Chapter Text
“This isn’t unsettling at all.” Basketball humphed as she trailed behind Barf Bag and Saw. The unlikely trio quietly walked through the dimly lit halls of their college, taking note of every little detail after breaking into the main building. “Why couldn’t we meet her somewhere that doesn’t entail us breaking and entering?”
“Wish I could answer that.” Barf Bag flashed the little notecard she had been given. Rereading the number, she muttered just loud enough where the others could hear, “Room number 111 A.”
“Oh! I know that one!” Saw exclaimed and pointed down a hall. “The first door on the left!”
Sure enough, the door read exactly that and when Barf Bag twisted the knob, the door swiveled open, building her confidence that their client was in this dark classroom. That confidence became all but guaranteed when she also witnessed stringed lights running down one of the aisles between the rows of seats, completed with a huge sign reading, “WELCOME!” in sloppy handwriting.
“Okay… are we sure this isn’t a trap?” Basketball inquired.
Barf Bag didn’t reply and instead descended the ramp which was well lit with the string lights. Another big sign read, “RESERVED SEATS THIS WAY —>” at the bottom of the slope, pointing out three chairs with little paper tags taped to them. The middle seat was reserved for Barf Bag with Saw and Basketball taking those right beside her.
As soon as they got settled, someone leapt onto the front desk. Shadows clashing upon shadows left little room to visualize the shape of the object. Then again, they had a good idea on their identity and any tenses in their muscles relaxed.
“I knew you would find your way here.” The voice stated. Somewhere from behind the trio, a bright flashlight focused on a whiteboard behind them as the figure stepped into the light and gestured to the writing, “So, welcome, to the One’s Necessary Extermination club!”
None of them looked impressed in the slightest as Pencil’s copy did not let her smile remain for long. As it faltered, her voice wavered alongside it, “I’m assuming this is a no to the blood oath?”
“BLOOD OATH?!” Saw squeaked.
“Pencil, we are not taking a blood oath.” Barf Bag remained unimpressed. At that moment, the lights flicked on properly. “Plus, why did you feel the need to name this meeting?”
“Oh! So you’re not fond of my creative names?! Fine! We’ll just abbreviate it to…” When she took the first letter of every word, she found it spelled out “ONE.”
“Oh, One’s going to love that.” Basketball leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. “Sounds like we’re her fan club now.”
With a short lived scream, Pencil lashed the expo marker all over the board. Its solvent bled all over and by the time her previous writing was left intelligible, the poor marker’s tip was squashed beyond salvaging. Pencil tossed the utensil across the room, hitting the trash can. The professor probably spent his own personal family budget on the once perfectly good marker. Slamming her hands upon the desktop, she growled, “Are you willing to listen to me tonight, or what?”
“Just waiting on you.”
“I AM TOO!” A new, unfamiliar voice called out in a rough, loud voice. Bounding down the other ramp came a cyan, plain bracelet with the flashlight from earlier in her hands. Bouncing around Pencil, she stated, “I WANT TO GET TO EXHIBIT I!!!”
“I am getting there!” Pencil lightly shoved the band back. Finally granted the spotlight she wanted. “So! No one has plans to defeat One I presume?”
“We just got back from dealing with a psychotic spring.” Barf Bag droned. “That plus trying to not fail college is up on our priorities.”
“Yeah, our finals are this week.” Saw reasoned. “We need more time to figure things out.”
“Like more information?” The fake Pencil raised a brow.
“I guess that’ll help. What do you know?”
“Oh! I don’t know much more that’ll help, but I know someone who does!” Pencil walked off to the side as the bracelet dashed behind the desk. “Fellow exterminators, I’d like you to meet Exhibit I!”
The bracelet held up a cube of ice and Pencil added on, “But you can just call her Ice Cube.”
“Does she know something about One?” Basketball wondered.
“OF COURSE SHE DOES!!! DON’T YOU ICE CUBE?!” The bracelet set the cube of ice down.
Ice Cube uncomfortably backed away from the bracelet before letting her gaze meet the trio: “So… you’ve all met One?”
“Technically I haven’t.” Saw raised her hand. “But they have.”
The frozen one’s eyes focused on Barf Bag and Basketball, wide with curiosity and wonder: “What did she do to you two?”
Barf Bag answered that question for her, “Well, we stumbled upon her little room pocket dimension or whatever you call it one night. She then binded us to this other dimension called “The Non-existent Plane,” and I think she tried to erase our existence from here, in the real world.”
Saw slunk down, hugging her arms with the slightest confirming nod.
“We escaped, but there’s still so many others trapped down there. One of our friends included.”
“Oh….” Ice Cube blinked. “I suppose I got the better end of the stick.”
“What did she do to you?”
A solemn expression overtook Ice Cube’s face as she recounted her story: “About a year ago, a car run off the road and barreled right into me. Everyone lived, but the incident left me paralyzed from the waist down.” Her definitely not paralyzed legs twisted and shuffled as she huffed. “While I was asleep in the hospital, One took me into her little… pocket dimension. I believe it’s the same one you talked about. She said I would never walk again without her help. She could heal me, but in return, I had to be in debt to her. They offered me a contract.”
Barf Bag’s gaze upon Ice Cube’s standing legs was so intense that it could be considered borderline rude: “And you took that deal?”
Ice Cube’s lips twisted, “What else was I to do? Yeah, I don’t want to be paralyzed all my life, but it makes it even worse when I have no hands to work a wheelchair. That and I’d imagine one that works on voice commands may not be entirely reliable yet. I knew it was a bad choice, but it was realistically my only option. So, I signed that paper and woke back up in the hospital bed. I left with the doctors bewildered at the miracle that occurred with absolutely no answer to my impossible recovery. But I know the unbearable truth.”
<><><>
“That she does!”
Basketball jolted at the familiar, feminine voice, accidentally knocking into Barf Bag as she did so. Barf Bag jolted with her and asked, “Basketball, you alright?”
An exhale hitched in her throat as she fought for an explanation. Tucking her legs under her chair sheepishly, she played it off, “Sorry! I… my eyes played a trick on me. The sudden change of lighting probably got to me.”
“WHAT?! Is the safety of our extermination compromised?!” Pencil whipped her head about wildly.
“No, Pencil. Calmed down.” Ice Cube deadpanned, probably missing out on some well needed sleep. Getting over that fact, she inquired further, “So… what all happened down there?”
Rubbing her head, Barf Bag explained, “That’s a long story, but to shorten it…”
As Barf Bag rambled on their adventures thus far, the sports ball stared at Pencil, unknowingly from everyone else’s attention.
No one but Basketball seemed to note the armless, blue number that danced about the writing utensil. They skipped and bounced about her, pretending to kick at her and blow right in her face. Yet she kept herself just out of reach from Pencil, keeping her whereabouts just to herself and Basketball. Eagerly stepping in place, their smirk met Basketball’s gaze too directly to be a coincidence.
Then One spoke right to Basketball, “Isn't this fun? You get to enjoy this too! Just say the word and I’ll be more than happy to cloak you with invisibility as well!”
Basketball narrowed her eyes.
Their jaw dropped as One held a knee up to their mouth, “Ooooohhhhhh! Right! How could I forget? You can’t say a word or else you’ll give me away! And what will happen when everyone knows I’m right here?”
The powerful algebralien skipped up to Barf Bag, becoming uncomfortably close to the trio. Standing just inches in front of an unaware Barf Bag, One began to kick out wildly at her, shouting, “Wah-pow! Bam! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! BANG! Dead! In the blink of an eye without a warning or an explanation. You’re completely powerless here!” She giggled and spun about with evil glee. When she stopped, she strutted up to Basketball and took the seat beside her.
Then the algebralien leaned into Basketball, smiling as she dug herself into the rubber ball: “Why don’t we listen back in? Don’t want to miss any important information.”
“…our second trip we only saw her once, but I think that’s mostly because we were too busy to run into her.” Barf bag concluded.
One sat down in the chair next to Basketball and kicked her legs, “Meh. What point was there, really? That spring never had the opportunity to threaten me. Why not let them do all the work for me?”
“Hmm… that doesn’t give us a lot of clues.” Ice Cube pondered. “Except there seem to be a lot of contracts. She must be planning something big.”
One smiled in her seat, her expression clearly reading, ‘Oh. If only you could know. Actually- I can’t wait for you to know!’
“Maybe… and hear me out here, we should go ask my friend for her ideas. She went through something similar with them.”
“Which dorm is she in?” Saw asked.
“Dorm #302.”
“Dorm #302.” One synced up with the cube of ice.
“We could go visit her now.” Ice Cube prompted. “She has night classes so she’s up and the college gives her a dorm all to herself because of it.”
“Is this one of Pencil’s enemies?” The fake Pencil asked.
“Yes.”
“When does the list end?”
“I mean, I guess if you don’t mind.” Barf Bag shrugged. “We could at least introduce ourselves and exchange numbers and sleep schedules so we can get into contact.”
“I’M VERY LOST HERE.” The bracelet claimed. “BUT! I ALWAYS BELIEVE WHAT ICY HAS TO SAY.”
“I’ll take you to her then.” Ice Cube begrudgingly ignored the band by glancing up at the fake Pencil. “You coming?”
“Someone’s gotta clean up. Besides, I don’t have to repair all the bridges the true Pencil destroyed.” Pencil took an eraser and began working at the whiteboard. “You guys go do your detective work. I’ll be around, unfortunately.”
“Keep wallowing.” One scoffed as the others rose out of their seats. While the rest of the objects posed against her filed out of the room, she groaned, “Why in the world did I think trusting that phone to generate a living object was a good idea? He could’ve at the very least made her obedient and apathetic.”
With everyone turned away from Basketball and One, the former was able to get a quiet word in, “Who?”
“Some phone who I sent down to the plane.” One took to Basketball’s side as they walked down the dark hallways. “He’s actually pretty content down there as long as he’s got his game show to entertain him. I think he was a runaway from some sort of big company here? They built him with strange powers that can create life! Isn’t that wonderful?! I wish I could get my non-existent hands on that sort of power!”
Basketball refused to remove her gaze from the numeral as the objects chatted away ahead.
One wasn’t impressed, “You should stop watching me that intently. Seriously, what are you going to do that’ll stop me here?” She swung herself around and began walking backwards to better face the sports ball. “Your weapons are back on the plane while I have all my power with me. Plus, I’m really doing you a favor by remaining visible…”
Just like that, she was gone. Whipping her head around, Basketball tried to identify the smallest slip-up One could make to pinpoint her location. But over the chatter of those unaware of her predicament and the lighting of the hallway, she couldn’t find a clue. Suddenly, a light, warm weight settled on top of her and One rematerialized. It took every ounce of mental strength within Basketball to not shake the algebralien off and cause a scene, because just like One claimed, “I’m an all powerful being, B-ball. Really, I’m doing you a favor by being visible. …actually, maybe not. It’d be so much better on you if you didn’t have a clue that I’ve always been here. Watching. Planning.
Our first battle was a fluke on my part. The next time we formally meet, I’m not backing out, no matter what.”
Without a choice, Basketball carried One out of the building, trailing the objects she had grown to enjoy in the past couple of months. They had no idea.
And Basketball hoped it would stay that way, for everyone’s sake.
<><><>
“It’s right here.” Ice Cube led them all up to the dorm on the third floor. The band, (they learned to be Braceletly,) would not leave Ice Cube’s side, even going so far to offer, “OOO! ICY! LET ME KNOCK FOR YOU!”
Before Icy could snap at her again, Bracelety did just that. As they waited for an answer in the narrow hallway, Barf Bag got Ice Cube’s attention, “And you’re sure she’s home right now?”
“Fanny’s not the one to be out and about if she can help it.” Ice Cube shook her head. “Plus, she should have just gotten back from her psychology class. There’s no way we’ll miss her.”
Barf Bag gave a curt nod and the five of them waited.
…
They waited some more.
…
They waited so long that Braceletly knocked again.
…
Finally, Ice Cube called out, “Fanny? Are you home?”
Still, the silence continued.
“Actually, I’ll just call her.” Ice Cube pulled out her phone and dialed her up. Her phone rang as they awaited for Fanny to pick up.
But the answer machine did so for her.
“Break down the door.”
Barf Bag thought she heard her wrong: “What?”
“BREAK DOWN THE DOOR!” Ice Cube’s shout echoed down the halls. The urgency dragged through the air as Basketball made her way to the keycard system, but before she got an action in, Bracelety scooped up Saw, “I’LL GET IT!”
“No! Put me down!” Saw screamed, not getting a choice in the matter as Bracelety began sawing through the door. Before Basketball could bypass the system, Bracelety set Saw down and stuck her hand through a narrow opening in the door. Unlocking it from the other side, she burst into the dorm, calling out, “FANNNNNYYYY! ICY WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!”
As the group piled in, Barf Bag took note of the empty beds and the bathroom door that stood agape. Without needing to move an inch, they could all tell that no one was home.
Ice Cube hurriedly dialed up Fanny again and left a voice mail, hoping the worst had not come to her.
<><><>
But that next morning, a solid answer arrived:
Fanny hadn’t made it to her classes the previous night. There wasn’t a trace of her last whereabouts.