August 8, 2020.

The factions are ready. They are on a little world, a mortal one. They would wield their power, but our spies know their workings as they never will. They are ready to lead, and their force, the, "contestants" will follow. The world will be chaos. The universe, ours to watch. And the "contestants"...

What can they do...

But burn?

September 4, 2020.

Too many choices to decide on a challenge! Ever since Microphone had gotten rid of Cobs, I've been aching to have a great competition since. But, what to choose from the drawing board?

"Hello! And thank you for taking the time to watch this simple how-to video to choose the best option you want for literally anything. This video will serve as an instructional recording for decision making. 

Now the first step to choosing the best option of decisions, is to-"

W̷̬̦̰̖̎̽̓̅̚A̷̗̼͗͘͜R̶̹͉̀̑͆Ń̸͓̤͚I̸̮̱̮͌͂͗͂͠N̸̖̥̲̪̮̈́̎͆G̷̗̓:̴̥̘̪̺̙̏̚_̵̝͒͌̇͆̔̚S̴̤͈̝͈̺̝̍̒̈́Y̷̳̻͊̾̀S̸̨̥̹̫̤̊͐Ţ̴̢͚͓͍̺̍̓͝Ȩ̴̳̜̰̓̆̕M̸̺͈̤̼̮͐̈̕_̸̡͔̔͌̈́H̵͖̙͚͇̚A̶͈̓̒C̴̨̜̥̲̒̊̉͜K̸͖͝

You don't. 

-💀🌽💀-

It's over, my Lord. We got him.

Very well. Now onto Phase 2.

September 11, 2020.

7:15. Lightbulb, the Bright Leader; Baseball, the Large and in Charge; Suitcase, the Pushover; and Knife, the Jerk; these four players were battling for the million dollars for the final two episodes of Inaniamte Insanity II. The competition was supposed to start at 7:00 today with a eager MePhone, but... where is MePhone at?

"Guys... I have some confessions to make."

"About anxiety, Suitcase? I can understand," responded Baseball. After all, the competition used to not be in such a dark and dreary mood... before the dark times... today...

"Come on, everyone! We've gotta lighten up at some point! Isn't that what Episode 15's all about today? Fun, according to MePhone?" Lightbulb told.

"Not really," replied Knife, "You know how Test Tube said that there was no Cobs at all? I'm starting to think that... maybe she's truly right. Even if Microphone did have visual evidence."

"Well, yes, that is, but... also about the entire show in general. MePhone is missing yet again; and with the antagonistic tone Test Tube bought? I'm worried that maybe violence is about to happen at any corner, and next thing you know, we have scapegoats and flames everywhere."

"Wow, that was... impactful. But we'll keep it in mind in case. Don't worry, you're not alone through this. You don't have to be afraid anymore. We'll help you," BB responded.

---

"Hello, contestants! In honor of an early 4 years of BFB, since I am very impatient for next year, I'm making BFB an upgrade!"

In less than a blink of an eye, Four snapped his fingers, and I saw...

My hands... changed.

"Better animation!" Four exclaimed. I could see everything changed; limbs, feet, faces and mouths, all that.

"Well, I wouldn't say it is better, but a different art style, that's all." I thought. It seemed a long time; but this style should have some love.

"Say, Leafy, how does it feel to have this art style after so long?" Firey asked.

Well, I wouldn't be so sure of it, but I think it's good nostalgia!" I replied.

"You bet! Let's move on for Cake at Stake!" Four replied.

-✊-

0840 Hours, the Inaniamte Insanity Island, at the same time

MePhone had finally gotten here after an hour and a half. Seriously; is something off about the show? Things only seemed to get worse over time in this show.

"I'm sorry for my delay, everyone! Just had a quick snooze, that's all." told MePhone.

A quick snooze? You've gotta be kidding me.

"Your task for today is to build a gigantic base at the peak of the mountain, and sort out and assemble these vehicles. I've already made the construction blueprints for you. All you need to do is build it. You will be assisted with the old and eliminated contestants as teamwork."

"Okay, since when did we agree to this?!" objected Oj.

"Shut up. Each contestant that is still in the competition will each have four people for assistance of construction. Whoever and their temporary team has the least amount of construction done with their team is automatically eliminated."

"Wait," told Lightbulb, "I'm like, confused; why are we doing this exactly? What's this for, like, transportation purposes? And what about the vehicles? And all of this? And you? The crates? An-"

"ENOUGH! Get to work! NOW! I have something to work on. It better be done by I get back!"

MePhone never looked back at the contestants that hesitated, with yellow eyes illuminating with an evil grin.

-🎂-

"AND BLOCKY IS ELIMINATED!"

"No, wait, guys- you can't eliminate me, I'm, like, the star of the- AHHH!!!!"

Of course; Blocky was eliminated with the least amount of saving votes and was sucked up to the Big Rotating Building.

---

"As the catch for the new upgrade to BFB, your challenge for today is to capture (shows MePhone4 picture) THIS GUY. Make sure he is alive, and go stealthy. If you fight against each other, or blow your cover and go loud, all of you will be up for elimination. You'll all be equipped with binoculars and tranquilizer dart guns for your consideration. Get to it!"

I blinked. What? "Hold up, so what do we do? And, where is he, exactly? And, why do we need to capture him, exactly?" I asked.

"Out of the question!" Four interjected. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, I've got... MY OWN HELICOPTER! All we need is two pilots."

"Hey! Didn't I have some experience by piloting that spaceship in the sun challenge?" Gelatin questioned.

"THAT WAS CARDBOARD, NOT REAL, YOU DUMMY!" Flower yelled.

"But don't worry, the computers will do most of the work!"

"YAY!"

"Alright then. Gelatin, you'll also need a co-pilot. Who do you want?"

"Well, I'll go with Lollipop. We are in an alliance, and I guess you could say that we're sweeter than ever." Gelatin claimed.

"Dude..." Lollipop turned with a facepalm.

"OKAY! Let's do this."

"Oh! And one question."

"HMMM!?!?... Yes?" Four answered.

"Can we have you and X for help?"

I'm pretty sure Four was going to scream soon, but just then, X covered his mouth.

"Yup! Sure thing! I can even help your team! Since no fighting is allowed, at least for the time being."

No fighting against teams, but fighting for a hostage?

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

---

0843 Hours, the Mountain on the II Island.

"Yes, MePhone?" Knife replied.

"Knife, I'll be out for a few hours preparing... supplies for challenges. How long will it take to get the base set to go?"

"It should take us less than 4 hours for a simple base, according to Test Tube."

"Be ready. No doubt, this base will be the best."

MePhone put down his phone and continued to have his glowing yellow eyes in his face.

Course set for Meeple HQ, sir.

---

0845 Hours

"20 degrees to the right."

Storm clouds, thunder, and rain had engulfed the mountainous island as we approached in the helicopter, blinding visibility from us. It's in the morning, and I wished we could've had more knowledge about this, but Four is seemenly acting weirder than before; not giving us a lot of imformation. We're on this completely new island in the high mountains that we don't even know. All to win a BFB. But waiting's been half of this... at least until now.

"Lower, lower, lower. Lower!" X exclaimed.

"Is Four SURE that this is the place?" Lollipop asked.

"We're not sure about this; Four, Four didn't say anything about any security measures, i- it may be too risky to be up! Better to be low!" X replied.

"Watch the towers!"

Mountains had abruptly appeared in front of the fog, forcing the helicopter to take sharp turns, swaying everyone, and everything, left and right.

"Why does this contest seem like we're committing terrorism?" asked Lollipop. I very much agreed with this; Four said we needed to capture a guy alive. Isn't taking hostages a federal crime?

"Well, Four is weird," replied Gelatin, "How much farther?"

"I- I'm not sure. We don't even know this place! B-b-but I think we're close. I can feel it!"

"Okay, I'm calling it! Four is bad!" Lollipop claimed.

"I don't wanna know. Thank you!" Gelatin responded.

"Oh well, your loss!"

All of us could see the entire thing emerging from the shadows of the mountains: a massive complex with a helipad, an airfield, a gigantic column of some sort in the center, and some cubic buildings.

"NOW! PUT IT DOWN, NOW!"

"The wind!" Lollipop replied.

"If you'll keep going, you'll be right over the shuttle airfield!" X exclaimed.

But danger was always inevitable to us. There was no time to react when the right engine of the helicotper was hit by rocks.

-👊-

...Try them again. 

I am GB, we... the signal's gone dead.

...I guess we have to do the big plan, then. Get the jets ready for our team.

...are you sure you want to do this?

Yes.

---

The wreckage had been worse than expected. Both rotors were damaged with a scrunched left side, and there was a slight fire on the rear.

"X, where is the main base?" Firey asked.

"The headquarters? The command center? I-it's just over that ridge." X answered.

"That's an entire jet airport straight ahead of us. You are sure of that?"

"Yes, for stupid's sake!"

"We'll have to hope that there is some sort of aircraft or extraction that we have. Here's what we're going to do: Hopefully the storm keeps up and helps us be more stealthy. I've got myself a new fire-proof jacket for myself; so I can be fine in the rain. X, you're coming with me. We'll make a scout camp and check it out."

"I'm coming with you," replied Leafy.

"No, wait; we can't risk it. Too many, and we're dead." Firey told.

"Th-that's ridiculous. This is the final eight. We'll need a lot of help in order to win the BFB."

"Teams or not, you know we're all gonna be thrown in that roller coaster sometime."

"Get to work fixing communications! Look, everyone, all I wanna do right now, is get a handle on what we're up against. So we're gonna go very small, and be very careful up the rise and see what the heck is going on here with Four, X, and this whole BFB thing. Let's get outta here."

-🔥-

I can't believe that the eliminated and old contestants are "temporarily" joining the competition. What are they supposed to be, slaves for us for the time being for helping build on construction? Seemed that MePhone didn't want us to think of it in a bad way, but this seems like a setup, if you ask me.

At least Microphone is trying to get my good side of me by doing favors that I ask.

She even gave all her secrets away. What happened on the ship; and the aliens.

"Mic, are you sure that's what truly happened?" I asked.

"Look, it's not my fault. I'm not the reason why Taco wanted to do all of... that. She did those things in the first place because of herse-"

I suddenly heard a sudden boom in the distance. What could that mean?

"What was that?" 

"I dunno, probably the thunder?" Mic asked.

"No, it... sounded like a boom, then scraping. Maybe a crash from one of our helicopters?" I replied.

"Nah, how bad can it be?" Mic told, trying to even up the confusion.

---

"How are we going to get up the mountain?" Gelatin asked.

"We'll need a team to capture the guy we're looking for." Four replied.

"Who are you talking about?" I replied.

"MePhone4. Our target to capture alive unnoticed."

"Wh, why do we need to capture him? Wh, what are we doing?" I asked.

"You, Gelatin, and Flower are coming with me. We're climbing up the mountain to the base. Lollipop, Teardrop, Woody, stay back and guard the crash site."

What was this all about? Lollipop might've had the answer but...

"What? Don't look at me!" she replied.

I could only see a forlorn expression on Teardrop as I slowly begun to fear everything. And meanwhile, Firey and X had started to go out of the helicopter as a recon scout for what we're doing. 

-💔-

...Are you sure this is going to work with our team?

Yes, it will. No harm done. Just some warning shots and run to lure them away. Then we'll move in with the helicopter and capture him alive.

GB, I'm very nervous about this. What do you think this whole thing may be?

A way for us to win the challenge. Don't you wanna win limitless power from Two? If you or I win it, we'll have each other for it.

But aren't you concerned about the fact that this whole thing may be bigger than the competition? Bigger than our lives?

Yes. It's for our future. Just follow my directions, and we'll all be alright with immunity for our team. And slowly, but surely, we'll win limitless power to know everything the Universe has.

Sigh... whatever you say, Golf Ball.

---

0850 Hours.

The mountain had very narrow paths, but at least there was a cliff that we could scout on the main base. At least I had X in case of need for a buddy. The binoculars that Four had given us in our backpacks weren't that ideal, but they did manage to see through light.

But who was MePhone4? And why capture him, according to Four? Did they have some sort of connection because of the number 4? Bad history or something?

"I'll be right behind you, X. Let's go."

---

I couldn't just leave Firey to go do a challenge all by himself with a co-host. It seems to me that I need to keep an eye on him to keep in check with him.

Four, Flower, and I were gonna get up to that base. The only problem was that it was a straight wall, not like rock climbing in the old days. Darn it. No way to get up. Only way is to use an object like a ladder or rope or... wait. Was that...?

A fixed ladder at the very bottom of the complex's shaft. Must be for emergency purposes. Perfect.

---

Pad 12, please clear for Helicopter 8. Authorize permission for landing.

"So Test Tube... does the truth hurt?"

"Not really, well, it hurts more that everyone else is oblivious and thinks that Microphone is a hero, when she should be dishonored. I've done more research on the Light Shimmers, and it seems like they know a lot more about Meeple than all of us combined. At least Microphone came to admitting the truth, but not really admitting. But who was the voice? It's not possible to have another conscience or mind inside oneself, unless..."

"Unless what?" I asked.

"... two people are combined." Test Tube responded. "It's just not possible; though. What would it be?"

"Um, like, some sort of subconscious or something like that?" Salt replied.

I sat down. The two girls did have fair points; but how is it truly possible? We did see it with Yin and Yang far back, but we could see that they had different voices. And with Mic's scenario of the "voice", and we could only hear her voice; it just seems impossible to pull off. But what could it be?

What could it be? 

---

Where are you going, Teardrop?!

To follow Leafy. Her team's path is clear.

You're going out there alone, girl? Good luck!

 I don't need luck! I have you!

...fine.

Lollipop couldn't believe what was happening. Everyone was abandoning her.

"What are they doing?" Lollipop asked. 

"If Gelatin comes back, we're leaving without them."

---

X and I had looked over the bright airfield where we could see construction, trucks, and tanks scrambling like ants everywhere. The buildings had looked like it had been split into four different teams of six. The team leaders looked like... a translucent lightbulb, baseball, combat knife, and brown briefcase. But what was all of it for? It seemed like they were preparing for something... or someone. And... our... objective...

"Which one's MePhone4?"

---

Teardrop and I had settled down on one of the cliffs nearest to the ship, but still had a clear view of the entire base. I had tried to reassure Teardrop that we had to stay with the ship in case something happened to Lollipop.

"We've come too far." I took out my binoculars and tranquilizer dart gun in case, but Teardrop stopped me and gave me the wait hand sign.

I guess she did have a lot of patience in her attitude.

---

"You know, all this work seems to be committing something suspicious, you know, like, smuggling?" Baseball questioned.

"I wouldn't be so sure about it. After all, challenges do get weird sometimes," Left Cherry replied.

"Yeah, well, not as odd as this; I'm sensing a great disturbance right now. Perhaps ghosts haunt us?!" Right Cherry repleid.

"Stop saying that! Bow's probably offended in the afterlife right now!" Marshmallow replied.

"Okay, my temporary team, I think we've got this in the bag! Everything's mostly complete for the moment!" Lightbulb exclaimed.

"Yea, well, we need this to be COMPLETELY complete, okay?" replied Paintbrush.

"Got it," told Soap.

It seemed like everything was for the calm, until...

"Oh, crap! He's here!" exclaimed Balloon.

---

Several people were talking on the platform, but I couldn't tell who they were. Looked like a microphone, and the army knife and briefcase were discussing? There was a table with some maps and trinkets on it; I think they're planning an airport or exploration of something. But what were they saying?

"He's not here. He's not. But, but, here's a picture of him. I think he will be in a few minutes."

X had given me a photo of our target, "MePhone4". A phone with dark, intimidating eyes with a blue background as his screen. Nice. Easy to identify, but I got a bad feeling that he had to have connected with Four in some way. It seemed that our preparations were also interrupted when a helicopter abruptly scared us with a roar, barely missing us.

It was at this moment I knew what I had to do next.

"Get back down there and find us a ride outta here," I told X.

"Wh-what are you doing, then?" X asked.

"You heard me," I answered.

"You said we came up here just to have a look," X told.

"I'm here. I'm looking; go. Hurry!"

The helicopter had landed on the very edge of the platform; and white smoke had temporarily blinded me from seeing anything through the binoculars. Through all the rain and pelt, not even my fire-proof coat could prepare me for what I was going to see next in the blink of an eye.

It was the figure of a blue phone emerging from the smoke.

-⚔️-

"Excellent news, MePhone. The base is completed, just like you asked." Test Tube announced.

"Good. The exterior will do for now. Final four, please line up." he replied, marching down the pathway.

"So who's up for elimination?" Suitcase asked.

"Depends. In the meantime, I'd like to give you a surprise." MePhone said with a smile.

Everyone was shocked when MePhone presented several other MePhones; with the background colors of MePhones 5 to 7.

"M-Mephone! T-t-that's t-t-the e-n-n-nem-m-ey!" Bomby exclaimed.

"Was. I retrofited them so that they can be friendly and helpful co-hosts and judges."

I guess it was true; those MePhones had regular eyes and no sunglasses; with programmed positive and calm attitude like MePad.

"And what about the interior?"

All of us stood around. We had absolutely no interior inside the base. We did do the structures, but considering it was bland with no polish, none of us would stand a chance due to time constraints. We didn't want to tell him the truth, after his tempered behavior was noticed. I couldn't imagine what he would do if he found out the truth that this was only partially complete.

---

MePhone4 was in my sights. Perfect. The tranquilizer darts Four had given us would be perfect for the job; especially since I had a sniper scope attached to it. This wasn't the best time to do it, though. Lots of people are surrounding him, currently. I could see MePhone talking to the trio, primarily. Got to play the long game. Wait, then ambush.

As much as I felt the urge to pull a trigger, Four said we had to be subtle; or we'd be up for elmination. Hold on, I didn't even realize it...

Leafy. Where could she be with the others? I looked at the far side of the base and I saw her pass with Four, Blocky, and Gelatin; who were happening to be sneaking behind crates. Shoot. That couldn't be good.

"Firey, Firey, do you read me?"

"I'm here. You finally got it working?" I asked Lollipop.

"Yes, definitely; but we have a bigger problem. There's a bunch of ships approaching the base. Looks like they're jets with... weapons on them, I, I can't tell what or who they are, exactly. I think we need to clear the area."

I stood silent in the rain. What?

"No, no, no, no! Wait! That'll blow our cover! Who are they from?! We can't let them there! Leafy's on that platform!"

Four's group with the Have-Cots were getting ready to grab him.

And run.

---

"You're telling me you worked on this so hard and it's STILL NOT READY?!"

"MePhone, please, calm down... we'll work on it and we can get it done in about a week," replied Test Tube.

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the six hour speeches!" Knife added.

I must've made the tiger mad at that point, though, since MePhone had slammed his fist onto the table.

"Now where have I heard that before?"

---

Golf Ball

Oh uh... we're planning to draw most of the people away by... having a bunch of ships...

You WHAT?!

... [sigh] A squadron attack.

Nonono... tel-tell them to abort; get them out, now!

They've already attacked, Two.

"...we've just declared war."

--⚔️--

0902 Hours

"Sir, we have incoming."

Over the mountains, I could only recognize that there were seven shapes approaching the area. The mysterious figures were coming up on the base, fast. But what were those?

---

I was hiding a bush with my binoculars, spying on the whole conversation on both sides. 

And this was the calm before the entire storm happened.

---

It was too late to do anything now. A squadron of seven fighters had appeared from the towers. Teardrop and Woody had curiously seen the fighters through the binoculars, attempting to figure out who, and what, they were. To make matters worst, Four and his team were up on the balcony. The presence of the fighters was alone terrifying, as the fear of the unknown brought fear as to what they could bring.

Or kill.

The squadron had immediately begun raining fire down upon the twenty five contestants; round after round of strafing, missiles and bombs. And, in this moment, this made Goiky the enemy.

"RETURN FIRE! TO YOUR STATIONS! GET OUR FIGHTERS IN THE AIR! NOW!"

The BFB fighters had ascended onto the mountains for multiple passes. Explosions continued to rain down on top of the towers, when it seemed to stop when Four and his crew exposed themselves completely with their tranquilizer darts.

"GET THEM!"

For a second, no one moved or said a word. Just when they were about to shoot, however, a bomb dropped onto the deck, knocking back everyone; stunning even Four.

Just then, Baseball and Test Tube's teams had scrambled five fighters to intercept the attackers. OJ, Salt, and Pepper; meanwhile, were booting up a gigantic cannon on the top of the base, shooting down two fighters.

Through the horror of this battle, or should it be called, slaughter, Firey had been rushing to the base to try and help Four's team out; and at the same time, Lollipop and X had been carrying crates from the crash site.

"MePhone! We need to evacuate!"

As the battle enraged, Teardrop seemed to be the only one who was calm. She took out her trainquilizaer dart sniper rifle.

Closed her eyes.

And took the shot.

Instantly, a jet piloted by Apple had been shot down. To add to that, the jet had crashed into the tower that OJ was commanding, killing the two instantly with Salt and Pepper.

Five of the seven BFB fighters had managed to escape the heat of the battle, with a burning complex left standing after much hard work that the II contestants put in. MePhone looked back at the flames of the base, pondering about who just yelled at him, and what was the team of four with the guns. But that was a question. For another time.

The thrusters of the launching helicopter had almost put Four, Gelatin, Flower, and Leafy falling off into a hole, but luckily, Four had strong arms. The group had no idea of what they've just been through. And questions continued to lurk around them.

-🔥-

This whole place was a goldmine of answers that had to be found. I started going around, trying to find things that would uncover the story, but...

Over there! Take them down!

We were soon overwhelmed by more enemies that were trying to take us down.

"Leafy! We've gotta, go, now!" Firey ordered.

"We can't! I have so many questions about this!"I answered.

"Listen! This base is going to blow! Nothing we can do. Come on! Move!"

More hostiles had emerged from the buildings, easily taken down by Teardrop and Woody sniping. Teardrop did know when the best time to strike was. She then signaled for Woody it was now time to go.

Meanwhile, all seven Battle for BFB characters had been running away from angry Inanimate Insanity contestants. It seemed that they were cornered, until a massive VTOL had opened fire with rockets.

"Well done, X. You're one of us, now."

X smiles. X goes down to open the doors. Lollipop looks out of the cockpit to see Gelatin, Teardrop, and Woody running to the helicopter, too. Scene cuts to X opening the helicopter doors.

X couldn't help but give a smile to the satisfaction that gave X. Nobody could stay much longer before the entire mountain would erode and crumble in a chain reaction. The loud noise from the VTOL had drowned out X's yelling as everyone got onboard.

As the BFB contestants escaped, the doors had closed airtight.

---

I don't understand. It makes no sense. Test Tube, you know anything better than any of us. What would you say it was.

Sir, I've analyzed the fighters with an origin scanner, and it looks like the... Goikians have attacked us. Now, if I remember correctly then, since they had attacked us, we should retaliate, and it would bring war.  

Then war it is.

---

I couldn't believe what kind of encounter we've just been through. A thunderstorm, orders to capture someone we didn't even know about, a massive air attack, and now this. This didn't add up to anything. What was this?

"We should have our engines on low speed until we've cleared the storm. The entire mountain range at the most," X advised.

"Understood," replied Lollipop.

All of us gathered around Four in an interrogation style method, waiting until we had answers to all of our questions about this ridiculousness.

"Four, we want answers," I asked.

"Well, what about it, Four?" Flower added.

It looked like Four was about to regret what he was about to now tell us.

"*Sigh,* Look, I lied. I'm sorry. I didn't want you to be exposed to this. But the truth is... MePhone was our enemy. A lord for terrorism and anarchy. And I've feared that we've done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. Don't you realize what you've just done?! This isn't a Battle for BFB anymore. It's a massive war for global domination now." 

And we're under attack.