278 reads- Jesus Christ I did not expect that! Thank you dudes for enjoying this stupid fanfic! You guys are your many kind comments is what's making me so motivated so thank you lots! <3
----------------
Baseball teared down the hallway, his mind bombarded with regretful thoughts of Suitcase. Baseball didn't know what would happen to her, let alone if she was even alive now, the millions of questions and unknowns circled his brain like hawks and made him feel sick. He wanted so badly to go after her, but he knew he couldn't, tears welled up in his eyes but he shook it off, this was no time for crying.
He could hear the MephoneX running after him like a mechanical soldier. Baseball swerved around a corner and made a beeline for one of the doors. "C'mon one of these have to be unlocked-" Baseball frantically went to each door, trying desperately to open one. The fast approaching footfalls of the MephoneX made him work faster, finally one of them opened and Baseball wasted no time running in and slamming the door closed, locking it.
Baseball pressed his back against the door and tried to calm his breathing. He held his breath as he heard the stomping footsteps of his pursuer pass his door. It marched slowly down the hallway, he could hear the jiggling of handles as the machine methodically tried every one. Baseball felt the door knob jiggle behind him and he froze, his eye throbbed and his lungs burned but he still didn't move. Only when he heard the Mephone walk away did he let himself breathe.
Baseball took his chance to scan the room he was in. At a brief glance it only looked like a generic computer lab, but on closer inspection the room seemed to be used for one specific purpose. Various notes and equations Baseball couldn't understand littered a large whiteboard. One bigger desk specifically had piles of papers haphazardly placed on top, and tons of sticky notes stuck to the laptop in it's center.
Baseball approached the desk and scanned over the messy notes. The handwriting was almost unreadable, random numbers and phrases were circled and highlighted, but Baseball couldn't decipher their importance. Baseball opened one of the desk drawers and dug through it. It was full of blueprints, various drawings of Meeple products that Baseball recognized as older models. A divider separated one set of blueprints from another, and Baseball quickly realized why. While the 1st set of blueprints we're just Meeple products, the other was Meeple robots.
Baseball dumped the blueprints on the floor and sifted through them. Blueprints for Mephone 5, 5C, 5S, and even 6 and 6+ could be found in the pile, but what caught Baseball's attention the most was two blueprints, the blueprints for Mephone4 and 4S. Many things were labeled on the papers, but what made them stand out was a small chip labeled "emotion emulator." And a larger, more complex looking chip labeled "P.S.E Chip"
Baseball looked over the blueprints but nothing explained what the P.S.E Chip could possibly be. Baseball moved to the second drawer, this one was full of papers and files, one of which looked very old and weathered. The file was bursting with documents and was held closed with a thick black rubber band. Baseball struggled to lug the thing out of the drawer and it thunked on the floor. A piece of cream masking tape was stuck to the front, the only thing written on it being "The Shimmer Project".
Baseball didn't dare remove the rubber band, mostly due to the fact he didn't want to get a million paper cuts on his legs and feet while trying to clean up the paper tornado he would've unleashed upon the poor computer lab. Baseball took a good long look at the huge file, the laptop, and the strange blueprints on the floor. Could these be why Cobs went after Mephone4? This weird "Shimmer Project?" Baseball racked his brain trying to make it all make sense in his head, but he only succeeded in making his head hurt.
Baseball shook the thoughts from his head and gathered what he felt was most important. He closed the laptop and stacked it together with the folded up blueprints of Mephone 4 and 4S. He dragged over an empty cardboard box and put the laptop, blueprints, and the file into the box. Baseball hesitantly unlocked the door and peaked outside, the MephoneX wasn't there. Baseball tried to be as quiet as possible as he pushed the box outside and against the wall.
Baseball memorized the layout of the hallway, determined to remember where this was so he could come back with someone who actually had arms to collect the box of items. Maybe if he managed to escape with it he could bring it to Test Tube to see if she could make sense of it. A small part of baseball wondered how he would do that if she was eliminated, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Inanimate Insanity might be put on hold for a bit after this nightmare was over.
Baseball turned the corner and scoured the hallway, checking for any sign of the MephoneX. Seeing nothing Baseball breathed a sigh of relief, he had only started to retrace his steps when a loud metal clank sounded from somewhere. Baseball froze, his previously calm demeanor quickly flipped to terror as he heard the sound once again. Baseball looked around him, frantically searching for the MephoneX. He didn't have to look long, however, as the MephoneX quickly swerved around the corner and struck him.
The MephoneX's clawed hands caught on Baseball's red stitches, ripping a patch of them free and sending a stab of pain throughout Baseball's head. With a burst of adrenaline and fear he fought back, kicking the phone with all his might, slightly cracking the bottom left of it's screen. The injury barely seemed to phase the robot though as it swiftly stabbed it's electrocuted hand into Baseball's side. Ripples of burning pain flowed through him freely, making him fall over, landing hard on his side.
Baseball tried to recover and stand back up, but a second zap through his back quickly sent him back down once again. Baseball was exhausted, his body wouldn't respond to anything he wanted to do. His feet ached for rest, Baseball was smart enough to know he wouldn't win this fight no matter how hard he tried. He gave the machine one final blurry look of destain before finally passing out, his head spinning with thoughts of Suitcase, Knife and Lightbulb, and a final prayer for their safety.
---------------
"Dang it Lightbulb..." Knife dug through a filing cabinet, thoughtlessly throwing papers behind him. Unfortunately, the cabinet seemed to hold nothing of value as Knife shut the drawer roughly and tried to look for something else. "How on earth did we get separated? I took one turn!" Knife spoke to himself as he ripped open a cabinet, only finding a bunch of unused plastic plates.
Knife seemed to be in some kind of break room. Despite the expected plates and vending machines, a few laptops and files were spread out on the table, as if these people still had to do work while being on break. Even the table itself had no stains or imperfections on it, like no one had ever eaten at it.
"Ugh! There's nothing here! Though I'm not sure what I expected to find, it's a break room." Knife gave up on searching and left the room, walking back down the hallway he and Lightbulb sprinted down moments ago. "Lightbulb? Are ya still out here?" Knife's voice echoed down the dark corridor, but no one responded. Knife made his way down the hallway, assuming Lightbulb just kept running without him.
Eventually, Knife reached the end, but Lightbulb was still nowhere to be seen. The only thing he found was an old metal sliding door that was shut and locked tight. "Liiiightbuuuulb- AGH What the-" Knife flinched backwards, almost falling over. He caught himself on the wall glared down at the floor, but his expression quickly morphed into confusion when he saw what he stepped on.
Glass. Sunny yellow shards littered the floor at the entrance of the locked room. Thankfully it only nicked his foot and he wasn't bleeding, but why was there glass there? Knife picked up a glass shard and played with it in his hands, he felt like he had seen it before. Knife paused and then gasped, quickly dropping the shard on the floor, it shattering into even tinier pieces. "... Lightbulb..."
The yellow of the glass had finally registered in Knife's head, the glass was from Lightbulb's bulb. Knife's brain spun with possibilities, all of them nowhere near good. Was she dead? And if so, is it permanent? Knife had no idea if Mephone4 was even alive, and if he was, then that would mean Lightbulb would be unable to be revived...forever. It felt like Knife's heart fell and shattered in his stomach. What about Baseball and Suitcase? The people at the hotel? It was only now that Knife thought about them. Do they even know what happened?
Knife shook the thoughts from his head, but the heavy feeling in his chest didn't lift. Knife was so caught up in his head he almost didn't hear the low humming sound behind him. A red laser shot towards him at lightning speed and Knife just barely dodged it. The sudden movement made him fall hard on his arm and chip his blade, a web of pain spread through his arm and Knife bit back a curse, he most certainly sprained it.
The MephoneX didn't pull any punches, determined to keep him down. It stomped on Knife's handle as hard as possible, knocking the wind out of him. The Mephone leaned heavily onto Knife, leaving him unable to breathe. A long crack spread through his handle, and defiant tears welled up in Knife's eyes no matter how hard he tried to hold them back.
The MephoneX charged up it's taser, but before it could get to him, Knife grabbed the MephoneX by the arm, using it's weight against it he pulled the MephoneX down. Hard. The momentum caused the MephoneX to fall over Knife and land on the floor, it's already cracked screen only becoming more damaged, and it's taser hand coming clean off in Knife's hand. The pressure finally leaving Knife's chest made him gasp for breath, blood rushing back to his head.
Despite heavily injuring the Mephone, it was still not enough to keep the thing down. Before Knife could even stand up, the MephoneX had whacked Knife on the head, sending him onto his back, half conscious. The Mephone took knife by his uninjured arm and draged him down the hallway, Knife's brain faded in and out of consciousness, leaving him barely able to recognize his surroundings. By the time Knife was almost fully awake they had already gone up multiple floors, going all the way to the top of the building.
The MephoneX headed straight for a very specific door, a metal plaque labeled the room "Meeple CEO." It opened the door and led Knife to the center of the room. "Oh good, you're finally finished." A familiar voice came from a leather swivel chair behind the large grey and blue desk. "Knife!" Knife recognized the voice of Baseball immediately. He looked towards him and a wave of relief flooded his brain. Baseball, Suitcase and even Lightbulb were all in a metal cage, the otherworldly electric bars separated him from his companions, but despite their rough shape, Knife was just happy they were alive.
The swivel chair infront of him turned to face him, Steve Cobs himself gave Knife an unamused glare as he lazily waved his hand towards the cage. "Just put him with the rest." The MephoneX heaved him up by one arm and led him to the cage, Knife only knew one thing for certain, there was no way this could go well...
------------
2045 words! You guys are getting an extra long chapter today, take it as an apology for the extra time this took lmao. Am I introducing crazy lore into this? Yes. Can you stop me? Hell no.😎
So u know the drill, plz let me know if they're any spelling mistakes or anything I can do to make this the best story I can at my current skill level!