“Kat, I built that courthouse as a memorial to my friend who sacrificed his life to save me from King Kev! I am not going to let a pig poop on the front steps!” said Stan in exasperation as Charlie laughed. Stan seriously wondered whether she was joking.
“Fine. Ooh! Better idea!” said Kat, her mouth wide open in an elated grin. “Let’s go over to the Apothecary Memorial Fountain … and have Ivanhoe defecate in the water!”
“NO!” cried Stan as Charlie clutched his sides in his hysterics. “The Apothecary saved my life too!”
“Good point. Ooh! I know!” cried Kat, her face glowing with amusement as she glanced at Charlie.
“Does it involve a pig taking a dump on something I built to honour my dead friends?” Stan asked, taking in just how ridiculous it was that he should have to ask such a question, as Charlie rolled on the ground laughing. Prolonged exposure to Oob the NPC villager had made Charlie susceptible to laughter at these kinds of jokes, a fact that Kat used to her advantage often.
“Wait, you have more dead friends? Well, I suppose we could go down to the Adorian Village or to Steve Memorial Farm …”
“Do you have a real idea, Kat?” Stan asked as Charlie pulled himself up and regained his composure.
“OK, OK. The Mechanist told me he’s unveiling his new machine today!” exclaimed Kat.
“You mean the one he’s been building in the park?” Charlie asked. “That’s being finished today?”
“That’s the one,” replied Kat. “I’m thinking we should spend the first part of the day seeing whatever that is.”
“Sounds like a plan!” said Stan, and Charlie nodded his approval. Together, the three friends turned and walked in the direction of the park where the Mechanist had spent all his free time for weeks, building a mysterious contraption. On the way, the talk turned to the Spleef Tournament.
“Oh, there’s no doubt about it, DZ is the best player on our team,” Kat assured Stan. “He was brought down by a lucky shot in that last match, I would be shocked if something like that ever happened again.”
“Regardless of who’s the best player, there’s no denying you three are the best team, right?” asked Stan. “I mean, you guys did those combo attacks like they were second nature, and the other team barely did anything!”
“Yes, and you’ll notice that we moved on, and they didn’t,” said Kat with a grimace. “We’ve got a long, hard road ahead of us, Stan. We only have two matches left, and we’re gonna have to put our noses to the grindstone if we want to have a chance of beating our next opponent.”
“Who is your next opponent, by the way?” asked Charlie. “I know that the only teams left in the tournament are the Bats, the Skeletons, the Ocelots, and you guys. But who are you up against next?”
“The Ocelots,” replied Kat. “I think that of the four of us, they’re probably tied with us and the Skeletons for the best. I don’t think the Skeletons will have any problems beating the Bats.”
“You can’t know that,” said Stan reasonably. “There’s always a chance the Bats get lu … oh, man,” he breathed as the three of them walked into a shadow and paused.
They were standing in the shadow of a giant box in the middle of the public park. The front was a square, nine blocks high by fifteen blocks long, composed entirely of redstone lamps. Protruding from this was a black box that extended twenty blocks back and probably contained the redstone wiring of the machine, which Stan assumed extended far underground. The machine was the only thing that extended up from the flat ground of the sunlit courtyard, besides the now dark lampposts that lined the sides of the gravel roads that crossed the grass park. As such, the machine commanded a good deal of attention from those strolling through the park.
“Beautiful, ain’t she?” came the smooth voice that Stan recognized as the Mechanist’s. He was leaning on a black wool table in front of the machine. On this table were two levers and a button.
“Man, Mechanist,” said Charlie as the trio walked over to him. “I don’t even know what this thing does yet and I’m already impressed!”
“Thanks, Charlie,” said the Mechanist, looking up at the towering electric marvel with a smile. “This thing’s my baby. Easily the most impressive thing I’ve built since the redstone supercomputer.”
“What does it do?” asked Stan, his interest piqued.
“Well, how’d you like to test it out? Stan, you take the lever on the left, Charlie, the one on the right,” said the Mechanist, and he gestured to the two levers, which the boys ran over to and enthusiastically clutched.
“Now, press the button, and let the magic begin,” said the Mechanist, stepping back next to Kat as the two of them prepared to watch the invention on its maiden run. Stan watched in awe as the screen of the mechanism flashed on and off at strobe speed before settling on what could only be the game screen. A single light shined in the centre of the screen, while two vertical lines three lights high glowed on opposite sides.
From somewhere within the mechanized obelisk, a series of note block chimes rang out in a catchy melody, and the Mechanist said, with glee in his voice, “Push the levers up and down.”
Stan pushed up on the lever on his side, and the effect was instantaneous. The line on his side of the screen moved to the top in a fluid animation. Stan saw the line on the other side of the screen move downwards. Charlie had pulled down on his lever simultaneously. Stan now realized what this game was. He had his hand firmly grasped on the lever when the dot of light in the centre of the screen flew upwards and to the right, then bounced off the top of the screen and came down to the left. Stan pulled down on his lever and the line of lights on his side sank down to his side of the screen. The bouncing ball of light struck the line of Stan’s lights and ricocheted off towards Charlie’s line as Charlie manoeuvred it to return the ball towards Stan.
“You made Pong!” exclaimed Charlie in wonder as he scored his first point on Stan, and a light lit up the top of his side indicating that a point had been earned.
“That I did,” replied the Mechanist. “I call it my Tennis Machine. Was absolute torture developing a point-tracking system, but I think I did all right. What say you guys?”
“This is awesome!” replied Stan.
“Yeah, I can’t believe you figured all this out! Is there nothing you can’t do?” asked Charlie.
“That is what I like to tell myself. Mostly for morale, but still,” said the Mechanist with a smirk.
“Well, you’re right,” said Stan, devoting his last ounce of attention to the response before becoming totally engrossed in the game. It was a blowout. Charlie was exceptionally skilled at the game, which was, indeed, a perfect replica of Pong. After the first game, Kat took Stan’s place, and she was much more closely matched to Charlie than Stan was. In fact, she was tied with him, and was about to score when a shout rang out from behind Stan.
“Hey, Kat! What’re you doing?”
Kat whipped around to face G, ignoring the fact that Charlie had scored on her and won the game. “G? What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you!” replied G. He sounded irritated. “You promised that you’d spend some time with me soon. And, well, it’s your day off. Here I am.” And he opened his arms in front of him. Charlie rolled his eyes as he gave up his spot on the machine to two pedestrians who asked for a turn to play the game.
“Wait a second. G, today isn’t your day off. Why aren’t you with the council?” Kat said.
“Oh, I changed it so that I could spend the entire day with you,” said G with a grin. “Frankly, Jayden, Archie and DZ seemed a little upset. But who cares? Spending time with you is more important than stupid