Trigger warnings: None
Nickel ran through the hallway, trying his best not to freak out more than he already was. He was having trouble believing any of this was even real. His two best friends going missing without a trace within the span of two days? It just didn't make sense. He hooked a left and saw Bot, letting out a sigh of relief. He walked up to them, thinking of how to say this.
Bot turned around when they noticed Nickel approaching them. "Oh- hey Nickel! got any updates?"
Nickel looked at the carpet uncomfortably. "Bot, we've..." He took a breath. "We've lost a Loony Balloony."
Bot looked a bit shocked. "Wait- you mean... Balloon's missing too?"
Nickel simply nodded, still not making eye contact.
"Hold on, I'll go get the others and then you can tell us what happened." Bot turned around and dashed off. Nickel sat down on the stained hotel carpet and stared at the stripes on the wallpaper, trying to think of how and what could have happened to his friend. Soon enough, Bot returned with Fan and Paintbrush, who both looked worried as well.
"What happened? Is Balloon really missing too?" Paintbrush asked him.
Nickel stood up and faced the three in front of him. "Yeah, I-I got a message from him this morning saying he was going on a walk like he usually does, but.. he just never came back. He's not answering me or Suitcase either."
Paintbrush wrote down the info onto their notepad. "Where does Balloon usually go on his walks?"
"That forest by the season 2 area."
"Okay, we'll go in there and look for any evidence of what could've happened, thanks." Paintbrush flipped the spiral notepad back to the cover and put their pencil through the rings. They turned around and started walking away, the other two following them.
Nickel watched them walk off. He got an idea and was about to ask if he could go with them, but they were already gone, and he figured it'd probably be okay if he didn't go, despite how much he wanted to. He walked back downstairs and saw Suitcase.
"Did you tell them about Balloon?" She asked nervously.
Nickel nodded. "They're gonna go check out the forest and see if they can find anything." He paused for a few moments and sighed. "I just hope he's alright.."
"Yeah, me too." Suitcase agreed, looking just as sad and worried as Nickel did.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Fan called out.
"Anything that could hint to where Balloon is, I guess." Bot called back.
They had gone out into the forest and were looking for any clues. They had just started the search, which they were only just realizing how difficult a search like this would be. The forest was pretty big, and with all the trees and bushes and animals, looking for something small was no easy task. Regardless, they went ahead with the search anyway.
"Why are you just on your phone?? Come help us!" Fan asked, looking over at Paintbrush, who was leaning zestily against a tree.
"I'm asking Nickel something, calm down. Although that is pretty funny coming from you honestly." Paintbrush replied casually, not looking up from their phone.
"Fruity ass" Fan joked, walking off to go look for more clues.
"Psch, shut up" Paintbrush replied. They pushed themself away from the tree and stood normally, putting their phone up. "Alright, Nickel said Balloon usually goes down this route, so we should probably start here."
"Alright" Bot started looking around too, and so did Paintbrush.
After a few minutes, Bot came to a large tree stump right off of the trail. They looked around the dirt by the base of it, and then called out to the others.
"Guys! I got a clue!"
Paintbrush and Fan walked over to Bot, looking at what they'd found. There were footprints coming from the depths of the trees and leading up to the back of the tree stump.
"Looks like they're going back into the forest, too! We should follow them!" Fan suggested.
"Yeah, maybe Balloon just went somewhere for a bit." Paintbrush agreed.
The three of them went deeper into the forest, following the footprints on the ground. They were walking for several minutes and eventually came out of the forest, where there was nothing for the footprints to even be left on anymore.
"Maybe we should-" Bot was immediately interrupted by Paintbrush. "Tire marks!" They exclaimed. "C'mon, the trail's not lost!"
They followed the tire marks that had flattened the grass and left imprints on the dirt beneath it. The tire tracks stopped right in front of a soda machine. Paintbrush and Bot looked stumped, but Fan immediately lit up.
"This is just a vending machine, wh-" Bot was interrupted again, by Fan this time.
"No it's not!" He said excitedly. "Test Tube's secret lab is under it! This could be it!"
"Wait, really?" Paintbrush looked back at the soda machine. "How do we get in there?"
"There's a code to get in, but... ah, I don't know it..." Fan replied, seeming a bit frustrated now. "Hold on I'll try to guess it.." He started pressing random buttons on the machine.
"How do you know about this?" Bot asked him.
"Me and Test Tube built you down there, although you weren't properly activated until season 3 started, so I don't think you'd remember. I never paid attention to the code she put in to enter though..." Fan replied, still trying different button combos.
"Ah, okay.." Bot glanced at the side of the soda machine. "Maybe there's a way to break in without the code?" They suggested.
Paintbrush looked at the side of the machine they were closer to. "Is this the entrance?" They asked Fan. Fan looked over at the what Paintbrush was talking about. "Yeah, I dunno if you can just open it though." He replied. "You can try though"
Paintbrush tried to pry the entrance open for a few minutes, before eventually giving up without making a single bit of progress on it. Fan also hadn't figured out the code, and Bot was still looking for any other way in. They were all pretty frustrated with their lack of findings.
"Maybe we should go back, this isn't working." Paintbrush suggested. "There might not even be anyone down there."
Bot sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right."
They all walked back to the hotel, discussing theories and questions about the whole situation. They went inside, seeing Nickel and Suitcase talking near the entrance.
Nickel looked up at them as they walked in. "Hey! You guys find anything out there?"
"Well we found footprints by a tree stump in the forest, and then they turned into tire tracks that led to Test Tube's lab, which we couldn't get into." Bot replied.
"Oh- wait, what lab?"
"It's under the soda machine." Suitcase replied. "And- I thought we turned the soda machine into a rocket? How was it there still?"
Paintbrush blinked, clearly not understanding what Suitcase was talking about. "Y- what?? What the hell happened after I got eliminated??-"
Fan cut them off. "OH! That's where the rocket came from! I don't really know, someone probably just rebuilt it or something."
Bot fake coughed into their fist. "Mhm right yeah so we couldn't find anything else out about the case"
"RIGHT yeah. we kinda hit a dead end on that." Paintbrush agreed, realizing how off track they were getting.
Nickel sighed in disappointment. "Damn, alright."
"Thanks for looking anyway." Suitcase said. "We really appreciate it."
"Yeah, I really just wanna figure this out before anyone else goes missing." Paintbrush responded. Fan nodded in agreement.
"Welp, I'm gonna go back to my room. seeya Suitcase." Nickel stated, hopping off of the chair he was sitting on and walking away from the small round table they were sitting at.
"Mhm." Suitcase watched Nickel walk off, still feeling pretty bad with everything. She could tell he was too, and was probably just trying to take a break from worrying about things.
Paintbrush turned to Bot and Fan. "Wanna get some lunch?" They suggested, pointing over to the hotel's kitchen with their thumb.
"Sure, why not" Bot agreed. The three of them walked off to the kitchen, leaving Suitcase alone with her thoughts.
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Sorry this chapter took so long to get to, I've been pretty busy with school starting up again! Hoping to get these out a little more often!
(This is what i meant by paintbrush "leaning zestily against a tree" btw lol)
definitely not just using this as an excuse to draw paintbrush/s