FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I soon wished I didn't tell Rick about the whole Game Gear being cursed. Since then, he'd been a mess over it. Thankfully, he had managed to not break down mentally; far from it. As I said, he always had steady nerves about him. What was off-putting was how often he would nag about wanting to check up on Annie with it.

Honestly, I wondered if he'd just wanted to spy her going to the showers, and here I was worrying about myself being a stalker. That and I couldn't imagine how you'd get suggestive imagery from these kinds of sprites.

Much as that didn't happen often, he was left with a rather quiet look on his face. Eating the hot dog he whipped up himself, he did come up with some rather interesting questions. These were ones I'd been asking myself for a while anyway.

"First off, where did you even get it?" This was an obvious first question there.

"I don't know," I'd respond back. "One minute, I was rummaging my things for a time waster; the next minute, I find this stupid game stuck in my Game Gear out of nowhere. I don't even get WHERE it came from or HOW it got there."

Rick leaned forward, taking another bite from his lunch. He took a good look on the screen and saw the sprites themselves giving Ray an emulated posture of idling around. It was still a mystery how sprites of Ray and Amy were even there to begin with.

"Well my next question has to be if this is that sonic.EXE game," Rick asked another good question. But this one was definitely easy to answer.

"Definitely not," I replied. "This game hasn't killed me yet. If anything, it's just emulating everything that happens in real life. Like I said, that squirrel sprite is supposed to be you."

"Yeah and the annoying Chaotix Sidekick is you," Rick responded with a chuckle.

I'd give a rather quiet glare at him for that. I still didn't get why I'm represented as Charmy. Rick as Ray, I could somewhat get. Annie as Amy was a bit too easy to imagine. But me as Charmy? There had to be more to it.

I'd stare on at the Game Gear again while taking some time thinking about it. Though Rick seemed to just get up and yank the game from me.

"Why don't we look for more clues with this doodad?" He contemplated. I tried to yank it back, but he kept keeping it away from me to begin with. To think ... suddenly I couldn't even LIVE without this damn game.

"Hey give that back!" I exclaimed, though he did eventually toss it back to me later.

"You said this thing pointed the way to that Kyle's house right?" He asked.

I gave a small nod before wiping the screen clean. Damn it. If those greased fingers did anything to this game, I'd probably be dead.

"Right," He responded, finishing his hot dog and sucking his fingers clean on one hand. "Why don't we find another like that?"

I looked back at him with a rather perplexed stare. "Excuse me?" I responded in dumb-founded fashion.

"That thing led you to a clue. Maybe it wants you to find more along the way," He continued. "Maybe it's trying to show you some answers to this whole thing."

Sometimes I couldn't tell if he was either being a genius or being an idiot. For one, I hadn't gotten another flash from this thing since the first time. Another thing was that I couldn't imagine being ballsy enough to do it again.

"As much as I'd like to humor you with this whole thing, I wouldn't know where to continue." I walk past him while staring at the game. "This thing hasn't flashed again since the last time."

Rick cocked his head to the side a bit, looking over my shoulder, and tapping the screen. "Maybe you gotta go where the murders happened."

"THAT is something I am NOT going to do!" I exclaimed, pulling away from Rick. "I'm not that stupid as to just go walking around like a suspect. You know what they say about the whole 'returning to the scene of the crime' trope."

"Yeah," he responded, shrugging his shoulders in lax manner. "But you don't know until you try, right?"

Again, much as I didn't want to say it, he was probably right. This thing flashed before when I was near Kyle's house next door. Maybe risking my neck again might be worth it. Problem is, would I really want to?

I wouldn't know if Annie or Rick might be next. I wouldn't know if anyone else in my neighborhood might be next. I just know that I was stuck with a game that probably wants me to solve these mysteries.

Just when I was thinking that, I felt the Game Gear rumble in my hands. The screen flashed once again in another direction. Luckily, it wasn't Kyle's house again.

Rick grinned before pushing me along from behind. "Come on, ya lil bumblebee! The game's afoot!" he exclaimed with excitement.

"HEY! When were you eager to play detective, with my life on the line?!" I cried out while being pushed.

Seriously, what was I getting myself into?

It was a bit of a ways away in walking when following this game again. Our steps were quite hastened as the pace felt rushed.

If anything, I just wanted to get this over with as much as possible. If it meant solving this mystery, then I was willing to do it.

It wasn't long until we arrived at a part of town that was an apartment complex. The front door showed someone in their mid-fifties walking out with a nod to the inside, probably a resident giving his regards to the proprietor.

Sure enough, the game was pointing towards that apartment complex, even though the apartment place had its own backdrop of another ruins entrance. The scenery and brick work pixels were grayer in color, most likely to emulate a building.

I had to be on the safe side though. I turned the game gear one way and the other, looking around the area. There weren't any signs of badnik's in sight. This had to mean that this place wasn't under watch.

It took me a while to muster up the courage for this. Rick wasn't making it any easier to do so, pushing me along, as we entered the front doors.

The interior had some rather shaggy carpeting - some of the wall paper was peeling off - and the Apartment clerk was at the front desk waiting. The old man had a bald spot on the top of his brow, along with a rather gaudy bow tie around his narrow neck.

I went up to the desk with a quiet step, clearing my throat. He turned to face me as I asked about one of the rooms available.

Of course, I had to check my Game Gear for more clues to follow. When I looked down, I noticed the ruins' interior, and the pixelated sprite of what looked like...

Oh God.

Omochao...

He was, by far, the most ANNOYING thing I would hope never to run into. And here I was standing in front of one! Not to mention the fact that he was never in a Sega Game, meant this must be something made up by this Sonic.EX3 Game.

But I did notice that the wall etchings behind the stupid chao thing had some numerical patterns to them. The etchings in question seemed to read the following.

1 0 1

"Excuse me? We're looking for a room here," I asked, "Room 101?"

The old man gazed at me for a moment, his hand fingering the ledger book before he looked to it. "Eh..." he murmured, rasping out a gentle sigh, "You sure?"

I simply nodded while standing there in waiting.

He furrowed his narrow brow at me for the moment, his eyes gazing me and my friend over. "Do you have any business there? I have to warn ya. That room's been the scene of a murder once," he answered, "Some oaf staying there ended up getting murdered by that X killer on the news."

Obviously, not a coincidence... Just my luck.

I rolled my eyes a bit and gaze at my game again. Omochao simply hovered there while this happened. However, a strange text box appeared beneath with a strange question.

{Do you wish to request entry?} [Yes] [No]

I did everything I could to keep a straight face when I saw that; I could actually manipulate the scenario in front of me? With everything else that happened, there was no way I could just turn this down. I gave up, as stated before, on even trying to make sense of this.

I simply went over the [Yes] option to click it. When I did, the text box disappeared. Much as I'd like to believe that this thing could make the outcome easier, I'd prefer trying myself.

I looked at him with a rather calm face for the moment. Rick wasn't sure what I did with the Game Gear as I held a hand out to shush him. Of course, the old man simply gave a quiet stare. "Are you done playing that game there, kid?"

"Yeah," I responded, "I'm also aware that the room might be 'used' since last. I'm actually staying for a short while away from some rather unsavory characters. Those stupid cultists worshiping that murderer moved in recently at my neighborhood. I just wanted to hide away."

Of course, the old man gazed as he heard me out. I suppose the look of sympathy he gave me was enough to get me through this.

"I guess I don't blame ya," he responded, "I can't imagine why you'd want to hide in a place where the murderer was at last, though."

"I'm banking on the old saying 'lightning never strikes twice'," I offered.

He laughed only a little bit. "I doubt it. But I can warn ya ahead of time if that saying fails ya."

That was probably the best I could hope for. I could only suppose that the old man was sympathetic to my worries. But I couldn't overlook that the game may have actually tilted the outcome in my favor. I simply did my part.

Rick was simply quiet with the outcome - the old man handing out the keys to room 101 - as we made our way to the room.

"Did that little patchwork annoyance just-?" I stopped him mid-sentence there.

"Rick... it's best that we don't look a gift chao in the stitches..." I responded.

Much as I didn't want to check that room out, it was do or die.

I could only hope that the latter outcome did not emerge.