Chapter 1
One Major Glitch
Something had happened. Maybe a blackout. After all, she didn't know it, but the Surge Protector had been getting more and more worn out. Whatever it was, she had no idea who she was, where she was even from. She did have the odd feeling inside though that something about her had changed from the way it was before. She looked up and around, taking in a brightly colored world of swirls and sugar- the place seemed so familiar, yet so distant. Reaching up to scratch her head, she pulled a gummy bear out of her pitch black hair and examined it. Why is my hair so messy? she thought to herself before tossing the candy aside. A voice came from behind her. "Oh, sweet mother Hubbard! There you are!" when she turned to see who the voice belonged to, she saw a giant of a man with a pair of really huge hands. A "Who a-" escaped her lips before she was pulled into a really warm, concerned embrace. "I was so worried about you, kid! I thought you might disappear!" the man held her tight to his chest, her cheek pressed hard up against him.
She wiggled out of his grasp, catching him by surprise. "Something wrong, kid?" his face melted into concern rather than the joy he had seconds ago. She took a few steps back, looking very confused. "Who are you?" she gestured towards him, "Who am I?" she gestured to herself. Ralph was devastated- suddenly he felt extremely alone, with Vanellope having lost all of her memories. "Oh, no… No, no, no, no…" Ralph covered his face with his hands and sat down on a nearby jawbreaker. Vanellope wondered why the man was upset, since in her point of view, they had only just met. It took a while for Ralph to gather himself back together and come to his senses. When he did, he slowly looked mournfully up at her and said, "The blackout must have wiped your memories clean…" with a sigh. Vanellope slowly approached him and asked, "Well, who am I? Can you tell me anything?". Ralph sighed again. "You… Well, there's really no way anyone can tell someone else who they are… But I can tell you this." he propped his elbows on his knees and leaned in closer. "Your name is Vanellope Von Schweetz. You're the president of this game we're in, Sugar Rush." he laughed a little when he remembered all of their adventures together. It felt like he was reminiscing, which only made it sting more.
Vanellope approached him a bit more, this time looking a bit relieved to at least know her name and position. "Okay. So, can you tell me who you are and how you know me?" her shadow now loomed over him. Then, a realization came into Ralph's eyes. He seemed to snap awake as he realized that Vanellope did not look like the little girl he once knew. She was taller, skinnier, older, and she was very- no, it felt wrong to be thinking about such things at the moment. He shook his head and put his fingers between his eyebrows before meeting her gaze and saying, "My name is Ralph. Wreck-It Ralph, from Fix-It Felix Jr. I'm… Well… I WAS your best friend…". He rose to his feet, a hurt look on his face. "When you were just ten years old…" he turned his back to her slowly and sighed again. "Ten years old? How old am I now, I wonder?" for the first time she took some notice of her height as compared to Ralph and thought about the things that felt amiss when she first woke up just moments ago.
She definitely was not a child anymore. The top of her head came up just about five inches past Ralph's shoulder and her body most certainly did not resemble the imperfections of childhood. Of course, she had a gut feeling that her clothes had never changed, but if that was true, it seemed they had grown with her. She still wore the tiered, chocolate brown skirt, the light teal jacket with pink string, the white, purple and mint green peppermint striped tights and the shining black boots that came up just past her ankles. But her legs, arms and torso were much longer than she thought they should be. She also noticed one other thing- she could not actually see her stomach. Did other girls have these? She had no idea. She finally gave up on thinking about it and looked back up at Ralph's face, since she now had a three-quarter view of him.
His face was no longer in pain. In fact, it was red. Cherry red. "Ralph?" she called," Are you okay? Your face looks… Weird.". Ralph winced. "It's nothing, kid. I was thinking, though… I'm going to have to fill you in on everything that's gone on before the blackout, so we're gonna be spending a lot of time together here in the next few weeks." he almost smiled at the thought. Vanellope thought this was kind of cute, especially when she caught a glimpse of the gap in his teeth before he closed his mouth. "Well, I'm fine with that, Ralph. I'd like to remember anything I can." she beamed, getting pretty close to his face. Ralph's face went crimson again as he laughed a bit and said, "Great. Well, we can start now, if you want. Let's go to Tapper's and we'll start talking there.".