Collision Course [+ Additional Levels]

Cutscene Part 2 - They Meet

And Pacman's score went up.

Pacman let out the breath that hadn't realized he had been holding, relief washing over him in a wave. He looked back down at his hands, where the power pellet he had caught then blinked out of existence as he absorbed it. He was triumphant. He had reached it first. He had gotten to it before they had gotten to him. And only just. Swallowing the funny taste left in his mouth, he regained his composure. Pacman looked back at Pinky down the hall, who was also a darkblue like how Inky had been, and how Clyde and Blinky were right now, he knew.

He got to his feet. Despite the close call and being just tackled, he didn't tremble. He was still full of energy, propelled by code like adrenaline. The game was still going on. He glanced at his mental view of the game, and realized that he didn't have a whole lot of time left before the power pellet's effects ran out.

So he bolted for Pinky, the tables turned. While he had been recovering on the ground, she had already been moving away as fast as she could from him, but wasn't very fast in this mode. When he caught up to her, his hand reached out for her, nearly touching her dark blue hair. To his surprise, she abruptly turned her head to look back at him as she ran. He looked back at her, time seeming to slow...

A second later, he felt her, and then she was gone. Her body disappeared, and her eyes dashed back to the Ghost House. Points were added to his score. He blinked, and quickly shook his head. He had to keep his head in the game. No distractions.

Pacman hooked a right, running up the short amount of stairs that led him back into the hockey stadium. He ran down the longer length of stairs that took him straight to Clyde. When he got to him, chasing him through one of the rows of seats, the very-not-orange Clyde glanced behind himself with a mixture of surprise and dread: Surprise, not expecting him to show up as quickly as he did. Dread, knowing what was going to happen, and that he was too slow to stop it. Pacman reached him, grabbing the ghost's shoulder, and Clyde's body disappeared beneath his grasp. A different taste entered his mouth as his score increased. He stopped in his tracks, watching Clyde's eyes zoom down the rest of the row and up the stairs, disappearing through a large opening and into the halls. He had seen Clyde's blue code flash white a split-second before he had gotten to him. Pacman looked down at the lower section of the stadium closer to the ice rink, where he saw Blinky slowly moving through the seats away from him—and blinking. White. Pacman's jaw clenched, frustrated with himself as he counted the number of times the color of Blinky's hair and clothes alternated from dark blue to white, a sinking weight of foreboding settling into the pit of his stomach; he wasn't going to get to him in time, before the effects wore off. Feeling adrenaline creep back in, replacing his disappointment with urgency, he turned back where he came; he needed to get out of there.

It was when he had entered the halls when he felt the effects of the power pellet wear off. He turned left, racing to find a backdoor to the building. He looked at the digital overlay of the stadium that was in his mind, trying to find a direction that would lead him out of here. Tracing the possible path choices in the mental image, he got it. A couple turns away, and he'd be outside. Blinky was still a good distance away from him—for now. When he turned his first corner though, he ran into a problem. Something complicated, that wasn't part of the game.

A security guard stood in his path.

"Ugh, not the fuzz," he groaned to himself, skidding to a halt before he hit the wall.

The guard, a round and bearded middle-aged man who had bags under his eyes from too many late nights, stood to attention at the sight of him. "Whoa-ho, hotshot. You know, you should really take it easy, kid. The floors are slick. Where you headed in such a hurry? You looking for a bathroom?" he asked, mild amusement causing the corner of his mouth to twitch up.