I just have to sneak in so nobody can see me. And then I'll be home free…with her.
Pulling up his hood, a young man-maybe fifteen or sixteen, as he couldn't have been too much older than her-sneaked around the side of the local arcade with a determined look on his face. He watched with eager eyes as the unknowing employee locked up the arcade and hopped into his little red car, probably to go get Friday brunch, then carefully stepped over to the front of the arcade. All without making a noise, the boy pulled out some kind of…hair-pin from his pocket and stuck it in the lock, carefully twisting till the door to the arcade opened. This town was still a bit old-fashioned, so it wasn't like he had to worry about alarms.
The man grinned for a split second. Phase one complete. Gripping the piece of paper in his pocket, he walked into the arcade in silence. For a moment, he thought the consoles that greeted him as soon as he walked in with beeps and cheesy 8-bit sound effects were acting almost…out of script, like they weren't programmed to be doing these things, but they quickly returned to the normal 'start' screens. He frowned, pondering if that had really just happened…then again, if this plan had any truth to it, why couldn't it have happened?
You must be looking at this man like he was a thief-breaking into the arcade to steal quarters or something. Unfortunately, his plan was even more dangerous.
Instead of turning to the fighting games like some would expect a boy to do, he made a sharp turn and headed off to a row of racing consoles all lined up together to make one game. You've probably guessed what the game was, of course.
The man tugged off his hood again (it was getting rather hot in the arcade) and sat down in the nearest console, inserting a quarter and pressing the start button. Turning the wheel as a controller, he quickly selected his racer-the newest and previously thought nonexistent 'mascot' of the game. She'd been missing for over a decade, the older gamers claimed, and if the code worked, she'd come out to fit her console's age-a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl.
'Sweet Ride! '
The console boomed as the game loaded, the girl set in her messy go-kart on the road. He wasn't in it to win it; something the girl didn't know.
'Ready…'
He pulled out the paper from his pocket, unfolding it and carefully staring at it for a moment. Would it really work? Was that stupid little kid even telling the truth about this code?
'Set…'
Uh-oh. There wasn't any punch or kick buttons on some kiddy go-kart game! What was he thinking? "…Well, I'm here already. Might as well improvise." He grumbled, gaze flashing to the control buttons next to the steering wheel.
'Go!'
The girl sat in place in her kart as he immediately input the code. Hopefully it'd work…and he'd finally have someone to talk to around this dumb town.
"Back, back, hold, forward, back, forward, down..? Quarter-circle, forward, triple…! Triple boost!"
He muttered to himself, pressing the buttons to fit the code as best as he could. The screen lit up with flashes of blue code, the girl the start of the glitching until the screen lit up-and then all of the screens went black.
"…Well, that was a waste."
The man grumbled after waiting a few minutes. He stood up and thundered out of the arcade, not really caring to be quiet. Unfortunately for this man, he didn't have the patience to wait…and the screens flashed blue and started shaking a few moments after he started dashing down the street and away from the arcade. It'd be closed for the weekend, anyway; he'd try a different game next week. Making actual friends hadn't worked out in the long run for him, anyway.
Here's where the magic happens. The consoles started shaking and humming like they were about to break, and then the first screen snapped completely! Out it threw that same little girl that the man had used the code on. His theory, however, was incorrect-she came out looking exactly as she did in the game. The other consoles then went back to the normal 'start' screen, like nothing had happened, but the first one kept glitching and humming. The blue light washed over the little girl, making her rub her eyes and sit up on the floor.
"Wh…hey! Where am I?"
She mumbled to herself, looking around the arcade with a confused expression.
"Is this some kind o' bonus level? Or just a glitch? Wh…wait."
A scowl flashed on her face. This wasn't part of her game-no. It was the outside of her game, actually.
"I'm…on the player side?"
President Vanellope von Schweetz was officially missing from Sugar Rush.
