Manic descended the stairs, pawing in front of him. It was pitch black and he had to carefully step down... he wasn't going to get to the bottom any time soon, that was for sure. "Hey!" he called out to the darkness. "It's Manic! Can you guys see some stairs?" All Manic heard back was "stairs-stairs- stairs..." He willed himself to go further down, because maybe they couldn't really hear him from way up here? Gulping, Manic stepped down again, and again-

A tremor sent him tumbling down into the darkness, hollering as he tried to stop himself from going any further- his hands caught the edge of a stair and he stopped... but that must have been at least twenty stairs he just bounced down... Manic got to his feet, rubbing his head.

"Can anyone hear me?" he called out again. "Hel-loooo!"

The silence pounded in his ears for a long, dark moment. It was almost like descending into hell itself... except the shrouding silence scared Manic more than thumps or growls... because..

Gulp. Maybe... maybe just one more time...

"Is anyone there?"

there there there there...

The outside was just a little better than the rock tunnel that Silver emerged from- lighter, at least... but gloomy. He coughed into his fist as he looked around... but it was the same in all directions- a valley, or clearing surrounded by rocks, like an organic arena. It was so odd how real everything felt and looked.. a hint of a breeze stirred his mane and sent a chill down his spine.

Why does this place have grass... and rocks and cloudy skies? Isn't this a computer game? I thought it would be... blocky-er. Silver flicked his ears and shook his head. I can't get scared now- people might be in trouble! He ran into the clearing- it was easier to go to the middle to see everything, if this was just a big bowl, and if it wasn't, he'd find out, wouldn't he?

Silver wandered through a flickering tree line, noticing the fuzzy quality of the trees. Curious, he touched the noise-covered trees, and then they disintegrated into tiny pixels with a loud burst. The hedgehog flinched and retracted his hand- that was the third thing he destroyed on accident today!

He tentatively plucked a hair from his head, and rubbed it in between his fingers, but it didn't fizzle into static like the tree or the books. He kicked a rock, watching as it bounced into noise and nothing. Silver touched a fallen leaf, which withered into oblivion.

Crossing his fingers, he hopped- and thank goodness it didn't make the ground crumble into a void beneath his feet. But that was weird- the ground was part of this world, too. The environment was trees, grass, a few pebbles and bushes, and the only thing that didn't turn into noise was the ground. What kind of place was this?

The ground rumbled, knocking him backwards- an earthquake- or maybe an after shock? He felt that, so it couldn't be fake... then again, how could he prove it? If anything that was fake was destroyed by his touch, he couldn't really touch an earthquake- it was just a shock wave. That'd be like touching sound or the wind...

Silver shook that out of his head, rubbing his arms, feeling like he'd done something wrong. What is this place...

Blaze's tail prickled as she stood alert... Something was here... maybe it was exe, maybe it wasn't... but if she could buy some time for the others, that'd be enough... and if she could defeat him, what would that mean? He controlled the game... if she killed him, wouldn't the game collapse on them?

Something crackled to her left- "Show yourself," she hissed, lashing her tail. She flexed her hand and heat emanated from her palm. A young man appeared, a blonde with green eyes.

"The game's collapsing," he panted. "You need to get out of here with the others before it's too late."

Collapsing? So it was coming down, with or without Sonic-exe's demise. "There's someone else in here, too. The person downstairs- they're in the game now, up here with us."

The boy's eyebrow raised- "Person? How do you know this?"

"What's your name?" she relaxed, facing the human.

"Tom."

"Have you ever heard of the invisible box?" Blaze asked. "It's a boundary that prevents certain objects or people from leaving. You can't see it, and you can't go through it or under it."

A spark of recognition lit up Tom's face. "That's... from..."

"They're common in boss fights... and if you can get over the wall-"

"You can do whatever you want- go wherever you want... at least, if the area's big enough- I used to run around the overworld in 06, during the-" his face froze and then his pointed hand shook as he grasped the idea. "I... downstairs... a box."

"I think 'downstairs' was an invisible box," she explained. "And he's gotten out of it."

Sonic-exe grinned at the near-copy of himself, heaving chuckles. He flexed his fingers and took a step forward.

"I win," Sonic smiled, eyes flashing between red and green.

With a flicker of red noise, exe reeled back. "What. What are you talking about?"

"I win," he repeated, chuckling. "I got everyone to the last stage. Everyone that's still alive- they all made it here. I win."

Sonic-exe snarled, yellowed teeth jagged and sharp. "No... no, you didn't-"

"Eggman-Tails-Charmy-Knuckles-Rouge-Amy-Vector-Blaze-Espio and Shadow," Sonic interrupted. "Everyone's here. Everyone's okay. Now you have to let them go."

"No, that wasn't the deal!" he snarled. "The deal was you round up everyone and make it to the end! Manic's not with the group- and neither is Amy, Blaze or Shadow! You haven't won yet!"

"In three minutes I will," Sonic puffed with a smile. "I just wanted to save you some time."

"Three minutes is enough to scatter everyone or kill someone else," exe chuckled through clenched teeth. "And let's not forget... there was an accident earlier."

"Faker's girl," Sonic agreed. "But now that Shadow's been tagged in, he makes eleven."

"There's someone else in here."

Sonic nodded, but that didn't faze him- or at least, not yet. "What's that to you? Just someone you get to play with when you let everyone else go. I'll admit, I knew you'd never play clean. I just had to buy time for Egghead or Tails to cook up a plan to get out of here- and I'd get everyone together while they did it.

"In a way, this headache"- the blue hedgehog rubbed his temple where the bump throbbed, "was a miracle disguised as a curse. You are me, and I am you... and all that that implies."

Exe froze up, snarl flinching. "No... no, you couldn't-"

"I am Sonic the Executable Hedgehog File... and in this world... my world...

"I am god."

"So maybe Silver broke the invisible wall and maybe that box was the infrastructure for the game- maybe that's why it's collapsing."

"It may have been his psychokinesis... how could a game figure process that much raw, mental energy?" Blaze agreed. "The zones are probably interconnected by invisible walls... maybe once someone reaches a wall, they're transported into another at random."

"And the glitches involving invisible walls are all possible with Silver's powers!" Tom realized. "Maybe he can get you out of the game."

"We'll have to find him first, before exe does." The game rumbled around them, and Blaze clenched her fists. "You warn your friends- I'm going to look for Silver."

Tom checked his txt file- nothing had changed so far...

tom here

we found out whos downstairs

he can get us out i think

find shadow if u can

everyone else bunch together

get somewhere safe

...

we can help too

lets find them

...

no leave it to us

weve got nothing to lose

get somewhere safe

Another tremor caused Tom to lose his balance- he had to catch himself before he fell to the ground. Once the shaking stopped, Tom checked the txt file.

the games coming apart

better find the rest of them quick

...

i think i found shadow

he doesnt seem right in the head

...

stay calm

hes after sonic

maybe he wont attack you

...

kyle where are u

i can help

...

some trees

hes sniffing around

Tom started to walk along the edge of the game that seemed to get smaller with every quake- so those were the corrupted game files getting deleted, eroding the environment like a seaside cliff. Maybe Silver had something to do with that too... let's see... he could move things with his mind- but he could also channel it into a shock wave to paralyze enemies-

Paralyze.

is shadow moving besides sniffing?

...

?

why you ask

...

just check 4 me

...

hes kinda stiff but hes still movin a bit

limpin

...

i think exe did something to him

to make him attack sonic

he might be part of the game now

..

i dont think so

hes on the move now

really fast too

Sonic smirked at the frazzled copy. Exe growled, but twisted a smile and whistled- Sonic's ears prickled and he immediately moved Amy around in the data- he needed to get her out of here. She gasped and fidgeted, "S-sonic!"

"Get out of here Amy- it's going to get ugly real fast-" Sonic gritted his teeth as Amy flickered out of sight- but he saw her appear at the foot of some stairs... good, right where he wanted her- maybe she could hear Manic.

"It doesn't matter if you herd them all up like little sheep- if they don't find a way out of here..." Exe's flickering smile widened, bloodstained gums visible, "we all go down with the ship."

"There never was a way out of here, was there?" Sonic growled, piecing the puzzle together. "Your discs were just a one-way ticket. Anyone who plays your game and gets sucked in by you- they're trapped here forever."

"I prefer it that way," exe chuckled, "but accidents happen."

Sonic was slammed to the ground from behind- and then had a foot on his back, digging him into the ground- he knew who it was-

"Some god you are, can't even see Faker coming from a mile away," Sonic-exe giggled as his attack dog Shadow dug his heel into Sonic's spine. "You're not good at this game, are you, me?"

"Where...is she?" he growled.

Sonic herded his friends closer to the stairs, and he started nudging Blaze and Silver together...

"Go on, me," exe taunted. "Tell Shadow where his precious girlfriend is. He just might let you out with your spine still in tact."

He let the dirt take him... if I tell Shadow she's dead... he'll kill me. And Amy and Manic and everyone else will die.

"What girlfriend?" Sonic grunted. "What girl... would fall for this... piece of burnt cardboard?" More of Shadow's weight pressed into Sonic's back, and Sonic chuckled. "What's she look like?" he coughed. "Is she a body pillow with a Japanese girl on it?" As the pressure increased, the blue hedgehog squirmed to find a way to lessen it... "Or maybe she's just a screensaver on your laptop? Does she have a name, or is it copyrighted?"

"I'd kill you right now," Shadow hissed, "but not until I find Selene. Where is she?"

"Ask... me."

"What are you talking about? I thought you were god here," exe huffed. "As in omniscient."

"Omniscient?" That's it... "If I was so omniscient- urr!- I'd know who Player 13 is, wouldn't I, me?"

Exe flickered. "What- what are you talking about?" he recovered. "Another person you've trapped in here?"

"Nuh-uh, I- I didn't invite him-! You did, don'tcha remember? You and Shadow-ur, you two came alone and split up- but someone else jumped in here... and now there's thirteen!"

"Thirteen?" Shadow wondered, then growled, "Who is it?"

"I don't know," Sonic lied. "Why don't you ask your pal over there- he was there, too!"

Exe fidgeted- "D-don't beat around the bush, you fake! Who is it?"

"He found her- he got her out, Shadow! Isn't that great? She's out there, waiting for you to come back-"

"NO SHE'S NOT! SHE'S DEAD AND YOU KNOW IT!" Sonic-exe snapped. "WHO IS PLAYER 13?!"

"Dead?" came the mumble. A weight lifted off of Sonic's spine. "She's... dead..."

Gotcha, Sonic smirked at exe. Act your way out of that one, you sickko.

"How do you know that?" Shadow asked. "Did-did you see her?"

Exe growled, and Shadow fell off of Sonic- the latter recovered to find his copy behind him and Shadow on his back, holding his head.

"Yeah, I saw her-" exe snarled. "I saw her run around stumbling around like a deer hit by a car screaming your name, crying and sobbing and then just fell over, dead." The black hedgehog's ears perked up and he uncovered his face- there was a gash above his right eye, staining his glove. Sonic watched his face flash between pain and fury as the corrupted game went on. "I thought she was a lot of fun until I realized she wasn't trapped in the game like the other people I've trapped over the years- she died, and escaped."

Escaped? She wasn't stuck here forever like the boys- but she wasn't alive, either...

"No one escapes MY world- but she did, that emo recolored $%-"

Shadow uppercutted the exe, his fist ripping through the flashing data's body- it knocked the breath out of him but Sonic knew that wasn't enough.

"So you can get hurt, you &#^$," the hedgehog snarled at the impaled file. The exe-hog fizzled out of Shadow's grasp and appeared on the ground away from the two. It panted and snarled at the two.

"GAAH!" it cried, struggling to get to its feet.

"Shadow- you need to get out of here with the others-" Sonic instructed, "the game's falling apart and anyone left here's gonna die, too!"

"That means you too!" he barked back. "I'm not leaving until I know this thing is gone for good!"

"Let me worry about that!" the blue hedgehog spat back. "I need you to find Silver and Kris- tell him to travel back in time and destroy the disc! We can stop this thing before he even becomes a thing, and save them all!" Shadow flinched, then nodded without saying another word, darting out of sight.

"Silver?" Sonic-exe gurgled. His image lagged as he stood upright. "That's who's been messing with my world? That little stupid brat?"

Sonic chuckled, grinning- "What? Just cause he's a little slow and kind of annoying doesn't mean he's a weakling. You of all people know he packs quite the headache. I guess today's computers can't handle a psycho from the future."

Another tremor caused exe to screech and Sonic to wince as a prickly wave coursed through his body- the game was close to nothing now...Silver wouldn't have enough time to get everybody out... but maybe he could beat this thing while it was still just a game-

I just need to stall for time... The quake ended and pixelated holes started to spread across exe's body. Half of his face was red static and the other half was distorted by a gap on his right temple.

"That idiot can't stop me! No one can stop me!"

"He already has!" Sonic barked back. "You're falling apart faster than a Jenga tower- any minute this game will be deleted- and you'll be nothing!"

"Pretty soon..." Sonic-exe smiled, his jaw stretching like a blue, bloodied Cheshire cat, "you'll be nothing too."

The mess of dead pixels lunged with a roar and knocked Sonic to the ground- he could feel part of it dropping out from underneath him as he wriggled- Sonic freed an arm and punched another hole in his face, sending pixels out of the other side and into oblivion. Exe recoiled and growled as he held his face- the real hedgehog got to his feet quickly and approached him-

The file grabbed Sonic's knee and needles shot up his spine. He cried out and doubled over as he felt his body begin to disintegrate as exe flashed a wicked grin.

"You are me, after all," he heaved. Hm hm hm hm hm... "Did you really think you could make it out like the rest of them?" Sonic fell to one knee and held back tears of pain- it was like his leg was in a saw duster. Just- hold- hold on...

"Wish you could've said goodbye, huh? What's Tails going to do without his best buddy? And you've seen what happens to you when Amy dies- can you imagine what's gonna happen to her when you die?"

"Not... gonna... happen..." Sonic growled through clenched teeth, "because... I know... they won't... fail!"

"YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE," exe snarled- "HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM? You're about to lose everything that ever mattered to you- even if they get out- you won't- doesn't that make you ANGRY?"

Sonic felt the saw duster engulf his torso and he whimpered as the pain became agonizing... He almost envied the Badniks that went down in one hit. At the very least, it could go a little faster...

"Say something," exe growled, then his body broke apart until it was just a wrist holding a knee... and then there was nothing but a dissolving Sonic with one leg.

Sonic felt lightheaded... and he fell to the ground that caved under his weight... and then there was nothing.

Kris came home from his class and hurried upstairs into his room. He hated how he had to be paired up with idiots who thought they could piggyback on smarter people like him and Paul in Advanced C++ Programing. They were probably going to end up programming some sort of-

What the heck? Kris dropped his bag and hurried to his desktop. His CD drive was open- who'd been in his room?

"Jeremy, I swear to God if you've touched anything-" He racked his head- what was he working on last? Hopefully not something due for a long time- no, everything was in its place, apparently, but...

"Oh, man... Jeremy!"

"Kris, what are you yelling for?" his mother called.

"Jeremy took a game I was playing on the computer. It looked like a Sonic CD, but I was working on it..." then he added, "for class."

"Jeremy's been at a camping trip for the past two days, Kris. There's no way he's been in your room."

He hasn't been in my room? Then... "Have you been in my room?"

"No, not since you left... by the way, did you sneak back in? I heard rummaging in your room but there wasn't anyone up there when I came to check on you."

Someone broke into the house and stole a Sonic CD? Not the computer or the stereo or the television or the game consoles? Why would they want a Sonic CD? And they would have had to turned on the computer and logged in to his password-secured account- and nobody knew that, did they?- and they would've had to know the disc was in the CD drive...

Kris sighed and slumped into his chair. It was a cheesy hack he'd made, anyway. Making Sonic all bloody and gory like that- that was twelve-year old stuff. How stupid had he been to think that up? Whoever stole it just spared him the embarrassment of admitting he made such a mess, and no one would ever know.

Kris closed the CD drive and plugged in his flash... he needed to work on his homework while he was at home or some schmuck would see him so far and beg to copy it. Nah, he'd use this time to unwind and work so he could goof off with Paul in Advanced Programming...

"Hey Tom, is that new Sonic game any good? The one with the.. the weird aliens."

"The DS version or the Wii?" Tom asked, organizing his book shelves.

"Umm... the Wii version."

"It's pretty good. Nice soundtrack and visuals. Just Sonic and Tails, Eggman and the aliens. Simple gimmick."

"Oh, really? I guess I could rent it from somewhere, then. Like Redbox or something."

"Yeah, definitely. I could send it over by mail if you want?"

"Hm? No, you don't have to do that-"

"I mean, I'm kinda busy with school and I need to focus on my work."

"Well, then yeah, you can send it over. Thanks, man."

"No problem."

Sonic yawned and stretched out on the couch as Manic munched on popcorn on the other end. Some sort of bait car show. "You're not getting any ideas on how to evade the cops, are you?"

"Nah, bro, I just watch to see the look on these guys' faces when the car shuts off and the doors lock," Manic said as he shoved another fist full of popcorn into his mouth. "See if they deny the whole thing, too."

"Why would they deny it if there's cameras in the bait car?"

"Most times, bro, they don't know about the cameras until the interrogation or whatever- then they get all, 'Aw man, ya got me.'"

The door opened up and Silver announced his entrance with a long sigh. "Aaaaargh," he groaned, "Blaze didn't like my idea about being a hanged man for Halloween- she said it was too dangerous."

"What, like with a noose?" Sonic asked, reaching over to grab some of Manic's popcorn.

"Yeah, why?"

"Strangulation hazard written all over it," he replied before stuffing his face with buttery goodness. "Why'd you want to be a dead guy, anyway?"

"Because I didn't want to be a zombie or a sheet ghost… you know, something different than the usual lineup?" the hog shrugged and sighed. "Guess I'm on door duty for the third Halloween in a row…"

"Hey, Silver," Shadow called from his room before poking his head out. "You can borrow my costume."

"R-really?" the hedgehog stuttered.

"Yeah, I didn't really want to go around picking up candy I'll never eat," he assured. "I can hold down the fort."

"Wow, thanks, Shadow! I always wanted to be Count Dracula like you and Sonic do each year."

Sonic wiped his hand across his face. "It's just a vampire costume- classy vampire costume. I don't think Dracula was all flashy like my costume is."

Someone knocked on the door and Sonic bounced onto his feet. "Treat-or-treaters at one in the afternoon?" he announced to the household before opening the door with a smile. "Dressed up like a flying genius, huh? Where can I get that costume?"

"Hey Sonic!" Tails greeted. "You're taking me to the big neighborhood with the huge candy bars, right?"

Sonic tasseled his friend's hair. "Of course we are, little buddy. It's only a second away, after all." Tails chuckled at his joke. "Your costume's all set for tonight? Find out what to get for dinner? Can't treat-or-trick on an empty stomach, after all."

"That's not what I came over to tell you about-" the fox fumbled around with something- "check this out!"

It was an N64 cartridge with no picture or tag on it… just "MAJORA" written on it with a Sharpie marker.

"Where'd you find this?" Sonic wondered, picking up the cartridge, turning it over in his hands.

"I found it at a yard sale. It was in a box labeled 'Free.' Crazy, huh?"

Sonic squinted at the cartridge… something wasn't quite right with it. "Don't you have a Majora's Mask cartridge already?" he wondered.

"Hm? No, that was Ocarina of Time. I never got a Majora's Mask," he answered. "You still have an N64, don't you?"

"It's Manic's, but… Tails, this cartridge might not be a Majora's Mask at all. There's no seal or anything- for all you know, this is a dud. I can probably get you an authentic one for a few bucks, and that way we'll know if it works."

"If it's a dud, bro, you should just throw it away or destroy it," Manic mumbled through a popcorn mouthful. "Hey, Tails… I think I got a Majora's Mask somewhere, we can look for it in my room, c'mon."

As Manic led Tails into his room, Sonic walked into the kitchen and tossed the cartridge into the trash can.