Sanguine
The night that Sugar Rush was plugged in was brimming with excitement. Princess Vanellope did her best to quell her subjects' eagerness despite the fact she could hardly keep still on her throne.
"Now your Highness." Sour Bill warned in a tone that showed his fatigue of having to monitor the ruler of a kingdom of nine-year-olds. "You have to make sure you've taken care of all the preparations before roster race."
"I know, I know Jeeves; but I just can't wait to get out there and show everyone what's in my code! Do you think the players will like us? I sure hope they like us."
"Princess, I'm only looking out for your best interests." Vanellope started pouting causing him to sigh with a patient grin. "But they're going to love our game, I'm sure of it. Especially with all the hard work you've put into it."
Vanellope giggled as she bounced off her throne and curtsied to him. "Thanks Sweet n Sour, you always know what to say to me."
"Yes well-!" Before he could finish his thought, Sour Bill's eyes became wide as he was sliced in two, collapsing before Vanellope.
Her eyes blinked slowly in shock, the scattered pixels that landed on her cheeks quickly fading . "S-S-Sour Face?" She blinked again as she stared at his remaining code, unmoving, on the castle floor. "…Bill?" She whispered.
"Well that was simple, then again, racing games don't have much in the way of defense mechanisms."
Vanellope's heart began racing as she heard the unfamiliar voice behind her. "W-W-Who are you?" She asked with a shaking voice as she turned around to see a shadow with glowing yellow eyes and a giant red "T" on its head.
The shadow grinned, "You've got me stumped little missy," His arm lunged out and gripped Vanellope's cheeks as he coiled himself behind her, leaning in to whisper close to her face. "I'm not entirely sure just yet."
She rasped out words, struggling against his grip to no avail. "Guards…"
He shook his head. "Taken care of, or did you really think cream puffs made the best security?"
"W-Why?" The young princess begged, tears beginning to flow from her eyes. "W-We haven't done anything! We were just switched on!"
"Nothing personal," He shrugged. "It's just more convenient this-"
Seeing a small window of opportunity, Vanellope stomped on her captor's foot as she blindly took off.
"Feisty little girl aren't we?" His voice echoed through the corridors.
As Vanellope ran through the long hallways the figure's laughter seemed to come from every direction. She kept running, her breath becoming quick pants, as she headed higher, higher in the castle. Eventually she ended up in a room that was unfamiliar to her. The room felt cold and large causing her to take slow steps; just, something about the strange area felt forbidden.
"You honestly didn't think you could beat me in a race did you?" The shadow asked from the doorway, his grin now a serious expression. "I never lose a race," He said lowly, stepping out from the shadows.
Vanellope screamed as she frantically backed away from the figure slowly moving towards her.
"Do you know what this room is? It's a place that all main characters have subconsciously programed into their code. A backdoor if you will. It's no surprise that this is where you would run to for sanctuary."
"You followed me here. Was that your plan all along?" She asked defensively.
"Insight, wasn't expecting that." He approached her bending down to her face level. "Speaking of which, I don't believe I caught your name."
"Tell me yours first."
"Power trade, interesting. I am Turbo."
She turned away, refusing to look at him. "…Vanellope. Von Schweetz."
Turbo moved causing Vanellope to flinch, he calmly took the small crown from her head. "And just who are you Vanellope?"
"I'm…ruler of Sugar Rush."
"Impressive. A big job for a nine-year-old."
Vanellope refused to say anything else. The mix of fear, frustration, and anger in her mind made her feel ill.
"I think I'll hang on to this."
"Why? You want to be a pretty, pretty princess?"
He smirked as he pushed her back farther into the room.
Vanellope struggled to keep her ground but as she went back a little farther into the space she felt a sharp jolt traveling through her body causing her to collapse.
Turbo simply walked past her into the strange space without any harm. He looked back as if daring Vanellope to follow him. She shuddered as she slowly got up, but as she tried to move closer her pixels began shortening out and rebelling against her.
"Careful now, you don't want to become corrupted code do you?" Turbo turned back to his goal, the door at the end of the room. As he approached it he reached into a mysterious hammer space pulled out a large, rectangular controller. He plugged it into the door as he pulled out a napkin with a code scribbled onto it. "Up, up, down, down, left, right…" Turbo mumbled to himself.
"Stop! Please!" Vanellope begged.
She was ignored as Turbo finished the code and the door opened to a dark sphere filled with glowing blocks.
Vanellope looked up, eyes wide. "What…?"
Turbo wasted no time jumping into the space. "Finally! The backbone of any game, the base code; this is all going so perfectly!" He looked around for anything to create new data with, but failed to find anything. He shrugged as he went into the NPC data, pulled out a small block, and began tampering with it.
Short jolts ran through Vanellope's head. "Agh! What are you doing?!"
Turbo then plunged his hand into his chest. Vanellope could hardly believe her eyes as tiny remnants of data leaked from his form while he began pulling something out. He grinned madly as he forced the foreign code into the block, watching it transform. He clutched the hole in his chest as the new code was accepted in the game and he began transforming into a new character.
Vanellope's sight started to become blurry. "Who are…?" The unfinished inquiry began to take form as her mind attempted to recall, what seemed like, the answer to the easiest question in the world.
"King Candy." The new character answered with a hint of pride in his tone. "The best racer in all of Sugar Rush."
Vanellope shook her head. "No…No… You're not a racer…"
King Candy blinked as he re-examined the code. He tried to change aspects of it but the title, NPC, would not leave the block. "Huh, so the race roster is predetermined, looks like we're going to have to fix that."
"No."
He turned to see Vanellope attempting to stand as she supported her throbbing head.
"I can't let you get away with this. Its…Its my responsibility…"
"Well that's a little much for a little girl to worry about, how about I help relieve you of that burden?" King Candy then found her code box and began haphazardly tearing out the wires.
Vanellope's pupils shrank as she screamed out in pain. "NOOOO! STOP! PLEASE STOP!" Her code began flashing and glitching wildly. "AHHHHHHHHH!"
King Candy then tried to attach the ripped wires into his code but they didn't seem to fit. He looked around as he saw various boxes of code blinking. "Hum, I guess paradox fail-safes have improved since my day." He started cleaning up the broken code as Vanellope tried to literally pull herself together.
"…Why? Why are you doing this?"
"It doesn't concern you."
"But I'm…I'm…"
King Candy ushered the last bit of code, 'Racer's Memories,' into a tight trap as Vanellope tried to recall the ghosts of concepts that used to be so familiar to her.
"I'm…?"
"A glitch." The king replied solemnly, stepping out of the cold room as the door closed behind him. "A mistake that wasn't supposed to exist."
Vanellope looked down at herself, her fingertips rubbing an old sweater that seemed new. She looked up at the king with timid eyes. "…What am I doing here?"
"Isn't that the question we're all asking ourselves?" He turned away from her. "…You don't remember?"
"No… Remember what?"
He began leading her out of the room. "That tomorrow is our big day and we can't risk you crashing."
Vanellope blinked, "I won't crash! I'll be a great racer!"
"Racer!?" King Candy sputtered, "I mean, Vanellope, where did you get such an idea? I'm not worried about you crashing a kart, I meant you crashing the game."
"What? But I won't…"
"My dear," King Candy took out his cane and began jabbing her, causing her to pixelate and twitch. "With your…condition, it can spell the end of us before we even begin. Certainly you don't want to put us all at risk do you?"
"B-But I… You can give me a chance right? I w-"
King Candy ignored her as he whistled. "Thour Bill!"
"…Yes?" A monotone, seemingly lifeless, sour ball stepped out from the shadows at the king's call.
"Please escort this girl from the castle."
"As you wish." He walked over to Vanellope preparing to lead her out, but as the two made eye contact their eyes widened.
"Hey aren't-?" "Hey you…" They both gawked as King Candy took notice and walked in-between them.
"Nevermind! Thour Bill, take her to my fungeon!"
They both looked at him in confusion.
"Fun dungeon. What? A king can't have a thenth of humor?"
Vanellope argued back, "What?! But I didn't do anything!"
Sour Bill slowly walked towards her, attempting to lead her to King Candy's "fungeon" only for her to wrestle from his grasp and push him away. As she made contact, Sour Bill's pixels started to distort in rhythm with her own causing her to freeze.
"See Vanellope, this was what I was trying to prevent."
"But I-I didn't… I didn't mean to-!"
"Of course you 'didn't mean to,' but that doesn't change the fact that it still happened. What I'm trying to do is for your own good Vanellope."
Vanellope backed up in panic then suddenly sprinted down the hallway, trying to leave the castle.
"Guards!" King Candy called, "Don't let her escape!" As the gaggle of baked goods gathered to give chase, King Candy turned his focus back to Sour Bill who was examining himself after the recent episode. "Thour Bill!"
He shuddered briefly, "Y-Yes Sir?"
"Make sure the word gets out on the Glitch! We can't have her risking the safety of our game!"
"Right away Sir." He replied, back in his monotone pitch.
Meanwhile, Vanellope managed to lose the guards by fleeing into the Candy Cane forest and hiding in the center tree surrounded by a small marsh. As she looked up she could see the other racers running their cars, raising dust clouds on the track.
A lone tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm…I'm…" She sniffed, trying to recall the thought her mind was desperately trying to dig up. "I'm…not a glitch." She mumbled to herself as she buried her head in her arms and cried.