Mission in Progress || Boombox Biograft Fic Thing

Chapter 9: A Kidnapping

The door to Skateboard and Coil's living place slammed open, Slingshot, Skateboard and Coil running through it a only a few milliseconds later.

"Check the bedroom!" Skateboard barged in, only to find the room vacant. He groaned.

"We're too late! If Boom hadn't become friends with that stupid robot, we-"

"Hey, guys, I found a note!" Slingshot interrupted from the kitchen, leading Skate and Coil to nearly teleport to where he was.

"Really? Boombox never leaves notes... Wait, was it because of the texting thing? See, Skate, I told you-"

"Oh my ILLUMINA, STOP TALKING AND LET ME READ!"

Silence.

Slingshot calmly resumed. "He said he was going to my cafe... I haven't seen him all day, though! This can't be good... Oh, and Skate, Boombox is right."

"Wait, huh?" He read the note. "Wooow, okay... Now I don't WANNA help him if he got kidnapped!"

"Yeah, you do."

"...Yeah, I do..."

Coil was busy thinking. "Well, all signs point to him being taken somewhere unplanned, so... Blackrock it is? Ugh, but I don't wanna go there..."

"Boombox probably doesn't wanna be there, either!"

"True... wait, is his phone still in the bedroom?"

Skateboard went back into the bedroom for a few seconds. "NOPE! NOT HERE!"

Slingshot's eyes brightened. "Great! We can just call him, then!"

He quickly pressed the 'call' button on Boombox's contact card.

*RING*

*RING*

*RING*

*RING*

"He always picks up before the fifth ring!"

*RING*

"PLEASE LEAVE A VOICE MES-"

Slingshot sighed, tapping the red 'hang up' button. Calling was out of the picture.

"Hey, can't we just call the poli- oh, right..."

Calling the police meant risking Coil being found. Losing one friend was hard enough.

"Maybe we should just wait it out..."

Skateboard and Coil looked at him as if he were insane. "And risk Boombox dying?"

"Well, what other options do we have? If we go to Blackrock, we'd most likely die, since we don't have a way around. You guys are also Playgrounders, which doesn't help at all. Even if we tried to-"

"Hey, wait a minute! Who said I don't know my way around Blackrock?" Coil interjected. "I think getting around that SFOTH-awful laboratory makes me pretty familiar with the place!"

Slingshot pondered for a minute. Coil was right. He stole something from there and came back in one piece, while also being from an enemy region... He may actually be of value here.

"Lead the way."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Boombox awoke in a dark room, on a thin bed, surrounded by rock walls. Was this the afterlife?

"What the..." He spotted a note on a table beside where he lay.

"I should be back a few minutes after you wake up. If you hear Subspace, hide under the bed."

Gee, real informative. Although, if Subspace was here, he had to be in Blackrock. More precisely...

Subspace's laboratory.

Sure, he was planning on coming here already, but he was thinking he would do so on his own terms. This was better than dying in the snow, though. Maybe. He'd most likely end up dying from some weird experiment that Subspace wanted to perform on him. Terrified, he shook his head to try and clear away the thought. Where did his optimism go?

He checked his pockets for his phone. Gone. Great... His boombox should be there, at least.

...Where was his boombox?

Not in the room with him, that was for sure. That thing could glow for a thousand miles. Well, maybe not a thousand miles. That would give him eye strain. Didn't he wear an electronic visor, though?... Forget that.

If Boombox's primary objective was to hide, then not having his vibrant gear would be optimal. He could only hope that it was still functional, though.

Having only his mindless thoughts and curiosities to entertain him, Boombox sat on the bed like a nightlight in the dark, waiting to flicker off at any moment.

If it wasn't for Bio, he wouldn't have to flicker.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Subspace was tinkering. Not torturing, tinkering. Tinkering wasn't quite as fun as torturing for him, but this was urgent. A Biograft had forgotten its main mission, and a Playgrounder had caused it to do so. If his calculations were correct, it was Boombox.

How, though? Last time he checked (which was surprisingly often; he needed to make sure Playground wasn't coming up with anything actually useful in a war), Playgrounders weren't bright in the slightest. On the outside they were, with their loudness and eyesore-esque clothing, but their heads were all probably hollow.

Boombox did have a connection to the traitor, though. Despite the fact that Subspace and Medkit despised each other, Subspace knew Medkit was smart. Smart enough to fix a Biograft. He angrily exhaled while rearranging 9349's wires.

"I never should have let that DJ near you... He was going to destroy you from the start!! And Medkit, ohh, Medkit, don't even get me started-"

The door to the room Subspace was in creaked open. Beyond the heaps of tools and spare metal plates and wires in the lab, a rather agitated-looking (as per usual) Hyperlaser stood, idle.

Subspace turned around, returning to his psychotic yet enthusiastic self. "Hyperlaser, you're back!! Did you find anything, or, even better, anyone?? I'll need all the clues I can get in finding that annoying little thing!!"

Hyperlaser thought for a moment. He didn't want to make Subspace angry, especially right now, but he couldn't just give away who he actually found. "I found a phone. I think it might belong to Boombox. Says it has a missed call from 'Sling'." He handed the device to Subspace, who eagerly took it. "Great job, Hyperlaser!!! So he was in this area, eh..."

Phones could be replaced. Lives could not.

"Say, Subspace... would you mind if I used the second cell in the basement? I need aiming practice." This was a stretch to believe, even for Subspace. "I...Well...OKAY!! Since you did good in your search, I suppose I don't mind!!" Wow. That was... uncommon. Subspace being nice? He must want him to leave.

"Alright. Much appreciated, Subspace."

Hyperlaser went down to the dark, gloomy basement. Dried blood stained the rough rock walls. He carefully walked over to the second cell, where a green demon sat on a bed hugging himself.

How was he going to explain this?

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Why did I refuse to publish this chapter for like 4 days what