CO Short Stories [COMPLETED]

[Canon] Bottom Two

July 6th, 2020

Ruby hummed to herself idly as she watched The Losers' elimination ceremony from afar. She felt an electric presence approach her from behind. "Wazzup, Lightning?" she said without looking back.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Lightning's slightly raspy voice asked. "You seem like the most reasonable object on our team to talk to about this. Snowball's a moron, Fanny hates everything, Bubble's fragile, and Flower's... well, Flower."

She didn't take her eyes off The Losers. "I'm listening."

The energy bolt floated into her peripheral vision. "It's about BEEP. They've been kinda weak from the start, losing three members before Gabop even lost one. Recently, I think I've noticed something... they've changed."

"Go on."

"Since they lost three times in nine episodes, it would only make sense for them to keep losing, right? Since they were the weakest team until Team Ice Cube lost Spongy. But there's been twelve challenges between now and then, and they still haven't gone up for elimination again."

"Oh." Ruby thought about it for a second and realized he was right. "So?"

Lightning began to count off on his fingers. "First, in episode 14, they were in the bottom two with Gabop. There's no way they should have won, and yet, they did - the weakest team out there managed to beat the strongest. Then, in episode 18, they beat Death PACT in a bottom two. Last time that happened, Death PACT came out on top. Episode 20, the thunderstorm challenge - they killed all of you guys with Woody's emerald, or whatever, and caused A Better Name Than That to lose. Then, just last challenge, we had Woody in our boat when his other four teammates found him - remember? The moment they got Woody, the challenge ended, and The Losers lost. They escaped another bottom two."

Ruby glanced at him, then back at the elimination area just in time to see Cake get sucked up by Four.
"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is, they seem... well, now they seem like the unbeatable team. Like they're stronger than before." Lightning paused. "I don't know what it is, but they just can't seem to lose again."

(yeah, it's called author's bias LMAO)

Ruby finally pulled her full attention away from The Losers and towards Lightning. An excited look shone in her eyes. "So are you saying you want to try to go after them?"

Lightning scratched his chin. "Not yet. I want to try observing for one more challenge to see how they do. But if they prove to be too strong... then yes, I think we should try targeting them specifically."

"COOL!!" Ruby jumped into the air and pumped her fist, startling Lightning a little. "I've never had a specific target before! Let's go tell the others!"

"Quiet down!" Lightning hissed, yanking her back before she could run off. "We don't want any BEEPers to overhear us! Also, don't go and just tell the rest of iance yet. If I'm proved wrong, then you'll just get them riled up for nothing."

Ruby nodded, then wrenched herself out of his grip and skipped away, hopefully not heading off to tell the first object she saw about their plans. Maybe I should have gone to Bubble about this instead, Lightning worried.

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

Four clapped his hands, and a fancy runway fell from the sky and landed with a crash next to the contestants. "Fashion show!!" he shouted gleefully. "Earlier today, Flower very generously donated her entire stock of clothing merchandise to me to use for this contest."

"Hey!" Flower protested loudly. "You said you'd pay for everything!"

"You'll get it all back later!" Four shouted back. "Anyway, all y'all teams will have a variety of merch to choose from. You'll have half an hour to put together an outfit and choose a team member to represent your team. Then, when time is up, the chosen representatives will show off their outfits on the runway here-" Four gestured to the structure next to him. "-one by one. Me and two other mystery guests will be judging the entries."