Chapter Text
Space was cold, quiet, and empty. But for a certain algebralien, it was her entire world.
Literally.
The number floated in the eerily hollow core of the Moon with no aim, their soft blue body invisible under the cover of darkness. The pitch-black insides of the astral monolith echoed with the sound of her hum, a haunting and lonely sound. When her back hit one of the curved walls, she stopped, running a foot along the many etchings left in it. Then she scrawled another in. For someone completely isolated from the outside world, she maintained a precise awareness, her internal clock never once failing her. Every etching they left marked a new day spent in the Moon.
There were at least four-thousand of them.
Then came the point in time where she couldn't entertain herself with the Moon's gravity, and instead was left to pace on the cold ground. Of course, she could always make herself float on her own - that was just significantly less fun.
..Although, it was odd. There was nothing to indicate what had happened outside, no shaking, or crash, or anything.. it was as if the Moon had simply.. changed. And not just that, the air of loneliness had started to lift, if only by a bit. Sometimes they could hear things, and they knew it was the aforementioned awareness of theirs, even if others would claim the darkness had eaten away at their sanity.
She'd heard voices. Many voices. She'd learned to recognize each one of them, even hearing bits and pieces of conversations if she leaned against the right parts of the wall. And sometimes, she'd try to talk to them, too, but her voice only continue to echo, never reaching the beings outside.
"..Challenge...safe...elimination.." Some phrases were more common than others. It was easy to become invested in whatever activities were taking place beyond her.
Listening became a hobby. It’d been so long since the number had last heard the voice of another being, let alone been so near to one, and they found themselves tuning in every time they sensed a presence nearby - it definitely beat talking to themselves.
From what she gathered, they were fighting for something, trying to prove their worth - if she were free, they could use her guidance, even if she knew that was impossible. So she stayed, alone, with the world just out of her reach..
Until there was light.
“Get back here!”
A failed escape led the two remaining eliminated contestants racing through the scorched grounds, with Four hot on their heels and an onlooking crowd watching the scene unfold. The rest had already been dragged back into the EXIT.
Determined they were, running as fast as their legs could take them - even if they were actually just running in circles. Oh well. Who’s to say determined means smart?
BFB was.. chaotic, to say the absolute least. With someone like Four as a host and a less-than favorable amount of contestants, the show was bound to collapse eventually. It was honestly shocking the cracks hadn’t formed in its stability sooner. And, speaking of cracks..
Some had their attention drawn away by the distant rumbling over the horizon, accompanied by the shape of the Moon that was slowly becoming bigger. Shaking, too. A close enough look would reveal that the surface was being slowly chipped away, bits and pieces of rock being knocked straight off as if something was inside.
The ground trembled more, and the watching objects began screaming and jumping out of the way as the Moon rolled towards them. The unlucky few were crushed under the planetoid's weight.
Then the Moon finally slowed to a halt, directly blocking Four's way, as the faint sound of pounding from inside grew louder and caused even the aggro algebralien to rise back to his feet and step away. One would expect whatever was inside to be something of great horror, like some sort of monster, but as the cracks aligned and a hole was kicked in the rocky surface, the being trapped within was revealed to be..
..A pale blue number-one.
“Hey, guys!”
The dust settled. Everyone was silent, stunned, confused out of their minds, while the stranger simply hopped out of the Moon’s brand-new crater and stood before the crowd.
They were rather small and non-threatening when taking into account the sheer damage they caused in their entrance, just barely standing taller than the hosts. Not only that, they were completely armless. Even the sound of their voice was anomalous; it was smooth, off-puttingly so, and feminine, yet full of a wonder that could almost be described as childlike.
“Aah, Earth..” Seemingly unfazed by the spectacle she caused mere moments before, she surveyed the area, trotting along the burnt-up contesting grounds and wincing as she felt the rough texture under her feet. “Was this planet always so.. um.. destroyed?”
Four stormed up behind them. “Get out of my way! I was chasing them! Go.. be over there with the other fans!” He pointed to the remaining onlookers that hadn’t already fled or flattened. “And take your stupid moon with you.”
They narrowed their eyes at him before instead turning to face the contestants.
“Hey! Don’t ignore me!”
“So sorry for the interruption, everyone, but I couldn’t let that little scene go on any longer.. Say,” she that same empty smile that the algebraliens had become known for. “Are you all tired of battling for a dumb prize?”
Taco spoke up from the crowd. “No! We’re battling for a BFDI, which is awesome-”
“But is it reaaaaalllly awesome?”
“..Well, yeah- I think so..”
The algebralien just giggled, as if finding her uncertainty hilarious. “You think so, hm? Well, I'm sure I can do you one better.. wouldn't you rather battle for this?"
It took them a moment to find what to use as an example, before their eyes set on the little plaza that had somehow survived the eruptions. Then their eyes started glowing, and emerging from the ground came a towering building that left every object staring in pure awe; the next look they took at Taco proved they'd already done enough to convince her.
"Oh. My. Gordita. I so floppin' want that power."
"Dude! Me too!"
But, unfortunately, among the applause, some were still wary.
Tennis Ball was the next to question her, nervously creeping away from the others alongside his smaller companion. "Uhm.. guys? We shouldn't trust this new One thing.."
"I agree with TB!" Golf Ball stood tall at his side, even if tall wasn't exactly a word used to describe her.
"Aww.." The algebralien - or, rather, "One" - turned to him, feigning sadness. "What a shame.. can't I convince you otherwise?"
Golf Ball, rather irritatingly, wasn't backing down so easily. "We don't even know anything about you!" She even took a step closer, something none of the contestants would've dared to do in the presence of the other blue number. "Where did you come from? What are you motives? Are you even a qualified host?"
One didn't have to speak that time - another object was kind enough to shut Golf Ball down for her. "Do you even know the answers to those questions about Four?"
Silence.
"And yet you built a rocket to the Moon to obey Four. Cool story, sis."
"Ah.." One grinned. "I knew I was hearing something about a rocket up there! You could really make better use of your skills, Golf Ball.." That was when they stepped closer instead, finally getting Golf Ball to back down. Maybe that was due to the fact they'd so nonchalantly revealed they already knew her name (but really, how obvious was it?).
"Well- I- I- I've grown- and learned-"
"Don't worry, GB! I'm sure One is completely safe!" Yet another. Geez, how many contestants were there?
A few extra magic tricks (albiet with one of them failing at the expense of poor Bottle) won over the majority of Four's cast, all looking at One attentively and paying their aforementioned host no mind as he grew increasingly irritated with the little show she was putting on. That only came to a head when she gave them all her proposition.
"Abandon your spot in Four's silly game!" His anger paired with their fascination only seemed to fuel her, as she shot the other algebralien a smug look. "Switch to mine and win, and that power is yours!"
"Hey!"
Of course he would protest, desperately clawing at any opportunity he could take to coax everyone back to his side with.. minimal success, at best. One was strange, but she was charismatic, and, more importantly, nowhere near as explosive and unpredictable as Four was. It would be plain stupid not to switch over.
..Well, if you were one of the fourteen who stayed, you could ignore that bit.
One could only watch in amusement as their show was reduced to not even a fraction of what it was just moments before, laughing and bopping them over the head with a spiked ball she'd made from the very Sun. She didn't like to call herself cruel by any means, but it really was fun to see how desperate he was; fun enough that she'd almost forgotten what she'd come for.
The newcoming algebralien turned to face her brand-new contestants with confidence. "I'm glad the forty of you have the wise choice of instead battling for.." Pause for effect.. "The Power of One!"
"Don't rub it in," Four grumbled from beside her, "BFB be better."
To that, One rolled their eyes. "Uh-huh. Well, enough about your little show. We can't have two competitions on the same grounds, can we?" On queue, a portal appeared behind what remained of BFB, swirling and golden in a way that was almost dizzying. "Bye bye now!"
And all of them disappeared into the light.