Mezzologue: Ax

Up and down the stairs they went. I could not discern the function of their hunt, but kept occupied. Tom was attempting to talk to Sara, but not very successfully. So he turned his focus to me instead. "Listen, dude, I'm really sorry about that whole alien thing."

"I accept your apology. Gee."

"Yeah, it's cool, right? 'Cause you…are…a human. Aren't you?"

"I am a human." At that moment I was, so it was not a lie.

"Are you a gamer?" I probably looked very startled, although I could not see what my face looked like. "Er, do you like to play video games?"

"Yes. I do."

"Would you like to play one with me?"

"I will. I would prefer the game you were playing with Marco and Jake."

"Sure, sure." Tom pushed buttons on the antiquated machine and handed me a game controller. It was simplistic to figure out how it worked. I was prompted to choose a persona that I would maneuver through a series of levels. I selected Stalozux and began my navigation.

"What is the purpose of this game?"

"To beat me."

"How are you beaten?"

"By falling into traps or running out of hitpoints. Or time."

"Hitpoints?"

Tom indicated a numerical display in the corner of the screen. I was attentive to it-so attentive that Stalozux tumbled from a pixilated ledge to its virtual nonexistence. "Whoa, my bad." He pressed a few buttons, restarting the game. "Try now."

I led Stalozux down to a silver door, where I was faced with simplistic questions that were supposed to be mentally stressful for human players. Correctly answering them enabled me to access a "Spaceship Powerup", which enabled Stalozux to move at high speeds and in the air. The spaceship, however, had no capability to erode the hitpoints of Tom's avatar.

"You made it through the Mental Maze of Mathematical Mirages?" he gaped.

I tried to come up with an answer that would not give away my identity. "Much of it was guessing." It hurt me to lie, but not as much as I knew it would from telling the truth.

He was still wary, and tried to probe me further. "Why'd you choose Stalozux?"

"Why should I not have?"

"I dunno. Just curious…How old are you?"

"Thir…teen," I said, knowing I should have gone with a higher number.

He dropped his controller. "You're in calculus?"

Actually, I mastered that at the age you'd call "eight". "I'm prodigious."

"No duh. And awfully…" He pushed a button and paused the game, going over to talk to Sara again.

>Mastered what?> Evidently I had been in thoughtspeak, and Tobias was replying.

>Integral and differential calculus.>

>Wow.>

>Not really. Most of my classmates could do it when they were your equivalent of seven.>

>Oh.>

Tom returned from talking with Sara, making an angry face. He forcefully jabbed some buttons and restarted the game. "No more math tricks. This is a straight-out race. Hand-eye coordination. Human hands, right?"

I nodded, unsure.

"Good. This one is for all the marbles."

At that instant Marco ran down the stairs, with Rachel, Jake, and Cassie behind. They knelt behind the machine we were using and produced a box that read Quixotic Quest of Quirks. Marco pulled it open, and marbles fell out of it and onto the floor. I was as surprised, as was Tom. "So it is."