Collision Course [+ Additional Levels]

Level Eighteen - Heavy Sleep

The world around them seemed to flicker, but he wasn't too worried. He still had a solid connection to the Code. It flickered again... well, it was solid enough.

Coily seemed to be stunned by the blow, and so he had time to himself to do what he needed to do. Once he had turned away and swam off a little, resuming where he'd left off at, he almost instantly found himself immersed in his work again. The hack had been meticulous, elaborate. To repair the damage, he had to dig his hands into a bit of a complicated design. Of course he wasn't just dealing with a shift of the system, a simple bending of the set of solidified rules. Ugg and Slick's memories, as well as QBert's, had all been affected too. He couldn't seem to catch his breath back. It was obvious that their memory drives had to have been tampered with. How else would this have worked? And for as long as it has? He wondered briefly, how long after the unfortunate encounter with the human had Coily concocted this plan, and began initiating what he was sure was a lengthy process. This was quite a bit of code work. He tried to suck in air, and then he snapped abruptly out of his work―an arm was wrapped around his neck. He was being choked. His body jerked in alarm. Shoot. He couldn't breath. How long had he not been breathing? Dangit. How long?

He struggled to get away from the snake's grip. The place flickered violently around the two. His own arm stretched out towards what he had been working on. He was almost done with it. Almost!

The world around them shuddered. He was losing his connection. Losing his breath. Losing his vision. How was he even losing his breath? How was he being choked down here? There was no air, right? Clearly, whatever it was he was inhaling and exhaling, he still needed it.

Then he felt something deep inside him... shift. That was when he realized―he wasn't being choked. No, not just. Coily was simply restraining him. Pulling him back from his work, and distracting him from what he was actually doing to him.

It was like cold hands groping around the depths of his mind. It literally felt like a brainfreeze, shifting about within his skull. He squeezed his eyes shut, growling and shaking his head quickly. He knew that simply pressing his tongue to the roof of his mouth wouldn't make something like this go away. Not this. "Coily..." he began, voice dangerous. He spoke slowly, "Coily, enough. This has to be done. Do you understand? There's real consequences here. You have to let me do thi―" His voice caught in his throat.

A weakness. A slight flaw of his own. A cold hand brushed against it, sending a strong shiver down the length of his spine. Traveling back to it, the fingers played with it, as if trying to identify it. Feel it for what it was.

Then, the hand slowly moved for it, wrapping its fingers around the little flaw, the little tweak in his system.

"Aah!" he cried out in shock, and desperation took hold. Before he knew what was happening, adrenaline rushed through him, and in pure panic, bright yellow energy burst out from him. He couldn't help it. He exploded.

Pacman opened his eyes, finding himself in a cold sweat.

Though he now lay awake, his mind was still back there. The rest of that night played out in his head so clearly. Having been yanked backwards through what he remembered had felt like multiple thick walls by an invisible force, he had found himself back in Slick and Ugg's living space, atop Coily. He'd immediately felt the relief of no longer being choked, and gasped in a clear breath―of oxygen―and rolled off onto the floor. His muscles were all tensed up and tight, but as he breathed, the expanding and contracting of his lungs becoming more regular, he loosened up some. The incredible energy he'd felt with the Game Code? Gone. That surge had completely dissipated. He was left weary. He had stared up at the ceiling. Felt himself going limp. But, no. He couldn't. He had to know if his best friend was okay. If he was even alive. Oh, no... He remembered the most awful knot twist up in the pit of his stomach. Dread in the uncertainty rose up in his chest, causing his breath to quicken. What had become of his good friend?