Chapter 10

Extensionality

"When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."

- James Whitcomb Riley

The floor was checkerboard, as was the ceiling and fishbowl walls that curved above him. Beneath his feet sprawled the faded, monochrome squares of some bygone era, but it wasn't just that the tile was black and white. It was monochrome as a concept, as an idea, and it stretched endlessly in all directions.

Sonic lifted his hand over his eyes. The brightness was uncanny.

"Hello? Metal?"

His voice diffused through the void and spread out into a silent muffle. The empty room simply could not reflect the sound.

Sonic chewed his lip. An endless, black and white void was probably trouble, and it was even less likely Metal would be here. Metal was smart, and he was cautious. Sure, Metal had his moments of poor judgement, as did everyone from time to time, but Sonic knew him better than that. Metal would never wander into trouble.

The solution, therefore, was simple. Sonic would simply go back the other way. He clutched the doorknob in his hand, and the entire door frame swayed. He stepped back, and the door wobbled further. It leaned, closer and closer to the ground, then slipped away from the doorknob and collapsed to the floor.

Sonic sprang backward to the bathroom, then slammed his heels. The bathroom was gone. It had simply vanished behind him, and the checkered eternity infested every single direction. He was alone in this monochrome void with nothing but the collapsed door and the knob in his hand.

Sweat ran between his palm and the useless doorknob. He held it up, and the bright light reflected into his eyes. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Metal was supposed to be on the other side of this door, and he would be waiting for him with a lecture. Sonic would give him some sort of witty retort, then they would be on their way, but now…

Sonic dropped the doorknob. There was no one.

He had no choice. He crept into the checkered dome and winced the uneven cadence of his feet despite the muffle. One step was light, but the other clanged against the tile like a dropped kitchen pot.

He clenched his fists. He had to find Metal.

The sound of his feet was incessant, and he stopped. His eyes wandered up to the horizon. The checkered world rolled above him. No matter how far he walked, the checkerboard moved with him, crawling up into the horizon like a conveyor belt.

He accelerated, and soon, he was jogging. His robotic leg responded perfectly to his every movement, and he ran, faster and faster until the air exploded as the sound barrier shattered.

Sonic ran. He ran and ran until he heard it. The floor creaked.

He slammed his heels, and heat rubbed into the sole of his foot. He hopped to a halt, bouncing on his robotic leg as his organic one cooled.

"Metal? That you?" Sonic said.

Nothing greeted him but his own breath.

A blur of color caught the back of his vision. He squinted, and in the distance he saw it: a lone, blue figure standing in front of a familiar sea of perfect blue and red orbs.

Sonic leaped forward, but the figure turned and vanished into the orbs.

He ran. "Metal! Come here and just listen to me!"

Sonic sprinted, and soon he arrived to the spheres. They were perfectly round, and while most were red, a single line of blue stretched out in front of him.

He stared at the orbs and at the Chaos drive in his hand. Metal had known something was wrong. He had been investigating the room, but Sonic had dismissed his concerns.

But, what if Metal was right? What if there was something wrong with the space? Worse...

What if Sonic had been wrong?

The world lurched beneath his feet, and Sonic staggered into the blue spheres. He winced, bracing himself for a collision, but he stepped straight through the sphere. The checkerboard ran forward like a treadmill, and Sonic had no choice but to walk through the spheres, each turning red as he moved through it.

The endless checkered tile, the moving floor, the blue and red spheres...He knew what this was, for he had navigated through similar puzzles many times. This was a special stage, and there were two ways to escape. One way was to collect all the blue spheres, though there could be any number of them to find. The other route would be shorter.

Sonic's hand hovered above the red sphere. All it would take was a single touch.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Nega's voice emanated from all around him. "Unless, of course, you want to reappear just above my lovely vat of acid."

"For the love of—" Sonic clenched his fists. "Nega, what do you even want?"

He stepped through an orb, then another, and when no one responded, he added, "Where is Metal?"

Hollow laughter filled the void, tinny and unnatural. "Why don't you ask yourself? You were the one who ran away from him, after all. Isn't this what you wanted?"

This...this was not what he wanted. He only wanted a moment alone and a drink. He hadn't meant to abandon Metal.

The blue line cut right, and Sonic hopped over a red orb as he turned.

"You didn't answer my question," Sonic said.

"Oh, don't be like that! Have some fun! I'll answer your question if you can answer mine."

The blue orbs spread out like flecks of pepper, and he took to the edge, turning each orb red as he worked toward the center.

"Tell me, my dear friend, those orbs. The ones that were blue, and now they're red. Are they the same orbs as before? Or now that they're red, are they different entirely?"

"Huh? What kind of stupid question is that?"

"Bzzt! Wrong answer! Play the game, or you'll pay the price!"

The world accelerated, and Sonic had to jog as the spheres spread further.

Were the orbs the same? They were the same shape and stayed in the same place. They couldn't be that different. Nevertheless, they weren't exactly the same as they were before. Part of the original, its color, had been irrevocably altered.

He shook his head. He couldn't dwell on this; Nega was only trying to confuse him.

"I don't know?"

The world spun faster, and Sonic had to run. More and more red orbs spread in front of him. He leaped over a row of them, his foot swiping the air just above the red as he landed in the blue.

"Tsk, tsk. I thought you liked to play game, Sonic. It seems to me you've changed!"

He hadn't changed. That was a lie. He was the same as he always had been. How could he have changed?

Nega remained silent as the orbs converged back to a line. Sonic followed it forward, for he had no choice; the red orbs surrounded all other sides. The blue orbs continued perfectly straight for an eternity, and he watched as each turned red behind him.

Sonic had thought he had loved adventure, but he hadn't found any of this fun, or enjoyable, or gamelike. But, throughout his whole life, no matter how bad things got, he found a way through. There was always some joke, some retort he could make.

The orbs spanned forward. Sonic struggled to imagine a joke, a pun, anything.

His mind was blank.

"You don't know? It seems you can't even bother to answer a simple question, not even if it would save Metal! Some hero you are!"

"Wait...save Metal? Where is he? What have you done to him?" Sonic gazed at the horizon, only to barely hurtle over a stray red in the line of blue orbs.

"Oh, nothing! Absolutely nothing! It's not what I've done to him, it's what you've done to him!"

The blue line scattered like glitter in an expanse of red. It was all Sonic could do but jump and run.

"Look, Sonic my dear. It's simple, oh so simple. Answer my question, and you can save your little paperweight pal. These orbs? Yes or no?"

"...Yes?" Sonic did not care about the question. He was focused on two things: the orbs and finding Metal.

"Oh, is that your final answer? It seems so insincere. I thought we were friends, Sonic. Is this how you treat your friends? No wonder Metal is avoiding you."

Sonic paused. Metal was avoiding him? Hadn't Nega just said Metal needed to be saved? Metal wouldn't be avoiding him.

Unless Metal really was avoiding him. Their previous encounter flashed through his mind. Metal had slammed the door on him, and before that, their argument. Sonic called Metal a fake, and those words had crushed Metal. He remembered the look on Metal's face, how he had looked devastated despite the fact he had only an optical screen. Sonic had been angry, but he had also been deliberate. Sonic knew that insult was the fastest way to win the argument, and Sonic never lost.

He was supposed to be a hero, but heroes never put people down. What kind of hero was he to use Metal's greatest source of pain to win a petty disagreement? He hadn't acted like a hero; he had acted like a selfish brat.

"Or is it you avoiding him? Avoiding yourself? You two are not so different."

The door. Sonic had though Metal had slammed it, but the more he thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Metal had called out to him when the door shut, and Sonic recalled how that same door had recently collapsed. What if Nega had closed the door, and Sonic had blamed Metal? He had accused Metal of poor communication, but if that were true, he was just as bad.

He had thought Metal crazy. But he was being hypocritical. Sure, Metal could do better, but so could Sonic. Metal was imperfect, but so was Sonic. He had expected Metal to communicate, but he had made no effort himself.

Sonic looked back at the orbs. Were they the same orbs? They were in the same place with the same shape, and the color change was superficial.

But, if he touched the red orbs, the game would be over. While the blue orbs moved him forward, and the red orbs would end everything. That was the difference; their function had changed.

He looked down at his leg, at the obvious parallel Nega was trying to draw. What had he done? What had he become?

"Come on, Sonic! Why are you so slow?"

The world accelerated again, and Sonic was forced to sprint. Sweat ran down his quills, and the blinding light tore at his vision. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and a white orb with a red star emerged in front of him. Sonic struck it, and it reversed the direction of the world.

He panted. Behind him was a solid sea of red, and it was all he could do but frantically leap over each orb. There was another white orb in the distance, and as soon as Sonic struck it, the world turned the other way. He hurtled over each red orb, desperately making his way back to the blue.

Red and blue. There was a single difference. Even though his leg had changed, it still moved him across the floor. It was the same shape, the same color, and in the same place. His leg did what it was used to and not a thing more. The orbs did not.

He leaped back into a square of blue orbs, and though he felt exhaustion overwhelm him, he moved forward with deliberate precision. Here he was, feeling bad for himself. He was merely whining, so self-absorbed that he had time, no, the audacity to worry about if he his leg was really his leg or if he was really himself.

So what if he had changed? Sure, maybe he couldn't change what had happened to his leg, but he could change how he acted and who he was. He alone controlled himself and his behavior.

This shouldn't be about him. It should be about the person he wronged. It should be about Metal.

"So, my perilous pincushion, give me your answer. The real answer."

The path split in front of him. To one side, a sea of red. The other, a sea of blue.

Though he was out of breath, Sonic spoke calmly. "...No."

"No? You're saying this isn't the same sphere? Tell me, my friend, why?"

Sonic looked at his leg, and his reflected looked back at him. In this distorted light, he looked just like Metal.

He was just like Metal. Everything he accused Metal of, being crazy or being a failure, was also true of himself. He had been no better.

Sonic clenched his fists and looked down. "I'm not talking about the orbs."

"Oh ho! Quite the twist, eh? Tell me, my dear, what are you talking about?"

Two paths diverged ahead of him. He couldn't change the past, but he could change the future.

"There is a problem with your game."

"Ooh, sassy! I love it, love it! What is it, hmm? Confused? Existential crisis?"

The blue would never end. He could spend hours collecting these orbs, and he would get nowhere. He could spend hours analyzing Nega's question, but he would get nowhere. In the end, this question was meaningless.

"Your game is boring. Do you know why?"

Sonic looked at the Chaos drive in his hand, then turned the corner.

"Because the only way to win this game is to not play."

He stepped into a red sphere.