Author's Notes:

-I own Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, so the versions of the games you'll see here will fluctuate a bit between the Monkey Ball and Monkey Ball 2 varieties. Other than that, I have nothing to say except that I hope you enjoy this story!

Cruel and Unusual Party Games

Monkey Island General Hospital wasn't as grim a place as an outsider might expect, but it was still most certainly a hospital. The building wasn't massive, given the island's low population, but it still dwarfed just about everything on the island, an imposing figure for most.

It only had eight beds, which were little more than mattresses thrown on top of sturdy objects that could be classified as bed frames in the loosest sense of the word, but all were currently occupied. Their occupants lay there in various states of misery, groaning and waiting for their turn to see the island's lone doctor.

The doctor on Monkey Island had two distinguishing features: he had a bushy mustache that he'd never trimmed in his life, and he was one of the few monkeys in town who wore pants. Those things had probably been meant to suggest age and maturity, but all it really did was give him the look of an ax murderer and compress his tail into a shape that most certainly was not natural. Neither of those things mattered too much for any of his patients, however, for most of them were in too much misery to care.

That trend extended to the monkeys currently occupying the beds now. Aiai, Meemee, Baby, and Gongon took up four of them, several other monkeys filling the rest for mostly unrelated reasons. Fortunately for Aiai, his bed was the closest to the door, so that meant he got seen first when the doctor walked in for his afternoon duties.

"So, let's discuss your injuries," the doctor said. "Most of it's just cuts and bruises, but based on the tests I've run, you also appear to have done something to your vision, although that probably will get fixed with nothing but time. How do you think you might have gotten these injuries?"

Aiai knew that answer, but unlike most times, he kept his mouth clamped shut. He would have said that it came down to never being very comfortable at the doctor's office to begin with, but here it came down to nothing more than sheer embarrassment at the stupidity of the actions that had gotten him and everyone he cared about in here.

To summarize a lengthy story, they'd tried to play some party games, and to say they had not gone well was the understatement of the millennium.

-RACE-

The four of them lined up at the start of the banana-shaped circuit, ready to run until they couldn't anymore. Before any of them could figure out what lay down the course, the monkey they'd pulled to start the race yelled, "Go," and all of them were off like a shot.

The four of them made it around the smooth turn that the side of the banana consisted of and even made the first hard curve with minimal difficulty. However, the toughest part of the course came at the end, which was a series of hard turns culminating in several bumpers ready to fling them off the track if someone so much as looked at them wrong.

Gongon, the lead racer, slowed down enough to make the curve with minimal issue, but couldn't quite squeeze between the bumpers, sending him flying over the guard rails the course had hastily tacked on in an attempt to keep that very thing from happening. Baby didn't slow down enough and went flying over the side on the sharp curve, Aiai doing likewise. Meanwhile, Meemee actually made it around the curve and through the bumpers to complete her first lap without any issues, but when Gongon hit a speed booster behind her and slammed into her, she was sent tumbling over the side as well and Gongon screeched to a halt, causing Baby and Aiai to slam into him as well.

While during the events, everyone had been surprised enough that the only noises that came out of them were grunts and screeches at varying pitches and volumes, but by the time they'd all made their way back to the course, they decided to reconvene and figure out the seriousness of their injuries.

"I think I'm fine," Gongon said, even as the angry bruise on his forehead begged him to scream otherwise.

"Just a bit dizzy," Meemee added, although her stomach made a noise that made the other three back away a few steps.

Baby said nothing, although that was to be expected at this point. However, he did nod to indicate that he could continue.

Aiai was about to add something, but the monkey standing at the start of the track interrupted that conversation without the slightest remorse. "Hey! Are you guys going to actually finish the race, or are you just going to stand around for all eternity? I don't have all day!"

No one knew what prior engagement he'd need to dash off to on such short notice, but on the other hand, they also wanted to finish the race. And thus, even though they hobbled a bit or otherwise noticed things hurting that had not been before, they still took off, ready to take on whatever came their way.

If only they knew their troubles would do nothing but escalate from there.

-FIGHT-

Why there was a fighting arena in the sky was anyone's guess, but at the very least it made picking where the next game was to take place a heck of a lot easier. Equipping boxing gloves to the balls they were using had been a bit more difficult, but they made it work. Thus, all of them were perched on the corner of a floating platform, ready to knock the others off, whatever it took.

And once the bell rang to start the first round, nothing was holding them back.

At the beginning, things stayed rather simple. Some punches were thrown, and a few even landed, but everyone stayed on the top of the arena. Then several mystery boxes dropped out of seemingly nowhere, and that's when things started to get confusing.

Baby managed to punch one of them open. Suddenly, his boxing glove no longer went in a straight line like the others' did, instead spinning around like some kind of knock-off propeller. Aiai tried to approach Baby in an attempt to take him out before his powerup could be put to full use, but without even really meaning to, Baby's boxing glove slammed into Aiai's ball and the latter went flying off the edge of the arena, Aiai screeching as he went.

The others didn't bother checking on him at first, as they were too busy trying to make sure they didn't suffer his fate. None of them did, fortunately enough, and the round ended with Baby victorious, as was to be expected.

By the end of the round, though, Aiai not resurfacing back to the playing field was enough of a cause for concern that Meemee went down to check on him. It didn't take long for her to find him, fortunately; he'd just started haphazardly hovering over the ocean while mumbling something under his breath, presumably about bananas.

Meemee stuck her hand in the air. "Aiai, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three," Aiai slurred.

She was, in fact, holding up three fingers. "Well, good, at least I know you're not concussed. That'd be really bad, wouldn't it, Aiai?"

"You bet, Gongon," Aiai said, earning a noise of despair from Meemee that sounded quite a bit like choking.

-TARGET-

Aiai gave Gongon a look. "Are you sure this ramp is safe?"

Gongon let loose a hearty laugh. "Of course! I tested it myself."

Aiai wasn't convinced. "And how did that test go?"

Gongon smiled. "It went excellently! I might have dislocated my shoulder once or twice, but no worries, it's easy to pop back in!"

Somehow, Meemee and Baby didn't seem concerned about that, so Aiai decided to just let it lie. Each of them returned to the inside of their balls, preparing to roll down the slope. The target they needed to hit lay on the horizon, a rainbow smear against a plane of deep blue.

The four of them began rolling down the ramp. Gongon went first, then Aiai and Meemee went side by side, Baby bringing up the rear. The steep descent caused them to pick up speed with a fervor; within seconds they'd accelerated too much to even bother trying to stay on their feet. Centrifugal forces flinging them against the side of their spheres and g-forces plastering them in place, they reached the base of the ramp before being flung off the end, everyone except Gongon screeching their lungs out.

Near the top of his arc, Gongon opened his ball into wings, starting to fly towards the target. Aiai and Meemee did the same a bit closer to the water. Baby, once more, was last, nearly slamming into the ocean before he deployed his wings and started to fly off.

At the very least, the target was large and easy to distinguish from the ocean, so figuring out where they had to land came easily. The problem came with actually landing there. Between the winds buffeting them and constantly forcing them to adjust their course and the very real possibility of crashing into each other, setting up the big drop kept everyone on their toes.

Then, it happened. Gongon dropped first, landing right in the center of the target. Aiai and Baby both landed closer to the edge. Meemee, however, was not as lucky. She tried to set up a landing in the center, overshot, then made the fatal mistake of trying to turn around. Instead of hitting the target, she hit the choppy ocean with a muted splash.

The other three popped out of their balls while trying to avoid using whatever parts they'd landed on, Gongon speaking first. "Based on where we landed, I get 200 points. Aiai, you get 30. Baby, you get 20. Meemee gets none, since she didn't hit the target."

"Wait a minute," Aiai said. "Are these balls safe to use underwater?"

"Of course," Gongon said. "I even added some holes in them, just to make sure you're still able to breathe while submerged."

The implications of what he'd said hit him about three seconds later.

-BILLIARDS-

Thankfully, at least Billiards had been easy to set up. Other monkeys had volunteered to stand in the balls to make sure they didn't roll off every time the players were trying to set up a shot, so that wasn't an issue. While there hadn't been a giant billiards table set up, the monkeys had also managed to liberate Dr. Bad-Boon's size-changing ray from his clutches, so upsizing the one they'd found in someone's game room had been quite simple.

Baby was lining up a break shot, shifting left and right with little grunts that could be heard even through the balls. The fourteen monkeys in the numbered balls shook a bit with anticipation, waiting for the moment to come.

Baby found his position and leaned back. Everyone else drew in a breath.

He took the shot.

A split second later, every other monkey exhaled hard. Only half of that was due to the release of excess tension.

The rest came from Baby crashing into them at high speed, throwing them into the sides of their balls as they launched in a dozen directions all at once. A few rolled into the pockets. Others bounced off the sides of the table. Still others crashed into each other, sending them careening again. Even Baby hadn't been immune to this, being flung into the ceiling and crashing down with quite a thump before he rolled into a corner pocket.

Meemee, his opponent, noticed that in a heartbeat. "Sorry, everyone, but Baby scratched, we're going to have to do that again."

Pained groans were heard all around.

-BOWLING-

Why the space colony Dr. Bad-Boon had utilized for a short time had a bowling alley and baseball field to its name, Aiai had no idea. However, once they'd figured out how to get back up there, it meant they could spice up their typical bowling with the strange additions he'd made, most notably among them the lane warpers that made getting a strike that much harder.

Gongon was having the hardest time with these, as he wasn't very good at doing things that didn't involve just bum-rushing the pins in a straight line. This hole could fit that strategy a bit, as most of the lane was intact except for one tiny stretch that shifted horizontally in both directions at regular intervals. He could go straight forward and knock down pins or even get a strike, but he had to time his throw perfectly.

He lined up a shot, watching the platform the entire time. Then, as the platform began to move into place, he threw himself down the lane with all his might, the platform rushing and him rushing and everything seeming to be on a collision course.

But unfortunately, he overestimated something for once, and that something was the speed of the moving section. He launched off the first stationary part of the lane too early and proceeded to slam into the side of the second stationary part at top speed, letting loose a noise that sounded like something a monkey would make after being struck by a dozen falling coconuts before falling into the abyss below.

Baby went to check on him, while Aiai prepared to take the same shot. "Don't worry, guys," he said. "I've learned from Gongon's mistakes. Strike, here I come!"

He was right in one aspect. He didn't repeat Gongon's mistakes.

Unfortunately, the only strike he got was one to the face, because he proceeded to underestimate the platform's movement and shoot too slowly. It was less painful than Gongon's full-on smash into the wall, but it hurt plenty nonetheless.

Meemee just sighed. "I think I'll skip this frame."

-GOLF-

After the disasters that had been their first few games, you'd think that maybe the four of them would realize doing anything in the sky was a less-than-ideal strategy, but then again, all the players had collectively decided the best way to top a mad scientist from turning all the bananas in the world into curry-flavored monstrosities was to use magical flying balls to roll through mazes and survive all sorts of other nonsensical shenanigans. It was safe to say they weren't the brightest bunch, pun somewhat intended.

The lone round of regular golf had actually gone by without much trouble, since the courses were massive and gave the players plenty of room to land even if their shot happened to go awry (which they did, quite frequently in fact). Mini golf, however, was proving much harder. While a good chunk of the early holes were walled in and even the ones that weren't required comparatively little power to clear with a good score, they hadn't even cleared the front nine and were already experiencing problems.

This latest hole was no exception. Shaped roughly like an elbow and with no walls whatsoever, it was the toughest one yet by a significant margin. Aiai, Meemee, and Baby had all tried to shoot for the hole or at least land somewhere they wouldn't roll off, but all had failed thus far. Now, it was Gongon's turn, and considering he was in last place by three strokes and off the lead by six, he needed to make this one count.

He'd learned from the others' mistakes this time around. Aiai hadn't made his shot hard enough to overcome the slope of the ground, nor had Meemee done it for hers. Baby looked like he'd at least end up somewhere stable but had shot at a poor angle and gone rolling off the side anyway.

Gongon attempted to fix that problem by shooting hard and into the slant, trying to use the curve to rocket him back into the hole. At first, it looked like it would work, his ball rolling at an angle that looked like it would end with him in the hole, but he missed by about a foot to the left and proceeded to unceremoniously roll off the end of the hole, spinning like crazy in the process, trying to keep the contents of his stomach (fortunately, bananas were pretty light) where they should be.

That stayed in his system. However, once his ball stabilized into a hover, his head was spinning so fast he could barely think straight, let alone see straight. Maybe it was compounded with what had happened while he'd tried to bowl, but his head hurt something fierce, and the rest of his body wasn't much better.

Before he was ready, Aiai soared over the edge of the hole this time, falling into the void alongside Gongon but seemingly facing far less in terms of painful consequences. He was even able to make his way to where Gongon now slumped over, saying, "Gongon? Everything alright? You don't look so good."

"I'll be fine," Gongon managed to stammer, even as he struggled to figure out just which way was up after his tumble.

"Then you should probably get back to the start of the hole," Aiai said. "Your turn's coming up and we've got ten more holes after this one."

Right then, as Meemee undershot again and rolled off the side of that hole, Gongon let loose a seismic groan of indignity.

-BOAT-

As they'd learned from their disastrous outing at the target range, the balls were far more buoyant than they'd expected, so they'd make fine boats provided they didn't get punctured. Even though their regular racing hadn't gone so well, they'd decided to just disallow the weird special items everyone seemed to use in these things and hope that would fix the problems.

When it came to choosing the course, there were three options, which were more than they expected even though it was a far cry from the twelve they had for racing normally. Two of them were circuitous, while one was far from a straight line but was still a Point A to Point B course. Wanting something somewhat peaceful, the four of them had decided on the simplest course, which was shaped somewhat like a capital B and never strayed from the flowery meadow used as the starting area.

All four of them launched off like they'd been shot from a cannon, then proceeded to start rowing their hearts out. The current was both slow and smooth, so even Baby had no problems having his oar cut through the water. The first fifteen seconds or so went relatively okay, but then the crates became visible as they started rounding the bend.

Aiai smashed his first, it quickly revealing something that looked like a submarine that threw him below the water before he was ready, confusing him but also alleviating the need to paddle for the time being. Then came Baby, whose boat launched forward like it had somehow gained an engine meant for a plane. Gongon followed, gaining a submarine of his own that sleekly maneuvered its way past Baby's boat at it rocked and spun like a demented amusement park ride. Then came Meemee, who received what for all intents and purposes, was a rocket launcher a monkey like her had no business wielding, let alone shooting.

Things like that didn't stop her from trying, though. With three rockets in the launcher, she naturally had three chances to hit someone, even as she kept paddling along through the current with her free arm.

Her first shot missed Baby to the left. The second missed Gongon to the right.

Then, right as she hit the straightaway to complete her first lap, she fired the last one, her aim true. It hit Baby's boat and sent him flying out of the water with an unhealthy screech, all of the airborne parts crashing onto the riverbank along with him.

Meemee slowed down for a second to make sure he'd be okay, but Baby threw himself back into the creek with minimal difficulty. However, as she looked back, based on the currents she could see, she'd put several noticeable dents in the riverbank and probably made the course significantly harder in the process.

It took her going around another time to notice it, but by then she saw Aiai and Gongon being thrown into the side of the riverbank, despite their furious paddling.

Meemee's face dropped in a heartbeat. "Oops…"

-SHOT-

Monkey Island had no actual shooting range, which was probably a good thing when all factors were considered. The chance of some idiot teenager shooting someone they really weren't supposed to was off the charts, and the doctor at Monkey Island General Hospital had to deal with enough stupidity as it was.

Thus, shooting was confined to the island's lone arcade machine, which was connected to a solar panel in the center of town and free for public use (although you got stared at if you stayed there for more than a few rounds at a time). Keekee Island had a far superior selection, which made sense considering it was an amusement park, but if you were broke or didn't want to leave Monkey Island, this machine usually sufficed.

Gongon had decided to try his luck at the machine while the other three took something resembling a break from their barrage of games. He'd played the machine more often than even Aiai had, so he didn't waste any time, turning on the Expert difficulty setting while grabbing the controls.

The screen showed him a location that had an alarming resemblance to the space station Doctor Bad-Boon had utilized as part of his evil plot, and a shooting reticule appeared as the round started, the first enemies beginning to make their way into Gongon's vision.

Soon, Gongon began to fall behind a bit, panicking as he fired at the missiles approaching his simulated character. While he'd beaten the machine's Expert difficulty before, the game had clearly been modified since then since he noticed an uptick in the number of enemies, although at least the item drops remained similar. He took one hit, then another, frantically shooting at everything that came his way as the boss neared.

Sweating far more than he should have even with the tropical heat, Gongon grunted and gripped the machine with a vengeance as the final boss entered his field of view. It roared at him and began throwing everything and the kitchen sink at his character, prompting Gongon to give it everything he had, firing as he held in his desire to roar back at the monstrosity.

Despite his best efforts, though, he kept losing ground, taking another hit, and then another, leaving him with one hit point left. The fight neared its conclusion, both sides giving it everything they had as they fired and fired and fired…

And then, two predictable actions occurred at the same time, combining to cause something quite nasty.

One, Gongon took one last hit, his simulated character crumbling on screen as they died. At the same time, he gripped the joystick just a little too hard.

Right as the machine's screen displayed its failure message, something inside its smooth casing appeared to combust, sending sparks shooting out of any gap it could find as the machine proceeded to catch fire in what felt like milliseconds, sending Gongon into a blind panic as he ran screeching away from the broken pile of metal and wires that the arcade machine had devolved into.

Once rationality had risen above the fog of panic clouding his brain, he realized he probably needed to find something that could stop the fire, but by then, someone had already beaten him to it, putting the thing out with a conveniently placed fire extinguisher.

Gongon just shook his head, beginning to talk to himself. "Well, that sucked."

He'd probably have to get a new one for the town, but considering that bananas were used for basically everything here (including currency) at least that wouldn't be too hard a task. Well, if he could live down the embarrassment.

-DOGFIGHT-

As by far the most violent of the activities they had tried thus far, it also meant they exercised far more caution than usual. Aiai and Meemee had almost insisted Baby sit out the first round until the others could make sure it was safe, but he'd been so insistent that he'd be fine that they eventually relented. Now, all four of them had been strapped into what appeared to be bizarre hang gliders, a gun in easy reach alongside a button meant to launch missiles. The four of them were soaring among the clouds, the ocean below them.

Just as always, someone shouted that the game had started, and just like that, everyone was trying to get a bead on everyone else, firing bullets and missiles like crazy as they tried to land hits.

Baby seemed to be struggling. He could barely keep his glider in the air, let alone use it to fire at the other three. Thus, while Meemee and Gongon kept themselves occupied trying to take each other out, Aiai began to fly towards him.

He still struggled even as Aiai approached. "Baby? Are you sure this was a good idea?"

Aiai kept advancing, Baby's awkward flight beginning to stabilize. Then, as Aiai crossed some invisible threshold, Baby steadied himself, pulled off a hard swerve, then began firing on Aiai with a grin that nearly extended off his face, it was so wide.

Aiai tried to evade, but he'd flown too close. Warnings that missiles were approaching screamed in his ears, and bullets peppered his hang glider with holes. Several hard impacts later, he found himself screeching as he began spinning out, dots dancing in his vision and wind screaming in his ears.

The water landing hurt less than he'd expected, but it had been plenty painful nonetheless.

After making his way back to the surface, he managed to crane his aching head toward the sky so he could look up. Baby appeared to be trying the same trick with Meemee and Gongon, and judging from what he could see with his vision shot, it appeared to work. The two of them approached, got fired on, and then were sent tumbling to the ground in a blur of metal and limbs.

Once Meemee surfaced, she turned to face Aiai. "Baby tricked you, too?"

Aiai gave the smile of a beaten monkey. "Yep."

-SOCCER-

Having a full-blown soccer game when only four people were playing had seemed like a terrible idea, so for this one, the four of them decided the best course of action would be to just drop the ball at penalty-kick distance and take turns trying to shoot and protect the goal. As an activity both more mundane and less strenuous than just about anything they'd tried so far, you'd think there wouldn't be a lot of ways to get badly injured.

As you might expect, there weren't. That didn't stop the four of them from finding every last one, though.

Aiai took the first shot, with Gongon defending. Aiai had managed to get a good kick off to the right end of the goal, sending Gongon diving. He'd managed to block it, but proceeded to land quite oddly on one arm in the process, an audible crunching noise echoing through the stadium. Gongon had gotten up wincing, but persevered regardless, managing to plod to the back of the line.

Then came Baby's turn to block the goal, with Meemee shooting. In some sort of attempt to fake Baby out, Meemee had zigzagged all over creation before finally launching a kick straight ahead. Baby hadn't moved an inch, though. While that did mean he blocked the shot, it also sent him slamming into the back of his ball, likely giving him a nasty lump on his head in the process.

The others rushed over to check on him, but he insisted that he was fine, rolling back out with minimal difficulty to take another shot, which he made easily.

Two more cycles came and went with minimal problems, Baby and Meemee pulling ahead while Gongon tried to make up for his lack of offensive talent by blocking anything that came his way. Then came Gongon's fourth attempt, which in terms of staying competitive was vital since he'd only made one of his first three shots. It was Baby's turn to block again, and while he hadn't been as good as Gongon was in the goal, he'd still been a far better goalie than anyone had expected.

He didn't try any fake-outs like the others tended to do, instead just charging the ball from the side as hard as he could and slamming into it at top speed. Baby dove to the right, succeeding in getting just enough of the ball to send it wide.

It also sent Baby slamming into the back of his ball headfirst again, and this time he was slow to get up, another lump beginning to poke out of his head beside the first one.

Baby rolled to the back of the line once more, again insisting he was fine. When his turn to shoot rolled around, he tried to juke Meemee out by taking an overcomplicated route to the ball before just shooting it straight ahead, but like Baby before her, Meemee didn't move in inch, blocking the hard shot in spectacular fashion.

It also sent the ball right back at where Baby was standing, crashing into him and setting his head on a collision course with his ball once more.

Upon noticing that Baby seemed a bit dizzy and probably in more than a bit of pain, Aiai called it there. "Maybe soccer isn't the best sport for us."

Gongon and Meemee just nodded, the former saying, "I'll be fine without it."

Baby raised his head as he staggered to his feet, saying, "You better."

-BASEBALL-

After the disaster that had been Billiards, they knew better than to recruit other monkeys to play their games, and unlike soccer, they wanted to actually play the game instead of what they'd tried there, so the four of them had instead "borrowed" several of Dr. Bad-Boon's clones to play the outfield (not like he was in any position to notice). They seemed to be good at it, too: three innings had passed and neither side had scored yet.

Gongon was batting, with Meemee ready to pitch. Aiai sat somewhere near the center pockets, while Baby patiently waited for his turn to bat. Meemee tensed, pulled back, then threw herself toward the mound at top speed.

Right at the last moment, she came to a near-halt while also swerving sideways, causing Gongon to swing and miss, even with his gigantic bat. Meemee, smiling wide, rolled herself back to the mound and prepared to try again.

She tried the same trick a second time, but this time, Gongon was ready. Rearing back like he wanted to send the ball to the moon, he whacked Meemee's ball with all his might, sending it rocketing across the field. It bounced once, then landed on one of the ramps used to signify home runs, the ball blasting off into oblivion.

Gongon raised his fist and gave a muted cheer, rounding the bases to score the first run of the game. However, when he made it around third base, he noticed both Aiai and Baby standing in front of the plate, arms crossed.

Gongon shrugged his shoulders. "What gives?"

Aiai answered that question in an instant. "Where's Meemee?"

"She hit a jump board," Gongon said.

That didn't satisfy Aiai. "So, when is she going to come down? Or is she, for that matter?"

"She should come down eventually, don't worry about it," Gongon said.

"Define eventually."

The silence that followed told them everything they needed to know.

-TENNIS-

Doubles tennis should have been a simple enough sport to play, even with the added complication of being inside a ball. But by this point, all four of them were dealing with problems. Aiai still had spots dancing in his vision after being shot down during Dogfight, Meemee still had whiplash from the launch pad in Baseball, Baby had taken one too many shots to the face during their penalty-kick shoot-out in Soccer, and Gongon's encounter at the shooting range was something that had clearly embarrassed him despite how much he refused to talk about it.

The four of them were quite persistent, though. Nothing else would have gotten Monkey Island's bananas back. So, they'd dragged themselves over to the grassy field that served as Monkey Island's tennis court, racquets in hand and cries of misery in their throats.

"One last game," Meemee said. "We've got to have one that works. Please."

"Agreed," Aiai replied, taking his place beside her. "Doubles tennis. I don't know why we didn't do this first, considering this is probably the least dangerous thing we've done so far, but what the heck."

The first set went okay, if nothing else. While their muscles loudly complained from overexertion and the hot sun of the day threatened to fry them, the game started without incident. Aiai and Meemee won the set rather quickly, and looked raring to go for set number two, or at least as close to that as they could considering their state of being at the time.

Then, on Aiai's first serve of the second set, the tennis ball bounced off of Baby's ball, causing him to collapse on the spot. He didn't get up, either.

Gongon rolled over, trying to figure out just what was going on. "Uhh, Baby? Everything okay in there?"

Still no movement, and that was the moment where the others realized he was either out from sheer exhaustion, in which case he was unlikely to wake up for quite some time, or he'd been clocked in the head hard enough for a concussion. In the latter case, they'd need to get help for that immediately, since, well, he was still a baby and his brain was still developing. No point in stunting its growth.

"I can carry him," Gongon grunted. "To the hospital?"

All he got in response to that were groans, but it was doubtless that they were groans of assent.

-HOSPITAL-

The doctor had moved on from Aiai at this point, as he wasn't saying anything. He skipped Baby out of principle, assuming he couldn't talk (although Baby did nothing to disprove that rumor for him), and Meemee hadn't said anything either, following Aiai's example.

Last but most certainly not least came Gongon, whose groans indicated he was still in quite a bit of pain, even as the doctor started speaking.

"Well, you've got similar injuries to the rest of your friends, and since none of them are telling me squat about them, that task falls to you," the doctor said. "So, can I get some help here?"

Gongon froze. He thought about keeping quiet, but for once in his life, rationality overruled his pride. Or at the very least, everything he'd gone through that day needed some form of release.

"Well, we tried to play some party games…"