GLITCH

                                                                GLITCH


                                                            -Introduction-


"Yeah, get some!" Lincoln shouted at the screen as he schooled people twice his age at Call of Honor: Special Forces II.

"Awesome job, Clyde!" He said into his headset as he pumped his fist in victory from the couch in his living room.

"Thanks Lincoln! You were sick with the machine gun!" Clyde said over the wifi.

"It all comes with practice my friend," Lincoln replied, a smug smile on his face. For a brief few seconds, he was content. His nirvana wouldn't last, however.

"Three o'clock, Lincoln! Nerd time is over!" Lynn shouted, dive bombing the couch from mid-way up the stairs.

"Lynn! My squad was on a hot streak!" Lincoln protested.

"Pfft, the Premier League is on! You can pause your lame video game," she countered.

"No you can't, it doesn't work like that!" He complained, but it fell on deaf ears. Before he knew it, the television was turned to soccer, and he had no choice but to turn off his Funbox 720. Lincoln hated the sign up roster that his parents had put in place to equally share the living room television.

"Sorry Clyde, I gotta sign off for now," Lincoln sighed, turning off the system. Even if he did have a leg to stand on, he knew better than to argue with Lynn. He put away his controller and headset, and set about upstairs to his room. On his way, he passed Lori in the hallway.

"Something the matter, Lincoln?" she asked, not looking away from her phone.

He considered his response. Did she really even care? Or was she just making small talk in the hall? "Lynn took control of the TV while my team was on a win streak."

As he feared, she simply rolled her eyes and sighed. "C'mon, Lincoln, its just a dumb game, you can play it any time you want."

"Yeah, when one of twelve people in this house aren't using the TV!" he replied. "Which is never!"

"Well, either take your hour and be happy, or buy a tv for yourself," Lori said, heading for the stairs and still not having moved her nose from her phone.

Lincoln huffed as he walked past her to his room.

'Buy a TV,' he thought. 'How the heck am I supposed to afford that? After Flip got busted for breaking child labor laws, no one else in town will hire 11 year olds!'

Defeated and shoulders slumped, he neared his door when Lisa appeared in her doorway.

"Lincoln, can I borrow you for a moment?"

The last time Lisa had 'borrowed' him, he lost feeling above his waist for nearly ten hours. But, he had literally nothing else to do on a Sunday since his video game session had ended and Clyde was in bed with a cold.

"I guess..." he said, accepting his fate and entering her bedroom/lab. Inside, he was greeted with what looked like a dentist chair, with a helmet mounted to the top. The chair contraption was hooked via wires to a large computer at the other end of the room.

"You still enjoy those frivolous wastes of time know as video games, correct?" Lisa asked, struggling to climb into the much taller chair facing the monitor of the computer connected to her new apparatus. "Blast, I don't know I make these things so tall..." she mumbled to herself as she finally found her seat.

 Lincoln stood in front of her, his hands in his pockets. "Yeah. Is that what this is?" he asked, taking a step closer to inspect the chair and headset.

"In the same way that the Titanic was 'just a boat'," Lisa scoffed. "This, dear brother, is the next evolution in video game technology."

"Lisa, you know VR is already a thing, right?" Lincoln asked, turning back to his sister.

"Ugh, does no one in this house recognize innovation when they see it? It's not VR!" She shouted. "Okay, well it kind of is, but it's about one thousand times better than those pretenders in the video game industry are mass producing."

Lincoln had enough of Lisa stroking her own ego. He decided to cut to the chase. "So, you want me to test this thing?"

"You know me well," she replied.

Lincoln climbed onto the chair and lowered the helmet onto his hair. Lisa began entering data into her computer as the machine began to hum.

"I'm still going to have hair after this, right?" he asked as the machine got louder as it booted up.

"I've never had a problem," she replied over the noise.

"But you already lost your hair!" he shouted.

"Alright, just close your eyes!" Lisa yelled, ignoring his last statement.

Lincoln swallowed his fear and closed his eyes. He waited, and the sound of the machine began to fade. Finding himself in complete silence, he opened one eye. He found himself in a white room without walls or anything to denote any kind of depth.

"Lincoln? Can you hear me?" Lisa's voice seemed to echo in his head.

"Yeah, I can."

He held his hand in front of his face, only to find it pixelated and very primitively rendered.

"Excellent, I'm going to boot up the game."

A very basic graphical outline of a table appeared in front of him, slowly rendering itself into existence before seemingly stopping at about a 64 bit graphical level.

"Uh, I don't want to sound like a downer, but these graphics are terrible," Lincoln said, looking over what had now become a ping pong table.

"Relax, this is just the Beta," Lisa replied. "Pick up the paddle on the table."

Lincoln got out of the chair and picked up the pixelated pong paddle. Opposite him, his faceless opponent rendered into his world with his paddle.

"Okay Lincoln, first one to three wins." Lisa said as the NPC served his ball.

It was an easy lob, Lincoln easily countered it and scored his first point. The game didn't last more than a few moments, before he was declared the victor. His opponent vanished as Lincoln was pulled from the game.

Opening his eyes, he found himself back in Lisa's room, the machine already having been powered down.

"Welcome back," Lisa said, taking notes on a clipboard. "What did you think?"

"I mean, it was pretty cool, but I think pong has already been invented," Lincoln answered, climbing out of the chair.

"The entertainment aspect is not paramount here, I just wanted to make sure the extraction sequence didn't turn your brain into a milkshake," she replied casually.

He had become used to her callousness in such serious matters, but was thankful for still being mentally intact. Lincoln headed back to his room for the remainder of the day. Annoying sisters aside, he was actually looking forward to school tomorrow. The packed bag by his door reminded him that for four days and three nights, he, Clyde, and the rest of his friends would be exploring an actual dig site for real dinosaur bones!

He read comics until late into the night, only pulling himself from his reading when he noticed the time. He thought about the times his sisters had laughed at him for having fun playing video games. He was the only kid in his family that even remotely shared an interest in his hobby. If only there was a way he could show them how much fun it was to be the hero of their own story.

'11:11' he thought. 'I wish my sisters would actually play some video games for once.'

He rolled over and closed his eyes, ready to get some time away from his sisters.

                                                      -Chapter 1- Rise of the Machine-


On Thursday evening Lincoln found himself on the bus ride home from the trip. He and Clyde were comparing fossils when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished for it in his jeans before unlocking the screen and reading the text from his sister Lisa.

"EMERGENCY, COME HOME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! CODE GREEN!"

Lincoln sighed and rubbed his eyes. Code green meant a time sensitive emergency where all other sisters were unwilling or unable to help, if he remembered correctly.

"What's up, Lincoln?" Clyde asked.

"Lisa did... something. She said its an emergency, so I'm gonna have to head straight home once we're back at school."

"Bummer, Lincoln," he replied. "My Dads are making their gluten-free, vegan, kale and quinoa based cookies for us as a welcome back gift."

Secretly, Lincoln was glad he had an excuse to skip out on those. "Sorry Clyde, raincheck?"

"I know, I'll save you some!"

Lincoln swallowed nervously. "Thanks..."

On his return to school, Lincoln had already received five more urgent messages from Lisa. Pedaling his way home, he had no sense of urgency, despite Lisa's pleas. Diving head first into whatever chaos Lisa created was the last thing he wanted to do after getting some alone time.

He finally found himself on the porch of his home. An uncomfortable silence greeted him as he twisted the knob. Usually the chaos in his house escaped onto the porch. He stepped into the living room and gasped. Nine of his sisters sat on various furniture, all appearing to be asleep, wearing the same helmet Lisa had asked him to try on to test her creation.

"Lisaaaaaa!" Lincoln shouted upstairs.

Tiny footsteps hustled out of her bedroom as Lisa scurried down the stairs with her laptop. "Lincoln! Thank goodness you're here," the young genius said breathlessly. "We've got a serious problem!"

"We?" Lincoln repeated. "What did you do?!"

"I simply required more subjects to test the processing power of my machine!"

Lincoln looked over at his sleeping, and sometimes drooling sisters worriedly. "They aren't dead, right?"

"Of course not!" Lisa replied indignantly. "I simply seemed to have misjudged the processing power of the core I designed. Instead of operating at twenty five percent, it seems to be running around... ninety three."

Lincoln was at a loss. "Which means?"

"Which means... our sisters are trapped inside my device, and I...I... I don't know how to get them out!" Lisa cried, exasperated. For the first time in a long while, Lincoln noticed tears welling in Lisa's eyes. His older brother instincts kicking in, he knelt down in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, just breathe, okay? We don't need your asthma acting up," he said, trying his best to comfort her. As Lisa's breaths began to slow, Lincoln rubbed his eyes with his free hand and tried to wrap his mind around half of what she tried to explain.

"Okay, so try to explain what's going on one more time," Lincoln asked.

Lisa took a deep, calming breath and dried her eyes. "Our sisters are trapped inside my psychonautic synapse enhancer, and I have no way of freeing them or knowing if they're able to snap out of it on their own."

"Right. First thing's first. Where are Mom and Dad?" Lincoln asked.

Lisa sniffed up a tear. "They were on their way home from work about thirty minutes ago."

"What?!" he shouted. His alarm was short-lived, however. "Hang on a second, it only takes them fifteen minutes to get home from work..."

"Well... I put out warrants for their arrest, so we'll have at most forty eight hours before the police realize I planted it in their database."

"You... what?" Lincoln stammered. "Mom and Dad are in jail?!"

"Relax Lincoln, Mom will be fine," she replied.

"But what about Dad?"

Lisa rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Let's just get the girls out of your computer before Mom and Dad find out what you did," Lincoln said, sticking a pin in the 'It's not okay to have your parents arrested on false charges to buy yourself time to clean up your mess' conversation. "Why can't we just turn the machines off?"

Lisa opened her laptop and began typing. "Their brains are being stimulated as though they are in the real world. To end the stimulation all at once could kill them."

"Of course it could..." Lincoln sighed. "So what are we supposed to do?"

Lisa continued to search through her computer. "Well... although the device was meant to allow training for doctors, nuclear engineers and astronauts to practice emergencies and highly dangerous scenarios, it seems as though it can also double as a... virtual entertainment platform."

"Okay, so what does that mean?" he asked. "Are our sisters stuck in there playing pong forever?"

Lisa's nimble fingers typed away at her computer. "According to my system and brain scans, I'm reading different levels of activities in each sister in differing sections of the brain, so I doubt they're all just playing pong."

Lincoln had approached Lori as she lay on the couch, poking her cheek with a finger. She was out cold alright, and no amount of finger poking was going to rouse her, or any of the others.

"Wait a second, how did you even convince all of them to try this thing?" Lincoln asked. "Lola wouldn't even consider putting a helmet for anything less than fifty bucks!"

"Well... I may have told them their wildest dreams were contained within..."

"So you lied," Lincoln said flatly.

"Sometimes science needs to have the rules bent in its favor, Lincoln!" Lisa shot back.

"Whatever, this still doesn't help us save everyone!" he replied. "If we can't unplug it, how do we get them out?"

"I did have an extraction protocol written for just such an occasion, but..."

"But?" Lincoln lead on.

"But... it's being blocked by the internal AI I programmed to run it. I don't know whether I should be proud that I coded it, or mad that it's able to hold my sister's hostage by suppressing my code," she sighed.

"So there's no way to get them out?" Lincoln exhaled sadly. He still hadn't gotten a straight answer.

"Actually, there may still be one way. The AI interfaced with each sister, and to that end created what it interpreted as an ideal challenge for them. There's a code embedded in each helmet program that I dubbed 'the nuclear code.' If activated, it will delete everything created by the initial user."

Lincoln sat between the unconscious Lori and Luna. "Finally, now we're getting somewhere. How do we activate the code?"

"Remember when you played pong and won?" Lisa asked. "You were released from the game by the nuclear code because you met the victory conditions." Lisa set her laptop on the coffee table and headed upstairs to her room.

"But how can I beat a game I'm not playing?" he called up the stairs after her.

She returned shortly with another helmet like the ones her sisters were wearing. "You will be playing."

"What?" he replied as she descended the stairs with the device.

"Since none of them have met their own specific victory conditions, I've come to the conclusion that their either lost in their own world, or have forgotten they entered one in the first place, and have ceased searching for it," Lisa said, tossing him the helmet. "You're our last hope. I.. no, we need you to join them in their fight, or we may not be able to get them back."

Lincoln looked down at the shiny helmet with blue and green lights blinking in his lap. Was he really his sisters last hope? And better yet, were their lives depending on his ability to be awesome at his favorite thing besides comic books? While he appreciated the irony, he still had a few questions.

"But, what if I end up like them? Lost in the machine or whatever?" he asked. "Why can't you just talk to them like you did to me through the helmet?"

"You're going in, but you'll have me in your ear, doing what I can to help you from here," she said, putting on a headset and plugging it into her computer. "The AI is blocking my ability to communicate effectively. Plus, you're using my first prototype helmet. I'll be able to patch you through to the collective overworld, without the AI code effecting you like it has them."

Lincoln glanced up at Lisa from the couch. "Why didn't you just try to go in and rescue them? I mean, you built the whole thing, right?"

Lisa sighed. "Admittedly, while I am spectacular at many things... I am terrible at most, if not all video games. Left in my hands... we might all be stuck there."

For once in his young life, instead of a comic book or a controller, he held his destiny in his lap. The fate of nearly his entire family rested on his slight shoulders. For years he had wished his skill at video games would somehow translate into something real and tangible in the world, and in the eyes of his sisters. Now, fate had set a challenge before him that he was more than certain he could conquer.

Nine sisters. Nine worlds. Three lives.

"Alright," he took a deep breath, and put on the helmet. "send me in."

                                                                    Sister 1

Lincoln opened his eyes to a strange world set before him. He stood on a circular platform, doors spaced about every six feet, each one adorned with an image of the sister it represented.

"Lincoln? Lincoln can you hear me?" Lisa asked.

"Loud and..." He put his hand up to where his helmet would have been, only to touch his own ear. "Clear? What happened to my helmet?"

"This is a projection of you, it appears from your subconscious. It represents you in your most familiar form."

Lincoln took a few steps along the platform. It seemed to float in a void of empty space, with no conceivable way off. Lincoln was somewhat familiar with the concept of a hub world, and this seemed to be one if he'd ever seen it.

"Do I have to save them in order, or can I pick?" Lincoln asked.

"The choice is yours, but just know that once you rescue the first sister, the program will recognize you as a threat and take action," Lisa replied.

He surveyed the doors, rubbing his chin as he tried to decide which sister to help first.

"By the way, Lincoln, the AI's relative complexity is directly related to the mental acuity of the hostage."

"Okay, which means what?" he asked.

"The more dynamic and clever the sister, the harder their world will be to reach the victory condition."

Lincoln nodded. "Well, might as well start on easy mode." He walked around the circle until he came to Leni's door. "Well, lets get started."

He reached out to turn the knob, but found it locked. "Huh? Hey, Lisa, it's—" A small virtual screen appeared on the door, interrupting his transmission.

'PLAYER 2, READY?
Y/N'

Lincoln glanced around him before staring back at the screen. He took a deep breath.

"Yes."

No sooner had the words left his lips than a blinding flash of light engulf him. He attempted to call for Lisa, but found no air in his lungs. Just as he thought he would suffocate, he was able to breathe again. In an instant, his vision returned, and each of his senses began to sharpen. A loud sound continued to assault his ears before his brain could make sense of it. Eventually, the sound began to make sense.

"Rook! Hey Rook!"

Lincoln looked to his left, before coming to a startling realization. He was sitting in the drivers seat of a car!

A very attractive hispanic woman was leaning in his window. "You awake?" she asked. She bore a striking resemblance to Ronnie Anne, except, well... more woman.

"Uh... yeah..."

She smacked him on the head in true Ronnie Anne fashion. "Get you're head in the game, Rook! You'll never beat her if you've got your head in the clouds!"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow before looking forward. About five cars ahead was a hot pink supercar at the first position of the starting line. It's driver hung halfway out the window, blowing kisses to the gathered crowd.

"Leni?" Lincoln gasped. He could hardly believe his eyes.

Not-Ronnie-Anne slapped the roof of his car to regain his attention. "Hey! Focus! We need a win here!" she said before leaving and joined the crowd of NPCs cheering beside the racetrack.

"Lincoln? How do you read me?" Lisa's voice crackled to life in his head.

"Lisa, I hear you! What's going on?" Lincoln asked, the other drivers revving their engines to pump up the crowd.

"Leni's world appears to be a racing sim, with a victory condition of... player 2 victory."

Lincoln looked down at the buttons and strange knobs adorning the drivers side of his vehicle. He cautiously put his hand on the gear shift, pushing it forward before a terrible grinding noise startled him into releasing it.

"What's the matter? You can't drive stick?" Lisa asked.

"I can't drive anything! I'm only eleven!" Lincoln snapped back.

"Ugh... standby," Lisa groaned, typing furiously in the background. In an instant, the intimidating gear shift re-pixilated itself into an automatic transmission. "There, now it's an automatic, that should make it easier for you to drive."

"How?!" Lincoln replied, feeling the sweat begin to bead on his forehead as the announcer signaled the race was about to begin.

"It's just like Lola's toy car! Put the lever in drive and then press the gas! I can't make it any simpler!" Lisa growled angrily. "I thought you were supposed to be good at video games!"

"I am, but I've only played racing games like, twice!" Lincoln replied. "And I wasn't actually DRIVING the car!"

"DRIVERS! WATCH THE LIGHT!" The announcer boomed, focusing Lincoln to the group of lights suspended above the road.

"All you have to do is win the race, Lincoln!" Lisa shouted over the revving of engines.

He took a deep breath, gripping the steering wheel in his fingerless-gloved hands.

"GO!"

Lincoln pressed the gas to the floor, his tires spinning as he rocketed off the starting line, pin-balling off of each car ahead of him until he blasted through the first turn barrier and squarely into a lightpole, the airbag exploding in his face as his vision darkened.

"Racer six, disqualified!"

The last words he remembered hearing before losing consciousness were: "We're going to need some practice..."

Lincoln woke up in small, dark room. The air smelled of used motor oil and car exhaust as he turned his head. A pin-up calendar hung on the wall across from him. He sat up, finding himself laid out on a cot. Thankfully, he felt no pain despite the fact that he had just been in a major car crash. The desk sitting in front of his cot near the door led him to believe he was in some dingy office, and the sound of pneumatic drills beyond the door hinted that he was taken to a garage.

"Lisa? Are you there?" he asked into the ether.

"I'm here, Lincoln. It looks like the first race was simply an unavoidable expositional tutorial designed to give your character some motivation. You would have lost the race regardless of your rather embarrassing start, so it didn't cost us any lives."

"Huh," He replied. "I guess that's good news. Where am I?"

"This appears to be the main menu, from here you can access the rest of the game."

'I know how a main menu works,' Lincoln thought in annoyance as he stood from the cot. He headed toward the door when he spotted a reflection in a framed picture of a 1967 Camaro SS. He looked closer at himself, then down at his feet. They certainly weren't that far away before! Looking back to the mirror, he noticed his facial features were somewhat more mature as well.

"Lisa, am I... an adult?" He asked.

"Obviously not, but for the purposes of this game, the AI has manipulated your projection to appear as a..." He could hear her typing away on her keyboard. "Seventeen year old."

"Wow..." he said, looking over his new muscles and clothes. He had spawned wearing chucks, jeans, a t-shirt, and a white jacket with a gold scorpion stitched on the back. After looking himself over in his reflection, a thought crossed his mind. If he was supposed to look seventeen, them maybe the rest of him did too. He hooked a thumb into the waistband of his jeans and underwear and pulled outwards. He looked down and gasped in horror.

"Lisa! What the... where's my... my..."

"Penis?" she completed.

Lincoln cringed. Even though she was well versed in anatomy, nothing prepares you to hear your sister mention your genitals.

"Yes," he completed softly.

"The AI only renders appendages necessary for game completion," she explained casually.

"But what if I have to pee?" he asked.

"Don't worry, I've taken the liberty of installing a catheter for you after you entered the game."

Lincoln felt sick.

"You... you mean you saw my..."

"Penis?"

"Stop saying that!"

"I don't know why you're getting so upset. The rest of our sister have them, too, it's only fair!"

Lincoln shuttered. "Lisa, are we really going to have to make Mom and Dad give you the 'boundaries' talk again?"

Lisa changed the subject quickly. "Now is not the time to bring that up, now get into that garage and go save Leni!"

He groaned, but knew she was right. He opened the door and stepped onto the floor of a greasy garage. The woman he recognized from before, at the starting line. She was bent over the hood of a car, clearly fixing it, although Lincoln had no idea how.

"Uh... hi?" he said nervously.

She tossed her wrench onto her toolbox with a clatter and turned to face him, her black hair in a ponytail and her midriff peeking out form her tank top. She folded her arms and glared at him for an uncomfortable amount of time before shouting.

"Have a good nap? Crash any cars in your dreams?"

"No...?"

"Luckily for you, I managed to fix the car, and you're lucky I can't drive with my busted leg, or you'd be out on your patoot!"

Lincoln winced. "Wait... did you just say... patoot?"

"The software runs speech scripts based on the sister in question's routine vocabulary."

"Oh..." Lincoln replied.

"Now, before you are even allowed to TOUCH the stingray again, you're going to take some practice laps in the old vega." She said, pointing to a primer colored clunker in the next maintenance back over.

"Looks like you have to prove yourself on the practice course before you can take on Leni," Lisa said.

Lincoln walked up to the car and touched the hood, causing a small screen to appear before him, just like the one at the level entrance.

ENTER PRACTICE MODE? Y/N

"Yes."

After a flash of light, Lincoln found himself in the drivers seat of the basic car he had been told to start in.

"Lincoln? How do you hear?" Lisa asked

"I can hear you, what do I have to do?" he replied.

"You need to complete the race faster than the allotted time in order to get a shot at beating Leni."

Seemed simple enough. "Really? Just beat the clock?" he asked.

"Well... there are some other obstacles," Lisa replied.

"Like what?"

"Well... other drivers... things like that."

Lincoln sighed. "Okay, let's get this started."

The christmas tree before him lit up, slowly counting down until the start of the race, the other drivers revved their engines at the starting line.

"Lincoln, if you time your acceleration with the green light, you can get a turbo start! Wait until right before the light turns green, then punch it!"

"Three... two... one... GO!"

Lincoln punched the gas, but unfortunately nothing happened.

"What the heck?" he asked.

"Put it in gear!" Lisa shouted.

Lincoln grabbed the gear shift and attempted to place it in first, only to have a horrific grinding noise greet him.

"The clutch, Lincoln! depress the clutch, then put it in gear!"

He pressed the clutch with his left foot, moved the shift to first and gunned it. Lincoln launched out of the gate, but unfortunately well behind the rest of the pack. The acceleration pushed him back into the seat as he gripped the steering wheel tightly.

"How do you go faster?" Lincoln shouted as the engine redlined.

"The same way you did at the starting line!" Lisa replied urgently.

Lincoln stomped on the clutch and shifted into second, then third as he caught up to the rest of the racers. "Okay Lincoln, draft behind the car in front of you then sling shot around him."

'Easier said than done!' he thought. Lincoln was bumper to bumper with the car ahead of him, a space opening up to his right. "Now Lincoln, go right!"

He shot to the outside of the track, downshifting and rocketing past three cars as he pushed his engine to the limit.

"Heck yeah!" Lincoln shouted as he gained ground on the lead NPC.

"Be careful! All we have to do is beat this tutorial and then we can take on Leni."

Lincoln gained ground on the leader before he swung his rear quarter panel around to Lincoln's hood.

"Oh C'mon! That's cheating!" Lincoln snapped to himself as he struggled to right his car and keep it on track.

"Hit him back, Lincoln! This is for Leni!"

He squared his jaw and gripped the wheel. He shifted up and gained ground on the leader, before tapping the leaders right rear bumper. Lincoln spun him out before speeding away. The out of control NPC proceeded to wreck the rest of the other racers.

In no time at all, Lincoln blasted across the finish line, his car automatically slowing down and driving itself along the course.

"Great job, Lincoln! We have a shot a facing Leni!"

Lincoln barely had time to celebrate before a flash of bright light removed him from the car. He found himself back in the garage, the 'not Ronnie Anne' was standing in front of him, in the first car he raced and then crashed.

"Alright nerd, I fixed up the car for the big race." She stepped toward him and got uncomfortably close. "And you better not wreck it this time!"

Lincoln swallowed nervously. "N-no problem."

Another flash, and Lincoln found himself back in the drivers seat of the first car he was in, same position on the starting line.

"Think you, like, got what it takes?" A voice from beside him said, startling him nearly into the roof. Leni glared at him through his passenger window. Her all pink racing outfit shining brightly in the midday sun, her helmet stuck beneath her arm.

"Leni?" Lincoln asked after regaining his senses.

"That's right! And you, and everyone else are about to like, totes eat my dust."

"Leni, don't you recognize me?"

She giggled. "Duh, no. I recognize that you're gonna be like, behind me the hold time!" With that, she walked back to her car, waving to the gathered crowd and stopping to taunt the other drivers in her own 'Leni' way.

"I guess none of the others will be recognizing me either?" she asked.

"I'm unable to say for sure, but I wouldn't count on it. The AI is going to try its damndest to keep you from completing the game."

"So why wouldn't the game just kill me now?" he asked, the christmas tree at the starting line illuminating in front of him and the other racers.

"The AI still has to follow the game parameters, which are secured from any attempt to alter or change them. They're safe from the AI, but also out of reach for me as well," Lisa replied.

Before he could respond, the light turned green, and slammed the gas, although far more measurable than the last time. Instead of careening off the guardrail, he matched the rest of the pack and began making his way towards the front of the pack. In the bottom right corner of his vision, a small mini-map helped guide him around the course.

'So far so good,' he thought to himself, catching glimpses of Leni's car at the front of the race.

"Lisa, how many laps until the race is over?"

"It's not a lapped race, it's point to point."

"How much longer?" he asked, focusing on passing the car ahead of him.

"I... can't tell, the AI is tampering with the... uh oh."

This alarmed him. "Uh oh? What do you mean UH OH?" he asked, panic rising in his voice.

"Just keep your eyes on the road, I need a second!" Lisa snapped back, the tapping of her fingers on her keyboard serving a cadence to Lincoln's own labored breaths.

"Lincoln, you've got a ramp to your right coming up, you have to hit it at exactly ninety five miles an hour."

"That seems pretty dangerous!" he replied.

"I am aware, but the short cut will put you in the lead."

He could see the ramp coming up. A racer ahead of him attempted to take it, the ramp shot directly into a tunnel, there was no room for error. The NPC launched off the ramp, but wasn't properly lined up. The car exploded on the side of the cliff as Lincoln drew closer to the decision point.

He took a deep breath and steeled himself, his knuckles white as he gripped the wheel.

"You better be right, Lisa!"

Lincoln felt the jolt as he took the ramp, and before he knew it, had become weightless, the racing harness the only thing keeping him in the seat as he floated upward.

In moments, the car slammed back onto the ground and jarred him from side to side, sparks flying from the rear exhaust pipes as they scraped the rocks. The front end rocked back and forth, but Lincoln managed to regain control as he sped down the tunnel. There were perhaps six inches of clearance on each side of the car as he rocketed down the narrow rocky corridor. The light at the end was growing larger as he blasted out of the tunnel, experiencing weightlessness one more time before steering himself back onto the road, ahead of Leni and the rest of the pack.

"All right, I'm in the lead! How long till the finish line?" Lincoln asked again. "Looks like a few more miles, but I wouldn't relax just yet; the AI is cooking up something, I can see the code forming in the background of the program."

"Something like what?" Lincoln asked. Ahead of him, and explosion blew out his right window and created a crater in the road he narrowly avoided.

"Like that! Lincoln, you've got an armed helicopter to your three o'clock!" Lisa shouted, her brother barely calming the drifting caused by his evasive maneuver.

"What kind of racing game is this?!" Lincoln snapped back, weaving and zig-zagging down the road as bullets tore up the road on either side of him.

"Lisa, you gotta get this thing off of me!" he shouted, still narrowly avoiding the attack helicopter.

"I'm working on it!" In moments, the young prodigy had formulated a plan. "Lincoln, the car will follow the road without your guidance, look in the back seat!"

Lincoln cautiously removed his hands from the wheel. Once he was sure her plan would work, he undid his racing harness and twisted around in his bucket seat. Behind his seat, in a foam block, sat an rocket propelled grenade.

"Are you serious?!" Lincoln barked to his sister.

"Do you have a better way to destroy a helicopter?" Lisa shot back. "You only get one shot, make it count!"

Lincoln groaned to himself as he wrestled the RPG from the case and put it on his shoulder. He leaned out of the shattered passenger window and took aim at the helicopter.

"How do I shoot this thing?"

"Just aim and pull the trigger!" Lisa replied.

Lincoln held his breath, and tried to align his shot before the rocket fired out of the tube on his shoulder. The rocket spiraled away from his vehicle, turning the aircraft into a ball of fire, falling towards earth. An explosion rocked the earth behind him, taking out a few cars. Barreling through the flames in hot pursuit came a lone survivor: Leni's car.

'Well ,at least she's still okay.' Lincoln thought, continuing to drive. "How much longer until the finish line?"

"Two miles, but I wouldn't relax yet," Lisa said.

"Why...?" He asked, though sighed heavily as he received his answer. The road in front of him rose to form a full loop, multiple high banked curves, and corkscrew curves.

"Oh come on!"

"Get back in the driver's seat Lincoln!, I can't program fast enough to keep up with the track the AI is producing!" Lisa spat urgently into his ear.

Lincoln scrambled back into the drivers seat and buckled his racing harness just in time for the really wild part of the track to begin.

He kept the pedal to the floor as he approached the massive loop. "Lisa, is anything going to try and kill me while I'm upside down?"

"I can't say for sure, but the AI is constantly evolving, keep an eye out!"

'Comforting...' Lincoln thought as he traversed the first loop. The speed sucked him down against his seat as he rocketed up the approach end of the loop. as he crested it, he felt the zero gravity begin to take hold, but was quickly replaced by positive gravity as he came back down and navigated the obstacle.

"Lincoln, Leni is gaining on you!" Lisa barked.

Lincoln looked to his rear view mirror, and noticed his sister gaining ground.

"What do I do?" he asked frantically.

"Drive faster!" Lisa shouted.

"It's pegged!" he replied, his foot to the floor.

"Then hit her!"

Lincoln was alarmed at the very suggestion. "I thought I was supposed to be saving her!"

"Lincoln, to break the AI's code, you have to meet the victory condition! Leni is controlled by the system now, and no matter what it takes, you have to win!"

Leni's car was nearly beside him at that point. He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, if only for a moment. Just to flush the tears from them. He glanced at his side view mirror, Leni racing up beside him. He had to do this. He had to save her.

Lincoln twisted the wheel towards her, his car lurching across the track. His door slammed against Leni's hot pink car, sending her careening off the track and into the ditch in a cloud of dust and smoke.

He gritted his teeth as the smoke rose in his mirror. "She's still okay, right?" Lincoln asked Lisa.

"Of course she is, Lincoln," she replied. "That wasn't Leni, you have to remember that."

He sighed as the finish line came into view. There was no one else around but himself and his vehicle. Freeing Leni would make it all worth it. His car blasted through the finish line.

'Player 2 Wins!' flashed across his eyes as the car began to pixelate around him.

"Leni's coming out of it, I'll be right back!" Lisa said, clambering away from her keyboard. The hub world swirled back into focus around him. Leni's door began to disappear in front of him. 'Well, one down,' he thought to himself, waiting for Lisa to return. He walked around the platform, choosing carefully which sister he would free next.

He stood firmly in front Lola's door. He figured competing in a beauty pageant or braiding hair wouldn't be terribly difficult.

"Lincoln, are you there?" Lisa asked, coming back online.

"Yeah, I'm going to get Lola next." He said. "How's Leni?"

"She's still asleep, but she's been successfully disconnected." Lisa replied. "She should only be out for a few hours while she recovers."

"Sounds good," Lincoln said, reaching out for the pink door with her trademark tiara on it.

"Lincoln, wait!" Lisa shouted.

"What?" he asked, his hand resting just above the door.

"Now that you've saved one of them, the AI knows you're here," she began. "the closer we come to the final victory condition, the harder it's going to work to stop you."

Lincoln took a deep breath. "I know, but I don't have a choice."

                                                                  -Lola-

Lincoln touched the door to Lola's game. The same screen appeared in front of him.

"Player 2 Ready?"

Lincoln confirmed, and was transported back into the virtual realm, wondering what awaited him on the other side.

Lincoln felt his legs walking, and his hands holding cold metal as he moved. Something weighed heavily on his head as the rest of his senses came back. The first thing he saw was the back of another soldier. Soon after, his hearing returned.

"Hi ho, lock and load!" a authoritative voice called out.

"Hi ho lock and load!" everyone around him repeated.

"The engines are running we're ready to goooooo!"

"The engines are running we're ready to goooooo!"

"Kill the enemy, take control!"

"Kill the enemy, take control!"

"So early, so early, so early in the morning!"

"Lincoln, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, what the heck is going on?" He asked, attempting to stay in step with the people around him. He at least had the sense to know he was in some kind of military game. "I thought this was Lola's game?"

"It is Lola's game."

Lincoln was floored. How could that be possible?

"Then where the heck is Lola?"

"I can't say for certain." Lisa replied. "I'm running a scan, but I have nothing yet."

He continued to walk, simply following the soldier in front of him. Looking at him, the uniform seemed to be a simple green pattern, and he recognized the weapon he was holding from a documentary he had watched with his father. "Wait a second, am I going to have to shoot Lola?" he asked nervously.

"I can't say for sure, but..." Lisa hesitated. "You need to be prepared to if that's the victory condition."

Lincoln swallowed. "So I'm going to have to kill her, to save her life?"

"Look, let's not focus on that," Lisa replied. "Let's focus on figuring out how to play this game and beat it."

Before long, Lincoln's formation came to a stop, among other formations in front of a stage, a massive flag draped behind it.

"You've got to be kidding..." Lincoln said to himself, spotting his six year old sister Lola standing in front of a stand of microphones, in a general's uniform.

"Men, today, you have the high honor, of being given the chance to lay down your life for your country," Lola announced in a grandiose fashion. "Some of you will die for your country. Some of you will be horribly maimed for your country. Some of you will be forced through a fine mesh screen for your country. Theirs is the greatest honor of all."

'She could really use work on her motivational speeches,' Lincoln thought to himself.

"Well, I found Lola," Lincoln said. "Looks like I don't have to shoot her, but I'm still not sure what my role is here."

"We'll find out soon enough," Lisa replied.