Not Quite Right

"Something's…not quite right."

"Of course something's not right. The rainforest's being cut down you twat."

"No…it's something else…"

Sighing, Awesome Possum kicked another one of Doctor Machino's robots into oblivion, its wreckage landing near a startled blue hedgehog. He didn't know what Bee was buzzing on about, other than there not being something right, ergo stating the obvious, ergo wasting his time. Which Doctor Machino already was in a sense, forcing him to save the environment and all that, but at least he got to look cool while doing it.

"Ah! I've got it!"

A cause that Bee wasn't helping.

"We left some scrap behind!"

Alright, Awesome thought, maybe not entirely wasting his time.

Turning around after sending one of Machino's plane robots into a nosedive, the possum could see Bee gesturing to a newspaper, floating atop some branches. How all this trash floated, Awesome didn't know, or why it was all placed around the rainforest as if they were power-ups. But then again, those power-ups were the key to extra lives, so he felt compelled to take them.

"Alright," Awesome said. "I'll just do some backtracking and…and…"

He stopped moving.

"Awesome?" Bee asked. "Are you alright?"

"I'm…I'm fine," the possum stammered, reminding himself that he was called Awesome, had to act awesome, and be everything else that was expected of a 2D mascot of the 1990s (or 2013, the timeline was muddy like that). "I…I just…"

He tried walking. Again. And failed. Again. Somewhere in the undergrowth, he could hear the blue hedgehog sniggering.

What's a hedgehog doing in the rainforest anyway? And come to think of it, why am I, a possum, here also?

"Y'know, we don't have to get it," Bee buzzed. "We can just get on to the stage boss and-"

"No, I've got this! I've got this!"

For a moment, it looked like he had. For a moment, Awesome stood up straight and tall. For a moment, he looked ready to soar through the air. To take the item. To take a step closer to an extra life. And then…then he jumped. And fell.

"I can't!" he cried. "I just can't!"

Crying, Awesome heard Bee come down beside him. Still crying, he managed to sob out some words.

"I'm a 2D character!" he wailed. "My sole purpose is to keep on going to the right!"

"But, it's just a step back…"

"But that's going to the left! The left is wrong! Wrong!" the possum yelled, grabbing Bee by his feelers and shaking them like a madman. "To go back is to go left! To go left is to go wrong! To go wrong is…is…"

"Not awesome?"

"Exactly!"

It took awhile for Awesome to get his bearings back. It took only slightly longer for him to start moving onward. A little after that, he got a ride on Rhino and breezed through the rest of the level.

And all the while, he never looked back.

Never to the left.

Cause that wouldn't be right.