Arc the Seventh: Blocked
Chapter 1: Denial
A couple days have passed by now, and things have been going a bit better. I only ended up returning the PVR as I had no use for it, and Felix let me keep the rest. Things with Felix have been getting a little better. He was actually one of the few people who knew my birthday was today, July 9th. I even forget, to be honest. It’s not like we do anything for it, really. Mom and Alex are usually busy and I was never too keen on the attention. Isaac would shoot me a message and that was it, and that was enough for me. Having a birthday away from school time was a godsend. So now I was eighteen, a legal adult, and things have been insane, to say the least. I mean, here I am, going to be attending a free university in a town in a computer, studying animation at a quality that apparently surpasses some of the best schools in the nation, and the guy who made this happen is like 6’1”, a literal twig in a red vest and cap, someone who looks far too young and not aged or experienced enough for anything, let alone something the size and scope of New Infinity.
I got up this morning and there was a package on the stoop from Felix. He had left a decent assortment of gift cards in an envelope for my birthday, which was a bit more than I anticipated. That said, the man has done nothing but hand me gifts for the last month, so this was to be expected. I left the envelope on my desk and got ready for the day.
Sometime between 8:00 and 9:00, as I was preparing some breakfast, the phone rang. It was Felix again. “Hello?”
“Hey, Ash? Can you get down here for a second? I can’t make any edits. There was a red light that went out and it won’t let me in.”
“What would I be able to do?”
“I don’t know. You’re pretty smart, we’ll figure it out.”
“…Alright, then,” I replied as I hung up. I finished off a bowl of cereal and a glass of coffee, and drove down to the capitol.
Felix was at his desk, nodded at me, and then punched in some numbers on the phone. The back bookshelf slid open and he stepped down the stairs. I followed after. He stopped at his terminal and made a few selections. “Alright, watch this.”
He scrolled over to a variable named NIStopLit37Status, which was set to 0. He tried to switch it to 1, but it would not change. An error message popped up that read, “USER IS ALREADY LOGGED IN ON ANOTHER TERMINAL.”
“Odd, isn’t it? I don’t know what’s going on myself. This is the only computer I use.”
“I think I might know what it might be.”
“…And this is an awful lot like when things went sour that one day, and I—pardon? It might be someone else? Yeah, I guess it could be. But who?”
“Well, Francisco has been hanging out with this kid Twitch—“
“Oh, Twitch,” he said, “oh, sorry, go on?”
“Well, Twitch let him in on that this was a simulation, and—“
“Please don’t call it a simulation. It’s real, just all stored on a computer. Digitized civilizations, they’re called. If you scan a painting into a computer, it's still a painting, Ash.”
“…Right. Well, he let him in on that this was a si—digitized civilization, and now they’ve been at work cracking it. He found out about something shady concerning them.”
“Oh,” Felix said, looking awfully worried.
“…What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing. Nothing yet, at least. Anything else you know about them?”
“No clue on where they are doing this, but I do know their search has led them to this one company, the Happy Infinity Company. Know anything about—“
“Well, whatever they’re up to, it’s nothing serious right now. The last edit was a few days ago, and that was for 86th Street. That was me, not them. Well, if you find out anything else, tell me. I’ll keep an eye out. Maybe if I log out and back in, I can overwrite their session like they did mine.”
…Well, that was odd. Felix dodged that question harder than anticipated. I was close to having a bit more knowledge on him, as his past is full of contradictions and other oddities. Whatever, I guess it’s not that big of a deal right now. I have all summer. I headed back home, signed up for a few fall quarter classes, and got onto TF2. A new patch came out last week that I haven’t actually gotten to play yet.
“The Gun Mettle Campaign is LIVE!”
The news was plastered all over. A delivery of decorated weapons was intercepted and mercenaries were claiming the rewards for themselves should they do some of Ms. Pauling’s dirty work. A new territory dubbed Powerhouse was already packed with mercs doing their damnedest to complete contracts for their chance at some of the new decorated weapons.
AshLand97 has joined the game.
AshLand97 joined team RED.
Two soldiers had done their best to keep the central point BLU aligned. It was tough work indeed, but nobody from RED had yet to touch the point, let alone capture it. Out of nowhere, it seemed, a stray flare from a Scorch Shot landed on the point and exploded, lighting the two of them on fire. They merely stepped into the nearby water to douse the flames, however.
The Pyro who launched the flare, ducking beneath a top-floor window, was at an impasse. They couldn’t do any considerable damage from here, at least not without wasting all of their flares, so it seemed they had no choice but to ditch the weapon. They turned to see a retreating Engineer trying (and failing) to take out an attacking Spy, and stepped into help. Their flare ignited the Spy, but a moment too late.
Twelve Anguished Eggs has killed Swish! with the Knife.
The pyro ran at him, burning him with their flamethrower before switching to their melee weapon.
AshLand97 has killed Twelve Anguished Eggs with the Powerjack.
…It seems that they have reduced the health gain on the Powerjack to 25 from 75. Not a big deal, the pyro thought, as they weren’t shooting for more health to begin with. The engineer’s dropped shotgun, on the other hand, was the primary reason for this move.
Larry has killed Grep with the Direct Hit.
Garry has killed Stalin’s Mustache with the Air Strike.
From out of nowhere, it seemed, the two Soldiers were intercepted by a Pyro wielding a shotgun with someone else’s name on it.
AshLand97 has killed Larry with Shotgun (crit).
The other Soldier turned to face the Pyro and fired a rocket. A blast of compressed air, however, intercepted the rocket’s path and sent it back.
AshLand97 has killed Garry.
With both Soldiers off the point, the Pyro now could stand there and capture it. A passing Scout ran by, pistol in hand, before turning back and helping capture. The moment the point was captured, both the Scout and Pyro heard the sound of a minigun charging up. A Heavy and Medic stepped out from behind a rock close by, and fired on the two. Both barely survived the encounter, but the Medic and his patient were not that far away. They needed a plan.
The heavy spun down his minigun and began to walk up towards RED’s base to finish off the two attackers. Once they were out, the point would be an easy capture. As he jumped out onto the path running parallel to the lake the point sat in, though, a baseball soared overhead. It missed the Heavy, but fortunately was just at the right height to hit the Medic, stunning him for a brief moment. With the Heavy’s only source of healing gone, the Scout circled him firing bullets from his scattergun.
Peebington has killed Powdered.Toast.Man with Scattergun.
The Medic has just recovered from his sudden contact with a fastball, and began to call out, either looking for nearby patients and teammates, or perhaps another Medic. As he turned around, he found himself faced with some sort of hammer flying at him.
AshLand97 has killed Pepsi Perfect with Powerjack.
With that, RED began to head towards BLU’s remaining point. It would only be a matter of time unt—
Someone knocked on the door. I disconnected from the server, closed the game, and headed downstairs to answer it. Standing in the door frame was Felix. He nodded and then paused for a moment. “So how’s your dad?” he said before pulling the door shut or before I could even process what just happened.
“What the shit,” I said after a moment.
I looked out the window and couldn’t see him at all, so I might as well call his cell phone number. It rung a few times, before he picked up. “Hello, Ash?”
“Yeah, what the hell was that about?”
“What… was what about?”
“Your little comment!”
“What do you mean?”
“You just knocked on the door and asked how my father was doing? He’s in f—“
“Ash, I’ve been in my workshop since you left. Here, give me a second.”
He hung up, and then my phone rang not even a few seconds after. Sure enough, it was the phone number the capitol uses. “See?” he said, “I couldn’t have been at your door. That would mean…”
“There’s a second Felix, isn’t there?” I asked.
“Yeah, sounds like it. Gosh, I don’t really know how we’ll be able to tell the two apart. I mean, my job is easy. I really can’t get myself confused with someone who looks just like me. He isn’t me, it’s as simple as that. But for everyone else…”
“Couldn’t you wear something a little different? Take off your gloves, wear a different color h—“
“Different color! That’s a great idea, Ash! Give me just a moment. Ah, still can’t log in to make changes. I guess I’ll have to make my changes elsewhere, so—“
He hung up suddenly, and I returned to my room. After a few minutes, it felt like everything suddenly shifted just a little. I can’t explain it, it’s like if everything sunk by just a little bit. I looked out the window to find every house was now topped with a green roof. This was his plan. He changed the town color from red to green, and now the duplicate Felix would stand out.
Genius.
He rang the doorbell and I went and answered it. Felix was now wearing a green vest and cap. “What do you think? I had to log out and then back in, and it let me make changes. And boy, did I make some changes!”
“It’s an… oddly familiar color, I’ll give you that,” I said, looking at the roofs in town.
“Well, hopefully that doppelganger didn’t get the same idea. If you see him again, call me.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t have any problems missing him,” I said.
As Felix walked away, I turned back. Man, that guy is something else. I got back to TF2 hoping that was the end of his antics.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
