When the contestants awoke, nothing was clear and everyone was sore.

They were all in what looked like... a break room? A living room, a- oh, no one knew, god, it was too soon to figure anything out. Head's all fuzzy, you understand.

The first thing Microphone noticed was the muffled yelling. It was special yelling, because only she could hear it. Wherever she was, and however she got here, her partner in crime hadn't arrived with her.
Grunting, Microphone winced as she sat up, dragging a tingly mitten across her drowsy face. She glanced around, absentmindedly moving her hand down to wipe a string of dried drool off her cheek.
The others were starting to come to, save for Test Tube and Suitcase, who were already awake and chatting quietly. Microphone, out of habit, pretended she couldn't make out their words.

"It just doesn't feel real! How could Mephone make something so... wrong?" Test Tube shivered and drummed her fingers on the carpeted floor, her eyes flicking back and forth as she tried to process everything running through her mind.
Before Suitcase could offer a word, Test Tube continued. "A-and what if Mephone didn't even make it? What if this isn't a challenge? Is Cobbs punishing us for stealing that battery? Are the star-dwellers trying to get back their-"
Test Tube gasped.
"The egg! I had- I don't have it! Ohh, jeepers, I can't- I don't-...!"
Suitcase grimaced, both at the mention of their little MeCloud adventure, and at Test Tube's increasing hyperactivity.
"H-hey now", she began, "There's no need to work ourselves up..! Maybe.. maybe we just need the others to wake up for this all to be explained, you know? Mephone likes his.. disembodied voices, after all."

A recently-awake Knife snorted from several feet away. "Likes the sound of them, more like."
Suitcase jolted in surprise and turned to smile weakly at Knife as a sort of greeting, as well as... Microphone. She frowned.
Microphone's apathetic wave went ignored and Suitcase turned back to Test Tube, who had seemingly regained her senses.

"I'm... okay, okay." Test Tube started to stand up and glance around warily. "First things first, we don't SEEM to be too affected by... outside substances, so let's just wake the others up to save time."
Knife, at that, immediately elbowed Baseball, who let out a startled yelp. "Done", the bored-looking tool announced.
Test Tube opened her mouth to protest, but stopped as she saw Lightbulb already stretching and yawning as she pulled herself awake.
"Alright, slightly less difficult than I had assumed it would be."
Lightbulb groggily smirked at Test Tube and lazily scratched the side of her head as she sat up. "Takin' me for a heavy sleeper, Tube? You should know that nothing about me is too heavy."
Test Tube blinked and frowned. "I would have a better response if I knew what you meant by that, but for the time being, it'd be helpful if we both focused on our current situation."
Lightbulb groaned and rolled her eyes. "Uuuuuugh, gimme a break, I've been awake for, like, a whole second."
In response, Suitcase huffed and stood up.
"Well, not all of us are so lucky! Come revel in our isolation and misery, I'm tired of soaking it all up."
"Yes, come revel!", Test Tube cheerfully agreed. "The sooner we come to terms with our situation, the sooner we can escape it and put it behind us."
"Isolation. Funny you should mention that," Baseball droned apathetically. Nobody paid him any mind.

Microphone finally spoke up.
"Where are we?"
"Aha! The question of the hour! The big one! Let's think!" Test Tube stopped and snapped her fingers. "Actually, no, let's look! Touch! Smell! Listen!"
"Dibs on taste!" Lightbulb offered excitedly.
Microphone had a feeling that listening wasn't going to do them much good. She couldn't explain why, of course, so she decided to redirect the group's attention.
"Why don't we try that walkie-talkie?"
The contestants, with the exception of Baseball, all turned to look at where Microphone was pointing.
On a coffee table in front of the couch, an otherwise-unassuming walkie-talkie sat patiently. Not literally, of course. The walkie-talkie was inanimate and regular-sized. This is an important thing to note, considering the circumstances.

Test Tube snapped her fingers again and began walking towards the table. "Aha! And there it is, the first piece of the puzzle! Mephone will likely give us our instructions from the other side of this-" Before Test Tube could finish her thought, her glass body smacked into the completely flat wall. "GYAH!"
Suitcase and Microphone flinched, and Lightbulb's eyes went wide.
"Woah there partner, you aren't supposed to bump into empty space like that! I thought you knew!"
As Test Tube stammered and tried to process what was going on, Lightbulb walked up next to her and rapped her fist on the solid wall.
"Darn, okay, I guess we're both going to jail after all!"
The others slowly began approaching the other three walls and feeling them, trying to discern what was wrong with them.
"Gh.. ghah! No wonder it seemed so off! The perspective is totally forced! There isn't a single legitimate piece of furniture here!" Test Tube made a frustrated sound and slammed her fist against a section of the wall adorned with a relatively convincing vending machine. "As soon as you look at it from another angle, it all falls apart! Cylinder sheeeeaaaarrrrr...!" She whined out as she slowly fell to her knees, dragging her mittens down the wall.
Knife raised an eyebrow. "Is this.. unusual? The Fizz machine outside the hotel looks weird too, doesn't it? I'd just assumed Mephone put up a bunch of fake props to flesh out the show visually."
Test Tube raised an index finger to correct Knife, but after a moment, she blinked and looked down. "Actually, that would explain those.. unnatural zigzaggy hills. Now that you mention it."
Lightbulb threw an arm around Knife and shook her head sympathetically. "Knifey, my dude, I'm sorry, but if you think those display cans are the actual ones you're getting then you're even less sharp than I thought."
Test Tube made a noise and pulled Lightbulb away from Knife, whispering furiously. "While we're on the topic, do me favor and CAN it! I will not be putting down a welcome mat in my secret, remember that, SECRET laboratory!"
Lightbulb chuckled in response and poked Test Tube good-naturedly.
"Aw, lighten up gal, you know you love me."
Test Tube rolled her eyes and muttered something that not even Microphone quite heard.

Electing to ignore her friend's sour response, Lightbulb returned to running her mitts up and down the perfectly-painted wall.
"Maybe the thing is that one object out of the bunch IS real! Y'know, blow our minds twice in a row with the same magic trick."
Test Tube frowned and looked to her left. "Pppooosssibbbllyyyy... but anything sticking out of the wall would immediately become obvious once viewed from any direction other than straight-on."
"Maybe it goes the other way", Knife suggested, his expression suggesting he was only mildly interested in the problem at hand.
"Part of the wall could be see-through. I don't see too many other options."
"Oh, well, maybe, but the same problem presents itself, so I don't think it's likely", Test Tube replied as Microphone grunted and smashed open the glass wall in the corner opposite from the others.
Suitcase let out a startled peep and Knife snorted as Test Tube looked on in disbelief, putting a hand to the side of her head.
"Ohh, golly, am I losing my inherently sharpened perception? This room is driving me to the brink of insanity SIGNIFICANTLY faster than I expected..!"
Lightbulb cheerfully patted Test Tube on the shoulder and led her towards the corner. "Easy does it, Tube! All them brain cells gotta die off someday."

As the splintered group anxiously trudged across the seemingly-endless ocean of carpeted floors, white walls, comfy armchairs and coffee tables, Knife nudged Microphone discreetly and muttered to her.
"So, how'd Taco know to break the wall, huh?"
Microphone, not having expected the sudden interrogation, stammered nervously and glanced over at the others to make sure her answer wouldn't be overheard.
"I.. I felt like hitting it. I can't hear her right now."
This earned her a quiet chuckle from Knife, and she glanced over at him warily.
"So you didn't even solve the puzzle? You sure have a thing for dumb luck."
Microphone blinked and furrowed her brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Knife shrugged. "It's simple, really. Before your little 'helping hand' came along, you'd barely been doing a thing to keep yourself in the game. Approaching challenges with the same basic strategy, whether or not it actually helped... it wasn't really gonna get you very far."
Microphone said nothing.
"Lucky for you then, yeah? You wouldn't be that effective without Taco. You AREN'T that effective without Taco, I should say. Especially not this late in the game."
At this, Microphone huffed and looked away. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Spready. Why are you even bringing this up in the first place?"
Knife shrugged again and moved to rejoin the rest of the group. "Just tend to notice these things."

At the head of the entourage, Test Tube rattled off excited theories about the situation at hand, with Lightbulb frequently chiming in with something helpful and relevant.
"I haven't noticed any real pattern in the layout, yet, but I just can't see anyone going to the lengths to make this without procedurally generating it! We know MePhone can transport matter like this across long distances, so I think he just created a configuration at random and mapped the furniture to variables that were-"
"Yeah, and then he put eight coffee tables in a row so we'd trip on them," said Lightbulb, as Test Tube tripped over a row of eight coffee tables.
"OH, for- ah! See, this only supports my theory! Only an artificial intelligence could have produced an interior design so devoid of style or purpose! They WANT us to think this room took effort, but I don't subscribe to that for a second!"

Lightbulb laughed at Test Tube brushing off her stumble so quickly and smiled cheerfully. "Eheh, you sound like Fan."
Test Tube nearly tripped again, her train of thought immediately derailed. "Ah- why do you say that?"
Lightbulb smiled fondly off into the distance, not taking notice of her friend's sudden discomfort.
"Well, y'know, his thing was being all detached from reality. He was like - a tenth dimensional being, traveling to our universe by accident and not taking anything seriously 'cuz he was used to us being on a level below him existentially. If one of these chairs came to life and tried t'take a bite outta Basebore back there, Fan'd probably just take some snaps and try to pick apart how the chair was movin' and stuff."
Test Tube smiled weakly. It was an apt assessment of their mutual friend's character, but.. thinking about Fan wasn't making her feel very pleasant. Whenever the topic of him came up, she just couldn't stop thinking about how abruptly he'd been removed, and how her last interaction with him had been a heated debate over the well-being of his egg. The egg she'd woken up here without, and had thus evidently failed to protect.
Some friend she was.
Test Tube sighed, feeling an ever-familiar pang of guilt as she reflected on her now-eliminated friend. And how she'd-

...

Test Tube stopped walking.
"Wait a second."
Lightbulb stopped too and glanced at her curiously, the others also looking on in confusion.
Test Tube stared intently at the ground, starting to fit together some puzzle pieces she'd previously left unattended.
"...Microphone."
Everyone, even Baseball, turned to look at the musical electronic, though Test Tube still studied the floor. Microphone took a step back, suddenly very much aware that she couldn't call on Taco for help if need be.
"Microphone... why were you in the room with Suitcase. And why were you wearing MY cloaking bowtie?"
At this, Knife raised an eyebrow.
"Aaaand, your heaps of awards for such incredible advances in science as time travel, invisibility, splitting Yin-Yang up.. are where?"
Test Tube finally turned around, frowning. "None of those were anywhere near ready for pitching, Knife. I'm not a moron, if I wasn't ever concerned with becoming rich I wouldn't have auditioned for this show in the first place!"
Knife just rolled his eyes and gave a noncommittal grunt.

Microphone tensed and worked her jaw, feeling a bead of sweat form on her head and get caught in the mesh.
Play it cool. Play it smart. One hitch won't be enough to screw this up.
Microphone scoffed and theatrically crossed her arms, her disinterested gaze finding Test Tube's glare.
"You leave your little trinkets laying around all the time, and Fan was more dangerous to my chances of winning than Suitcase was. Don't flatter yourself in thinking you've discovered some big... thing."
Suitcase frowned and Test Tube huffed.
"I do NOT leave my inventions lying around, thank you! I know for a fact that you've infiltrated my sanctum before and undoubtedly took my bowties while I was trapped in another timeline!" Test Tube growled and clutched a hand to her forehead. "I can't believe I overlooked this! What kind of brainiac am I if I can't... bah!" Test Tube turned away in disgust and Lightbulb patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Hey, hey, we're all dummies sometimes. Don't worry about it!"
A scoff. "I'm sure that's plenty easy for you to say," Test Tube grumbled out.
Lightbulb's smile faltered and Test Tube's floor-bound gaze widened a bit as she realized what she'd said.
"...Whadaya mean by that, Tube?"
"I-I, um..."
Before Test Tube could finish, the lights went out and plunged the contestants into darkness.