Metro Tones: The April Fools

“Today’s test is a little… unconventional,” C.Q. Cumber said.

Lace shot a look in Tide’s direction next to her. They just shrugged, and Lace sighed. “What’s so different about this test?” Lace asked.

C.Q. craned the front of his blue body toward Sybil, sitting casually on the other side of Lace, and one of his appendages pointed in her direction. “The first unconventional matter is that she will be joining your test today.”

She sat up, more attentive now as she pointed at herself. The sea cucumber nodded and Sybil nodded, a little confused.

“The second,” he began as the train stalled to a halt and the doors opened, “is that it’s taking place at a McDonald’s.”

“A… McDonald’s?” Tide repeated.

“That is correct.” C.Q. said, before moving through the doors.

The three of them looked at each other, all equally confused. After a moment, Tide stood up and shrugged, walking through the doors. Lace and Sybil followed close behind.

Now that they were standing on the platform, Lace could see cheap-looking toys floating around in the distance, as well as the occasional french fry or burger. That seems… kinda gross.

“So what is, um…” Sybil fidgeted, clearly unsure and nervous about being a part of their testing. “What are we supposed to do, here?”

“Escape.”

Everyone stared at the sea cucumber.

“That’s it? Escape? What kind of test—”

“No ink usage is permitted, and you will not be given a weapon,” he said, following up.

“And we have to do this because…?” Lace asked, a little annoyed at how vague the explanation of this test was.

“It is technically optional…” C.Q. mused, “though, apparently your friend here has a memory in this place.”

Oh.

“Oh. Uh—” Sybil briefly looked a little lost, as if she was trying to figure out what memory of hers  could have possibly been taken. Tide and Lace looked between each other before glancing over at Sybil, who placed a hand over her mouth as she thought. “I— we don’t have to do this just for me—”

“We’ll do it,” Tide said instantly. Lace nodded in agreement. Sybil’s hands shook and she looked a little exasperated, but she stood straight and sighed.

“Oh, and one more thing.” C.Q. began. “Do not fall.”

Those words alone settled hard in Lace’s mind as her hearts sunk. Great. That means heights are involved.She exhaled sharply, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. This is for Sybil. It’ll be fine.

The three of them jumped to the beginning of the test. Lace looked around. They seemed to be enclosed in a glass space, surrounded by the usual deepsea fog. All they could see were the occasional chairs and a whole mess of slides and tubes and nets in front of them. There were so many that Lace couldn’t keep track of what connected where.

“So we really are just… in a McDonald’s,” Tide said.

“I guess,” Sybil answered. “So our objective is to… escape?”

“Yeah,” Lace answered. “And I assume breaking anything would not only make us have to start over, but would also get us into a lot of trouble. So… we probably just have to find something that looks like an exit. Maybe there’s data points to collect?”

“But we don’t have any weapons or ink,” Tide countered. “So I guess we just have to crawl around in this maze and see.”

“It’s… been such a long time since I’ve ever been in any of these playgrounds,” Sybil said, a bit bashfully. “I never got to play with them much as a kid, so is it a little weird I’m almost excited to crawl around in them?”

“Nope!” Tide grabbed Sybil’s hand swiftly. “Come on, I’ll show you all the fun stuff. Lace can go that way and tell us if she finds anything.

With Tide and Sybil ascending up into the tubes, Lace was left alone on the ground. She rubbed at the back of her neck and sighed, resigning herself to also climb the steps and enter the mess of vibrantly colored tunnels.

She crawled around through the maze-like structure of tunnels, looking for anything that may seem notable.

Occasionally she’d find a window to look through or a net to pass over, but she’d had no such luck in finding anything yet. Did the warning mean anything? If they were supposed to avoid falling, does that mean there’s something they can go through?

… Come to think of it, she’s not even sure she’d even found anything out of the tunnels and back to the start.

She found an isolated pod with windows that went nowhere and peered out. Her eyes widened as she realized all she could see in any direction was even more tunnels— sprawling and endless and vibrantly colorful to a mocking degree. There was no way out that she could see, and no sign of where the test had started.

Oh cod, and how long has it been?Had she been crawling around in the cramped tunnels so long that she hadn’t noticed how lost she had gotten?

“Tide?” She called out, voice wavering. “Sybil? Have you two found anything?”

She waited for a response.

Silence.

“Hey!”She called again— louder this time, though the waver in her voice was undeniable. “Tide! Sybil! Where are you?”

Her voice echoed through the plastic halls, warping and twisting.

And yet… silence.

Terrifying, open silence.

Fuck.

Lace left her spot and tried to backtrack, but the halls seemed different. They couldn’t be changing, could they? She shook her head at her internal thoughts and continued trying to retrace her steps anyway.

Then she came across a tunnel with a net.

“I can slip through this,” she said aloud, on the off chance the others were nearby to hear her.

Lace heard nothing though, and sighed.

Looking down, she saw a large, seemingly-endless ball pit below her. The height made her hesitate, but the fear of being trapped scared her more, so Lace gritted her teeth and shifted into swim form, slipping slowly through the net.

“Do not fall.”

Wait. Wait wait wait—

She quickly shifted back into her humanoid form and grasped at the net that was now above her, but the sudden tension caused them to snap and she lost her hold. Panic rose fast into her chest as she plummeted for a while, before falling into the ball pit below her. Lace made her best attempt at clawing her way out, but she couldn’t tell what was up and what was down and felt herself getting lost.

“You fell. Test failed.”

Wait—

The last thing Lace saw was an explosion of messy teal ink mixed with bright, colorful orbs.

And then she woke up.

It was all a dream…