Apple: If she does appear, it will be an alternate reality where they haven't met yet, and it will be either a cameo or a very small role.

The Path Not Taken

The twins had thought it rather strange for him to specifically ask to see his car, especially when he had just used it not too long ago in their eyes and also that he had never asked them to escort him to the garage before. Turbo wouldn't dare admit it out loud, but he was rather petrified to see the car. He had this bizarre thought that if he saw it, it would somehow make this scenario even more real, thus more permanent.

When he laid his eyes on his old red-and-white racer, a wave of nostalgia flooded into him and he had to bite his tongue to keep from passing out again. He had wrecked it so much in RoadBlasters that he had been unable to drive it out of the game, having to escape on foot before getting unplugged with it. If he had been given the choice of this car and the kart he had stolen for King Candy's use, he would definitely pick the former. And there it sat before him, perfectly untouched and gleaming with a fresh coat of wax as if he had just put it on there himself the day before.

When he thought about it, obviously he had put it on there the day before, who else would have?

Emotion welled up inside him as he went up to the vehicle and placed his hands on the hood's cool, smooth exterior. Whatever his decisions be from this point on, he was not losing this car again. It had been programmed to be a part of him, after all, like they were one and the same, one single being flying down the track towards victory.

"Turbo, are you sure you're all right?" Teddy's voice sounded, interrupting his thoughts. "You're acting...odd."

His fists curled again and he shut his eyes tight, a grimace appearing on his face. "Just leave me alone."

He didn't bother turning around to see their reactions, but he knew from memory that at least Ted would be hurt by his request. When he didn't hear their footsteps leaving, he turned his head to peer behind him in order to send a glare in their direction.

"Did you hear what I said?" he snapped bitterly.

As expected, Ted had his eyes glued to his feet with a small frown on his face. Teddy, however, continued to stick to his guns and give off his own glare.

"Look, I don't know what's up with you, but there's no need to act like a jerk," he said firmly, crossing his arms in front of him as he spoke. "If something's eatin' at ya, might help to talk about it instead of getting all grouchy at us. You've been acting out of sorts since we came over earlier and quite frankly we're worried about you."

Something snapped in him and he whirled around to face the two of them, absolute outrage evident in his eyes.

"You two are talking about me behind my back?" he spat out harshly, prompting Ted to hide behind his brother. "You think I'm crazy or something? Think ol' Turbo has finally lost his marbles? Huh? Is that it?"

Throwing his hands up in front of him in a peace-seeking gesture, Teddy hastily replied, "Whoa, Turbs, calm down! We never thought anything like that!"

"W-we just don't want you being sad, th-that's all," added Ted shakily, daring to peek over his twin's shoulder to look at Turbo. "If that's what's wrong, anyway."

Sad? Why would he...wait, be sad about RoadBlasters? HA! They vastly misunderstood the situation at hand if they didn't catch that he was irate about that thunder-stealing game, both back then and now.

"You two don't even know me!" Turbo growled, the contemptuous acid dripping from his words. He spun back around and gripped the top edge of his car's door. "Just get out of here and leave me in peace."

He heard what sounded like Ted whimpering and then Teddy saying in a tense voice, "Fine, we'll go. We don't have to stand here and get verbally abused like this. Come find us when you feel like apologizing. Come on, bro."

Turbo continued to squeeze his fingers into the side of his door, gritting his teeth and squinting his eyes so hard that they hurt, until finally he couldn't hear their footsteps anymore. He let his temper subside after that, his heart racing and his muscles sore from being tight for so long. He knew he needed to control his anger lest he screw up his new-old life in such a way that it would be impossible to fix. However, he had lived so long with bitterness and dark pride corroding his code, that he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep it in check. He had changed so much since his TurboTime days, and it was beyond irritating to be placed back at square one.

Calm down. You need to keep a clear head. Think!

All right, so Teddy had said earlier that it was Monday, Litwak's one day off. Turbo struggled to remember the order of events that had occurred when he had game-jumped, and deduced that it had been a Thursday afternoon when he had done the deed. That meant that he had a few days to figure out what he wanted to do with his future before he actually did anything.

Heck, who even said he had to game-jump on Thursday? He could do it right now if he wanted, or even a month from now. Now that he knew that both games went under because of his jumping during arcade hours, he would be able to actually plan his course of action out rather than just rashly blitzing into RoadBlasters like he had the first time. He could peek in their Code Room, alter things to his liking, then make himself part of the game like he had done in Sugar Rush. It would calculated, precise.

Except that he needed that Universal Code from Tapper's; he had to get his hands on that napkin before someone else picked it up. There was no telling what would happen if such power were to fall in anyone else's hands. Something as simple as it being thrown away could happen or maybe an actual game villain might get it...maybe someone even worse than Turbo himself would wind up possessing it. He cursed himself for not having photographic memory; the only thing he could remember was there was a B and an A at the end of it followed by pressing the Start button.

No, he had to get it back. It was unnerving to think how his life would turn out if someone else started tampering with codes. There might someone lurking around Game Central Station who had a death wish against him and would use it to enter his Code Room and do something that would make him glitch up or kill him. One thing for certain, he needed to be in Tapper's at the same exact moment in time as before so that only he would be able to find the napkin with scrawled handwriting on it.

Whose handwriting had it been anyway? He always wondered where it came from, who had owned it before he ever showed up. How had their life been altered by no longer having their little cheat on them?

Turbo never realized just how many little things shaped the course of people's lives. He could have chosen to walk in a different direction one day, talked or not talked to someone one day, and his life would have changed for better or worse. His head spun thinking about all this and he opened his car's door to sit down in the familiar black seat, allowing himself to relax fully for the first time since he'd arrived home.

He had a lot of thinking to do.

Teddy laid on his bed facing up towards the ceiling with his hands folded behind his head, wearing a bored expression. His brother was on the floor drawing a sketch of his car with a pencil; he was the only one patient enough to be an artist out of the group. When he finished, he took a moment to admire it then sighed deeply and tilted his head up towards the bed.

"You think Turbo needs cheering up?" Ted asked out loud.

Teddy scoffed and replied, "Turbo needs a swift kick in the pants. Who does he think he is yelling at us like that? And accusing us of talking crap about him behind his back? Talk about paranoid."

"I think he's just worried about that new game is all," the other mused quietly, looking down at his drawing. "I mean, I know he gets upset as it is, but he's gotten worse since it arrived. He's been yelling more than usual."

He was right. As soon as Litwak parked RoadBlasters within their view and Turbo had been abandoned in mid-game, his car stopping dead in its place waiting for someone to regain control of it so the current game could finish, the avatar had been acting out more and more. It had only been a week, but Turbo was certain that they were doomed to be unplugged due to lack of players. His self-esteem and pride had taken a huge blow at the notion that they were possibly going to be homeless soon, despite the twins trying to act like everything was normal.

As a result, he had gotten more irritable with them and said unnecessary remarks to them meant to hurt. He even started overreacting to pranks that they'd pull; just the other day, Ted had thrown a water balloon at him and Turbo nearly went blue in the face screaming obscenities at him over it, when before he might have just growled under his breath and tried to chase him around to get revenge. Heck, Teddy dared think that Turbo had enjoyed getting pranked, or at least getting his payback for them. They weren't technically related to him but they were still family; they were all part of the same game so that had to count for something. It was all like some weird bonding thing between them.

"I think he needs something to keep his mind off RoadBlasters," Ted piped up again. "Like, if he doesn't think about it, maybe he'll start acting the way he used to act."

Teddy chewed his bottom lip in consideration. "Maybe. That's all he ever thinks about anymore though, I don't know if we can come up with anything to rival that."

"We have to try," his twin insisted gently. "You saw how he looked at his car today. I think he's depressed. He's been out of it all morning. He needs to go out and do something. I'm really worried about him."

Teddy rolled over onto his back so that he could look down at his brother, who was lying prone on the floor with his elbows propping him up. He sighed when he saw the look of concern that he was wearing.

"What exactly do you have in mind?"

Ted shrugged and looked back down at the carpet. "I dunno, I guess just something where there's other people around. That way there'll be too much going on for him to think about things."

"The only places I can think of are Tapper's and BurgerTime that's like that."

"No, not Tapper's," Ted shook his head at that one. "Last thing he needs is root beer."

"I guess we can take him to get something to eat then, he did puke earlier." Teddy sat himself up off the bed and stretched his arms out. "All right, I'll go fetch him. If he's in a sour mood, I don't want you around him anymore than you have to be."

His brother smiled gratefully. "Thanks."