Opposite Sides of the Track

Chapter One: Novocaine

Vanellope knew that she had bigger things to worry about. And so did Hiro. But something inside her still died a little when she saw Hiro and Penny (his new girlfriend) kissing. She knew she should have seen it coming; Vanellope had been feeling like the third wheel for some time now. But she always thought that Hiro would wait until he was older; Hiro didn't seem like the type of person to date at age 14 (or 10, even, if you wanted to begin when they first met). By then she would have worked up enough courage to ask him out (the Sugar Gods knew that he wasn't asking her).

But, Vanellope thought to herself, it's not gonna matter. I'll be gone by then.

The thought took her by surprise; she hadn't actually ever thought about actually doing… well… doing what she'd been offered.

Vanellope wasn't really a person that abided by the law. She pickpocketed, shoplifted, made illegal bets, hacked into systems, and, well, you get the point. One day she'd been caught hacking into a game system. Not much really. It wasn't a big company. Or so she thought. As it turned out, it wasn't a game system at all; rather, a recruiting center. Anyone with the mind that made it in was offered a job. The game was sent to anyone they thought could make it. Apparently, they began considering her when they caught her pickpocketing a man. They only issue? She'd have to leave.

And, oh yeah, it was basically a villain training camp.

Vanellope wasn't told anything else in case she said no. And she did. But the man gave her a number to call in case Vanellope changed her mind. But it was just an all around bad situation. It was illegal and she'd have to leave home.

Well, do you really want to be around to help Hiro pick out Penny's wedding ring? the same voice in her head as before sneered, Besides, you've been wanting to leave here all your life.

Vanellope was beginning to sweat. She was being absolutely ridiculous. Hiro and Penny were a one time thing. She highly doubted they would get married. They met at 14 for Mod's sake! But the voice in her head had said something right; she'd been wanting to leave for as long as she could remember. There was something she'd never told Hiro- or anyone that didn't know by default in that matter. She was an orphan. Vanellope wasn't told how, but, considering her earliest memories began in a foster home, she suspected it was an abandoned-at-birth situation. Vanellope hated her foster home. Her foster father verbally abused her and his daughter hated her with a burning passion. That life was a living hell. Vanellope had dreamed of leaving. Before Hiro came along.

Vanellope wasn't the love at first sight kind of gal, and she still stood by that. Hiro had been your classic boy-next-door. Inviting you over to play video games, arcade goings, that sort of thing. Hiro was new and didn't know a thing about Vanellope or her foster father or her foster father's daughter. He was a clean slate. So, yes, she did… what would be the right word… take to him immediately. Of course, this caused Vanellope to go to great measures to make sure Hiro never found out, but it was worth it. But remember the classic boy next door comment? Yeah, that's a huge factor. Penny, an ex-child actress, moved into the neighborhood. Oh, and let's straighten this out, by "neighborhood" Vanellope meant uptown San Fransokyo, where it was smaller, and restaurants (Hiro's home) next to homes weren't entirely uncommon. Well, anyway, Penny had moved in and Hiro, automatically, invited her over.

Penny didn't really get the whole robotics part like Vanellope did, but, she guessed, Hiro just liked her better. Plus, it wasn't like Penny wasn't willing to learn; she was definitely interested. Vanellope mentally groaned. Hiro had been her only friend. What was left here to do? Watch?

"Yoo, hoo, Earth to Nell," Hiro said, waving his hand in front of Vanellope's face.

Vanellope blinked back to reality and faked a smile.

"Unfortunately, sargent, I'm afraid I'm still in orbit. I'll land on to Mars, however, to listen to this special announcement."

Hiro and Penny laughed. Another thing about Penny was that Vanellope didn't hate her, which made trying to do something about the relationship that much harder.

"Yo, Vanellope, I think you're still in orbit. Can you go to Mars now?" Hiro teased.

Vanellope sighed and waved for him to go onward.

"Do you want to tag along to your favorite place in the world and watch it get ruined?" Hiro said. Or, at least, that was what Vanellope translated it to. He really said:

"Penny and I were thinking about going to the arcade tonight. You want to tag along?"

What still scares Vanellope into her adulthood was how little time it took for her to make up her next sentence.

"I'd love to, but, I've got a call to make. It's going to take a while."

Funny thing was that it was the last thing she ever said to them.

5 years later

Vanellope wasn't a huge fan of Violet. She seemed nice enough, but something about her was… too nice. No, Vanellope wasn't one of those people that thought everyone that smiled was too perky (1). In fact, she knew a good amount of people that would consider her just as "perky". It was just that Violet didn't seem like she was the type to give information on key good-guys. Vanellope was sent to go on the mission to disarm Big Hero 6, since they were local (although global when it was needed, hence the reason why they were on the List) and where Vanellope grew up. Vanellope was not only reluctant to go with Violet, but hated San Fransokyo with fervor. Then there was a private thought; she knew exactly who Big Hero 6 really was. Or, the leaders at least; Vanellope knew that technology had a signature, and Big Hero 6's super suits definitely had Hiro's signature on it.

"Are you sure that 16119192114184 is really the password?" Vanellope asked Violet in annoyance she wasn't dumb; she knew if you replaced the numbers with their corresponding letters it created "password". The girl had claimed that she knew the passwords into the system. So far the password she gave wasn't working.

"I'm sure," Violet insisted.

Vanellope rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's not working so, Plan B."

Vanellope cracked her knuckles and switched the screen into code. Violet's protests were tuned into background noise as Vanellope began her work. The issue was that she was so immersed, that she didn't notice a cold piece of metal being brought and held to her head.

"Don't move." said a male voice. Violet had either let another person into the room, or she had changed the voice modulator to another voice.

Vanellope slowly took her arms off the key board and put them up. Then, quick as lightening, she grabbed the gun, turned it horizontally and pressed it against the man, then promptly used it as leverage to leap over him. Vanellope pulled out her own gun and shot. It wasn't meant to hit him, just to warn him. It barely flew passed his head and hit the wall. When training, it was hard for Vanellope to use a sword or dagger (yes, they actually had that on the requirement list), but the rifle— or any gun for that matter — was taken to immediately. In five years, her aim became lethal.

She felt someone coming up fast. Tricky. Vanellope turned a knob on her suit and "glitched" out of the way. Vanellope found herself in a position to see what she was up against. Comic Boy (a person within a dinosaur suit that, despite its funny look, shot flames), Laser Beam (a male with plasma attached to the sides of his hands), Colors of the Chemist (or CotC. Her combinations of chemicals resulted in a colorful, but lethal, explosion), Tricky (the female that was after Vanellope previously. She had wheels attached to her arms and legs. The leg ones allowed her extra speed and the hand ones were used as weapons), Bolt (another female that Vanellope assumed was Penny. She projected supersonic sound waves, much like her dog did whilst in the acting industry. Her dog's name was also Bolt), and Bot Fighter (the one Vanellope assumed was Hiro. He and his robot grouped together and could do most anything. The main thing, of course, was fly on rockets).

Together, Vanellope wasn't 100% sure she would make it. But she wanted to. She turned off her voice box so that she could command her suit to her needs.

"892." she said.

The suit began illuminating with electricity. Vanellope began her attempt at hand to hand combat with the electricity to pack an extra punch. She went for Tricky first. Tricky was good at speed, but she couldn't do as much within such short distances. Vanellope tried her best to shut down her suit. It worked in the way that Tricky became unable to communicate, but her suit and weapons did not respond to each other. Before more damage could be done, CotC began her attack. Vanellope honestly didn't know what took them so much time. And then it hit her. Literally.

As Vanellope took a run for the door when Violet appeared and Vanellope cursed. She locked the room with a force field. Vanellope turned on her voice box and modulator.

"You sold me out?" she complained.

Violet sighed, "To be fair, I changed the plans. We were going to send you away, but we thought, maybe, you could… you know, help."

"Over my dead body!"

Violet sighed.

"I'm sorry Greta, I do like you."

Only the central had Vanellope's real name. They used code names instead. A few people used their real names like John and Mary (you could see why) but names like Vanellope's were stored in a different system and replaced with periodical codenames. This mission's nickname was Greta.

Vanellope hit her with her gun, knocking Violet out and allowing the forcefield to be let down. Once again, though, her exit was blocked. It wasn't physical, though. Penny's super sonic waves brought Vanellope to her knees. It was draining her of her energy and Vanellope knew she could either make a run for the door and try and risk passing out while her suit was still vulnerable. Or she could put her suit on lock down and remain where she was.

"463." Vanellope told her suit.

Lock down, in progress.

As Vanellope eventually lost consciousness, she couldn't help but think to herself; another thing that Penny beat me at.

Light was the first thing that Vanellope awoke to... And she really didn't like it. She briefly wondered if that was the plan— give her a disability so she couldn't run away.

Vanellope thought about turning on her suit.

"123." Vanellope said. Nothing happened.

"123." she said again. Still, nothing.

She hadn't noticed, but CotC had entered the room.

"We put your suit on shut down. You can't do anything that we don't want you to do."

Except for taking off the suit, Vanellope thought, no one's been able to do that before.

She really wanted to sit up, but she was practically horizontal, except for the slight incline towards the top of the table. Vanellope had a feeling that they'd been trying to get into her suit forcefully. But no one could get into Zerous metal. The thought comforted Vanellope. At least, it did in her captured-by-the-enemy mind.

"You can't move your suit. All you can do is take it off." CotC clarified.

Vanellope sneered in her head, love the whole "you can take off your suit because that's how we wanted it to be" plan. Even now I'm treated like a moron.

Vanellope still didn't say anything though. They wanted her to take off her suit to see her identity, but it could all be cut short if they could just match her voice into the system and see what comes up. And she really didn't feel like being in that situation. Sure, if she ever got out, Vanellope didn't need her name anyway. But the wanted posters wouldn't be fun.

Or Hiro and Penny. They wouldn't be fun either.

Vanellope's mind flashed to a scene in an old movie called Oz the Great and Powerful (2)where the witch, Theodora showed "what he made her become". Except, rather than Vanellope's appearance being used as horror, she'd been taught a few perks of being a female. Not that she ever really used them but…

Wait, what was she even thinking? Hiro didn't make her into what she became! Vanellope made herself. And should be proud of that. Still, she was hiding.

But what about eating? Or urinating? Or…

Okay, so revealing her identity could be a must unless she was planning on her escape to be within the next 48 hours. Vanellope found her neck had a little room to look through her one-way glass visor and peer into the white room with a window that was, surprisingly, a normal window with everyone else in the group inside.

Yeah no.

Vanellope rested her head. To be honest, she felt like sleeping again. But another voice on the com sounded throughout the room. This time, Hiro was using his normal voice.

"Well, we can do this the easy—"

"Shut up already! You've been talking for 5 seconds and I'm already tired of hearing your voice." Vanellope complained. Although it was intended to be used as a little instigator, it was true. It wasn't that it had one of those sounds to it, she just… couldn't listen to the sound of his voice.

"What?" Hiro said, raising her perch so that they had eye contact.

"Oh well too late now." Vanellope tried to talk quickly. Sure they could upload her voice to the computer, but, if they couldn't catch her, it would take longer for it to work. Not to mention, the computer had to register everyone's voice ever recorded. Vanellope had some time on her hands.

"Listen, I'm fine with taking off the suit." Pause for good measure, "but I need clothes."

There was a moment before the com turned back on.

"Fine."

The people slowly filtered out of the room and CotC left and returned with a simple pair of T-shirt and shorts and set them by the side of the platform.

Vanellope checked the window to find nobody was there, but CotC didn't leave.

"Well…" Vanellope asked.

CotC shrugged.

"I'm a woman; nothing new to me."

Vanellope sighed and thought to herself for a moment about what simply putting on clothes would really do to her.

"You know I know who you are, right?"

CotC's head shot up and she stared at Vanellope with wide eyes.

"You know who I am? How?"

Vanellope shrugged.

"Well, not you, but I know who your leaders are."

CotC became confused, "So you know— supposedly— who Bot Fighter is. Who exactly would the other one be?"

Vanellope said the next name slowly, "Penny?"

CotC widened her eyes at the actual name, but shook her head.

"No, not Penny. She's nice and all but… not quite up to speed with us. Besides, she and H— Bot Fighter, have bad blood. The were a thing once upon a time."

Vanellope snorted, "Oh, I know."

Without feeling much up to more small talk, Vanellope commanded "A71", which opened up the suit and allowed her to exit and put on some clothes.

She stumbled at first, having a very different gravitational pull and all, but made it to the clothes and put them on. CotC had had the decency to at least turn around while that went down. Unfortunately, putting on a T-shirt and shorts didn't take long and, soon, CotC left to inform the others that they could come in. Instead of coming in as she'd hoped, Vanellope was confronted in the worst way possible; without the window between them.

Hiro filed in second to last (Penny being last) and was saying something as he walked into the room.

"So CotC says you know my—"

Hiro came face to face with Vanellope and stumbled backward, eyes wide as saucers.

"You… that's… it…"

Vanellope rolled her eyes.

"So, should I say something now or should I wait until after you're able to complete a sentence, Hiro?"

"Because they took our love and they filled it up

filled it up with novocaine and now I'm just numb"

~Fall Out Boy

A/N: I don't feel a thing for yooouuuuu… Oh wait! I didn't add that. Foreshadow maybe? Yes, duh. So… what do you think? Only Dark!Vanellope AU I've seen yet. There was a YouTube video that inspired this: Hiro, Penny & Vanellope ~ B-team.

(1) I am one of those people though.

(2) Don't own that… Or any of this, really.

What do you think? Yay, nay, or DIE!?