[Halloween AU Week 2: The Start] This Isn't a Game Anymore // Vanellope and Felix
Player One: dynamite-guy-fixit-felix
As an arcade game hero, it was natural for Felix to seek out patterns. After all, that was how games were won -- recognizing patterns, adapting, staying safe.
The pattern at Litwak's Arcade had changed considerably for almost two weeks now, and the only way to adapt to it was to take a quick look around. The problem was outside the consoles and Felix couldn't fix what he couldn't see. Just a hop, skip, and a jump to the Players' World and back. Nothing major, or high-leveled, or worth worrying Calhoun and the others about.
At least not yet, anyway!
He waited first to hear the Game Central Station announcements on the intercom. They had stayed quite the same this whole time, for the comfort of routine, mostly --
'Attention: The Arcade will open in 5-minutes. Please report to your game.'
'Attention: The Arcade is now closed.'
-- but still, no one ever came. Silent, strange, and dim... Calhoun had been the one to point out that the lights in the arcade were never turned on again after a point two weeks ago -- would the electricity itself be next? All the games, unplugged in one frightful surge . . . ?
The Nicelanders, the penthouse, Ralph like a brother to him now, little Vanellope, his Dynamite Gal (though he could never call her that out loud), gone in a spark . . . ?
"I can fix it," Felix said with a sharp nod, cracking his fingers lightly as he set to work. With a quick glance over his shoulder again to check for the Tron console's guards -- preoccupied today, thankfully -- Felix ran his hands over the control panel, which he had memorized by now --
A hot laser hit him in the back, knocking him off balance, body going still in mid-air before after only a quick yelp --
Pixel by pixel, bit by bit, his code vanished from the game world in a multitude of laser zaps . . .
He gave a quick shiver despite the heat, but suddenly found himself catching his balance again in front of the Space Paranoids console -- on the Players' side of the game monitor. Felix's heart pounded, not sure what to expect, but feeling an icy chill in the air, with the marquee lights from the games trailing over his clothes --
Just to be safe, Felix dropped down into a crouch in front of the game cabinet, making himself smaller, harder to see. He gulped to himself, brown eyes scanning the terrain of the whole arcade.
silent . . . dark . . . cold . . .
Fix-It Felix remained halfway in hiding, watching, listening -- seeing nothing hearing nothing -- and that's what truly worried him.
