partners in crime - a tacophone fic

chapter 12 - Test Tube?

Well that was easy. Getting to the woods was certainly a piece of metaphorical cake with this teleportation device. Now onto finding flags. I press the teleport button a lot to see if I can try and Spot the flags faster. After a while of looking I spot a speck of white under a rock. That must be a flag. I pull on it but it seems to be stuck pretty good. I put my device down and yank on it again with all of my strength. It pops out and I'm thrown in the opposite direction from the force it exerts. "Phew that was hard" I wipe the sweat off of my brow and wrap the white cloth around my device so it doesn't get lost when I teleport. I start to walk around but I don't find any flags in my area so I put this teleporting device for good use and try to find Lightbulb. She's probably somewhere in these woods. I pop in and pop out of all of the locations I can think of and no Lightbulb to be found.
"Ugh where is Lightbulb around here?" Certainly not in this spot either. I'm getting tired of looking. Staying up all night watching the moon was fun but now I'm starting to get a bit tired. I feel like I should try to find at least one more flag before I rest though. I teleport to the most random location I could think of and look to my left to see Baseball and Suitcase walking a few feet away from me, Baseball is carrying a flag that looks to be Suitcases. Suitcase doesn't look too good. Is he bribing her into helping him steal flags? That's odd, Suitcase must have just obliged because she doesn't seem like she's held against her will to do anything. They start to talk again after a few minutes of silence and they bring up Lightbulb. Is she over here somewhere? FINALLY some clues on where she could be. Maybe I can talk her into joining me or maybe steal a flag or two. What? This is a competition.
I'm about to go head the opposite direction to look for Lightbulb when suddenly I realize my teleportation device and the white flag I found isn't in my hand and is floating in mid-air the other way.
"HEY GIVE THAT BACK!"
I run after my device and almost catch up to it when it suddenly it's being thrown back at me with full force.
"OWCH!"
I feel liquid running out of me and I touch my glass tube to feel a crack in the middle. Oh no... Is the device broken?
I inspect it to see that it is in fact, broken.
Something just ran away with my flag and now I have nothing to catch up to it with. We must be about 45 minutes into this challenge. I might have a slight concussion but there might be a chance that I can still win this thing.
"Hey Test Tube are you okay?"
Bingo.
"OW! OW BASEBALL IT HURTS!!!!!"
"Suitcase do you have anything in there that could help Test Tube out right now?"
"I-I don't know Baseball let me see"
She opens her suitcase to reveal that she has my flag inside of it.
It's now or never.
I get up off of the ground and sprint to suitcase, she gets scared and almost closes her lid on me but one of her straps is cut off so her self defense mechanism fails. I take the flag away from her and run far enough to where they both lose sight of me. I catch my breath under a tree and tie the neon green cloth around my wrist. I look around and see Lightbulb sulking near a path. I watch her for a few minutes from where I sit. I wonder why she looks so upset? A butterfly lands on the right side of her face and she chuckles.
"Okay lil dude, I get it. I gotta win this challenge somehow, with or without Test Tube and the others. I gotta find one of these flags!"
She looks rejuvenated and happy again. That's good. I close my eyes and start to breathe a little bit when suddenly I hear Lightbulb scream
"HELP IM BEING KIDNAPPED WOAH IS MEEEEEE!" The one time I'm not looking at her.
I jump to my feet and see that the invisible force is at it again because Lightbulb seems to be floating in mid air! I wish I had my teleportation device to get there faster but running on feet will have to do. I try and run as fast as I can to her, she seems to be getting closer and closer to the middle of the forest, but Baseball seems to be on my tail screaming at me "HEY TEST TUBE WHERE IS MY FLAG AT?"
"STOP FOLLOWING ME BASEBALL I DONT HAVE IT!"
"LIES! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!"
this seems to be playing out like a wild goose chase in the woods until lightbulb suddenly stops floating and drops into the grass in front of what seems to be a yellow flag in the middle of the woods. It's at the brightest place too, no leaves are blocking the sun as the yellow cloth soaks up it's beams. This place must be intentionally picked out for Lightbulb. she's a member of the bright lights and always lights up when she gets an idea, not that I notice everytime it happens... Anyways, I assume Mepad chose to put her flag there purposefully.
The invisible force seems to leave again and wait... It's not totally invisible, THATS MY BOW! MICROPHONE WAS MESSING WITH ME THIS ENTIRE TIME! I'm upset at Mic for deceiving me like this but my number one priority right now is to get that flag sitting in the middle of the grass.
Lightbulb gets there before me and picks it up. I walk up to her and take the other end of the flag into my hands. Baseball seems to look at us quizzically and observes the situation. If I was his alliance member right now he would probably have broken this situation up a while ago but he benefits from this as much as I do.
"I don't want to force this Lightbulb, but I need this to advance in the game so if you could kindly give it to me-
"No Test Tube."
"Um, excuse me Lightbulb-"
"I'm not giving it to you."
I'm baffled that Lightbulb isn't budging right now.
"But why?"
"Because you treat this game like its a free for all! Everyone here only thinks about themselves! What happened to this game Test Tube? What happened to sharing and what happened to friendship? Now it feels like everyone is out to get you!"
"BECAUSE THEY ARE LIGHTBULB! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT? BASEBALL LITERALLY CHASED ME THROUGH THE WOODS FOR HIS FLAG EVEN THOUGH HE HAS ONE ALREADY!"
Baseball gets a little mad from that remark but still watches from the sidelines.
"attention contestants, we have reached the one minute time frame so please gather your flags. You will all be teleporting out of the woods shortly." Mephone's speaker rings in my ear while I'm trying to be rational to Lightbulb.
"WELL WHY DON'T YOU JUST TELEPORT THIS FLAG OUT OF MY HANDS THEN TEST TUBE?"
"ok Lightbulb, first off, that's not how teleportation works because you would still be holding on to it and you would teleport with me and second off MICROPHONE broke my teleportation device ACROSS MY FACE a while ago so I don't want to hear it Lightbulb."
"Well I feel like you really care more about the game than anyone or anything else."
"EXCUSE ME LIGHTBULB? MAY I REMIND YOU THAT I SAVED FAN FROM BEING KIDNAPPED BY ALIENS?"
"Thirty seconds everyone. Just a reminder."
"YEAH BECAUSE IT WAS PART OF A CHALLENGE! I BET IF IT WASN'T YOU WOULDN'T EVEN TRY TEST TUBE!"
she tugs the yellow cloth to her.
"TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW LIGHTBULB!"
I tug the yellow cloth to me.
"I won't Test Tube."
"Take it back."
"No."
"Ten seconds left everyone."
"TAKE IT BACK RIGHT NOW LIGHTBULB OR I SWEAR I WILL RIP THIS CLOTH FROM OUT OF YOUR HANDS DON'T TEST ME!"
"..."
I see a rock to my left. She had her chance to take it back and be civil but she refused.
"Three"
I pick up the rock, keeping the yellow cloth in my right hand
"Two"
She's being unreasonable, this is the only way.
"Test Tube?"
"One"

I throw it at her as hard as I can.