Richard took a deep breath as he stepped back into the rolling, hilly landscape. Overhead, the web browser loomed, the mouse incessantly clicking away. Glancing back at the screen, he approached it with the intent to bang on it—until he caught sight of a worried expression on his grandfather's face. Squinting, Richard shifted his gaze behind him and noticed the website his grandfather was visiting.
His breathing nearly caught in his throat. It was the local police department's webpage. His grandfather was in the midst of filing a missing person's report.
Without hesitating, Richard spun around and began pounding on the screen. "Grandpa! I'm here! Just look down!" he yelled. But either his grandfather couldn't hear him—or perhaps Richard was too small to be noticed. Realizing that his desperate tapping wasn't working, an idea sparked in his mind, and he dashed back to join the boys in the hallway.
They were still huddled together in the tunnel, keeping their distance. "What's going on? He didn't see you?" Gloyd asked.
"No!" Richard panted, nearly out of breath. "Either I'm too small for him to notice, or I'm not loud enough. I need something big!"
"Big?" Swizzle asked.
Richard nodded vigorously. "Do you know where I could get a bomb?"
The three boys blinked in disbelief. "A–a bomb?" Rancis stuttered.
"Yes! A bomb! I'm sure among the countless games out there, there has to be one that has something that can explode!" Richard shouted.
Without waiting another second, Rancis bolted from the hallway. "Wait here—I'm going to get Candlehead's cherry bombs!"
After what felt like an eternity, Rancis finally returned, an armful of cherry bombs in hand. "It took a lot of persuasion, but here you go," he announced.
"Great!" Richard replied with a broad smile, signaling for Rancis to hand one over.
"How did you manage to get Candlehead to give you one of her cherry bombs?" Swizzle asked, utterly baffled.
"Seriously?" Gloyd chuckled as he leaned casually against the tunnel wall with his arms folded.
"Because I'm responsible, unlike you two who'd end up blowing up our entire game," Rancis quipped.
"Hey!" both Swizzle and Gloyd shouted in unison.
"Here, and don't forget this!" Rancis added before Richard could step away. "You need something to light the cherry bombs with, dummy," he smirked.
Gloyd's eyes widened in astonishment. "And she gave you her candle hat?!" he yelled.
"You put it on your head," Rancis placed the hat on Richard's head. But just like Gloyd's hat—it engulfed his head.
"Oop—" Rancis blinked, covering his mouth in surprise.
Gloyd snickered. "Oh my gosh..."
"It's fine, it's fine—I can kind of see," Richard said with a laugh. "It's flatter than Gloyd's hat, anyway."
Rancis nodded. "Okay! The candle on top is lit. Just use the stem of the cherry to light it, then do what you need to do!"
"Got it," Richard said as he stepped forward. He glanced down at the cherry in his hand. "I can do this." With one hand steadying the hat, he raised the cherry stem toward the candle on top with his other.
The moment the cherry stem caught fire, Richard tensed his arms and hurled it toward the web browser. At that exact instant, Litwack was about to click something—but then the cherry bomb exploded.
Litwack was about to click something, but that's when the cherry bomb went off.
The browser was violently dislodged, teetering on the brink of falling.
Richard blinked. "I didn't think that through, did I?"
He sprinted over to the screen just as it hit the ground.
"Richard, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" Rancis called out.
"I'm fine!" Richard shouted back to Rancis, then resumed pounding on the screen. "Grandpa!"
Litwack's expression was a blend of confusion and slight disbelief as he took in the sight of the web browser slamming into the ground. Richard continued his frantic efforts, his fists pounding the screen, until he noticed something: his grandfather's eyes flickered toward him for a moment, then widened—He took a double take.
Richard gasped and stepped back. "Grandpa?"
Litwack leaned closer to the screen, squinting. He then backed away, stood up, and lowered his hands as if to signal Richard to wait. Richard was stunned. "Huh? What—?" he murmured, just as he saw his grandfather rifling through some boxes on the shelves.
"Rich?! Did he see you?" Swizzle called out.
"He did!" Richard replied.
A brief silence followed. "What did he do?! Is he freaking out?!" Rancis asked anxiously.
"No... he..." Richard's face scrunched in confusion. "He told me to stay put."
"What?" Rancis pressed.
Still rummaging through the boxes, Litwack eventually pulled something out. Richard squinted. "Is that a flash drive?"
Quickly, his grandfather turned back to the screen and pointed to the left. "Go there," he mouthed urgently.
Richard blinked and then glanced to his right. "Over... over there?" he asked in confusion. Litwack nodded, mouthing, "Go!"
"Richard, what's happening? Why is he telling you to go to the other end of the desktop?" Rancis called from the hallway.
"I don't know..." Richard began, then started walking off.
"Wait, Rich!" Gloyd cried, rushing to follow him.
"No! Stay!" Richard gasped. "I'll be back, I promise," he insisted as he proceeded toward the other end. Before long, he found himself in front of what seemed like an endless expanse of blue sky—until he realized it wasn't the sky at all, but a wall. Or perhaps it was endless, save for a door floating in mid-air. In was invisible at first.
"Uhh..." Richard blinked. "Why did that just appear?"
He stepped inside the door. "Okay... what... where am I going?" The door slammed shut behind him, making him jump.
Soon, green lights flickered on—reminiscent of the same glow from a router. "Oh..." Richard murmured as he looked down and saw another pad. "Oh great... more adventure..." Though not exactly excited, he cautiously stepped onto it. Expecting another teleport like before, he was surprised when it began to descend like an elevator. Richard gasped as he struggled to maintain his balance, glancing upward to see the platform above shrinking gradually, as he was going down into who knows where.
"Where is this going?" he wondered aloud. Then, with a sudden thump, the elevator stopped. Richard stepped out into a room reminiscent of Game Central, though much smaller. There were only two gateways—one on each side of the room. He looked left and then right.
His eyes widened when he saw the label above the left gateway:
USB PORT 1 - Occupied
Then on the right:
USB PORT 2
Richard halted. "The USB ports?" he muttered, blinking as his mind raced. "Wait... why did grandpa tell me to come here? How does he know I could even get to a place like—"
Alert—Alert... USB PORT 2 Receiving hardware
A voice echoed throughout the room as a red flashing light spun above port 2. Richard could do nothing but stand frozen and watch.
Hardware docked... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning complete. Hardware is HP Flashdrive—Model 3473, 500 GB—Formatted
Richard stood transfixed, the buzzing from the entrance filling his ears. He did not dare to move.
Windows Defender Offline—Windows XP unsupported. Proceed with caution.
Then, with a low rumble, the giant door slid open.
Richard blinked at the sight inside—a small, tube-like room with rows of seats.
"What the hell...?" Richard murmured. "Does... is that the flash drive that grandpa had?" Cautiously, he stepped inside. The interior resembled a transportation system straight out of Tron. Surveying the room, he spotted a seat and sat down.
The door shut immediately behind him. Richard took a deep, steadying breath.
Welcome To HP Flash, Ki-
A loud grinding sound reverberated as the entire structure vibrated.
"Holy shit!?" Richard gasped, clutching the seat. He frantically searched for a seatbelt, but there was none. "Okay, I guess I'm going to die," he thought, fear creeping in—until, suddenly, the grinding stopped.
-Back, and enjoy the ride!
Richard blinked. "Okay..." He then felt the sensation of him going up and down. Like, whatever he was inside, was making subtle movements. Amidst the chaos of his grandfather's reaction and the worry for his boyfriends back at the tunnel who were defiantly worried about him, everything was too overwhelming. "I need to get out of here," he thought, attempting to stand—but then a loud bang echoed.
"Ah!" Richard gasped.
He felt whatever he was inside swing left, then right, slamming into something. "Okay then! What the hell is going on?!" he shouted, gripping the chair tightly. Suddenly, everything flipped upside down. "AHH FUCK!" he yelled, his legs dangling as he clutched the chair. "Oh... oh no..." his eyes widened in terror.
Just as abruptly, the place went upright itself, and his head collided painfully with the chair. "OUCH!" he screamed as his legs hit the ground again. The jostling resumed, and Richard wrapped an arm around the chair for dear life.
Then, all movement ceased.
Richard slowly opened his eyes, his gaze darting around. "Is it over?"
Welcome to... Unknown. Model... Unknown... 1000 TB
Richard blinked repeatedly. "What? One thousand terabytes..." he whispered, then rose to his feet as the giant door slid open.
Richard took a deep breath and walked out there, leaving this... public transportation.
He entered another dark room. "What is with this day and dark rooms?" Richard muttered. In the center stood a cylinder with a solitary chair inside. Approaching cautiously, he found the chair oddly familiar. "Why does this look... have I seen this before?" The chair was entangled in wires that jutted from the cylinder's walls.
After a moment's hesitation, he sat in the chair.
The doors of the cylinder closed.
The cylinder doors closed, and a low buzzing filled the cramped space, the visuals barely shifting. He saw nothing weird.
Richard gripped his thighs as his heart pounded.
Then, the doors opened, his eyes burning from the sudden light.
"Ahhh..." he cried, raising a hand to shield his eyes.
Once the light subsided, he squinted and saw his grandfather standing there.
"Grandpa—" Richard began, but his words were cut short as his grandfather pulled him into a tight hug.
"You're fine now—I thought I lost you!" his grandfather exclaimed.
Richard's eyes darted around in disbelief. "Wait..." he blinked. "I'm back?"
His grandfather slowly released him.
Richard looked down at the chair and then around. "I didn't even get to say goodbye too..." he murmured. "Wait..." He stood up, then backed away, to look at what he was sitting inside. He glanced at the box that housed the chair—it resembled the back of an arcade machine—he paused.
"Wait a minute..." Richard pushed past his grandfather, then around to the front of the supposed arcade machine.
When he reached it, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "What?!" he gasped.
Emblazoned at the top of the machine were the words Kid Powers.
Richard reached out to touch the machine, and in that moment, a zap shot through his mind. He couldn't pull away. Suddenly, memories flooded in—old memories buried deep, almost repressed. He remembered that he was never truly human, not even an alien, but rather code. He recalled being used as a puppet by a video game company as a prototype for an experiment; memories of being plugged into Game Central long ago, meeting Gloyd, Rancis, and Swizzle, and coming together with them—all overwhelmed him.
Richard went limp, but his grandfather caught him just in time.
"Richard!"
"What... where..." Richard stammered, his eyes locked on the screen.
Then the realization hit him. "I'm... I'm Kid Powers..." His eyes swelled up.
His grandfather held him tighter and then sighed deeply.
"I'm going to explain everything. Now's the time for it."