Collision Course [+ Additional Levels]

Level Ten - Unhappy Reunion

"Whatever!?" Ugg stared at Coily. "Coily... you, you injured a human!"

"Yess, I do believe that we jusst covered that," Coily stated monotonously.

"That's like, gotta be crossing a line somewhere," Ugg continued.

"Um, like, breaking a rule?" QBert asked him, pausing his pacing to look at him.

A couple seconds passed without a word. Then Ugg huffed and folded his arms over his chest tightly. "Oh, shut up."

"Why'd you do it?" Slick asked.

Coily straightened a little, slumped against the wall. "The kid ssaw me."

"That's a little harsh of a punishment man..." Ugg began, speaking aloud their thoughts.

"The real me," Coily snapped. "The kid ssaw me change."

QBert looked at Coily as he paced the floor. "So?"

Coily glared at him. "'Sso?'"

"Yeah. You heard me."

Slick and Ugg stared at him too.

"Whaddya mean, QBert?" Ugg asked.

QBert stopped pacing, and spread his arms. "Humans wouldn't care. They wouldn't have believed it." He let his arms fall to his sides. "Not even if the kid you bit had a camera rolling."

Slick started to nod slowly. "He has a point."

Ugg raised his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"The kid could have posted a video of Coily changing form, and everyone would dismiss it as a great photoshop," Slick explained. He shook his head. "Humans would have simply not believed him." He looked at QBert. "It is a 'him', right?"

QBert answered him with a short nod. "Yeah."

Ugg suddenly paled. "You didn't kill him for it, did you?"

Coily shifted, but didn't answer.

The room immediately became very quiet, and they stared at him.

"Coily?" Ugg asked nervously.

"I don't know," Coily snapped. "I've never bitten a human before," he admitted.

"Is he dead yet?" Slick asked, turning to QBert.

"I don't think so," QBert immediately replied. He suddenly frowned. "Wait, why'd you ask me that?" he asked Slick. "And about the gender thing, too? Why not ask Coily? He was the one who bit the human."

Slick shrugged. "Well, you're the only one who is being affected by what he did," he said simply.

QBert froze and stared at him, unsure he heard right.

Ugg looked back at QBert. "What?"

"Slick..." QBert frowned, "what do you mean, I'm the only one who's being affected?" he asked carefully.

Slick stared back at him blankly. "Um, what do you think I meant? No one else is being affected. Not even Coily," he replied. Ugg scratched his head and scrunched his nose a little as Slick explained, "It's just not how that works. So, before you showed up, we hadn't even been aware of what he'd done." He gave Coily a steely glance. "Of course, he should have told us."

"He did just show up," Ugg muttered to him pointedly.

QBert's mouth parted slightly, and he looked at Coily. Coily arched his brows in silent question. He looked back at the other two. "You guys have gotta be kidding me," he said.