Collision Course [+ Additional Levels]

Level Eleven - Forgetful Times

To his surprise, Ugg seemed to nod, and Slick remarked, "Good question."

Coily turned back around to face him, away from QBert; Pacman noticed that his friend visibly relaxed, being out from under the snake's gaze. Coily jutted his chin out. "What doess it matter to you?"

"Quite a bit, actually," he said, voice hard.

"Ha!" came a laugh that startled them. "'A bit'! Like 8-bit. Oh, and Coily 'bit' that kid too--oh, ah... yeah. Oh. Right." Ugg piped down.

The air in the room was completely changed. He lifted his hands, a bit bewildered. "What's up with you?" he asked, and QBert let out a laugh.

Ugg shrugged a few times. "I don't know sometimes," he half mumbled. "It's just my thing, y'know?" he then said a little more clearly. "Sum folks crack under pressure. I, well, erm, crack jokes." He glanced at all of them uncomfortably. "But I can stop talking now," he said, partially muffling his sentence as he lifted the cuff of his sweatshirt over the bottom half of his face.

"Yeah, you do that," Slick told him with a nod.

Coily breathed deeply, setting his shoulders back. "Where were we? Ah, yess. You were jusst telling me why you were here insstead of running along. Don't you have gumdropss to chew?"

Pacman's eyes narrowed, a yellow flickering spark within them. "My business is none of your concern," he replied.

"Ha! That'ss funny... I wass going to ssay the ssame thing," Coily said with a tilt of his head.

Pacman's gaze flicked from Coily to Ugg and Slick—who both had started to shuffle to the other side of the room nervously—to QBert. "He's my friend," he told him.

Coily arched a brow. "Whether you have an acquaintanssship with him or not, there iss ssomething to be ssaid about interfering with another'ss bussinesss." He smirked and gestured to the door with a little flap of his hand. "Now shoo. Run along, now. I'm sure you have better thingss to do than wasste your time playing hero in the wrong game."

"Oh, so after all that talk earlier about being able to find loopholes around rules and butting into some random kid's life in a terrible way, you're suddenly, what, an upstanding citizen?" QBert quipped, looking up at him.

Coily scowled at him, and threw his hand out directly at his face.

When nothing happened, QBert raised an eyebrow at him. "What, am I supposed to sniff that? Or...?"

Then Coily curled his fingers and clenched his hand into a fist, his light brown irises momentarily flashing brilliant purple. QBert cringed with a yelp of surprise, and then cried out in pain, grabbing his head.

"QBert!"

Pacman started to rush forward, but Coily stepped in his way, looking up at him with a devilish grin. Coily's pale complexion took on an almost purplish tint, hints of scale-like imprints on skin, and his brown eyes flashed, turning almost gold, flecks of purple glinting in his irises. "You're not coming any closser," Coily hissed, his voice holding an almost unnatural rattle to it.

"I thought that there was a rule about harming the other characters before your game starts," Pacman said, his gaze flicking between QBert and Coily.

Coily tilted his head at him. "Well, unlesss you've broken a rule. Like, perhapss, harming a human. Then the oppossite team feelss the repercussionss."

Pacman frowned. "That's not how that works."

"Iss it, now?"

Coily abruptly swung a fist at Pacman, who caught it just in time with both of his hands. When he came in contact with the blow, the entire room came alight for an instant, half of it neon yellow, the other royal purple. Coily's fist sparked as he pressed it against Pacman, and his eyes snapped wide with a gasp, his irises flashing. A realization seemed to dawn on him, and his gaze narrowed as it sank in. "But you've twisted that somehow, haven't you?" he asked icily.