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Chapter Text

It's October of 2022. Twins Cary and Michael lived at their house on the afternoon sunshine in San Francisco, sitting on the couch at the living room and talked to each other. At that time, they had finished discussing.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go animate my scene now," Cary said, zealous.

"Alright."

They both parted. Michael lied down on the couch, on his phone.

Meanwhile, Cary went to his bedroom, and sat at his desk. He booted up his computer, opened Adobe Animate, and just when he was about to select the characters' assets file for animating, he stopped to find out that some of them had been turned into something else. Odd. His scene was supposed to have several characters that all had been overwritten.

He stared at his monitor. His hands slightly loosened on the desk. Then, his eyes went to the door, he turned around, and called Michael.

"Hey! Come here, please!"

As soon as he heard him, he put his phone down, left the couch, and stepped into Cary's bedroom.

"Huh? What do you want?"

He explained, "I... I can't animate right now, because the assets had turned into something else for some reason! But, they're kinda familiar though."

"Can I take a look at your computer?"

"Uh... sure!" Cary let him see the asset files on his computer.

He got up from the desk as his brother came to look at the monitor.

"Hmm... Didn't you play this game on Roblox like, 7 months ago?" He asked.

"Um... Yeah, with my friends and the creator of it, Alex!" Mentioning its creator, Cary tried to remember the game name.

"What was the game name again?" He murmured. "Find the Markers? Yeah! He made it! And he's also the reccomender of Marker in BFDI!"

Michael looked at him, "I think everyone knows that."

Cary went back to the original issue. "Right. Back to the topic; I don't want to animate these things, because the dissonance would make it very weird, and we don't want that yet. Can we even fix this?"

Looking back at his monitor, he suspected a virus had hijacked the computer. "Did a virus do all of this?"

He shaked his head, "No. I didn't download anything suspicious! What could it be?" He interrogated.

Michael replied, uninterested, "I don't know."

Thinking about the virus, he realized something. "Wait! Now that I think about it, I'm gonna check my computer. Be right back."

"Okay."

Michael left and went to his own bedroom. He sat down at his own desk. He opened Finder on his computer, and found the folder for the assets. Upon clicking on it, he found the same thing; they have been overwritten. However, he paid attention to names in some of the files...

Meanwhile, Cary hopped on Discord to send a message at the Jacknjellify crew server in the animation channel with a screenshot attached in the middle of a conversation:

"hello! i was about to start animating today, but the assets had been replaced with roblox's find the markers thing for some reason! so, i can't animate today ☹"

Next, he typed in hope of replies coming:

"thoughts?"

He sensed Discord's notification sound. Because, some replies flooded by, with various reactions from different people. Some replied that their assets also got overwritten and was confused. Some also talked about some source files of BFDI on Google Drive had been changed. Cary let his breath out, knowing he wasn't alone.

However, a message from one of the animators, replied to him, urging to kill the Markers and telling him and his brother that they both would be teleported to another world:

"KILL them"

"youre about to get teleported to what you made"

"the name of the files also say something"

Seeing that, he stood up. His hands got out of his keyboard, his eyes at the monitor, shocked. This couldn't be true, right? He sat on two knees, and checked the file again. Before he read the message, he heard a footstep, and...

"Uhh... Bro?" Michael came back from his bedroom to see his brother in disbelief.

"Are you alright?"

Cary turned his head to him, "Uhh... I guess?"

Michael sighed in relief, "Glad you're fine, because apparently it wasn't a virus."

"If it's not a virus, then..."

"Also, I discovered a hidden message for my files. Did you see that on yours?" Michael remarked about the name of files he had looking on.

"Florence said so."

"Really? Let me check." He went to Cary's desk, and bent his body forward. He read that animator's message, and then switched the window to the file select in Adobe Animate.

"Oh. That's the same message!" He asserted.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! Let's read it together."

The twins whispered the message to themselves, "Cary... Michael... You..."

"Huh? We are next? What do you mean by this? Like, is someone about to kill us?" Cary furrowed his eyebrows.

"Or even worse, we will turn into one of them?!" He elaborated.

Michael pointed out about the place in the hidden message. "Perhaps? Also it says 'MEET US IN GOIKY,' but it's impossible to go there, since it's just a fictional place we made."

Cary came up with something. "Right. So, can we delete all of these and make a new one?"

"Yeah, do it."

He held the mouse, selected all the files that had been overwritten by the Markers, and deleted them. A few seconds later, those files popped up again, like it was never deleted in the first place.

"Huh?" He exhaled.

He tried it again, but the files kept popping up after being deleted.

"It doesn't work! This has never happened to me before!" He complained. Michael stood up.

"Uhm..."

Before he said anything, they both heard Cary's phone ring on the left side of the desk. He reached it, and he saw an incoming call from an unknown caller.

"Should we answer this number?"

"Umm... No. Decline it."

Michael tapped the red button on the phone, thinking it was just a random number.

They both caught the notification sound from Cary's computer. Cary turned his head, switched back to Discord, and read a new message from another animator:

"Answer the call NOW"

They then deleted the message and typed:

"NO GER OFF MY ACCOUNT NOW"

"Oh my god... This is making me stressed out!" he complained.

The phone ringed again from the same number, as if someone insisted them to answer the call.

"Hhh... Fine, let's see what good it is."

Michael accepted the call, and hovered the phone to his right ear.

"Hello?"

He heard a voice similar to someone who would say something about Cheezburger on Roblox.

"Hey. Is this Cary's number?"

"Mmm... yeah, but this is Michael H calling, not him," he looked at Cary.

"Hand this over to him," they commanded.

"Alright."

He handed the phone onto Cary. He lifted his phone on his ear.

"Uh... Yes, it's Cary talking. That was my brother."

"Perfect. I knew you are the people that I was looking for," they smirked.

"So, who are you?"

The caller introduced themself, "I am Noob, the owner of Find the Markers, and--" Cary lowered his phone to his thigh.

He turned away, and whispered to Michael, "I don't remember them being the owner..."

"What? What's their name?"

"Noob. And they claimed they're now the owner of Find the Markers. I mean, what happened to Alex?"

"Uhhh... I don't know. Let me look it up real quick." Michael walked away for a quick research on his own phone. Cary lifted his phone back on his ear.

"Are you listening?! Cary!" Noob yelled because they realized Cary did not listen to their introduction.

"Uh... Yeah?" He responded.

They gloated, "Good. Now, I'm telling you that I have haxored [hacked] your computers!"

"Really? Is this the reason why our asset files had been overwritten while my brother and I talked?"

"Yup!" They revealed that they had control over the twins' computers, so they could change everything at their will, in this case, the BFDI asset files.

"Can you get them back?" He asked.

"Hm... Maybe. But in one condition; you have to defeat the Markers." This seemed sinister to him.

"In Goiky, right? Because the file names say so." He conversated on the file names he and his brother read earlier.

"Exactly."

"I... don't think we both can get there!" He objected.

"Well--" and after that, he didn't focus to their word.

He also looked back at the door, seeing Michael came into his bedroom again, and he told him he had no idea what happened to Alex.

"Bro, I don't have much information regarding what happened to him. Some said he was dead and some others said he had been retired! I have no idea what actually happened!" he rasped.

"Oh."

Michael approached him, and crouched to join the call. Noob noticed Cary got distracted again, and screamed at him on the phone, "Cary! Listen to me!"

He jerked, "Oh! So, uhh... What really happened to Alexlion? You know, the--"

"You'll never find out what happened to him!" they gleed.

"What?" Michael lifted one of his cheeks.

Cary grunted, "Hgg... I hope he's okay."

They continued, "Heh. No promises. Anyways, I can teleport you to the place you said. Of course you made it up..."

"How did you that?" Cary asked.

"The power of pro coding," they parodied TPOT.

"This cannot be real," he mumbled.

He demanded Noob, "Can you fix all of this?!"

"Welp, I'm sending both of you to Goiky in 3..." they started counting down.

Cary turned his head do Michael, "Do you think we have anything to do for this?"

"2..."

Michael shrugged, "Umm... I bet there will be some tools to defeat the Markers or some other kind. We'll see."

"1..."

"Well, this is it." Cary orated their ride to Goiky, which happened before their eyes.

Noob pressed the enter button, and the twins in the real life disappeared, quick as the speed of light. They also sent a live stream of Goiky - to be exact, at the Grasslands on North Goiky - onto the Discord server.

Chapter Text

Somewhere more cartoony, and fictional, the twins had been spawned into the grasslands, with yellow grass, some green trees and bushes, and a 5-floor hotel near them. There was also a broken Marker which had been killed by somebody else. It was sunny, yet somewhat quiet, besides some distant chatters from the hotel and a now-locked-out underground factory, and also ominous, like it was hiding something.

"Good luck, yellow twins." Noob hung up. Cary's phone played disconnect tone. Cary put his phone in his pocket... or he thought it was.

He sensed a click. He realized there was a lasso-like belt on his waist with a bunch of tools from Adobe Animate, and the phone was attached to it.

He looked at Michael, and he realized both their bodies had turned into crudely drawn stick figures, with yellow head like who they would draw themselves as. His brother also had the belt, and his head is like pizza with a slice of it removed.
Michael mumbled, "What the...?"

They both stood up.
"We're in Goiky now, huh?"
"Yeah! And we're now stick figures, and look! You have that Pac-Man mouth, huh?" Cary teased him, and giggled.
"Hey-- I mean, that's true though. I put this as my profile picture on YouTube." he pointed at himself.

They both looked around, and they didn't find any Marker, besides that dead purple one. Cary started playing with the belt's end.
"Damn, I can't find any single Marker here..." Michael sighed.
"Maybe it's hiding somewhere... Let's be cautious for now." Cary told him.

"By the way, we have this belt on our waist, with these tools from our animating program!" He also informed him about the belt.
"Oh?" Michael looked down.
"Let me see if I can... draw this..."

He pulled the paintbrush on the belt, drew Four, and colored him. However, he smeared away upon completion.
"Huh? I don't think this usually happens when we draw!"
"Um... Draw something else."
"Hmm..."

He drew an M shaped bird. It then flew away.
"Ooh... that's weird," Cary commented about the action.
"So, we don't get to draw any character here, but that bird?"
"I'm pretty sure you can draw anything other than birds, but maybe--"

With a blink of TV snow, the ominous, dark, and shadowy Marker appeared in front of their eyes before Cary could finish his sentence. It had prominent, glowing red eyes. The twins were caught off-guard by its presence.
Cary jumped, and yelled, "WHUH??? WHAT IS THAT?! WHAT IS THAT THIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNG--"

Michael took his belt off, and caught it in a way that prevented it from going anywhere. The belt wrapped it up. Cary cooled down in confusion, "Huh?"

Michael then dropped it with such force, back and forth, threw it out of their way, and zapped it by his hand, dropping it from distance. It was for defense.

He put the belt back onto his waist, smiled , and commented, "Guess that belt is useful after all."
"Mhm. Now, uhh... what do we do now?" Cary asked.

Michael looked at the hotel. He pointed at it with his thumb, and said, "Um... Let's go inside this hotel. You know, to check if anyone's there."
"Okay, let's go!" he approved.
The twins walked towards the hotel and took the stairs.

**

Meanwhile, almost all of the Failed Debuters discussed mostly about the Markers in the cozy blue room with a sub-floor at the fifth floor of the hotel. Several had been researching, and the rest goofed around. The door was blocked by a vase of plant and pillows placed at the wrong side, and locked for safety.

Tape looked at the window, and talked to Avocado, Clapboard, and Battery, who were sitting on the couch with a book, "Look! The yellow Davidians are more powerful than whoever that number is."
Unamused, Clapboard said "Seriously?"
Avocado replied to them, "I don't think those are Davidians. How can they say anything more that 'aw, seriously'? Also, Davidians are not yellow."
"Oh!"

"Uhhh... So, did we witness the creation of new sticky creatures?" They asked.

PDA stepped downstairs.
"I have a plan," they proclaimed.
Tape interrogated them, "What is it?"

They elaborated, "So, we assemble ourselves into a giant robot, maybe as tall as that giant one, and we kill the thing!" Was that enough?

Avocado looked around the room and argued, "No, because we... don't have enough people for that." There were only 24 of them.
"Uhh... Yeah!" Battery doubted their plan.

PDA widened their eyes, and yelled, "What?! That isn't enough?!"
"And, it's been proven that whoever touches it, they will turn into one of them!" Battery gave them evidence.

Clapboard added, "We have this couch and stuff in here, but... that's still not enough."

They all bickered about PDA's plan while Battery took the book and stepped back, until the FD heard someone knocking on the door outside the room.
Turns out, Cary knocked the door. "Hello? Is someone there?"
PDA shouted in frustration, "No! Nobody's here! Go away!"

If nobody was inside the room, then why did he hear a voice?
"Well, someone is definitely inside this room!" He whispered to Michael.
"I mean, we can hear them arguing or something!" He replied.

Michael tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"We're not! Go!" PDA screamed.
"Can we just let them in?" Clapboard begged them.
"Hmm... No."

Since the twins are the creators, they could've break into the door sooner. But, no. Cary looked at his belt, and picked his eraser. He threatened, "Well, we will break into the door with our erasers!"
"But, we will not kill you, I swear!" Michael informed them that they are not dangerous.

"That's the same people who killed the void thing." Clapboard continued.
"Any proof?" PDA stares at him.

"Let me prove it to you..." he gathered a key from the couch, walked to the door, then moved things that blocked the door and unlocked it using the key. He opened the door. He was greeted with the twins.
"See what they told you?"
"That's us!" Michael said.
"Hi!" Cary put his eraser down and greeted the FD.
PDA fumed up as they tweaked their body.

Avocado greeted the twins, "Hey! Come sit here!"
The twins sat on the couch. Cary locked the door and move things back to block it with the power of transform feature.

"May I ask you who you are?" Avocado interviewed them.
"Hmm... just remember us as the yellow ones," Cary gave them an answer without telling them their real names.
"Uhh... Alright."

Curious, Michael asked, "So, what's with all the Markers?"
Avocado answered, "They've been here since one just appeared out of nowhere, and started infecting some of the people here! And even brought its army!"

"And?"
"And some of the survivors had to hide, because they're getting more powerful!"

"And??"
"The numbers, including Two... tried to fight them all, but it was an epic fail, because they're too strong to defeat!" they trembled.
"So, there we are, waiting for some kind of miracle to come in."

"Oh? We can be your miracle when you need it!" Cary replied, while playing with his belt's end. Michael nodded, "Yeah!"

PDA did not believe his words. They opened their jaw in doubt, and yelled, "What?! Can you just trust them right away?"

Battery shushed, "Shhh!"
PDA blurted, "They both would be losers!"
"Before you jump to that conclusion, maybe... check yourself first."
"Yeah." Avocado agreed.

Clapboard clapped his 'hand', "Time's up, buddy."
He dragged PDA with his foot to near the windows. They groaned, "Hey! What are you doing? STOP!!"

Clapboard used Tape's tape to seal their mouth off and lock their body by wall. They grunted in anger, trying to scream, but it was no help.

"Oh! Thanks, Clappy!" Tape thanked him, but he ignored them as he walked towards Avocado, Battery and the twins. Their smile faded in disappointment.

"Whoa! How brave of you!" Cary commented on Clapboard's action.

Cary continued, "Anyway... Yes, we witnessed that scary thing... I mean Marker... I guess... Yeah! It was, like, kinda creepy, but luckily, my brother next to me managed to kill it! Isn't that cool?" He pointed at Michael.
Clapboard replied, "Oh."
Battery got impressed, "Ooh! Cool!"

Tape walked towards the couch, and praised the twins, "Your brother sealed it! I saw you both outside from the window!"
Michael smiled with confidence. "Thank you, Tapester!"
They cheered, "Yay! You're welcome, yellow guy with that mouth!"

They stared at Cary, then Michael, and got lost which who is who.
"Wait a minute... How can I tell who your brother is?! You look similar!"

Cary explained, "My brother's head looks like pizza with a slice removed. Also, he is slightly darker. And, I look like Flower without her petals according to my fans."
"Wait, you are famous? Just like her?!" Tape widened their eyes and smiled in excitement.
Cary hesitated, "Uhhh..."

Michael covered his mouth with his own hand to silence him. He whispered, "Shh! Don't tell them!"
Cary put his hand down to his thigh. "Hey!"

"Umm..." Tape sat down. They felt bad with their words as they continued to stare at the twins.

They broke the silence with a compliment. "You both sealed it, actually!" they chortled and turn their attention away from the twins.
Michael and Cary smiled again. "Ooh! Thank you, Tapey! We both appreciate it!" Cary responded.

Battery approached the twins with their book, sat on the floor, and asked, "Anything to learn about?"
Michael replied, "Are there any other Markers, other than... like that void one?"

With all the knowledge Battery had right now, they opened their book and told them about the Markers they all saw. With their fingertip touching the paper, they explained, "Okay. So, these are the normal ones, which are the same size as you saw earlier. They can infect objects like us, but not the numbers, unlike that void thing."
"Mhm..."

They turned the page forwards.
"Then, you have the Giant ones, those are way larger than the normal ones. Also, I saw it vomiting that one. I mean, you already know that," they chuckled.

They took a glimpse at the windows, then looked back and touched the next page with their point finger.
"And... you have this Robot thing. It's a fusion of 2 giant ones and it will absolutely gonna take you down!" They explained as if they were telling a horror camp story to the twins.

Battery looked at the windows, and continued, "Trust me, I've seen it."
"That's true!" Avocado followed them up.

"Oh!"
The twins absorbed the knowledge of the Markers, leaving them intrigued.  Based on the study, Cary asked, "So, do they multiply?"

Battery answered, "Yeah, some can. Look at pin one! She managed to infect Black Hole by raining her clones! Not sure for other ones though."

"Oooh..."

Battery felt like they were forgetting something...

It's the design of the Markers!
They addressed it, "Oh, I almost forgot! Some marker things do not look like the rest! Take a look at Golf Ball, Fries and Pillow!"

They touched the design on the paper, which looked like some 3D Roblox models of a golf ball, a medium portion of french fries, and a pillow which had been stretched out, and all of these had a face.

"Interesting! So, do you wanna listen to our side of this shenanigan, perhaps?"
Tape agreed, "Ooh! Sure! What made you here? I'm curious!"

Cary inhaled, but before he said anything, everyone inside the room felt stumps, multiple times, as something huge was approaching outside. It was becoming audible. Almost everyone shrilled in fear.

Cary and Michael held close together, Avocado and Battery wrote something, PDA remained stucked in panic stickiness, while Clapboard and Tape peeked to the windows to see... that Giant Marker came in?!
"Giant Marker?!" Clapboard trembled.
Avocado told him, "Oh shoot, it's the giant one that we learned earlier!"
Battery stared at Clapboard while writing, and replied, "Seriously?! It came again?! I thought it wouldn't see us!"

The scream volume increased. The room felt like a mild earthquake.
Clapboard clapped his 'hand' again and screamed, "EVERYONE, GET DOWN!"

All the FD but PDA ducked. PDA kept on throwing muffled tantrums.

As creators of BFDI, killing the Markers would be considered being a piece of cake, since they lived in their own creations. Cary let Michael off to assure, "Don't worry, my brother and I will deal with this!"

Michael looked down in doubt, then he turned his head to Cary in realization.

"How?!" Battery screamed.
"Umm... You'll see later!!" Cary hurried to snap his finger, but he can't.
"Umm..." he looked at the FD shrilling and clapped his hands instead.

The Failed Debuters? Gone to another realm of all gray with two screens. The blue room fell silent as the scream echoed, leaving only the twins inside.

Michael commanded, "Okay, let's do this!"
He moved the stuff away from the door and opened it with transform feature; and with his brother, they both rushed downstairs.

Chapter Text

Cary and Michael took the stairs, and ran outside the hotel to encounter that great, Giant Marker, that is kind of close to the building. It was towering, taller than the hotel here. Its silhouette contrasted the bright, blue sky. Its shadow covered them in a way that is sort of frightening, but they knew they had to do it. They both stared at it, determined…?

Cary commented, “That is… bigger than I thought…”

“Oh, yeah! It’s called the Giant Marker for a reason,” Michael replied.

The Giant Marker released an ear-bleeding and evil laugh at them. It thought the twins could not defeat it. However, they both ran towards it and arranged themselves, making it between them. 

It almost jumped to crush Cary, but he gripped his lasso belt, and stripped it tight so it could not go anywhere. Angry, it tried to free itself, but he tossed it away and put his belt back onto his waist. It flung, circling the world; and when it almost landed back to the Grasslands, Michael zapped it with a light blue ray. It dropped straight to the ground, releasing a dust explosion from the impact. The explosion barely hit the twins. The Marker was still intact, laying there, but it now got paralyzed… for now.

Michael whisper-shouted in joy, “We got it!”

However, this was just the beginning. Cary felt like they both had not finished yet and worried, “Umm… I feel like it isn’t dead yet… It could wake up one day and attack us again!”

A light bulb appeared on his head and lighted on. He told him about his plan, “So, how about we both split up?” “How?”

He explained, “So, I defend this place from any danger, and you check on other areas! You know, we both have the ability to draw directly and you can use whatever you have drawn? Maybe, draw a hang glider!” He touched his paintbrush and reminded him about their ability to draw.

Michael questioned him, “Oh. Uhh…  Are you sure you can handle the danger of the Markers?” He paused for a second, and replied, “Yeah, I can do that!”

He hesitated, but then gave him a thumbs up and said, “Ehh… Okay then. See you!” He waved his hands, “Bye!”

Cary watched his brother running into the hotel again, and this time, he went up to the hotel roof and drew a hang glider and flew with it away from the building, and the Grasslands as well. He smiled watching him go.

Behind the building, Pillow Marker and a yellow-orange-capped Marker with googly eyes that looked similar to a typical algebralien had been whispering this whole time. They both spied Cary, who was unaware of them. However, he spotted them as soon as he looked at the hotel. They both hid back from his sight. Well, it was the perfect time for them to strike him down.

“Huh?? I– I swear they both were–” A four-fingered long cartoony orange arm dragged him from his left leg.

“AAAAAAHH!!” He screamed in pain. He grasped, turned around and saw the yellow-orange Marker with their arm showing. His eyes widened. He forced himself to let go and zapped them with his pale-blue beam. The arm lost its grip and retracted to the Marker as they tripped down. He fled away from them. He stared at them, thinking they could be faking it. 

Little did he know, Pillow Marker was watching him. She hit him with a fluffy, yet hard smack; throwing him near the wall, hard on his palms, knees, and feet on the ceramic ground, drifting. He looked up to her, and ran towards her.

Two white lasers almost came through him; but he put his hands on his head and crouched away from the light.

He trembled along with the quick movements those beings made. Lasers. Noodle arms. Aggressive fluffiness with intention of murder. All he just witnessed after beating that giant one up.

He looked down and touched his belt. A faint white light bounced on his arms and the grassy ground. He felt like that stupid algebralien Marker was about to kill him. He got his paintbrush and drew a thick, black shield, and covered him with it the last second before they released their eye laser. The shield reflected the laser, and it struck them. Their body started melting like ice cream.

The smell of burnt plastic and ink enraged the Pillow Marker. She kicked Cary’s ass with the bottom of her body. She watched her partner burnt into pieces, and realized it was too late. 

She tried hitting him, but the hard shield blocked her move. Cary swapped his paintbrush for his eraser. He leaped and stabbed his own shield and Pillow Marker, deep into her body, but not passed through. Opaque purple-ish white ink squirted out of her body a bit and left a hollow scar. Despite aching, she had planned something much worse on him.

Something heavy that defied gravity approached near her, with that transformation outline?! She got up and turned her attention to Cary, who controlled the transformation by gestures. Curious, she rotated her body slightly to the right.

The outline disappeared and the gravity worked again, and that something heavy… call it the Recovery Center, got thrown and crushed her to death before she moved. The dust from the impact floated and dropped.

Cary stood up, and stared at the Giant Marker, who was still laying down there. “Ooh…”  He looked at his hands. Since he could zap anyone with his hands, who knows if the zap could kill that humongous thing?

He ran into it and blasted his ray against it.

The ground scratched… It got up! It did the opposite! He stepped back and turned his attention away from it to and fro. He heard a brief, distant voice of his brother; however, he was too nervous to focus on that!

Giant Marker made a loud step, taunting him. Cary stepped back once more. Sure, he should get the hang of it eventually.

A TV snow blinked in once again. That Evil Shadow Marker teleported in between them, despite being beaten by his brother. Seems like it would not give up. Cary widened his eyes in fear. “Aaah!!”

He looked down and picked his paintbrush, and removed his belt from his waist. He drew a black shield again with the brush for protection, and put it back on the belt. The Evil Shadow Marker tried to expand itself, but Cary’s shield got close and touched it, shrinking it back to the same size. His shield clinked. He tried to catch that Marker, but it teleported away.

It tried to expand again… He prevented it from doing so… over, and over… They both got stuck in a loop to the point Giant Marker hated it! It wanted to stop all of this, and settle a final win for its remaining army. Were they still surviving anyway? Whatever!

It vomited Dark Markery, hoping he could settle all of this fight. However, he just stood there, confused. He focused on buzzes from that one black void Marker, expanding and shrinking back and forth, while that yellow stick man (Cary) fought back for his creation with his brother. Clink… Clink…

He looked around, and spotted his arch-nemesis, Purple Marker… who was destroyed into two pieces. Terrific! He does not know who did that, but still; his main goal was accomplished!

He turned around and looked up to the Giant Marker, grunted and whispered to himself, “What’s the point of me being here?”

He did not want to deal with this! He just wanted to get back to his place and take his domination! Looking at the flashy fight and the giant back and forth, his aggression softened. He knew the Giant Marker would force him to kill everyone that is not his kind. He had not seen that stick man before, and somehow… he felt bad.

He sighed, and snuck onto the scene as the smell of burnt plastic, smoke, and ink welcomed him.

He pulled his chainsaw on, buzzing, and swung it to the back. He looked for the perfect moment where that all-black Marker teleported in front of him. He trembled, knowing this was not going to work…

As he knew it, the Shadow Marker showed up in front of him. He took a deep breath and swung his chainsaw into it.

“ACK!” The lasso belt slapped him, making him trip left to the grass. Hurtful! Buzz… His vision flashed black. It… disappeared, before his eyes…

He watched the two clashing with each other, unnoticed of his presence. He got up and walked slowly, near that sweaty tall stick man… He gripped Cary’s right wrist with his nonexistent hand. Cary sensed his ghostly touch.

“Huh??”

Dark Markery dragged him out of the battle! Cary felt the grass stabbing his back to the point it hurted. He shrieked, “HAAH!! WHAT!??? WHO IS THIS??!”

He squinted his eyes. He whimpered and shed a tear. He threw his shield towards Dark Markery. However, he tilted his body forwards, and jumped over it. Cary’s body followed it and lifted with force.

They both dashed, jumped, and broke into the underground factory! Dark Markery smashed the wide, thick, and shiny metal plate that blocked the entrance, all with the force of his dark purple bottom!

BONG! It cracked and broke into smaller ones! Cary whipped his belt, hitting almost all the pieces of the slab out of their way, and him. 

They both fell downstairs, hitting the edges of the steps from the eight flights and the walls; and got thrown out of them, all the way into the large goop that used to be Golf Ball’s Dream Island. It was kind of dense, and was not sticky at all; and it smelt like old paper. The factory itself was dim, with the lava from two Oven-o-Trons and an incubator. The fans and the gears spun from the walls. Some chatters from the crowd echoed. Cary’s back and his legs bruised. He breathed hard.

He got up, scanned the room, and spotted the remaining contestants — including Basketball, Coiny, and Pen, as well as the original Marker — as survivors, trying to find solutions by inventing a new gun to cure the infection for object-kinds. Basketball was working on it with her welding tools, and most of the contestants were helping her.

Coiny turned behind, spotted both Cary and Dark Markery from afar, and gasped. He pointed his shaky finger at them, and announced to the rest of the contestants, while panicking, “Two of them had just broken into our base! They’re gonna infect us now! We’re DOOMED!!”

Basketball put her tool back onto the floor, widened her eyes, and stared at them in disbelief. “WHAT?!” Marker inhaled, and hid behind Basketball out of fear, “No, no, no no no nononono!!!! Nooo!! I’m scared!” Dark Markery saw that! He spotted Marker! “I… Forget it!”

The rest of the contestants turn all their eyes on them. They all gasped.

Cary turned his eyes to Dark Markery, and whimpered in fury, “What… are you… doing…?!” Dark Markery got up and rotated to face him and made eye contact with each other.

Coiny realized one of them was not shaped like those typical Markers and looked like Flower without her petals. “Wait a minute. One of them doesn’t look like it! They looked familiar, even! Is that Flower… except without petals?!” The contestants once again gasped.

Pen shuttered, “Um… I barely remember her! I mean, what if they’re both… harmless?” Coiny replied, “That purple one is holding a chainsaw though! They cannot be harmless!”

Eggy came up, and asked, “If they’re as harmful as them, then can’t you just shoo them off?” “What? No! That’s just gonna make this worse!”

Snowball walked up after a conversation with Bell, and said, “Well, I can just beat those wimps up!” Basketball begged him not to, “Snowball, no! You’re gonna also get infected!”

Bell encouraged him, “Yeah! Get them!” Basketball yelled at her, and they both argued. That snowy ball walked near the dark goop and cracked his knuckles, preparing to fight against both Cary and Dark Markery. However, they both were not interested in him. Instead, Cary stared at him and clapped his hands. The chatters went silent, gone.

Now that all the surviving contestants vanished, Dark Markery stepped out of the goop. It left a trace of black. He told Cary to walk out as well and find a hiding spot. “carykh_BFDI, get outta here and hide from it. Wherever!”

“Umm…” Cary walked out of the goop. He held his own right wrist with his left hand, shaking from the painful force of Dark Markery’s invisible hand.

They both walked behind the Oven-o-Tron 2000 and Cary sat there. He bent his legs and wrapped his arms around them. The oven and the surroundings were warm. It helped him recover a little bit.

Cary looked at the goop, and realized his belt sinked. He let his right arm out, and opened his left hands, shaking less. The belt moved like a snake, making a swishy sound; and touched his hand. The belt left unharmed.

Aloof, Dark Markery asked with a deep voice, “Can I tell you something?” Cary turned his head to him, replied with a tired and soft voice, “Umm… what?” He has never seen this kind of Marker speak before. 

“I’m very glad that fool was killed! You seen that purple one?” 

Cary looked down and paused for a second. He recalled that moment when he and his brother looked around before their first encounter of that void Marker. Suddenly, he realized. “Oh… Yeah..! What’s up with it?” His voice got loud a bit, though still aching.

He ranted, “He made a fool of me a looong time ago, and I’ve always wanted to replace him! Now that he’s dead, could you do me a favor?”

“Umm… What is your name? And… as long as that’s what I can.”

“Call me Dark Markery, and send me back to my place now!”

Sending him back? He relaxed his legs and looked at his hands. That is something he can not do… He is not in the Find The Markers development team! He refused, “No! I can’t do that, Markery!”

Dark Markery frowned in disapproval. He swung his chainsaw close to his face. He yelled, “Just throw me out of that space! Go to the Dimension of Darkness there, you idiot!”

Cary smacked the floor with both his hands. His voice got louder, surprised, “I don’t know where that is! Is that a new update for Find the Markers?! Also, we’re in the BFDI world, so… again, I can’t do that…!”

His chainsaw got close to his face. Dark Markery raised his voice and mocked his words, “Na, na, na na! I! Don’t! Care! Send me back there, or else!”

Cary took a deep breath, and gripped his lasso belt with his left hand. He started trembling again… The heat made him uncomfortable.

He stood up in annoyance and whipped Dark Markery with his belt. He backed down. Cary exclaimed, “I just don’t know where that is! Ask that giant one, it’s over there!” He pointed his finger to the ceiling, assuming the Giant Marker was there. “Why should I?!”

“Oh! One last thing; you… broke my wrist!” He whipped him again for good measure. Dark Markery tripped to the cold floor.

“DARK MARKERY. YOU. ARE. SUPPOSED. TO. KILL. HIM.”

The voice of the Giant Marker echoed throughout the factory!

“Grrrr!!!” Cary jerked out of anger and ran away from him, looking for that stairway that led them out while preparing for the instinct. Dark Markery got up and chased him, with his buzzing chainsaw out.

They both rushed onto the thirteen-flight stairway, and everything they looked at started to look deteriorated. Dark Markery swung his chainsaw to Cary. However, he shifted his position left and right against the chainsaw directions, and jumped over it. Not very effective.

Cary glanced at his belt and held it with his right hand. He blasted his ray through his left hand, targeting that dark Marker thing. He jumped over it, though it hit his bottom. “OWWWW!! OW! OW! Waaa!” He stopped and pretended to get hurt.

Cary halted as well and realized they were on nine and half flights from below. He started getting lightheaded from the result of spinning in almost circular motion. He panted. He bent his knee down a bit, looked down and touched his own mouth with his left hand, like he was about to vomit. He murmured, “Oh gosh… go… ask… that giant… one up there… and…! stop this… Honestly…” He coughed.

Dark Markery changed his expression to a mocking smile, He shouted at him,  “BUT do you think I’m losing here?! Nah!” He levitated, revealing a purple flame above his cap.

Cary got his head up quick. He gasped.

He got charged up and zapped him. It did nothing to him! No way! He tiptoed around Dark Markery’s tubular body. The chainsaw floated away. His skin felt like he’s turning orange. He looked at his hands, and gasped, “Wha… WAIT…!!”

He stepped up further and a chainsaw dropped next to him. He startled and gazed at Dark Markery, afraid. He looked up to the bright sky, and ran upstairs as more chainsaws appeared and almost dropped above his head. He dodged every single Dark Markery’s moves and was almost there at 12th flight, with the sunshine welcoming him… until he stubbed his right toe. He tripped down, hitting his left arm, his head, you call it. Dark Markery kicked him out on the 5th flight. 

The TV snow and the black vision blinked several times in his eyes. His eyes turned to the factory floor, and he spotted that Evil Shadow Marker he had fought earlier?! He widened his eyes. slackjawed in fear. He spread his body to land!

It expanded towards him and…

He saw himself as one of those Markers. The tubular body replaced his stick man body. His white base, his yellow cap, his emblem which has green for the outside ring and blue circle inside, and his red-orange bottom somewhat reminded him of Rubik’s cube. He looked at Dark Markery. He was filled with determination… to infect everyone else. He was ready.

But, how about the real Cary? Where did he go?

**

Cary opened his eyes to a red-ish, space-like void. It was starry… and cold. It was so cold it numbed his pain, for now. He floated through the void at a constant speed. His vision was filled with TV snows blinking.

He spotted that void Marker again. Upon blinking, it disappeared. What the heck is this? He turned around. He lifted his left hand, for anytime it appeared in front of his eyes. The surveillance made him obnoxious, but he kept holding on. waiting for its sight.

The problem was, it flashed around the void. He could not catch it on time, even with his lasso belt. He swung his belt. He then spinned and missed it. Every. Single. Time. He sometimes hit his own back with his belt.

He moved zig-zag across, trying to catch it with a whip and a zap in desperation, until he saw an odd shaped yellow-orange creature with darker limbs from behind, standing there motionless for God knows-how-long. He gasped and wore his belt back onto his waist. He could already tell what they were, by the shape. That was a lost algebralien also trapped here! 

He tapped on their left arm and called their name, “Hello, Forty-Three…”

They turned around and startled, thinking they spotted that same Marker, when it was just a yellow stick man, talking to them. They yelped, “Haah! Oh. Uhh…” Cary looked at them horrified, and apologized, “No! I’m… sorry! I didn’t mean it like that..!” He sighed.

Forty-Three shivered and pointed their finger to the speedy Evil Shadow Marker, “It’s fine… I- I thought I saw that one again! You know, that thing??”

Cary paused to look to the left, and made eye contact back with them. He said, “Oh… eh.. yeah…!” “Yeah. We… lost to that crap.” Seems like they both were in the same fate.

“Also… hi… Who are you? I’m really… curious, dude.”

He replied, “Hmmm… Since we have a similar color for my head, and your body, why not ‘Yellow?’” They thought about that name… “Got it, Yellow…” They smiled a bit. It was for his protection.

It was the first time Cary encountered an algebralien like this. Mind you he never saw any algebraliens anywhere during his time in the BFDI world with his brother! Maybe he saw that one Marker similar to them earlier, but did it really count as one? He had been wondering about that! He told them about it, “Speaking of the color yellow, I saw that one Marker, whose cap and stuff shared the same color scheme as you.”

Forty-Three rolled their eyes and made a sarcastic remark, “Cool. That’s… really cool of them!” They scoffed. Cary sighed, “Well, I already killed them, along with that pillow one. I think she… was supposed to represent Pillow.” A part of Forty-Three remembered her as one of the TPOT contestants. “Oh, yeah! Pillow! She’s one of Two’s contestants infected, along with…” 

They realized something was wrong! “Wait a minute… Didn’t I already kill her?!” They gripped their own palms in annoyance. Cary held his right arm with his left hand. He assured them, “Umm… Don’t worry about it. Let’s just hope her death will be permanent this time…” “Whatever!”

“Oh! Since you mentioned Two, do you know where they went? And… Four and X?” They told him, “They’re all fused into me, along with Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine.” They counted with their fingers.

Cary was quite surprised by their statement. That made him wonder, “Ohh! Then, where are Five, Ten, and the rest of them?” Forty-Three hesitated, “Umm… I don’t know!” They put their hand down.

They recalled their memories of the algebraliens in them, deep into their mind…

They thought of Six’s memory, and explained, “So… Six asked Five in particular to join with Two, just as he asked the rest of his friends, but they refused. All… outta his friends, who all volunteered, they were the only one not helping them... They told Six that they didn’t believe Two, when he was on a call with them. So, we wrote a letter to Four and X, Nine was a prick though, and went out to Goiky without them! We don’t know what happened to the rest of our kind… Ten wasn’t there, the Zeroes were too busy talking to each other on the other side… Umm… They all could be dead… by now! We’ll never find out!”

Maybe Cary can create a portal for them… He forced himself to smile to cope and suggested, “Oh… How about we create a portal to get back to the world, and… see what they’re up to? Hehe…”

They saw it as bullcrap already. They objected, “Wha– No…! Last time I tried creating it, the stupid Marker ate it!”

Their mind flashed back to their attempt to create their portal themselves, before Cary arrived. At first, they snapped their finger to teleport themselves. It obviously did not work, as they teleported to nowhere in the void. Then, they swept their hand from bottom to up, creating a portal to the Grasslands with the glimmering power. They tried to pass through the portal. However, the Evil Shadow Marker got in front of it, and the portal glitched out to nothing, as if it had never existed. Forty-Three twitched out of fear.

Back to the present, Cary told them, “Well, I’m one of the two creators of this world, so… umm…” His cheeks turned red, and his face sank. He is actually one of the creators of BFDI, isn't he?

They looked at his waist, and then his face. They prompted, “Seriously…? And… who’s the other one?” He raised his face back. “Uhh… No…  Actually, we’re not the creators… My brother and I… came to save this world…! Umm… Yeah!” He lied. There was a greater cause to this.

“Your brother…Whoa… What does he look like?” Cary replied, “Let’s just say he looks like me… but slightly different…” “Oh… I’m… looking forward to seeing him, if that’s even possible…” Forty-Three wished and sighed.

They glared at the infinite space of this starry void, as they and Cary floated around. They turned to him and asked, “Anyway, how’s him?”

“Umm… He’s… on his way to check on the other places in this world, and maybe, kill all those Markers there… We had a plan to split up, because like, we both tried to kill that giant one, and… I wanted to defend the Grasslands from those Markers… and, I failed. You know what I mean?”

“I see. Hmm… Is the Giant still alive…?” Forty-Three shivered again.

He deadpanned, “Unfortunately… yeah.”

Woe and coldness filled the air. Well, Cary is here to break that… or that was what he thought. He held their hand, and picked his paintbrush up from his belt with his left hand.

Forty-Three exclaimed, “...W– What? Are you making a portal?!”

He drew an oval, then painted it with the landscape of the Grasslands and switched colors with his paintbrush, while he told them, “Hmm… I’m just testing it. Don’t wor–”

TV snow blinked into their visions.

The Evil Shadow Marker jumpscared him. He collided with the yellow-orange algebralien, scared. “Woah!!” He looked back, and the portal disappeared, glitched out of existence, by that void-keeper. They flickered their hand off Cary’s and yelled, “Did you not hear what I said to you…?!”

That plan failed. Cary put his paintbrush back to the belt. “Umm… Sorry… Let me just…” Instead, he clapped his hands, with his swelling right wrist.

Nothing happened. He did not get anywhere. Forty-Three stared at him, hopeless.

He held his right hand above his chest. He murmured, “No… I… should have treated my wrist first… Ow…” The algebralien gave him a concerned look. They interrogated, “Uhh… Did you break it? Like… by accident or something?” He answered, “No… but another Marker did.”

‘Another Marker.’ Those words went right into their mind. They tremored and gulped in disappointment, “THERE’S… MORE?!”

“...Yeah. Um… I think his name was… Dark Markery…”

They yelled, “WHERE IS–” Wait. They breathed out in despair, knowing they could never find him. “...Nevermind. It’s not like we could escape here now anyway…”

It was getting colder, and colder in this very dimension; and they both needed heat at this point. So, Cary spread his arms and got close to Forty-Three. He wrapped his arms around their body, like he was hugging a large plushie. It felt comforting, despite it not being real for a creator. His wrist still ached, but it did not matter now.

The number alien sensed the heat from the human body, disguised as the stick figure. They hugged him back after a wave of heat hit them. For them, it felt real. They had been ‘alone’ for… maybe 10 minutes. But ever since another came here, this place had been ‘lively’ and to say, they were glad they were not alone.