'A Sproing In Your Step...' (An I. I. I. story.)

The Deal part 1.

(Setting this back on the III island for the chapter)

Mephone4 paced around Floory while mumbling to himself. Floory felt bad. I mean, it's not every day that someone you trust manipulated you and stole your contestants.

"Why did I trust Springy in the first place?! He took my fucking ki- I mean, contestants!!" Mephone4 ranted.

Floory worriedly called everyone over. And as soon as everyone showed up, Mephone4 yelled at them.

"Gather round, final few! I have an announcement to make! A very important one!" Mephone4 exclaimed.

Silver Spoon groaned.

"More important than my royal beauty nap?" He asked, as he grumbled and mumbled.

"Yes, much more important than your 'RoYaL BeAuTy NaP'!" Mephone4 mocked, put air quotes on 'Royal beauty nap'.

That was a sign that something was definitely wrong. Mephone4 never usually mocked someone like that.

"What's wrong, Mephone?" Balloon asked.

"Well, Balloon," Mephone4 said. "If you don't remember,  Olivia and T were stolen by Springy. So, todays challenge is to GET. THEM. BACK!"

The contestants stood there, confused. They didn’t know where to start. But, they started anyway. There was still a million dollars on the line.

"Do we have a plan yet?" asked Sliver Spoon.

"No. But we would if yOU WOULD HELP US!" shouted Balloon angrily.

He was being more aggrieved than usual. No one knew why. Maybe it was because he wanted to win and thought everyone was in his way. Or maybe he had a relationship problem. No one knew the real reason, only Balloon.

Balloon grumbled to himself and walked away. He was frustrated. Very frustrated. And he didn't want to talk about it. He just wanted to be left alone. With him. With Nickel. He loved Nickel. But he was worried that Nickel wouldn't love him back. Which made Balloon sad. Which made him mad. His thoughts stopped. He heard a noise, and his side started to hurt. He winced in pain. He looked down and saw a... a bottle! A little green bottle sitting near the shore of the island.

Where did this come from? He thought as he picked it up. He inspected it, looking for any sign of who it came from. When he looked at the bottom, he saw an apple with a bite taken out of it. The Meeple logo. He definitely knew this had something to do with Cobs. So, he looked around for more. To his surprise, there were 10-15 more around the island, all sitting unprotected. Like they wanted to be found.

---

Cabby and Yin-Yang had found them, too. And they are confused as to where they were coming from.

"I bet it's from somewhere stupid, like West Virginia," Yang joked.

"No, West Virginia's cool! It's where humans used to live!" Yin protested.

Yang rolled his eye.

"The name is stupid!! Like you!! Haha!" Yang laughed.

Him and Yin argued about it as Cabby sighed hopelessly. And she rolled away. She looked around for any more bottles. And she found 2 more. She picked them up and inspected them.

"Why did Cobs make these?" She wondered.

Then, she heard a noise. It was the sound of rustling. It caught her off guard. She turned towards the sound, tensing up all over.

"Who's there?!" She shouted, being defenseless, but in fight-or-flight mode.

The leaves rustled some more. The sky darkened with clouds. Cabby's breathing quickened. She felt scared. She saw no way out. She was lost in the woods, and whatever else was out there was gonna eat her. She held her arm and closed her eyes tightly. She wished that whatever was out there would make this quick. All at once, something grabbed her and took her.

---

Mephone4 sighed boredly as Floory was talking about his favorite food.

"And Tea Kettle hors d'oeuvres are so good, I would do anyth-"

"MEPHONE4!!!"

Balloon ran over to Mephone4 and The Floor, interrupting their talk.

"Yes?" Mephone4 asked.

"I-... Cobs-"

"COBS!?" Mephone4 gasped.

Floory was surprised as well. How could Cobs have gotten here? It was so far away from everything. Just then, Yin-Yang ran over, trying to chase a runaway bottle. Mephone gasped at the bottle. He knew it from one of his moments with Cobs.

"This is your fault, Yin!" yelled Yang.

"My fault? You threw it!" Yin argued.

They both continued quarreling. Mephone4 ignored them and grabbed the bottle. He observed it, sniffing it and feeling it.

"It's- j-just like... his..." He mumbled while feeling it.

Just then, the bottle unexpectedly started shaking. Mephone4 instantly let it go in fear. It continued shaking and quivering violently. It was like something was in there, just bursting to get out. And then, it started to lift itself off of the ground. It continued quivering and shaking, but now it was in the air. It was trembling and quivering a little faster now, still defying gravity. And it was now at least seven feet in the air as it shook and juddered. Something was now clearly being seen between its translucent bottle green color. Finally, after it was now thirty-five feet in the air, it still juddered, and it projected something. It looked like static at first, but when it became clearer, Mephone4 wished he hadn't touched it.

"Hello, Mephone4."