12. Ouija

The heavy wooden slider was instantly recognised, and received with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. Mostly apprehension.

"If this place turns out to be haunted, you and I are getting out of here Ay Sap." Cassia whispered loudly to her sister.

Eggman pointedly ignored the pronghorn, instead handing the planchette to Axel. He watched him rap on it with four fingers once, twice, thrice before speaking. "I am a man of science and thus don't believe in what I can't see. I'll leave figuring this mystery out to you." He then left at a dignified waddle leaving the Egg Bosses to their own devices (or in this case, singular device).

"Eh, may as well." Maw, surprisingly, was the first to break the silence. "Let's see what this does."


"Are you there?" Thunderbolt decided to ask the first question, paw resting on a corner.

Axel pushed the planchette, watching as it shifted towards- "Yes. That should be a good thing, right?"

"Well, that's to be expected." Tundra grunted. "How about whether it minds our asking? It's only polite."

A little push, and the slider went over to the No side.

"That's pretty boring. I say we start on the open ended questions. Who stole my phone?"

T-H-U-N-

"Okay, we've seen enough."

The Egg Bosses looked at each other, before starting to pelt the board with question after question.

"How do we get Eggman off our case?" "What's your favourite food?" "Should we cancel these meetings?" "Should we not cancel these meetings?" "Who is the best Egg Boss?" "Where'd Axel park his bike?" ("CANT", "PASTA", "NO", "NO", "STOP" and "ASDFJKL" respectively.)

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck-"

At this, the slider launched itself off its paper and into the furthest corner of the room.

There was a really long pause, as the Egg Bosses stared at it.

"Well."

"I think we offended it."

"Maybe let's ask the important questions now."

Axel nudged the board back with one finger as if it'd bite him, and with great reverence, placed it between the Yes and No.

"Will Eggman ever beat Sonic?"

The Egg Bosses glared at the answer. The answer glared back. And in a rare display of total agreement brought on by self-preservation, they agreed to never speak of it again.


"Yo, guys?"

All eyes turned to look at Thunderbolt, who was holding the slider up, its tip adhered firmly to the No.

"I think it just broke."


13. Charlie Charlie Challenge

Heads turned as Eggman entered the room with a phone in hand, and breaths were released as gazes did not find any indication of a game. Maybe Eggman had finally taken a hint and decided to repurpose these pointless meetings. Hopes were dashed by his turning of the screen, with large font size 20 text splashed across reading "#charliecharliechallenge". And any chance of backtracking was nullified by his proud withdrawal of two freshly sharpened pencils from a hidden pocket.

"Oh, no, no Thunderbolt, bring those papers here." Addressed chinchilla paused with one foot extending in the direction of the shredder. The rest resolved to silently mourn the loss of a potentially productive afternoon. Well, if nothing else...

"Sir, I absolutely must insist you join us this round."

Shocked eyes turned to look at Abyss, who instead of appearing apologetic due to her verbal faux pas, was quite comfortably lounging in her chair with the backrest nearly horizontal to the ground. "After all, we have much to thank you for."

Eggman crimsoned slightly. "Well, if you say so..."


"No thank you!" His words echoed off the walls as he made a mad dash for the exit.

Abyss used a tentacle to prod the pencil now in the "Yes" quadrants. "For a person who works with magic and spooky sciences on a regular basis, he sure is terrified by spirits."

"Maybe it's karma." Nephthys suggested, and a few found their heads nodding along in agreement.

Again, Thunderbolt would serve as the mouthpiece of the group. This may or may not have been related to her ability to perfectly balance objects like pencils and sliders.

"Would you like a drink?" Better safe than sorry, right? This time it rotated to the "No".

"Are you the only spirit in the room?" Thunderbolt had forgotten to replace the pencil, but it didn't matter, for the pencil tilted up and flopped onto the "Yes"s.

"Was that you yesterday?" It didn't budge, so either it was also an affirmative, or the spirit had excused itself for a toilet break. Trick question time.

"What's cooking good looking?"

The pencil jumped and stabbed itself a bit violently into an "No", through the oval formed by Clove's loopy handwriting. Immediately after Thunderbolt was catapulted rudely back by a ghostly fist (or it could have been an elbow or boot, really) to the wires.


"I think the Ouija board hasn't come unstuck, so because of your spirit glue or something we'll have to communicate like this."

The pencil hovered slightly apologetically over the new piece of paper.

"Are you a ghost? A real one, I mean."

A pause, before the pencil pointed to a "Yes".

"You had a life?"

Somehow, the following movement of the pencil communicated volumes. More precisely, "I don't know whether to answer that."

A long pause. And then-

"You are on camera, so I suggest you smile."

"Who's dong it? It better not be Eggman..." Akhlut got up, pacing the length of the conference room and sweeping it for bugs. He may have been bad at this usually, but the device was a huge camera complete with 20cm lenses. He turned it over to see a vaguely familiar mask staring back.

With a "Thanks!" to the thin air, Thunderbolt was already running to where he stood shaking the screen demanding a response.


Phage wouldn't delete the recordings, and was currently hogging the screen from the other side. After more futile cursing Akhlut slammed the device on the table, causing it to shatter.

Silence.

Then, a quiet "ow" from the dark screen.

"Okay, no more games relating to the supernatural. If he's not going to sit through this, he can't expect us to. And someone tell him to get this virus of his under control!"