Collision Course [+ Additional Levels]

Level Five - Close Call

Jumpman and QBert laughed.

Then, QBert said a bit grumpily, "Well, I don't know, actually." Then it dawned on him, "Maybe that's why I stopped being a part of your game a while ago. Ah, willingly, anyway..."

Pacman tilted his head at him questioningly. "Oh?"

QBert looked up at him with his eyebrows raised. "Dude, you drive crazy! Not like, Crazy Taxi crazy, but not far from it. It was too much like a roller coaster ride―and I've never been!"

Jumpman squinted at him. "Then how can you claim that it was like a roller coaster ride?"

QBert stated simply, "Because I wasn't sure if the reason I panicked earlier was because of the quick turns, or because I felt like I was going to vomit." He lifted and lowered his hands up and down as if measuring weight. "Hard pick."

"Um, thanks for deciding not to do that," Jumpman replied, and Pacman nodded in full agreement, both of them grateful that QBert hadn't.

"If you had barfed, that might have released your code, and changed the Denali back to normal and out of my control, mid-game," Pacman told him. Then he blinked and shuddered at a thought. "Or into QBert."

"Never mind that! Let's not forget who's Denali this is," Jumpman snapped. "Hey--you puke in my truck, you clean it up."

QBert laughed. "I'm glad that I didn't barf as well. That would have been just @!#?@! embarrassing," he said on a sigh, and a speech balloon appeared above his head. QBert frowned at the balloon and tried to touch it, but it disappeared before he could.

"QBert, please, lighten up on the harsh vocabulary," Jumpman scolded.

"Um, I already am," QBert said, shrugging at the disappearance and looking back at Jumpman. "Besides, you know that it's in my Coding."

Jumpman shook his head. "Excuses, excuses."

"It's true!" QBert retorted. Then he sat up, with a devilish grin. "Besides, what are you baggin' on me? Mr. Lovebird..." he said, smirking.

"Oh, shut up. How old are you?" Jumpman told him. QBert snorted. "We already talked about that! Trust me, she hasn't showed up yet. My game hasn't started like Pacman's," Jumpman continued.

"How can you be sure?" QBert challenged.

"You can't exactly be giving me advice, considering your game hasn't started yet either," Jumpman said, folding his arms across his chest.

"He has a point," Pacman pitched in.

"But you can't give him advice either, 'cuz your game started immediately after you loaded," QBert pointed out to him. He simply shrugged.

"Why hasn't your game started yet, QBert?" Jumpman asked.

"Because Wrongway and Sam haven't loaded in," QBert automatically replied.

"Exactly. I know that Kong has loaded in, so that leaves one more character. My game hasn't started yet, which means Lady isn't here yet."

"Who knows? Maybe you have to find her," Pacman suggested.

Jumpman sighed, suddenly looking very tired, a soul beyond his years revealed in his gaze. "Who knows, indeed. We sure don't. Why did some characters load late? What other games are out there? Why did we even begin coming into this world thirty six years ago in the first place?" Jumpman wondered aloud. "We don't even know how we exist this way," he said, almost hopelessly.

The three were silent for a moment as they let that hang in the air, and something changed in QBert's expression. His smile slipped away, and his eyes softened as he looked at his distressed friend empathetically. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then he hesitated. Then he shook his head, and instead cracked a grin to lighten the mood. "Hope we'll find out some day," he told them optimistically.