Chapter Text
Caine had outdone himself. The "adventure" was a high-speed chase through The Neon Nebula, a world of floating platforms and gravity-defying loops. Everyone was strapped into "Hover-Karts" that looked like giant pieces of fruit.
"Alright, my digital daredevils!" Caine boomed, his eyes spinning like slot machines. "The first one to reach the finish line wins a LIFETIME SUPPLY OF VIRTUAL AIR!"
Gangle sat in her grape-shaped kart, her mask feeling firm and steady. Beside her, Jax was in a cherry-red kart. Usually, this was where he’d be throwing banana peels at Kinger or mocking Pomni’s driving.
But Jax was just... staring at his steering wheel.
"Jax?" Gangle called out over the roar of the digital wind. "The race is starting."
Jax didn't look at her. His hands, usually so nimble and quick to cause trouble, were gripped onto the wheel so hard the plastic was creaking. The purple static from the week before wasn't just on his arm anymore—it was crawling up his neck, flickering like a dying lightbulb.
"3... 2... 1... GOOOOO!"
The karts peeled off. Everyone zoomed ahead, but Jax just sat there. His kart started to drift, not forward, but sideways, hovering dangerously close to the edge of the nebula track.
Gangle slammed on her brakes, her kart screeching to a halt beside him. "Jax! Move! You’re going to fall!"
Jax finally turned his head. But he wasn't looking at Gangle. His eyes were wide, the pupils flickering between their usual yellow and a dull, human brown.
"I don't... I don't remember how to drive," he whispered. His voice was stripped of all its sarcasm. It sounded small. It sounded young. "Gangle, why is the sky that color? It’s not supposed to be that color. It’s supposed to be... blue. With clouds that don't move."
"Jax, you're glitching," Gangle said, her ribbons reaching out to grab the side of his kart. "It’s just Caine’s adventure. It’s not real."
"None of it is real," Jax muttered, his hand let go of the wheel and reached up to his face, clawing at his own fur. "I’m not a rabbit. Why am I a rabbit? I had a... I had a dog. A golden one. What was its name?"
A massive, sentient bowling ball—one of Caine's obstacles—came hurtling down the track toward them.
"Jax, look out!"
Jax didn't even flinch. He just kept staring at his hand, watching the purple pixels eat away at his glove. "I think I’m disappearing, Gangle. And I can’t remember the dog’s name."
The giant bowling ball was roaring down the track, a sphere of polished obsidian reflecting the neon madness of the Nebula. It was going to flatten them both.
"JAX! MOVE!" Gangle screamed, but Jax was paralyzed, his eyes locked on the static eating his hands. He looked like he was drifting away into his own mind.
Gangle didn't think. She didn't have the "Tragedy" mask to make her hesitate with doubt. She stood up in her grape-kart, her ribbons snapping out like whips. She latched onto the headrest of Jax’s cherry-red kart and launched herself across the digital void.
For a split second, she was airborne—a pink streak against a sky that shouldn't be that color.
She slammed into the seat beside Jax just as the bowling ball loomed over them like a falling moon. She shoved Jax’s limp form to the side, her ribbons wrapping around the steering wheel with the strength of steel cables.
"NOT TODAY, CAINE!"
Gangle yanked the wheel hard to the left. The kart tilted on two wheels, sparks flying as the underside scraped the neon track. The bowling ball whizzed past them, missing the back of the kart by a fraction of an inch, and plummeted off the edge of the Nebula with a distant, echoing thud.
The kart stabilized, but Jax was slumped against the side, his breathing coming in ragged, digital gasps. The purple static was now pulsing in time with his heartbeat.
"The dog..." Jax choked out, his head lolling back. "His name was... Barnaby. Or... Bailey. I can almost... see the collar..."
"Jax, look at me!" Gangle commanded. She let go of the wheel with one ribbon to grab his face, forcing him to look at the "Hardened Logic" mask. "Look at the mask! Focus on the lines. Focus on the code. You are here. You are in the Circus. You are Jax."
Jax’s pupils flickered. He looked at the smooth, unbreakable surface of her face—the thing he had made. It was the only solid thing in his world of flickering memories.
"Gangle?" he whispered, his voice returning to its normal pitch, though it was shaking. "Why are you... driving? You’re a terrible driver."
Gangle let out a breath she didn't know a digital avatar could hold. "I'm a great driver. You’re just a terrible passenger."
She didn't let go of the wheel. She kept one ribbon firmly on the steering and the other anchored to Jax’s arm, acting as a ground for his static.
"I'm getting us out of this adventure," Gangle said firmly. "And then you and I are having a very long talk about your 'dog.'"