FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

How could I go on with this? Why was I going on with this?

Things with Annie managed to smooth over just as well as they did with Rick, even though she still smacked me upside the head for that stunt I pulled earlier. In the end, she mulled over the game in silence. Her sprite representation had a look of distaste on its pixelated face.

Honestly, I would feel the same. In fact, that kind of feeling was the only thing sticking to me. I couldn't keep going with trying to handle the whole fiasco. I just wished it was anyone else but me.

"Are you still going through with this bullshit?" Annie asked, finally breaking the silence.

I shook my head, sat myself on the couch, and stared off at the opposite wall in silence. I took in the sight of Annie's big screen TV in front of me. The ornate figurines sorted beneath it looked like tiny china dolls. It felt like each one of them was staring at me in accusation.

I looked away a bit, unable to stand the blank empty stares they gave, and looked back at Annie. "Honestly, I want nothing to do with this. I never did."

Annie looked on at me a bit before turning her gaze at my game gear. "Well are you at least going to let either of us hold onto it?"

I had to do a double take before replying in a split second. "Absolutely not! Who knows if this thing might turn a 180 and kill one of us?"

"If that's true, then why aren't you dead yet?" Rick argued.

God, I hated it when he says stuff like that. Half the time, they would make more sense than most.

"Besides," he continued, "that thing saved our lives earlier. We'd be pushing up daisies, in the terminal care ward, if it wasn't for that."

Again, they made sense. But I still couldn't shake the dread that had loomed over me since this game appeared. It felt like... everything was turning on its head.

Annie yanked the game from my hands rather forcefully. Her eyes gazed at the screen before selecting the character select. "Well let's see about checking on those goons you talked about."

"Hey, easy there, that's a cursed game!"

She scoffed at my warning before the screen showed the two thugs. Their Scratch and Grounder sprites were held in some sort of dark, dank, dreary cavern. The stalagmite and stalactite sprites were arranged like bars of a prison cell. It served them right. Those assholes tried to kill us.

However, it looked like a badnik was passing by the area. The game's sounds became clearer than last time. Must be when the graphics updated somehow.

"Okay, you two. You're on bail," The voice of a scruffy figure came echoing through.

"About damn time!" Scratch's sprite retorted. The 'cage' began to shake before opening up for them.

"Wait a minute!" Rick pulled the game gear over as he sat next to Annie. "Who the hell has the kinda cash to bail them out?!"

We didn't have to wait long, noticing their sprites moving towards the right down a cavern corridor. Their destination ended with the sight of a silhouetted sprite. The sprite's silhouette was... actually recognizable.

I suppose the sprite was silhouetted because the figure was mysterious, or we haven't tagged them yet. What I didn't think about was that it 'might be part of the scene'.

"So..." The voice for the silhouette was female in tone, with an air of authority. "You two have a good explanation on why you got into trouble?"

"It wasn't our fault!" Grounder's sprite spoke up, rugged and burly. "We ran into two punks while checking out the previous locations."

Her sprite moved oddly, tilting its head to the side slightly. "What?"

Scratch interjected. "He's telling the truth. Two kids with a weird video game ended up knocking us unconscious!"

The silhouette would only shake its head before turning away. "So you couldn't even handle a pair of idiot snoops?"

"It wasn't our fault!" Grounder spoke up. "Their stupid game ended up-"

"Game?" She turned in an instant. "What game?"

"It was some sort of bulky hand held, black in color, and it literally yelled out RUN to them!" Scratch pushed Grounder back again while replying. The two thugs looked like they were trying to get credit for the information. Idiots. That was definitely a good way to depict them in sprites ...

The figure began to emerge from whatever had silhouetted her. Most likely, it was some specific lighting in the hallway. But what we all saw there was... it just wasn't right.

The silhouette was what I guessed it to be. It was Sally Acorn. But... she was horrific in depiction. Her brown lush fur was greyed out and specked with small red pixels over her appearance. The sprites for her hair looked altered, showing slight bits of gray pixel colors to them. What set us both off most of all was her face. Her eyes were sewn shut, painfully so, and her mouth looked like it had forced itself open to rip out whatever held it shut like her eyes.

This ... This was just wrong.

"A game called out to them?" Her mannerisms didn't change from her off-putting appearance. I just couldn't stomach what was going to come next.

"Yeah," Scratch spoke, "It even had this annoying voice to it."

Her stare at them, or lack of a stare, was backed with her silence. "Either you were busy with visiting the bar again," she finally said, "or you could be saying there's another game out there like ours."

Grounder nodded while Scratch just stomped his foot. "That's what we were saying!"

She contemplated their words for a moment before she conveyed her orders. "Then I expect you to find them soon. Take them out if you have to. I don't want anything running free that could ruin our plans."

"Right. They should be easy to track; we know what they look like," Grounder spoke up. The two flunkies hastened to exit the building, their leader sauntering behind them.

With nothing left to see, Annie flopped on the couch. "Great," she muttered, "Now I'm stuck with two bounties at my house."

"Hey!" Rick yelled, "Just because they want us dead, doesn't mean we should panic!"

"ANYONE would panic," Annie argued, shoving Rick on the shoulder, "And right now you're not being any help as it..."

Her voice trailed off when the two took a look in my direction.

My forehead was sweating quite heavily. I could barely hold the game gear without shaking. My eyes were quivering, unable to focus, as I stared at our characters.

Charmy's sprite, cowering in a corner in panic, was a perfect mirror for how I was feeling.

... They were going to kill me ...

I never wanted this. I never wanted any of this! I didn't even want this FUCKING GAME TO BEGIN WITH!!!

I JUST WANTED OUT, DAMNIT!!!

"HEY!!!" Annie had to slap my face hard to get a response. My body tensed up on the impact, suddenly calming down. I looked on back at her with an empty stare.

"We're here for you," Annie tried to be reassuring with her assertive attitude, "So stop panicking and focus."

I managed to catch my breath because of her. Every breath I took was making me calmer and calmer. For a moment, I thought I would've had a heart attack.

"Thanks..." I gasped my response. I couldn't really focus with where I was right now. "I...I needed that." Rick wrapped an arm around my shoulder with a hearty smile.

"Besides," Rick commented, "We got an early warning system right here!" He patted the game gear like it was a saving grace. Much as I was still judgmental about it, he was right. This thing hadn't steered us wrong yet.

Maybe, just maybe, this game appeared because it wanted to save me. But, again, why me?

Just when we thought we had a breather, the game flashed again. We took a look towards it to find out that the screen showed something new. On the bottom left corner, it looked like a strange purple character icon.

That wasn't there before.

If this game was trying to help, then this feature had to be made to help. Against my better judgment, I pushed whatever buttons I could. It helped, sort of, that the annoying Omochao mentioned what to press.

CHIME! CHIME! CHIME!

PRESS 1

YES, THANK YOU, NOW STOP BEING ANNOYING, was all I could think.

After pressing 1, the Purple Icon flashed a moment. The screen showed a slow pan down towards a silhouetted figure in front of our three sprites.

We looked up from the game. The Television screen suddenly lost focus and was filled with static as it turned on.

"Uh...Who's got the remote?" I asked.

We didn't get a chance to dwell on that thought. The screen ended up turning clear as the image of a purple pixelated chameleon was on there. The pixel image began to grow sharper, and cleaner, until it became an all too familiar image.

That image... was Espio. His purple skin was darker in tone though. The eyes were blackened with red Iris's, almost like a soul was still trapped in there. He appeared trapped ... as if he wanted out.

"Greetings, everyone," the television screen echoed, "Nice to finally meet. My name-" He inclined his head to the three of us. "-is Cole."

What... the... fuck?