The weather never changed in the Turbo Time cabinet. It was always a balmy summer day, the wind coming and going in lazy waves, gently stroking the palm trees and shrubs.
After closing time, Turbo loved to lounge on the highest bleacher and stare out the cabinet glass. From where his game was positioned, he could see the street outside. The people bustling on the sidewalk were interesting, in a way, but what he liked the most was to look at the cars zoom past. Almost all of them had tops, though, which he couldn't really understand. What would be the fun in that?
He watched as a sharp red sports car—a Camaro, no doubt—idled near the sidewalk. The passenger window rolled down, and the driver beckoned to someone out of Turbo's line of vision. A girl with a wild perm trotted up to the car and leaned in.
Turbo was mildly intrigued by the scene until he heard the arcade telephone ring. Usually when it rang after-hours, it was prank calls from little kids. That was always good for a laugh. He leaned an ear toward the glass.
It rang five times, and when no one picked up, the answering machine took over. Mr. Litwak's recorded voice explained that the store was closed, recited the store hours, and promised to return the call at his earliest convenience. There was a pause, a loud beep, and a gruff man's voice left his message.
"Yeah, Mr. Litwak? This is Jerry, from across the street. Just wanted ta let ya know I'm still interested in that game you were wantin to sell. That Turbo-whatever one? The one with the steering wheel? The sooner the better. So if you could get back to me as soon as you can, that'd be great. My number is…" The gruff male voice left his contact information and hung up. The machine beeped again in response.
The palm fronds rattled in the wind like tiny little bones.
Turbo sat up. He could feel his chest tightening. He had to move. Somewhere, anywhere. He hopped down the bleachers two at a time and vaulted over the guard rail. He ran toward his kart, his baby, his love, his bread n butter. He scrambled in, turning the key so hard his engine growled in protest.
"Shit shit shit," he muttered, hands shaking. He was going to flood the engine if he wasn't careful. He turned the key more gingerly this time. The engine purred to life. He slammed the accelerator down to the floorboard, pealing off in a cloud of dust and pebbles.
"How can he not want us?" Turbo screamed into the wind. "How can he not want me?"
It was that damn RoadBlasters game. Kids and adults alike couldn't believe the cutting-edge graphics, all 16 bits of it. One by one, they'd walk past Turbo Time, glancing indifferently at it. They all lined up to play RoadBlasters instead.
It made Turbo sick to his stomach.
Turbo steered angrily around the track, slamming over hills, drifting in dramatic arcs around the curves. He gripped the steering wheel so hard that he'd lost all feeling in his hands.
"Doesn't he know I'm the greatest racer evah?" he screamed. "Doesn't he know I'm Turbo-fuckin-tastic?"
He didn't even bother crossing the finish line. Instead, he wrenched the steering wheel off to the left, barreling down the well-worn path to the house where he and his older twin brothers, Axel and Rally, lived.
He flung himself through the front door. A bead of sweat trickled from his forehead down to the bridge of his nose. He took off his helmet and let it fall to the ground, wiping at his face with the back of his sleeve.
"What's got your panties in a knot?" Axel said. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, nursing a can of soda. His blue racing suit was covered in dirt; the white stripe running down the middle was white no longer.
"Is it Felix again?" Axel smirked.
Turbo froze. In his fury he'd forgotten about Felix. But thinking about that would just have to wait.
"You're starting to worry me, little bro," Axel said. He furrowed his brows. "What gives?"
"Where's Rally?" Turbo stammered. "I don't wanna have to tell this twice."
Axel fetched his twin, and the three siblings had a pow-wow in the kitchen. Turbo recited the events as best he could remember. The twins both looked skeptical.
"Well, maybe that's not what the guy meant, exactly," Rally said.
"What the hell else could it have meant?" Turbo spat. "He clearly said Litwak was selling this game and he's interested in buying it as soon as possible. I heard it with my own two ears."
"Well, maybe—maybe…" Rally didn't know what to say. He averted his eyes to the floor.
"Don't get all angry when I say this," Axel said, "but sometimes you're not the best of listeners, Turbo. Maybe you didn't hear it all, or you heard it wrong, or something."
Turbo was about to spit a retort to this statement when he thought of something. "You know what? Litwak always plays his answering machine messages in the morning, right? Tomorrow morning, you guys can hear it for yourselves."
The twins exchanged worried looks. They nodded.
{*}
"So, Mr. Litwak was going to sell your game?" Felix said with more than just a little doubt in his tone. "I'm sorry, Turbo, but that just sounds like…well…"
"A lie?" Turbo finished for him.
"Well…yes, kind of," he said.
"We hadn't been making any money in a long time," Turbo said darkly. "Games have their ups and downs, y'know, but we…we were experiencing something completely different. We just…" Turbo shrugged. "Weren't cool anymore."
"But there are lots of games in the arcade that withstand the tests of time," Felix said. "There've been tons of times when Fix-it Felix, Jr. wasn't so popular. But we're still here."
"You don't get it," Turbo said. "Your game has a niche. Even if you try to copy it, there'll always be somethin about your game that you can't really duplicate. My game, on the other hand…" he sighed. "Our big thing was the steering wheel control—instead of a joystick, y'know. Other than that, it was a pretty damn basic game.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Turbo Time and I miss it more than—" he sighed. He waved his hands, as if he were clearing his words out from in front of him. "Anyway, my point is, we were old news when RoadBlasters came along. There was no need for us anymore. There was a new racing game in the arcade, and that was that. We were expendable."
Felix did have to admit that the chances of there being another fixing game like his coming to the arcade were considerably low. He had competition, of course, with games that had better graphics…but not with games that had similar gameplay. He had no idea how his console would fare if that were to happen. Games came and went…and, now that he thought about it, they were usually replaced by a similar, yet newer, game.
"Just lemme finish the story, here," Turbo said, breaking the silence. "And you can think about it while I'm tellin it. But I'm tellin you—hey, look at me for a sec."
Felix looked at him.
"I'm not lyin, okay?" Turbo said. There was a touch of tenderness in his voice, almost impossible to catch, yet Felix heard it just fine. "I'm rotting away in a jail cell, here. I have no reason to lie to ya. Okay?"
The handyman averted his gaze, instead deciding to become very interested in a divot in the chocolate-covered wall just to the right of Turbo's head.
"Hey, look at me."
Felix looked at him.
"…Okay?"
Felix sighed. "Okay."
"Good," Turbo said. "Now, of course Axel and Rally didn't believe me, so…"
{*}
The next morning, the twins heard the message loud and clear. But since Litwak was present, they couldn't break character. They had to putter in their karts all day on the idle screen like nothing was wrong. As soon as they heard the all-clear signal, a musical ditty from the Pac-Man cabinet, the twins collapsed onto the winner's podium.
"Aw, Turbo," Rally wailed. He buried his face in his hands. "You were right. Litwak really doesn't want us anymore."
"Guys, what're…what're we gonna do?" Axel said. "As soon as our game gets unplugged, we're, like…gone. Literally gone."
Turbo had a faraway look in his eye.
"There's nothing we can do," Rally said. "Except move out to Game Central Station. I mean…I guess we're gonna have to, if we wanna…stay alive."
The three of them looked out at the Turbo Time scenery: the racetrack, their karts, the palm trees, their square little house. It wasn't much, but it was theirs. And it was all they knew.
"Racing's in our code," Axel muttered. "It's gonna be really hard…to live without it."
But maybe we don't have to live without it, Turbo thought. A plan started to form in his head.
"I think I might have an idea," Turbo said quietly.
"Huh?" Axel said.
Turbo frowned. "I said, I think I might have an idea."
"An idea for what?" Rally said.
"For keeping our game plugged in."
"And how," Axel said, "would you ever manage that? Obviously Litwak wants to sell us cause he'd make more money that way, instead of keeping us plugged in. Y'know, wasting the space and the electricity and everything. The only way he'd even think about keeping us is if…our game started making money again…" Axel trailed off, deep in thought.
"RoadBlasters," Rally blurted.
"Exactly," Turbo said gravely. "It's gotta go."
"But how?" the twins said in unison.
Turbo grimaced. He thought he knew exactly how.
{*}
The plan was an extremely complicated one, and in all likelihood, it would not work. But it was the only little thread of hope that the three brothers had in order to try to save their home.
In a nutshell, Turbo was going to sabotage the RoadBlasters game. He knew a little bit about game code—not much, but a little—and he was pretty confident in his ability to make the other game glitch.
But there were two large caveats to this plan. First of all, RoadBlasters would have to be in play for this to work. Secondly, Turbo would have to enter the game quickly—very quickly—and cause a direct disruption to the Player One code. The timing would have to be exactly perfect in order for the game to glitch.
And Turbo knew that the likelihood of their own game glitching while he was absent was high. All someone would have to do was stick a quarter in, curious as to why he was missing from the idle screen, and Turbo Time was almost certain to glitch as well.
That was the very reason why Axel and Rally couldn't be in their own game while all this was going on. It was entirely too risky. They were hiding out at the rendezvous point in Game Central Station until all of this was over.
With any luck, Litwak would notice the glitch in RoadBlasters and start fidgeting with it, possibly even placing an out-of-order sign over the glass. This would give Turbo and the twins just enough time to race back to their own game, safe and sound. Turbo Time would be the only racing game in the arcade, their popularity would come back to them, and they'd live happily ever after.
It was either try and pull all of that off, or become unplugged themselves, anyway.
Turbo turned his head and looked out the cabinet glass. Even this early in the morning, a small queue of people were crowded around RoadBlasters, gazing at the screen in awe. Turbo pursed his lips.
He turned the key in the ignition, and his kart fired to life.
"Well, Ruby Red," Turbo said, patting the hood. "We had a good run. I doubt you'll be comin back with me. But you never know…that guy in the blue hat that we took for all those rides? He can fix anything, didja know? If you can still wobble outta there with me, we can getcha patched up, no problem…"
But Turbo knew the likelihood of that was slim to none. He was banking on the hope that Felix could make him a new kart. He'd tinkered on Ruby Red enough, surely he could make another one…or at least something red and on four wheels. Turbo bit his lip.
He knew if he sat around and thought too much about it—especially if his thoughts drifted over to Felix for too long—that he'd have second thoughts. And there just wasn't any time left for second thoughts. Without another moment's hesitation, he shifted the kart into drive and sped off down the tram tunnel.
Had this not been a life-or-death situation, Turbo would've had to admit that driving through the tunnel was a damn good ride. The unexpected twists and turns, the dips and hills, it all kept him on his toes and really tested his driving ability. The tunnel felt a lot shorter when driving at breakneck speed rather than puttering along in the tram; it wasn't too long at all before he saw a light at the end. He held his breath as he shot out into Game Central Station.
The only saving grace in this entire ordeal was that the main hub of Game Central Station was almost completely devoid of people. The only characters present were a few straggling NPCs in no particular hurry to return to their games, their absence going unnoticed. Turbo didn't have to worry about driving around them. They all scrambled out of the way just fine.
The RoadBlasters tunnel was just a few entrances down from his own. He threw on the brakes and drifted a hard right into the tunnel.
The path to RoadBlasters was a little longer than the one he'd just driven, but not by a lot. Turbo didn't have much time to steel himself for what was about to happen. But that was probably a good thing. That way, he wouldn't have time to get nervous.
He emerged onto a blanket of green grass. He was vaguely aware of the intense heat within the game, the temperature being considerably more pleasant in his own. His eyes scanned the area for his target. Luckily, a bright red roadster much bigger than his own wasn't too hard to find. And even luckier, the car in question was headed right for him, so there was no need to chase it down.
Turbo smirked and licked his teeth. Perfect.
"Turbo-tastic!" he screamed, wrenching the wheel to the left. Whoever Player One was must've done the same, however; Turbo missed the RoadBlasters car by a hair. He figure-eighted in the grass to try again.
Now he was filled with a mad rage. "Turbo-tastic!" he yelled again as he sped off in a straight line, gaining ground quickly on his target.
And that time, he didn't miss.
{*}
"Oh my land," Felix said. He inhaled deeply. "That sure is a lot to take in."
Turbo nodded. "Yeah."
One could've cut the tension in the room with a butter knife. It was stifling. Felix pulled at his shirt collar.
"It must've been hard," Felix said. His voice seemed to permeate every inch of the cell. "To make that huge of a decision."
"It was," Turbo mumbled. "It really was."
The two of them sat in silence for a while. Wynchel and Duncan were just outside the cell door, talking back and forth in bored tones. Turbo let his head rest against the cool of the chocolate-covered stone behind him.
It was Turbo who finally broke the silence. "And y'know—y'know I never meant to…" his voice trailed off. He couldn't exactly put what he was thinking into words.
Felix rose to his feet. "I know."
He walked towards the racer. At first, Turbo thought he was going to hit him, or at least give him a good kick in the shin. He winced, bracing himself for the blow, but it never came. Felix reached out and grabbed Turbo by the armpits, hoisting him up into a standing position.
"I think that's good enough for today," Felix said. He smiled sadly.
"'For today'?" Turbo said.
"Well, sure. I've got a lot more I want you to clear up for me. But it can wait. Today was…well, I learned a lot."
Turbo could think of nothing to add to that. He just nodded.
Felix walked toward the cell door. He paused at the exit, looking back over his shoulder.
"I'll try and be back to visit as soon as I can."
"I'll be here."
Felix went out, and the two donut guards came in. They jostled and pushed Turbo about as they undid his bindings, being none too gentle about the process. But Turbo didn't feel any of it. The conversation he'd just had with Felix had left him numb. He was absolutely reeling.
He watched as Wynchel and Duncan left his cell, and vaguely registered the sound of many locks clicking into place. How he'd ended up in his strawberry wafer bunk, he wasn't sure, but he turned over to face the wall just the same. He had a lot of thinking of his own to do. And maybe some vomiting and crying, also. He wasn't entirely sure at the moment.
Author's Note: I could've broken this up into 2 separate chapters, I think, but I'm pretty sure it's fine as it is. I've got one more chapter already written up, but it's still being proofread. This chapter was a little difficult to write; sounds kinda stuffy, but I couldn't really wedge any humor into it without it being out of place. And thanks a big'un for reading!