Chapter 5

Tapper looked up from under the counter, and his surprised expression split into a wide grin.

It wasn't every day that Clyde the Ghost floated into his shop.

Behind the shifty ghost, a chipper Pacman followed through the swinging door, chattering away at his game antagonist.

"Clyde!" called Tapper. "This must be a very special day! What am I missing?"

The pill-shaped, brightly orange ghost came up and hovered to the man's eye level. Clyde was limbless, his body largely composed of a face with large, completely round blue eyes and a small mouth. Game characters around the shop turned their heads to look at the incomer curiously; many were looking at him for the first time in their lives.

Clyde rarely left his game, and although the reason was a mystery to many, Tapper knew that Clyde was agoraphobic. He wasn't very chatty, either. He was the kind of character who liked to sit (or hover, in his case) up over everyone's head and watch silently.

"It's Pacman's anniversary and he wouldn't leave me alone," explained Clyde and he shifted to make room for the round, yellow protagonist to come up to the counter beside him. Pacman's small, beady eyes were alight with a pure, innocent happiness that Tapper found both sweet and heartbreaking. He could also see Clyde's underlying discomfort at being in a big place full of counters and noise and motion; the ghost could not stay still. His large eyes kept shifting left and right, his hovering restless.

Despite that, his unease never crept into his calm, even voice. "He said he wanted me to go out and see what the world looks like; says it's unhealthy for me to stay in my own game all the time. Would you believe that..?"

Pacman opened his enormous, toothless mouth, and a loud stream of unintelligible noises burst forth as he rapidly opened and closed it to 'form words'.

And people think Qbert's language is difficult, thought Tapper wryly. Even with his ability to understand many languages, Pacman's was something beyond everybody's realm of understanding. At best, Tapper could only understand it at its most vague, abstract level.

"Yes, yes, I get it. I need to make friends," repeated Clyde after his protagonist calmly. "Well, I already have you and Pinky and Blinky and Inky. What more do I need?"

"Nonsense, tonight's ya anniversary! Take a seat wherever ya feel like and I'll be there with your drinks in a jiff."

Pacman made some more noise, to which Clyde let out a slight, breathy laugh and asked Tapper to 'please also bring a bowl of cherries?'

"Oh, I have a batch waitin' for ya, Pac - got'em today from Mary! And the best blueberries you'll ever taste! Clyde, see the lady with the basket there? That's Mary, from Fix-it Felix Jr. The sweetest gal you could ever meet. Why don'cha both go say hello?"

Clyde seemed much more inclined to go to the tight, abandoned corner nobody was at, actually, by the way Tapper could see him looking at it purposefully. However, now that there was food in the equation, the bright yellow ball that was Pacman lightly head-bumped his protesting antagonist towards the noisiest, most crowded sector in the shop.

It was a familiar sight. Turbo's voice rose loudly over the crowd sitting around him and his twin racers at the middle booth between two long counters, and Tapper could see the racer's animated antics even over the many heads of characters.

Turbo made a particularly funny impression of Luigi, and even Felix Jr. had to keep a hand on his mouth to politely hide his smile while Mario laughed his head off. Luigi glared at his brother from across the table, and raised a hand to run it across his throat in a very aggressive warning. Ralph, who was sitting alone a bit off to the side, not close enough to be part of the evening outing - but still close enough to hear what went on, smiled into his glass.

While Sonic sat next to Rush, happily inhaling the fruit bowl Mary brought him (lovingly arranged in an assortment of colors only a talented cook like her could achieve), his adopted 'little brother' Tails was dozing off in Vel's arms, rubbing his soft head against the racer's chest like a sleepy kitten. The three ghosts who shared their game with Pacman and Clyde - Inky, Blinky and Pinky, were playing chase around the shop, squealing like little children. Pacman looked after them and quickly followed suite with a happy sound of his own, food forgotten for the moment.

Clyde watched his protagonist go, and for less than a second his eyes held a spark of panic, as if he were about to shout: don't leave me here alone! But if Clyde was known for anything, it was self-sufficiency. If the rarely-seen ghost was like something out of a fairy tale amongst game characters in Litwak's Arcade, he was the unrealistic hero in the eyes of its antagonists; the first to accept and embrace his identity, so calmly and with effortless dignity.

"All of you are such children.." he murmured quietly, eyelids drooping, and turned to glance at Tapper, as if trying to get a clue what to do. The man caught him off the corner of his eye, and nodded to him, motioning for him to join the crowd.

Tell them it's your anniversary! He mouthed.

Clyde turned back again towards the crowd, only to see that everybody was staring at him (sans the sleeping fox kitten).

"Hey, isn't that Hyde..?" a Koopa wondered to his game mate, getting up onto its chair to get a better look at the orange ghost.

"It's Clyde, you idiot," hissed his friend, another Koopa. Sonic looked up at the creature with a bright, curious face, and jumped up on the table - shoes and all, and extended his hand to Clyde.

"Pleasure finally meetin' ya, Clyde! I heard a lot about ya from Pac! Says you're the kinda guy who likes stayin' put which is a real bore in my book, but hey, you can never have too many friends!" he said with a huge grin, waving his extended hand up and down vigorously as if they were really shaking. "Name's Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Encouraged by the hedgehog's mannerisms, the characters waved hi at the newcomer, smiling politely. But Clyde, for all his isolation, was a master of emotion-reading. It's what you have to be when your protagonist is a giant, blank face. And Pacman was anything but unemotional.

He noticed the way some of the characters – especially NPCs and secondary ones, minimize eye contact or shrink slightly away. Felix, though, welcomed him warmly.

Turbo shoved Sonic aside with a growl. "Out of my face, prototype. Get those needles of yours trimmed." He then took a good look at the table's newest arrival.

"Clyde," he stated, making no room to mistake that he indeed, was one of the few to know of the antagonist's existence. "Long time, no see. Grab that seat..or float over it, whatever - and listen to this story! Make room, Fix-it."

Tapper turned at the sound of the tinkle of the tiny bell he had hung above his door. In walked Doctor Eggman, trailed closely by his most prized creation.

In the weeks since Metal Sonic's creation, it had proven itself to be a remarkably intelligent existence; a physical reminder of Eggman's superior inventiveness. In what felt like no time at all, it was already partaking in Eggman and Tapper's many conversations. While the scientist bragged proudly of Metal's cruel strength and speed in-game, here in his own shop Tapper only saw a childlike curiosity - an endearing personality gradually shaping itself as the robot learned more and more from its vast surroundings. And it loved blue. Boy, did it love blue, dark and rich like Tapper's walls that it would sometimes rub his sides against, much like a cat. Sometimes, on days when it was unneeded in its own game, it would hang out at Tapper's so long as it remains out of sight during the man's game time.

Tapper found that of all his patrons, he had become particularly fond of this one. A mouth-less robot that neither eats nor drinks, of all the ironic things that had happened in his life this far, and will happen in years to come.

OoOoOoOoOo

Metal Sonic kept playing with the pendant hanging from the bare-string necklace around its neck as Eggman talked with enthusiasm he hadn't felt in a long time. Said pendant was oddly, the bright blue spatula Tapper had given to the robot shortly after its creation. Metal would not stop stealing glances at it no matter how many times it walked with his creator into Tapper's game. And currently, the man noticed how the robot kept looking over at the crowd. It never made a move to get any closer, though. Eggman and his new 'Freak Show' were avoided like the plague by the majority of the arcade.

"So, Metal. Ya still think ma eyes are 'pretty'?" teased Tapper with a grin. The robot nodded firmly, unabashed.

"Blue is pretty."

"Metal Sonic's made me very proud those past few days," said Eggman, patting the robot on the head. "Gave the gamers a real run for their money, and our game's popularity's sky-high - almost TurboTime popular."

"Ah, but don't let Turbo hear ya," joked Tapper as he slid Eggman's vanilla shake across the counter and reached to pet the robot himself. "Good work, little guy! I tell ya what - after the night's over, you can have that blue tray on the table with those guys. 'S that alright?"

The robot turned its head to look at the thing Tapper was describing. Sure enough, a large tray of said color sat on the table around which Turbo and his listeners were seated. He looked back to his host and nodded, red eyes shining.

"Can I also have Sonic?" it asked with eager.

"No. Sonic is a rat, not a toy. We've talked about this," said Eggman, tersely. "Now sit down and play with your spoon."

"Can I go to him?" asked the robot, and it pointed in Ralph's direction. The wrecker - one of the arcade's rarities, did not scramble away in horror or revulsion whenever he saw Metal Sonic within twenty feet. He was in a friendly conversation with Mario's antagonist.

"Fine. Go. But stay away from that table. And Sonic."

"It's a cryin' shame. Really. that lil' guy's as sweet as a child and nearly no one wants to talk to him." said Tapper sadly as the robot moved out of earshot.

"I..I'll need to make some fixes soon, one way or the other," the scientist said, looking strained. Tapper looked up from the counter sharply.

The scientist leaned over to whisper: "Metal's too interested in Sonic.."

Tapper leaned back quickly to stare at the scientist with shocked blue eyes. "What? Do you mean like.. attracted to him?!"

"What?! No, that's not what I meant!" cried Eggman, scandalized. "He keeps stalking him, following him everywhere. I explained a hundred time to leave him alone once the game's over, but I don't think he knows how.."

"Knows how? Well, if ya mean 'understand'...well, he ain't attackin' him, so he does understand what you're saying. Maybe he just wants to be friends? You know that effect Sonic has on people."

"..No," the scientist said, shaking his head. "That's not it. Metal's friends with Pacman and he doesn't do what he does around Sonic.."

"Which is what?" asked Tapper, genuinely concerned and admittedly disturbed.

The scientist grimaced slightly, and looked around as if trying to find the right words to say right out of the air. He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm..not sure. The closest I can describe it is as if..he seems to be almost obsessed with Sonic. He never did anything you'd call strange or aggressive, but it's like he can't get Sonic out of his head. It's like he's having compulsive thoughts of some sort-

I made him to be particularly interested in the color blue. He has to chase after Sonic, so blue is a big thing for him. I'm starting to wonder if I put too much of that into his system..."

Eggman's eyes took up that blank, faraway stare he got whenever he retreated into his own genius mind, and Tapper cleaned up and listened to his uncomprehensible techno-babble without really understanding it. He wasn't sure what Eggman was trying to say, but he did understand that there was some guilt in the antagonist's heart. "I think he's in pain. I want to do something about it but I don't feel it's my right to interfere anymore. He's sentient, Tapper. I can't just pull him aside and play with his programming!"

Playing with programming? Tapper didn't understand. "Have you tried asking for his permission?"

Eggman stared into space again for moment before replying, "Once. A couple weeks ago, and he went into a panic for so long I thought he wouldn't be able to handle game time."

"What happened?!"

"Half the lab was in ruins, but he had calmed down considerably by then, thank goodness. When he had to go up against Sonic at the end of the level he was there and ready.."

"Well, he definitely has a thing for blue a thinks about it a little too much, I'll admit, but if he's not hurting himself or anybody, why ya so worried?"

"I've been explaining why for the past twenty minutes," sighed the scientist exasperatedly, referring to the incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo monologue session Tapper heard but understood nothing of. "Well, this is programming, you probably won't understand it. To try and put it in aee-bee-cee..each one of us is a programming - we're made up of code. If something's wrong with your code, it'll reflect on your actions."

Tapper didn't like the feeling of feeling stupid, but no matter how much Eggman explained, he still couldn't envision the words he was hearing. The whole idea of writing code (whatever that was) to create something - no someone else, much like Eggman did to bring Metal Sonic to life seemed to someone like him magical. Supernatural and miraculous.

But then again, what did he know? He was just a guy whose job was to serve food and beverage in his quaint little shop.

OoOoOoOoOo

Time passed quickly, and many of characters had already left for their games. Pacman, starved after his playing, revisited Turbo's table to attack Mary's hand-picked blueberries. He was going through them like a bulldozer. In fact, he was eating so fast that he -

"HEY - no, no NO that's my head Pacman-!"

Faster than the eye, Turbo had grabbed the wooden blue tray, flipped everything on it, and smashed it against Pacman's head. "Stay away from us!" he roared. "Gluttonous swine!"

Vel threw himself across the table and grabbed his brother to pull away from Pacman's jaws. Half the characters seated were sprayed in variously-colored beverage; mouths hung open in shock. Metal Sonic, who'd whipped his head around at the commotion, watched with black-red eyes the size of saucers as his promised blue tray was reduced into sad little shards adorning the floor. He was over there in a flash of blue, hoarding up the tray's remains. Several NPCs shrieked in fear at the robot's close proximity and scurried off, upsetting even more drinks in their panic and showering Gene's face with cherry juice. When Eggman noticed how close his creation had gotten to the others he jumped off his seat, jiggling the entire counter in his haste.

"Doctor?!" said Tapper in worry.

Turbo was too focused on Pacman to notice that everybody else was panicking.

"Come anywhere near us again and you'll be my car's next seating. That's where you belong anyway –under my ass –! "

"Turbo, stop, he's fine. Dash's fine -" said Vel after he'd checked his brother over.

Then he saw Metal Sonic out the corner of his eyes, staring at him and his brother very intently with his emotionless, glowing red eyes. A shiver ran down his spine, and he looked away, as if not seeing the robot will render him nonexistent, and he held tighter onto his brother

"Turbo, please -" he implored in a scared gasp.

Clyde had risen high above the whole setting, wide-eyed and shaken by all the panic and noise. His body kept flickering unsteadily – blue and orange, blue and orange. More NPCs freaked out at the spazzing ghost and ran out of the booth. Pacman moved back, looking as stricken as everybody else. He began to speak to Turbo, a bit frantically, but Tapper could not make sense of it.

"In a language we understand," spat the racer impatiently. Dash, as scared as his brother, reached to pull at his bro's sleeve, "Turbo, please-!" but Turbo was not listening.

Metal Sonic was but a couple chair-lengths away, still watching him and his brother very intently, and it was terrifying him.

Sounding more frustrated by the second, Pacman went on in his difficult language, fervently, but the poor character's lack of facial or body expressions made it impossible for everyone. Tapper finally picked up on poor Pacman's regret. He was apologizing, and asking - in way of making amends, to visit TurboTime, because Clyde had never seen it.

Said ghost turned to look at his upset protagonist with oddly bright eyes and looked back to the furious racer. He hovered down in front of his protagonist, blocking him from Turbo's withering glare.

"Pacman is apologizing," said Clyde. "He is very sorry and promises he never means to hurt anybody. He's asking your permission to visit TurboTime."

Turbo's jaw literally dropped for a second. "Are you crazy? What, with that blackhole on his mug, he's going to suck everything in our game like the plug's been pulled! Why do you think no one ever allows him in their game?"

Clyde looked at Turbo in stunned silence. The racer narrowed his eyes for a moment, and then perked in realization.

"He never told you, did he?"

Pacman remained silent. His blank face was looking at the floor in what Tapper (and anyone standing nearby with half a brain) could easily recognize as a stumped, hurt expression.

Turbo leaned past Clyde to look at the yellow protagonist. "Why don't you say something?" he snapped. Pacman wouldn't even look up. "Choked on all the dots you've been munchi-?"

Metal Sonic, realizing Eggman was coming to pull him away, lunged forward to touch the closest twin's helmet – Vel's.

With a terrified yell, Dash pulled himself and his brother back and toppled into their leader. Turbo 'oomfed!' was he was thrown face-first onto the hard floor with two kicking, panicking twins on top of him. Gene, still nearby, swore and called for Tapper, but the man was already running around the counter.

Metal Sonic was not pulling back. "May I touch your blue?" it asked.

Doctor Eggman swooped down on his robotic hedgehog and pulled him away. Metal Sonic made a frighteningly distraught noise – Tapper's hair stood on end – and tried to reach its metallic claws desperately to the twins on the floor.

"We've leaving, Tapper. I'm sorry." Eggman said curtly as he brushed past the man with the robot clenched tightly in his arms. Metal was nearly fighting to free himself from the scientist's grasp. Tapper's protest hung on his tongue, never spoken. What just happened?

The booth was a complete mess. Joe Niceland, still dripping orange juice, moved worriedly towards the racers as Rush and Vel scrambled to their shaking feet, still holding tightly to one another even as Tapper's door swung shut, taking the Freak Show with it. Clyde hovered backwards as Turbo scrambled to get up. He looked around at his twins with wide eyes.

"What the hell happened?!"

"Eggman's Metal Sonic – " started Dash shakily. "I dunno know what he wanted from us but he was trying to – I don' even know what he wanted..!"

"We're fine..we're fine," assured Vel, before Turbo decides to chase after their attacker with his crowbar.

It was in conclusion a very unpleasant anniversary for poor Pacman, and it was one outing Clyde would never forget. The ghost gently led his protagonist out of the shop, apologizing to Tapper for the mess in his eternally-calm manner.

Turbo looked like he wasn't sure whether the fight was over or not. His had learned something about his protagonist he never knew before.

OoOoOoOoOo

On a mid-December day, Tapper overheard Mr. Litwak talk on the phone; their owner was going on holiday for two weeks. The arcade will be closed.

The news spread like wildfire, and everybody immediately began to joyfully plan for their vacation, with Tappers' naturally being the place of meeting.

But that was around that same time, that characters started to go missing.