Chapter 10 - The First Day at Work is Always the Scariest

It didn't take long for players to notice the new game. "Woah…! Look—a racing game!" One of them gasped, running up and standing on his tiptoes to see the screen and reach the steering wheel controller. Soon after, the familiar clinking sound could be heard under the racer's cars, signalling that a quarter had been inserted. Gripping his steering wheel tightly, Turbo tried to will his sick feeling away as he heard a small theme song play in the backdrop before a voice spoke up.

"Ready? GO!"

Turbo's gaze flicked to the side as the twins sped off, dust in their wake. But, Turbo blinked as he realized he wasn't in motion. Momentarily, he looked up to the screen in confusion. The small player looked as though he was having a bit of trouble, his eyes barely visible on the bottom edge of the screen. He tried to turn the steering wheel, and this motion now prompted Turbo's movement. The jolting sensation caused the pain in Turbo's neck to flare up, and he drew in a sharp breath to try and ease it away.

Luckily for him, the small child seemed to know to turn at the corners, but he would come awfully close to the edges of the track. But, to Turbo's dismay, he still had two laps to go. And, to add to this, the twins were already very far ahead. Though, Ned seemed to be trying to hold back. Turbo mentally cursed the twin for this; it wouldn't be a real win if Ned was LETTING him win.

About thirty seconds passed in the duration of the second lap, and Turbo wasn't sure to feel relieved at being in the third lap now. His reason for being wary was the fact that his nausea was creeping up on him again, almost daring him to keep racing and face the consequences. But, even if he wanted to stop, he couldn't. His eyes narrowed as the twins were already at the finish line by the time he was halfway around the track, and upon crossing the finish line, Turbo hopped out of his car and headed begrudgingly to the podium. He kept himself from glaring up at Ted who had once again won the race.

"Aww man...I lost." They heard the child say as he took a step away from the console.

Turbo was forced to smile until they knew the screen had faded black, and his usual scowl was quick to return. "Don't say a fucking word." He hissed to Ted, who only watched him with raised eyebrows. The twin placed his trophy behind the podium so he wouldn't have to run to the house to put it inside, but his gaze trailed to the door he knew was there. A guilty feeling edged into his chest, but he shook his head and ignored it, returning to his car for the next player.

The next few races went generally okay with Turbo coming in second and third, and, upon the fourth race, he finally won. His joy was short lived, though, as his nausea was growing worse and worse and he now began to feel rather lightheaded. Ned seemed to notice this as he was near Turbo on the podium, but he stuck with his programming and only smiled at the screen.

By the next race, Turbo could barely keep himself from throwing up. His programming screamed at him to keep racing, but his sentience argued against it. As he finished the race and stood on the second tier of podium, it took every bit of his code to keep from bolting off the view of the screen to get sick. Ted glowered at the shorter racer in his peripheral as the screen went black, and he scoffed as Turbo made a beeline towards the opposite end of the track.

Ned's gaze followed Turbo with a worried glint in his eyes, his sight flicking up to the player's screen to make sure no one was going to try and play the game. Slowly, the twin followed the path Turbo had taken and kneeled beside him, reaching out to pat his back. He closed his eyes as Turbo only gagged and retched, appearing to be in a large amount of pain as nothing would come up.

Ned's eyes opened and his head turned as he heard someone nearing behind him, his brows furrowing at the expression Ted was wearing. It almost looked guilty for a moment, but it soon turned stony as he crossed his arms. "Don't take too long."

"F-fuck you…!" Turbo rasped, his body shuddering as he swallowed the sour taste in his throat. With Ned's slight aid, he managed to stand, glaring at Ted with as much energy as he could muster. "Just leave me alone."

"It's kind of hard to when you're potentially putting us at risk." Ted retorted, prompting Ned to sigh out.

"Guys...please stop…" He breathed, his head pricking as he noticed a player nearing the screen. "W-we gotta go…!"

Ted turned quickly, muttering something under his breath as he ran to his car. Ned glanced to Turbo as the other twin left, murmuring that it would be okay and to just try and take it easy. The two returned to their respective cars just in time, the sound of a quarter entering their game as they hopped into the vehicles.

It only took a few more races for Turbo's nausea to return. But, this time, he tried to force it away with more vigor, beginning to grow tired from the effort he was exerting to do so. Though, to his luck, the hours began to pass a little faster. A few more victories were granted to him, and as the day trekked on, the game grew increasingly popular. More and more players were excited to see the first racing game in the arcade, all wanting to get their hands on trying to beat the ever growing high score.

Surprise soon met Turbo as the next racer in line took hold of him and began racing like a pro. He had already managed to lap the twins on his second round, and Turbo wanted to smile as he noticed the glare Ted was wearing. 'Haha, get fucked!' He thought with a smirk, speeding over the finish line in record time. At this, he momentarily forgot the pain he'd been going through and grinned at the screen, putting his thumb up to the player. "Turbo-tastic!"

Upon arriving at the podium, Turbo found himself smiling, really smiling, for the first time in, well...he wasn't sure he'd done it before. Just the look of utter annoyance on Ted's face was enough to help him overlook everything wrong that'd been going on. Ned seemed to be conflicted at this, happy that Turbo was happy, but nervous at Ted's growing vexation.

The end of the day neared with little conflict in Turbo's code. His nausea seemed to subside as time passed, and gradually, he began to relax.

That was, until the last race of the day.

Everything seemed to start normally: Turbo and Ted were competing for first place as usual. The player looked to be around 14, his hair scruffy and his expression of which was pure determination. As Ted began to pass Turbo, the child's eyes narrowed and he suddenly slammed the wheel to the left. Turbo jolted as he was flung sideways, his car colliding with Ted's. An instant migraine plagued Turbo at the force of striking against Ted's car, and Ted slammed his brakes, trying to keep from crashing into the nearing grass and wall. Turbo attempted to do the same, forcing himself against his programming to jam his wheel in the opposite direction.

It was at this that Turbo realized his mistake, his car's tires skidding from the speed and sudden direction change. As they hit the edge between the grass and track, his brakes ceased to work. He quickly shut his eyes, turning away as he collided with the wall.

A box flickered in the dim light of the code room. Its casing was cracked, and the sound of breaking ice permeated the area around it as it shattered further, the code once inside now scattering. The remains of the box began to flicker with binary, unable to deal with the forces of Turbo's regeneration.

Ned watched the scene as if he were witnessing a murder before his very eyes. Ted had managed to stop before hitting the wall, his head flicking around to find Turbo. The child behind the screen tilted his head, waiting patiently for Turbo to regenerate.

After what seemed like forever, though it was only a few seconds, Turbo began to flash back into existence on the last part of the track he had been touching. He slowly lifted his head, his tightly shut eyes opening. Though, he jolted at the first thing he saw: his hands, glitching red and flashing with binary. His eyes widened and he quickly looked down at himself, noting that the rest of his body was doing the same.

The child behind the screen raised his eyebrows. While his view was different from what the TurboTime characters could see, he was getting the gist that something was wrong. In his point of view, Turbo's sprite was flickering red, the pixels in his general area glitching different colors. Frowning, the player quickly turned around, searching for Mr. Litwak.

Ted's mouth dropped in shock. No—no, they were going to get unplugged!

Ned, upon managing to stop his car, hopped out of the driver's seat and bolted in Turbo's direction. Ted's head pricked as he noticed this motion in his peripheral, his eyes widening. "Ned, stop!"

"T-Turbo…!" Ned gasped upon nearing, his eyes already wet with panicked tears. "What's happening…?!"

Turbo could barely respond, let alone breathe. "I—-I d-don't knO—w…!" He managed to rasp out, his still terrified gaze focused on his glitching torso. Ned tried to shake him out of it, but he jolted as Turbo's glitching form only passed onto him, his body flickering blue. He jerked back, gasping in pain as it continued to do so for a few more moments.

Ted screamed as many curses as he could in his head, turning to face forward. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, a sick feeling edging into his throat. They were going to get unplugged—fuck, they were going to get unplugged…!

It was moments later that the child returned, gesturing towards the screen. "See?"

"Huh…" Litwak murmured, his brows furrowing. "Well, sorry about that sport, here's your quarter."

"Did I break it…?" The child asked, gazing at his hand as Litwak handed him the replacement quarter.

"I'm sure it's just a little bug, nothing we can't get looked at in the morning." Litwak replied with a smile, turning his head to gaze at the time. Six o'clock was quickly nearing, prompting him to take a step back. "Well, I'd better get to closing this place up, why don't you check back tomorrow? We'll see if TurboTime still has a few years on its belt." He paused, gazing back to the child. "Oh, and don't worry about the game too much," He assured, patting the kid's back. "I'm sure it'll all get worked out."

As the child and Litwak turned away, Ned stumbled away from Turbo, taking deep breaths as he recovered from losing a solidified form. And, before Ted could reach them after leaving his own car, the twins' heads lifted as a strange, orange hue washed over the span of the track.

Ted squinted as he tried to read the letters of what was covering the screen, stopping in his tracks as he realized what was happening. "No—no no no!"

"Out of order—what does that mean..?!" Ned questioned in a panic, his hands shaking.

"We're going to get unplugged—shit, shit we're going to get unplugged!" Ted exclaimed, ripping his helmet from his head and chucking it in a random direction. At this, he began to breathe rather rapidly, his fingers digging into his hair. "Th-they're going to unplug us!"

Ned's bottom lip quivered as a nearing sobbing fit was trying to emerge, but his gaze flicked back to Turbo. To some relief of the twins, Turbo had stopped glitching, but was now trying to rip himself from his car. He fell back onto the track with a gasp of pain, scrabbling backwards and trying to get to his feet.

Ned's ever widening eyes followed Turbo's movements, his ragged breathing causing his shoulders to shake. "T-Turbo—are you okay…?!"

Turbo stumbled back a little, gazing to his hands as if he'd just seen a ghost. "W-what the fuck...what the—what was that?!"

Ted began to anxiously pace, pulling harder and harder on his hair and accepting the pain that came with it. He swore in his code he knew what was going on, it was his fault, fuck! It was his fault—he messed with Turbo's code and now everything was going horribly wrong!

The lights in the outside world began to flicker off, signalling that the arcade was due to close. Ned took small steps back, desperately trying to process everything that had begun to happen, Ted's frantic exclamations not helping any.

"We—we're getting unplugged…!" Ted cried, his pacing only beginning to quicken. "We weren't even here for a day, a DAY!"

"S-stop…!" Ned begged, his anxious gaze flicking between his twin and Turbo. "Litwak s-said he was going to get us checked out in the morning…!"

"What does that matter?! It's not like we can fix it!" Ted began, though he jolted to a stop as an idea struck him.

Ned blinked in confusion at Ted's ceasing movement, his brows furrowing. "What? What is it...?"

"N-nothing!" Ted stammered back, his head snapping up to face Ned as he said it.

Turbo, now beginning to tune into the conversation, gazed between the twins. "What the hell is going on?!"

Ted's widened gaze glanced to Turbo at this, and he opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak. "It's—uh...it doesn't matter!"

Turbo expression switched to that of annoyance, his eyes narrowing. "What the hell do you mean it doesn't matter?! Whatever just happened is getting us UNPLUGGED!"

"N-no, we...we're not getting unplugged—we're not…! We can't!" Ned rasped out. "It's not really happening—we're...we're not…!"

Turbo's sight turned to Ned now, his gaze growing a bit less icy in consideration of the twin's reaction. "We don't know if we're getting unplugged for sure—"

"Like fucking hell we're not!" Ted interjected, jabbing his hand with emphasis in the direction of the Out of Order sign that was covering the screen. His plan required an anxious facade, and he was going to do his best to act like it. "What does that say?!"

"I know what it says—but like Ned said, Litwak said he'd get us checked in the morning!" Turbo snapped back, the edge in his voice returning.

"Yeah, 'checked'." Ted growled back, making air quotes with his fingers. "He just told the kid that so he wouldn't feel bad!"

As Turbo noticed in his peripheral that Ned was beginning to crumple in on himself and shake heavily, he centered his glare back to Ted. "Hey, shut the fuck up! You're not helping!"

"I'M not helping?! It's YOUR fault that this is happening in the first place!"

Turbo's gaze widened in disbelief, then narrowed in anger. "My fault?! How is this MY fault?!"

"OBVIOUSLY this is you getting just what you deserve! If you hadn't been such an asshole then none of this would be happening! And now you're dragging us down with you!" Ted retorted, gesturing to Ned as he emphasized the 'us'.

Turbo winced inwardly, already believing this to be true. To him, this was all happening as a sort of karma, payback for being the biggest jerk possible. He couldn't control it, but that didn't matter. What did matter that he was committing it, and was making no effort to stop. Or, at least, he thought he wasn't.

"I hope you're fucking happy." Ted decided to add on, which would prove to be a mistake he didn't realize he was making.

Turbo now flinched outwardly, closing his eyes and drawing in a breath through his nose. "Well you know what...?!" He began, his voice hoarse as he opened his eyes. "I hope when we get unplugged that you get fucking left behind and die with the game!"

"Oh, yeah—yeah sure!" Ted began to counter, now consciously ignoring Ned's slowly deteriorating mental stability. "At least Ned would be sad about that! But if YOU die with the game, well, Ned and I would actually be HAPPY! And I don't care if we're homeless, at least the burden of your existence will be gone!"

A small glitch shuddered through Turbo's body as his distress grew detrimental. Tears flickered in his dulling eyes and he shoved past Ted before either twin could see them, bolting for the house.

Ned's widened gaze followed Turbo's form before it turned to Ted. "H-how could you say that…?" He breathed in disbelief, now taking fearful steps back. "H-how...how could you say that—"

"Oh, so what HE said wasn't as bad?!" Ted started icily, gesturing in Turbo's direction. "Sure, when he wants ME dead then it's all fine, but as soon as I say the same about him then it's the end of the world?!" His mind was racing before he could even think about what he was saying. The previous attempts at a forming a facade were beginning to crumble into emotions he didn't know he had been holding back.

Even he didn't know why he would have said something like that.

"T-Turbo's just in pain—he almost didn't r-regenerate…! You're acting like he's doing this all on purpose…!" Ned replied shakily, though his voice began to grow a little stronger as he continued. "H-he was literally glitching—he could have died for REAL! H-he's sick and we don't know why, and as soon as he messed up on accident you were attacking him like he was doing it all on purpose!"

"He might as well be doing it on purpose—this is his fault anyway!" Ted retorted, taking a side glance to the podium that was nearby. Turbo was already gone, now he just needed to get Ned to leave. "If you feel so fucking bad for him then why don't you go deal with him!"

Ned's gaze flicked over Ted, studying him as if it were the last time he would see him. "W-what happened to you…" He rasped out, his brows furrowing as he took a step back. "You would have c-cared too...but...you don't…"

Ted also took a step back, rolling his eyes in the process. "Maybe if Turbo hadn't been such a horrible person I'd actually sympathize with him."

"H-hey! If anyone's being a horrible person it's YOU!" Ned snapped back, his voice rising to an unfamiliar volume. "Turbo m-made one mistake, just ONE and you start acting like he's some hateful, spiteful person! You literally said we would be happy if he never existed!" He took a step forward as he continued, his gaze narrowing. "If he n-never existed then neither would WE! I-I was right when I said you were heartless!"

Ted winced slightly, wishing he could tell Ned what was happening. But, he was too far into it and could probably never escape until everything was resolved. And, before he could reply, Ned cast him a final glare before running towards the house. Ted watched him go, his expression slowly shifting from one of anger to one of regret.

Welp! Not the best first day XD

We're not even halfway through the story yet! I hope you're excited!

Oh, and thank you to everyone who's been reading this! It means SO MUCH to me!

~nightfuryshadows