[Chapter Ten - Bobette] 'Coal should be back any minute now...' Bobette glanced over to the Rudie, Ginger, and their newest ally, Glisten, who were all three cuddled together against a wall, sleeping. Now that Glisten was here, Bobette now had another toon to keep an eye on. He seemed to have believed what she'd told him, but he seemed very skeptical. 'I've got to be clever about how I'll use him before he leaves...' The elevator dinged and Bobette looked up. Coal was dragging a toon on the floor by something around their neck. She stopped in front of Bobette and put the toon down. "Huh. Sprout." Bobette said, lightly kicking his unconscious head a few times. Why wasn't he in his little virtual world? Did something happen? "Thanks, girl." She said as she pet the giant rock monster. Coal cooed in response and went to the elevator to leave this floor. 'I wish she could sleep up here with us, but Ginger would be scared if she woke up to Coal here...' Bobette turned her focus back to Sprout. 'Maybe he has something good on him I could snag?' She propped him upright against a crate and dug through his apron pockets. In his middle pocket, there was a strange, rectangle object that she didn't immediately recognize. After squinting at it in the dim lighting for a few moments, she realized what it was; a USB. These little plug things had data on them, from what she knew. What if it was... 'No, it couldn't be. He wouldn't THAT careless, could he?' She looked around. There was an office somewhere on this floor that had a computer. She could plug it in and see what was in it. Bobette turned back to Sprout. She couldn't leave him here. He'd get away. Besides, she had a LOT of questions for him... After tying him to a chair with his scarf, she inspected him. It looked like one of his arms was mauled off. 'I bet it's not gone in that virtual world...' He didn't have anything else with him, which made her think he was running away in a rush. Hmmm... He began to shuffle around, so Bobette slipped the USB into her backpack and prepared herself to talk to this annoying strawberry. "Finally waking up?" she chuckled a bit. Sprout blinked a few times as he woke up. "Huh...?" He tried to stand up but realized he was stuck. "Hey- What's going on??" he snarled, looking up. "Sorry, I had to tie you up. I do it to every toon who comes here unannounced." "But I don't remember coming here...?" he mumbled as he struggled in the scarf. "You probably hit your head or something." She shrugged. "Anyways, do you mind answering a few questions?" Sprout looked very tired, his clothes and hair disarray with eyebags to compliment it. She could tell he didn't want to talk, but she needed this information. After a drawn out silence, he sighed. "Fine. What do you want to know..?" "Why did you leave us holiday toons out of the simulation?" Sprout looked away awkwardly. "I-It's not necessarily that we left you guys out on purpose. I don't know anything about how that simulation works, so Vee would know more. But back when we were getting DNA to put the toons in there, we couldn't find you guys, and Pebble was way too dangerous. Later on, when we wanted to add you guys, Vee said it's too dangerous to add more because the whole memory system thing.. I dunno.. But Vee is such a hypocrite! She-" He cut himself off, realizing he said too much. "What did Vee do?" "...She removed Cosmo. Which is probably going to affect the "memory system" still!" "Hmm.. So is that why you're here?" Bobette went to get her pitcher of hot cocoa. Not the sleep one, of course. She still wanted answers out of him. "I- I guess... I was looking for Cosmo so maybe I could save him- he's not dead YET. Just badly injured.." "Ah." She offered a cup of cocoa to him. "Hot cocoa?" "You'll have to untie me first." he said, irritated. "I'm not done with you yet." She sat the cup on the floor next to the chair. "What else do you want then??" "We could help you find Cosmo. But that would mean you'd have to join our side." Sprout thought for a moment. "Who exactly is on.. "your side"?" "Ginger, Rudie, and Glisten." Sprout blinked. "Wait... Glisten???" "Mhm!" "You FOUND HIM?!" "Be quieter!" She hissed, covering his mouth. "They're all asleep right now." Sprout rolled his eyes and she took her hand off. "But- you found Glisten-?" "Yeah, he was pretty upset you guys left him behind." "But we didn't-! We couldn't find him! I thought I saw him at one point but we had to go because Pebble.." Bobette decided not to tell Glisten that. She still needed him. "Ah. I'll tell him that later." she lied. "Yeah, please do..." Bobette remembered the USB. "I'll be right back. Stay there!" "What-?! Untie me first!" She ignored him and went to find the office room on this floor. She had seen Delilah go in it once. 'Oh yeah, I wonder how those humans are doing. I think they might still be in here.' She stood on her tippy toes to reach the doorknob and went inside.
