LENI

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!"