Chapter Text
Mephone sat on the cold, cold floor. His claws digging into his shoulder metal, it helped ground him. This god forsaken room, he wanted nothing more but to be out of it. But here he sat, stuck in this place Cobs called ‘home.’ It felt like nothing of the sort, the flickering lights gave him a headache. He wanted to break open his screen and rip out his inners, but ‘his’ screen really wasn’t his, it’s 4S’s. Red sacrificed himself for MePhone, he could not destroy his brother’s body even more, he already destroyed it enough. The scars all over his arms and legs proved that point—no not his—Red’s arms and legs. MePhone laid 4S’s back on the ground, he was quite warm from his systems being overstimulated because of everything that happened today. You could hear his fans spinning inside of him, the white noise was calming. He felt so guilty…about everything, he hopes Toilet passed on his message that he was sorry. MePhone wished that he had the guts to apologize to everyone, but now he can’t, everyone’s dead. Perhaps he should follow them, the first thing he’ll do right. A knock sounded on the metal door, but was quickly followed with the door slamming open, whoever was on the other side clearly didn't care about his privacy.
Cobs, of course, he should’ve guessed.
“4. Get off the ground, it’s time for a check up,” The older man grunted, walking over to him.
MePhone’s only reply was a small huff.
“4.” Cobs growled, his eyes narrowed at MePhone. He crouched down to MePhone’s side. MePhone pulled inward on himself, protecting himself from Cobs. Cobs let out a sigh, he stared down at MePhone.
“Hm, 4, what if after we’re done with your check up, we made double chocolate chip cookies together. Your favorite—wait no scratch that, triple. How does that sound?” Cobs asked in a softer tone, like talking to a child. Standing up, he reached out a paw for MePhone to grab.
MePhone’s thoughts froze, what? MePhone knew that Cobs was probably being manipulative to get what he wanted, but the slim chance that they would actually get to do that was tempting. Really tempting. MePhone rose up, sitting crisscross applesauce, he looked back up at his creator.
“T—that…sounds nice.. “ He paused, “Pinky promise?” MePhone held out his left pinky towards Cobs.
Cobs intertwined his pinky with his creation’s, “Pinky promise.”
With that, MePhone accepted Cobs’ paw and stood up. Following Cobs out, they headed to the room. Him and 4S had always despised this room, every check up ended with either one of them getting hurt. Because they spoke out, they didn’t do their tasks efficiently enough, or their system wasn’t working properly, or—or their body wasn’t working correctly! And so on. So needless to say, they hated this place. It always ended in something bad happening to them. It always ended with MePhone trying to hold back tears. He froze, he didn't want to go back to that place.
“Four? Why did you stop walking,” a stern voice questioned him. “Did you malfunction again? Ugh I hope not,” the person in front of him leaned down, closer to his face.
“I—I, sorry, just…uh.. nevermind, it’ss…not important,” MePhone finally replied, he felt something holding his paw, right, Cobs was holding his hand. He gazed back up to his creator’s face. He felt small with Cobs staring at him, like a cornered animal.
“Good, come on, let’s stop wasting time,” straightening up his posture again, Cobs firmly held his creation’s hand, dragging him along. Sighing, he grumbled something under his breath, “it’s like taking care of a toddler..”
Really, that’s what he compares me to? A toddler? Well to be honest he’s never met a toddler, he’s only seen them on TV. They’re just like slightly older babies that can walk or something, and sometimes talk? I think..
Focusing back on his surroundings, MePhone realized that they were only a few feet away from the operation room. He squeezed Cobs hand harder, Cobs also hardened his grip on MePhone’s hand. It was oddly comforting. Entering the “trauma room #2”, or at least that’s what he and 4S calls—no—called it. It was called trauma room #2 because the room that deserves the number one title was the one and only Cobs’ office. Cobs and him stopped moving, MePhone’s changer tail was being dragged on the floor. He had no reason to raise it up, Cobs would probably step on it on purpose either way.
“Okay, 4 you know the drill, jump up onto the table or I’ll have to lift you up myself,” Cobs warned. Cobs’ leaf tail held steady in the air, it didn’t move an inch. Cobs has always considered that a tail expressing anything was childish and unprofessional. Still, Cobs the ‘civilized’ and professional man he is, held it high in the air, conveying how proud and confident he was.
MePhone jumped up on the table, well more like clawed himself up. Gosh, why did he have to be so short!? Why did Cobs have to be so tall!? Like actually he’s like 6 (182.88) or like 7 ft (213.36 cm.) MePhone for comparison is like 5 ft (152.4 cm) or something! He let out a relieved sigh when he finally climbed his way to the top. Cobs has to install a stool in here for real.
“I just want to get this over as quickly as possible,” MePhone muttered under his breath. His tail thumped against the table side, which showed he was annoyed.
“Oh, come on 4, it’s not gonna be that bad.” Cobs reassured MePhone in a mocking tone, he couldn’t care less. MePhone just glared at his creator. “Don’t give me that look,” His voice suggested that he was quite serious, while still keeping a lighter tone. Cobs then directed his focus onto how MePhone’s hardware was, he searched up MePhone 4. Clicking on the name, it showed an error message, which reads,
Error 45 Device Operation_room_computer.13 can not connect to MePhone 4.
Great. He can just plug 4 in and it should connect. Cobs just let out an irritated huff before leaning over to MePhone and grabbed his charger tail. Plugging it into his computer, it finally showed MePhone’s system stats. Lots of it showing that he was damaged or outdated. “4, how did you get so damaged?” Cobs asks with a chuckle.
“Huh?” MePhone leans towards Cobs to get a better look at the computer screen. Cobs turns the screen to face MePhone better. On the screen showed dozens of warning messages that said parts of him were damaged.
“Like seriously? Honestly I’m kind of impressed,” Cobs joked, as he shifted the screen again to look towards him. The sound of a mouse clicking could be heard, echoing through the otherwise empty room. MePhone knew this was just the easy part, Cobs overlooking his system. As Cobs was looking through MePhone 4’s files on the computer, he noticed something. MeLife had a recently deleted folder, which showed every single contestant. Gasping as he spoke, “Oh wow, look at that!” Cobs was astounded. Clicking on one of the icons, which was Knife, it showed a loading screen. When it finished loading, the screen showed the contestant in a blue void, Knife along with other things, and people. Knife seemed to be at one of the Pic-Nix tables from season 3. Cobs noticed someone else, MePhone 4S, he sacrificed himself for 4.
“Well, look at that 4, your little parasites are still alive!” Cobs taunted MePhone, he shifted over the computer screen so MePhone could see it better. MePhone’s eyes trailed from Knife to 4S, and then to the Pic-Nix tables. MePhone’s mechanical heart skipped a beat, oh my gosh they’re still alive! Cobs hit the back button, and then selected another contestant. He chose Suitcase, who was talking to someone, they appeared to be a cardboard box.
“Box..!?” MePhone gasped, staring at the screen. Cobs clicked on Suitcase, causing her to glitch, he then proceeded to pick her up, she let out a startled shriek. “W—wait.. what are you doing..?” MePhone asked timidly.
“Oh my! You can interact with them, how interesting,” Cobs cackled, he threw Suitcase across the void, landing a couple feet away from where she was thrown from. Cobs tilts the monitor towards himself again. He exited again, and went back to checking MePhone’s system. After he was done rereading everything, he shifted his body to face MePhone. His eyes scanned over his creation’s body, examining his parts with his eyes. He made a disgusted face, or was it worried..? MePhone noticed this and curled inward onto himself, trying to hide his scars.
“4, why did you do…that..to yourself” Cobs interrogated MePhone, pointing at his scars. Walking closer, Cobs firmly grabbed MePhone’s left arm, studying it. He ran his index finger along the bumpy texture of the metal, which caused MePhone to flinch. Cobs’ grasp didn't falter, instead he did the opposite, hardening his grip on MePhone. MePhone stayed silent, looking anywhere but at his creator. “4, answer me,” Cobs snarled, glaring at MePhone.
“I—I don’t want to answer…” MePhone mumbled, staring down at his hind paws dangling off the end of the table. If he just doesn’t look at Cobs..maybe he’ll leave him alone..!
“Whatever, I still have to replace your metal eithe…” Cobs growled, but for MePhone he could only hear ringing in his ears. Tears threatened to fall from MePhone’s eyes, but he quickly wiped them away. It was becoming harder for him to breathe. He felt a pressure on his left paw, he tightened his grip on the other person’s paw. Who was holding his hand..? The mystery person squeezed back after he tightened his hold on them. He was starting to be able to see and hear again. He could only see blurred shapes, oh he was crying, that’s why everything blurred. He felt someone wipe away his tears for him, it was sort of comforting. “…Phone 4?” The ringing in his ears quieted down. He could hear clearly again, see the flickering lights above head, and feel Cobs’ paw in his. Wait Cobs’..?
“C—cobs..?” MePhone whimpered softly, looking up, he saw his creator.
“Mhm, I’m here, you’re safe, it’s okay,” Cobs crooned, holding his paw firmly. Cobs wiped away MePhone’s tears again with his other hand, he rested his hand on the side of MePhone. MePhone’s claws dug into Cobs’ thin fur, and into his skin. “4, sheathed your claws,” Cobs whispered in a patronizing tone. MePhone’s claws were never made to hurt, only to hook and grab onto things. So his claws didn’t really hurt Cobs, just barely scratched him. But nonetheless MePhone retracted his claws. “Well I’m gonna power you down while I replace your metal, okay?” Cobs let MePhone continue holding his hand, it would probably make the whole process easier.
“W—wait… do you really have to replace my metal..?” MePhone asked, knowing full well that Cobs did have to, that’s the whole purpose of a check up, to fix him and make sure everything is running well. MePhone glitched for whatever reason letting out scrambled words. “Uhh..” MePhone mumbled, mostly to himself.
Cobs let out a tired sigh. Cobs slid his hand up to MePhone’s power button, holding it down until the back light was completely off. He laid his creation down carefully, making sure not to break any other part of 4. He probably had more broken parts than working at this point.