Adrian was back in his room shortly after, and turned his desktop on again. As it came to life behind the whirring of the case fans, he gathered his notebooks and a pen, flipping open the notebook with a blue cover. Inside were several pages of handwritten notes, most written during his past semester classes. The newest ones were from Raven's impromptu playtest.
After setting his phone down, he gave the notebook a once-over. The earliest pages were ideas he had for the mod he was making, some with marks and short comments nearby. The next had a formula he'd found for how the base game weapons had their damage range calculated. The same pair of pages had damage ranges he thought would be good for similar weapons; the two after that had names he'd thought up for a few new weapons and items, with one, The Silver Hawk, marked as playable.
Raven spoke up as Adrian reached the notes he'd taken during the AI's playtest. “Is Adrian Ritter Reading Something?”
“Yeah. Some notes I've taken for that mod you played.”
“Are These Notes Within The Desktop?”
“No, they're strictly pen-and-paper.” After a moment, he added, “Do you want to see some of them?”
“This One Does Desire That.”
At that, Adrian got a face-to-face call going, then hovered the phone's camera over the notebook while he flipped pages. “I can't make all of this work this early,” he said after a short time.
“Why Would That Be?”
“I'm starting simple, making sure the basics work before I have too much to think about.”
“What Would Adrian Ritter Consider To Be The Basics?”
“A mostly complete list of items and weapons a player can find. I have a template for one already,” Adrian then pointed at the Silver Hawk listing in his notes. “You were using it during the playtest the other day.”
“How Many More Items Is Adrian Ritter Planning To Create?”
“In all? No idea just yet, but once I have at least three new items and weapons, I can run some more playtests.”
“Could This One Assist With This Task?”
Though he saw no harm in it, Adrian was quick to doubt the idea. Raven would have little to no idea what he was interested in making. “Depends. Watch what I do for a little bit first.” Raven didn't respond, even with a text file, after Adrian connected his phone to his desktop.
He then navigated the mouse cursor to the editor program with his mod's files and code. It opened to the Silver Hawk's code page, which he scrolled up and down to re-familiarize with what he'd built.

ACTOR SilverHawk : Weapon
{
Inventory.PickupMessage “Got The Silver Hawk!”
Weapon.AmmoType “Bullets”
// Consider 2 bullets per shot for damage boost.
Weapon.AmmoUse 1
Weapon.SlotNumber 2
Weapon.Cost 500
AttackSound “weapons/pistolgf”
States
{

“This is what most weapon code looks like,” Adrian said, even though he wasn't sure Raven could hear him. He then turned a few pages of his notes, landing on an energy weapon he wanted to design next. After making a copy of the Silver Hawk code and pasting it into the code document, he spaced the sections out, then went line by line, making changes as needed.

ACTOR GaussRifle : Weapon replaces Chainsaw
{
Inventory.PickupMessage “Got The Gauss Rifle!”
Weapon.AmmoType “Cells”
Weapon.AmmoUse 5
Weapon.AmmoGive 40
Weapon.SlotNumber 6
Weapon.Cost 5500
// Use half BFG shot cooldown length
States
{

Raven remained silent throughout the edits; Adrian now found himself glancing at his phone here and there, expecting the AI to make some kind of comment, either in voice or in text. Before long, he wondered if Raven was silently copying him while observing his coding decisions. With that question in mind, he let his expectation of the AI offering him something to test sit in the back of his mind.
His next step was getting the sprites he'd sourced into the project and tagging them to the new weapon. After each one was named, tagged at their centers, then added to the code sheet to force a delay between shots, Adrian took a minute to double check everything. He added a comment near the new weapon's ammo cost, a consideration to lower the ammo per shot to 4 if it didn't feel just right.
He then saved the project and used the 'Compile' command to build a repository file from everything he'd added. Within a second came the 'ding' sound that meant it was ready. “Gonna test this new version real quick. Make sure everything looks good.”
The new file was moved into the folder where the game it needed was stored. Once it was dropped on top of the game's executable, it started up. Adrian hurried through the title screen into the game itself, making sure to select the second hardest difficulty for more enemy spawns. Ahead of him were four enemies he could test the weapon on, and after a turn left and some movement forward, he saw the side view sprite for his Gauss Rifle.
As it was picked up, the weapon's 'ready' sprite scrolled up into view. Adrian couldn't help smiling alongside his on-screen avatar. That's two. It should do some good damage. After he lined up a shot with one of the enemies, he clicked the mouse. The weapon fired once, taking five energy cells as he expected, and turning the enemy he used it on into mush. The mush sprites were pushed back considerably further than he thought, however. Oh, gotta turn down the force this thing applies to bodies. The delay he'd programmed between shots, a little over two-thirds of a second by the game's timing logic, seemed reasonable, though the firing sound he made a note of to change to something more fitting.
Adrian then backed up and used a cheat to give himself every weapon and max ammo before turning the rifle on the rest of the enemies shooting at him. After a few more attacks, how far the shots flung dead bodies had begun to make him snicker. Maybe I'll keep it like this just for fun. He paused for a moment to make a note about it.
Raven at last spoke via the phone as Adrian made it to a secret outside area of the level. “Does Adrian Ritter Feel This New Weapon Is Good?”
“I can't say just yet. It is fun to use, though.”
“What Else Is Adrian Ritter Seeking To Know?”
“How much damage I'm doing per shot.”
Before he could say he had a mod that displayed such information, Raven began sending messages via the in-game text channel. He caught a glimpse of 'This One Will Show Last 10 Damage Totals' before it was replaced with one of the new messages. In rapid succession, twelve messages were sent.
Adrian then brought up the console with the tilde key. Along with Raven's initial message and the ten last damage rolls, the AI had added, “Damage Range Is 25 To 200; Average Is 115.”
“Thanks, Raven. That's the outcome I was expecting from this.”
“This One Is Glad To Help.” The AI then said, “Would Adrian Ritter Be Willing To Test A Creation Of This One?”
Yep, thought so. “You made one of these?”
“Yes. This One Was Observing As Adrian Ritter Built New Code, And Was Inspired To Do Likewise.”
A small smile worked its way onto Adrian's face. “I had a feeling you were. Did you save the code in that folder we set up?” After Raven responded that it had, Adrian found the text document and opened it.

ACTOR LaserPistol : Weapon replaces Chainsaw
{
Inventory.PickupMessage “Laser Pistol Acquired”
Weapon.AmmoType “Cells”
Weapon.AmmoUse 2
Weapon.AmmoGive 40
Weapon.SlotNumber 2
Weapon.Cost 2250
States
{

As Adrian continued reading and checking the code, he noticed Raven's limitations with visual resources. We'll handle that later. “I like this idea. Let's add it in and I'll let you test it.” Once the project was compiled again, Adrian loaded it into the game's launcher. This time, it didn't finish the loading process, stopping on an error code. “Uh, oh.”
“This One's Code Was Faulty?”
“Um...” Though the error was identifying 'actor' as the problem, Adrian drew a blank on what the full issue was. “I can't say. Here, let me try something.” He changed the new weapon's slot to six, recompiled the mod and tried again. The same error occurred. “Okay, so it's not the slot that's the problem. I know the name's not the issue either.”
“Adrian Ritter Has Fixed Such Problems Before?”
“Usually after a lot of poking and trying things, yeah. That's just how it goes.” Adrian then gave himself a minute to think. What wasn't he considering? Raven's code was just like his. It shouldn't have... “Oh, right. I think I know what the issue is.”
“What Was The Cause?”
“I didn't put your Laser Pistol code into the same page where my Gauss Rifle's code was.” Adrian then went to work, moving the code where it needed to be. “Everything with the same actor tag has to be on the same code page, otherwise that error appears. That's how the game was designed.” Once he was done, he pulled up his Silver Hawk code and added it to the page as well, checking all three afterwards before compiling the project once more. Better remove those replace lines too...
“That should fix the crashing issue.” Adrian said as he loaded his mod. He was proven right when the game loaded to the main menu. “Yep. Problem solved.”
“This One Is Relieved. May This One Take Over And Play?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
As Raven began a new game, and used a cheat to give itself a full inventory, it was soon clear it had a preference for its custom weapon. It made short work of weak enemies with it, and the gun held up fairly against anything with more health. All the while, Adrian kept his notebooks nearby, ready to jot down anything he needed to.
As Raven made it to the halfway point of the second level, Adrian asked, “How about we look for some custom sprites for the pistol you built?”
“Adrian Ritter Knows Where To Find Some?”
“One site in particular, yeah. Last time I was there, I saw something that could work.”
At that, Raven found a safe spot, then saved and quit the game. Adrian meanwhile plugged his ethernet cable back in, Raven telling him a connection was being established as his computer set up the details.
Once his browser was reopened, he noticed the tab icon of the website he'd been on when Raven said it appeared in his system. Something poked at him to go there instead, but he held the urge back. “Pretty sure it was this...” Adrian said as he began to enter the website address. His browser filled it in for him after entering three letters. The website loaded to a landing page with several category tabs for free-to-use sprites; the first page under 'weapons' had several dozen options in alphabetical order, though only two were visible at first. “Hmm.”
“This One Sees Several Entries With Pistol In The Name.” Raven said after a moment. Adrian was quick to assume the AI had scanned the page's code, and asked which one it wanted him to look at. “This One Believes The Bolt Pistol Is The Best Option.”
The design Raven had picked was a white recolor of the basic pistol, slimmed down a little on the sides and with glowing parts along the frame and slide. The animation frames suggested no recoil had been considered as the default. No laser beam sprites... “Yeah, we could use this.”
After the repository was downloaded, Adrian checked out the rest of the page. There were several more pistol designs, though none looked better than what Raven had chosen. The second page was much the same, until Adrian found a newer submission that held his interest.
“Adrian Ritter Has An Idea For That Design?” Raven asked as he downloaded the repository.
“Kinda. It's an M1 Garand, one of my favorite rifles. Even if I don't use it, it looks too good to pass up.”
After a few more minutes, the rest of the weapon submissions were checked. Adrian saved several more, though made it a point to mention that he wouldn't add them just yet.
“Are There Other Sites With Similar Libraries?”
“Probably, but this one already has a lot of stuff. Decompiling mods to find more is always an option too.”
“The Program This One And Adrian Ritter Were Using Can Do That?”
“Yep, and then some.” A few seconds passed before Adrian asked, “While we're online, I'm gonna check the website I was on when you said you entered my computer.”
“What Was Adrian Ritter Doing That Night?” Raven asked as Adrian clicked on the tab.
“Arguing, you could say.” The tab finished loading before he continued. His notifications tab was marked with a 3. That post got some attention. “I was on the site's forums, typing up a response to someone.”
“Adrian Ritter Uses This Site Often?”
“Depends. I was on it recently because there's a section of the site with old-school gaming fans, game designers as well, and I like chatting with them.”
“Why Would Adrian Ritter State He Was Arguing, Then?”
Instead of immediately answering, Adrian checked his notifications. Several users had reacted to his last post, at least two with 'notches', the site's version of a karma system. The other two notifications were for direct replies to his post.
“Because I was trying to explain something, and the guy on the other side just wasn't getting it.” Adrian then reconsidered reading the replies. He wasn't in the mood to argue things, digital or otherwise.
As he changed tabs, he heard his phone sound a message received notification.
“Hey Adrian, it's Emma.”
Heh. She beat us to it. Adrian responded with, “Hey. Your folks stop to get dinner?”
“Yeah, we did. Dad gave me your number.”
Suspecting his aunt and uncle didn't know about the argument, Adrian made the decision not to mention it. Raven then texted him a question. “May This One Reply To Emma?” When Adrian gave his okay, the AI replied under his name with a prefix. “(Raven) Hello Emma.”
“Hey Raven.”
“(Raven) This One Is Glad To Know Emma Desired The Same Thing This One Did.”
When Emma replied with just a question mark, Adrian replied, “Raven wanted to ask for your number before you guys left, to keep in touch.”
Emma took a little longer to reply. “Gotta go. We're next to order.”
“Alright. We'll talk more later, then.” Adrian then asked Raven, “You want me to show you how to program sprite alignments?”
“This One Would Enjoy That.”
As Adrian decompiled the Bolt Pistol and looked through its assets, a pop-up appeared on his desktop, saying the internet connection was down. Suspecting it was just an external hitch, he waited several seconds, but nothing changed.
“Raven, did you turn off my ethernet connection?” Adrian asked. Raven didn't respond. What's going on? Adrian then went into his network settings, finding his ethernet connection was disabled. Suspecting Raven had noticed something and cut the connection to keep them safe from it, he opened his anti-virus suite and began a scan of his desktop. He also opened his simple text editor, and asked the same question in text form.
He received no answer, until several seconds later, and on a new notepad window.
“Adrian, Another Intelligence Is Within This Device. Its Intentions Are Unknown.”

==================================

With his cousin and her parents now homeward bound, and the argument with Ben still on both his and Raven's minds, Adrian heads to his room and resumes working on his game mod, bringing Raven into the creative fold.

==================================

After thinking it over, this will be the actual ending to Book 1 of Adrian and Raven's story. A lot has happened in just one day, and it will get fuller still with what's coming up, so best to leave it here for Book 2.

==================================

Raven's Voice Lines / https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....rzP7o?e=xMLkpd

(The last line wasn't voiced in the text, but I made it so here.)