Case 34

B-34

TW/CW:

Mentions of suicide, suicidal thoughts

"You're kidding, right? You're telling me you never saw him after that?"

"No, Baseball, I haven't." Paintbrush sighed in annoyance and walked away. Baseball stammered around to others in the area, asking about Nickel.

"Mephone, we got a problem." MePad sprinted towards MePhone. "Oh, MePad. What's the issue?" He looked up from his table with papers everywhere, Toilet in front of him holding onto a few markers and pens. "There have been rumors going around that Nickel has gone missing!" MePad showed stats of all contestants around the area that show on his radar. Nickel was the only one not popping up. "Oh god. Well, he's most likely out somewhere just thinking some thoughts. Like me! So uh yeah, he's probably just somewhere" MePhone shrugged it off and continued to write down a few words on a piece of paper, grabbing different colors of pens every now and then. Toilet gave MePad a small glare while continuing to help MePhone.

MePad teleported towards Baseball and the round guy yelled in surprise. "Ahh! Jesus, MePad! You scared the dickens out of me!" Baseball sat up and approached the tall device. "Well? What did MePhone say?" He asked softly, to not alarm others of what they're talking about. "MePhone didn't seem too bothered. He said there's a chance he's probably just somewhere. After all, you two did have an argument, right?" Baseball shivered at that. He never meant to argue hard enough that he drove him away!

"Yes but I never meant for him to feel THAT bad. God, I know that he's not the type to do this but... I hope he didn't kill himself or anything." Baseball started to tear up, rubbing his feet on the ground uncomfortably, a worried sigh escaping his lungs. "I hope so too. We can start a search party tomorrow." MePad said, reassuring Baseball.

"Why not sooner?! Most of us are worried sick!" He started to yell, which MePad only responded with, "I'm sorry, Baseball. It is getting late after all. We should continue the search tomorrow morning." MePad walked away towards MePhone's direction, while Baseball was left to his thoughts. As soon as he sat onto the tree stump, his mind clouded with anger. "No. I will find my friend."

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"N-34, are you here?" Test Tube walked back into her lab and into floor 34. There was a forcefield that covered the door to the elevator. Test Tube opened a small entrance through the forcefield and got in, walking through a hall of all the empty vacant rooms. She walked past Nickel's room which was clouded with black smoke and a black trace of ash on the ground. But he wasn't there. She then sighed, and didn't panic at first, and went to the kitchen to see if he was there.

"Oh, hey Test Tube. I made myself some dinner while you were gone." Oddly enough he sounded calm, placing two plates of toasted bread in front of him and Test Tube. She gave him a knowing glare, sighing and picking up the piece of toast. "Why are you out of your room, N-34?" She took a small bite on the bread and her mouth begging for more. Wow, was that butter?

Nickel laughed and sat up on one of the stools and placed it close to the small table island. "I got hungry. And since you gave me the password to my room, I can finally roam freely." He ate the entire piece of bread in one go and sat back down on the chair. His eyes fixated on Test Tube's face and noticed a difference.

"Yo, what happened? Did someone finally beat your ass because they found out you were keeping me caged up in here?" Nickel smirked and cackled at his own joke. Test Tube sighed and stood up to make coffee. "Your best friend is looking for you. He's pretty desperate too." She stood there, waiting for the coffee to completely boil as Nickel stood on the table. "He what?! Ugh, dammit Baseball. You're too good for this world. You know, you should really just let me go. Ever since you cut off both of my legs just to place them back together, you already got your research done or whatever the fuck. I can go now, right?" Nickel nervously laughed, sitting on the table as his lower half that's been tied with gauze hit the marble counter. "No. You are staying so I can perform more experiments. I want to learn more about the mind of an object."

Test Tube referred to his room, where she had placed a bomb there that would explode under 5 minutes and tested what it would be like if an object had to work under pressure. "I nearly died, goddammit! And besides, the explosion kinda broke the camera you had in the room. So I'm glad you didn't see the ridiculous aftermath of me being thrown against the wall because of that damned thing. Because seeing someone get hurt is sooooo entertaining to you huh?" Test Tube poured coffee into a mug and placed a smaller leash on Nickel's foot and a leash. "Oh, different thingy. Well, this is better than the other one." Test Tube lead Nickel to his room and closed up the forcefield.

"By the way, I can tell your friend will go down here later to look for you or ask me questions. Unfortunately, I predicted this would happen. But, since he could be an addition to my experiments, I don't see why not blatantly invite him down here." Test Tube smirked and leaned against the forcefield, sipping on her coffee. "DON'T YOU DARE GET HIM INVOLVED!!!" Nickel screamed and kicked at the forcefield in an attempt to get out, but it failed as usual. "He's way stronger than you at least. So, making him another member of my experiments isn't so bad." She grabbed Nickel, walked back into his room, and threw him in, locking the entrance and changing the password.

"Don't try to get out. Seriously, it won't work."

Test Tube walked to the operation room, washing off all the excess blood and clots from today's operation on Nickel's legs. She then took a small walk to her office and on her desk was a folder. She turned it open, grabbing one of the papers. She sighed, tired, and just picked up her recorder.

"Log 3, Case 34. Subject N-34. He seems to be distressed, worrying if I would do anything to Baseball. Soon enough, I can have that big guy in my hands and perform better experiments on him instead of N-34. N-34 is weak physically, but he is quite mentally strong without the help of physical pain. But I do wonder, what if I didn't hurt him instead? What if I hurt Baseball? I do wonder about the mental impacts of that on him, and how he'll react. I'm ready for anything."

There was a bang on the forcefield outside of her office. She walked out, noticing that Baseball had gotten inside and was hitting her forcefield. She smirked grabbing a huge, thick bat, and hiding it behind her. Nickel had been muted and blurred from outside of the forcefield that kept his room closed, so Baseball couldn't determine where the hell Nickel was. "Test Tube! I need your help! I-I'm trying to look for Nickel at the moment but he isn't anywhere to be found! Could you maybe help me track him down?" Baseball was breathing heavily, panicking so much as his body shook.

Test Tube smiled and dropped the forcefield, letting him inside the floor. "Wow, Baseball. It's really late, and besides, why ask help from me?" She walked with him down the hall, keeping a good distance between him and her, waiting for the right time to strike her bat onto his body. "Well, since you're very smart, I thought you could maybe create a device that can perfectly track his location." He was nervous walking down these halls. The place was dim and felt creepy, and it reeked of a bloody and gory scent. "Also uh- your lab smells kinda weird." He murmured and continued to walk beside Test Tube. She tried to think of an excuse for the awful smell and had the perfect answer.

"Well you see, there are a lot of rats and bugs down here so I always kill them and I guess there's just so many that the scent gets around a lot." She smiled calmly to reassure him. His body did shake less when they got inside. His eyes were looking around the halls and the rooms. He noticed one that was closed up and looked at it a bit longer. "Uhm, Test Tube, not to be nosy but, what's in there?" She gripped her weapon tightly in annoyance as she turned around, looking at him dead in the eyes. "Do you wanna see?" She smiled and approached him slowly. Baseball started to get really creeped out, backing away slightly and hitting the forcefield's wall. "Uh- well uh- okay?" He turned around so he could face the forcefield. Test Tub went to the side, tapping on the keypad and opening up the forcefield.

There on the floor was Nickel, shaking and coughing up blood as his stomach lurched. Baseball gasped loudly, frozen where he stood. He just looked at his friend who looked like he was on the verge of death, Nickel trying to stand but falling back down. "N-Nickel!! Test Tube, what happened?"

Before Baseball could even turn to look at her, his vision went black.