The whole day the group at the cave had left and ventured the forest in attempt to find the lab. It took them a while, because Golfball actually got lost at some point, which made them lose a lot of time. Because they lost that time, night approached sooner than they wanted, which was bad due to the incoming storm. The night was rough.. especially for those who were most vulnerable to the rain. Jr was shielded the most to be protected, but luckily they all made it through the night under a tree, despite the thunder and the pounding rain.
So the morning came and the rain had stopped, but the storm clouds were still around.. it was clear that the storm wasn't quite over yet.. so they needed to get a move on before the thunder picked up again. Luckily, they had been quite close.. so they found the lab in no time.
The group silenced and slowed down upon seeing the lab over the bushes, Golfball being front so had the best view. She exhaled silently and made a stern face as she paused her walking, coming to a slow hault. This wasn't going to be easy for any of them.. but knew it would be harder for some in specific. Lollipop stared in hurt, Gaty looking up at her with guilt and concern. Anchor put his hand on Lightnings shoulder, but Lightning pulled away unexpectedly and may his way over before any of them, flying over the bushes hastily.
"F-Fanny-" Lightning blurted, catching everyone's attention. Blackhole was the second to speak up, trying to follow him over the bushes. "L-Lightning .. wait up, please-" he warned, trying to keep behind him.
Lightning slowed down, gradually stopping as he looked down below him to where Fannys body had been left. He had his mouth mildly ajar but didn't know what to say, floating around her and hovering his hand over her in hesitance to touch her dead body.
Golfball looked down in sorrow, shaking her head. The others began to walk foward as well, knowing that this was only the beginning, and there were most likely more bodies to be found.. they couldn't have all been destroyed. Tree jogged away from the group to where Lightning and Blackhole were, putting his arms by his sides as Lightning struggled with the sight.
"..Lightning.." Tree murmured weakly, able to see the pain in his eyes from witnessing Fanny being lifeless. Lightning avoided getting too upset, gazing down at her lifeless body painfully, unable to take his eyes away. Her face was down into the ground, but he didn't want to see it anyways, knowing thats where her main stab wound was. The absorber device connected to the transmitter that had been ripped from his back lay on the ground, still connected to her. He felt so awful.. it looked all ruined by the rain.
Seeing her when she was so full of life..compared seeing her now..it was a lot to swallow.
"Do you.. think the water and snow did a lot of damage to the lab?" Tennisball quietly theorised, not wanting to ruin the atmosphere. Snowball crossed his arms, looking away from the morbid scene silently. Basketballs gaze softened upon looking at him.. he was obviously upset about Fanny.
"I..I don't know." Golfball admitted as she watched this play out. "I.. need to go into the lab.." she turned her attention towards it, Lollipop perking up at this. She placed Jr down with care from her shoulder onto the groynd, him frowning up at her. "I'll go with you.." Lollipop volunteered, offering help.
Jr looked towards the blackened entrance..the damage from the explosion was already visible from where they all stood. The lab must have caught on fire as soon as the explosion occurred ..even if someone survived the explosion, they would have burned to death afterwards anyways... that was brutal.
"I'll come too." Jr agreed after. Gaty looked up at Lollipop. "A...Are you sure? It's dangerous in there..Lollipop.." Gaty voiced her worries, trailing off.
"I am..." Lollipop assured her friend, seeming stern. Golfball nodded after. "Gaty is correct.. it will be dangerous due to the unstable structure from the fire.. and the rain too, it would not have made it much better. We will have to tread carefully, but who knows.. maybe it will be safe afterall.." she suggested hopefully.
She knew it wouldn't be.. the damage could be seen from here. It looked like they would have to make a new place to stay afterall.. she wasn't sure how easy it would be to redeem parts, nor tread carefully down there. The rain would have worsened its state.. same with the snow.
"Anyone else coming?" Lollipop offered, looking back at the group as she walked over to the stairs with the other two. Blocky stepped forward and seemed like he was about to speak, but didn't. His gaze then fell to the floor, losing his energy. "I..I don't know if.. I want to see.." he whispered after, Eraser putting his arm around him in comfort.
Clock looked around for any more volunteers. Pen raised his hand shyly, stepping forward. "I-I'll come too..." he concluded, earning a nod from Lollipop. He jogged over to tag along.
"Stay safe!" Eraser called as the group made their way towards where the stairs to the door were located. They approached gradually, knowing there wasn't any rush. Golfball stood with her feet nearing the edge of the stairs, swallowing at the sight. The heavy doors were open a little, so you could see the darkness inside.. there was no way she was going to get her systems working up again.
"I'll go first." Lollipop stated bravely, making her way down the stairs. She approached the doors, grunting as she attempted to squeeze herself through the gap in the middle. She did so, stumbling into the lab. Her eyes widened and she backed up however, staring at the floor fearfully.
From the fire, or the explosion, it had caused the floor inside to collapse, revealing the basement underneath. Some of the floor had collapsed though..not all of it. The main destruction was the floor right in front of the doorway, it left a huge gaping hole in the centre of the labs entrance. She side stepped around it slowly, intimidated from all of the scorched materials around her that were coated in black charcoal. Eveything was destroyed.. she looked up at the ceiling.. fire had even reached there. The place must've went up in flames throughly.
The rest of the group entered, pushing their way through the door and into the lab as well. Golfball was the most shocked, kind of upset to see all of her work in such a state. Everything she had known.. the place she basically lived.. turned to ashes and debris. She took a moment to take in eveything with her gaze, taking a deep breath as she was unsure where to look. The place smelled of wet smoke..
How would they salvage anything from this mess.. mostly everything had been destroyed. Lollipop went to venture off, her walking slow so she could take in everything that she passed. The walls had blackened, and the crates had collapsed into basically nothing but a pile of ash and mess, their contents destroyed or unusable.
This was awful.. she hadn't realised the amount of damage that had been unleashed on the place that they called their home. She adjusted her eye piece, trying to look for anything that could be salvaged..
The damage in this area was noticeably worse due to Bomby being right next to it. She hesitated and stopped her walking, shaking her head subtlety at the sad sight she saw before her.
Woodys body.. it had mostly been destroyed by the fire, but it was clear it was his. Only his lower half remained, she couldn't even see his arms. She brought a hand up to her chest area, her other hand holding her elbow.. she felt sorry.
Jr joined her from behind, silently because of his small body. "..Damn.. that's him, huh?" Jr speculated, looking up at her for confirmation. She managed nothing but a nod, agreeing with him more like. She looked around elsewhere, trying to gather an understanding of what this used to look like before it had been submerged in flames.
Jr followed her as she began to walk, having to walk faster due to her longer legs. He caught up to her as she had began to venture to the other side of the room, which was where Golfball was. Pen was nowhere here.. but Jr had seen him go down into the basement earlier.
"Found anything?" Golfball inquired as Lollipop came over, and from the sounds of it Gb hadn't exactly found much herself. Lollipop gazed backwards, a small exhale escaping her lips. "Yes.. unfortunately I did. I.. seem to have found the remains of Woodys body.."
Golfball thought about what she said, before looking across the room with remorse, sighing heavily. "..I see. We might as well leave the bodies we find where they are.. I.. do not think that we will be staying here.."
"Where will we be staying..?" Lollipop furrowed her eyebrows, kind of annoyed as Gb had claimed this place was sturdy and therefore would be fine. Jr crossed his arms, squinting. "Yeah, the fuck will we be staying? Outside??? In the open??" He criticised.
"Don't be so bothered." Golfball fumed with hostility at him, before closing her eyes and calming down, opening them again to look at Lollipop. "We will have to find what we can here and make our own new base. That is... all I can think of.. I feel like it is unwise to stay in that cave, there is not enough certainty that we will be safe inside of it." She declared.
"Oh, what, and a shitty diy house is better??" Jr shot back. Golfball glared back at him irritably. "We have SCIENTISTS on our team. I made this place from SCRATCH, have you forgotten?!" She spat viciously back at him, frustrated with his constant comments.
He rolled his eyes, uncrossing his arms. "Tch, whatever." He was in a mood, turning on his heel and walking around to look for anything else. Lollipop followed calmly, her hands behind her back. "..Jr.. we will be able to make somewhere to stay, remember. There is enough of us to secure a-"
"I KNOW, Lollipop.." He cut her off, breathing out in frustration. She glanced down at the smaller object, her eyes lidded. "So you are arguing for the sake of argument?"
"I'm just ANNOYED, okay..? I'm pissed off at Two.. and Liy and Loser and Leafy. It's that douchebag Liys fault that Bomby exploded.. she made me set him on fire.. and it fucking hurts to think about.." he admitted, frowning and glaring at the ground and his feet as he walked. Lollipop felt pity for him, knowing he was just dealing with grief in his own way. "..I know.." she replied softly.
Jr would never forgive Liy for all the shit she had pulled.. she had been the cause of so many deaths.. she reminded him of Two. Careless and sadistic.. he just wanted her to finally be able to pay for everything, to know that she was suffering would fix his pain.. for a moment, though. Nothing could ever fill the gap of losing his friend.
"I'm sick of the bullshit." Jr spat viciously, shaking his head angrily. Because of the darkness of the building, he was basically the only light, and he illuminated the area in a yellow glow. Lollipop agreed, tired as she listened to their walking and the rest of the silence of the area. There was a sound of dripping coming from somewhere..probably from the rain before hand.
"I-" Jr was about to say something else to follow what he had been speaking about, but was cut off and caught off guard as something attracted his gaze. He suddenly ran ahead of Lollipop, her startled by his sudden fast pace. "Don't run-" she stated in demand, speed walking to follow him. She knew it was dangerous to act so wreckless, aware that the floor below them could collapse at any moment.
"H-Holy shit.." he croaked, stumbling onto his knees. His hands hovered over something on the floor, so when Lollipop finally caught up to him she attempted to peer over his shoulder and spot what he had been so focused on. She felt herself fill with guilt, putting her hand out to him slowly. "Oh, ...Fj.."
It was Bombys eyepatch.. the light blue one... Bomby was able to have a nice looking eyepatch because his eye was injured pretty early on in the war. During the very first attack, after the blast, he had been attacked head on by Two, because Bomby was the first to retaliate after Four. The pair rushed off in the opposite direction into the forest after he got hurt, but came across Cloudys collection and took the eyepatch out from there.
Now it was here.. mostly burned, and it couldn't be worn anymore because of the fire damage. But the main part was still in tact, Jr tracing it with his hand. "Sh..Shit.. man.. I..I... I..thought this would have been destroyed..."
"We can take this up to the surface .." Lollipop spoke in reassurance, wanting to comfort him. "Keep it safe..."
He nodded slow in agreement, passing it over to her so she could hold it instead, knowing it was less likely that it would get destroyed that way.. mostly because Lollipop wasn't fire. She took it gracefully in her hands, being delicate to be careful not to destroy such a precious item to him.
"How's everything going down here..?" Trees voice echoed into the basically empty lab as he made his way downstairs, the two looking over to see him squeezing himself through the metal gap. "Just wanted to check on you all ..to make sure you haven't...." he trailed off, stumbling into the room but to a hault. "Oh...my.. sapling- what.. on earth happened in here..?" He looked over to them, shock planted all over his face.
"I..Is..is this what.. the explosion did..? This is...terrible." his eyes were drawn to the cavity in the centre of the lab, stepping away from it carefully as small parts crumbled onto the floor on the lower layer. Lollipop sighed dissapointedly. "It..unfortunately is. We didn't realise how.. powerful the explosion actually was.."
"I..Is that ..8-ball..?" Tree suddenly announced, pointing down into the hole as his attention was still directed towards it. Lollipop furrowed her eyebrows, walking over and leaning across slowly to observe the downwards area. Jr was confused, trotting along to follow her. "8-Ball? Like alive?"
"No, very dead." Tree bluntly responded, feeling awkward from how blunt he had been afterwards. He pointed and Lollipop tried to spot him, her inhaling as she saw him. Tree was right.. he was there.. destroyed. It looked like he hadn't been burned so.. he must've just died from the explosion... and fell down here after the floor had been wrecked. It looked like the fall had done the most damage, as he had been cracked open. Jr cringed, looking away immediately. "Ughgg.."
Golfball came over, spotting the sight immediately. She backed up a little from the surprise that it caused her to feel, blinking a few times from being overwhelmed. "Oh-.. Oh..I..I didn't expect that... uh.." she tried to pull herself together.
"Yeah, I saw it when I came down.." Pen commented from the basement below, walking into view. He looked up at them all, giving a small wave to Tree who waved to him back almost in sync. "Mg.. it makes me feel bad." He ran a hand along his cap, in regret.
"You couldn't have done much more than you did, Pen." Tree assured, glancing down to him with crossed arms. "I-"
Tree winced and cut himself off as he almost slipped down into the opening, backing up as some of the surface crumbled. Planks of burned wood fell across from Pen, him watching with concern. "Be careful, please--??" He stressed, Tree regaining his posture after some struggle.
"Oh hush, it was a slip up." Tree denied any worry, before beginning to walk to where the basement stairs were. Lollipop and Jr followed, but Golfball stayed, not following immediately. She waited for a few moments in her own place of thought, before exhaling and tagging along behind the group.
Seeing this place in such a state had made her feel a lot of things.. she still had yet to explore the upper areas, but knew it was unsafe because of how unstable everything was. It was best to get Lightning to do it, since he could fly and so there would be no additional pressure on the already uncertain surfaces.
She imagined how ruined her office would be.. all of her old plans and.. her theories destroyed. Though, now she didn't even need them, she knew the actual truth now.. most of it, anyways. There had to be some things the group were still aware of.
She trailed down into the basement behind the others, the walls blackened by the previous scorching flames. Bits of debris lay all over the place, just small pieces and ashes. She tried kicking it off her feet once she got to the very bottom, observing the basement carefully..
Looks like this place had been destroyed less than she thought it had.. there were still quite a few crates in tact. Sure they were mildly burned but they weren't completely useless.. looks like she struck lucky. "Ah.. thank goodness. Most of the important stuff is all safe." She narrated as she marched along.
Jr let out a prolonged whine. "Are we gonna seriously have to fucking carry every single one of these out??" He complained, sulking and throwing his arms to his sides. Golfball wasn't sure.. was it safe to keep them in the open on the surface? Not really.. but here they were at risk too. Either way.. neither idea was good, and there was too many of them to be transported far. Lightning wasn't THAT strong, he wouldn't be able to carry all of these out safely as simply as that. They were too big to carry by just one object anyways. She grumbled and tried to think.
"I..don't know. I don't think it's wise to keep them outside." She explained her thoughts. Tree glanced back at her with concern, crossing his arms. "What?" He blurted. "But we can't just keep coming in and out of here everytime we need something, it's too dangerous t-" he was cut off.
"I KNOW that." She seethed with hostility, exhaling uneasily as she looked around at the rest of the room. "We.. will have to make a stable route to the basement from the enterance... that is the only possibility I can see working.. having the crates all in the open will be risky, and will take too long." She glanced up, observing their expressions. They looked uncertain..
Tree was very argumentative..normally nobody from her group tried to argue with her so much but.. it was whatever. "Well .. we should start on bringing some of the stuff up. Tree and Lollipop.. can you bring this crate outside, please?" She pointed with her foot to one of the hardly touched ones. It was a little smaller, so it was easier to carry with just two objects.. or so it seemed that way.
"Why of course." Lollipop hummed in grace, walking over to where the crate was swiftly. Tree muttered sonething and didn't give a loud verbal response, but walked over to it anyways. He lifted it, and then grabbed underneath, Lollipop attempting to do the same. Both of them used both their hands to lift it, Tree grunting slightly. "What on earth is even in here??" He complained with strain.
Golfball wasn't sure.. so didn't reply. Pen looked back at the two with concern as he followed Gb out, Jr copying. "Will they be able to carry it across that unstable area? It won't be too heavy, will it?" He thought aloud.
Golfball was trying to figure that out herself. Tree got a little too close to the edge a moment ago and it almost collapsed in on him. "If they stay far enough away, they should remain safe." She stated.
"Ah, how comforting." Tree sarcastically commented, grunting as the two began to lift it up some stairs. Golfball walked slowly, making sure to go at their pace and not go ahead. Snowball would be best for this task.. Blocky too but unfortunately he still had a bandaged arm from Liy that long time ago. She was surprised it hadn't healed from over a months worth of waiting but.. Liy did stab right through his hand.
Snowball and whoever was strong, then.. or fit for it in the right condition..Anchor had shown to be strong but he was injured at the moment. Though now she thought about it, Tree was not as stable as he made out to be. He had that huge gap in his trunk from the very start of the war when he got attacked with an axe so.. she didn't want to risk him killing himself for this.
"Just follow me, carefully, please." Golfball requested, before heading around the opening in the floor as far away as she could manage. Jr and Pen followed behind her, Pen looking back at the other two repeatedly.
"You got this, guys!" He encouraged, Lollipop groaning and shooting him a glare. "As much as I appreciate your cheering, I would rather you not." She complained, Pen awkwardly laughing an apology.
Tree glanced down at the hole in the floor with concern as they tread around it, hearing the floorboards creak underneath him. He didn't like this and he just wanted to get this over and done with, looking away and gripping the crate tightly for his life. He would not be doing this again, even if he was asked of it. Sure, other things he would, but not another gigantic heavy crate. They didn't even know what was inside of it, what if it was just something useless, like a load of spare lightbulbs?
Lollipop seemed to be thinking the same thing as him as her following words indicated. "This is not my ideal.. I definitely do not think I will be doing this again." She breathed through struggle, almost to the door since she was closest. She looked down at the opening again, burned remains crumbling onto the floor below as they walked around it. This would just get less and less safe.
She and Tree finally made it safely to the door, pleased as they managed to get around the main issue. However now they were met with another issue.. the door opening was too small to fit the crate through.
"Are you kidding me?" Tree and Golfball both said at the same time, each for different reasons. Pen laughed awkwardly. "D-Don't worry! I'm sure we can get someone to push it open. I-Ill go get Snowball.." Pen reassured and waved his hand to dismiss their annoyance, squeezing through the gap and making his way up the stairs, them hearing him call Snowballs voice.
"If I have to carry this any longer, my ARMS are going to snap off.." Lollipop grudgingly complained, trying to adjust her position but it was hard. Tree whined lowly. "I'll completely snap in half.." he growled.
"Damn, is it really that heavy?" Jr wondered aloud, looking up at the box as it was uneasily held by the two of them. Lollipop grunted. "It's heavier than the one that came crashing down on me.." she seethed in struggle, gritting her teeth from strain, not because she was annoyed at Jr.
Pen came rushing back with Snowball, who was too big to fit inside the door anyways. Tree caught a glimpse of him in-between the gap. "Oh..thank goodness.." he breathed, closing his eyes from relief. Snowball was anything but, though.
"You want me to open THAT??" He repeated what Pen asked of him, staring at it in disbelief, before looking at Pen with the exact same expression. "I-I know you can do it! You're the strongest here.." Pen reminded, trying to encourage and motivate him, putting his hands together in plead. "Pleasseeee????"
"Please, Snowball? At least give it a try.. I cannot hold this up for much longer, and I'm sure this floor cannot either.." Lollipop whined longingly, looking up at the ceiling.
Snowball groaned loudly, rolling his eyes before grabbing the edge of the metal door with both of his hands, aggressively pulling it and just doing what they asked. Golfball watched with concern, hearing him putting all of his might into opening that door. He grasped the edges harder, yelling as he forced his body weight into it and tried to pry it open.
Pen watched it budge, scraping against the floor. "Y-Yes.. Yes!! Yes- you're doing it Snowball!!" Pen excitedly cheered with his hands together and jumped up and down a little, watching Snowball gradually begin to push the door, it scraping against the concrete ground. Golfball knew how difficult this was.. she had made it so these doors would be extremely difficult to break into. It was a miracle Snowball was even managing to push it that far.
Tree glanced down at the creaking floor wearily, gripping the crate harder as h was pretty sure he would drop this any second. Lollipop noticed, observing as some more burned scraps fell into the hole that lingered closely to them. She prayed Snowball would hurry, inhaling silently and closing her eyes.
He panted, before grunting loudly and shoving himself into it, moving it a wide amount. It made the ground shake for a moment due to his heaviness, but it had now been moved far enough to be able to allow the group to move through with the crate.
Tree exhaled in relief, beginning to move over to it immediately. "Oh, what a relief-" he breathed, Lollipop sharing the same amount of joy but didn't say anything. The pair began to walk up the stairs, Snowball sighing heavily and brushing his hands off. Pen hugged him unexpectedly, him freezing up "You did it, dude! Great job!!" Pen exclaimed, Snowball startled but embarrassed by his praise. "Oh, uh, yeah, thanks.." he stammered, his eyes looking elsewhere.
Finally Tree and Lollipop managed to bring the crate all the way up the stairs, dropping it with a harsh thud onto the damp mud as soon as they could, convinced it left an imprint in the ground. Blocky felt the thud of the crate from where he stood, looking over halfway through his conversation with Eraser as the group finally made their way out. "Oh good, you're all okay!" Basketball rejoiced, clearly having been worried that they took so long.
"Barely." Tree murmured resentfully and rubbed his back, his arms aching from carrying such a heavy object. Lollipop sat down, trying to catch her breath. "I am
.. not made.. out for that.. kind of work.." she noted between breathes, but more as a warning to the others to never make her do that again, glaring at Golfball.
"..Whats...the lab like..?" Blocky was the first to ask, walking foward with one hand to his mouth, the other under his elbow. Golfball looked back at it with concern, viewing down at the dark gap of the door to see its state.
"Unfortunately..it..is....very bad. Worse than I thought." She admitted bravely, earning shared dissapointment from each of them. "I'm afraid most of our belongings were destroyed..apart from the basement. The fire mostly effected the ground floor but.. we have yet to see the rest. Lightning, I'll need your support, as the upper floors are too dangerous to be walked on."
Lightning was shocked at this, worry on his face. "R-Really..? Is..is it really that bad?" Blocky felt anger rise within him, thinking about how this was Liys fault. She was the reason that group came here.. that Fries was dead.. that they lost their friends. He grit his teeth and tried to hold back from snapping. "What are we going to do?" He questioned, getting straight to the point.
Tennisballs expression turned to fearful. "Will we have to go back to the cave..?"
"No need." Golfball reassured quickly, mainly because she didn't want to go back there anyways. "I feel as if we can make our own base.. a new one. Sort of a shelter..it ..seems there is enough materials we can salvage from the crates in the basement." She claimed, putting her foot down.
"..Is.. that safe..?" Anchor raised his concerns, stepping forward gradually. "I don't want anyone to be put in danger..from having to go down there ..if the lab is really that bad."
Golfball noticed them all perk up at the word. No.. of course she didn't want to put them in jeopardy and lose more of their lives, but going into that basement was probably the least dangerous option out of all the possibilites. "This way is safer than you think. Do not fear, we .. I ..will make sure nobody gets hurt." She promised, hoping that she could keep it.
"I guess this is a little disappointing.. I can't believe that much damage was done." Eraser commented while rubbing the back of his head, causing his broken cuff to clink as he moved his arm around.
"I know. But, on the brighter side, the crates are perfectly in tact!" Golfball reminded, earning a weak smile from Basketball in approval. Whether Golfball intended to or not, she was subconsciously making the others feel better about the situation by being supportive and kind. "I agree. It could be worse..should we open up this crate?" Basketball shifted the topic.
"Yeah, I wanna see whats inside this baby." Snowball grinned proudly, kicking it with his leg. Golfball kicked him back in reflex. "HEY!! There might be valuable GOODS in there, REFRAIN from that!!" She barked.
"Whatever." Snowball stuck his tongue out to disrespect her, before punching the crate, causing one of the sides to fall down and the contents to spill out. Golfball would have scolded him, but what he did was actually helpful. She peered over to the contents, before losing her tension immediately.
Food.. lots of it.
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