows to see Fanny and TV trapped inside, attempting to wake up a deactivated MePhone4. She gasped but was quickly ushered into a room of her own before she could do anything more. Leafy was forcibly shoved inside as well moments before the door slid closed.

"Oh, goish." Bubble put her hands to her head. "Thois is roilly bad. Loike... roilly bad."

"It's ok! I'm sure we'll find a way out eventually," Leafy said, doing her best to be cheerful. "But in the meantime..." She pulled out a yoyleberry from behind her back. "...maybe you should eat this, just in case Cobs tries something again."

Bubble stared at it. "But... whoit about Golf Boill's poilicy about-"

"Golf Ball's not here," the lemon leaf interrupted. "And I think your life's a little more important than her feelings right now."

Bubble ate the yoyleberry.

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

"Hello??" Balloony banged on the wall of his cell. "Pin? Clock? Can anyone hear us??"

"It's no use," Balloon sighed. "The walls are probably soundproofed if they haven't answered already."

"Well- yeah, I guess you're right..."

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

Pin glanced at Yellow Face. "I don't suppose you have any products that could potentially get us out of here?"

"LET'S SEE..." He began to pull out a random assortment of items from behind his back. "EARMUFFS, SPOONS, GUMBALLS, PAPER SLIPS; MAYBE WE CAN BRIBE COBS WITH SOME OF THOSE?"

"I doubt it."

"BUMPER STICKERS, NON-SLIP SHOES SO... AHA!" He hauled out something that vaguely resembled a pickaxe. "WE CAN BREAK OUR WAY OUT OF HERE IN NO TIME!"

The door to their cell opened. A MePod promptly stuck its head inside, grabbed the pickaxe, and left again, closing the door behind it.

Pin and YF stared at the spot where the door blended into. "Well, that was short-lived."

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

"Anything?"

Marker looked at his cell phone dismally. "No signal. I think Cobs has blocked it completely."

"Shoulda seen that coming." Baseball sat down glumly. "Oh, why didn't we tell anyone where we were going?"

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

Clock kicked at the door half-heartedly. "Uhg. We should have known he'd be expecting us." He turned and sat down next to Suitcase, who was already huddled against the wall. He glanced at her and saw her shaking. "Oh jeez. You ok?"

Suitcase shook her head. "What- what if he kills us? O-or tortures us?"

"Woah, hey. He's not gonna kill us. And I'm... pretty sure he won't torture us, either. We'll just have to hold out until someone comes and rescues us." He rolled his eyes. "Unlike The Losers, I doubt anybody at Hotel OJ is going to forget about me, or any of the rest of us. We'll be fine in the end. All we have to do is wait..."

Cobs 👎