((Author's Note: If you've never played Animal Crossing, then the following fic may fly over your head. Otherwise, enjoy!))
…
"Well- all fixed!"
This was it- the moment she'd be waiting for her whole life. After a lifetime of being cast aside as a mistake, an outcast, she was about to find her true place in life- and at the starting line. Little Vanellope Von Schweetz was finally going to join the racers of Sugar Rush! And it was all thanks to the efforts of her new best friend Wreck-It Ralph, and his friends Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun and Fix-It Felix, who now patched up the last bits of the broken finish line.
"Ready when you are, Vanellope!" said Felix, nodding to her.
Vanellope was ready. She'd been bullied and beleaguered for fifteen years thanks to the evil King Candy and his changes to the game's code- changes that had reduced her from a playable character to a mere Glitch. But if what Ralph had told her was true, if she crossed the finish line, the game would reset, and she would be a racer once more!
Wreck-It Ralph smiled at his little friend. The two made a great team, for sure- after all, he had helped her construct her very own kart, and she had rescued him from the beacon he'd used to save her game from King Candy's Cy-Bugs. Their adventure signaled the start of a beautiful friendship- one Ralph hoped would only go on forever. Of course, he still needed to return to Fix-It Felix, Jr. in time to save it from being unplugged first…
"You ready for this, kid?" he asked.
Vanellope smiled at him. "As ready as I'll ever be!"
Ralph smiled back and gave Vanellope's kart a gentle nudge across the finish line.
In effect, Vanellope began to rise into the air. A bright light surrounded her, and her very outfit began to metamorphose in a flash of sparks. "Whoa… what's with all the magic sparkles?!" she cried out.
What she couldn't see was the very code within her reforming, changing her appearance as the light fully enveloped her. When it cleared, to the surprise and awe of her onlooking friends, she was clad in a frilly, pink royal ballgown.
Unsure of what was happening, Vanellope slowly descended to the ground, and once she landed the rest of the game began to change. The dark wasteland that had once been overrun by King Candy and his monstrous army of Bugs was restored to its original, candy-coated glory, and everything and everyone within it had changed.
Indeed, when the other denizens of the game returned at last, there was something different about them- something different in the way they were acknowledging Vanellope's presence. As they huddled around her, their faces displayed looks of curiosity and near-apprehension at her new appearance.
Neither Ralph, Felix and Calhoun nor the other Sugar Rush racers could fully comprehend what had just happened. The game must have reset, for sure… but what had just become of their friend?
Just then Sour Bill, King Candy's former assistant, who had become caught on a candy tree during a skirmish with Ralph, arrived, and when he spotted Vanellope in her pink dress, his eyes widened. "Oh… Now I remember…" he murmured, and hurriedly scuttled over to her side to announce her name to the onlookers.
"All hail the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush… Princess Vanellope."
Ralph and his friends gasped. Vanellope was the princess of Sugar Rush?! For how long had King Candy been masquerading around this game, claiming to be the real ruler, when the game was really hers all along?
The other racers were equally shocked- knowing how long they had bullied and humiliated her, they knew Vanellope was never going to let them live it down…
The leader of the racers, Taffyta Muttonfudge, approached Vanellope timidly. "We are so sorry about the way we treated you…"
"Yeah!" agreed her partner Rancis Fluggerbutter. "Yeah, those were… uh… jokes!"
"I was just doing what Taffyta told me to!" wailed Candlehead, pointing in the direction of Taffyta, who looked away innocently.
But Vanellope had made up her mind, and the racers immediately fell silent as she cleared her throat. "Tut tut… As your merciful princess, I hereby decree that everyone who was ever mean to me shall be…"
The racers held their breath in anticipation, waiting for Vanellope's decree, but it never came. Because at that moment, a loud, raucous voice broke the silence.
"HEY!"
Vanellope looked around for the voice- and saw that the ground beneath Taffyta was shaking. "Uh… Taff?"
Taffyta looked down and gave a small shriek, her eyes wide. She leapt aside just as a large, furry mole-like creature emerged from the quivering ground, sending bits of taffy flying in all directions. It wore a white shirt, blue suspenders and a hard hat, and it brandished a pickaxe in its paws. Its twisted countenance bore a look of raw anger.
"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU BEFORE, YOU GRAY-FACED, GAME-JUMPING PUNK… NO RESETTIN'!" it yelled furiously, apparently to itself. "WHAT'S IT GONNA TAKE TO GET YOU TO UNDERSTAND-"
The creature paused abruptly, wiping the debris from its eyes, took in the faces of the puzzled Sugar Rushers, and cleared its throat.
"Oh… Now that I think on it, none of you guys are that Turbo fella, are you?" it asked calmly, before reverting instantaneously to its original furious state. "Well, don't think that means I'll be any softer on any of you little runts, you hear me?"
Vanellope had no idea what was happening. Did this mole-thing have something to do with the game? What was it doing here? "Who are you?" she asked at last.
The creature was aghast. "Who am I?" it screeched. "You don't know me? ME?! What, have you never set foot in Game Central Station or something?!"
"Well, as a matter of fact… no!" she spat at it.
"Really!" it retorted in a disbelieving tone. "Then I guess it's time for an introduction. Name's Resetti- Mr. Resetti. And you know what my job is, punk?" he asked, pointing an accusing finger at her. "To keep cheaters like you from resettin' their games!"
"Wha- But I didn't reset anything! I swear!" Vanellope cried out.
"Oh really!" retorted Resetti in the same tone of disbelief. "Well, the GRS database over in GCS says differently, ya guttersnipe!" As if to prove it, he withdrew a notepad from his pocket and read aloud the full report. "On the morning of 3 November 2012, at seven hundred hours and 53 minutes, we had reports of a Code 64 in the game Sugar Rush." He rolled up his report and looked around expectedly. "This is Sugar Rush, right?"
Vanellope stammered. "Well, yes, but-"
"And it is currently 7:53 on the 3rd day of November 2012, is it not?!" Resetti went on menacingly.
Fix-It Felix cleared his throat. "Um, actually, sir, my watch says it's 7:55 on th-"
"So!" Resetti exclaimed triumphantly, as if presenting before a court. "So, you still gonna tell me you didn't reset your game, even though this is the exact time and place where we've got a reset report?! You've been caught red-handed, cheater!"
"Hey! Leave her alone!" yelled Ralph. "None of this would've happened if it weren't for Turbo!"
"Turbo?" asked Resetti, looking around. "I don't see that punk Turbo lurking around here. You gonna try and blame it on him? As much of a weasel as he is, that's still really underhanded… and you…" Resetti took in the colossal sight of Ralph, his face showing signs of recognition. "You ain't from this game, are you?"
"What's that have to do with anything? Look, all we were doing was undoing everything he did to the game!" Ralph shouted desperately. "We weren't trying to cheat!"
"Weren't ya, punk?" asked Resetti. "Well, guess what? You and your little friends are in violation of Code 256 for resetting someone else's game!"
"Wait- WHAT?"
Sergeant Calhoun had had enough. "Alright, whiskers, what gives you the right to barge in and accuse us of anything?"
Resetti sighed. "You want the whole story, then? It's on the longish side…"
"I'm listening," sneered Calhoun.
Resetti took a deep breath.
"Well, it's a long story, really. You see, a while back- 25 years ago, almost- we here in Game Reset Surveillance didn't have an outpost in GCS. No, instead we worked for Tortimer over in his nameless town. Took us years to persuade them to give us a position, it did. But once that punk Turbo you just mentioned decided to run afoul of the law, he got into someone else's game and reset it. Completely short-circuited it. Both those games got unplugged because of him. That's when GCS finally decided they needed somebody to lean on… somebody to keep an eye on all the other runts that think its funny to quit without saving, to barge right into someone else's game and reset it. That's what we do at GRS, it is. When a new game gets plugged in, first thing we do is warn 'em about what'll happen if they reset. But still you get those occasional rabble-rousers who just… don't… listen! NO RESETTIN'! So, long story short- if somebody's been resettin', we're there on the double. But if somebody's been resettin' a different game, that's when we gotta step in and throw a wrench in the works- because that means they've been resettin' to cover their tracks… Which means they've been doing monkey business! You know just how uncool it is to mess with someone else's game? Matter of fact, we had a pretty bad situation just last year. There was this big-mouthed, round yellow punk… thought it'd be funny to just wander into Dig Dug and eat absolutely everything! Ate all the enemies, the power-ups, and on top of that reset for good measure. We had to give him a pretty hefty fine, we did… But anyways… Like I say, an act so deplorable constitutes its own special kind of offense, the likes of which you cheaters have here. A Code 256 is the second-worst kind. The worst is a 512- we don't get a lot of those, although there was this one time back in '06 when- HEY!"
A snoring sound interrupted Resetti's ramble- Candlehead had fallen asleep listening to him speak.
"WAKE UP, PUNK!" Resetti screeched, slamming the pickaxe on the ground before her. Candlehead jerked awake and cowered fearfully behind Taffyta.
"If you snots are gonna have me come over here and read you the riot act, then you better best pay attention! I ain't doing this for my health, you hear?!" he snarled. "Well, now you done it! No more Mr. Nice Mole! I won't let this slide without a formal apology!"
"Okay, fine!" exclaimed Vanellope. "I'm sorry for-"
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Back it up, punk!" Resetti yelled. "You're saying it wrong!"
"Okay… so what do I have to say?" asked Vanellope.
Resetti cleared his throat. "'I- state your name- formally apologize for resetting my game like the cheater I am, and promise not to do so again. Further, I thank Mr. Resetti for taking his valuable time to inform me on the dangers of resetting, even though he knows I'm dirt and doesn't deserve his time.'" Then he looked up expectedly. "Now say it!"
Vanellope coughed. "I- uh… state your name…"
"No, no, NO!" said Resetti. "Your actual name!"
"Oh, right… I, Vanellope Von Schweetz, er… apologize for resetting and-"
"What was THAT?! You got it all wrong!" Resetti shouted. At this, he leapt out of his hole and seized her by the arm, dragging her. "Come on, kid! We're going for a walk!"
"Hey, leggo!" Vanellope snapped. "What're you doing?"
"The same thing that happens to all the other cheaters who just couldn't figure out how to apologize!" Resetti retorted. "We're gonna head to the code room in this game and have your code reset!"
"What?! You can't! If you do that, I'll revert back to being a Glitch again!" she cried.
"Awww, if you do dat I'll wevert back to being a Gwitch again! Boo-hoo!" Resetti taunted her. "Cry me a river, punk! As for the rest of you…" he said, addressing the others, "you can have a little chat with Don while we're gone. Now come along, twerp! I haven't got all day!"
"Get your paws off her, you little-" began Ralph, starting after him. But he was interrupted as something caught his eye from out of the game cabinet's screen.
It was Litwak, and he and a repairman were standing over Fix-It Felix, Jr. with disapproving looks on their faces. To Ralph and Felix's horror, the two men began to haul away the game console- and with it, their home.
"Felix! The game!" Ralph cried.
Felix glanced at his watch and gasped. It was 8:07- the arcade had already opened. They were too late!
"Jiminy Jaminy!" Felix yelped. "What are we gonna do now?"
"We've been listening to that motormouthed mole for so long, we missed the game!" Ralph stomped the ground in frustration. "Hey, where'd he go, anyway?"
Ralph looked around, but indeed neither Resetti nor Vanellope were anywhere to be found. In their place, however, stood a much lankier, much more timid-looking mole that must have been Don.
"You'll have to forgive my brother," said Don timidly. "He's a good egg, he is… he just gets worked up so easily. It never takes much to set him off. Just don't reset your game next time, and I'm sure we can all be happy…"
"Yeah, well, my game's just been unplugged, and I'm NOT happy!" roared Ralph. "When your brother gets back, I'm gonna-"
"Ralph, look!" cried Felix.
Ralph looked behind him and took in the sight of a trail of Nicelanders streaming down the rainbow bridge into Sugar Rush.
"Our plug's been pulled for good!" wailed Mary.
"It's gone! It's all gone!" cried Gene. "And it's all your fault, Ralph!"
"Now Gene, be a dear and listen for just one moment!" Felix scolded him. "Ralph had nothing to do with this. We were just on our way back from Sugar Rush when we had an encounter with…"
"Hold that thought, Fix-It!" shouted Calhoun. "We got company!"
A bright light had began flashing at the entrance to Game Central- right as a cluster of Cy-Bugs began to emerge. Within a matter of moments they were shot down by Kohut and several other soldiers from Hero's Duty, who hurried to find their leader.
"Sergeant Calhoun!" announced Kohut. "Without you here in Hero's Duty, we've had a Cy-Bug security breach! Game Central is under attack!"
"WHAT?!" Everyone jumped at the sound.
"Oh my land… Everyone's games are in danger!" Felix cried.
"What's it matter?" moaned Gene. "Ours is already unplugged! Everything I've ever lived for- gone!"
"Yeah," added Ralph, "and it's all because of…"
Ralph broke off as Resetti returned with Vanellope in tow, now wearing her old hoodie and reduced to her original, glitchy self.
"Hopefully that will teach you to reset your game, you disgraceful punk!" he spat.
"RESETTI!" the mob yelled in unison.
"That's Mr. Resetti to you, you-"
The loquacious rodent cut himself off to take in the sight of a gaggle of angry Nicelanders, Hero's Duty soldiers and Sugar Rush racers staring him down, all with savage looks in their eyes, and a chill ran down his spine. I really blew it this time, he thought.
"Don…" whispered Resetti. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I sure hope so," stammered Don.
"Well, don't blow it this time," growled his brother. "We only just got away last time, remember?"
The Resetti brothers began to back away from the angry crowd, in the direction of their hole, when the younger brother spoke up. "Well, I can see you're all busy people and I'd hate to waste any more of your time, so why don't we just agree not to reset our games and we can all be happy. Sound good? I thought so… well, time for us to… SCRAM!"
Don leapt into the hole first, and his brother hastily scampered after him… only to find himself being dragged back out by an irate Ralph.
"Let me go, you overgrown orangutan! And one other thing… do something about that bad breath! Seriously, you ever heard of a toothbrush?" screamed the struggling mole.
But Ralph was not about to relinquish his catch so quickly- not after everything that had happened to him and all of his friends. "Rude little fella, aren't ya?" he asked, smiling. "Well, I know of a place that'll whack a few manners into you…"
…
It was always a sad day at Litwak's arcade whenever a member of the family was lost. Fix-It Felix, Jr. had been a staple of the arcade for over 30 years, and it was with great regret that Mr. Litwak finally bode farewell to the malfunctioning game. It had been one of the more popular "classic" games, and even in recent years it still reaped its fair share of quarters. But Litwak wasn't too concerned for his money… especially not today, since for some reason or another, he was quite inexplicably making boatloads of quarters off of his old Whac-A-Mole machine.
Indeed, today nobody seemed to be using any of the game consoles- they didn't even appear to be running- but rather, a gaggle of giggling boys and girls was crowding around the Whac-A-Mole, for reasons he just couldn't understand.
"Where'd he go? I swear I saw him just a second ago…" said the girl playing, looking at one of the empty holes.
"There he is!" a boy shouted gleefully, pointing to the hole in the far left corner. "Look, it's the stupid mole from Animal Crossing! GET HIM!"
"Don't you even think about- YOWCH!" yelled Resetti as a mallet came down on his noggin. "Why do you always go after me?! Go after Don instead, he's right there, out in the open and everything-"
"Hey, don't hide behind me! That's not nice!" scolded Don, before a second mallet struck him, forcing him into his hole once again.
Mr. Litwak merely looked on. Kids these days, he thought to himself, taking one last look as Fix-It Felix, Jr. was carted away for good. It's so much easier to keep them entertained nowadays, for sure, but this is ridiculous…
THE END