“The less I know about what Jet’s doing, the better.”
It was a statement mutually felt.
It was a reminder that the eyes of the now deeply infected arcade would only follow Jet so far. That once he arrived at the tram station to be whisked out into the wires, once he was out from beneath the shadows of monstrous insectoid guards, of Hive banners, statues, and propaganda, that he was indeed out of sight and mind.
Jet didn’t know if it was Reboot’s disdain for his self-proclaimed role as “keeper”, or if it was some warped sense of actual trust or mercy that kept his grip from becoming iron. He didn’t much care, either – pettiness or sincerity, the result was still the only reason that anyone in TurboTime 2 was offered after-hours privacy. With the one caveat being that they all continue to show up to race, every day.
Which did mean that Jet often found himself feeling a bit pressed for time, as he sought out his privacy.
The last thing he wanted to do was to give Reboot cause for suspicion.
It would make meeting with certain figures well and truly impossible.
And they were too close to hit a snag now.
“Sorry I’m late,” Jet said as he entered the dimly-lit room. Ramshackle, crowded with a variety of somber-looking sprites and anti-viruses. Some of them turned slightly in their chairs to acknowledge the arrival of the blue racer, as he pulled out his chair and took a seat.
The woman across the table from him fixed him with a stern look. For a moment, the only sounds were that of muffled traffic from the bustling wires outside; the uninstalled going about their typical lives.
“Well, you’re here now,” she finally spoke, her tone frigid and curt. “So… Let’s get back to business.”
The coming of Halloween had a profound effect upon the sprites of Sugar Rush Z. The moment the cabinet’s internal clocks had ticked over the week before and the programmed events began to unfold, changing the normally cheery, colorful aesthetic of the candy kingdom into a frightful wonderland of blacks and oranges, greens and purples, houses adorned with grinning mad jack o’ lanterns, cotton candy spider webs and gummi bats fluttering over head… the moods of the citizens seemed to change with it.
The fears, paranoia and civil unrest that had spread through the people like wildfire during the spring and summer months seemed to dull and fade with the arrival of autumn colors, placated by a sense of wonder at the coming holiday and the promise of a New Year now tantalizingly close!
A new Year that might bring new hope and new beginnings…
